In the spring of 1662, the legal machinery of the Isle of Bute turned its attention toward Jonet McIllmartine, a married woman whose life would become inextricably bound up in the judicial proceedings of that year. Recorded also as NcIllMartine, Jonet appears in the archival records of the period under case C/EGD/1544, with formal proceedings initiated on May 7, 1662. Her involvement in the witch trials of the era was marked by the weight of testimony, as she was denounced by several contemporaries, including Amy Hindman (also recorded as Hyndman), Kathrine Frissell, Mary Frissell, Mary NcNivan, and Jonet NcIntyre.
The legal process against Jonet proceeded through two distinct trial sessions, identified in the records as T/JO/1885 and T/JO/1897. Central to these proceedings was a confession recorded in 1662, a document that served as a pivotal component of the state’s case against her. While the records illuminate the connections between Jonet and her accusers within the community of Bute, they remain focused on the procedural milestones of her detention and trial, marking her as one of the many individuals caught within the intensive scrutiny of the mid-seventeenth-century Scottish courts.