In the spring of 1661, Cristine Waderstoun, a married woman residing in the village of Sammuelston in Haddington, became the subject of a legal proceeding that would pull her into the machinery of the Scottish judicial system. On May 28, 1661, her case was officially recorded under reference C/EGD/1959. At this time, the legal landscape surrounding witchcraft was intensifying, and Cristine found herself at the center of an investigation that would lead her from her home in Haddington to the formal environment of a courtroom.
Following the initial registration of her case, Cristine was brought to trial under the reference T/JO/1808. The transition from a local accusation to a formal trial marked a significant moment in her life, reflecting the structured administrative processes employed by the authorities to address charges of witchcraft during the mid-seventeenth century. While the surviving records capture the administrative trajectory of her prosecution, they remain a stark testament to the judicial rigor applied to individuals like Cristine during this period of intense scrutiny in Scottish history.