Burning question of money

In the wake of Hallowe'en, Dundee University students have discovered the cost of burning a witch. The students, investigating the role of women in the 16th and 17th centuries, found a ledger detailing the cost of a Dundee witch's execution in 1590: 15 shillings for three baskets of coal, 7 shillings for the tar barrel, 8 pence for a boy to carry the iron chain to the field and £1 to the hangman for his journey to the execution site in St Andrews and his trouble.