CHRISTIAN SHAW AND THE BARGARRAN WITCHES.

Bush Advocate, Volume V, Issue 354, 16 August 1890, Page 8

CHRISTIAN SHAW AND THE BARGARRAN WITCHES.

(ATLANTIC MONTHLY.) Chrisi-:.-.n Shaw, who, with her mother, l-rgnu nl Paisley that manufacture of thread which ha* since made the placo famous tho world over, was tho daughter of the .Laird or Ijanrarran , in Renfrewshire. Christian , v . h o lived at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth conlury, had caught, in 1606, when she was eleven years old /a servant, Katherino Campbell, stealingsome milk on a Monday* in August, and received a vigorous enrsing iov it. Thrice the servant wiuhed that the devil might "hnrlo her soul through hell." On the next Friday Agnes Naesrnith, an old widow and a reputed "witch , was in the laird's court-yard, tiitf girl, Christian Shaw, gave her a saucy answer to some question, and the old -woman appeard to have shown resentment. On the next evening, Saturday, strong* manifestations began with Christian Shaw, which continued for months. She flew over her bed, lay insensible for days, stood bent like a bow upon, her fcefc and neck at once, "fell a-crying " that Katherine Campbell and Agnes Naesmitii weiohurting her, etc. She was taken to Glasgow to see a distinguished physician, Dr. Brisbane. Here her health grew better ._ She had an intermission of nearly a fortnight. She went home again, and KBB SYMPTOMS cam baok vorse than ever ; her head was pulled down towards her breast, and her tongno* violently thrown out and squeezed between her teeth, especially when she undertook to pray. They took her back to Dr. Brisbane, at Glasgow ; and now, even on the journey thither, she developed a new thing — the spitting out of hairs* curled and knotted,, of coal cinders as big as chesnuts and almost too hoi to handle, straw, pins, small bones, pieces of wood, feathers, gravel-stones,, candle-grease, and egg-ahells. She wae visited by great numbers of people in Glasgow, and by many of distinction. She eat up in bed, unable to «co op hear, and called for a Bible and a candle, and preached to the invisible Katherine Campbell for two* hours. And now she began to accuse others, and to see the devil himself. The clergy took it up; sb 6 became the object of constant observation and labour "with THE CBEDTOQTO .PBESBITEBY 6F PAISLEY.. She saw a good many witches, and was muohbeset by them and by the devil, particularly when any religions service was on. " 'Uaually," we are told in £he naive story o§ all this, printed within a year or so, in. 1699,. "when ministers began to pray she made great disturbance by idle, loud talking, whistling, singing, and roaring ; and, when sho recovered she laid this off on the hellish crew about her.* 1 Now people would hear eounds as of strokes, and she complained that various people •were, striking and, tormenting h,er, and urging her to kill her young sister* Shs . went on to name more people, and was tormented when they touched her, among them an old Highlander who had, come along and asked a nightfelodging; bis touch tormented lier, end h& was arrested. The next day a clergyman tried the experiment of covering ncr with faifr cloak, and bringing her in am letting tl» Hia-blander touoh her. He did«o, and ebe was at ojjo* : •TOEMEKTEH. , Then she begged the Highlander to let her tell their secrets, upon which, flays t&e. simple narrative, "the old fellow looking at her with an angry countenance," her month was stopped and her teeth set.- Eaiiy in February, 1696-7, came ft meeting of a. commission of distinguished persons appointed by foe Privy Council of Scotland to oxamine and report upon this whole casfe. Christian Shaw accused various person*, atfS was touched by thorn ia pnblic and duly tormented. Then came confessions. One person charged by Christian was^ a beggar*, descrihedns " an ignorant, irreligious fellow, who hud always been si" aril fame {" unofcher ms his daughter of seventeen, who, afterbeing, as the .•narrative says, ' ' seriously in>r portuued and dealt with by two gentlemefl," confessed, i antl smpl u-.atu<l her father and the old Highlander, A boy under twelve was anesled, and, aliheu^h at first he Yigoronsfy donied any guilt, he ronfessed and implicated hiß brother, «ged fourteen— now in gaol a.t. Glasgow, pud about to te transtxsrteu fofr something else. This boy also at hrstgdenfegl the business, "yet,*' says the narrative, "at length, throngn the endeavours of Mr. Patrick Simpson, a neighbour^ minister, ingeniously confessed Ms guilt." Qn 11th February there was a public fast, anS Christian was present in church all' day, listening to three Bormoris— certainly a good dar's work. That evening 1 she had a sharp attack, * 4 and when the "fit was dyer," we read that she had to hear another discourse* * ' Mr. Simpsoa, GOING" ABOUT FAMILY WOB3HIP, did expound Psalm ex , and, speaking of the limited power of Iho adversaries of our Lord Jesua Christ, from the latter part of verso 1, sho was on a sudden eeized with another grievous (sic) fit; in which she put out of her mouth some blood, which raised grounds of fear and jealousy in the minda of spectators that something in her mouth, hurting her, had been tho occasion «f it ; yet they could not get her mouth opened, though they used means to open the same, her teoth being' cla-o set. And in the interval of tke flfc, eh;e being asked if she found anything in hermouth that had been the occasion of hor putting out of blood, sho replied she found nothing, nor kn«w tho cause thereof ; but, opening her mouth, those present found one op nan botjble teeth newly drawn out, but knew not what had become of tho tooth ; for, though search was made for the same, it could not be founVi. After which," we are told, "tho minister proceeded [with his discourse], but was again interrupted by her lenewed tits, yet closed the exercise with prayer, after which, without more trouble she avos taken to hor bed." Sho went on in this way accusing more people, a midwife and others, up to a certaia Sunday morning near the end of March, when it all stopped. It appears tohave been about this timo that the final report was made by tho commissioners to the Privy Council of the doings of thiewitches. IN EIGHT DAYS a now commission waa appointed " not merely to examine, but actually to try tbe accused persons, and sentence the guilty to be burned, or otherwise executed to death, as the commissioners should incline." Tho commission met, heard a sermon by Mr. Hutchison on the stimulating text, *' Thou ehalt not suffer a witch to live," and in a day or two adjourned for a month. Three confessions had been heretofore obtained, and it was desired that tho clergy should try in this interval to get more of them. This eeema to have been regarded «s VEBTT IMPORTANT, and they succeeded in getting two more on the morning that the commission met. It is strange that neither of theso two " confesaants" appears to have been put on triaj-Twenty-four persons had been accusea. Seven of them were tried before a jury, andell convicted. After conviction one confessed, and committed suicide ia prison tho eainenight. The other six, including Katherine Campbell and Agnes Naesmitb, and at least two of the earlier " confessants," wore burnedat Paisley on 10th Juno, 1697. !.