Janet Saers

In Cromwell's time the English soldiers stationed in Ayr record, with disgust, a late witch burning in the burgh. A colonel writing from Ayr tells of a certain Janet Saers who was strangled at the stake in 1658 and her whole body burnt to ashes, in spite of her valiant protestations of complete innocence. The English soldier's letter is full of sympathy for the victim. 1 Firth , Scotland Under the Protectorate, p . 382