In 1644, the legal machinery of Kirkcudbright turned its attention to a woman named Rosina McCoskrie. The record of her case, cataloged under the reference C/EGD/2331, places her within a period of intense judicial focus on witchcraft in early modern Scotland, a time when local burghs and presbyteries frequently navigated the complex intersection of civil and ecclesiastical authority to address perceived supernatural threats.
Beyond her residence in the town of Kirkcudbright and the date of her legal proceedings, the documentation preserved for Rosina remains austere. The surviving entries suggest that her case was identified in later historical scholarship—notably referenced by the historian Christina Larner—though the specific charges and the eventual outcome of her trial remain absent from the primary research project’s current scope. Consequently, Rosina exists in the historical record as a stark representative of the many individuals caught within the mid-seventeenth-century judicial system, her experience reflecting the broader administrative reality of a community engaged in the rigorous pursuit of those accused of practicing witchcraft.