In 1644, Marion Stein, a resident of the burgh of Queensferry in the county of Linlithgow, found herself caught within the mechanisms of the Scottish judicial system regarding the charge of witchcraft. During this period, the legal framework for such prosecutions was often dictated by local commissions granted by the Privy Council, reflecting the intense socio-religious anxieties of mid-seventeenth-century Scotland. While the specific nature of the allegations brought against her remains unrecorded in the extant brief, her case is cataloged under the reference C/EGD/2348, marking her as one of the many individuals processed through the courts during a decade characterized by significant upheaval.
The trajectory of Marion’s legal ordeal concluded with the ultimate judicial sanction of the era. Historical records confirm that she was executed following the proceedings initiated against her. Although secondary research notes exist concerning her trial, the brevity of the archival evidence underscores the systematic nature of these examinations in Linlithgow during the 1640s. Her death serves as a stark testament to the finality of the witch-hunting process in early modern Scotland, leaving behind only the cold administrative traces of a life extinguished by the statute of 1563.