In June 1630, Janet Herries, a resident of Stelingtree in Dumfries, found herself at the centre of a formal legal proceeding under case reference C/EGD/1222. At a time when the Scottish legal system was increasingly preoccupied with the investigation and prosecution of witchcraft, Janet was brought before the authorities to answer for allegations that placed her within the complex judicial framework of the period. The documentation of her encounter with the law remains preserved in the historical record, marking her as one of the many individuals caught in the systemic reach of the early seventeenth-century Scottish courts.
Following the initial registration of the case on 1 June 1630, the administrative process moved toward trial under the reference T/LA/760. As Janet navigated the judicial requirements of the time, the court system in Dumfries functioned to process these grave accusations, subjecting her to the rigours of a formal trial. The surviving records of these proceedings serve as a somber testament to the legal experiences of those accused during this era, capturing the moment when Janet, a woman of Stelingtree, became a focal point of the local administration of justice.