Geillis Duncane, a maid of deputy bailiff David Seaton, is suspected of performing medical wonders by "...extraordinarie and unlawfull meanes," (224) after it is found out that she spends every other night outside of the Seaton home. Seaton confronts her and she can give no satisfactory explanation for her methods of healing, so she is tortured.
Geillis withstands the torture without speaking and is then suspected to be marked by the devil. After a mark on the "... fore part of her throate... " (224) is found, she confesses to her use of witchcraft and names several others"...to bee notorious witches..."(224). Among those on her list were Agnes Sampson, Agnes Thompson, Dr. Fian (who, according to the excerpt, is also known as John Cuningham and was named the leader of the group), George Mott's wife, Robert Gfierson, Janet Blandilands, Ewphame Mecalrean, and Barbara Naper.
Kors and Peters claim to illustrate how, "...a persecution could grow and flourish," by, "... the denunciation of one alleged witch extracted under torture from another accused witch...." (223) with their inclusion of Burr's excerpt from what they call "Newes from Scotland". There are many problems with their choice of materials to illustrate this point.
Other materials exist which suggest the trials linked to Dr. Fian, and Geillis Duncane were instigated by James I because of a storm that delayed his bride's arrival from Denmark (they married Nov. 1589), and he was on the hunt for a party to blame. In the summer months of 1590, "...a great witch hunt was instituted in Copenhagen.... They all confessed that they had been guilty of sorcery in raising storms which menaced Queen Anne's voyage and that they had sent devils to climb up the keel of her ship" (Williams Anne ofdenmark, 1970 quoted in Thompson).
Another document suggesting the King's involvement to have been more than an "interest", as Burr's footnote puts it, lists the acts Dr. Fian was found guilty of, "... going to sea with Satan ... and having fore-knowledge of the leak that sprang up in the Queen's ship" (Pitcairn quoted in Thompson). Also, in the trial of Agnes Sampson from January of 159 1, the guilty verdict was based partly on the fact that, " [She] foreknew from Devil the queen would not come to this country unless the king fetched her" (Pitcairn quoted in Thompson). Ewphame Mecalrean was convicted of the "... recent sorcery for [the purpose ofl drowning the King and Queen on their way from Denmark" (Register of the Privy Council of Scotland quoted in Thompson).
When reading the account in Witchcraft in Europe, one might wish to know the reason for King James I's intense "interest" in the case. It might also be helpful to know, when considering how these particular cases multiplied, that the king held audience with the accused and questioned them personally. Kors and Peters suggest that the Fian trials are a good example of the spread of persecution by means of torture, but perhaps the direct contact and interest of the king played a large role as well.
Another problem with using Burr's excerpt is that the document he quotes from may not be what neither he, nor Kors and Peters say it is. According to a search of the WorldCat database, the full name of "Newes from Scotland" is "Newes from Scotland Declaring the Damnable Life of Doctor Fian a Notable Sorcerer, Who was Burned at Edenbrough in lanuarie Last, 1591". The author is listed as James the I of England, but is attributed to a James Carmichael. The date of publication is 1591, in London, by William Wright. In 1816 thirty-seven reprints were made and very few libraries have copies of either. If Burr wrote footnotes on James 1, believing that James I was the author of the pamphlet, (which is entirely different from the 1597 book Daemonologie by James as well) his interpretation could be different from Kors and Peters's. Regardless of either possibility, some more information about the original source might have been helpful from Kors and Peters. Since they didn't quote directly from the original source, we must assume they either could not get a copy, or they preferred Buff.
If the latter is true, things become more complex. Kors and Peters, who are both currently professors at U of Penn (posted syllabi at U of Penn website), use Burr's work quite often in their book. The problem might lie in the fact that they could be using him because they were taught to use him, not necessarily because he was a good source. To illustrate this theory some background information is necessary. George Lincoln Burr (I857-1938) became a professor at Cornell University in the late nineteenth century (Cornell U website). In 1890 Burr was made librarian of Comell's President White Historical Library (which he had also helped the former university president build); a post which he held for over thirty years (Cornell U website). Burr's influence on Kors and Peters may lie in his connection to the U of Penn. In 1925 he was a noted speaker at the dedication of U of Penn's Henry C. Lea library, probably because of his correspondence with Lea (U of Pennwebsites). Henry Charies Lea(1825-1909) wrote a four volume work on the inquisition which is, "... still conside VId indispensable..." (Brian Van Hove website). Lea wrote many other books on Medieval Europe and the Inquisition and extensively used and collected primary sources, which were donated to Penn U in the form of the Henry C. library upon his death (U of Penn websites). As of 1994, Peters was the curator of the Henry C. library, and also holds the title "Henry Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History" (U of Penn websites). Thus Burr was in contact with Lea, who is a major figure at U of Penn, where Peters and Kors teach, possibly causing their opinion to be slightly biased. Perhaps a better reason to have chosen the particular excerpt they did would have been to illustrate the social issues outside of the courtrooms and torture chambers that affected the propagation of witch beliefs. Ms. Duncane was first accused in relation to commonly held beliefs that what medical wonders she had performed were with the help of the Devil. One of the people she names, Ewphame Mecalrean, had similar charges brought against her. "In 1591, Lady Euframe MacAlyane of Edinburgh, Scotland, was bold enough to ask a midwife to relieve the pains of labor. So roundly was analgesia in labor condemned then that she was put to death" (Shepard website). There are many ways to approach the topic of witchcraft and there is not a correct one as of yet, but I believe reasons for the inclusion of less than primary sources should be explained in works purporting to be scholarly. Otherwise, after several generations of work lacking such notation, historians will be digging themselves out of a very deep, blackhole.
