In 1662, the judicial records of Forfar preserve the brief entry of John Tailzour, a resident of the parish of Oathlaw. During this period, the Scottish legal system, governed by the Witchcraft Act of 1563, frequently saw individuals brought before local kirk sessions or commissioned courts to answer charges of maleficium or demonic compacts. Despite the formal registration of his case under the reference C/EGD/1882, John remains a figure of historical obscurity, as no subsequent documentation detailing the specific nature of the allegations against him or the outcome of his trial has survived in the extant archives.
The historical record provides only the stark essentialities: his name, his gender, and his place of residence in the community of Oathlaw. Unlike more notorious cases of the seventeenth century that left behind voluminous depositions or trial transcripts, the administrative trace of John disappears almost as soon as it emerges. Consequently, he remains a poignant example of the many individuals whose encounters with the Scottish judicial apparatus during this turbulent era were recorded in the ledgers of the state but lack the narrative detail required to reconstruct their lived experiences or the specific circumstances that led to their accusation.