In September 1678, the legal apparatus of seventeenth-century Scotland turned its attention toward Margaret Smaill, a thirty-five-year-old resident of Humbie in Haddington. Her journey through the judicial system was swift and fatal; she appeared before the court in Edinburgh on September 13, 1678, to face charges brought by the Lord Advocate, which centered on her involvement in a witches’ meeting. Her reputation within the local community had already been established through the testimony of Jannet Borthwick, who identified Margaret as an accomplice in these illicit activities.
During the days leading up to her trial, Margaret provided formal statements to the authorities on September 11 and 13. In these recorded confessions, she admitted to having operated as a witch for a period of ten years. Following her conviction on the charges, the court sentenced her to death. On September 18, 1678—the very day her case was officially processed—the sentence was carried out at the Gallow, where Margaret was executed by being strangled and burned.