In the autumn of 1649, the judicial machinery of the Scottish witch trials reached into the parish of Borthwick, near Edinburgh, to apprehend a woman named Margaret Dick. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1653, proceeded through the local ecclesiastical and civil authorities during a period of heightened intensity regarding the prosecution of witchcraft. The archival record indicates that legal proceedings against Margaret moved from her initial accusation on September 27, 1649, toward a formal trial under the reference T/LA/1986.
The progression of the case against Margaret remains preserved through the existence of her confession records. While the specific content of her testimony remains within the formal registers, the act of confession was a critical component of the mid-seventeenth-century judicial process. By the time her trial concluded, Margaret had provided a statement that was transcribed into the official record, marking her case as a documented entry in the broader history of the 1563–1736 witch hunts in Scotland.