In the spring of 1658, Agnes Patersonne, a resident of the parish of Tarbolton in Ayrshire, found herself drawn into the judicial machinery of the Scottish state during a period of heightened legal activity regarding witchcraft. On the 31st of March, she was formally named in a porteous roll—a crucial document used by the Justiciary Court to summon those accused of crimes—alongside a wider group of individuals designated for appearance. This administrative action set in motion a legal process that would culminate in her arrival at the Ayr Court.
On the 6th of April 1658, Agnes appeared before the court as part of the proceedings recorded under case reference C/EGD/240. The records indicate that her trial occurred on this same day, placing her within a specific cohort of people whose cases were processed by the Ayr judiciary during that busy session. While the documentation provides the logistical framework of her summons and subsequent trial in accordance with the legal practices of the mid-seventeenth century, it leaves the specific nature of the charges against Agnes to the broader historical context of the trials conducted in Ayrshire during that year.