INTRODUCTION

These trials originated with the illness of Sir George Maxwell, of Pollok House, south-west of Glasgow. On the morning of 14 October 1676, he was planning to visit the city. Prior to leaving, Sir George had called before him a servant, accusing him of having broken his orchard. The servant (whose name later emerged as Alan Dougal) admitted the offence, and added that Hugh Stewart, son of Janet Mathie, had been his accomplice. That night, Sir George fell ill and suffered for nearly seven weeks from pain in his right side. During his convalescence, an apparently deaf-mute girl aged 13, Janet Douglas, came to Pollok. Douglas identified Janet Mathie as having bewitched Maxwell, and led Maxwell's servants to Mathie's house where she ‘discovered’ a wax effigy, stuck with pins.

Janet Mathie was thus accused of witchcraft, along with two of her children: not Hugh, but her eldest son John Stewart, and their young sister Annabel Stewart, variously stated to be 12, 13 or 14 years old. Bessie Weir, Marjorie Craig and Margaret Jackson were also accused. Several of them were interrogated; Annabel Stewart seems to have been the first to confess, on 9 January 1677. Her confession brought demonology into the investigation. She confessed that she was present at a meeting in her mother's house, and that she saw a black man with white cuffs on his sleeves there. She had also been present at a meeting in her brother's house, where a ‘picture’ (effigy) of clay had been made. The stories of these two effigies, of wax and of clay, need to be distinguished in the testimonies. Later a third effigy, made of earth, was also mentioned.