In December 1679, the legal records of Linlithgow mark the emergence of a case involving Annaple Thomson, a widowed woman residing in the burgh of Bo'ness. At a time when the Scottish legal system was increasingly preoccupied with the prosecution of witchcraft, Annaple was drawn into the machinery of the judicial process. Her status as a widow, a position often characterized by precarious social and economic independence in seventeenth-century Scottish society, situated her within the specific demographic frequently scrutinised by the authorities during this period of heightened religious and social anxiety.
The documentation surrounding her case, preserved under the references C/EGD/1916 and T/LA/1468, confirms her presence within the courts, though the extant historical record remains notably sparse regarding the specific testimony brought against her. While trial notes exist under the reference T/JO/603, they provide no descriptive details of the allegations or the proceedings themselves. Consequently, the narrative of Annaple’s experience remains confined to these formal entries, reflecting the broader reality of many such cases where the procedural framework of the witch trials is well-documented, yet the individual voice of the accused is lost to the silence of the archives.