In August of 1629, the legal apparatus of Lanark focused its attention on Margaret Haistie, a widow of modest means residing in the Welgait. At this time, Margaret was formally processed through the judicial system under the designation C/EGD/1100. As a woman of lower socioeconomic status living in a period of intense ecclesiastical and civil scrutiny, her circumstances drew her into the records of the local courts, marking the beginning of a process that would involve multiple levels of the Scottish legal system.
The subsequent documentation of her case is evidenced by two distinct trial records, T/JO/2170 and T/LA/700, which delineate the progression of her legal ordeal. Throughout these proceedings, Margaret remained the subject of an investigation that traversed both local and higher judicial venues. While the specific nature of the allegations brought against her remains unstated in these archival summaries, the formal entry of her name into these registers confirms her status as an individual caught within the rigorous and often protracted witch-hunting procedures of early seventeenth-century Lanark.