A Collection of Rare and Curious Tracts on Witchcraft and the Second Sight: With an Original Essay on Witchcraft

In Short

This collection brings together historical trial records, royal treatises, local kirk-session minutes, and personal correspondence surrounding Scotch witchcraft trials and visions of second sight from the late sixteenth through the early eighteenth centuries. It charts how accusations of sorcery were manufactured, prosecuted, and contested across various Scottish communities. The volume preserves raw archival evidence—from tortured confessions and itemized execution costs to philosophical debates on demonic agency—offering a candid window into the administrative, theological, and human mechanics of a historic moral panic.

The Story

The collection opens with an account of the North Berwick witch trials of the 1590s, where local deputy bailiff David Seaton grows suspicious of his maidservant, Geillies Duncane, after she performs sudden, miraculous healings. Under torture, she names her alleged accomplices, implicating Doctor Fian, alias John Cunningham, as the schoolmaster and secret recorder for their infernal gatherings. The narrative expands as accused women are interrogated in the presence of King James VI, confessing to nocturnal conventions at North Berwick kirk where the devil preached from a pulpit in a black gown and ordered them to destroy the King's ship at sea.

These events lead into extracts from King James’s own Daemonologie, framed as a dialogue between Philomathes and Epistemon. The text lays down theological justifications for prosecuting sorcery, debating how spirits transport bodies, project illusions, and exert power over earthly magistrates. It insists that no accused person can be lawfully cured by counter-magic, demanding instead rigorous judicial execution to cleanse the land.

The focus then shifts to the early eighteenth century with the harrowing case of Pittenweem. A young boy named Patrick Morton falls into strange swoons and fits, claiming that local women are tormenting him with invisible pinches. The local minister and magistrates imprison several women, subjecting them to sleep deprivation by means of guards who pinch and prick them with pins. While a local gentleman writes letters exposing the trial as a cruel farce driven by a fraudulent accuser, defenders of the prosecution publish counter-arguments attempting to justify their methods and minimize reports of mob violence, such as the murder of an accused woman.

Subsequent sections detail court records, formal indictments, and Kirk-session minutes from places like Borrowstouness, Torryburn, and Fife. Transcripts record depositions, prickers’ declarations, and confessions, alongside meticulous municipal accounts listing the exact monetary costs of fuel, stakes, and executioners' fees for burning condemned citizens. The volume concludes with a treatise by Frazer of Ree on the "Second Sight," moving from criminal prosecutions to a philosophical examination of prophetic visions in the Scottish Isles, weighing whether such phenomena stem from demonic tricks, physical illusions, or natural spiritual gifts.

How It Unfolds

The suspicion begins In Trenent, David Seaton notices his maidservant Geillies Duncane curing sick locals and staying out at night, leading him to subject her to interrogation until she names other suspected witches.

The King intervenes Accused conspirators are brought before King James VI, where they confess to plotting his death at sea and meeting the devil at North Berwick kirk.

The doctrine is set King James outlines his theological framework in Daemonologie, arguing that witches must be pursued by magistrates without mercy and that demonic transportation operates within physical and spiritual limits.

The panic spreads to Pittenweem Patrick Morton feigns fits and accuses vulnerable elderly women of tormenting him, prompting the town's minister and bailies to imprison the suspects under severe conditions.

The opposition speaks out A Fife gentleman pens a scathing letter exposing the guard's use of sleep deprivation and pricking, calling Morton a cheat and demonstrating that only the defenseless are targeted.

The bureaucracy of execution Local courts in Borrowstouness and Torryburn record formal indictments, jury summonses, and precise accounting ledgers detailing the exact expenses incurred for burning condemned individuals.

The phenomenon of sight The volume transitions to Frazer’s inquiry into the second sight in the Western Isles, analyzing premonitions of death and local folklore through the lens of early modern natural philosophy.

The People

• King James VI wants to establish his divine authority and eradicate sorcery throughout his realm; he takes a direct role in interrogating suspects and authoring legal and theological texts to justify their execution.
• Geillies Duncane begins as a domestic maid known for sudden healing abilities; under severe pressure from her master, she becomes the primary accuser whose confessions ignite the North Berwick trials.
• Doctor Fian (John Cunningham) serves as a schoolmaster named as the register for the covert assembly; despite undergoing extreme judicial torture, he resists initial pressure before being caught in the machinery of the trial.
• Patrick Morton acts as a young accuser in Pittenweem whose dramatic fits and claims of torment drive local authorities to imprison elderly women, using public hysteria to target vulnerable community members.
• The Gentleman of Fife seeks to expose the illegality and cruelty of the Pittenweem proceedings, writing detailed letters to noblemen to denounce the torture and mob violence used against accused women.
• Frazer seeks to understand the phenomenon of second sight in remote island communities, attempting to distinguish between natural visions, sensory illusions, and evil spirits.

In Its Own Voice

"God, by his omnipotent power, hath at all times, and daily dooth take such care, and is so vigilant for the weale and preservation of his owne, that thereby he disappointeth the wicked practices and evil intents of all such as by any means whatsoever seeke indirectly to conspire any thing contrary to his holy will..."

The author of the North Berwick account frames the arrest of local maidservant Geillies Duncane and her alleged conspirators as a direct act of divine providence protecting King James VI.

"This cruel usage made some of them learn to be so wise as acknowledge every question that was asked them; whereby they found the minister and baillies well pleased, and themselves better treated."

A letter detailing the Pittenweem prosecutions reveals how deliberate sleep deprivation and torture forced desperate prisoners to fabricate confessions to survive.

"Secundo, that it passes under a great odium and disgrace with the most of men, which causes those that see it, conceal it."

Frazer defends his inquiry into the second sight by pointing out how local prejudice forces those with prophetic visions to keep their experiences secret.

What It's Really About

The collection investigates how institutional authority converts social anxiety, personal malice, and superstition into legal violence. At its core, the text exposes the administrative machinery behind moral panics: how civic leaders, church sessions, and monarchs use judicial torture to manufacture the very evidence they claim to fear. It explores the tension between elite theological dogma—represented by King James's writings—and the ground-reality of village disputes, where accusations target the poor, the isolated, or the vulnerable. Beyond the courtrooms, the text asks fundamental questions about human perception, examining where religious credulity ends, where deliberate fraud begins, and how communities construct meaning around unexplained illness, premonition, and death.

Why Read It Today

This book appeals to readers of history, legal studies, and historical sociology who value primary sources over modern dramatizations. Rather than providing a single continuous narrative, it offers an unvarnished archival portrait of early modern Scottish society. Reading it feels like sifting through a wooden chest of forgotten courtroom transcripts, private letters, and parish expense reports.

The primary difficulty for contemporary readers lies in its varied formatting and archaic language. The text alternates between 16th-century Scots prose, formal court legalities, letter transcripts, and theological dialogues, complete with period spelling and dense regional terminology. Yet, what remains long after reading is the eerie, bureaucratic routine of it all: the chilling contrast between high-minded theological debates and the municipal ledgers that calmly itemize the cost of ropes, stakes, and coal used to execute targeted citizens. It is a sobering reflection on human cruelty masked as righteous civic duty.