In July 1628, Agnes Dempstar, a resident of the coastal town of Prestonpans in Haddington, became the subject of legal scrutiny under the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1023, was formally initiated on July 15, 1628, marking a period of intense judicial focus on such matters within the region. As with many proceedings of the era, the transition from the initial documentation of the case to the subsequent trial (T/LA/495) followed the established administrative processes governing accusations of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland.
The historical record concerning Agnes provides a stark, administrative silhouette of her encounter with the law. By the time the trial process commenced, the community and local authorities had moved the matter from a preliminary inquiry into a structured legal proceeding. While the specific nature of the allegations brought against Agnes remains confined to the procedural documentation, the archival evidence confirms that her case reached the necessary threshold for a formal trial during the summer months of 1628.