In the early winter of 1629, the legal apparatus of the Scottish state focused its attention upon a woman from Ross named Marie nein eane Eir. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1078, emerged amidst a period of heightened judicial activity concerning the crime of witchcraft, which had been codified under the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563. On January 20, 1629, Marie was formally identified in the judicial records, marking the beginning of a process that would transition her from a private citizen of Ross to a subject of the high court’s scrutiny.
The subsequent proceedings against Marie are preserved in the trial records under the designation T/LA/622. These documents provide the formal framework for her appearance before the authorities, capturing the moment where the allegations against her were codified into legal history. While the specific nature of the charges brought against Marie remains confined to these archival entries, her case serves as a singular, recorded instance of the formal prosecution of women in the Highlands during the seventeenth century, illustrating the rigid bureaucratic procedures that governed the lives and fates of those accused of supernatural crimes.