In the spring of 1662, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned its attention toward Mariorie Dunbar, a resident of Brightmanny in the parish of Auldearn, Nairn. On the 14th of April, proceedings were formally initiated against her under case reference C/EGD/464. At this time, the judicial landscape of Scotland was increasingly preoccupied with the investigation and prosecution of those suspected of maleficium, and Mariorie found herself drawn into this systemic scrutiny during a period of heightened fervor in the North.
Following the initial charges, the judicial process advanced to trial under the reference T/LA/1853. As was customary in the seventeenth-century Scottish legal framework, Mariorie was subjected to the formal scrutiny of the courts, which required her to answer for the allegations brought against her within the local community. The records confirm that her case moved through the established provincial legal channels, marking her as one of the many individuals caught within the intense administrative and judicial apparatus that characterized the era’s pursuit of alleged witchcraft.