In July 1683, Margaret Logan, a married woman residing in the parish of Crichton near Edinburgh, found herself formally indicted for the crimes of witchcraft, sorcery, and necromancy. Her legal entanglement began years earlier, appearing on an Edinburgh Porteous roll of delinquent dittays dated August 9, 1679. The accusations brought against her were severe, mirroring the standardized legal language of the era, which charged the accused with the renunciation of their Christian baptism and the act of surrendering themselves, body and soul, to the Devil.
Margaret was not accused in isolation; she stood as part of a group that included G. Penman and two other unnamed individuals from Crichton. Records from the circuit court, specifically bundle 4 of the JC26/62 Edinburgh Porteous Roll, confirm that she was indicted again in 1683 for these same charges. Notably, archival marginalia pertaining to this group of four individuals records them as "all absent and resited," suggesting that despite the formal indictment brought against them in the capital, they did not appear in court to answer the charges.