In the spring of 1662, Margaret Edington, a resident of Haddington, found her life abruptly entwined with the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials. Her case emerged during a period of intense judicial scrutiny, as she was formally denounced by James Welch on April 17, 1662. Welch, whose accusations initiated a wave of legal actions against numerous individuals, occupied a complex position within the court records; despite his youth rendering him ineligible to stand trial himself, his testimony was nonetheless treated with gravity by the authorities, leading to his subsequent imprisonment and the prosecution of those he named.
The documentary trail concerning Margaret—who may correspond with the Margret Edingtoun previously noted in records from Foulden, Berwickshire—remains sparse, preserved primarily through the administrative apparatus of the period. While the specific nature of the allegations levelled against her by Welch remains unelaborated, her appearance in the register (C/EGD/552) and the subsequent trial proceedings (T/LA/1377) reflect the stark realities of an era where confessions and denunciations were sufficient to set the judicial process in motion. As a result, Margaret was drawn into a systemic effort to address these testimonies, marking a definitive moment of crisis in her life within the Haddington jurisdiction.