In the late summer of 1644, Mary Cunningham, a fifty-year-old widow from Cheapelland in Culross, found herself ensnared in the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials. Alongside her daughter, Mary faced accusations that prompted her initial arrest and imprisonment. During this period of confinement, she was subjected to the use of irons—a standard instrument of control and discomfort used during judicial detention. While a local trial in Culross on August 28, 1644, resulted in a verdict of "not proven," her ordeal was far from over. The local authorities, dissatisfied with the outcome and claiming the local procurator fiscal lacked the necessary legal expertise to secure a conviction, successfully petitioned the Lord Advocate to oversee a second trial in Edinburgh.
The legal proceedings were marked by significant friction between Mary and the bailies of Culross. In a petition dated August 6, 1644, Mary and her daughter alleged that these local officials had actively harassed those who attempted to provide a defense for them, an intimidation tactic she claimed was motivated by the bailies’ desire to seize possession of her lands and yards. The Privy Council intervened, granting their request for release and authorizing an investigation into the conduct of the bailies. Despite this temporary reprieve, the subsequent judicial trajectory under the Lord Advocate underscores the relentless nature of the scrutiny Mary faced, illustrating the complex and often adversarial relationship between the accused and local power structures during the seventeenth century.