On 11 November 1629, Jonet Forsyth, a resident of the island of Westray in Orkney, appeared before the authorities to answer a formal charge of witchcraft under the case reference C/EGD/2245. The proceedings against Jonet, documented in the trial records (T/LA/1415) on that same date, centered on accusations concerning the destruction of property. Specifically, she was alleged to have caused significant damage to local crops, an act that in the context of seventeenth-century rural Scotland was frequently linked to the exercise of maleficium—the intent to inflict harm through supernatural means.
The accusation against Jonet reflects the legal climate of the period, where communal anxieties regarding harvest security and agricultural stability were often channeled into witchcraft prosecutions. As the court convened on that November day, the testimony regarding the ruined crops formed the primary basis for the judicial inquiry into her actions. Despite the specificity of the damage alleged, the records of the proceedings remain limited to these core charges, marking a distinct moment in the judicial history of Westray during the peak years of the Scottish witch trials.