In April 1650, Catharin Skair, a 41-year-old married woman living in the burgh of Forfar, became the subject of a legal inquiry regarding witchcraft. The accusations against her were rooted in memory and local grievance, as a witness emerged to claim that Catharin had caused him physical harm some sixteen years prior. This claim—which surfaced when Catharin was 41 and the complainant would have been recalling an event from his childhood or youth—provided the foundation for the judicial process initiated under case file C/EGD/1856.
Following the initial accusation, a formal confession was recorded, marking the progression of the legal proceedings against her. However, the trajectory of these events was abruptly halted. According to the trial notes documented in T/JO/1207, Catharin died shortly after providing this confession. Consequently, no formal trial was held, and the proceedings that had begun in the spring of 1650 concluded without a verdict or execution, leaving her case as a brief but stark entry in the records of the period.