In the winter of 1629, the judicial machinery of early modern Scotland turned toward the parish of Saltoun in Haddington, where Bessie Make became the subject of a formal legal inquiry. On the 20th of January, record C/EGD/1080 was opened, documenting the specific charges brought against her under the prevailing statutes concerning witchcraft. As a resident of a community governed by both kirk session discipline and the authority of the central courts, Bessie found herself thrust into a formal process that sought to test the moral and spiritual boundaries of her village life.
The subsequent proceedings against Bessie were codified under trial reference T/LA/627, marking her transition from a member of the Saltoun community to a defendant within the Scottish legal system. While the surviving records capture the administrative necessity of documenting her case, they also underscore the gravity with which the authorities approached such accusations during this period. Through these remaining administrative markers, the historical record preserves the singular movement of Bessie into the crucible of the seventeenth-century courtroom.