In 1654, a man named Jon Bayne, a resident of the parish of Nigg in the county of Kincardine, became the subject of legal proceedings concerning the crime of witchcraft. During this period of intense judicial activity regarding accusations of maleficium and diabolical pacts in Scotland, Jon was brought before the authorities to answer for these grave charges. His case, catalogued as C/EGD/224, serves as a testament to the local legal efforts to investigate and prosecute those suspected of involvement in occult practices within the rural communities of the Northeast.
Despite the procedural formality that typically accompanied such accusations—involving the gathering of testimonies, the recording of depositions, and the scrutiny of the local kirk session or sheriff—the extant records regarding Jon remain notably limited. While the case file exists within the historical indices of the Scottish witch trials, researchers have been unable to locate the specific primary documentation or the final verdict of the trial within the National Archives of Scotland. Consequently, while the circumstances of his initial apprehension are noted, the ultimate outcome of the proceedings against Jon remains lost to the historical record, leaving his experience as a fragmentary entry in the broader narrative of the 17th-century Scottish judiciary.