The case started in 1589 or 1590 in Tranent, where Geillis Duncan, a maidservant, was suspected by her employer David Seton because she healed the sick and left the house at night. After torture she confessed and named others. Among them were Agnes Sampson of Humbie, John Fian, a schoolmaster at Saltpans near Prestonpans, and Barbara Napier and Euphame MacCalzean, women of some standing in Edinburgh. The Earl of Bothwell was also drawn in, on the grounds that he had sought the king's death.
The accused were said to have met on Halloween at the Auld Kirk at North Berwick, near the harbour, where the Devil appeared and led them in rites against the king. They were also blamed for storms that endangered James VI and Anne of Denmark on their return by sea. James interviewed some of the accused in person. The London pamphlet Newes from Scotland, printed in 1591, carried the story to England, and James later drew on it for his book Daemonologie in 1597.
Agnes Sampson and John Fian were strangled and burned on Castlehill in Edinburgh in January 1591. Estimates of the total number accused run past a hundred, and Wikipedia gives over 70 implicated with executions that may have exceeded that number, though the surviving records do not allow an exact count. The Scottish Government formally apologised for the witch persecutions in March 2022.
The Edinburgh execution sites are covered under their own records. This entry marks the place the story is named for, and the town that still carries the label.
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