In the late autumn of 1607, Bartie Patersoune, a 61-year-old tasker residing in Newbattle, found himself at the center of a protracted legal process concerning the crime of witchcraft. Though some later historical indexes misidentified his occupation as a tailor, contemporary records affirm his role as a pieceworker, a man of lower socioeconomic standing whose livelihood depended on the labor he could perform. The seriousness with which the authorities viewed his case is evidenced by the frequency of his examinations; between September 3rd and December 18th of that year, Bartie was subjected to at least six separate sessions of interrogation, each resulting in a recorded confession.
These legal proceedings culminated in a trial in Edinburgh on December 18, 1607, where the court found Bartie guilty of the charges brought against him. Following the delivery of the verdict, the sentence was carried out with the procedural gravity typical of the period: he was taken to Castle Hill, where he was strangled and subsequently burned. The sequence of his repeated interrogations and his ultimate execution reflects the rigorous, if often devastating, application of the Scottish Witchcraft Act during the early 17th century.