In November 1628, Helen Gow, a married woman of middling socioeconomic status residing in the burgh of Tain, Ross, became the subject of legal proceedings concerning the crime of witchcraft. Helen was married to a cordiner, a skilled tradesman who worked in leather and shoemaking, placing their household within the established urban merchant and craft society of the region. Little is known of the specific events that precipitated her arrest, but the archival record (C/EGD/1053) confirms that the judicial process against her was initiated on the 18th of November, marking the commencement of a formal inquiry into her conduct.
Following the initial registration of her case, the legal machinery moved forward to a trial under the classification T/LA/596. In the context of seventeenth-century Scotland, such proceedings often involved the local kirk session or burgh magistrates gathering testimonies regarding alleged maleficium or supernatural associations. For Helen, this transition from an accused individual to a defendant within the Scottish judicial system highlights the serious legal scrutiny applied to those suspected of witchcraft during this era. Her experience serves as a focused example of the administrative rigour and the social reach of the courts in Ross as they navigated the complexities of late-Renaissance supernatural litigation.