In February 1662, Beatrix Lyon, a married woman of middling socioeconomic status, was formally brought before the authorities to answer for the charge of witchcraft. A resident of Fynock in the parish of Inverkip, Renfrew, Beatrix was recognized in the contemporary Register of the Privy Council (RPC) as an indweller of the region. This designation positioned her within the established social fabric of her community at a time when the Scottish legal system was increasingly preoccupied with the investigation of maleficium and diabolical pacts.
The judicial proceedings against Beatrix were initiated under case reference C/EGD/1418, leading to her subsequent appearance in the trial records categorized under T/JO/875. As the legal mechanisms of the seventeenth-century Scottish courts moved to address the accusations levied against her, Beatrix remained the subject of formal inquiry by the state. The documentation preserved in these records serves as a stark testament to the administrative rigor applied to such cases during this period, marking her involvement in a wider legal process that sought to determine the nature and veracity of the claims brought against her in Inverkip.