In June 1719, the ecclesiastical authorities in Thurso, Caithness, became preoccupied with a legal matter involving a local woman named Margaret Oisone. Her case, documented under the reference C/EGD/2087, emerged during a period of ongoing scrutiny regarding the practice of witchcraft within the presbytery. While official records from the time often remain frustratingly sparse, the archival evidence links Margaret to a wider group of suspects under investigation by the church courts.
The historical trajectory of Margaret’s involvement is preserved within these administrative accounts, which note the proceedings of the presbytery without explicitly recording the names of all participants. Despite the procedural complexity and the existence of supplementary records, such as C/JO/3011, which appears to cross-reference these events, Margaret remains the primary figure identified in the trial documentation T/JO/1275. Her case serves as a point of intersection between the administrative record-keeping of the early eighteenth century and the formal scrutiny applied to those suspected of maleficium in the North of Scotland.