In October 1649, Christiane Steill, a resident of the parish of Borthwick in Edinburgh, was drawn into the judicial machinery that swept through the region during one of the most intense periods of witch-hunting in early modern Scotland. Her case, documented under the reference C/EGD/1992, situates her among a group of other individuals who faced similar allegations during that autumn. The legal proceedings moved with significant momentum, leading to the formal registration of a confession from Christiane by the middle of the month.
On October 24, 1649, the judicial record officially acknowledged her status within the proceedings alongside her co-accused. While the surviving archive for her trial, cataloged as T/JO/366, contains no specific details regarding the testimony provided or the eventual verdict rendered by the court, the existence of the October confession remains the central feature of her surviving record. Christiane’s path through the seventeenth-century Scottish legal system reflects the broader administrative processes of the time, where local accusations were rapidly transitioned into formal, documented inquiries.