Forfar Witch Trials
   HOME



picture info

Forfar Witch Trials
The Forfar witch trials took place in Forfar in the 16th and 17th century during the Scottish witch-hunt, coming to an end in a final intense witch hunt in 1661/1662. The last person accused of witchcraft to be executed was Helen Guthrie (accused witch), Helen Guthrie, who died in December 1662. Early witch hunts The first which hunts in Forfar by the Witchcraft_Acts#Scottish_Witchcraft_Act_1563, Scottish Witchcraft Act took place under regent Moray, in which thirty-eight people were accused judicially in Forfar in 1568. Between 1649 and 1650, there were 16 people suspected of witchcraft in the county of Forfar. Trials of 1661/1662 The final witch hunt took place between 1661 and 1662, in which at least 53 people were accused of being witches. In the years prior, Scotland had suffered from failed crops, sickness, invasion by the troops of Oliver Cromwell, Cromwell, leading to unrest and an intensified religious atmosphere dominated by the Presbyterianism, Presbyterian Church of Sco ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Forfar
Forfar (; , ) is the county town of Angus, Scotland, and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million-pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town had a population of 16,280. The town lies in Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore and is situated just off the main A90 road between Perth, Scotland, Perth and Aberdeen, with Dundee (the nearest city) being 13 miles (21 km) away. It is approximately 5 miles (8 km) from Glamis Castle, seat of the Bowes-Lyon family and ancestral home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and where the late Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, Princess Margaret, younger sister of Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II, was born in 1930. Forfar dates back to the temporary Scotland during the Roman Empire, Roman occupation of the area, and was subsequently held by the Picts and the Kingdom of Scotland. During the Scottish Wars of Independence, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea. Under the name of Dundee City, it forms one of the 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas used for local government in Scotland. Within the boundaries of the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Angus, Scotland, Angus, the city developed into a burgh in the late 12th century and established itself as an important east coast trading port. Rapid expansion was brought on by the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the 19th century when Dundee was the centre of the global jute industry. This, along with its other major industries, gave Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism". With the decline of traditional industry, the city has adopted a plan to regenerate and reinvent ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

17th-century Trials
The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCI), to December 31, 1700 (MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the latter part of the Spanish Golden Age, the Dutch Golden Age, the French ''Grand Siècle'' dominated by Louis XIV, the Scientific Revolution, the world's first public company and megacorporation known as the Dutch East India Company, and according to some historians, the General Crisis. From the mid-17th century, European politics were increasingly dominated by the Kingdom of France of Louis XIV, where royal power was solidified domestically in the civil war of the Fronde. The semi-feudal territorial French nobility was weakened and subjugated to the power of an absolute monarchy through the reinvention of the Palace of Versailles from a hunting lodge to a gilded prison, in which a greatly expanded r ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Isobell Shyrie
Isobell Shyrie (died c. 1662) was a woman accused during the Forfar witch trials of and executed for witchcraft in Forfar Forfar (; , ) is the county town of Angus, Scotland, and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million-pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town had a population of 16,280. The town ..., Scotland. Biography Shyrie was the first of 12 women arrested and imprisoned at the Forfar Tolboth following accusations of witchcraft in 1661. Shyrie's arrest followed an accusation that she had cursed an official, George Wood, which started the event now known as the 'Forfar Witch Trials'. Judicial execution of Shyrie was carried out in December 1662, during the hysteria of the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62. The Forfar witch trials ended with the execution of Helen Guthrie, who was the last woman to be executed for witchcraft in the town. Helen Guthrie, in her confession, is said to have descri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Forfar Loch
Loch of Forfar is a freshwater loch lying on the western side of the town of Forfar, Scotland. The loch trends in an east to west direction and is approximately in length. The loch and area around it form ''Forfar Loch Country Park''. On the northern side of the loch there is a natural gravel projection which is named ''Queen Margaret's Inch'' or ''Saint Margaret's Inch''. The projection was named after Queen Margaret, the 11th century Queen of Scots. Several historical structures have been located on the Inch including a crannog and a chapel. History A crannog named ''Queen Margaret's Inch'' once stood on the loch. It was exposed when the loch was drained in 1781. Several items were then retrieved including silver earrings, bone chess pieces and bronze objects. It is thought that around 1243 a cell of monks from Coupar Angus Abbey inhabited the Inch and that ''The Chapel of the Holy Trinity'' and several houses were built. Recreation and leisure The loch is a local cen ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023. She has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) since 1999, first as an additional member for the Glasgow electoral region, and as the member for Glasgow Southside (formerly Glasgow Govan) from 2007. Born in Ayrshire, Sturgeon is a law graduate of the University of Glasgow. She worked as a solicitor in Glasgow before her election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999. She served successively as the SNP's shadow minister for education, health, and justice. Sturgeon entered the leadership of the SNP but later withdrew from the contest in favour of Alex Salmond, standing instead as depute leader on a joint ticket with Salmond. Both were subsequently elected; as Salmond was still an MP, Sturgeon led the SNP in the Scottish Parliament as Leader of the Opposition from 2004 to 2007. The SNP e ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Witches Of Scotland
Witches of Scotland is a campaign for legal pardons and historic justice for the people, primarily women, convicted of witchcraft and executed in Scotland between 1563 and 1736. A formal apology was made on 8 March 2022. The campaign also aims to establish a national memorial for the convicted from the Scottish parliament. Led by Claire Mitchell KC and writer Zoe Venditozzi, the campaign was launched on International Women's Day in 2020, and gained significant media coverage in 2021. The podcasts published by the campaign include contributions from Carolyn Jess Cooke, Sara Sheridan, Julia Campanelli, Julian Goodare and Alice Tarbuck. Historical background In Scotland the Witchcraft Act remained in law till 1736. Witchcraft was a capital crime and punished by strangulation and burning at the stake. Claire Mitchell QC provides evidence that Scotland executed five times as many people per capita as anywhere else in Europe. An estimated 3837 people were accused, 2558 of whom w ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Forfar Witches Memorial
Forfar (; , ) is the county town of Angus, Scotland, and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million-pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town had a population of 16,280. The town lies in Strathmore and is situated just off the main A90 road between Perth and Aberdeen, with Dundee (the nearest city) being 13 miles (21 km) away. It is approximately 5 miles (8 km) from Glamis Castle, seat of the Bowes-Lyon family and ancestral home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and where the late Princess Margaret, younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, was born in 1930. Forfar dates back to the temporary Roman occupation of the area, and was subsequently held by the Picts and the Kingdom of Scotland. During the Scottish Wars of Independence, Forfar was occupied by English forces before being recaptured by the Scots and presented to Robert the Bruce. Forfar has been both a traditional market town and a major manufac ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Charles II Of England
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria of France. After Charles I's execution at Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649. However, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth with a republican government eventually led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles Escape of Charles II, fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


John Kincaid (witch-pricker)
John Kincaid (fl. 1649-1662) was a Scottish witch-pricker and a key figure in the Great Scottish Witch Hunts of 1649-50 and 1661-62. Biography John Kincaid was based primarily in Tranent and earned his living from 'unmasking' witches in the localities of Tranent, Dalkeith, Dirleton, Forfar, and Kinross. His dates of birth and death are unknown and little is known of his personal life. He is first mentioned in records in June 1649, when he acted as pricker in the witchcraft trials of Patrick Watson and his wife Menie Haliburton in the Great Hall at Dirleton Castle, near North Berwick North Berwick (; ) is a seaside resort, seaside town and former royal burgh in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately east-northeast of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable holi ....It can be deduced from the records that his professional status was already established by then. John Kinkaid pricked the accused with a b ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Scottish Witch-hunt
In early modern Scotland, in between the early 16th century and the mid-18th century, judicial proceedings concerned with the crimes of witchcraft () took place as part of a series of witch trials in Early Modern Europe. In the Late Middle Ages, there were a handful of prosecutions for harm done through witchcraft, but the passing of the Witchcraft Act 1563 made witchcraft, or consulting with witches, capital crimes. The first major issue of trials under the new act were the North Berwick witch trials, beginning in 1590, in which King James VI played a major part as "victim" and investigator. He became interested in witchcraft and published a defence of witch-hunting in the ''Daemonologie'' in 1597, but he appears to have become increasingly sceptical and eventually took steps to limit prosecutions. An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 people, mostly from the Scottish Lowlands, were tried for witchcraft in this period, a much higher rate than for neighbouring England. There were major s ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.Gerald O'Collins, O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites#Churches, ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and Eparchy, eparchies List of Catholic dioceses (structured view), around the world, each overseen by one or more Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishops. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the Papal supremacy, chief pastor of the church. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]