On June 13, 1616, Agnes Scottie appeared before the Sheriff Court in Orkney to face charges of witchcraft. A woman of very poor socioeconomic standing, Agnes had long existed on the periphery of Orcadian society as a vagabond. Local records, including those preserved by the historian Marwick, consistently identify her as a "wanderer," a precarious existence that likely left her particularly vulnerable to the intense social scrutiny of the early seventeenth century.
The legal proceedings against Agnes were swift, with her trial and appearance before the court occurring on the same day. While the records C/EGD/2215 and T/LA/1421 document the formal administrative timeline of her case, they offer little insight into the specific testimony provided during the session. As the court convened to address the allegations brought against this itinerant woman, Agnes found herself at the centre of an increasingly rigorous judicial process that defined the landscape of Scottish witch trials during this period.