In the final month of 1629, the life of Janet Bishop, a resident of the parish of Penicuik, Edinburgh, came to a sudden and irrevocable conclusion within the legal machinery of the Scottish state. Although the archival record offers few intimate details regarding her background or the specific allegations brought against her, her case was processed with grim efficiency during the December sessions of the Edinburgh courts. Her name first appears in the records of the Privy Council of Scotland alongside one other individual, suggesting that her legal entanglement was part of a broader judicial scrutiny occurring in the region at that time.
By late December 1629, the proceedings against Janet had reached their final resolution. Although the particulars of her testimony and the testimonies provided against her remain absent from the surviving documentation, the judicial outcome was absolute. Janet was sentenced to death and subsequently executed by burning, a sentence carried out in the company of two other unnamed individuals. This dual status—her mention in Privy Council deliberations followed by her joint execution—serves as a stark illustration of the collective nature of many early modern Scottish witch trials, where the legal processes of the capital intersected decisively with the lives of women from the surrounding shires.