Witchcraft trial book could fetch £76,000

Nov 24 2008 by Kenneth Speirs, Paisley Daily Express

A RARE book giving an account of Paisley’s most notorious witchcraft trial is expected to sell for £76,000 at a glitzy New York auction house.

The Paisley “witches” were executed over 300 years ago and the 17th-century tome tells the tale of the case of Christian Shaw, who accused six people of “bewitching” her.

It is being being sold as as part of a lot of four at the Christies auction at its Rockefeller Plaza saleroom in the Big Apple on Thursday, December 4.

Mystery and intrigue has long surrounded the slaying of the so-called witches.

The four women and three men were strangled at the stake on the Gallow Green in the West End of Paisley and then had their bodies burned on a blazing bonfire.

Afterwards, their charred remains were buried at Maxwellton Cross at a site marked by a horseshoe and circle of cobbled stones.

Now the book Sadducismus Debellatus could fetch up to $120,000 dollars.

It gives details of what was the last major witchcraft trial in Scotland and the burning of its victims, who had been accused of sorcery by 11-year-old Christian Shaw,the daughter of the Laird of Bargarran, who accused three men and three women of “being in league with the Devil” and putting her under the influence of evil spells.

The symptoms of her supposed bedevilment included claims of body-arching spasms, flying and the vomiting of items such as coal and bent pins.

A Paisley minister called Blackwood was called in to investigate the claims of the girl, and this led to a group of people being persuaded to confess to witchcraft.

Today a stainless steel and bronze horseshoe – which replaces one stolen in the ‘70s – sits where the seven people’s charred remains were buried at Maxwellton Cross.

The tondo – a Renaissance term for a circular work of art – sits in the middle of the busy junction at Maxwellton Street and George Street and includes the inscription ‘Pain Inflicted, Suffering Endured, Injustice Done’.

They were all sentenced to death, but one killed himself in prison.

The five others were strangled then burnt on the Gallowgreen, in Paisley, on June 10, 1697.

Amazingly, Christian Shaw went on to become the pillar of respectability and the founder of a famous Paisley industry.

She was involved in the manufacture of thread on a small scale. Her product grew in reputation, she expanded her business, and employed and trained more workers and built mills.

Bargarran thread became widely known, and the "Bargarran" trademark was recognised as a mark of quality.

Christian Shaw continued to be a successful business woman.

She married an Edinburgh Glover in February 1737 when she was in her 50s. Nothing is known of her after this.

The book was published by Newman and Bell in London in1698.

The copy that is going on sale at Christies is described as “imperfect” and was the property of Increase Mather, a puritan minister who was also President of Harvard University.

He lived from 1639 to 1723.

Buddies need not travel to New York to have a look at Sadducismus Debellatus – there is a good-condition copy for all to see at Central Library, Paisley.

Hugh McLachlan, Professor of Applied Philosophy at Glasgow Caledonian University, is the author of a book on the subject, dubbed The Kirk, Satan and Salem – A History of the Witches of Renfrewshire.

He said two local ministers, the Rev Mr Turner and the Rev Mr Brisbane wrote an account of the matter at the behest of the Presbytery of Paisley, which echoed in style that of the famous witches case in Salem, Massachusetts.

It was this, rather than any active involvement by Christian Shaw that is likely to have informed the case, he said.

Professor McLachlan added: “Christian Shaw was just one of the witnesses.

“She was not the judge or jury.”