On November 12, 1597, the judicial machinery of late sixteenth-century Edinburgh turned toward Jonet Stewart, a resident of the Canongate. Her legal proceedings, recorded under case reference C/EGD/131, were initiated amidst a period of heightened judicial scrutiny regarding the practice of witchcraft. The primary charge brought against Jonet centered on her participation in a "witches' meeting," a conventional yet grave accusation during this era that implied a clandestine assembly and the subversion of communal order. The weight of this indictment was further compounded by her involvement in the wider legal proceedings of the period; her name surfaced in the testimonies of Michael Clark and John Damiet, both of whom identified Jonet as an accomplice in their own trials.
Following the judicial process held in Edinburgh on that same day, the court returned a verdict of guilty. The sentence carried out was the standard capital penalty for the crime of witchcraft in Scotland: Jonet was taken to Castle Hill, where she was subjected to the method of strangulation and burning. The finality of her execution underscores the severity with which the authorities of 1597 viewed associations involving allegations of occult gatherings, cementing her place within the documented history of the Scottish witch trials.
