In December 1679, Margaret Pringle, a widow residing in the coastal burgh of Bo’ness in Linlithgow, found herself drawn into the machinery of the Scottish legal system on an accusation of witchcraft. Margaret belonged to the lower socioeconomic strata of the community, her social position defined in part by the occupation of her late husband, who had worked as a sievewright—a specialized carpenter skilled in the construction of sieves. The archival record, preserved under case reference C/EGD/1915, documents the formal entry of her legal proceedings during a period when such accusations remained a persistent feature of social and judicial life in the Lowlands.
While the primary documentation identifies Margaret as the subject of an investigation, the subsequent trial records filed under T/JO/604 remain notably sparse. Despite the bureaucratic registration of the case, no specific depositions, witness testimonies, or minute books detailing the nature of the charges have survived to illuminate the circumstances of her plight. As such, Margaret remains a figure defined by the brief administrative trace of her entanglement with the authorities, leaving the exact details of the allegations brought against her lost to the passage of time.