In September 1661, the ecclesiastical and judicial records of Fife identify Susanna Alexander as a resident of the village of Aberdour who was brought before the authorities to face accusations of witchcraft. While the specific nature of the charges brought against her remains unelaborated in the extant administrative documentation, her case was processed through the formal legal channels of the period, appearing under reference number C/EGD/1867. This legal scrutiny underscores the rigorous, albeit intense, oversight applied to those suspected of maleficium during the height of the seventeenth-century Scottish witch hunts.
Following her initial designation in the court records, Susanna appears in subsequent entries under trial references T/JO/1442 and T/JO/2205. The existence of these dual references suggests a multi-stage judicial process, characteristic of the era’s stringent approach to prosecuting allegations of diabolical pacts or harmful sorcery. By the autumn of 1661, Susanna became part of the broader pattern of litigation that defined Aberdour’s experience during this period, leaving behind a documentary trace that anchors her existence firmly within the complexities of early modern Scottish jurisprudence.