In August 1649, Patrick Andersone, a resident of Paistoun in the parish of Ormiston, became caught in the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials. Alongside one other unnamed individual, Patrick faced accusations that culminated in a formal legal process under the jurisdiction of Edinburgh. The climate of the era, marked by intense judicial scrutiny of those suspected of supernatural transgression, brought him before the authorities during a period when such charges were frequently pursued with administrative rigor.
Following his initial accusation, a confession was recorded from Patrick on the 16th of August 1649. While the surviving documentation of his subsequent trial (T/JO/349) does not preserve the specific testimony or the final outcome of the proceedings, the existence of a recorded confession confirms that he engaged with the court’s requirements during the interrogation process. His case remains a documented entry within the 1623 court series, reflecting the procedural formality that characterized the pursuit of witchcraft allegations in mid-seventeenth-century Scotland.