In 1691, the records of the Edinburgh judicial system—indexed under case reference C/EGD/1925—document the legal proceedings initiated against William Simpson, a resident of the Broughton area of Edinburgh. At this time, Broughton sat on the periphery of the capital, a region where the intersection of urban governance and rural superstition often heightened the visibility of those accused of illicit practices. The official archives confirm William’s status as a male defendant within the broader historical scope of the Scottish witch trials, which persisted as a feature of the legal landscape well into the late seventeenth century.
The documentation regarding William remains constrained, as the case file notes that a specific reference cited by the historian Christina Larner, contained within a printed secondary source, was not verified during the course of the survey. Consequently, the surviving record provides few details concerning the specific allegations or the eventual judicial outcome of his trial. Despite the scarcity of descriptive evidence, the entry serves as a formal testament to the period’s rigorous legal scrutiny of individuals suspected of transgressing the boundaries of the era's religious and social order.