In the summer of 1658, twenty-eight-year-old Margaret Tailyeor, a married woman residing in Alloa, found herself at the centre of a sprawling web of witchcraft accusations. Her entanglement in the legal system began in June, when she was subjected to extrajudicial torture at the hands of four local men. During this ordeal, she suffered the agony of having her feet burnt with hot stones, a practice that preceded her formal confession. Margaret testified that she had been in the service of the devil for three years, a duration of time that corresponded precisely with her age at the time of the accusation. Her testimony formed part of a broader investigative sweep, with her name appearing frequently in the statements of numerous others, including Kathrine Remy, Bessie Paton, and Jonet Black, who all pointed to her as an associate in alleged witches' meetings and acts of *maleficium*.
The procedural history of Margaret's case reflects the chaotic nature of the seventeenth-century judicial process. Following her initial interrogations and the extraction of confessions in late June 1658, statements were taken before the local presbytery on 22 July. By August, the High Court of Justiciary had ordered an assize to convene in Edinburgh to address the accusations surrounding the Alloa group, and Margaret was subsequently listed in a high court index dated 3 September 1658. Despite this intensive legal machinery, the records indicate that when local Justices of the Peace confronted the suspects—Margaret, Remy, and Paton—following their torture, no further official action was taken. The ultimate resolution of her case remains obscured by the fragmented nature of the surviving documentation, leaving the final outcome of her trial in Edinburgh a matter of historical uncertainty.
