In the spring of 1590, the judicial machinery of Edinburgh turned its attention toward a young resident of Gilmerton named Meg Dow. At only nine years of age, Meg was brought before the authorities to face grave allegations of witchcraft. The legal process was protracted; she underwent an initial examination on April 14, followed by a second round of questioning on April 20. These sessions occurred within a period of heightened scrutiny regarding sorcery, during which Meg’s name was also entered into the court records as having been implicated by another accused individual, Janet Pook.
The proceedings concluded on April 28, 1590, when Meg was formally tried and found guilty. Following the verdict, she was transported to Castle Hill in Edinburgh. There, she was subjected to the sentence prescribed by the court, which mandated that she be strangled before her body was committed to the flames. This execution brought a definitive and violent end to the case of a child whose short life remains documented only through the stark, procedural finality of the sixteenth-century Scottish legal system.