In the late summer of 1629, the legal apparatus of seventeenth-century Scotland turned its attention toward Isobel Quhyte, a married woman residing in the settlement of Auchuren, Lanark. On August 1st of that year, records indicate that Isobel was formally accused of witchcraft under case number C/EGD/1112. At this time, the judicial process for such allegations was highly structured, involving the mobilization of both local and central authorities to investigate charges that were often inextricably linked to the community’s social and religious tensions.
Following her initial designation as a suspect, the documentation confirms that Isobel was subject to formal proceedings. Her case progressed through multiple levels of the judicial system, as evidenced by entries in both the Justiciary Court records (T/JO/2182) and the specific Lanarkshire legal filings (T/LA/701). These entries mark the trajectory of a process that, by 1629, had become a defining feature of the Scottish legal landscape, subjecting women like Isobel to the rigorous scrutiny of the kirk sessions and the courts of the realm.