In August 1662, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned toward Bessie Watson, a resident of Cromarty. Her involvement in the judicial process began in the preceding month, when she provided a formal confession to authorities. While the specific content of her statements remains unrecorded in the surviving documentation, the act of confession was a critical pivot in the proceedings of this period, often serving as the primary basis for the formal opening of a case.
Following this confession, the legal record C/EGD/1691 documents the official pursuit of the case against Bessie on the first of August 1662. Although a subsequent trial entry (T/JO/1013) exists within the archives, it provides no further details regarding the nature of the testimony, the witnesses called, or the ultimate verdict delivered in her matter. The surviving documents thus preserve only the skeleton of her ordeal: an initial admission made in July, followed by a formal trial proceeding in the high summer of 1662.