In September 1678, Katharine Liddell, a widowed resident of Saltpreston in the parish of Prestonpans, found herself ensnared in the mechanisms of the Scottish judicial system regarding the charge of witchcraft. Her legal journey began months prior, as evidenced by records documenting her detention throughout the summer. As part of the proceedings recorded under case file C/EGD/1763, Katharine was subjected to the practice of sleep deprivation during July 1678. Such methods were frequently employed during this era as a means to extract confessions or information from those held in custody during the investigative phase of a trial.
The formal trial, catalogued under reference T/JO/598, serves as the final documented point in the official pursuit of her case. As a widow living in the Haddington region, Katharine existed within a social structure where the scrutiny of one’s neighbors and the authority of the local kirk and civil courts could converge rapidly. The archival records of her experience provide a stark account of the legal pressures brought to bear upon her during the late seventeenth century, reflecting the rigorous, and often coercive, nature of the seventeenth-century judicial response to allegations of witchcraft.