In 1715, the legal records of Perth document the case of Margaret Ogilvy, a resident of the city whose life intersected with the final decades of the Scottish witch trials. While the archival entry (C/EGD/2459) remains brief, the formal documentation of her case captures a moment in the twilight of an era defined by the Witchcraft Act of 1563. As a woman residing within the burgh of Perth, Margaret faced the weight of a judicial system that, by the early 18th century, was beginning to see a decline in the frequency and severity of such prosecutions, yet still maintained the capacity to formalize accusations against individuals within the community.
The surviving reference to Margaret serves as a testament to the administrative rigour applied to those accused under the statute. While the specific nature of the allegations brought against her remains obscured by the limitations of the historical record, her inclusion in these archives marks her as one of the documented figures of the period. For historians, Margaret remains a focal point in the broader study of early modern social order and legal history, representing the lived experience of those caught within the mechanisms of the Scottish ecclesiastical and secular courts.