Agnes Sampson

Agnes Sampson (died 28 January 1591) was a Scottish healer and purported witch. Also known as the "Wise Wife of Keith," Sampson was involved in the North Berwick witch trials in the later part of the sixteenth century.

The story of the arrest, trial and confessions of Agnes Sampson and the others accused of witchcraft is known from versions found in a pamphlet printed in London in 1591, the Newes from Scotland, and from contemporary letters and trial records.

Early life

Very little is known of Sampson's early life, what is known has been gleaned from documents surrounding her trial. Agnes Sampson lived at Nether Keith, a part of the Keith Marischal barony, in East Lothian, Scotland. She was considered to have healing powers and acted as a midwife. By the time she was indicted for witchcraft, she was a widow and had children.

Background of witch trials

In the spring of 1590, James VI returned from Copenhagen after marrying Anne of Denmark, daughter of the King of Denmark-Norway. The Danish court at that time was greatly perplexed by witchcraft and the black arts, and this must have impressed King James. The voyage back from Denmark was beset by storms. In the following months a witch hunt began in Denmark, the Copenhagen witch trials, started by the Danish admiral Peder Munk. Five women confessed they had been guilty of witchcraft in raising storms that threatened Anne of Denmark's voyage, and sent devils to climb up the keel of her ship. In September 1590 two women were burnt as witches at Kronborg. James decided to set up his own tribunal in Scotland.

Agnes' arrest

By the autumn of 1590, Scotland was aflame with witch-hunts, and many of those sent to trial were questioned by the King himself. Agnes Sampson was accused by Gillis Duncan and arrested along with others, and questioned regarding her role in the storm raising. She was put to torture and confessed and her body was shaved to reveal a "privy mark" or witches' mark.

These proceedings were described in the 1591 London publication Newes from Scotland:

This aforesaid Agnes Sampson which was the elder Witch, was taken and brought to Holyrood Palace before the Kings Majesty and sundry other of the nobility of Scotland, where she was straightly examined, but all the persuasions which the Kings majesty used to her with the rest of his counsel, might not provoke or induce her to confess anything, but stood stiffly in the denial of all that was laid to her charge: whereupon they caused her to be confined away to prison, there to receive such torture as hath been lately provided for witches in that country: and for as much as by due examination of witchcraft and witches in Scotland, it hath lately been found that the Devil doth generally mark them with a privy mark, by reason the Witches have confessed themselves, that the Devil doth lick them with his tongue in some private part of their body, before he doth receive them to be his servants, which mark commonly is given them under the hair in some part of their body, whereby it may not easily be found out or seen, although they be searched: and generally so long as the mark is not seen to those which search them, so long the parties that hath the mark will never confess anything.
Therefore by special commandment this Agnes Sampson had all her hair shaven off, in each part of her body, and her head thrawen with a rope according to the custom of that Country, being a pain most grievous, which she continued almost an hour, during which time she would not confess anything until the Devil's mark was found upon her privates, then she immediately confessed whatsoever was demanded of her, and justifying those persons aforesaid to be notorious witches.

Raising storms and contrary winds

According to the Newes from Scotland, Agnes Sampson confessed to causing the storm that drowned Jane Kennedy on 7 September 1589 when ferry boats collided during a sudden storm on the Forth. She had made a charm by sinking a dead cat, to which her companions had attached parts of dead man, into the sea near Leith. The same charm raised the storm and weather effects that threatened the king on his return voyage from Denmark in 1590.

Agnes Sampson used the phrase "contrary wind", and this frequently appears in contemporary correspondence describing voyages, but Agnes Sampson used it in a special sense. She said that the king's ship experienced "a contrary wind to the rest of ships, then being in his company, which thing was most strange and true, as the King's Majesty acknowledges, for when the rest of the ships had a fair and good wind, then was the wind contrary and altogether against his Majesty". The rest of the fleet were able to sail ahead, while the king's ship alone was becalmed or driven back. This seems to be an incident described in the chronicle by David Moysie. When James VI set sail for Norway his ship was driven back to St Monans in Fife.

Sampson and the English ambassador

The English ambassador Robert Bowes wrote in December 1590 that Sampson had confessed to the King himself, and mentioned attempts to obtain the king's shirt or other personal linen in order to work charms. On 27 January she confessed that the Devil had offered to help her and her children because she was a poor widow. The Devil appeared to her as a black man, a dog, or a hay rick. She had attended a witch's convent at North Berwick with her son-in-law. They collected bones and powdered them for charms against the pains of childbirth.

Sampson said that Robert Bowes was "a little black and fat man with black hair", who had given the accused gold in a cellar while James VI was in Denmark to make a charm with a toad to hurt the king and make him infertile. Bowes noted that this personal description was inaccurate. Sampson said she had made a wax image of her father-in-law for a woman who complained about his behaviour.

Sampson questioned by King James

Agnes Sampson was interviewed by James VI, who was sceptical of the material in the confessions, and she told him things about the conversation he had on wedding night with Anne of Denmark in Oslo, that she could not have known:

Item, the said Agnes Sampson confessed before the Kings Majesty sundry things which were so miraculous and strange, as that his Majesty said they were all extreme liars, whereat she answered, she would not wish his Majesty to suppose her words to be false, but rather to believe them, in that she would discover such matter unto him as his majesty should not any way doubt of.
And thereupon taking his Majesty a little aside, she declared unto him the very words which passed between the Kings Majesty and his Queen at Oslo in Norway the first night of their marriage, with their answer each to other: whereat the Kings Majesty wondered greatly, and swore by the living God, that he believed that all the Devils in hell could not have discovered the same: acknowledging her words to be most true, and therefore gave the more credit to the rest which is before declared.

Execution

James VI had not been convinced of Sampson's guilt prior to this last confession, but afterwards changed his mind. On 27 January 1591 the charges of witchcraft against her were drawn up with fifty three points or "articles of dittay." Agnes Sampson was taken to the scaffold on Castlehill, where she was garroted then burnt at the stake on 28 January 1591.

Edinburgh Burgh treasurer's accounts itemise the cost of Agnes Sampson's execution, giving the date of the purchases as the 16 January 1591 and the cost as £6 8s 10d. Scots. Robert Bowes wrote that her execution took place on 28 January 1591.

Legacy

The naked ghost of a bald Agnes, stripped and tortured, is said to roam the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Sampson is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor. She is also referenced multiple times in Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness.

Sampson is referenced in "Traitor," the seventh episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse, as having perfected a poison powder that is only fatal to men, after one of the warlocks claims to have invented the powder himself. Agnes Sampson also serves as the inspiration for the short horror story The Last Witch of Berwick House by T J Podger (2010).