In the late summer of 1678, twenty-seven-year-old Isobell Eliot, a servant residing in the village of Paiston, Crichton, found herself at the centre of a significant judicial investigation in Edinburgh. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/691, was deeply intertwined with a wider circle of women, as she was identified as an accomplice by several others accused of witchcraft, including Marion Campbell, Katherine Halyday, and Sarah Cranston. Furthermore, Isobell was explicitly linked to Helen Laying, a fellow servant and co-defendant whose name frequently appeared alongside hers in the legal proceedings.
Isobell’s legal journey began with a series of four formal interrogations between June and September 1678. During these sessions, she provided a detailed confession, including an account of a spiritual encounter she claimed had taken place two years earlier while she was pregnant, when she asserted that the devil had come to her. The formal trial, presided over by the Lord Advocate, concluded on 13 September 1678 with a verdict of guilty. Following the court's decree, the authorities were mandated to report the final proceedings to the Privy Council. On 20 September 1678, the sentence was carried out; Isobell was executed by the traditional method of strangulation and burning. Her name would continue to surface in the legal record even after her death, as she was mentioned in the subsequent trials of several other women she had denounced.