Case file · Witch trials
The Paisley (Bargarran) witches
After eleven-year-old Christian Shaw of Bargarran had fits and blamed a servant and others, seven people were hanged and burned at Paisley in June 1697, the last mass execution for witchcraft in western Europe.
1697 CE · 55.85, -4.42 · status: official
The account
Shaw went on to found the Renfrewshire thread industry. A horseshoe set in a Paisley street marks where the victims were buried.
The sceptical view
Her symptoms have been read as fraud or conversion disorder; the accused had no real defence.