In 1644, Marion Dauline, a resident of the burgh of Queensferry in Linlithgow, found herself caught within the legal apparatus of the early modern Scottish witch trials. The records pertaining to her case, indexed as C/EGD/2345, mark her involvement in the intense period of judicial scrutiny that swept through the region during the mid-seventeenth century. While the specific nature of the allegations brought against her remains unrecorded in the extant primary documentation, the initiation of such a case indicates that Marion was subjected to the formal process of investigation that defined the era’s approach to suspected maleficence.
The resolution of the proceedings surrounding Marion offers a distinct outcome within the broader context of these trials. According to the research of historian Christina Larner, the legal process concluded with an acquittal. Although modern academic research has not fully verified the printed secondary sources referenced by Larner in relation to this case, the documented status of the acquittal serves as the final historical trace of Marion’s experience with the court. Having faced the gravity of a witchcraft accusation in Queensferry, she was ultimately released from the charges leveled against her.