Biggar and the House of Fleming

382 BIGGAR AND THE HOUSE OF FLEMING.
moderator, and the committee previously named, to revise the
whole process against Mali, and, if possible, to get it signed by
the members of the Presbytery of Peebles ; and ordained the
Rev. James Baillie of Lamington to summon Mali and her
cautioner, James Brydon, to appear before them on the 1st of
July. In these unhappy times, it often happened that old
women accused of witchcraft were deserted by their relatives,
and left to the tender mercies of their persecutors, without a
friend to console and defend them. This happened on the
present occasion. The old woman trudged away from Nesbit
to Lanark, and presented herself, on the day appointed, before
the Presbytery ; but as no person, not even her son, was pre-
sent, who would vouch for her future appearance, she was
committed to the prison of Lanark. Her own minister, John
Currie, was one of her most inveterate persecutors ; but on this
occasion he insisted that she should either be declared guilty of
witchcraft, or that the charge against her should be abandoned.
The Presbytery were not yet prepared to decide either the one
way or the other ; they still desiderated further proofs of her
guilt ; and therefore they appointed John Currie and George
Bennet to attend the Presbytery of Peebles, " to labour," as
they called it, for additional information, and to request that a
committee of the Presbytery of Peebles should meet at Biggar
on the 21st of the same month of July, to hold a conference
with the following committee of their own body, viz., — the
Rev. Alexander Somervail- of Dolphinton, the Rev. George
Bennet of Quothquan, the Rev. John Currie of Coulter, the
Rev. Andrew Gudlatt of Symington, and the Rev. John Veitch
of Roberton ; and to summon all parties interested to attend
the said meeting. This meeting accordingly took ,place, and
the result of its deliberations, as embodied in a report, was,
that many of the charges against Mali M'Watt were found
proven, and that there were just grounds for arraigning her
before the civil tribunals of the country. The Presbytery there-
upon once more took courage, and acting, as they said, on the Scrip-
ture warrant, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," they ordain-
ed John Currie to repair to Edinburgh to wait upon the Earl of
Angus, Sir William Baillie of Lamington, Sir William Car-
michael, and Sir John Dalziel, to induce them to lend their
assistance to proeure a Commission to apprehend Mali, who had