Agnes Sampson

I promised you guys some more local Edinburgh history and exactly 430 years go today, one of my favourite Edinburgh figures was put to death. 

Agnes Sampson (died 28 January 1591) was a Scottish healer and accused witch. Also known as the "Wise Wife of Keith" and more commonly “Bald Agnes”, Sampson was involved in the North Berwick witch trials in the late sixteenth century.

Sampson lived at Nether Keith, a part of the Keith Marischal barony, East Lothian, Scotland. She was considered to have healing powers and acted as a midwife. The indictment against her indicated that she was a widow, with children. But before we hear about her end, a little background on witchcraft in Scotland.

James I & VI (1st of England, 6^th of Scotland) had a lifelong fear of the supernatural, especially witches. He had been raised by religious fanatics after his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in 1567. The 16^th century was a period of intense witch-hunting.  Between the 15^th and 18^th centuries witch-hunts swept across Europe, resulting in the trials of around 100,000, most of whom were female. Of these, 40,000 were put to death.  The situation was especially bad in Scotland where 4,000 of those executions took place here - 10% of the total number executed in this period – despite the population of Scotland being only 1.2million in 1681. James VI (as he was in Scotland) was largely to blame for the prolific Scottish witch-hunt owing to his mission to “cleanse his kingdom of witchcraft”, especially around the 1590s.

In the spring of 1590, James VI returned from Copenhagen after marrying Anne of Denmark. The Danish court at that time was greatly perplexed by witchcraft and the black arts, and this must have influenced King James. The voyage back from Denmark was beset by storms, which in both Denmark and Scotland was attributed to witchcraft. In September 1590 two women were burnt as witches at Kronborg. James decided to set up his own tribunal in Scotland. One of the most noteworthy witch trials in Scotland happened in North Berwick. It was an extraordinary event due to the number accused of witchcraft. Approximately 70 people went on trial, which is a significant number for such a tiny town in Scotland at the time. Among those on trial was Agnes Sampson.

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By the autumn of 1590, Scotland was aflame with witch hunts, and many of those sent to trial were questioned by the King himself. The story of the arrest, trial and confessions of Agnes Sampson is known from versions found in a pamphlet printed in London in 1591, the Newes from Scotland, and from contemporary letters and trial records.

Agnes Sampson was accused by Gillis Duncan (namesake to the witch from Outlander). Agnes, along with others, was arrested and question regarding the storms. During her interrogation it is said that Agnes was subjected to “The Boot”- an L-shaped vice that would crush the victim’s legs. When she did not confess, she was “thawed” which was to have a coarse dock rope tied around her head and tightened – but still would not confess. She was sleep-deprived, but still remained defiant of her innocence.

Her trial and arrest are documented in the 1591 Newes from Scotland:

‘Agnes Sampson…the elder Witch, was taken and brought to the Palace of Holyrood House before the Kings Majesty… where she was straightly examined, but all the persuasions which the Kings majesty used to her…might not provoke or induce her to confess anything, but stood stiffly in the denial of all that was laid to her charge: whereupon they caused her to be confined away to prison, there to receive such torture as hath been lately provided for witches… it hath lately been found that the Devil doth generally mark them with a privy mark…the Witches have confessed themselves, that the Devil doth lick them with his tongue in some private part of their body, before he doth receive them to be his servants, which mark commonly is given them under the hair in some part of their body, whereby it may not easily be found out or seen… Therefore by special commandment this Agnes Sampson had all her hair shaven off, in each part of her body, and her head thrawen with a rope according to the custom of that Country, being a pain most grievous, which she continued almost an hour, during which time she would not confess any thing until the Devils mark was found upon her privates, then she immediately confessed whatsoever was demanded of her…’

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According to the Newes from Scotland, Agnes Sampson confessed to previous murders as well and to using the same charm to raise the storm that had threatened the king on his return from Denmark. The English ambassador Robert Bowes wrote in December 1590 that Sampson had confessed and mentioned attempts to obtain the king's shirt or other personal linen in order to work charms. On 27 January, she confessed that the Devil had offered to help her and her children because she was a poor widow. The Devil appeared to her as either a black man or a black dog. She also claimed to have attended a witch's convent at North Berwick with her son-in-law, collected bones and powdered them to make protective charms for childbirth.

Sampson said that Robert Bowes was "a little black and fat man with black hair", who had given the accused gold in a cellar while James VI was in Denmark to make a charm with a toad to hurt the king and make him infertile. Bowes, unsurprisingly, denied this.

Unusually, Agnes Sampson was interviewed by James VI himself who was sceptical of her confession. However, during this meeting she told him things about the conversation he had on wedding night with Anne of Denmark in Oslo, that she could not have known and he swotre that she was guilty:

‘The said Agnes Sampson confessed before the Kings Majesty sundry things which were so miraculous and strange, as that his Majesty said they were all extreme liars, whereat she answered, she would not wish his Majesty to suppose her words to be false, but rather to believe them, in that she would discover such matter unto him as his majesty should not any way doubt of. And thereupon taking his Majesty a little aside, she declared unto him the very words which passed between the Kings Majesty and his Queen at Oslo in Norway the first night of their marriage, with their answer each to other: whereat the Kings Majesty wondered greatly, and swore by the living God, that he believed that all the Devils in hell could not have discovered the same: acknowledging her words to be most true, and therefore gave the more credit to the rest which is before declared.

On 27 January 1591 the charges of witchcraft against her were drawn up with fifty three points. She confessed to a number of charges including treason, consorting with the devil, and witchcraft.

Agnes Sampson was taken to the scaffold on Castlehill, where she was garrotted then burnt at the stake on 28 January 1591.

(My own photo, woo!)

Today, the naked ghost of a Bald Agnes, stripped and tortured after being accused of witchcraft, is said to roam the Palace of Holyroodhouse, unable to leave the place where she was wrongfully condemned to death four centuries ago.