In the summer of 1677, Margaret Paterson, a resident of Duntocher in the parish of Old Kilpatrick, Dunbarton, found herself caught within the mechanisms of the Scottish judicial system. On 21 June 1677, Margaret was formally brought to the attention of the authorities, an event recorded in the legal annals as case C/EGD/1752. This period was one in which the apprehension of individuals for alleged witchcraft remained a persistent, albeit declining, feature of the Scottish social and legal landscape, deeply intertwined with the religious and communal pressures of seventeenth-century life.
The archival trail concerning Margaret concludes with a reference to trial T/JO/624. Despite the existence of this official record, no detailed accounts of the proceedings, the nature of the specific allegations, or the eventual outcome of the trial have survived. Consequently, Margaret remains a figure defined by the brief, cold formality of administrative registration, representing one of the many lives touched by the intersection of local suspicion and the reach of the High Court of Justiciary during this tumultuous era.