In September 1662, the legal proceedings against Jonet McClean, a married woman residing in Inverness, were formally recorded under case number C/EGD/1672. While the surviving trial notes (T/JO/986) remain sparse and offer no insight into the specific charges or the eventual outcome of her case, the documentation regarding her pre-trial incarceration provides a grim account of the methods employed by authorities. Throughout June 1662, Jonet was subjected to a rigorous and systematic regimen of physical coercion designed to elicit a confession.
The records detail a harrowing sequence of state-sanctioned interventions. Over the course of that month, Jonet was bound with ropes and experienced severe physical punishments, including the use of a whip, the burning of her feet, and being suspended by her thumbs. Furthermore, her captors enforced a period of sleep deprivation. These methods, utilized during the intense environment of the mid-17th-century witch trials in Scotland, reflect the harsh procedural realities faced by those accused during this period in Inverness.