In the spring of 1662, the legal records of Haddington preserve an unusual turn of events regarding an individual named Jon Kincaid of Tranent. Often identified in the annals of the period as a "witchpricker"—a professional tasked with identifying hidden marks of the devil upon the bodies of the accused—Jon himself became the subject of a formal process under case reference C/EGD/503. The shift from his accustomed role as an investigator of supernatural transgressions to that of a defendant facing accusations of witchcraft remains a notable historical anomaly within the mid-seventeenth-century judicial climate.
The documentation surrounding this case, specifically trial reference T/LA/1336, confirms that the proceedings against Jon commenced on April 17, 1662. Despite his history of administering the painful and invasive examinations typically used to secure confessions, the records indicate that he was brought before the court to answer for his own alleged involvement in witchcraft. The archival trail offers little further insight into the specific evidence brought against him or the ultimate resolution of his trial, leaving his experience as a stark illustration of the volatile nature of the Scottish witch-hunts, where the line between the hunter and the hunted could be abruptly erased.