In the winter of 1649, legal proceedings were initiated against Jonet Bennet, a resident of South Leith, Edinburgh. The initial record of her case, cataloged under C/EGD/2398, was opened on December 21, 1649, amidst a period of heightened judicial activity regarding allegations of maleficium throughout the Scottish lowlands. The administrative tracking of this case places Jonet firmly within the socio-legal landscape of mid-seventeenth-century Scotland, where local authorities and church courts frequently scrutinized the conduct of parishioners for signs of diabolical pacts or supernatural interference.
Following the initial filing of her case, the legal process concerning Jonet moved toward a formal resolution in 1652. The subsequent record, identified as T/JO/1652, indicates that the matter proceeded to trial three years after the initial accusation. While the extant documents provide the formal scaffolding of these dates and her residential location, they offer a somber reflection of the judicial timeline faced by those caught within the mechanisms of the Scottish witch trials. The progression from the records of 1649 to the trial proceedings of 1652 remains the primary historical testament to the legal experience of Jonet in the port town of Leith.