Scottish witchcraft cases resources

Some online resources to research Scottish witchcraft cases: 

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) added the following collectiona couple of years back:

Scotland, Names of Witches 1658
In this small but spooky collection, you’ll find details on some of those accused of witchcraft in early modern Scotland. 1563’s Witchcraft Act made consorting with witches or taking part in witchcraft a crime punishable by death in Scotland. Around 1,500 people were executed, most of them women, until the last Scottish witch trial in 1727.
(Source: Wellcome Collection, Names of the Witches (in Scotland), 1658, MS.3658)

In 2016 Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) previously released the same collection:

Scotland, Names of Witches, 1658
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61099
Source: Names of Witches in Scotland. Wellcome Library, London, England.

About Scotland, Names of Witches, 1658

The passing of the Scottish Witchcraft Act in 1563 made witchcraft, or consulting with witches, capital crimes in Scotland. It is estimated that between three and five thousand women were publicly accused of being witches in 16th and 17th century Scotland, a much higher number than neighbouring England. Some men were also accused of witchcraft during this period, however, the number of women persecuted was far larger.

The outbreak of witch-hunting in the years 1658-1662, the period in which this list of names was created, is generally agreed to represent the high water mark of Scottish persecution.

Within this collection, you will be able to find details of the accused's name and resident town.

(Image: Wellcome Library)

There was a bit more on the book's release on Scottish Legal news at https://web.archive.org/web/20161028130410/http://www.scottishlegal.com/2016/10/27/book-listing-those-accused-of-witchcraft-in-17th-century-scotland-digitised/

Don't forget the University of Edinburgh's Survey of Scottish Witchcraft website at http://witches.shca.ed.ac.uk. There is more about this project at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survey_of_Scottish_Witchcraft

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.