In June 1661, the judicial records of Edinburgh recorded the case of Janet Allane, a resident of the Canongate area near the royal precincts of Holyrood. Amidst a period of heightened judicial activity regarding accusations of witchcraft across Scotland, Janet was brought before the authorities to face scrutiny under the legal frameworks of the time. Her name appears in the archival register under the reference C/EGD/361, marking her place within the formal administrative history of the 17th-century witch trials.
The extant records concerning Janet remain limited in scope, reflecting the formal bureaucratic processing of her case during that turbulent summer. While primary documents detail her residence in the shadow of Holyrood, the broader context of her life and the specific nature of the allegations leveled against her remain confined to these administrative notations. As an individual caught within the machinery of the Scottish legal system in 1661, Janet stands as a representative figure of the many residents of the Canongate whose lives were profoundly impacted by the intense ecclesiastical and civil preoccupation with witchcraft during the mid-17th century.