In the late summer of 1630, the judicial machinery of the Scottish state turned its attention toward a woman named Janet McGillichoan. A resident of Chanonrie in Ross—a settlement of religious and administrative significance on the Black Isle—Janet became the subject of a formal process documented under case file C/EGD/1239. The records surrounding her life at this time are sparse but precise, anchoring her existence to a specific legal proceeding initiated on the 9th of August, 1630.
Following the initial investigation, the matter against Janet progressed to a trial, cataloged in the records as T/JO/2189. While the broader social anxieties surrounding witchcraft in the early modern period often left behind voluminous depositions of alleged malefice or pacts with the devil, the archives for Janet provide a rare, stark view of the administrative rigor of the era. Her journey through the presbytery of Chanonry remains a testament to the intersection of ecclesiastical authority and judicial practice that defined the pursuit of those accused of supernatural crimes during the reign of Charles I.