In September 1649, Jonet Speid, a resident of Newton near Edinburgh, found herself at the centre of a legal process that would see her name entered into the official records of the Scottish witch trials. The case, identified in the judicial archives as C/EGD/1648, moved forward with notable speed; within the same month that the proceedings were initiated, Jonet was subjected to an examination that resulted in a formal confession.
While the specific details of the trial notes (T/JO/352) have not survived to provide insight into the testimonies brought against her or the nature of her testimony, the survival of her confession from September 1649 confirms the weight of the ecclesiastical and civil scrutiny she faced. As with many individuals caught in the machinery of the 1563–1736 witch hunts, Jonet’s case reflects the gravity of the legal procedures of the era, marking her as a documented participant in one of the most turbulent periods of early modern Scottish judicial history.