In September 1649, the judicial machinery of seventeenth-century Scotland turned its attention to Isobel Keith, a resident of Keithmarshall in Haddington. Her encounter with the authorities was formally initiated on the 7th of September, marking the commencement of proceedings that would see her name entered into the legal archives under case reference C/EGD/1634. During this period, the mechanisms of the Scottish state, often in conjunction with local kirk sessions, maintained a rigorous oversight of communities to identify those suspected of engaging in occult practices.
Following her apprehension, Isobel was subjected to the legal processes of the era, which culminated in the recording of a formal confession. The existence of this document, preserved within the trial records (T/LA/1968), represents the definitive account of the proceedings against her. While the historical record provides limited detail regarding the specific nature of the allegations, the preservation of her confession confirms that Isobel was held to account by the contemporary legal and religious frameworks of Haddington, reflecting the broader social anxieties and judicial practices prevalent in Scotland during the mid-seventeenth century.