In February 1662, Jonet Staig, an indweller of the parish of Collesie in Fife, became the focus of judicial scrutiny regarding her alleged involvement in witchcraft. Records from the period identify her as a woman of middling socioeconomic status, suggesting that she held a recognized place within her community prior to the onset of the legal proceedings. The charges brought against Jonet were severe, specifically centered on the accusation of a demonic pact—a central tenet in the prosecution of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland.
The legal process moved with relative swiftness during this period of heightened anxiety. Following the formal initiation of the case (C/EGD/1450) on the 2nd of February, 1662, a confession was secured from Jonet later that same month. While the documentation in the subsequent trial record (T/JO/864) does not provide a narrative of the specific proceedings or the eventual outcome, the existence of a recorded confession marks a critical juncture in the archival evidence. Her case remains a distinct example of the judicial interventions that defined the landscape of the Scottish witch trials in the mid-seventeenth century.