Bessie Bathgate's Nips

Bessie Bathgate’s Nips By E. Lynn Linton © 2008 by http://www.HorrorMasters.com

A year after this Bessie Bathgate, spouse to Alexander Rae, fell into trouble and the hands of the police. George Sprot, wobster, had some cloth of Bessie’s, which he kept too long for her thinking. She went and took it violently away, and nipped his child in the thigh till it skirled, “and of which nip it never convalesced, but dwamed thereof and died by hir sorcerie.” Also, said Sprot’s wife, giving her child an egg that came out of Bessie’s house there struck out a lump as big as a goose egg upon the child, which continued on her till her death, which was occasioned by nothing else than this “enchanted egg.” Furthermore she threatened Sprot that “he should never get his Sunday’s meat to the fore by his work;” and he forthwith fell into extreme poverty, by which her words came true. To William Donaldson she said—he outrunning her as she chased him to beat him for calling her a witch—“Weill, sir, the devill be in your feit,” and he fell lame and impotent straightways, and so continued ever since. Other things of the same kind did she, bewitching Margaret Home’s cow that it died, “and that night it died there was women seen dancing on the rigging of the byre;” also she was seen by “two young men at 12 howers at even (when all persons are in their beds) standing barelegged and in him sark valicot, at the back of hir yard, conferring with the devill, who was in gray cloaths;” which, with other offences of the same nature, were, we should have thought, heavy enough to have lost a world. But Elizabeth Bathgate, spouse to Alexander Rae, was acquitted; though how the verdict came about no one can possibly understand. It was not that any fit of mercy or humanity had come over the people. More than twenty poor wretches suffered about this time, Sir George Rome of Manderston, being one of the chief of the prosecutors: for Sir George and his wife did not live very lovingly together, and she was given to witches and warlocks—or they said she was—to see if she could not get rid of him by enchantments and sorceries: so Sir George had a pleasant mixture of spite and self-defence in his onslaught, and the whole country-side was in a stir. About this time too, John Balfour, of Corhouse, took on himself the office of witchfinder and pricker by thrusting “preens” into the marks; but he was not accepted quite blindly, and measures were taken for examining his pretensions to this special branch of knowledge. In general the pricker was the master of the situation, and brought all the rest to his feet.