In the summer of 1629, the legal records of Haddington documented the case of Thomas Carfra, an individual residing within the royal burgh. On the first of August, Thomas was formally identified in the judicial proceedings registered under reference C/EGD/1123. The nature of these proceedings placed him at the center of a witchcraft inquiry, an environment shaped by the statutory framework established in the Scottish Parliament’s 1563 Act, which empowered local authorities to investigate and prosecute those suspected of practicing maleficium.
Following the initial record of his case, Thomas was subsequently brought to trial under the reference T/LA/736. While the extant documentation remains sparse regarding the specific depositions or the testimony of his accusers, the mere entry of these references confirms his involvement in the formal judicial processes that defined the mid-period of the Scottish witch hunts. For Thomas, the late summer of 1629 marked a transition from a resident of Haddington to a figure inscribed within the historical ledger of the nation's seventeenth-century criminal courts.