In the summer of 1649, legal records identify Marion Richesone as a resident of Longniddry in the county of Haddington. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1321, became part of the judicial landscape on June 8, 1649. During this period, the Scottish legal system was heavily engaged in the prosecution of those suspected of maleficium, and Marion was drawn into this administrative machinery as part of the broader wave of trials that swept through the region during that decade.
Following the initial record of her case, further documentation (T/LA/1063) confirms that Marion was subjected to the formal processes of a trial. As was customary in the mid-seventeenth century, the proceedings involved the rigorous examination of the accused by local and regional authorities, placing her within the documented history of the witch trials in East Lothian. The records provide a stark account of the legal engagement with Marion, capturing the bureaucratic reality of her experience before the court during that tumultuous year.