Over the last few weeks, Paisley has been talking about the disappearance of the Bargarran witch hunt commemorative horseshoe, part of the Tondo designed by the Kings Sculptor and Buddie, Alexander Stoddart.
In the past the Bargarran witches have been blamed for dark times in Paisley when the horseshoe has previously disappeared, such as Cholera arriving or the closure of the Linwood car plant. Rest assured that now in 2024 we are safe! The remains of the original horseshoe remain in place under the Tondo, so even though the memorial horseshoe is absent for now we do remain protected.
So what happened in Paisley 1697? The story is much longer than the space available in this post, but on the 10th June 1697, seven people were executed for their part in tormenting Christian Shaw of Bargarran Erskine. Over three trials in Paisley over 30 people were accused and their cases were either upheld or rejected leading to the conviction of seven of them for witchcraft.
The jury took only hours to decide that John (alias The Bishop) and James Lyndsay (alias the Curate), Agnes Naismith, Margaret Fulton, Katherine Campbell, Margaret Lang and John Lyndsay of Barloch were guilty of the crimes of witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy and charming. They were unanimous on six of the verdicts – there had been disagreement only on the guilt of the old tenant farmer. The seven convicted witches were executed by hanging at the Gallow Hill in Paisley on the 10th June 1697, in front of a massive crowd. They were each allowed to speak from the scaffold before being hung one after the other.
John Lyndsay of Barloch made a dignified little speech protesting his innocence. Agnes Naismith fiercely laid “a dying woman’s curse” on all present; according to eyewitness accounts, a solitary raven settled briefly on the scaffold above her dangling, convulsing body. Margaret Fulton appeared to have lost what few wits she had ever had and talked cheerfully about being carried off to Elf land on fairy horses.
The two older Lyndsay brothers – John and James were, at their own request, hung together and clasped in each other’s arms. From other sources, we learn that John, alias the Bishop and James, alias The Curate had been accused of witchcraft about 10 years earlier but had escaped death through their ingenuity! Obviously, this time they were being investigated more thoroughly.
Katherine Campbell, the Shaw’s maid who had unwittingly perhaps started the whole affair, made the crowd gasp in mixed horror and admiration. Refusing to go quietly, she was dragged screaming and struggling to the scaffold, where she shrieked down the vengeance of both God and the Devil upon her persecutors before being flung into oblivion.
The midwife Margaret Lang was the last to go and provided the big surprise of the day. Speaking from the scaffold, she admitted that she had indeed once trafficked with the Devil. In her younger years, she said, she had once committed a sin of “unnatural lust”; the Devil had subsequently appeared to her, and she had promised herself to Him out of shame. But she insisted, she was entirely innocent of the charges lately laid against her.
After the hangings, their bodies were burned, and their ashes were deposited in a pit at Maxwelton Cross, where a horseshoe was placed above their remains to keep their spirits at bay.
The information presented above has been researched by myself since my time as Historian & Trustee of RWH1697 set up to tell the story of the Bargarran Witches. Since I left the organisation my research has continued into the witch hunt and the later life of Christian Shaw