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The Rehabilitation of Lilias Adie ('Witch' Who Died In 1704)

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
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The face of an 18th-century "witch" who died in jail before she could be burned for her "crimes" has been digitally reconstructed. Lilias Adie, from Torryburn, Fife, died in 1704 while held in prison for her "confessed" crimes of being a witch and having sex with the devil.

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BBC Radio Scotland's Time Travels programme has now unmasked her face by working with a forensic artist at the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee.

The team believes it is likely to be the only accurate likeness of a Scottish "witch" in existence as most were burned, destroying any hope of reconstructing their faces from skulls.

Presenter Susan Morrison said: "It was a truly eerie moment when the face of Lilias suddenly appeared.

"Here was the face of a woman you could have a chat with, though knowing her story it was a wee bit difficult to look her in the eye."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/31/face-witch-died-1704-digitally-reconstructed/

maximus otter
 
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Oddly enough we have a programme on the river Forth in the planning stage, and the sad story of Lilias Adie glanced across my desk a few days ago as part of the research.

A minister by the name of Allan Logan (who deserves no reverence IMHO) held sway in the area during the late 1600s/early1700s and was responsible for 'witch fever' sweeping the place. Lilias was arrested in 1704, accused of being 'in compact with the devil'.

She actually confessed to having met the De'il himself, and described him as having 'a hat on his head and his feet were cloven'... Luckily for her she died in the jail at Torryburn before she could be transported to Dunfermline where she might have faced the 'standard' fate of being publicly burnt at the stake!

About 100 years after her death, her remains were dug up and her skull sold to a Joseph Paton of Dunfermline.

Paton allowed the skull to be examined by a Dr. W.B. Dow who, in 1884 delivered a lecture on the case to the Fife Medical Association. At this event he declared that the skull was so abnormally small that he was in no doubt she had a 'diseased brain'. ...In other words, what's been visualised here speaks to us of the sad tale of a no-doubt simple minded woman who was cruelly targeted by a particularly evil man to satisfy his own ends.

Truly tragic.
 
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Authorities have launched a campaign to locate and retrieve Lilias Adie's remains so they can be properly buried.
A witch hunt with a difference -- Scottish officials are seeking the remains of an 18th-century woman accused of witchcraft

More than 300 years after her death, officials in Scotland are appealing for the return of the remains of a local woman accused of witchcraft, so that she can be properly buried.

Lilias Adie died in prison in 1704, before she could be convicted, strangled and burned at the stake for a crime to which she had reportedly confessed -- of being a witch, and having sex with the devil.

She was buried on a beach in Torryburn, Fife by locals -- who were so concerned that she might "reanimate" and rise from her grave that they buried her under a large stone.

But despite their best efforts to keep Adie in one place, her skull and bones were exhumed and removed from the burial site in 1852 by curio hunters -- collectors of antiquities. Her head later found itself in the possession of St Andrew's University Museum, where it was photographed in 1904 before going missing, along with the rest of her remains.

A team at Dundee University have recently used the photographs to create a digital reconstruction of Adie's face.

Now, a local government official at Fife Council is launching a campaign to track down all of Adie's remains, so she can be laid to rest.

"It's important to recognise that Lilias Adie and the thousands of other men and women accused of witchcraft in early modern Scotland were not the evil people history has portrayed them to be. They were the innocent victims of unenlightened times," councillor Julie Ford, who is leading the campaign, said in a statement.

"It's time we recognized the injustice served upon them. I hope by raising the profile of Lilias we can find her missing remains and give them the dignified rest they deserve," she added.

Douglas Speirs, an archeologist for Fife Council, told CNN that according to records, around 3,500 women were executed as witches in Scotland between 1560 and 1727, but it is likely that as many as 6,000 were killed. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/scotland-witch-remains-intl-scli-gbr/index.html
 
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