In the summer of 1629, the community of Manor in Peebles was marked by a significant judicial intervention involving Helen Beatie, a woman whose profession as a midwife placed her at the heart of local domestic life. On the 11th of June, 1629, Helen was formally processed within the legal system under case number C/EGD/641. Her arrest did not occur in isolation; she was named alongside twenty-six other individuals, suggesting a period of intense scrutiny and collective accusation within the parish that drew a wide net of suspects into the reach of the authorities.
The subsequent legal proceedings, documented under trial reference T/JO/550, remain brief and offer little detail regarding the specific nature of the evidence presented or the nature of the charges brought against her. While the records confirm that Helen was deeply entangled in a large-scale judicial inquiry, the lack of further documentation leaves the particulars of her defense and the final outcome of her trial obscured by the passage of time. Her experience remains a stark example of the collaborative nature of early modern Scottish witchcraft accusations, where a midwife might find herself suddenly swept into a multi-defendant investigation.