The historical record of Janet Carnecroce offers a stark glimpse into the late summer of 1649, a period marked by an intense surge in witch-hunting activity across the Scottish Lowlands. Residing in Lystoun, within the parish of Humbie in Haddingtonshire, Janet was one of six individuals from the community caught in the machinery of legal proceedings during that turbulent month. The administrative records identify her as a subject of judicial inquiry, with her case formally registered on August 16, 1649, under reference C/EGD/1622.
The documentation suggests a swift progression from interrogation to record-keeping. On August 15, 1649—the day preceding the formal registration of her case—a confession was officially recorded in Janet’s name. While the specific content of this confession and the particulars of her eventual trial (catalogued under T/JO/132) remain absent from the surviving archival fragments, her story remains inextricably linked to the collective ordeal of those accused alongside her in Humbie. Janet exists in the historical record as a person defined by this brief, documented moment of legal confrontation, providing a silent testimony to the mechanisms of justice in seventeenth-century East Lothian.