Jean Weir, a single woman of lower socioeconomic status who had spent the majority of her adult life in Dalkeith, was an educator by trade, running a school where she taught local children. Originally hailing from Kirktown, Jean eventually made her residence in Edinburgh. By the spring of 1670, however, her life became irrevocably entwined with the catastrophic legal proceedings brought against her brother. While her brother faced a prosecution encompassing grave accusations of incest, bestiality, and adultery—charges to which he eventually confessed—the subsequent scrutiny of Jean’s own conduct drew her into the shadow of these events, resulting in her being brought to trial on 6 April 1670 on charges of witchcraft.
Despite the fact that the primary trial transcripts for her brother contain no explicit mention of witchcraft, the judicial machinery moved swiftly against Jean. On the same day her trial commenced in Edinburgh, she was found guilty of the charges leveled against her. Six days later, on 12 April 1670, the sentence was carried out. Jean was executed by hanging at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh, concluding a legal process that had moved from her initial accusation to her death in less than two weeks.