On April 6, 1658, Helen Tam, a resident of Kilbride in Ayrshire, was brought before the court to face proceedings concerning allegations of witchcraft. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/254, formed part of a wider legal effort in the region that spring. The judicial process against Helen was formalised through the issuance of porteous rolls—official lists of indictments prepared by the Justice Depute—which necessitated her appearance alongside a group of other individuals summoned during the same period.
The archival trail for Helen reveals the administrative rigour applied to these proceedings. A specific porteous roll, dated March 31, 1658, served as the formal notice requiring the entire 1658 group to assemble in Ayr for trial on the sixth of April. Within the context of the Scottish witch trials, this procedural movement from initial indictment to court attendance highlights the systematic nature of the legal machinery employed in Kilbride during the mid-seventeenth century, placing Helen firmly within the documented history of the Ayrshire sessions.