In 1655, the name of William Barton surfaced within the presbytery records of Kirkliston, Linlithgow, where he was formally designated as a warlock. The circumstances surrounding this classification remain historically ambiguous; while the records explicitly link him to the charge of witchcraft, there is no extant evidence to suggest that a formal trial ever transpired. It remains unclear whether William was subjected to a thorough investigation or a prolonged judicial process, leaving the precise nature of his entanglement with the ecclesiastical authorities a matter of historical uncertainty.
William’s association with these grave accusations was not solitary, as his wife was also named in the records of the period. Beyond the specific charge of witchcraft, the archival notes indicate that William was later identified in connection with theft. Because the surviving documentation fails to confirm that a trial was ever initiated or concluded, his case serves as a fragmented portrait of the anxieties and legal administrative practices prevalent in mid-seventeenth-century Scotland, where the intersection of suspicion, local reputation, and criminal allegation could fundamentally alter an individual’s standing within the community.