James Welch was a youth of approximately fifteen years, a poor and itinerant boy residing in Sammuelston, Haddington. In 1661, during a period of heightened judicial scrutiny regarding witchcraft in East Lothian, James became a pivotal figure within the legal records. Although he was himself accused of participating in a witches’ meeting, his involvement in the broader trials was marked by his extensive testimony. Over the course of that year, he denounced nearly ninety individuals from across the region, identifying a vast network of supposed associates that included various men, women, and families from the local community.
By April 1662, the legal proceedings had moved to Edinburgh. Because of his youth—as he had not yet reached the age of sixteen, the threshold for adult legal standing—the court deemed him unfit to undergo a formal trial. Instead, the authorities issued a sentence requiring him to be held in a correction house for one year and one day. The gravity of the accusations he sparked remained long after his own case was sidelined, as his name frequently appeared in the subsequent trials of the many people he had denounced, such as Marion Broun, Christiane Deanes, and George Scherswood. Ultimately, James occupies a distinctive place in the records, not as a condemned adult, but as a minor whose actions exerted a profound impact on the legal fates of dozens of his neighbours.
