The Last Scottish Witch

Helen Duncan (November 25, 1897-December 6, 1956) is in the news. Her 72 year old granddaughter Mary Martin, who lives near Edinburgh, is campaigning to have a pardon issued for her granny who was convicted in 1944 for "pretending to be a witch". England's last witchcraft law was not repealed until 1951 by the government under Prime Minister Winston Churchill (who had been ordained into the Grand Ancient Order of Druids). Martin vividly remembers being harrassed by classmates and labeled "witch-spawn" and "evil-eye". She hopes that a pardon will clear the family name. Mary says her grandmother committed no crime and that "in the modern world, it is ridiculous that this conviction stands". In contrast, a full pardon for the 20 people convicted of witchcraft and executed during the 1692 Salem Witch Trials was handed down in 2001. ~Helen Duncan was a well known Spiritualist medium during the 1930's and 194o's, conducting seances for those wishing to contact their departed loved ones. Churchill and King George VI were said to be her clients. Those who witnessed her seances reported that she was able to materialize ectoplasm from her mouth while in trance. In 1941, while conducting a seance for the concerned parents of a missing sailor, Helen revealed that their son had gone down with his ship, the HMS Barham... a fact that the war office did not reveal until several months later in an effort to keep morale high. On January 14, 1944, with war time tensions escalating and the D-day landing being planned by Allied Forces, police raided a seance and arrested Helen in her then hometown of Portsmouth. It was rumored that the war office did not want to run the risk of military manuevers being revealed by Duncan. She was brought to trial in London and sentenced to 9 months in Holloway Prison, being denied an appeal. She was released from prison on September 22, 1944. With the repeal of the 1735 Witchcraft Act in 1951 and the official recognition of Spiritualism as a religion by Parliament in 1954, Helen should have been free to practice her craft. Not so. In November of 1956, police again raided a private seance being conducted by Helen and searched her, a dangerous act for one under trance. She was later taken to the hospital with second degree burns across her stomach. Helen Duncan passed over 5 weeks later.~ A bronze bust of Helen Duncan, presented to the town of Callander where she was born, gives rise to controversy even today with those of strong religious views objecting to its public display. As a consequence the sculpture is currently on display at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum. Here is a link to the official Helen Duncan website with information on the campaign for her pardon. http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/helenduncan/

Who was Hypatia?

Hypatia of Alexandria was a Hellenized Egyptian philospher of the Platonic school, teacher, mathematician, astrologer and pagan. The exact date of her birth is not known but speculations range from350-370 CE. She was the daughter of Theon, the last fellow of the Museum of Alexandria, of which the Great Library founded by the Ptolemies was a part. Hypatia received students in her home, many of whom were prominent christians who extolled her virtues. She is believed to be the sole woman represented (lower left, dressed in white and looking at the viewer) in Raphael's 1510 "The School of Athens" (pictured above). Her contemporary, the christian historiographer Socrates Scholasticus in his Ecclesiastical History portrays her as follows:
There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more. In 391 CE Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, destroyed several Roman pagan temples at the same time that Emperor Theodosius I published an edict prohibiting various aspects of pagan worship. Hypatia's death in 415 CE was at the hands of a violent mob. Just who was responsible for the riot is not known but theories include: a spontaneous christian uprising that was allowed to occur, a conspiracy by the Emperor or a peasant mob made up of both christians and pagans. Hypatia has been said to be the first "famous witch" to be punished under christian authority.