In the spring of 1661, the coastal town of Prestonpans in Haddington became the setting for the legal proceedings against Margaret Auchinmoutie. On the 3rd of May, Margaret was formally entered into the judicial records of the period under case number C/EGD/1951. At this time, the region was experiencing a notable intensification in the identification and prosecution of individuals accused of witchcraft, a phenomenon that frequently swept through the burghs of the Lothians during the seventeenth century.
The gravity of the charges brought against her eventually led to her appearance before the court of justiciary. According to trial record T/JO/1803, the legal machinery moved from her initial registration in Prestonpans to the formal trial process. These records provide a skeletal account of her encounter with the Scottish judicial system, marking her as one of the many individuals caught within the complex interplay of local accusations and the formal legal apparatus that defined the witch trials of early modern Scotland.