Arthur Edmondston, in his 1809 View of the Zetland Islands, wrote that witchcraft was still believed by the peasantry in Shetland and that some old women lived by pretending to be witches, because no one dared to refuse what they asked. About six years earlier, so around 1802, a man entered a prosecution in the sheriff court at Lerwick against a woman for witchcraft. He said she always took the form of a raven, and in that shape killed his cattle and stopped the milk of his cows from yielding butter.
The sheriff-substitute, Mr Scott, allowed the case to come into court and went to great pains to explain the folly, and even the criminality, of such proceedings.
Black and Thomas, who reprint the passage, give it as a sign of the belief in the early nineteenth century. It is a documented complaint in a real court, long after the last executions. The raven transformation fits Shetland lore, where witches were said to take the shape of ravens and dogs. The outcome and the parties' names are not given.
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