In 1613, the judicial machinery of early modern Scotland turned toward Agnes Anstruther, a resident of the coastal burgh of Kirkcaldy in Fife. At a time when the Scottish legal system was increasingly preoccupied with the prosecution of maleficium—the practice of harmful magic—Agnes was formally processed under case reference C/EGD/2470. While the broader political and religious climate of the period heavily influenced the frequency of these proceedings, the specific archival remnants of her case remain limited, leaving her encounter with the local ecclesiastical and secular authorities as a discrete point of historical record within the Fife circuit.
The surviving documentation concerning Agnes provides a stark glimpse into the administrative oversight of such trials during the reign of James VI. Although historical investigation into her specific accusations remains tethered to these sparse records, the inclusion of her name in the legal ledgers highlights the vulnerability of individuals within the tight-knit social fabric of Kirkcaldy. By examining the formal registers of this period, scholars are able to trace the movement of Agnes through the judicial process, serving as a reminder of the structured, albeit traumatic, interactions between the accused and the institutions of the seventeenth-century Scottish state.