The 1568 Witch Commission and the Accused of Perth and Scone

The records survive in the Airlie Muniments, the family papers of one of the six commissioners, and were not found until 1979, so they are missing from older sourcebooks. The paper says the group included another witch named Niknevin, a name that recurs in Perthshire cases and is thought to be a Gaelic name for someone credited with uncanny powers. Michael Wasser judges the 1568 hunt a failed one, since many cases were thrown out for lack of evidence and only eleven people were executed. The paper offers speculation that the Kirk, newly given the 1563 law, drove the campaign.