Major Thomas Weir

Thomas Weir, born 1599, was a soldier, a covenanter, an upstanding member of the community, a religious man known for his preaching, and once retired, given the honorary title of Captain of the Town Guard.

He lived on West Bow (where Victoria Street is now) with his sister Jean, where only the strictest Presbyterians lived, known as the 'Bowhead Saints', and was considered to be the purest of them.

So when he confessed at the age of seventy to witchcraft, bestiality and incest amongst many other crimes, Edinburgh was a wee bit surprised.

He was convicted in a hugely talked-about trial begining on the 9th of April 1670, and sentanced to be strangled then burned at the stake. The locals were happy to make up and exaggerate accusations of devil worship and the like, but it was Jean's testimony that brought him down. She confirmed years of incest and told how Thomas' talent for witchcraft was inherited from their mother Jean Somerville, and how Thomas had the mark of the devil upon him. Jean was also convicted of witchcraft and was hanged in the Grassmarket, warning everyone on her way to watch out for Thomas' staff.

Weir's staff was said to have a life of its own, carrying out Weir's evil orders. Made of black thornwood and carved with satyr heads, Jean claimed it had been given to him by the devil and was the source of his dark power. It was supposedly extremely difficult to burn when it was thrown on Weir's pyre.

Weir was burned to death at Greenside, just off Leith Walk. He was the last man to be burned for witchcraft in Scotland.

Nobody would live in the Weirs' house for the next hundred years. It was haunted and guarded by the staff, which was seen outside the building and floating through the closes of its own accord, searching for its master.

The house was pulled down in the 19th century.