Research source

Elspeth Reoch, in 1616, was tried as a witch for a simple piece of clairvoyance, or of charlatanism, as we may…

Date of account: Published 1894
Source: Cock Lane and Common-Sense
Reference: Cock Lane and Common-Sense · selected passage 194
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Elspeth Reoch, in 1616, was tried as a witch for a simple piece of clairvoyance, or of charlatanism, as we may choose to believe

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Elspeth Reoch, in 1616, was tried as a witch for a simple piece of clairvoyance, or of charlatanism, as we may choose to believe. The offence is styled 'secund sicht' in the official report. Again, Issobell Sinclair, in 1633, was accused, almost in modern spiritualistic phrase, of 'bein _controlled_ with the phairie, and that be thame, shoe hath the second sight'. {232a} Here, then, we find it officially recorded that the second-sighted person is entranced, and more or less unconscious of the outer world, at the moment of the vision. Something like le petit mal, in epilepsy, seems to be intended, the patient 'stude as bereft of hir senssis'. {232b} Again, we have the official explanation of the second sight, and that is the spiritualistic explanation. The seer has a fairy 'control'. This mode of accounting for what 'gentle King Jamie' calls 'a sooth dreame, since they see it walking,' inspires the whole theory of Kirk (1691), but he sees no harm either in 'the phairie,' or in the persons whom the fairies control.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This comes from historical psychical research. Methods, witness handling and standards of evidence differ from present-day research and should be assessed from the cited passage and edition.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

The passage can support a history of claims and recurring descriptions. It does not establish a paranormal mechanism, and competing psychological, social and physical explanations remain relevant.

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