In the spring of 1662, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned toward the village of Auldearn in Nairn. Among those ensnared in the proceedings was Elspet Chisolme, a widowed woman whose life intersected with the intensifying climate of ecclesiastical and judicial scrutiny that defined the mid-seventeenth century. Her case, documented in the records as C/EGD/472, was formally processed on April 14, 1662, marking the beginning of a period of profound uncertainty for the resident of this small community.
Following the initial registration of her case, the process against Elspet moved toward the formal trial phase, identified in the historical archive as T/LA/1861. As a widow, she occupied a precarious position within the social structure of Auldearn, a village that would later gain notoriety for its associations with the widespread witch-hunts of the era. The records offer no further details regarding the testimony brought against her or the final judgment rendered by the court, leaving Elspet’s story as a fragment of the broader, complex judicial narrative of early modern Scotland.