SOCIAL LIFE IN FORMER DAYS.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 273, 4 June 1866, Page 3

SOCIAL LIFE IN FORMER DAYS.

(From the News of the World.) There are some curious letters in a • volume about . the Dufius Kirk, in a great measure dependent on the Dunbars during several generations. The office of minister being vacant in 1784, there were several candidates for it. One was willing to set aside the first half-year's stipend to any "pious or other use," agreeable to the patron : " and if ye shall judge it proper to bestow any particular friend or relation of yours upon me as my wife, I hereby promise not only to keep my aifections free, but also, with God's assistance, to accept of her, preferably to any other person whatever as my future spouse ; and I shall always consider that, along with your relation, you have also given me £1,000 yearly to maintain her." Another candidate was not only recommended as " a good preacher, and a modest, civil, obliging fellow, with whom you can be quite easy ;" it was also added, "he shall demit whenever you are tired of him." Captain D unbar gives some fresh instances of the cruel persecutions indulged in under the pretence of punishing witchcraft. In 1705 a Beatrix Laing was tried for bewitching a Patrick Moaton : — A YOUNG MAN BEWITCHED. "In the beginning of March last, tne said Patrick Mortaune, about sixteen years of age, and free of any knawen vice, being employed by his ffatber to make some naills to af ship belonging to one of the merchants in Pittenweem, when he was working in his ffather's smiddie, one Beatrix Laing, who is one of these who have confessed, desired him to make some naills fibr her, which he modestly refused, in regard he had been already imployed to make the naiils fibr the ship, which were in haste, and could not abide any delay. Upon which answer Beatrix did show a great deall of discontent, and went away, threatening to be revenged, which did somewhat ffrighten him, because he knew see was under a bad fame, and reputed fibr a witch of a long time. The next day, when he was passing the door of her house, he observed a timber vessell with some water and a fire coall in it, att the door, which made him apprehend that it was a charme layd fibr him, and the eftects of her threatning ; and immediately he was seased with such a weakness in his limbs that he could hardly stand or walk, and continued in a languishing condition till the first of May last ; and the phisitians were imployed fibr his recovery, yet no means they could use had any efi'ect, but still grew worse, having no appetite, and his bodie strongely einacerated. About the beginning of May his eaice altered to the worse, by haveing such strange and unusual fitts as did astonish all onlookers: His belly, att sometime, was distended to a great height ; at other tymes his breast and back were so 1 distended, that the bones, both of his back and breast, did ryse to a prodigious height, and suddenly fell ; and in the mean tyrne his breathing was like to the blowing of a bellowes ; att other times his bodie became rigide and inflexible, in so much that neither his armes nor legs could be bowed or moved by any strength, tho' frequently tryed ; and all liis senses benumned, and yet his pulse in good order. Att some tyme his head turned quite about, or to his shoulders, and no strength able to turne it back or repone it ; and was many tyme in griveous agonies, and sometimes in soonds ; att other tymes his toungue drawen back in his throatt, especiallie when he was telling who were his tormentors ; and when either the magistrats or minister did bring in any of these women, whom he had discovered to be his tormentors, before they came within the i door, he cryed out his tormentors were present, ' and named them ; and tho' severalls present did cover his face, and j caused severall women touch him (besides j those he discovered to be his tormentors) ! by turnes; yet, when these did touch him, upon whom he made no complaint, no effect followed ; but upon the approach and touch of these whom he complaned of, his agonies increased, and cryed out his tormentors were present." This young Morton and his father laid information against any of their neighbors for whom they had any dislike, and they were hunted down as a matter of course. One of their victims was named Janet Corphar : — TORTURING A "WITCH" TO DEATH. " After she was committed prisoner to the tolbooth, upon a suspicion of her being a witch, she was well guarded with a number of men, who, "by pinching her and pricking her with pins, keept her from sleep many days and nights, thredtning her with present death, unless she would confess herself guilty of witchcraft ; which at last she did. This report spreading abroad, made people curious to converse with her upon the subject, who found themselves exceedingly disappointed. The Viscount of Primrose, being in Fife, occasionally inclined to satisfy bis curiosity in this matter : the Earl of Xellie, my Lord Lyon, the Laird of Scots Tarves, and the Laird of Eanderston, were with his lordship in Pittenweem. Three of the number went to the tolbooth and discoursed her; to whom she said, that all that she had. confessed, either of herself, or her neighbors, were lies, and cried out, • God forgive the minister ;' and said he had beat her one day with his staft, when she was telling him the truth. They asked her how she came to say anything that was not true. She cried out, ' Alas! alas ! I behoved to say so, to please the minister and the bailies ;' and in the meantime she beged, for Chrst's sake, not to tell that she had said so 'else she would be murdered. Another time, when the Laird of Glenagies and Mr. Bruce of Kinross were telling her she needed not deny what they were asking her, for she had confessed as much as would infallibly burn her, she cried ' God forbid !' — and to one of the two, she said that from which he might rationally conclude she insinuated she had assurance, from the minister, her'life should not be taken." She was -put into a prison with HiMBIHiIMMHHHH

easily escape, the design evidently .being that, as she could not be put to death by law, she should be induced to run away and so get into the hands of the lawless rabble. She fell into the trap, and made her escape on the first night. " The rabble hearing she was in town went to Mr Cowper, and asked him what they should do with her ? He told them he was not concerned ; they might do what they pleased with her. They took encouragement from this to fall upon the poor woman, those of the minister's family going along with him. They fell upon the poor creature immediately, and beat her unmercifully, tying her so hard with a rope that she was aim ost strangled ; they dragged her through the streets and alongst the shoar by the heels. A bailie, hearing of a rabble near his stair, came, which made them immediately disappear ; but the magistrates, though met together, not taking care to put her into close custody for her safety, the rabble gathered again immediately, and streaehed a rope betwixt a ship and the shoar, to a great height to which they tyed her fast ; after which they swinged her to and fro, from one side to another, in the meantime throwing stones from all corners until they were weary : then they loosed her, and with a mighty swing threw her upon the hard stones and staves, with which the beat her most cruelly. Two of her daughters came, upon their knees, begging to be allowed one word of their mother before she expired; but that being'frefused, the rabble threatening to treat them in the same manner, they went off. The rabble never gave over till the poor wretch was dead ; and to be sure she was so, they called a man with a horse and a sledge, and made him drive over her backward and forward several times. "When they were sure she was killed outright, they dragged her miserable carcass to Nicolas Lawson's house, where they first found her ; laying on her belly a door of boards, and on it a great heap of stones." QUALIFICATIONS AND SALARY OF A GOVERNESS IN 1710. '•' To the much Honored the Lady Thunderton — These : — Kanes, Huntly, Jan. 30th, 1710. — Madame, — Eobert Gordon has writ now twice to my father as (by your Ladyship's desire as I suppose) concerning me, if I be willing and fit for your service. In his last he desires I should writ to your Ladyship to show that I can sow white and colored seam ; dress head suits, play on the Treble and Gambo, Viol, Yirgmelles and Manicords, which I can do, but on no other. He desires to let know what fie I wold have, which is threttie pound and Gown and Coat, or then fortie pound and Shoes and Linnens, which is for a year. If those terms please your Ladythip, I am content to serve for half-a-year conform, to try if I please your Lady- I ship. I expect an answer with the first occassion, and I am, Madam, your most humble servant, " Jea^ Chedt." The thirty or forty pounds were, of course, in Scottish money, equal to onetwelfth of the English currency, though worth much more than a twelfth when we consider the cheapness of provisions. A good hen was to be bought in Elgin, a hundred and fifty years ago, for two shillings, or two-and-sixpence : fourteeen eggs were to be had for a shilling ; fourteen haddocks for eighteenpence ; a large codfish for four shillings ; a pint of milk for sixteenpence ; a goose for eight shillings ; a stone of butter, at twenty-two pounds to the stone, for three pounds, and the same quantity of the very best cheese for thirty shillings. A carcase of best beef cost, in the shambles, eight Scots pounds ; and a " mutton bulk of the best sort," twenty-six shillings and eightpence.