Marioun Twedy or Marion Tweedy was accused of witchcraft in

Peebles Peebles () is a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was historically a royal burgh and the county town of Peeblesshire. According to the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 census, the population was 8,376 and the estimated population in ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

in 1649. She was accused of causing the death of a woman and her child and of using charms to cure animals. She refused to confess to these accusations. However, the witchpricker condemned her for finding 'the devil's mark' on her.

Biography

Twedy is recorded as having resided in the parish of

Kirkurd Kirkurd is a parish in Peeblesshire in the Scottish Borders situated 3 miles south-east of Dolphinton and 6 miles north-east of Broughton. Tarth Water, a tributary of Lyne Water (itself a tributary of the River Tweed) forms the northern bounda ...

in the Presbytery of Peebles. She was arrested and incarcerated in the prison in Peebles on 17 May 1649. The Presbytery requested a witchcraft commission be approved by the

Committee of Estates The Committee of Estates governed Scotland during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1638–1651) when the Parliament of Scotland was not sitting. It was dominated by Covenanters of which the most influential faction was that of the Earl of Argyll. Th ...

to investigate the allegations against her in September 1649.

The accusations

The allegations included that she had given advice about a cow giving blood. The charm/cure she had advised was she told her neighbour to take the blood "''three times withershins about her house then pour it into a hole in the ground".'' Another allegation centred on Twedy being the cause a house burning down and the deaths of all the animals inside it. She was also alleged to have predicted a child's accident and caused it. The mother of the child died subsequently too and the husband, seeking someone to blame for his misfortune, accused Twedy of both. He attributed the cause of her 'maleficium' to be that he had in the past refused to marry Twedy's daughter.

The witchpricker

Despite all the charges and the suffering caused during her months of incarceration and interrogation, Twedy would not confess to anything other than having done a little charming. The Presbytery turned to a local woman, Agnes Stuart, who advised them to seek the services of a witchpricker known to be working in other areas. George Cathie of

Tranent Tranent is a town in East Lothian (formerly Haddingtonshire), in the south-east of Scotland. Tranent lies 6 miles from the boundary of Edinburgh, and 9.1 miles from the city centre. It lies south of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road that r ...

in East Lothian was brought in as the witchpricker to find out through the pricking of her skin with a needle or bodkin if there were areas that would not bleed and thereby showing evidence of 'the devil's mark'. On 11 October 1649, he did indeed determine there was a 'devil's mark' on Twedy's body and her fate was sealed. The witch trial of Marioun Twedy took place in Peebles on 21 November 1649. She had 6 female accusers and 1 male accuser and there is no record of someone acting in her defence. It is recorded that she refused to confess but there is no record of what happened to her after the trial.

Cultural representations and commemorations

Twedy's investigation features in the play, ''

Prick Prick may refer to: * Prick (manufacturing), a style of marking tool * Goad or prick, a traditional farming implement * Fingerprick, a wound for blood sample * ''Prick'' (slang), vulgar slang for human penis or a derogatory term for a male * ''P ...

'', by Laurie Flanigan Hegge and directed by Meggie Greivell which dramatises her story, that of

Isobel Gowdie Isobel Gowdie was a Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft at Auldearn near Nairn during 1662. Scant information is available about her age or life and, although she was probably executed in line with the usual practice, it is uncertain whet ...

, and other "sundry witches" from the nearly 4000 accused in the Scottish Witch Trials and recorded in the

Survey of Scottish Witchcraft The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft is an online database of witch trials in early modern Scotland, containing details of 3,837 accused gathered from contemporary court documents covering the period from 1563 until the repeal of the Scottish Witchc ...

. File:Witch hunt commemorative plaque, Tweed Green Peebles (geograph 7321139).jpg, alt= File:Witch hunt commemorative plaque, Tweed Green Peebles (2) (geograph 7321146).jpg, alt=

References

{{Magic and Witchcraft in the British Isles People from Peebles People executed by Scotland by burning 17th-century Scottish women