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Background to The Calder Witch Hunt and our project
The Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563 condemned to death those convicted of witchcraft. Across Scotland the act led to at least 4000 people being formally accused of crimes that we now know are ridiculous and impossible.Image
Making Money from the witches: Part Two: Euphame MacCalzean
Isobel Ewart’s intervention in the Calder witch hunt case is unusual. Not just because we hear the voice of a woman speaking up so clearly for those accused but also because of the recent history of the family she had married into – the Douglas’ of Pumpherston.Image
Making money from the witches: Part One: Isobel Ewart and the Calder witch hunt
In September 1644, when the witchcraft accusations were at their height, Isobel was accused by minister Hew Kennedie of ‘scolding and railing against the kirk session’. She thought the Kirk was persecuting innocent women and accused the session of ‘making money from the witches’.Image
The second Calder witch hunt
The Calder witch hunt of 1643 to 1645 saw at least five women accused and executed as witches, and 85 years later the Kirk of Calder was embroiled again. The 1720 Calder witch hunt became a notorious Scottish cause-celebre, written about by literary giant Sir Walter Scott.Image
