The execution of John Fian
John Fian, a schoolmaster accused in the North Berwick witch case, was tortured, strangled and burned on Castlehill in Edinburgh on 27 January 1591.
John Fian, also called John Cunningham, was a schoolmaster at Saltpans. Glasgow University Library describes an early printed account of the case. It calls him James Fian and says he was questioned and confessed only after being dreadfully tortured. In that account he confessed to attending the general meetings of the accused as their clerk, taking their oaths and writing what he was told.
The Witchery Tours history blog says he is said to have led a coven based in North Berwick. The charge was a plot to kill James VI, the king, and his new wife, Anne of Denmark. The means was storms raised across the North Sea on their voyage home. Those are the accusations made against him; they are the content of the charge.
Wikipedia lists the tortures he suffered: his fingernails were torn out and iron pins driven in, then the pilliwinks and the boot were used on him. It says he was reported to have endured them without expressing pain. He was taken in a cart to the Castlehill in Edinburgh, strangled and burned on 27 January 1591. The cost of the execution was recorded as five pounds, eighteen shillings and twopence.
"He endured the torture of having his fingernails forcibly extracted, then having iron pins thrust therein, the pilliwinks, and the boot to crush his feet until they were so small that they were no longer usable. He was reported to have endured the torture without expressing pain. He was finally taken to the Castlehill in Edinburgh, placed in a cart, strangled, and burnt on 27 January 1591. The cost of his execution was £5 18s 2d."
- Newes from Scotland (Book of the Month, August 2000), University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections (2000)
- On This Day... 27 January 1591: Dr. Fian, the Women!, The Cadies & Witchery Tours (2015)