In January 1662, Christian Cuthbertson, a resident of the burgh of Queensferry in Linlithgow, found herself caught within the mechanisms of the Scottish judicial system during a period of heightened concern regarding witchcraft. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1447, reached a critical juncture on the 23rd of that month, marking a formal entry into the records of the period’s legal proceedings.
Following the initial accusation, Christian provided a confession to the authorities, which was formally recorded during that same month. While the surviving trial notes—catalogued under T/JO/835—do not preserve the specific testimony or the nature of the charges brought against her, the existence of this confession confirms that she participated in the legal process required by the witch trials of the era. Her experience serves as a testament to the administrative rigor and the procedural atmosphere that defined the legal response to witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland.