Helen Duncan, (Not) Scotland’s Last Witch
Stuff You Missed in History Class
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Duncan's First Fraud Conviction
In 1933, Peggy Duncan was convicted of fraud after a seance in Edinburgh. She kept doing seances and despite that conviction, she became increasingly popular. As World War II began, more and more people sought her help to try to speak to loved ones who had been killed.
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Helen Duncan is sometimes described as Scotland’s last witch, or the last person imprisoned for witchcraft in Britain, or the last person to be tried under the UK’s 1735 Witchcraft Act. None of those are quite accurate.
Research:
- Undiscovered Scotland. “Helen Duncan.” https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/d/helenduncan.html
- “Scotland’s Last Witch.” Modern Scotland. https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/modern/oddities_modern.shtml
- “Britain's 'last witch': Campaign to pardon Helen Duncan.” 6/15/2012. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-18456106
- Atkins, Harry. “Helen Duncan: Britain’s Last Witch.” History Hit. 6/10/2022. https://www.historyhit.com/helen-duncan-britains-last-witch/
- Brown, Laura. “Helen Duncan.” The Scots Magazine. https://www.scotsmagazine.com/articles/series/a-z-of-great-scots-helen-duncan/
- Price, Harry. “The Cheese-Cloth Worshippers by Harry Price.” Leaves from a Psychist's Case-Book (Victor Gollancz, 1933).
- Meier, Allison C. “Ectoplasm and the Last British Woman Tried for Witchcraft.” JSTOR Daily. 9/13/2018. https://daily.jstor.org/ectoplasm-and-the-last-british-woman-tried-for-witchcraft/
- Team Mighty. “A British Woman Was Convicted Under a Witchcraft Law During WWII.” The Archive. 9/7/2021. https://explorethearchive.com/helen-duncan
- McPherson, Hamish. “The truth about the UK's last witch Helen Duncan.” The National. 5/8/2018. https://www.thenational.scot/news/16209915.truth-uks-last-witch-helen-duncan/
- Schnuer, Jenna. "SPIRITED AWAY: After a devastating Royal Navy loss, military authorities felt duty bound to keep a careful eye on a famed Scottish mystic." World War II, vol. 34, no. 1, June 2019, pp. 64+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A581176173/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c973ec6a. Accessed 2 Sept. 2022.
- Gaskill, Malcolm. "Britain's Last Witch." History Today, vol. 51, no. 5, May 2001, p. 6. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A74483221/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=5c15ccbd. Accessed 2 Sept. 2022.
- Gaskill, Malcolm. "Duncan [née MacFarlane], (Victoria) Helen McCrae (1897–1956), medium." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Date of access 7 Sep. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/66217
- Collins, B. Abdy. “Spiritualism and the Law.” The Modern Law Review , July 1945, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Jul., 1945). https://www.jstor.org/stable/1090340
- Old Bailey Trial Series. “The Trial of Mrs. Duncan.” C. E. Bechhofer Roberts, General Editor. 1945.
- UK Parliament. “Witchcraft.” https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/religion/overview/witchcraft/
- UK Parliament. “Which Witch(Craft Act) Is Which?” 10/28/2020. https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/2020/10/28/which-witchcraft-act-is-which/
- Vagrancy Act of 1824 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1824/83/pdfs/ukpga_18240083_en.pdf
- Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1951/33/pdfs/ukpga_19510033_en.pdf
- Earls, Averill and Marissa Rhodes. State Secrets: Helen Duncan’s Famous Witchcraft Trial.’ Dig: A History Podcast. 7/3/2022. https://digpodcast.org/2022/07/03/cheesecloth-spiritualism-and-state-secrets-helen-duncans-famous-witchcraft-trial/
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