INTRODUCTION

This document is a commission of justiciary – an order empowering a group of men in Forfarshire to hold criminal trials for witchcraft in Arbroath. It was issued in the name of Scotland's justice general, Archibald Campbell, fifth earl of Argyll, in April 1568. The justice general was the nominal superintendent of the criminal justice system; he rarely acted in person, but this seems to have been an instance of his doing so. The system was usually operated by the justice clerk using the name of the crown directly; the justice clerk ( John Bellenden of Auchnoull) was involved in this commission too, being mentioned near the end of the text. Seven local commissioners were appointed to hold the trials; there was a quorum of three, two of whom had to be James, fifth Lord Ogilvy, and John Erskine of Dun. The commission was to endure for six months. It empowered the commissioners to try forty named suspects, and any other witches who might be accused. It is clear evidence of a regional witchcraft panic.

The document is neatly written on a single large sheet, complete with a seal. It has been slightly damaged in places, and a few of the names present challenges of interpretation, but it is otherwise clear. The details of legal phraseology in its wording reveal much about the mechanics of a sixteenthcentury criminal court.

Michael Wasser has recently analysed this commission, setting it in context of the broader prosecution of witches and other criminals during the regency of the earl of Moray (1567–70). He argues that the Forfarshire document was issued during a broader panic in eastern Scotland in 1568 and 1569.