In 1679, Margaret Fleming of Longerth, in the parish of Kirkcudbright, became the subject of a judicial inquiry into witchcraft. While the specific nature of the allegations brought against her remains unrecorded in the surviving documentation, her case was inextricably linked to a broader, ongoing legal process in the region. Margaret’s involvement marked a distinct escalation in a series of investigations that had first been processed by local authorities several years earlier, in 1671 and 1672.
It is unclear what circumstances prompted the reopening of these investigations or led to the specific addition of Margaret to the judicial record seven years after the initial proceedings began. Her case, preserved under the reference T/LA/1477, reflects the administrative persistence of the period, where local legal mechanisms continued to identify and process individuals within the community for charges related to the practice of witchcraft long after the original inquiry had commenced.