In September 1562, Isabell Keir, a resident of Stirling, became the subject of a legal inquiry that would mark her place within the early modern Scottish judicial record. While specific details regarding the accusations leveled against her remain confined to the archival designation C/EGD/2075, her case emerges during the nascent period of intensive witchcraft prosecution in Scotland, falling just one year prior to the formal passing of the Witchcraft Act of 1563.
As an individual living within the urban environment of Stirling, Isabell would have been subject to the intersecting authorities of the burgh courts and the burgeoning influence of the post-Reformation kirk session. Though the historical record provides limited narrative context regarding the nature of the charges, the documentation of her case remains a significant evidentiary fragment, reflecting the administrative processes through which the legal system addressed perceived manifestations of occult practice in mid-16th-century Scotland.