Major Thomas Weir
Major Thomas Weir was a highly respected member of seventeenth-century Edinburgh society. A former military man and captain of the Edinburgh town guard, he was a profoundly religious Presbyterian, held in reverence by his congregation, always soberly dressed and of ‘grim countenance.’ He shared his rented house on Bow Street with his spinster sister Jean or ‘Grizel.’ There was nothing untoward and suspect about Major Weir’s life at all.
Then, one day in 1670, the major broke down at a religious service. Entirely out of the blue, he confessed to having been long in the service of the devil. He admitted to knowing his sister and several cows and mares carnally. The congregation was dumbfounded. As the Major was raving and practically incoherent, the gathering summoned a doctor who declared that Major Weir was mentally ill.
However, Major Weir insisted his ravings were true. So the authorities had no choice but to arrest the major and his sister and investigate further. Soon charges of bestiality and incest were the least of Weir’s worries. Grizel, with a similar wild abandon to her brother, readily admitted their unnatural relationship and declared she and her brother were both witches. Grizel had sold her soul while a schoolteacher in return for the ability to spin “extraordinary quantities of yarn.” Thomas meanwhile, had a magic coach, which in 1648 had transported the couple between Edinburgh and Musselburgh in record time.
Thomas Weir was famous for his Thornwood walking stick, an impressive item decorated with carved heads. This staff, Grizel announced was his wand, gifted him by the devil. People had often observed the Major leaning upon his stick in what was assumed to be prayer. Now, it became clear that he must have been conversing with his real master, the devil. When confronted with Grizel’s outpourings, Weir denied nothing. So, the court condemned both Weir and his sister to death
Weir was strangled and then burnt between Leith and Edinburgh shortly afterward. When asked to beg for God’s mercy, he refused. “Let me alone-I will not-” he declared before the executioner strangled him,” I have lived as a beast, and I must die as a beast.” His staff was thrown into the flames with him and said by witnesses to leap and twist in the fire. Grizel Weir went to her end in a similarly crazy fashion in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket the next day, unrepentant and attempting to tear off her clothes.