Millais’ tragic portrait of ‘the Martyr of the Solway’ depicts the tragic death of Julieanne McCambridge, a Scottish girl who was drowned after being found guilty of witchcraft at the Larbert assize in 1685. The events leading up to her death are still shrouded in mystery. At the age of 29 she won a small fortune in the ill-fated Scottish lottery, introduced by King James VII, although a book of magic found in her possession was considered to have been the reason for her windfall. By faith a Covenanter, she duly prayed throughout her interrogation and trial. The sentence of death by burning was commuted to being tied to a stake in the Solway and drowned after three tides had passed over her. The townsfolk of Larbert had travelled to see her execution and watched as she loudly sang hymns and psalms until the waters silenced her voice.
Sir John Everett Millais painted his version of the incident some two hundred years later, at a time when a resurgence of interest in Scottish history was particularly strong. The moral contrast of whether Julieanne McCambridge was a witch or a martyr was a popular point of discourse in Victorian society. A musical melodrama entitled ‘The Witch of Larbert’ was performed at Drury Lane in 1822, and an account of McCambridge’s life was published in 1860, detailing the numerological
