Janet Boyman (died 1572), also known as Jonet Boyman or Janet Bowman,[a] was a Scottish woman accused of witchcraft; she was tried and executed in 1572 although the case against her was started in 1570.[1] Her indictment has been described by modern-day scholars, such as Lizanne Henderson, as the earliest and most comprehensive record of witchcraft and fairy belief in Scotland.[1]

Accusations of witchcraft

Janet Boyman lived in the Cowgate of Edinburgh, and was said to have been from Ayrshire.[1] She was married to William Steill.[1] In early modern Scotland married women did not change their surnames.[2][3]

Boyman was identified as "Dame Steill" in the trial of accused witch and conspirator William Stewart of Luthrie.[4] She was alleged to have predicted the escape of Mary, Queen of Scots from Lochleven Castle in 1568 and the death of Regent Moray who was assassinated in January 1570,[5] and her accusation was the first to be made in connection with a political conspiracy.[6][7]

She told her interrogators that she made contact with the supernatural world at a well on the south side of Arthur's Seat a hill close to Edinburgh.[8] There she conjured spirits who would help her heal others.[9] Sometimes she worked cures by washing the patients's shirt at the well at St Leonards.[10]

She was condemned as:

ane wyss woman that culd mend diverss seikness and bairnis that are tane away with fairyie men and wemen
a wise woman that could heal diverse illnesses and children taken away by fairy men and women.[1]

Jonet Boyman was executed on 29 December 1572.[1]

Personal life

There is little information available concerning Boyman's personal life; however the trial record shows her as living in Cowgate, a street in Edinburgh.[1] No indication is given of her age but she was married to William Steill.[1]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Ronald Hutton and others, such as the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database, list her as Janet Boyman;[11][6] Henderson refers to her as Jonet Boyman,[12] which is the form used in the criminal records, but Janet Bowman is a further variation.[13]

Citations

  1. ^ Henderson (2011), p. 244.
  2. ^ Jenny Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community (London, 1981), p. 30.
  3. ^ History Workshop, What's in a Surname? Rebecca Mason
  4. ^ Julian Goodare and Liv Helene Willumsen, Scottish Witchcraft Trials (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 2025), pp. 30, 34–35.
  5. ^ Julian Goodare and Liv Helene Willumsen, Scottish Witchcraft Trials (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 2025), pp. 44–45.
  6. ^ "Janet Boyman (29/12/1572)", Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database, University of Edinburgh, retrieved 10 March 2018
  7. ^ "Hubble bubble, toil and trouble: Scotland's dark past as a witch-hunting nation". HeraldScotland. 15 October 2017. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  8. ^ Julian Goodare and Liv Helene Willumsen, Scottish Witchcraft Trials (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 2025), p. 40.
  9. ^ Henderson (2011), p. 245.
  10. ^ Henderson (2011), p. 246.
  11. ^ Hutton (2017), p. 219.
  12. ^ Henderson (2011), p. 231.
  13. ^ Anderson (1877), p. 363.

Bibliography

  • Anderson, William (1877), "The Scottish nation: or, The surnames, families, literature, honours, and biographical history of the people of Scotland", Fullerton
  • Henderson, Lizanne (2011), "'Detestable slaves of the devil': Changing ideas about witchcraft in sixteenth-century Scotland", A History of Everyday Life in Medieval Scotland, 1000 to 1600, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0748621576
  • Hutton, Ronald (2017), The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-22904-2