(Q112940833)
Statements
horses that died on lammas were blamed on her. A woman saw four cats dancing 'as it weir dancing the reill dance', the cats went to Jannet's house. Jannett also accused a woman of stealing an ingle [fire] from the aqua vitae pot, the supposed thief suffered great pain and boils. I think this was a counter-strategy tried on Jannett. A man who was going to report her to the session for missing church on a Sunday got ill on the Monday and just before his death saw her with 'a devil out of hell'. (English)
Definitely neighbourhood dispute, lots of quarreling over work, animals, ale purchases, stolen aqua vitae fire, rent collection. She was accused of flyting. She threatened a Kirk searcher who found her not at church on a Sunday. Another accused witch had been hired by her neighbours to stop her and in the process she implicated Sawer for witchcraft. She was denounced by Helen Gavin. She denied it all!she was mentioned as taking away a woman's milk, bewitching people and animals, and killing a bairn. Quarrelling over stables, over payment to her son, rent collection, theft. She was summond to the Kirk session for stealing wort and ale.The Ship of Balfast came to Ayr for takell (it was bound for Barbados), she supposedly raised a storm to destroy it. Jannett was seen lying within the sea mark with her mouth up, sucking the air 'lyk ane adder'.Her execution was described in a letter of Colonel Robert Sawrey, dated 26 April 1658. He described her speech in which she denied all witchcraft and confessed to her wicked life and made exhortations to the living. The speech is used in the letter to show that Ayr is hunting witches. We already knew this from the many trial records we have. (English)