A Native of Badbea aka Alexander Gunn mentions in several of his letters the prevalence of superstitions and fears about witches and magic. Even though they had a strict Presbyterian upbringing and learned the catechism from early childhood, many Highland folk still were believers in magic and witchcraft. Any misfortune or malady could be attributed to witchcraft.
Gunn also tells stories, generally showing his intolerance, about Tinkers or travelling folk. It is clear that prejudice toward such people was wide-spread in the Highlands area in his day.
A Spaewife was a ‘female fortune teller’ or ‘a woman who could foretell the future’. They were said to have supernatural powers and were generally looked on with awed respect.
The Universal Fortune-teller book for spae-wifes wherein your future may be known, including “A Distinct Treatise on Moles” was published between 1840 and 1850.
Esther Mullins or Townsley (Mullins being her Maiden Surname and Townsley her married surname) at the time of the 1861 census was living in Peeblesshire in a tent on the Tweed Green. She was 39 years old while her husband Thomas, a Tinsmith was 63 years old. They had a large family. Mary 16, Charles 15, Rebecca 12, Thomas 10, Agnes 7, Elizabeth 4, and Hugh 2. They had moved round a bit as Thomas and Esther were both born in England, and the children were born in England, Old Camnock, Hamilton and Edinburgh.
Ramscraigs is a small
crofting hamlet near Dunbeath in Caithness, Scottish Highlands. Catherine McKay
was living at home in Ramscraigs with her elderly widowed mother Christina
MacKay and unmarried sister Janet. In 1861 Catherine, age 25, married Robert Henderson,
age 23, fisherman of Dunbeath. Robert came to live with Catherine’s family at
Ramscraigs. By 1866 (the time of the spae wife incident) Robert and Catherine
had two young daughters, named Catherine and Christina.
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Remains of house and yards at Ramscraigs |
John O Groat Journal – Wick, June 14, 1866
"THE TINKER WITCH – On Tuesday at the Sheriff Criminal Court, Esther Mullins or Townsley, a vagrant gipsy from the Border counties, was placed at the bar charged with falsehood, fraud, and wilful imposition, aggravated by intimidation and the pretended possession of supernatural power and also by previous conviction on a similar charge. We have already given a narrative of this deplorable instance of credulity and superstition in the case of the parties imposed upon, the leading facts of which as set forth in the libel were as follows: - The prisoner came to the house at Ramscraigs occupied by Robert Henderson, fisherman, and Widow Christina Maclachlan or Mackay, and pretended that she had the power to give the said Robert Henderson success in his fishing. To make her pretended supernatural power more readily believed she exhibited a well-known trick with a silk handkerchief which she borrowed for the purpose, and after tying it all up in knots, made the dupes of her art believe that she loosed all the knots by simply blowing upon them. By this means she cuzoned a half crown out of them for the successful fishing of the said Robert Henderson".
"Afterwards she pretended that she had discovered that the chances of his fishing were ruined by some human hair being twined In his nets, and in order to spae luck enough to counterbalance the influence of the hair, four silver pieces were necessary. These she got from the deluded fools – a florin and three shillings. Then she pretended that a great calamity was to come over them, and that if they did not give her more money she would cause all their prospects for the season to be blasted. On this representation, and the statement that a bank note was required for the requisite spell to avert the coming calamity she obtained possession of a £5 note and a silk handkerchief, promising to call at the same hour eight days after to finish the transaction, the deluded victims believing that then they would not only be freed from impending ruin, but that the £5 note would be restored with the spae-wife’s blessing".
A fisher family outside
their house near the shore at Cromarty about 1910 Am Baile
"She also persuaded Widow Maclachlan to kill a hen or a duck, saying her own name over the sacrifice in the name of the Almighty, and it was equally necessary to the successful issue of this most potent spell that the spae-wife should carry away the sacrificial victim. Whether she buried it, or whether it formed a glorious supper for ‘herself and man and bairns three,’ remains unexplained".
What did the Sheriff have to say?
To Be Continued.
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