In the spring of 1658, Margaret Laurymer, a married woman residing in the parish of Ardrossan in Ayrshire, became entangled in the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/272, was processed by the courts in Ayr alongside a broader group of individuals summoned to face justice. Administrative records indicate that Margaret was included on two separate porteous rolls, the first of which, dated 31 March 1658, mandated that the entire collective of the 1658 group appear before the court to answer to their respective charges.
By the time the judicial proceedings commenced on 6 April 1658, the status of the case had shifted significantly, as Margaret was recorded as being deceased. Despite her death, the procedural requirements of the Ayr court ensured that her name remained a formal part of the trial record (T/LA/1585). While the specific nature of the allegations brought against her remains unstated in the surviving documents, Margaret’s inclusion in the court’s rolls situates her within the intense period of judicial scrutiny that characterized seventeenth-century Scotland.