In the autumn of 1649, legal proceedings were initiated against John Simpsone, a resident of Kirkurd in the county of Peebles. On the 6th of November, John was formally brought before the authorities to answer to charges of witchcraft, marking the commencement of a judicial process that was a hallmark of the period's rigorous ecclesiastical and civil oversight. The archival records, indexed under C/EGD/2003, document the administrative framework of his pursuit, placing his case firmly within the mid-seventeenth-century surge of legal activity regarding suspected malefice in the Scottish Borders.
Following the initial registration of the case, the matter moved toward a formal hearing as indicated by the trial records filed under T/LA/2021. The documentation captures the specific procedural trajectory faced by John as he was subjected to the scrutiny of the local judiciary. By examining these primary entries, historians can trace the sequence of events from the original accusation to the subsequent trial, highlighting how a man from a rural parish like Kirkurd was integrated into the wider mechanisms of justice that governed the religious and social anxieties of early modern Scotland.