In the year 1615, the legal records of Perthshire were marked by the proceedings against Catherine McNiven, a woman residing in the burgh of Crieff. Her case, documented under the reference C/EGD/2209, situates her within a period of heightened judicial scrutiny regarding witchcraft in early modern Scotland. As was customary in the administrative practices of the seventeenth century, Catherine was brought before the authorities to answer for allegations that fell under the jurisdiction of the contemporary statutes governing such accusations.
The extant documentation concerning Catherine remains specific to the administrative trail of the era, reflecting the bureaucratic rigour applied to her case by the local or regional courts. While the historical research regarding Catherine has been noted for its reliance on secondary academic references, the record firmly establishes her identity as a subject of this formal inquiry in Crieff. Through these primary archival traces, we observe the intersection of Catherine’s life with the broader legal and social frameworks that defined the witch trials of the early seventeenth century.