The Kintillo Charm Cases, 1658

Margaret Imrie, Margaret Dick and George Broun were called on a charge of using charms. They had been told to use charmed blankets with knots, stones and clods. Three weeks later they sought help for Christian Scot, with three stones to be put in her hair. Bessie Balmain said she was told to pass a live fowl through her son Ninian's shirt. On 13 July 1658 Isobell McKinlay confessed to providing charms for illness. The Kirk treated the charms as an offence, and the people involved endured six months of church discipline in sackcloth and were scolded from the pulpit.