Jinny the Witch (Joney Lowney)

Joney Lowney lived in the parish of Braddan on the Isle of Man and was brought before the ecclesiastical court at Bishop's Court in 1715-16, accused of using witchcraft to stop the Ballaughton Corn Mill from working. Found guilty, she was sentenced to fourteen days' imprisonment, fined three pounds, and made to stand in sackcloth at each of the island's four market crosses as public penance.

Far from ending her notoriety, the punishment seems to have launched a second career: afterwards Joney traded under the name 'The Great Witch', travelling between towns and villages threatening curses and selling charms — by most accounts more a colourful entertainer trading on her reputation than a practising sorceress, and eventually a figure used to delight and frighten children.

Over the following two centuries her name was gradually transformed in oral tradition — passing through forms like Jenny Swinny, Jinny Squinney and Jinny the Spinney — until it settled as 'Jinny the Witch'. In that form she became permanently attached to Hop tu Naa, the Manx Celtic New Year festival held on 31 October, where children still carry carved turnip lanterns and sing songs naming Jinny the Witch as they go house to house.