In the spring of 1659, James Kirk, a resident of Alloa in Clackmannanshire, found himself swept into the formal machinery of the Scottish justice system on a charge of witchcraft. His name appears on an undated list of individuals designated for arraignment before the justice courts during the 1658–1659 period, a time when the pursuit of such cases remained a significant preoccupation of the state. The legal proceedings culminated on March 23, 1659, when James was brought before the court in Stirling to answer to the accusations leveled against him.
Throughout the trial, James maintained a steadfast position, entering a formal plea of not guilty. Despite the gravity of the charges and the broader context of the North circuit—where his case was formally processed alongside others from the South and West circuits—the proceedings reached a definitive conclusion that day. Following the presentation of his defense, the court delivered a verdict of not guilty, securing James’s acquittal and closure to his experience within the seventeenth-century judicial records.