In the summer of 1661, Jonnet Nidrie, a resident of the village of Gilmerton in the parish of Liberton, near Edinburgh, found herself drawn into the judicial machinery of the Scottish witch trials. On 28 June of that year, formal proceedings were initiated against her, recorded in the legal archives as case C/EGD/1598. Like many of her contemporaries brought before the local authorities during this intense period of persecution, Jonnet’s situation reflected the broader anxieties and legal rigor that characterized the Scottish approach to allegations of maleficium and pacts with the demonic.
Following the initial registration of her case, Jonnet was processed through the established judicial system, appearing under trial reference T/JO/430. While the surviving records provide limited insight into the specific depositions or testimonies leveled against her, the existence of these entries confirms her formal inclusion in the state-sanctioned inquiries of the mid-seventeenth century. Her movement from the rural community of Gilmerton to the courtroom highlights the gravity with which such accusations were handled by the Scottish kirk sessions and civil courts during this tumultuous era.