In the summer of 1661, the legal machinery of the Scottish state focused its attention upon Susanna Baillie, an indweller of the parish of Liberton, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Identified in the records as a woman of middling socioeconomic status, Susanna’s position within her community suggests a life defined by the typical rhythms of seventeenth-century parish life before she became the subject of a formal judicial inquiry. On 13 June 1661, the process against her was initiated under the reference C/EGD/1590, marking the beginning of a legal ordeal that would extend well into the following decades.
The trajectory of the case suggests a protracted administrative history, as legal proceedings concerning such charges were rarely swift. Almost half a century after the initial case was opened, the trial record associated with Susanna (T/JO/1708) indicates that her name remained preserved within the registers of the High Court of Justiciary. While the records provide little detail regarding the specific depositions or testimony brought against her, the existence of these entries underscores the formal gravity with which the authorities treated the accusations leveled against a woman of her standing in the mid-seventeenth century.