In the spring of 1661, Agnes Aird, a married woman residing in the coastal burgh of Saltpreston in Prestonpans, found herself ensnared in the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials. On May 22, 1661, judicial proceedings were initiated against her under case reference C/EGD/1967. The records indicate that her involvement with the courts was swift and consequential, reflecting the heightened atmosphere of scrutiny that characterized the witch-hunts of that mid-seventeenth-century period in the county of Haddington.
During the month preceding her trial, Agnes provided a formal confession, a central document in the administrative process of her prosecution. Following this acknowledgment, she was subjected to the legal rigors of a formal trial, recorded under reference T/JO/1825. While the specific nature of the accusations brought against her remains confined to these skeletal administrative registers, the archival evidence confirms that Agnes was processed through the Haddingtonshire judicial system at a time when the community of Prestonpans was deeply preoccupied with the identification and trial of those suspected of maleficium.