In the spring of 1650, the authorities in Crawford—a parish then formally recorded as Craufurddouglas—initiated legal proceedings against Marion Hunter. The records of the High Court of Justiciary (C/EGD/1818) document that the charges brought against Marion centered upon her alleged participation in a meeting of witches. Such accusations were significant in the context of mid-seventeenth-century Lanark, where the local ecclesiastical and judicial frameworks were highly sensitized to reports of clandestine assemblies.
The documentary trail concerning Marion reveals a sequence of legal engagement that began several months before her trial. On January 10, 1650, a confession was formally recorded in her name, a document that served as the primary instrument of the prosecution. Her involvement in these events was further cemented by the testimony of Marion Watsone, who named Hunter as an accomplice during the proceedings of her own trial. Following these developments, Marion Hunter appeared before the court on April 18, 1650 (T/JO/1118), to face the gravity of the allegations levied against her.