In the spring of 1662, Christiane Deanes, a married woman residing in the village of Samuelston within the parish of Haddington, became caught in the sweeping judicial proceedings that characterised the period. Her involvement in the legal system was prompted by the testimony of James Welch, a youth whose denunciations of local residents triggered a wave of accusations. Although the authorities deemed Welch too young to face a formal trial himself—resulting in his imprisonment—his confessions carried sufficient weight to initiate the persecution of others, among them Christiane.
The records indicate that Christiane was not the only individual in her household implicated in these events, as both she and her husband were collectively accused of witchcraft. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/500, placed her within a broader context of mass accusations that moved through the region during that year. While the specific legal outcomes of her trials, catalogued in subsequent records T/JO/1791 and T/LA/327, reflect the formal procedural steps taken by the Haddington authorities, they mark the final archival traces of her encounter with the early modern Scottish court system.