In the spring of 1661, Jonet Maissone, a resident of the village of Samuelston in Haddingtonshire, became the subject of legal proceedings under the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts. Her case, documented within the records of the High Court of Justiciary (C/EGD/25), officially commenced on May 3, 1661. At this time, Scotland was experiencing a notable resurgence in witch-hunting activity, and individuals across the Lowlands were increasingly brought before commissions to answer for allegations of maleficium and communion with the diabolical.
The legal journey for Jonet involved multiple appearances within the judicial system, as indicated by the subsequent trial records (T/JO/1797 and T/JO/2167). While these archival entries serve primarily to mark her formal progression through the court, they reflect the bureaucratic machinery established to process such accusations during the mid-seventeenth century. Though the specific nature of the charges brought against her remains obscured by the brevity of the surviving documentation, these records confirm Jonet's presence within a judicial process that defined the lived experience of many accused women in Haddington during this period of intense scrutiny.