In September 1678, the legal machinery of the Scottish courts turned toward Sarah Cranston, a widowed woman of middling socioeconomic standing. Recorded as a resident of Crichton in Edinburgh, though also linked to the parish of Keith, Sarah’s social position was marked in the surviving documentation by the status of her household, which included a servant named Jannet Burton. As the legal proceedings against Sarah commenced, the association with her servant became a defining feature of the investigation, as Jannet was also formally accused of witchcraft.
The procedural trail preserved in the archival records, cataloged under case reference C/EGD/618 and trial reference T/LA/816, reflects the intersection of these two women within the judicial system. On 13 September 1678, Sarah became the subject of a trial that situated her domestic life within the broader context of the witch-hunting climate of the late seventeenth century. While the records provide a clear account of the administrative actions taken against her, they remain a formal testament to a period when the social ties between a mistress and her servant could be scrutinized through the lens of criminal accusations.