Janet Horne

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Janet Horne ( died 1727 , year of birth unknown) was a Scottish woman accused of witchcraft . She was the last woman legally sentenced to death in the British Isles for this.

event

Janet Horne and her daughter were arrested in Dornoch , Sutherland , Scotland and imprisoned on accusations from their neighbors. Horne showed signs of senility and her daughter had deformed hands and feet. The neighbors accused Janet Horne of abusing her daughter as a pony so she could ride to hell where the pony was about to be re-shod. The court ruling was passed very quickly. The sheriff found both guilty and sentenced the women to be burned at the stake. The daughter escaped, but Janet was stripped naked, smeared with tar, and taken through the town streets in a barrel. She was burned alive. Nine years after her death, laws against witchcraft were abolished in Scotland.

background

Janet (or Jenny) Horne was also a high-level ( generic ) name for witches in northern Scotland at the time. It is therefore difficult to say what the real name of this woman was. Contemporary writers may have called her "Janet Horne" for the simple reason that her real name was unknown, or the name was simply given as "Janet Horne" and people did not realize that it was a generic term . Some sources cite June 1722 as the date of execution.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ KM Sheard: Llewellyn's Complete Book of Names: For Pagans, Wiccans, Druids, Heathens, Mages, Shamans & Independent Thinkers of All Sorts Who Are Curious about Na. Llewellyn Worldwide. December 8, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7387-2368-6 , pages 304 ff.
  2. ^ Lizanne Henderson: Witchcraft and Folk Belief in the Age of Enlightenment. Scotland 1670-1740. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, ISBN 1349593133 .
  3. ^ WN Neill: The Last Execution for Witchcraft in Scotland, 1722. In: Scottish Historical Review. Volume 20, 1923, pp. 218-221, JSTOR 25519547.
personal data
SURNAME Horne, Janet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Horne, Jenny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish woman accused of witchcraft
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century or 18th century
DATE OF DEATH 1727