[Satan’s Invisible World Contents]
HUGO ARNOT, in his “Collection of Celebrated Criminal Trials in Scotland, 1536-1784,” records that in the year 1697, “An impostor appeared, in the character of a person tormented by Witches, Christian Shaw, daughter of John Shaw of Bargarran, a gentleman of some note in the County of Renfrew. She is said to have been but eleven years of age. And although it is probable that hysterical affections may in part have oссаsioned her rhapsodies to proceed from real illusion, as well as accounted for the contortions which agitated her body; yet she seems to have displayed an artifice above her years, an address superior to her situation, and to have been aided by accomplices, which dulness of apprehension, or violence of prejudice, forbade the bystanders to discover. This actress was abundantly pert and lively; and her challenging one of the house-maids for drinking, perhaps for stealing, a little milk, which drew on her an angry retort, was the simple prelude to a complicated and wonderful scene of artifice and delusion, of fanaticism and barbarity. Within a few days after her quarrel with the house-maid, the girl was seized with hysterical convulsions, which in repeated fits displayed that variety of symptoms which characterise this capricious disease. To these, other appearances were speedily added, which could only be attributed to supernatural influence, or to fraud and imposition. She put out of her mouth quantities of egg-shells, orange-pill, feathers of wild, and bones of tame fowl, hair of various colours, hot coal-cinders, straws, crooked pins, &c.”
“Having by those sensible objects impressed the publick with the most complete and fearful conviction of her being ‘greviously vexed with a Devil,’ she found herself capable to command the implicit assent of the spectators, in matters that were repugnant to the evidence of their own senses. For this purpose, she fell upon the device of seeming to possess the faculties of seeing and hearing, in a manner opposite to that of the rest of mankind. She would address some invisible beings as if actually present; at other times, in her conversations with those invisible beings, she would rail at them for telling her that persons actually present were in the room; protesting that she did not see them, yet at the same time minutely describing their dress.” … When the Sheriff-Depute of the County, accompanied by a Macer of Justiciary, came to apprehend some of the persons whom her diabolical malice had accused, and were actually in her presence; she addressed an imaginary and invisible correspondent thus:- ‘Is the Sheriff come? Is he near me?’ (Then stretching forth her hand, as if to grope, and the Sheriff putting his hand into her’s, she proceeded):- ‘I cannot feel the Sheriff. How can he be present here? or how can I have him by the hand, as thou sayest, seeing I feel it not? Thou sayest he has brown coloured cloaths, red plush breeches, with black stripes, flowered muslin cravat, and an embroidered sword-belt: Thou sayest there is an old gray haired man with him, having a ring upon his hand; but I can neither see nor feel any of them. What, are they come to apprehend the gentlewoman? Is this their errand indeed?’ These reiterated and aweful exercises of the dominion of Satan, (for such they were universally deemed,) impressed all ranks with amazement and terror. The clergy, as was their duty, were the foremost to embrace the cause of a disciple that was engaged in more than spiritual warfare with the grand enemy. Clergymen by rotation attended the afflicted damsel, to assist the Minister of the Parish, the family of Bargarran, and other pious christians, in the expiatory offices of fasting and prayer. A publick fast was ordained by authority of the Presbytery, and the prayers and exhortations of the Church were speedily seconded with the weight of the secular arm. On the 19th of January 1697 a warrant of Privy Council was issued, which set forth “that there were pregnant grounds of suspicion of Witchcraft in the shire of Renfrew, especially from the afflicted and extraordinary condition of Christian Shaw, daughter of John Shaw of Bargarran.” The Commissioners were Lord Blantyre, Sir John Maxwell of Pollock, Sir John Shaw of Greenock, William Cunnyngham of Craigens, Alexander Porterfield of Duchall, —– Caldwall of Glanderstoun, Gavin Cochrane of Thornlymuir, Alexander Porterfield of Fullwood, and Robert Semple, Sheriff-Depute of Renfrew, and they were empowered to interrogate and imprison persons suspected of witchcraft, to examine witnesses, &c., but not upon oath, and to transmit their Report before the 10th of March.’ A solemn importance was thus given to circumstances which, if they took place now, would be slighted by persons in authority, and scarcely heard of beyond the parish, or at most the county. It was, however, a case highly characteristic of the age and country in which it happened. Christian had as yet attracted no particular attention from her parents or neighbours, though observed to be a child of lively character and ‘well-inclined.’ On the 28th of March, while the inquiries of the Commissioners were still going on, Christian all at once recovered her usual health; nor did she ever again complain of being afflicted.
In the Report which was presented on the 9th of March, the Commissioners represented that their were twenty-four persons, male and female, suspected and accused of Witchcraft, and that further inquiry ought to be made into this crime.” Agreeably to that Report, a new warrant was issued by the Privy Council to most of the Commissioners formerly named, with the addition of “Lord Halleraig, Francis Montgomery of Giffen, Sir John Houston of that Ilk, John Kincaid of Corsbasket, and John Stewart y[ounge]r. of Blinkhall, to meet at Renfrew, Paisley, or Glasgow, to take trial of, judge, and do justice upon the foresaid persons; and to sentence the guilty to be burned or otherwise executed to death, as the Commissioners should incline.” The Commissioners, thus empowered, were not remiss in acting under the authority delegated to them. The crimes charged “were the murder of several children and persons of mature age, the tormenting of several persons, and particularly the bewitching of Christian Shaw, a girl about eleven years of age, daughter of John Shaw of Bargarran.”
After twenty hours were spent in the examination of witnesses, who gave testimony that the malefices (an act or effect of witchcraft) libelled, could not have proceeded from natural causes, and that the prisoners were the authors of these malefices. – After five of the unhappy prisoners confessed their own guilt, and criminated their alledged associates. – After counsel had been heard on both sides, and the counsel for the prosecution had declared, that “he would not press the jury with the ordinary severity of threatening an assize of error.”* (This was an oblique and most scandalous menace). It is alleged that all things were carried on with tenderness and moderation, “yet the result was, – After the jury had spent six hours in deliberation – that the alleged facts were found to be fully proved and a judgment of guilty was given whereby seven of those miserable persons were condemned to the flames!”
The particulars of this comic tragedy were collected by JOHN MACGILCHRIST, Town-Clerk of Glasgow, and embodied in a pamphlet written by FRANCIS GRANT, Advocate, afterwards a knight, and Lord of Session, with the style of Lord Cullen, entitled ‘True Narrative of the Sufferings and Relief of a Young Girl, who was strangely molested by evil spirits and their instruments in the West: Collected from authentic testimonies, with a preface and postscript. Containing reflections on what is most material or curious, either in the History or Trial of the Seven Witches who were condemned and Burnt in the Gallow Green of Paisley, Edinburgh 1698,’ 12mo.1
Mr. CHARLES KIRKPATRICK SHARPE, in his “Prefatory Notice” to “LAW’S MEMORIALLS,” remarks:- “To sum up a long story in a few words, the young girl, who seems to have been antient in wickedness, having had a quarrel with one of the maid-servants, pretended to be bewitched by her, and forthwith began, according to the common practice in such cases, to vomit all manner of trash; to be blind and deaf on occasion; to fall into convulsions, and to talk a world of nonsense, which the hearers received as the quintessence of afflicted piety. By degrees, a great many persons were implicated in the guilt of the maidservant, and no less than twenty were condemned, of whom five suffered death on the Gallo Green of Paisley; and one man, John Reid, strangled himself in prison, or, as the report went, was strangled by the devil, lest he should make a confession to the detriment of the service. Yet he seems to have confessed abundantly, for he gave a long account of his first interview with Satan, to whose meetings he and the haggs were summoned by a black dog with a chain about his neck, the tinkling of which they followed; and affirmed that the foul fiend gave them a morsel of an unchristened child’s liver to eat, as a sovereign remedy against confession when apprehended; but John did not swallow his portion, which, without doubt, was the reason of his subsequent ingenuity. These Renfrewshire witches were said to have roasted the effigy of Mr. Hardy, a clergyman, after having dipt it into a mixture of ale and water, a circumstance not general in that sort of cookery.”
On the 10th of June 1697, on the Gallow Green of Paisley, a gibbet and a fire were prepared together. Five persons were brought out and hung for a few minutes on the one, and then cut down and burned on the other. And so ended the tragedy of Bargarran’s Daughter.
This case has usually, in recent times, been treated as one in which there were no other elements than a wicked imposture on her part, and some insane delusions on that of the confessing victims.
The REV. MR. BELL, in his MS. Treatise on Witchcraft, says, “I own there has been much harm done to worthy and innocent persons in the common way of finding out witches, and in the means made use of for promoting the discovery of such wretches, and bringing them to justice; that oftentimes old age, poverty, features, and ill fame, with such like grounds, not worthy to be represented to a magistrate, have yet moved many to suspect and defame their neighbours to the unspeakable prejudice of Christian charity; a late instance whereof we had in the west, in the business of the sorceries exercised upon the Laird of Bargarran’s daughter, anno 1697, a time when persons of more goodness and esteem than most of their calumniators were defamed for witches, and which was occasioned mostly by the forwardness and absurd credulity of diverse otherwise worthy ministers of the Gospel, and some topping professors in and about the city of Glasgow.”
SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, in his “Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-99,” remarks that, “Having acquired a remarkable dexterity in spinning fine yarn, she (Christian Shaw) conceived the idea of manufacturing it into thread. Her first attempts in this way were necessarily on a small scale. She executed almost every part of the process with her own hands, and bleached her materials on a large slate placed in one of the windows of the house. She succeeded, however, so well, in these essays, as to have sufficient encouragement to go on, and to take the assistance of her younger sisters, and neighbours. The then Lady Blantyre carried a parcel of her thread to Bath, and disposed of it advantageously to some manufacturers of lace… About this time, a person who was connected with the family, happening to be in Holland, found means to learn the secrets of the thread manufacture, which was then carried on to a great extent in that country, particularly the art of sorting and numbering the threads of different sizes, and packing them up for sale, and the construction and management of the twisting and twining machines. This knowledge he communicated, on his return to his friends in Bargarran, and by means of it they were enabled to conduct their manufacture with more regularity, and to a greater extent. The young women in the neighbourhood were taught to spin fine yarn, twining-mills were erected, correspondences were established, and a profitable business was carried on. Bargarran thread became extensively known, and, being ascertained by a stamp, bore a good price.” By and by, the work was undertaken by others, and in time it became a leading manufacture of the district.
The newspapers of the time, present the following advertisement:- “The Lady Bargarran and her daughters having attained to a great perfection in making, whitening, and twisting of SEWING THREED, which is as cheap and white, and known by experience to be much stronger than the Dutch, to prevent people’s being imposed upon by other Threed, which may be sold under the name of ‘Bargarran Threed,’ the Papers in which the Lady Bargarran and her daughters at Bargarran, or Mrs. Miller, her eldest daughter, at Johnston, do put up their Threed, shall, for direction, have thereupon their Coat of Arms, ‘azure, three coverd cups or.’ Those who want the said Threed, which is to be sold from fivepence to six shillings per ounce, may write to the Lady Bargarran at Bargarran, or Mrs. Miller at Johnston, near Paisley, to the care of the Postmaster of Glasgow; and may call for the samen in Edinburgh, at John Seton, Merchant, his shop in the Parliament Close, where they will be served either in Wholesale or Retail; and will be served in the same manner at Glasgow, by William Selkirk, Merchant in Trongate.”
DR. ROBERT CHAMBERS, in his “Domestic Annals of Scotland, 1861,” remarks, “That Christian Shaw-the cause of a number of prosecutions for Witchcraft-as she grew up to woman’s estate, attained distinction of a better kind, as the originator of one of the great branches of industry for which her native province has since been remarkable. She was actually the first person who introduced the spinning of fine linen thread into Scotland.”
About 1718 she married Mr. Miller, the minister of Kilmaurs Parish, (he died in 1725, and was buried in Erskine Church, universally lamented by his parishoners, great numbers of whom attended his funeral); and it is presumed she passed through the remainder of her life much in the same manner as other persons in that respectable grade.
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* “The reference to the conviction of the members of the jury for perjury is to the “assize of error”, abolished in 1689, whereby members of a jury which wilfully acquitted in the face of the evidence could be tried by a “great assize” of 25 nobles. The potential punishment for such jurors was forfeiture of moveables and a year’s imprisonment.” – Lord Kames, Historical Law Tracts (4th edn, 1792; first published 1758).
1 This was Reprinted at Paisley in 1775, and again in 1809, with various additions, under the title of “A History of the Witches of Renfrewshire, who were burned on the Gallow Green of Paisley, from Authentic Documents,” 12mo.
