Talk:Isobel Gowdie

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I am a direct descendent of Isobel Gowdie. My grandmother Margaret Gow Taylor Prattis told me Isobel confessed to being a witch in order to be granted a less painful death. Her confession was not voluntary. She confessed in order to be killed whilst the fire was low. Grandmother told me that her confession was that she gathered up faggots and made them into a broomstick and rode it through the sky. She had to "prove" she was a witch in order for them to accept her story and grant her a less painful death. Grandmother also said they made her children watch her death and she was disembowelled before being burnt at the stake.

Helen Gow Nolan email: rumpolette@pnc.com.au

It had been my understanding that she volunteered to give a confession to begin with, that she had not been accused, at least formally, at the time she gave it. If this is a misconception, that belongs in the article. Please, get yourself a username and a login so that you can have a talk page here, and welcome to the Wikipedia. -- Smerdis of Tlön 02:00, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

It is my understanding that witches in Scotland were not actually 'burned to death' as is the common perception. The usual sentence recorded in the trial documents is for the witch to be tied to a stake, strangled, and her body burnt until it was ashes. This would seem to conflict with this story. Although of course I welcome the 1st posters input, and it is certainly interesting to hear the story as passed down through the generations of the family. --172.141.72.242 (talk) 23:01, 18 November 2007 (UTC)