In the late autumn of 1628, the legal apparatus of seventeenth-century Scotland turned its attention toward the parish of Kincardine, Ross, centering specifically on the small settlement of Badarrach. It was here that Elspeth Simsoun, a married woman, became the subject of a judicial inquiry recorded under case number C/EGD/1050. On the 18th of November, the formal process initiated against her commenced, marking the beginning of a period of legal scrutiny that would ultimately lead to her appearance before the court.
The documentation surrounding Elspeth’s case, preserved in the trial records as T/LA/597, situates her experience within the broader patterns of the Scottish witch trials that characterized this era. As a married woman residing in the rural north, her identification in the record underscores the reach of the Kirk sessions and the secular courts into the lives of local parishioners during this volatile time. The procedural trail left by the authorities confirms that Elspeth remained at the heart of these proceedings throughout the winter of 1628, as the judicial mechanisms of the time processed her case through the necessary legal channels.