In the spring of 1658, Jonnet Gillespie, a resident of Privik in the parish of Tarbolton, Ayr, found herself drawn into the machinery of the Scottish judicial system. On 31 March 1658, she was formally named on a porteous roll, a document that functioned as a legal summons, requiring her to appear before the circuit court. This summons was part of a larger administrative group, as the local authorities sought to address a number of individuals facing similar accusations within the region during that period.
On 4 April 1658, Jonnet appeared in the Ayr court to stand trial under the record reference C/EGD/239. The proceedings followed the established legal framework of the era, where the court processed those cited on the previously issued rolls. As the court convened to address the charges, Jonnet was processed alongside her contemporaries, marking a definitive moment in the documented judicial activity of the Ayrshire courts during the seventeenth century.