This report is taken from the Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany for 1806. It details the actions of Jean Maxwell, and her extortion attempts using witchcaft.

Indictment against JEAN MAXWELL, the Galloway Sorceress.

JEAN MAXWELL, present prisoner in the Tolbooth of Kirkcudbright, you are indicted, &c.

You the said Jean Maxwell did at Little Cocklick, in the parish of Urr and stewartry of Kirkcudbright, pretend to tell fortunes by tea cups, and the grounds of tea ; and did tell to Jean Davidson, servant to Francis Scott, farmer in little Cocklick aforesaid, that she would soon bear a bastard to a certain young man, Hugh Rafferton ; which you said you could prevent by certain means. And you the said Jean Maxwell caused the said Jean Davidson to rub, or anoint, her forehead and other parts of her head, with a liquid contained in a bottle produced by you, which so much intoxicated and disordered the said Jean Davidson, that said would have done any thing that you the said Jean Maxwell had asked her to do: and you the said Jean Maxwell, availing yourself of the situation that she the said Jean Davidson was in, declared to her that the Devil would speedily appear and tear her in pieces, unless she obeyed you, the said Jean Maxwell, in every particular. And you the said Jean Maxwell caused the said Jean Davidson take oaths of secresy for the purpose of concealing your wicked and felonious purposes. That on the said twenty-seventh day of December last, you the said Jean Maxwell caused the said Jean Davidson produce a guinea note, which you pretended to fold up in a small bit of paper, putting round it some lint, and stitching in it nine pins; which, you gave it to the said Jean Davidson, and ordered her to cast it the fire; which she did accordingly. And you the said Jean Maxwell then ordered the said Jean Davidson to bring one of her shifts and three shillings with it, which you sewed up in the tail of the shift, and said that the shift was to be consumed in the fire, as an offering to the Devil, who was to appear at the time of the burning of the shift in the shape of either a bull or a swine; and at the same time, you the said Jean Maxwell gave to the said Jean Davidson a powder, sewed up in a piece of fine linen, and stuck through with nine pins, which you injoined her to wear at her breast till the day of her death, and tell no mortal of it. That on the 28th day of last, you, the said Jean Maxwell, told the said Jean Davidson, that the Devil had rejected two sixpences of the money formerly sent him in the tail of the shift ; that he insisted lieu of the sixpences to have two shillings with heads on them; and that he was up and stirring, and must be satisfied; and the said Jean Davidson having furnished the shillings, you, the said Jean Maxwell, after stamping on the ground twice or thrice with your foot, pretended to hand them to Satan, as if he had stood behind you. That on the twenty-ninth day of December last, you the said Jean Maxwell declared to the said Jean Davidson, that the Devil was still up, and that he must have a man's shirt of plain linen, and in it a shoulder of mutton; and the said Jean Davidson, terrified by your threats, gave you a check shirt of the said Francis Scott's, her master, together with a shoulder of mutton, also his property, tied up shirt ; and you the said Jean Maxwell tied up these articles in your own budget; and then telling the said Jean Davidson that all this was insufficient to lay the Devil, you asked her for half a crown more; and the said Jean Davidson, in confusion and fright, gave you a dollar, which you said would do as well, and that then at any rate it must not be taken back being once offered ; and then you the said Jean Maxwell, went to the back of the byre at Little Cocklick aforesaid, and returned and told the said Jean Davidson, that you had laid the Devil so that he could not come nearer her than the back of the byre, but cautioned her strongly not to travel that way, nor farther after it was dark. That on the first of day of January last, you the said Jean Maxwell returned to Cocklick aforesaid, and told the said Jean Davidson, that Hugh Rafferton was to be with her on theThursday ensuing, very lovingly, and ready to marry her, or do whatever she should ask of him: and moreover, you the said Jean Maxwell declared, that if the said Jean Davidson used Hugh Rafferton harshly, and refused to marry him, Hugh Rafferton would lose his reason, and go stark mad at the end of eight weeks; that in the mean time, however, you must have another Guinea note for the Devil, with a faced shilling in it; and the money was furnished by the said Jean Davidson ; when you the said Jean Maxwell clipped, or pretended to cut the note with scissars, pretending that in this manner it was to be presented to the Devil along with the faced shilling. That soon after this, you the said Jean Maxwell told the said Jean Davidson that the first note was not accepted, and that you must have an old and very tattered note, and three shillings more; which having been furnished by the said Jean Davidson, you the said jean Maxwell bound up the note with paper and lint, and having stuck it with nine pins gave it to the said Jean Davidson, who threw it into the fire ; and you the said Jean Maxwell, after stamping on the ground, handed the three shillings behind you, so that Satan might receive them as you pretended he had received the former presents; that these things being done, you the said Jean Maxwell left the said Jean Davidson at her father's house at Killymingan, in the parish of Kirkgunzeon, on the said first day of January last, declaring that Hugh Rafferton should wait on her in deep humility on the Thursday ensuing ; and that all the money offered to Satan should be returned into the said Jean Davidson's chest on the subsequent Friday morning by sun-rising; and that all should be, and really was, perfectly right.— That on the said eighth day of January last, you the said Jean Maxwell again waited on the said Jean Davidson, at the house of the said Francis Scott, in Little Cocklick aforesaid, and told, that all was gone wrong; that the Devil had proved too strong for you the said Jean Maxwell, and had rent a check apron given you by the said Jean Davidson formerly for a burnt offering; and you the said Jean Maxwell pretended to shew the distinct marks of Satan's claws, and the mark of his thumb on your arm, adding, that he could not be laid without the aid of John MacGeorge, commonly called the Devilraiser of Urr; and for that end, you the said Jean Maxwell demanded two notes more, and three pieces of flesh meat, one of them to be pork, which you proposed to roll up at great peril in the check apron; and you the said Jean Maxwell also insisted to have the said Jean Davidson's duffle cloak, but the said Jean Davidson having by this time got the use of her reason, and got the better of the terror of the oaths of secresy imposed upon her by you the said Jean Maxwell, managed so as to detain you until a Constable was sent for, who took you into custody, and carried you before the Reverend Doctor James Muirhead of Logan, one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.

Verdict of the Jury.

At Kirkcudbright, the 21st day of June, 1805, the assize being inclosed, did make choice of Alexander Melville of Barwhar to be their Chancellor, and William Mure, Factor for the Earl of Selkirk, to be their Clerk; and having considered the indictment raised at the instance of Robert Gordon, Writer in Kirkcudbright, Procurator Fiscal of court for his Majesty's interest, against Jean Maxwell, present prisoner in the Tolbooth of Kirkcudbright, the Pannel, with the interlocutor of the Steward depute of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright thereon, and the whole proof adduced, they unanimously find the said Jean Maxwell guilty of the crimes charged against her in the said indictment. In testimony whereof, &c.

(Signed) Alexr. Melville, Chancellor – Will. Mure, Clerk.

Court adjourned for a Week.

Kirkcudbright, 28th June, 1805. The Steward-depute having considered the verdict of the assize bearing date the 21st day of June current, and returned into court that day against Jean Maxwell, the pannel, whereby she is found guilty of pretending to exercise Witchcraft, Sorcery, Inchantmeut, and Conjuration, and of undertaking to tell fortunes, contrary to the enactments and provisions of the act of Parliament passed in the 9th year of the reign of King George the II. chapter fifth, in the manner charged against her in the Indictment, at instance of the Procurator Fiscal of court; the Steward-depute, in respect of the said verdict, decerns and adjudges the said Jean Maxwell to be carried back from the bar to the Tolbooth of Kirkcudbright, and to be imprisoned therein for the space of one whole year, without Bail or Mainprize; and once in every quarter of the said year, to stand openly upon a market-day in the Jugs or Pillory, at the market cross of the Burgh of Kirkcudbright, for the space of one hour, &c. (Signed) Alexr. Gordon.

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