Jean Weir, sometimes Jane, Janet or Grizel, was a Scottish woman tried for witchcraft and incest in 1670. Found guilty only of incest, she was executed in Edinburgh on 12 April 1670.[1] Although more than sixty-five years old at the time of her death, all that is known of her comes from the testimonies gathered during the last few days of her life.[2]
Jean was the daughter of Thomas Weir of Kirkton, near Carluke in Lanarkshire, and a sister of the covenanter
Document signed in Scotland in 1638, in response to King Charles I's attempt to unify the Churches of England and Scotland. and reputed sorcerer Major Thomas Weir.[3] Jean and her brother became one of the most “notorious” couples in Scottish history owing to their incestuous relationship, which began when she was aged ten.[4]
During a meeting at his house on 4 April 1670 Thomas Weir, then in his seventies and in poor health, confessed to his many sexual crimes, including incest, adultery and bestiality. Those present included his other sister Margaret and Anna Ker, the wife of a local bookbinder and “a friend to the major”. The bailies were summoned, Thomas repeated his confessions, and as a result he was taken to Edinburgh’s tolbooth for trial before the justiciary court; it appears that Jean was also placed in the tolbooth that same day. The authorities initially regarded Thomas as mad, but after being examined by physicians he was judged to be sane.[3][5]
Confessions
Jean corroborated Thomas’s confession by admitting to the charge of incest, and that their sister Margaret had once discovered her and Thomas in the act, which Margaret confirmed. Jean said that Thomas had first attempted to have sex with her when she was ten, although he did not succeed in doing so until six years later, and that he had continued to have “carnall deal” with her for forty years.[3][5]
But Jean introduced a diabolical element in her statement, claiming that she had seen the Devil’s mark
Methods used to identify witches, once believed to provide sufficient evidence to achieve a conviction in a court of law. on her brother’s shoulder. She also added an apparently unrelated story that some years earlier, when she was keeping a school in Dalkeith, she had been visited by two “mysterious women” on consecutive days, the first offering to intercede on her behalf “vis-à-vis the queen of fairy and the Devil”, and the second giving her the power to spin wool at an inhuman speed.[6] The prosecutors interpreted that as Jean having made a pact with the Devil, and so the charge of witchcraft was added to that of incest. The historian Michael Graham has suggested that the “Devil” Jean referred to might actually have been her brother.[7]
Execution
Thomas Weir was executed on 11 April 1670, and Jean was hanged in the Grassmarket the following day.[3] The traditional script for public executions such as Jean’s was that the assembled crowd would be warned against emulating the crimes of the convicted, and those about to be executed might ask for the crowd’s forgiveness, and reassure the hangman that they bore him no ill will. But Jean had other ideas.[8] As she was placed on the scaffold, she began to tear off her clothes as the rope was around her neck,[9] “so she might die with all the shame she could”.[3] The hangman attempted to stop her, but she punched him in the face as he tried to kick the ladder from under her, but eventually she was subdued and hanged.[9]
Modern interpretation
Thomas Weir’s biographer, David Stevenson, has suggested that “the confessions of Thomas and Jean Weir [in old age] may have exaggerated their misdeeds, but they may be accepted as basically truthful … the expression of long suppressed guilt which became intolerable”.[3]
Jean did not sign her statement to the authorities, although she was obviously an educated woman who could have done so. It may be that as a victim of sexual abuse she considered it to be a witness statement against her brother, rather than a confession.[10]
