IT’S a story of witches, stitches and riches – but the woman at the heart of one of Scotland’s most notorious witchcraft trials has been slandered and should instead be celebrated as a hero and feminist icon, according to an eminent academic.
Professor Emeritus Hugh McLachlan, who has researched the fascinating tale, believes it could even be used to attract tourists in the way that Salem in the US capitalises on its “witches”.
The infamous witch trial of 1697 led to Paisley going down in history as the last town in Western Europe to conduct a mass execution.
Four women and three men were hanged after being tried as witches following a series of calamities in the area.
These included the mysterious illness of an 11-year-old girl who suffered fits said to have been caused by witchcraft.
Christian Shaw was later painted as an evil child who set out to fool the courts out of sheer maliciousness.
Now, as Paisley gears up to stage its annual Halloween Festival inspired by Renfrewshire’s dark witch history, Hugh McLachlan, Professor Emeritus of Glasgow Caledonian
University, says history has treated the girl unfairly. As a result, she has been vilified instead of being celebrated as a female who went on to build the foundations of Renfrewshire’s successful cotton industry.
“She should be a Scottish hero and feminist icon but because of this slur and stigma she is not getting the credit she deserves,” he said. “It’s
often the case that women have been written out of history and it is often said that there is a lack of role models for females in business but here’s one that is being ignored.”
He added: “People in Renfrewshire could use this story for tourism in the way Salem has done with their tale. When you’ve got a good story why not use it?” McLachlan, who has researched the 1697 trials extensively and is editor of The Kirk, Satan and Salem: A History of the Witches of Renfrewshire, says Shaw was unjustly maligned.
He believes that what happened to her was a result of local ministers bending the truth to suit their theological arguments.
It is true that the seven men and women – brothers John and James Lindsay, Katherine Campbell, Agnes Naismith, Margaret Fulton,
Margaret Lang and another John Lindsay – were found guilty of witchcraft and hanged but McLachlan argues that Shaw was peripheral to the case rather than the centre of it as was later made out.
She didn’t even give evidence under oath at the trial where the so-called witches were accused of killing several children and the minister at Dumbarton through witchcraft as well as capsizing the Erskine ferry causing the deaths of horses and ferryman John Glen. In addition they were accused of bewitching Shaw but even if she had not been included, the accused would still have been found guilty, points out McLachlan.
It was a book published almost a century after the trial that set the seal on Shaw’s reputation. Written by a Scottish advocate called Hugo Arnot it told the story of notorious criminal trials in a sensational way. He called Shaw an imposter or fraudster but appears to have made his judgment after reading an account of her involvement in the case which was written by two ministers at the behest of the local presbytery.
McLachlan believes the authors of this narrative, the Rev Andrew Turner and the Rev James Brisbane, would have been well aware of Salem and were trying to make a theological case for the existence of God.
They portrayed Shaw as being tormented by witches at the bidding of the devil who was eventually vanquished by the power of God.
“They built her up to be a pious child who withstood the wiles of the devil with the help and grace of God,”said McLachlan. “It was later generations that put the spin on it and she has had a harsh press ever since.”
Shaw went on with her mother and sisters to start the Bargarran Thread company which set the foundation for the Renfrewshire cotton industry.
“There should be a statue to her but I think there is embarrassment over the part she is believed to have played in the trial. It’s time her name was cleared,” said McLachlan.
For more information about Paisley Halloween Festival next weekend go to: www.paisley.is
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