Trial evidence for witchcraft

Joan Guppie: Interrogatory. (Catalogue ref: STAC 8/149/24)

In the course of a legal trial witnesses would be called to answer Interrogatories (questions) about the case. In this source one of Joan Guppie’s neighbours gives his evidence about her supposed witchcraft, December 1605.

Transcript

1. To the 10^th Interrogatory he saith that the said Joan
2. Guppie is in the place where she
3. dwelleth [lived] is suspected to be a witch & known
4. to have used sorcery or
5. charms.
6. To the 11^th Interrogatory this defendant saith [said] that it is known that the
7. said Judith Gibbs hath been by the space
8. of 3 years of thereabouts troubled
9. with a swelling in her body, and that
10. it hath been thought by neighbours &
11. such as had her in cure
12. as this defendant hath been told, that the said Judith

Page two:

1. was bewitched with that grief. And more than is aforesaid
2. he cannot say to this Interrogatory