“She was a Wise Woman. She spoke to herbs, helped women give birth, and was tortured until she screamed secrets they wanted to hear.”
⚡ The King feared a storm—and blamed a wise woman for the wind.
In 1590, a ship carrying King James VI of Scotland was nearly wrecked by a violent sea storm. He survived, but he needed a reason. A culprit. A scapegoat.
He pointed to a woman.
Not a captain.
Not a soldier.
A midwife.
Her name was Agnes Sampson.
And within weeks, she became one of the most famous witches Scotland ever burned.
🩸 The Wise Woman of North Berwick
Agnes Sampson was known in her village as a healer, a midwife, and a “wise woman.” She was sought out for her knowledge of herbs, childbirth, and spiritual care. In a time when medicine was more superstition than science, women like Agnes were the backbone of community care—especially for other women.
But power in a woman’s hands—especially knowledge of the body—has always been threatening to those who crave control.
So when storms battered ships, and fear clawed its way into the heart of a king, Agnes became the perfect villain. The crown decided she was part of a coven that had summoned the devil to sink royal vessels with cursed winds.
🔥 Tortured Into Confession
Agnes was arrested as part of the North Berwick witch trials—a fever of accusations that swept across Scotland in the late 16th century. Under torture, her body was shaved and examined for “witches’ marks.” She was restrained with a bridle device called the Scold’s Bridle—a cruel metal muzzle—and denied sleep for days on end.
Eventually, she confessed to raising storms and conspiring with the devil.
But it was a confession born of pain, exhaustion, and fear—not guilt.
Her words were used to justify more arrests, more deaths, more power for the patriarchy cloaked in royal robes.
She was strangled and burned in 1591.
Her knowledge died with her—or so they hoped.
🕯️ A Storm They Couldn’t Control
Agnes Sampson’s story is more than a tragedy. It’s a warning.
When women know things—how to heal, how to birth, how to comfort the dying—they become threats in a world that wants obedience, not wisdom.
Agnes didn’t raise storms.
She raised babies.
She raised hope.
But to a man like King James—obsessed with control, terrified of chaos—her power was unacceptable.
So they called her a witch.
Tied her to a stake.
And tried to silence her with fire.
But the wind does not forget.
🌒 Why Her Name Still Matters
Agnes is every woman who has ever been called “hysterical,” “too much,” or “dangerous” simply for speaking truth, sharing knowledge, or holding space for another.
In modern witchcraft, we don’t just cast spells—we remember.
We reclaim names they tried to erase.
Agnes’s magic wasn’t satanic.
It was sacred.
And that is exactly why they feared her.
Today, we light candles for the healers.
We honor the midwives.
We chant for the ones who held bleeding hands and whispered sacred wisdom as the world closed in around them.
Agnes Sampson didn’t summon storms.
But she was one.
And she still is.
For additional information check out:
https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/files/special/exhibns/month/aug2000.html
Fun fact for you Outlander Fans – does the name Geillis Duncan ring a bell? Reading through this background research on Agnes Sampson you will find this curious and intriguing bit of fact:
“Geillis Duncan was tortured with the pilliwinkes on her fingers and by binding or winching her head with a cord or roape. She did not confess until her tortures declared they had found her “devil’s mark”- it being believed at that time that by due examination of witchcraft and Witches in Scotland, it hath lately beene founde that the diuell doth generally marke them with a privie marke.
Once Geillis was committed to prison it did not take her long to accuse others of witchcraft. These people were Agnes Sampson, Agnes Tompson, Doctor Fian, alias John Cunningham, Barbara Napier and Effie MacCalyan, to name but a few. In all around 70 people were implicated in this case.” – Newes from Scotland, August 2000
✊ Next Week’s Witch: La Voisin
She read fortunes for aristocrats and sold poisons to queens.
La Voisin walked the tightrope between survival and scandal in the court of Louis XIV—until the monarchy turned on her and burned her alive.
Next week, we’ll meet the French witch who ran an empire of shadows and made kings tremble.
Join the conversation!