In the summer of 1661, Katharine Purdie, a resident of Niddry in the parish of Liberton, near Edinburgh, was drawn into the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials. Her case, documented under the reference C/EGD/1592, identifies her as a woman living within a community that was increasingly preoccupied with the perceived manifestations of witchcraft. While the records are sparse, they anchor Katharine within a specific administrative timeline, noting that her legal proceedings culminated on June 28, 1661, following a trial process recorded under T/JO/1658.
The transition of Katharine from a local resident to a subject of judicial inquiry reflects the broader patterns of seventeenth-century Scottish social and legal oversight. The formal documentation of her trial indicates that her case was processed through the established judicial channels of the period, which sought to address allegations through institutional frameworks. By capturing these distinct reference points, the records provide a clear, albeit brief, account of her interaction with the authorities during one of the most concentrated periods of witch-hunting in early modern Scotland.