In 1598, Geillis Gray, a resident of the coastal burgh of Crail in Fife, became the subject of legal proceedings concerning the charge of witchcraft. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/2512, emerged during a period of heightened judicial scrutiny regarding supernatural offences in Scotland. While the surviving records are brief, they confirm that Geillis was subjected to rigorous investigative measures; specifically, the records note that she underwent various forms of torture during February of that same year.
These interrogations occurred in the immediate lead-up to the formal trial process, registered under reference T/JO/1688. In the context of early modern Scottish jurisprudence, the application of such coercive measures was a documented, albeit grim, component of the effort to extract confessions or identify confederates in cases involving the perceived practice of maleficium. Geillis remains a significant figure in the historical record of Crail, as her ordeal serves as a stark illustration of the intense legal pressures exerted upon individuals caught within the machinery of the late sixteenth-century witch trials.