In February 1645, the legal machinery of the Scottish kirk and state turned its attention toward Africk Elam, a married woman residing in Knockibae, Wigtown. While contemporary records occasionally transposed her name, appearing as Elam Africk in some documents, the Registers of the Privy Council and the local presbytery records consistently identify her as Africk. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1304, emerged during a period of intense ecclesiastical and judicial scrutiny concerning matters of witchcraft throughout the region.
The subsequent proceedings against Africk moved through the formal mechanisms of the seventeenth-century legal system, culminating in a trial recorded under reference T/LA/1095. As with many cases of this era, the involvement of the presbytery suggests a process deeply rooted in the moral and religious oversight of the local community. Through these administrative archives, the trajectory of Africk’s experience is preserved, reflecting the intersection of local parish life and the broader efforts of the Scottish authorities to address accusations of diabolical influence during the mid-seventeenth century.