In the winter of 1644, Janet Rankyne, a resident of Fife, faced the formal scrutiny of the Scottish kirk and state. Her case, documented under the reference C/EGD/2548, reached a pivotal moment on 31 January 1644, as the judicial mechanisms of the period processed the allegations brought against her. During an era when witchcraft accusations were frequently intertwined with issues of community order and religious conformity, the legal apparatus moved with focused severity to address the suspicions leveled at Janet.
Following the proceedings of her trial (T/JO/1192), the judicial outcome for Janet was one of complete social and spiritual isolation. Rather than being subjected to capital punishment, the court imposed a sentence of excommunication. This penalty effectively severed Janet from the ecclesiastical community, marking her as an outcast within the rigid social framework of seventeenth-century Fife and concluding the official record of her legal entanglement with the authorities of the time.