In the spring of 1662, Elspeth Bell, a resident of the coastal town of Eyemouth in Berwickshire, found herself at the centre of a formal legal process regarding the crime of witchcraft. The records indicate that the authorities initiated proceedings against her on 4 March 1662, under the reference number C/EGD/1467. While the specific details of the allegations brought against her remain obscured by the limitations of the surviving trial notes (T/JO/888), the trajectory of her case follows the established judicial patterns of the period.
Prior to her official trial date, Elspeth had already undergone interrogation. A confession was formally recorded by the authorities in February 1662, marking a critical stage in the legal handling of her case. As was common in mid-seventeenth-century Scotland, the recording of this testimony served as a foundational element in the proceedings against her. Although the archives offer no further information regarding the outcome of the trial or the ultimate fate of Elspeth, her name remains preserved in the historical register as a participant in the intense ecclesiastical and secular scrutiny that characterised the witch-hunting era in the Scottish Borders.