In 1704, the coastal burgh of Pittenweem in Fife became the setting for the legal proceedings against a woman identified in the records only as White. A married resident of the town, she was swept into the machinery of the Scottish justice system during a period when the burgh was significantly impacted by accusations of witchcraft. While the surviving reference to her case, catalogued as C/EGD/2445, notes that her specific interactions with the local authorities were drawn from a printed secondary source, her inclusion in the judicial records of the era places her firmly within the broader social anxieties that defined the final major wave of witch trials in Scotland.
The historical documentation regarding White remains sparse, reflecting the limitations of surviving archival material from the Pittenweem trials of the early eighteenth century. As a married woman residing in the tight-knit maritime community of Fife, White’s life was intersected by the rigorous scrutiny that characterized these proceedings. Although the specific allegations brought against her are not detailed in the archival record, her experience serves as a testament to the precarious position of women in Pittenweem during this volatile period, as the town struggled to reconcile local suspicions with the formal requirements of the Scottish criminal courts.