In the spring of 1629, the life of Margaret Alexander of Pickiltillane, Haddington, took a precarious turn when she was formally denounced as a witch by Alexander Hamilton, an individual himself identified in legal records as a warlock. This denunciation placed Margaret under immediate scrutiny within the judicial climate of early seventeenth-century Scotland. Her name subsequently surfaced in multiple legal contexts, appearing in the trial records of both Hamilton and Agnes Lawder, where she was categorized by her peers as a known practitioner of witchcraft.
By the time the judicial machinery formally addressed her case under reference C/EGD/1136 on February 3, 1630, the legal proceedings had reached an abrupt conclusion. Historical documentation indicates that no trial ever took place, as Margaret had died before any formal procedures could be enacted against her. Consequently, while her name remains preserved in the records of the Haddington witch trials, the accusations brought against her by Hamilton and others never underwent the scrutiny of a courtroom, leaving her brief historical footprint defined solely by the denouncements of her contemporaries.
