Continued entries/extra info

[page] 23

[Ferry Muir Continued from page 22]
"Having gained access to the parochial registers of Queensferry we are in a situation to lay before our
a few extracts illustrative of the operations of Mr Ephraim Melville as a witch finder. He entered
upon his ministry 1st September 1641 and not many years had elapsed ere he brought
to the stake on the Ferry Muir a number of Witches -- how we have not been able precisely
to ascertain as the arm of the civil was necessarily exerted in applying the final sentence of
the law but we find in the course of the subjoined extracts that within six months no fewer than
thirteen persons were apprehended on the charge of witchcraft viz Janet Lowrie, Helen Thomson, Helen Hill
Isobel Young her daughter, Janet Mowbray Marion Dauline, Elspeth Cant Marion Stein Margaret
Dauline Catherine Logie Catherine Thomson or Antonie, Marion Little and Margaret Brown. We
gather that at least eight of these were burned three at one time; but we are doubtful if more
than one escaped even with banishment." etc.

"The witches of Queensferry suffered on the Ferry Muir situated at the distance of a quarter of
a mile above the town on the way to Dundas and one of them is yet remembered in local tradition
as having addressed to Ephraim Melville the author of her doom some words of biting rebuke
which doubtless passed off at the time as an appropriate illustration of her malignity and
confirmed the justice of her sentence as a witch." -- See Life on Land & Water at South Queensferry by Fyfe