In the early months of 1629, the local authorities in the parish of Bowden, Selkirk, turned their attention to a woman named Bessie Cumroy. The surviving records of the Scottish judicial system, specifically documented under case file C/EGD/1089, formalize the administrative proceedings initiated against her on the 24th of February. At this time, the legal machinery concerning allegations of witchcraft was frequently activated at the parish level, reflecting the intersection of kirk discipline and the secular courts that characterized the period.
Following this initial legal filing, the administrative process advanced to the trial stage, recorded under reference T/LA/654. While the specific nature of the accusations brought against Bessie remains bound within the brevity of the court’s ledger, the existence of these documents confirms that she was subject to the rigorous scrutiny of the Scottish legal system during a peak period of witch-hunting activity. Through these surviving references, the history of Bessie is preserved as a formal entry in the seventeenth-century records of the Scottish Border region.