In the autumn of 1678, the legal apparatus of seventeenth-century Scotland turned its attention toward Grissell Walker, a married woman residing in the parish of Humbie in Haddington. Little remains in the archival record to explain the specific allegations brought against her, yet the administrative response was swift and formal. On August 13, 1678, Grissell was expected to appear before the court in Edinburgh to answer to charges of witchcraft. When she failed to present herself at the appointed time and place, the judiciary moved to enforce its authority, declaring her a fugitive from the law.
The legal consequence of Grissell’s absence was the pronouncement that she be "put to the horn," a traditional Scottish process of outlawry. By this act, an officer of the law would literally blow a horn at the market cross to announce that the individual had denounced the king’s authority by failing to appear, rendering her civilly dead in the eyes of the state. This status effectively stripped her of legal protections and property rights. A final administrative entry dated September 13, 1678, confirms that her case remained active within the legal system, though the trail of records ends there, leaving Grissell’s subsequent fate in the shadows of the early modern period.