Tour Scotland short 4K Autumn afternoon travel video clip of a road trip drive, with Scottish bagpipes music, on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to Pittenweem, East Neuk of Fife. Britain, United Kingdom. The Witches who made Pittenweem notorious in former days are long gone by. However in 1704 the magistrates, in a petition to the Privy Council of Pittenweem, stated that Patrick Morton, a youth of sixteen " free of any known vice, " was engaged making nails for a ship in his father's smithy, when Beatrix or Beatie Laing, " spouse to William Brown, tailor, late treasurer of the burgh, " requested him to make some for her, and on his alleging that those he was engaged on were required in haste, she went away threatening to be revenged, which did somewhat frighten him, because he knew she was under a bad fame and reputed as a witch. Passing her house next day " he observed a timber vessel with some water and a fire coal in it at the door, which made him apprehend that it was a charm laid for him; " and " immediately he was seized with such a weakness in his limbs, that he could hardly stand or walk. " In spite of all that physicians could do for him, he languished for many weeks, lost his appetite, and was strangely emaciated. He grew worse, and had such unusual fits that all onlookers were astonished. "His belly at times was distended to a great height; at other times, the bones of his back and breast did rise to a prodigious height, and suddenly fell," while his breathing " was like to the blowing of a bellows. " Sometimes his body became so rigid that neither his arms nor legs could be moved by any strength. His head at times turned half round and could not be brought back again. Occasionally, his tongue was drawn back in his throat, especially when he was telling who were his tormentors. When the bailies or minister brought them to the house, he would cry out they were coming and name them before seeing them. Although his face was covered he expressed pain when his tormentors touched him. Beatrix and the others were thrown into the jail. As she refused to confess that she was a witch, she was pricked, and kept awake for five days and nights. At length she confessed. But afterwards denying that what she had said about seeing the devil and so forth was true, she was put in the stocks and carried to the Thieves' Hole, and from thence to a dark dungeon, where she was not allowed any kind of light or human converse for five months. Through the influence of the Earl of Balcarres and Lord Anstruther, the supposed witches were released on bail; but poor Beatrix had to wander in strange places, in hunger and cold, as she dared not come near her own house for the fury of the people. At this very time, a fisherman charged Janet Cornfoot with assisting the devil and two others to beset him one night, while he was sleeping. Janet was thrown into prison at Pittenweem, and, being tortured, confessed, but afterwards denied it. It seems to have been the second storey of the steeple in which she was confined. By the connivance of the minister she escaped. Another minister, George Gordon, of Leuchars, it is said, had her arrested and sent back to Pittenweem, where she fell into the hands of the people. The enlightened public tied her with a rope, beat her unmercifully, and dragged her through the streets and along the shore by the heels. The crowd was dispersed by a bailie, but soon gathered again, and tied her to a rope stretched between a ship and the shore, swinging her to and fro, and pelting her with stones. Getting tired of this, they let her down with a crash on the beach, beat her again unmercifully, and, covering her with a door, deliberately crushed her to death, after she had been tortured for three hours ! This atrocious murder was committed on the 30th of January 1705. One of those accused by the young blacksmith died in prison about the same time. The bodies of both these victims of superstition were denied Christian burial. In 1643 and 1644 several women were executed for being a witch, and their sons and husbands were forced to pay the expense of their deaths. The Fife Coastal Walking Path goes through Pittenweem and runs from the Forth Estuary in the south, to the Tay Estuary in the north and stretches for 117 miles. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome. When driving on Scottish roads in Scotland slow down and enjoy the trip. Meteorological Autumn ior Fall s different from standard and astronomical Autumn and begins September 1 and ends November 30. The equinox at which the sun approaches the Southern Hemisphere, marking the start of astronomical Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. The time of this occurrence is approximately September 22. @tourscotland #bagpipes #autumn #drivingtrip #shorts #halloween
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