The legal proceedings against Jonnet Cleghorne, a resident of Niddry in the parish of Liberton, Edinburgh, are formally preserved within the Scottish judicial archives under case reference C/EGD/1594. The administrative timeline of her involvement with the courts began in the summer of 1661, with a record date of 28 June noted for the proceedings. While the documentation captures the bureaucratic framework of the mid-seventeenth-century judicial system, it also highlights the intersection of local parish life and the centralized mechanisms of the Scottish state during a period of intensified scrutiny regarding allegations of maleficium.
The trial itself, cataloged under reference T/JO/1657, underscores the extended period during which the legal process moved through the ecclesiastical and secular courts. By tracking Jonnet’s case from the initial registration in 1661 back to the archival designation of 1657, historians can observe how accusations of witchcraft were handled within the Liberton community. These records serve as a vital testament to Jonnet’s experience within the Scottish legal tradition, reflecting the specific procedural complexities that defined the life and trial of a woman accused under the statutes of 1563.