Last weekend, we set out to find the place where Jonet Rendall once lived. Jonet was tried for witchcraft in Kirkwall in 1629. I feel I have grown to know Jonet quite well in the last year, having read the minutes of her trial and worked through them with people, before re-imagining her trial in a live action role play, or Nordic Larp event in March 2022. We brought along the person who played the role of Jonet on that occasion.
My family and I also made a video last year about Jonet and the accusations against her, which you can watch here: Jonet Rendall and the Orkney Witchcraft Trials
From the trial record, we knew that Jonet lived at a place called Rigga. This turned out to be an unoccupied point right at the sea shore, at one end of the bay of Wass Wick in the parish of Rendall. There was no trace of Jonet’s cottage now. Further up, though, her neighbour’s farm Quoynameikill, which is much mentioned in the trial document, had grown large and prosperous since then.
Even though there is no trace of Rigga now, there is a description of the cottage in a 19th century folktale about Jonet, published in Around the Orkney Peatfires: “The cot of Rigga was well adapted for the character which its occupent had assumed. It consisted of one apartment, which served as henhouse, pighouse, bedroom, and kitchen combined, and even in the daytime the place was always wrapped in gloom. The walls of the house was built of stones and turf, the roof being covered with flags, overlaid with moss and straw. The inside of the building was void of plaster, but was thickly coated with soot; and the peat fire which occupied the centre of the clay floor kept the apartment filled with smoke, because the only outlets for it were the many chinks in the walls, or through a hole in the roof.”
On this point in Rendall parish, with a view over Gairsay and the bay of Wass Wick, in the 1600s stood the cottage Rigga, where Jonet Rendall lived.
On the shore below where Jonet’s cottage stood we observed a built stone structure, set out in a rectangle, and speculated it might have something to do with fishing. We also saw that next to Jonet’s cottage there had once been a beautiful meandering burn, that had since been moved and straightened when fields were squared.
On the shore directly below Rigga we spotted a built stone structure. The stones formed lines laying out a rectangle. Below this, there were indications of a landing place for small boats. Perhaps fish was brought ashore here?
Standing on the point of Rigga, where Jonet Rendall’s cottage stood, we could see that in her time a burn had meandered down to the sea, which had since been moved and straightened.
We sat down on the shore at Rigga and read the folk story “The Spitting Witch” from Around the Orkney Peatfires. Jonet is remembered quite differently there, and I am happy to say in a much more friendly light, than her trial document. She is portrayed as an old woman who understood the psychology of her neighbours and was able to help them in quiet ways, as when she says to Jean Matches: “Ye hae come dootless to consult me aboot yer husband. Ye want to ken whaur he is, and what he is doing. […] Your husband is in a distant city, and amongst strangers. He has been very ill, but he is getting better noo, and will soon be hame again.” After Jean has given Jonet a cheese and left, Jonet says to her dog: “That puir creature got the news aboot her husband frae ane o the sailors wha was on the ship wi him, just as I got it mysel, an yet she wadna believe it till it was confirmed by a witch.”
We see Jonet portrayed as someone who didn’t have any magical powers, and knew as much, but deliberately cultivated a reputation as a witch, as she depended on the food people gave her for consultations like this one. In the 1629 trial, the picture is much more sinister. Here, the prosecution are convinced she is in league with the Devil, whom she has met with on a nearby hilltop. Jonet herself – in real life – admitted she was in contact with a being she called Walliman, but she never equates him with the Devil.
Jean Matches and her husband Andrew are mentioned in the 1629 trial too, but there is nothing about him being a sailor. Instead, they are farmers at Sundiehouse, who have cattle. Andrew has complained to Sherriff John Buchanan that Jonet has magically stolen the “profit” (fat) of his cow’s milk, and Jonet comes and gives him a doing for telling on her, saying he’ll regret it. The same day, an ox got ill and died! This is obviously Jonet’s doing. Nine months later, Andrew again complains about Jonet, this time to the Evie Kirk Session, and again Jonet gets angry and says he’ll regret it. Three days later, Andrew became mad! Jonet was sent for, probably due to Mrs Matches’ belief that if Jonet could curse her husband she could lift the curse, too. As soon as Jonet arrived at Sundiehouse, Andrew calmed down and fell asleep. Jean gave Jonet a meal. We then see Jonet do what made her go down in folk memory as “The Spitting Witch”. She spat three times over her left shoulder, which made Jean fear she was doing some more witchcraft. Jonet said: “Leave me alone, for your husband will be well”
The rest of the folk story in Around the Orkney Peat Fires is a very Victorian sentimental tale, involving the dying seven-year-old son of the local laird, Gilbert Sandie of Isbister. The child saw past everyone’s prejudices and bonded with Jonet as a granny. On his deathbed, the child insists that “granny” must come and visit him, and at last his father yields his wish. Jonet brings her dog, Help, and the little boy asks her if she can make Help do tricks one more time. “In a twinkling, the old woman’s dog was sitting on its hind legs, had on its owner’s mutch and spectacles, and looked a demure old wife.” Seeing how much his son loves “granny” Jonet, Gilbert Sandie warms to her and becomes a friend from then on.
In the 1629 trial, on the other hand, there is no sign of friendship between Gilbert Sandie and Jonet. Seeing he is the laird and wealthier than most, Jonet tries her luck and asks for silver from him, in return for her making sure his mares are healthy through the year. Gilbert understands this as a threat that unless he gives, the mares will not be well. Nonetheless, he refuses her silver and beremeal, but asks his wife to give her some kail instead. This, Jonet refuses, and walks away without the kail despite Mrs Sandie going after her with it.
Two days later, Gilbert’s best horse “became wood” – it says in the trial record. This puzzled me initially. It was witchcraft, after all, so could the horse have been transformed into wood? No, that was not what it meant. Wood, in this case, means insane, mad. It is related to the German word “wut” meaning anger, and actually the name of the god Wutan, in Norse Odin, whose name means the “mad one” able to go into an altered state of mind or ecstasy.
Later, Jonet helped rescue a cow who had fallen in a mire. Gilbert and a large team of folk had got her out of the bog, but the cow lay collapsed and wouldn’t stand. By spitting on some grains of bere and giving it to the cow, Jonet made the cow stand up and walk home under her own steam. Gilbert Sandie held this against Jonet as another proof of her “witchcraft and devilry”.
The folk story has a sentimental but rather beautiful ending. On his deathbed, the little boy promises that he will see “granny” Jonet again, and that when the time comes he will kiss her, as his own dead mother has come and kissed him. Soon afterwards, Jonet is arrested for witchcraft. But she is not frightened of the fate that awaits her, for she knows she will be going to her little friend.
“When Janet Rendal arrived at the place of execution on the following day, the Laird of Isbister was at her side. As the rope was being adjusted around her neck, she turned, and, in a low voice, whispered – ‘Laird, last night oor wee lambie cam’ an’ kissed me as he promised, an’ I can see him beckonin’ on me noo. He’ll also do as much for you, when you are nearing the end o your journey in this vale o tears.’ But before she could say anything further by way of farewell, the hangman tightened the rope, when she expired, a victim to the superstitions of the times.”
In real life, Jonet Rendall was strangled and burnt for witchcraft on 11th November 1629 at Gallow Ha in Kirkwall, where the memorial to Orkney’s victims of the witchcraft trials now is.
Jonet Rendall awaiting trial for witchcraft. “The Witch Experience” Nordic Larp event, Kirkwall, 2022.
Memorial to those accused of witchcraft. Gallow Ha, Kirkwall, Orkney. Photo by Orkney’s Memorial to the Victims of the Witchcraft Trials.
