Margaret Comb, a married woman of middling socioeconomic status residing in the port town of Bo'ness in Linlithgow, found herself drawn into the judicial machinery of the Scottish witch trials during the early months of 1680. Her legal proceedings began in earnest when she was brought to the Tolbooth on January 22, 1680, to undergo interrogation. During this period of confinement, Margaret provided a confession that was subsequently recorded by the authorities. However, the integrity of this statement was soon undermined when she formally retracted her testimony, a sequence of events that highlights the complex and often fraught nature of depositions taken under the pressure of judicial custody.
The case against Margaret was deeply entwined with the testimonies of others facing similar accusations. She was explicitly named as an accomplice by both Margaret Hammilton and Annaple Thomson, linking her to a network of individuals who were alleged to have attended a witches' meeting. Following her initial examination and subsequent retraction, Margaret appeared before the courts on March 27, 1680. While the specific nature of the torture she endured remains unrecorded, the gravity of the proceedings against her culminated in a second significant date, May 10, 1680, which historical markers suggest may have been the conclusion of her trial and her eventual execution.