Bessy Dunlop

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Bessy Dunlop

On November 8, 1576, Bessy Dunlop, a wise woman healer of Ayrshire, was charged with witchcraft. Dunlop testified she had been taught healing and second sight by a phantom faerie named Thome Reid or Thorne. On September 10, 1547, Thorne had been killed in battle and had gone on to become a faerie who served under the Queen of Elfhane.

Years before, when Dunlop was in the throes of childbirth, the Queen of Elfhane had appeared to Dunlop as a stout woman. She asked Dunlop for a drink and was given one. In thanks, the Queen had later ordered Thorne to be Dunlop's attendant.

Sometimes Dunlop saw Thorne in town, but he was invisible to everyone else. He always appeared if Dunlop summoned him three times. Over four years, Thorne appeared before Dunlop many times, begging her to deny the Christian faith or to go away with him to Faeryland. She always refused, sometimes putting him in a bad temper.

Although Dunlop only used her new powers for good, she was still condemned to death. Her testimony that her benefactor was a faerie and not the Devil was not enough to prevent her being burnt at the stake (Guiley 1989 119).

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Bessy Dunlop is copyrighted 1997-1998 to Shantell Powell.