In 1644, the legal records of Kirkcudbright document the proceedings against the woman known as the wife of John McNaught. At a time when the Scottish kirk and state were deeply engaged in the judicial regulation of spiritual and social deviance, the wife of John McNaught was brought before the local authorities to answer for allegations of witchcraft. Her case, filed under reference C/EGD/2332, situates her within the broader wave of persecutions that characterized seventeenth-century Galloway, where community tensions were frequently mediated through the formal mechanism of the witch trial.
Though the archival evidence regarding the specific charges leveled against her remains limited, the inclusion of the wife of John McNaught in the regional register underscores the gravity with which such accusations were treated in Kirkcudbright. The transition of her case into the judicial system required the mobilization of local ministers, magistrates, and witnesses, all of whom participated in the complex procedural framework of the era. By examining these surviving notes, we gain a narrow yet significant glimpse into the life of a married woman whose local standing was fundamentally altered by the formal accusation of maleficium or diabolical pact, reflecting the profound legal and societal anxieties of the mid-1600s.