On March 24, 1629, the legal apparatus of the early seventeenth-century Scottish judicial system turned its attention toward Alexander Hunter, a landless vagabond residing in the burgh of Haddington. Recorded under case file C/EGD/1096, Alexander appears in the historical record as an individual existing on the precarious fringes of a society increasingly concerned with the regulation of its transient population. Lacking the stability of landed property or a fixed trade, his social position left him particularly vulnerable to the scrutiny of local authorities during a period when the intersection of poverty and perceived deviance was often a precursor to formal accusation.
Following the initial registration of his case, the administrative process moved toward a formal trial under reference T/LA/641. The progression from an initial identification to a scheduled judicial proceeding reflects the systematic nature of the Scottish witch trials, which frequently drew those without social standing into the courtroom. For Alexander, the transition from vagrancy in Haddington to the gravity of a trial for witchcraft marked a critical juncture in his life, placing his fate firmly within the hands of the contemporary legal structures tasked with adjudicating such grave charges.