In the summer of 1649, the parish of Aberdour in Fife became the setting for the legal proceedings against the woman known in the historical record as the wife of Henry Stanehouse. On July 31, 1649, she was identified as a subject of an investigation concerning the crime of witchcraft, a period of heightened judicial activity within the region. As a married woman residing in the coastal burgh of Aberdour, she was brought into the orbit of the local kirk session and the Scottish courts, which were then actively pursuing allegations of diabolical pacts and harmful magic under the statutes of the time.
The archival documentation concerning the wife of Henry Stanehouse is recorded under reference C/EGD/2616. While historical inquiry into her specific ordeal remains limited by the nature of the surviving entries, her case serves as a fragment of the broader judicial landscape of mid-seventeenth-century Scotland. Though the specific charges leveled against her are not elaborated upon in the extant summary, the record of her name and the date of her appearance establish her place among the many individuals whose lives were intersected by the intense religious and legal anxieties that characterized the witch trials of the era.