In 1662, the East Lothian town of Dunbar became the site of a significant series of accusations, among which was Jeane Martin, identified in the records as the mother of the local miller. Her involvement in the legal proceedings of that year was not the result of a direct grievance or a solitary report, but rather arose from the sweeping denunciations of a youth named James Welch. While Welch was deemed too young to face the formal rigors of a criminal trial and was instead committed to imprisonment, the authorities in Haddington accorded substantial weight to the contents of his confession, viewing his testimonies as sufficient grounds to initiate proceedings against those he named.
The records for Jeane indicate that her arrest was inextricably linked to the wider pattern of witch-hunting that defined this period in the region. As part of this broader investigation, Jeane was drawn into the judicial machinery that relied heavily upon the statements gathered from the young denouncer. Throughout the course of case C/EGD/557 and the subsequent trial proceedings T/LA/1374, Jeane remained a central figure in an environment where the testimonies of vulnerable or marginalized witnesses, such as Welch, were treated by the contemporary legal framework as credible evidence of maleficent activity.