Alison Pearson

Alison Pearson (or Pierson) (or Alesoun Pierson) (born 1533, died Edinburgh 1588) was executed for witchcraft. On being tried in 1588, she confessed to visions of a fairy court.

Background Alison Pearson was born 1533. She worked as a healer around the St Andrews area with a ghost of her uncle, William Simpson, as a spirit guide. Adamson's enemies claimed this was witchcraft and Pearson was imprisoned in St Andrews Castle, from where Adamson helped her to escape. Scottish Ballad-writer, Robert Sempill, wrote about Pearson and Adamson. had been carried by a whirlwind, and might wake up somewhere unexpected. Yeoman notes that Pearson described losing the power in her left side and that such loss of bodily faculties was often described in witch confessions of the period as well as in the religious trance descriptions of late 17th century visionaries like Barbara Peebles.