In February 1650, the legal apparatus of seventeenth-century Scotland turned its attention toward Lillias Moffat, a resident of the parish of Craufurddouglas, near Crawford in Lanarkshire. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/1819, began on the 28th of that month, marking the commencement of a formal judicial process that would eventually lead to her appearance before the High Court of Justiciary. The records provide the sparse skeletal framework of these proceedings, placing Lillias within the volatile religious and social climate of the mid-seventeenth century, a period when local concerns frequently escalated into formal charges of witchcraft.
Following the initial proceedings, the records indicate that the case transitioned into the trial phase, cataloged under reference T/JO/1113. While the documentation captures the bureaucratic momentum of the judiciary—recording the date of her trial and the specific administrative markers of her prosecution—it remains an objective account of the legal steps taken against her. Through these archival fragments, the story of Lillias emerges not through the testimonies of her neighbors or the details of her daily life, but through the structured formality of the Scottish court system that sought to adjudicate her standing within the community of Craufurddouglas.