In the late summer of 1644, the ecclesiastical and legal authorities in Abercorn, Linlithgow, turned their attention toward Christiane Melvill. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1298, centered upon accusations of participation in a witches’ meeting, an allegation that carried severe consequences within the climate of seventeenth-century Scottish judicial proceedings. The records from the local presbytery, where her name was occasionally noted as "Mealing," illustrate a broader network of suspicion, as Christiane’s name emerged repeatedly through the testimonies of others. She was specifically denounced by Margaret Young and identified as a known witch by both Isobel Young and Helen Hill, linking her to a web of community-wide finger-pointing that was characteristic of the era’s intensive witch-hunting efforts.
Following these denunciations, the legal process moved with relative speed. Under the terms of trial T/JO/524, the proceedings against Christiane culminated in a verdict that mandated the capital punishment typical for such convictions at the time. Before the year 1644 concluded, she was executed by burning. The brevity of the archival record, which captures only the date of the charge, the names of her accusers, and the finality of her execution, reflects the somber resolution of a case that saw Christiane caught in the intersections of local reputation and formal legal intervention.