In September 1628, Alesoun Dempstar, a married woman of middling socioeconomic status residing in the port town of Leith, became the subject of a formal legal inquiry recorded under case file C/EGD/1042. The nature of the proceedings against her was significant enough to progress to a trial, documented in the records as T/LA/489, which brought the legal machinery of the seventeenth-century Scottish justice system to bear upon her life and standing within the community.
The scrutiny surrounding Alesoun extended beyond the singular focus of her own proceedings. During the broader legal examinations of the period, she was explicitly named by Marion Mitchell—another individual undergoing trial—as an accomplice. This connection highlights the interconnected nature of these judicial investigations, where the testimony provided in one case frequently drew others into the purview of the courts. Through these archival fragments, Alesoun remains a figure captured within the complex web of accusations and formal legal actions that characterized the witch trials in early modern Scotland.