At fifty years of age, Margaret Burges occupied a prominent, if complex, position within the community of Nether Cramond. Known by the honorific “Lady Dalyell”—a title derived from her first marriage to the indweller John Dalyell—she lived with her second husband, a boatman, and maintained a status that historians classify as middling. Her household was deeply embedded in local commerce; she held land by lease and was a figure familiar enough in village life that the poor regularly sought charity at her door. Yet, this social visibility brought its own frictions. Described in the records as a “marnet,” her life was marked by the practical demands of an active estate, evidenced by a peculiar legal complication involving a lease she claimed had been destroyed by a dog.
The events that led to her final legal reckoning began with a confrontation over reputation. In late 1628, Margaret sought to clear her name by pursuing a slander case against those who had accused her of witchcraft. However, the litigation backfired; the Kirk session of Cramond found the testimony provided by the defendants more compelling than her own. This skepticism from the local ecclesiastical authorities escalated rapidly, leading the Kirk session to apply for a commission of justiciary from the Privy Council. Following a denunciation on October 12, 1628, a dittay was prepared against her in November. By January 21, 1629, an assize had been summoned, and on January 27, she was found guilty. Margaret was subsequently taken to Castle Hill in Edinburgh, where her life was ended by the standard method of the period: she was strangled and burned.