On December 2, 1684, the legal machinery of Edinburgh turned toward John MacQueen, as recorded in the judicial documents catalogued under reference C/EGD/1920. While the specific nature of the allegations brought against him remain obscure in the existing registers, his inclusion in the court records places him within the broader, rigorous framework of the Scottish legal system during the latter decades of the seventeenth century—a period when the preoccupation with witchcraft remained a potent, if waning, element of the judicial landscape.
The archival trail for John is notably sparse, preserved primarily as a formal entry within the administrative documentation of the city. Though the record notes that subsequent scholarly efforts, such as those referencing Larner, did not further examine the printed secondary sources surrounding this specific case, the existence of the file itself confirms that John was subjected to the formal processes of the Edinburgh authorities. His case stands as a quiet witness to the historical reality of these trials, representing the lived experience of an individual caught within the precise, often inscrutable bureaucratic apparatus of early modern Scottish justice.