In the autumn of 1678, the Scottish judicial system turned its attention toward Agnes Thomson, a resident of Overkeith in the parish of Humbie, Haddington. On September 13, legal proceedings were initiated against her under the reference C/EGD/623, marking the beginning of a formal investigation into allegations of witchcraft. Such charges during this period often stemmed from local tensions and the prevailing intellectual climate, which viewed maleficium—harmful magic—as a tangible threat to the social and spiritual order of the parish.
When the matter came before the court in Edinburgh that same day, the trial records T/LA/818 and T/LA/839 reveal that Agnes did not appear to answer the charges levied against her. In the rigid legal framework of the seventeenth century, a failure to present oneself for trial was a significant transgression. Consequently, the court declared Agnes a fugitive and ordered her to be "put to the horn." This ancient process involved the public denunciation of the individual, traditionally accompanied by the blowing of a horn, which effectively placed her outside the protection of the law and rendered her an outlaw in the eyes of the state.