In the late summer of 1597, the Kirkcaldy Burgh Court initiated proceedings against Geillis Hoggone, a widowed woman residing within the Fife port town. Little survives of the specific allegations brought against her, though the judicial mechanism of the era was set in motion on August 17, when she was formally cautioned to appear before the court. This initial step marked the beginning of her entanglement with the legal authorities during a period when concerns regarding witchcraft were deeply embedded in the social and religious fabric of Scottish burgh life.
The record of Geillis’s case, indexed as C/EGD/2562, remains sparse, yet it illustrates the routine administrative pressures of the 1597 witch hunt. Historians, including Julian Goodare, have verified her entry in the Kirkcaldy Burgh Court Book, confirming that she was indeed called to account by the magistrates. While the historical documentation does not reveal the eventual outcome of her trial or the specific nature of the charges levelled against her, Geillis stands as a testament to the period’s rigorous oversight of individuals who, like her, lived on the margins of the early modern social order as widows.