In January 1662, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned toward Kinnaird, a small settlement in the parish of Abdie, Fife. There, a woman named Margret Bell was apprehended under suspicion of witchcraft. Her case, documented under the reference C/EGD/1431, reflects the intensifying focus of local authorities during a period of significant judicial volatility in the region. By the 23rd of that month, the formal proceedings against her were well underway, marking her entry into the official records of the Justiciary Court.
Shortly after her initial designation as a suspect, Margret provided a formal statement to the authorities. On the 1st of January 1662, a confession was recorded, serving as a primary component of the evidence presented against her in trial T/JO/844. While the surviving archive provides no further narrative detail regarding the specific content of her admissions or the circumstances of the courtroom proceedings, the existence of this confession underscores the gravity with which the court regarded her case. Margret’s experience remains a stark illustration of the late seventeenth-century judicial response to allegations of maleficium in rural Fife.