BURNING INJUSTICE
a mother who stood trial with her disabled daughter was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Scotland.
While Janet Horne was condemned to be burned, her child was able to escape. Their extraordinary story has now been revealed by historical author Philip Paris.
Philip, known for his books on Orkney’s Second World War Italian Chapel, said few knew about the women sentenced to death in 1727.
He said: “Janet Horne and her daughter were real people but we know very little about them, other than they were arrested for witchcraft and at their trial they were sentenced to be executed the next day.
“Janet’s case is extraordinary and an anomaly because it’s both famous and yet there are no court records or kirk sessions records relating to what happened.
“The nearest contemporary ry account was written in a letter by road engineer Edmund Burt.
“He wrote, ‘ In 1727 two poor Highland women – mother and daughter – in the shire of Sutherland were accused of witchcraft, tried and condemned to be burned. . This proceeding was in a court t held by the deputy-sheriff . The e young one made her escape out ut of prison but the old woman an suffered that cruel death inn a pitch barrel, at Dornoch, the head ad borough of that county.’”
Philip’s novel, The Last Witch Of Scotland, reimagines how Janet and her daughter came to be accused and their fight to prove their innocence.
He said Janet lived in the Sutherland parish of Loth and her daughter was said to have disfigured hands and feet, the name of the woman being accused of witchcraft. I’ve spent three years researching the witchcraft trials and it makes me deeply sad that so little is known about so many of the innocent victims who died as a result.”
Philip said doubt even existed over Janet’s name – as Jenny Horne was often a generic name given to woman accused of witchcraft. But a number of people named Horne claim to be descendents of the woman executed in Dornoch.
A Survey Of Scottish Witchcraft in 2003 identified 3837 people who had been accused of witchcraft between 1563 and 1736 – but missing records mean the figure was much higher.
Academics say the execution rate in Scotland was five times the European average. Those executed were usually strangled to death and burned at the stake so as to leave no body to bury.
Women accounted for 84 per cent of all those accused of witchcraft. The Witchcraft Act of 1563 was abolished in 1736. Last year former FM Nicola Sturgeon offered a formal apology to people accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries.
In Dornoch a memorial stone marks the spot where Janet is believed to have been executed.