In August 1643, Agnes Wallace, a resident of the coastal burgh of Crail in Fife, became the subject of legal proceedings recorded under case number C/EGD/2311. At a time when the Scottish kirk and state were deeply engaged in the regulation of perceived supernatural transgressions, Agnes was brought into the judicial apparatus that defined the mid-seventeenth-century witch trials. The records indicate that her case transitioned into a formal trial, documented under reference T/LA/1508, which sought to address the specific allegations levelled against her within the local jurisdiction.
The documentation regarding Agnes remains sparse, reflecting the procedural formality of the period’s ecclesiastical and civil courts. As an inhabitant of Crail—a community then experiencing the pressures of socio-religious scrutiny—Agnes was compelled to answer for charges that would have been brought before the local presbytery or an appointed commission. While the specific nature of the accusations against her is not preserved in the surviving entry, her trial stands as a distinct historical marker of the period, illustrating the mechanisms through which individuals were processed by the judicial systems of early modern Fife.