In February 1662, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned toward Jonet Morison, an indweller of Gourock in the parish of Inverkip, Renfrewshire. As a married woman of middling socioeconomic status, Jonet occupied a position of relative stability within her community before her inclusion in the Register of the Privy Council (RPC). Her case, documented under the reference C/EGD/1417, emerged during a period of intense judicial scrutiny regarding allegations of witchcraft that frequently swept through the west of Scotland.
The formal proceedings against Jonet progressed from her initial identification to a trial recorded under reference T/JO/876. On 13 February 1662, the legal record marks the specific moment at which she was brought into the sphere of the central authorities. As a resident of the Inverkip area—a region that saw heightened attention from the kirk sessions and secular courts during the mid-seventeenth century—the circumstances surrounding Jonet reflect the broader administrative efforts to address reported supernatural malfeasance through the formal processes of the Scottish criminal justice system.