In December 1629, Margaret Cuthbertson, a resident of Penicuik near Edinburgh, became caught in the machinery of the Scottish legal system during a period of heightened judicial activity regarding witchcraft. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1161, reveals that she was named within a formal commission alongside one other individual, a standard administrative procedure for initiating the prosecution of suspected practitioners of malefice. While the specific nature of the accusations brought against her remains unrecorded, the legal process moved with relative haste during the final weeks of that year.
Margaret’s path through the judiciary culminated in a trial held in Edinburgh, recorded under T/JO/331. Although the archival materials contain no surviving transcript or testimony regarding the proceedings themselves, the outcome was definitive. Following the court’s judgment, Margaret was sentenced to death. She was executed by burning in December 1629, meeting her end alongside two other individuals whose identities remain linked to her final hours.