In November 1649, Issobell Alexander, a married woman residing in Scottistoun within the parish of Kirkurd, Peebles, was formally brought before the authorities to answer for the charge of witchcraft. The legal proceedings initiated against her during this period reflect the intense scrutiny placed upon individuals suspected of malefice in mid-seventeenth-century Scotland. Though the surviving documentation—catalogued under case reference C/EGD/2388—remains sparse regarding the specific allegations of her conduct, it marks her entry into the rigorous judicial machinery of the era.
Issobell was subjected to the formal processes of the Scottish courts, with her case identified in the records through trial references T/JO/588 and T/LA/2033. These archival designations point to a structured engagement with the legal system, consistent with the procedural standards of the 1649 trials. While the underlying testimony or specific grievances lodged by her neighbours in Peebles remain unrecorded in these fragments, the documents preserve the final, official account of a life briefly intersected by the tumultuous judicial climate of the seventeenth century.