OS1/25/59/20

List of names as written Various modes of spelling Authorities for spelling Situation Description remarks
KATE McNIEVEN'S CRAIG McNieven's Craig
Kate McNiven's Craig
Kate McNieven's Craig
Kate McNieven's Craig
Kate McNieven's Craig
New Stat[Statistical] Account Monzie Parish
New Stat[Statistical] Account Crieff Parish
Mr. John Laurie
Mr. William Lyall
Mr. Thomas Soutar
095 "For more than two hundred years antecedent to this period, the mania of burning for witchcraft had raged with violence all over Europe. History informs us, that about the year 1515, 500 witches were executed at Geneva in the short space of three months; in the diocese of Como, 1000 in one year; in Germany alone, from the year 1484 to the supression of persecution for witchcraft, 100,000. England, according to Barrington, put to death 30,000; and Scotland, with a narrower field and a smaller population, was nothing behind, - multitudes being burnt in every part of the Kingdom. Need it excite wonder then, if in this sanguinary and appalling tragedy, when "one half of the population was either bewitching or bewitched," - the parish of Monzie should have immolated one solitary victim. Tradition informs us, that the name of the woman who was burned for this alleged crime was McNieven. The scene of her execution was the brow of a hill, commonly called the Knock and the particular spot still recognized by the name of McNieven's Craig. Whether or not she was convicted before the Court of Judiciary is now uncertain; but as the privy council was in the practice of granting commissions to the resident gentlemen and ministers, to examine, and afterwards to try and execute witches all over Scotland, it is probable that this unfortunate creature was convicted before one of those local tribunals. The date of this transaction must be between 1711 and 1722, when the last execution for witchcraft in Scotland took place in Dornoch. While at the stake, she is represented, like the sibyl of old, as pouring out predictions and denunciations: but these, in all probability, are much beholden to the inventive powers of others, and were they now detailed, could not afford gratification to any rational mind. The unshaken belief of the people in witchcraft, and the atrocities of what, it is feared, was little better than a popular and lawless execution , must have been powerfully operated upon their heated minds; for even to this day, when viewed at a distance through time's dusky horizon, the "Witch of Monzie" presents to the imagination a certain undefined magnitude, shedding a dim inglorious halo around this periodof our parochial history." New Statistical Account
The plan to which the foregoing extract applies is a prominent and rocky feature, forming the north-east shoulder of the Knock of Crieff.

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Parish of Monzie

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