On October 4, 1643, a man named John Shand, a resident of Elgin, became the subject of a judicial inquiry into the practice of witchcraft. The records regarding his case, archived under reference C/EGD/2294, indicate that he was initially identified as being from the wider region of Moray. As the administrative boundaries of Moray and the county of Elgin were largely synonymous during this period, the historical record has been specifically localized to his residence in Elgin.
The proceedings involving John occurred within a climate of heightened legal and ecclesiastical scrutiny typical of mid-seventeenth-century Scotland. While the primary sources detailing the specific accusations brought against him were not examined during the recent project research—leaving the particular charges of his case unstated in the surviving documentation—the registration of his name marks his formal entry into the legal machinery of the witch trials. His case remains a notable fragment of the judicial history of the region, reflecting the formalization of the prosecution process in the years following the major legislative shifts of the preceding century.