In 1568, Agnes Fergusson, a resident of Arbroath and St Vigeans in the county of Forfar, became the subject of legal proceedings recorded under case file C/EGD/2082. Situated within the early period of the Scottish witch trials—a time when the formal prosecution of maleficium was beginning to gain momentum in the decades following the Scottish Reformation—Agnes was drawn into the judicial machinery that sought to identify and curb perceived supernatural threats to the community.
While the archival record for Agnes remains brief, her inclusion in the contemporary registers marks her as one of the individuals caught in the intersection of local suspicion and the developing legal framework of 16th-century Scotland. The documents associated with the case serve as a vital, if stark, testament to the vulnerabilities faced by women in St Vigeans during this era, capturing a specific moment of scrutiny that has been preserved within the historical landscape of the Forfar region.