In November 1628, the legal machinery of early modern Scotland turned toward a group of residents in Middleton, Edinburgh, resulting in the indictment of Janet Smiberd. At twenty-five years of age, Janet was swept into a judicial process that implicated eight individuals in total, a group that notably included her own mother. The records indicate that her age was estimated by authorities based on that of her mother, placing both women at the center of a communal accusation that saw them brought before the courts on November 20th.
On that same day, Janet submitted to a formal interrogation, resulting in the recording of a confession. While the surviving documentation does not preserve the specific contents of her testimony or the eventual outcome of the proceedings at her trial, the administrative records confirm that she remained subject to the legal rigors of the era throughout the process. Her case, indexed as C/EGD/1033 and T/JO/314, stands as a quiet yet significant entry in the broader ledger of the Scottish witch trials, illustrating the intergenerational impact of such accusations within local parishes.