In December 1649, the legal records of Scotland noted the case of Mary Chisholm, a resident of the bustling market town of Kelso in Roxburghshire. Her entry in the judicial archives, catalogued under reference C/EGD/1834, marks a period of heightened intensity in the Scottish judicial system regarding the prosecution of witchcraft. Scholarly records suggest a degree of ambiguity surrounding her identity, noting that she may have also been known by the name Margaret, a common inconsistency found in mid-seventeenth-century parish documentation where oral tradition and clerical record-keeping sometimes diverged.
The proceedings against Mary reached the trial stage under the authority of the Justiciary Court (T/JO/1649) during the same month. As was characteristic of the legal climate in 1649—a year which saw a significant surge in commissions for the trial of those accused of diabolical practices across the Lowlands—the case was processed with considerable administrative haste. While the surviving records provide the framework of her appearance before the court in Kelso, they serve as a stark testament to the structured legal framework that governed the lives and vulnerabilities of women in the Borders during this turbulent century.