First Minister issues formal apology almost 300 years after last 'witch' is executed in Dornoch
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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has issued a formal posthumous apology at Holyrood in response to a petition to pardon and memorialise thousands who have been accused of witchcraft.
The campaign, launched by Witches of Scotland on International Women’s Day two years ago, set about achieving three aims: to obtain a pardon for those convicted as witches under the Witchcraft Act 1563; to obtain an apology for all those accused; and to obtain a national memorial to remember those killed as witches.
The group's petition, which received over 3000 signatures, explains that between 1563 and 1736, the years when the Witchcraft Act was law, almost 4000 people were accused of witchcraft.
The vast majority of those accused, some 85 per cent, were women. Confessions to allegations of witchcraft were routinely obtained by torture, both physical and mental. Of the 4000 accused, academics estimate that approximately 2500 were executed.
The First Minister described it as an "injustice on a colossal scale".
She said: "Those who met this fate were not witches. They were people and they are overwhelmingly women.
"At a time when women were not even allowed to speak as witnesses in a court room they were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable, or in many cases, just because they were women.
"Some will ask why this generation should say sorry for something that happened centuries ago, but it might actually be more pertinent to ask why it has taken so long."
A monument to the last Scot to be executed for witchcraft can be found in Littletown, Dornoch, in memory of Janet "Jenny" Horne.
In 1727, Horne and her daughter were arrested in Dornoch and imprisoned on charges of witchcraft, based on accusations made by her neighbours. She had shown signs of senility, and her daughter was said to have had physical disabilities of the hands and feet.
While her daughter escaped execution, Janet Horne was tried and found guilty before being stripped and smeared with tar, paraded through the village in a barrel, and then burned alive.
It would be another nine years before the Witchcraft Act was repealed in Scotland.
The First Minister noted that parliament would need to legislate before any pardon could be issued.
To find out more about the Witches of Scotland campaign, visit their page at www.witchesofscotland.com.
