Major Weir — The Wizard of the West Bow

West Bow, Edinburgh, Scotland

Major Thomas Weir was Edinburgh's most respected Presbyterian, until at 70 he voluntarily confessed to a lifetime of witchcraft, incest, and pacts with the devil. His staff walked ahead of him at night without his hand to guide it.

Major Thomas Weir is one of the strangest figures in Scottish history. He was, for decades, one of Edinburgh's most respected citizens: a former officer of the Town Guard, a noted Covenanting Presbyterian, and a man whose public prayers were so powerful that he was called in as a kind of spiritual specialist when citizens needed exceptional intercession. In 1670, when Weir was approximately seventy years old, he began telling people — his sister, his minister, eventually the town authorities — that he was a witch and had been one his entire adult life. He confessed to a pact with the Devil, to receiving his powers through a specific staff, and to sexual crimes against his sister and stepdaughter. The Edinburgh authorities initially assumed he was losing his mind. They brought physicians. The physicians found him completely rational. They brought ministers. The ministers found him consistent and specific. They eventually arrested him. At trial, his sister Jean — who had kept quiet for decades — confirmed everything and added considerable detail. She described their meetings with the Devil, the power of the staff, and rituals she had participated in. She added that she herself had been given the ability to produce supernaturally fine linen, which she demonstrated in court. Major Weir was strangled and burned at the Gallowlee on the 11th of April 1670. His staff was burned with him — it reportedly writhed in the flames. Jean Weir was hanged. His house in the West Bow was not demolished. It stood empty for over a century because no one would live in it. Lights were seen at the windows late at night. A spectral coach was reported on multiple occasions at the corner of the street.