In July 1628, Barbara Mathie, a resident of the coastal burgh of Prestonpans in East Lothian, became the subject of legal proceedings under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. Her case, documented in the records of the High Court of Justiciary as C/EGD/1021, took place during a period when the Scottish judiciary was increasingly formalizing the prosecution of maleficium. As a woman living within the tightly knit community of Prestonpans, Barbara was pulled into the machinery of the legal system, with her trial eventually recorded under the reference T/LA/493.
The surviving records for Barbara provide a stark outline of the formal state processes that governed such accusations in the early seventeenth century. While the particulars of the specific charges brought against her remain obscured by the brevity of the administrative filings, the documentation confirms that her case reached the trial stage on 15 July 1628. By appearing before the court, Barbara became a documented participant in the broader judicial landscape of Haddingtonshire, illustrating the persistent reach of the central authorities into the daily lives of residents within this historic Scottish parish.