In the spring of 1662, the royal burgh of Haddington became the site of a sprawling legal investigation that entangled many of its residents, including George Scherswood. A married man residing in the town, George was drawn into the judicial process following a series of denunciations made by a youth named James Welch. Although Welch was considered too young to stand trial himself and was consequently held in confinement, the authorities afforded his testimony a significant degree of gravity. Based on the weight placed on Welch’s confession and the subsequent accusations he leveled against his neighbors, George found himself formally cited under case file C/EGD/499.
The repercussions of these proceedings extended deeply into the domestic sphere of the Scherswood household, as both George and his wife were simultaneously accused of witchcraft. The legal mechanism of the trial, documented under T/LA/1315, reflects the period’s rigorous adherence to investigative protocols in the face of such grave allegations. By mid-April of 1662, the testimonies provided by the imprisoned youth served as the catalyst for the judicial examination of George, marking a precarious chapter for him and his family within the historical record of Haddington’s seventeenth-century witch trials.