In the early summer of 1704, Janet Cornfoot of Leuchars became embroiled in a distressing series of events centered on the alleged torment of Patrick Morton, the sixteen-year-old son of a Pittenweem smith. Janet was identified as one of seven individuals accused of causing the youth's possession, a case that drew significant attention from local authorities. Citing the recent, high-profile precedent of the "Bargarran’s daughter" case, town officials sought a formal commission for trial, leading the Privy Council to appoint Her Majesty’s Advocate, Sir James Stewart, to lead the prosecution. During this period, Janet was denounced by several others facing similar accusations, including Nicolas Lauson, Janet Horseburgh, and Lillias Wallace, and she provided recorded confessions of a witches' meeting on three separate occasions in June 1704.
While Janet was scheduled to be tried locally under the authority of the Lord Advocate, her fate was ultimately determined by extralegal violence rather than the courtroom. In 1705, an angry mob seized her, beating her severely until she was left nearly dead at the Sea Mark. Although local bailies initially intervened to rescue her, the group abducted Janet a second time, eventually crushing her to death beneath a door weighed down with stones. Following this brutal act, the Privy Council took the unusual step of ordering all those involved in the killing to be brought to the tolbooth in Edinburgh, while the local magistrates were formally charged with a failure to maintain the public peace.