In the winter of 1630, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned toward the Hill of Tillicarie in Aberdeen, where a 45-year-old man named Andrew Abel was brought to answer for his conduct. By the time of his appearance on January 12, 1630, Andrew had been a fixture in his local community for two decades. However, this longevity did not work in his favor; the judicial record indicates that he had carried a persistent reputation for witchcraft for the duration of that twenty-year period.
The case, cataloged in the judicial archives as C/EGD/1172, marks the formal intersection between Andrew's long-standing notoriety and the ecclesiastical and secular authorities of the day. Following his initial appearance, the matter proceeded to a formal trial, recorded as T/LA/619. While the brevity of these records reflects the stark nature of seventeenth-century administrative practice, they capture a significant moment in the life of a man whose standing in Tillicarie had been defined, for half of his life, by the accusations that eventually led him into the courtroom.