In January 1662, Margret Philp, a resident of the burgh of Newburgh in Fife, was drawn into the judicial machinery of the Scottish witch trials. The records indicate that her case, catalogued under reference C/EGD/1440, reached a critical juncture on the 23rd of that month. Like many caught in the fervor of this period, Margret was subjected to the formal investigative processes of the seventeenth-century kirk and state, a sequence of events that rapidly transitioned from initial accusation to legal scrutiny.
Following her apprehension, Margret provided a confession that was formally recorded during that same month. While the specific nature of the allegations brought against her and the subsequent proceedings of her trial (T/JO/849) remain obscured by the brevity of the surviving documentation, the existence of the signed confession serves as a stark testament to the administrative rigor of the period. This brief archival trace captures the entirety of the documented legal experience for Margret, marking her participation in a judicial process that defined the lived reality for many women in Fife during the height of the mid-century witch hunts.