Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland

FIRST EDITION, 2 vols bound in one, 310 +319 pp., contemporary half calf, marbled edges, 8vo, London, Chapman and Hall, 1852.

John Hill Burton (1809-1881), a Scottish advocate, historian and economist, was one of the first historians to introduce the principles of historical research into the study and writing of the history of Scotland. His work displays much research and a spirit of candour and honesty.

In Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland, Burton writes about a range of criminal trials, including Proceedings Against the Clan Gregor; the Trial of James Stewart for the Murder of Campbell of Glenure; The Darien Expedition, and the trial of Captain Green for Piracy and Murder, and 74 pages dedicated to Trials for Witchcraft.

Burton writes on the witch trials: “The study of the witchcraft trials in Scotland leaves behind it a frightful intelligence of what human nature may become. The impression made by these tough and sometimes drearily formal records is more dark and dreadful that anything imparted by fictitious writing[…] Though these reckless fancies do sometimes touch the border of poetry, there would certainly not be found enough of imagination in them to make them worth reading or thinking of, were it not that they were the substantial accusations raised against human beings, on which they were, in this country of well-administered justice, accused, tried with or without torture, condemned to death, and burned in a large fire fed with fagots and tar.”

Burton describes some of the more famous trials, including the “witches of Auldearn”, who “after revelling with the devil in the church of North Berwick, ransacked the surrounding graves for necromantic charms, and then went to sea in sieves, with the foul fiend as signal-master to raise a storm for the destruction of the king as he came from Norway with his bride.”

Burton attempts to explain the characteristics of Scottish witchcraft by assigning a prominent influence to the distinctive features of the country. “A country of mountains, torrents and rocks[…] among a people[…] accustomed to gloomy mists and wild storms”. This opinion received mixed response from contemporaries but has since been considered defective and inaccurate.