Reputation and Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century Dalkeith

Abstract

The witch’s reputation in the Community is a well-established theme, but still capable of further development with the aid of detailed stud- ies. Many studies of ‘reputation’ have focused on the question of how people came to be suspected of witchcraft by their neighbours — a vital question, but nevertheless one that tends to focus on certain types of witches. Such witches certainly existed in Scotland. It is not always clear how a decision was taken to prosecute a neighbourhood witch, but records of Scottish prosecutions often show neighbours contributing to the process, testifying to quarreis, curses, bewitchments, enmities and reconciliations — sometimes going back for several decades. It is easy to see these witches’ reputations as the mainspring that drove their prose- cution. However, in Scotland as in many other places, a reputation for witchcraft among neighbours was not the only driving force for prose- cutions; people could also be named by another confessing witch. It has not always been clear whether such people had reputations or not.