In the spring of 1629, the legal machinery of the Scottish judiciary turned its attention toward Margaret Semphill, a resident of Strafranke in the county of Lanark. On 15 April, her case was formally recorded under the reference C/EGD/1107, marking the beginning of a process that would subject her to the scrutiny of the state. Within the strict procedural framework of the early seventeenth century, such a registration was the first step in a sequence that sought to investigate claims of malevolent occult activity within the parish.
Following the initial record of the case, Margaret was brought to face the formal processes of the court, as evidenced by the subsequent entries under trial references T/JO/2177 and T/LA/713. While the primary documents focusing on her life in Strafranke and the specific legal proceedings against her offer a clinical account of the administrative burden of the witch trials, they stand as a testament to the intersection of Margaret’s life with the shifting ecclesiastical and civil powers of the period. These records preserve the essential details of her involvement in the judicial system, situating her experience within the broader historical tapestry of Lanarkshire’s legal history.