Dress dedicated to Orkney woman convicted of witchcraft to be unveiled at Orkney Library and Archive

A specially created ‘dress’ dedicated to the memory of a local woman, Marabel Couper, who was found guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death ‘by public strangulation and burning at Gallow Ha’, in 1624, will be unveiled soon at Orkney Library and Archive.

Carolyn Sutton is the creator of 'Witches in Word, Not Deed' an exhibition commemorating 13 Scottish Women accused and persecuted for witchcraft during the 1500s and 1600s and into the first decade of the 1700s. The full exhibition of 13 dresses has appeared at Central Library in Edinburgh, Grain Exchange in Ayr, Eden Court in Inverness, Watt Institution in Greenock, and Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries. Several other related appearances and events have been held around Scotland. Pictured here is detail from one of those dresses.

Carolyn is bringing a separately created dress to Orkney, based on Marabel’s story, which she is donating to the county. It will be unveiled at The Orkney Library and Archive on Saturday 26 April at 1pm. This will be followed by a textiles workshop.

Spaces for both these events are limited and can be booked via EventBrite as follows:

• 1 pm - 2 pm: Event - Talk about Witches in Word, Not Deed from Carolyn Sutton; presentation about the Orkney Memorial Project by Dr Ragnhild Ljosland and Helen Woodsford-Dean; storytelling by Fran Hollinrake. Coffee, tea, and biscuits provided, informal chat following. Space limited to 45 participants. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/witches-in-word-not-deed-reception-event-for-marable-couper-dress-tickets-1322105395829?aff=oddtdtcreator
• 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm: Textile workshop with Carolyn - using fabrics from all the dresses in the exhibition (including Marable). Fabric bookbags, templates for bookmarks and patches, and other materials/notions will be provided. Feel free to bring your own ideas for what you’d like to make and we’ll do our best to accommodate. Space limited to 15 participants. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/witches-in-word-not-deed-textile-workshop-tickets-1322109247349?aff=oddtdtcreator

It’s hoped that after a period of display at the Library the dress will eventually be displayed within The Orkney Museum.

Carolyn explains how the dress for Marabel came about:

Through my research on the Scottish witchcraft trials and memorialisation efforts, I came across the amazing work that has been done in Orkney. It was inspiring to see, especially with the involvement of the wider community and with the way everyone embraced this movement. The level of commitment to remember the victims of the trials here was incredible, and I wanted to honour that in any way I could. (**see note) I had previously made a dress for a woman called Scota Bess, a woman from Stronsay who was referred to as ‘Queen of the Orkney Witches’. I still haven’t been able to uncover her history and could only find her within a local folktale, but I haven’t given up and she remains a part of the touring exhibition.

This dress remembering Marable Couper is the fourth piece made by Witches in Word, Not Deed to enter permanent collections. 

All of the staff I have encountered at the Library & Archive, St Magnus Cathedral, and within Orkney Islands Council have been incredibly supportive and generous with their time. This couldn’t have happened without all of them, and they have my deepest gratitude.

It was always a goal to make work remembering local women which would remain in their hometowns. The first of these was for Mary Lamont from Inverkip, which was commissioned by Watt Institution in Greenock. It can be viewed there, alongside archivist and historian Lorraine Murray’s research into the local witchcraft trials. Next, I was commissioned to make a dress for Margaret Thomsone and shawl for Isobel Ewart for The Calder Witch Hunt project, both of which now show in Kirk of Calder as part of their larger work. This includes a memorial stone placed in the vestry where Margaret was held for months. Most recently, Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries commissioned me to make a bonnet remembering Lilias Adie from Torryburn, which was installed as part of their observance of International Women’s Day. It is currently shown alongside a walking stick that was made from Lilias’ casket after her grave was desecrated, her skull stolen, and pieces sold to collectors.

For more information about the witchcraft trials in Orkney see Volume 9 of New Orkney Antiquarian Journal: Commemorating the Victims of the Orkney Witchcraft Trials: https://orkneyheritagesociety.org.uk/product/new-orkney-antiquarian-journal-volume-9/

About the wider 'Witches in Words Not Deeds' project:

'Witches in Word, Not Deed' remembers 13 Scottish women unjustly accused and persecuted for witchcraft under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. Through historically accurate and personalised dresses worn by empty forms, the exhibition brings attention to the loss of life and identity in which the witch trials resulted. Each dress is imprinted with the words that were used against them in some form, or in the enduring legacy of misguided folk beliefs or other falsehoods that replaced their true stories.

The exhibition is a meaningful and heartfelt moveable memorial to the roughly 4000 people accused of witchcraft in Scotland, nearly 85% of them women. It is based in the desire for social justice and hopes to create debates and conversations about the power of words and the gendered nature of the witch trials. It is an imperative asking us to remember the lives of the victims with dignity and compassion, and means to caution us against the further exploitation of this history.

The full exhibition has appeared at Central Library in Edinburgh, Grain Exchange in Ayr, Eden Court in Inverness, Watt Institution in Greenock, and Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries. Several other related appearances and events have been held around Scotland.

More about Marable Couper:

Marable lived in the settlement of Northside in Birsay with her husband, John Spence, and their son Robbie. It seems she was a young woman and she may have had more children, though this is not noted in her trial.

According to surviving records, Marable was locally known as the person to consult for charms and potions used to treat illnesses. This had previously led to accusations of witchcraft and resulted her banishment from her parish in Birsay. However, Marable did not abide by this punishment and returned home to her family. 

In 1624, more of these accusations were made against her, and the neighbours with whom she had quarreled for years accused her of being responsible for several misfortunes they had suffered. She was brought from Birsay to St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall and was held in Marwick’s Hole until she faced an assize composed of 15 wealthy men from Orkney.

Marable was accused of many things that day including causing issues with her neighbours’ livestock and crops, and both inducing and curing sicknesses. She was even condemned for a practical joke they said was ‘nothing bot divelrie’. The general points they made claimed she was ‘useing, comitting, and practising of the abominable cryme of superstitioun [and] witchcraft,’ and ‘at the least, behaveing hir selff to haue sic skill and knawledge, thairthrow abuseing the people…’. 

Each of her accusations ended with some form of the phrase ‘which, rank witche, ye can not deny’. This phrase seems to repeatedly seal her fate; not that she had the opportunity to defend herself, of course. 

As there could be no actual evidence to prove these lengthy claims, her reputation as a witch, the rumours spread by people she had quarreled with for years, and the belief that she was capable of controlling both good fortune and bad not otherwise easily explained, were enough for the assize and the chancellor to find her guilty of witchcraft and to condemn her to death by public strangulation and burning at Gallow Ha.

More about the artist Carolyn Sutton:

Carolyn is originally from Detroit, but she happily calls Edinburgh home along with her (very supportive) partner, Ron. Her higher degrees in library science & archival administration, heritage and exhibition design, and studio art/photography inform her work as an artist and interpretation designer. Witches in Word, Not Deed stems from her interest in matters of social justice, difficult heritage, and folklore. She has been researching the witchcraft trials for many years, but it wasn’t until the culmination of all these skills and approaches that this work could come together in a way that felt right to her. Through her efforts to give voice to these silenced women, she is also finding her own.