In the summer of 1629, the burgh of Peebles became the site of a significant legal proceeding involving a woman named Margaret Yerkine. On the 11th of June, Margaret was formally caught within the reach of the Scottish judicial system, appearing in the historical record as one of twenty-six individuals accused of witchcraft. This mass accusation points to a period of heightened scrutiny and communal tension within the region, where such a high volume of suspects suggests a localized climate of suspicion that moved beyond individual disputes to implicate a wider network of neighbors.
Little remains to illuminate the specific circumstances of Margaret’s life or the precise nature of the allegations brought against her. While the archival documentation, cataloged under case reference C/EGD/659, preserves the fact of her indictment and her connection to this larger group, the corresponding trial records—referenced under T/JO/553—are bereft of procedural details. Consequently, the narrative of Margaret remains anchored to this singular, somber moment in the seventeenth-century legal records of Peebles, marking her place in a period defined by the convergence of civil authority and the pervasive belief in supernatural interference.