In 1649, Janet Castell was identified as a subject of legal proceedings regarding witchcraft in the coastal burgh of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. During this period, the Scottish legal system was marked by a heightened sensitivity to allegations of maleficium, as local kirk sessions and civil magistrates grappled with the perceived influence of demonic intervention within their parishes. The record of Janet’s case, indexed as C/EGD/1811, positions her within the broader framework of the mid-seventeenth-century witch hunts that surged across the northeast of Scotland, a region where anxieties concerning spiritual purity and communal order often found expression in formal accusations.
The surviving documentation for Janet provides limited insight into the specific grievances or testimonies brought against her, marking her experience as one of many such cases that populated the judicial landscape of the Aberdeenshire region during the mid-1600s. While the details of her interactions with the courts remain confined to the archival record of her prosecution, Janet stands as a representative figure of the individuals who were swept into the rigorous investigative processes of the era. Her case remains a formal component of the historical study of the 1563–1736 period, reflecting the administrative thoroughness with which authorities in Fraserburgh addressed matters of suspected diabolism.