In the spring of 1662, the village of Auldearn in Nairn became the site of a legal proceeding against Elspeth Makhomie, a widowed woman whose circumstances drew the attention of the local authorities. Recorded under case file C/EGD/440 on 14 April 1662, the documentation captures the intersection of Elspeth’s life within the rural community and the stringent judicial mechanisms of the period. As a widow in seventeenth-century Scotland, Elspeth existed in a precarious social position, yet the specific legal impetus for the charge remains tied to the formal mechanisms of the Scottish witch trials.
Following the initial filing of the case in April, the judicial process advanced to a trial under the reference T/LA/1829. While the brevity of the surviving records offers little insight into the specific depositions or the testimony of witnesses, the classification of the proceedings confirms that Elspeth was subject to the full rigor of the ecclesiastical and secular courts of the time. The transition from the case registration to the subsequent trial reflects the methodical, albeit severe, administrative path typical of those accused of witchcraft during this turbulent era in Nairnshire.