In 1661, the judicial records of Edinburgh preserve the name of Janet Coldane, a resident of the town of Dalkeith. Her entry in the historical register, cataloged under case reference C/EGD/416, marks her presence within the turbulent period of the Scottish witch trials. Despite the formal documentation of her identity and location, the subsequent legal narrative surrounding her life remains obscured by the passage of time and the limitations of archival preservation.
Contemporary scholarly investigations into her case have encountered significant obstacles, as the specific primary source previously cited by historian Christina Larner at the National Archives of Scotland has not been located. As a result, the specific allegations, testimonies, or outcomes associated with Janet remain absent from the surviving record. The historical existence of this case continues to pose a challenge to researchers, leaving the details of her encounter with the authorities as an unresolved question within the broader context of seventeenth-century Scottish judicial history.