On November 20, 1628, Elspitt Duncan, a resident of Cranston in Edinburgh, became one of eight individuals caught within the machinery of the Scottish judicial system during a period of intense scrutiny regarding witchcraft. Her involvement is documented in the legal records under case reference C/EGD/1031, which positions her alongside a group of others facing similar allegations. While the specific nature of the charges brought against them remains unrecorded in the surviving archives, the administrative grouping suggests a collective prosecution common to the local kirk sessions and criminal courts of the early seventeenth century.
On the same day that her case was formally noted, Elspitt provided a confession. Although the specific contents of this testimony have not survived, the existence of the document (T/JO/312) confirms that she underwent the formal procedure of interrogation typical of the era. Despite the paucity of further detail regarding the proceedings or any subsequent trial, the records remain a testament to her intersection with the legal and religious authorities of Cranston during the winter of 1628.