Margaret Bryson was a married woman residing in the village of Gilmerton, in the parish of Liberton, near Edinburgh, whose life was brought to a definitive end during the height of the 1661 witch hunt. The legal proceedings against her moved with remarkable swiftness during the summer of that year. Records indicate that Margaret provided a confession on July 29, 1661, followed by a second statement on August 7, the very day she stood trial in Edinburgh. The charges brought against her centered on her alleged involvement in a witches' meeting, a gathering that, in the prevailing judicial climate, was considered a grave offense against both the law and the covenantal order of the time.
Following the verdict of guilty delivered on August 7, the judicial process concluded two days later on August 9, 1661. In accordance with the standard practices of the era, Margaret was taken to the Common Green. There, the sentence was carried out by the method of strangulation followed by burning. The archives, designated under cases C/EGD/390 and T/LA/303, preserve these final actions, marking the end of the legal proceedings against her and recording the conclusion of her life within the context of the seventeenth-century Scottish witch trials.