In May 1649, Libra Watt, a resident of Grangepannes in the parish of Carriden, Linlithgow, found herself caught within the legal apparatus of the Scottish witch trials. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1608, began on the 11th of May, marking the formal initiation of proceedings against her by the local authorities. During this period, the mechanisms of the Scottish kirk and state were operating with heightened intensity, and Libra was subjected to the rigorous judicial processes typical of the era’s pursuit of those suspected of maleficium and diabolical pacts.
The trajectory of the proceedings against Libra moved swiftly toward a formal trial, recorded under reference T/LA/1952. Central to the judicial record of her case is the existence of a confession. While the specific contents of this admission remain within the archival documents of the period, the presence of such a record was a critical component in the legal determination of witchcraft cases in seventeenth-century Scotland. Following the recording of this confession, the legal process reached its conclusion, finalizing the account of Libra’s encounter with the Scottish justice system during a time of significant social and religious turbulence.