In the early winter of 1662, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned toward Cirstine Ballantyne, a resident of the Isle of Bute. Recorded variously in administrative documents as Ballantine and Bannatine, she was brought before the authorities on January 28, 1662. This case, indexed under the reference C/EGD/1542, highlights the localized nature of the judicial proceedings that characterized this period of Scottish history, where the intersection of community suspicion and the burgeoning legal apparatus frequently resulted in formal examinations.
The documentation of the trial, cataloged as T/JO/1891, marks Cirstine’s formal entanglement with the justice system of the seventeenth century. As with many individuals brought under similar scrutiny during the heightened activity of 1662, Cirstine was subjected to the specific procedural rigors of the era’s criminal courts. By examining the records of her case, historians gain a clearer view of the legal process in Bute, illustrating how the administrative recording of such trials served as a primary mechanism for documenting the lives and fates of those caught within the witch-hunting climate of the late seventeenth century.