In September 1649, Janet Robertsone, a resident of the parish of Carriden in Linlithgow, found herself at the centre of a formal legal proceeding regarding the charge of witchcraft. Her case, documented under the reference C/EGD/1636, unfolded during a period of heightened judicial activity surrounding such accusations in Scotland. The records indicate that the legal process followed the established administrative channels of the time, moving from the initial registration of her case to a trial, designated as T/LA/1976.
Central to the proceedings against Janet was the documentation of her own testimony. The historical record confirms that a formal confession was extracted from her and subsequently recorded as part of her judicial file. While the specific content of these admissions remains bound to the formal transcripts of the court, the existence of this confession marks a significant component of her legal experience. By early autumn of that year, Janet’s narrative—as captured by the officials of Linlithgow—became a permanent part of the archival history of early modern Scottish witchcraft.