In the autumn of 1678, the legal apparatus of the Scottish state focused its attention on Elizabeth Wood, a resident of Overkeith in the parish of Humbie, Haddington. On September 13, 1678, she was formally implicated in a case of witchcraft recorded under the reference C/EGD/686. The administrative machinery of the era, which saw the prosecution of such crimes increasingly centralized within the high courts, necessitated that Elizabeth be brought to answer for these charges before the authorities in Edinburgh.
The legal proceedings took an abrupt turn when Elizabeth failed to appear at the appointed time for her trial, which was documented across two separate records (T/LA/819 and T/LA/838). In response to her absence on September 13, 1678, the court declared her a fugitive from justice. Following the customary procedure of the period, she was "put to the horn"—a formal legal process in which a messenger-at-arms would blow a horn at the market cross to signify that the individual had been declared an outlaw for failing to obey the king’s writ. Consequently, Elizabeth’s involvement in the historical record concludes with this status of flight, leaving the specific nature of the allegations against her unexamined by the court.