In the autumn of 1633, William Coke, a fifty-year-old married man residing in the coastal burgh of Kirkcaldy, Fife, found himself ensnared in the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials. While the specific testimony provided during his trial remains absent from the surviving records, the judicial process moved with purposeful momentum through the local courts. By mid-November, an assize had been convened in Kirkcaldy to hear the case against William, where he was formally accused of involvement in witchcraft—a charge explicitly linked to the destruction of boats.
Following his conviction, the proceedings culminated on December 17, 1633. In accordance with the standard legal practices of the period for those found guilty of such capital crimes, William was sentenced to be strangled and burned. This execution marked the final resolution of the case (C/EGD/2259) as recorded by the judicial authorities of the time, closing the legal file on a life that had been centered in the maritime community of Fife.