In the spring of 1699, Elspeth Wood, a widowed woman of middling socioeconomic status and the wife of a miller from Over Gurroch in Renfrew, found her life abruptly entwined with the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials. Her ordeal began with the accusations of Margaret Laird, a young girl in Paisley who claimed to be under supernatural torment. During the fits that reportedly seized her, Laird denounced a number of individuals in the surrounding area, identifying Elspeth as one of the figures responsible for her distress.
The subsequent legal proceedings were protracted and marked by procedural uncertainty. Between 19 and 21 April 1699, witness testimony was gathered in Paisley from those who claimed to have observed Laird’s bouts of agitation and her subsequent denunciations. While a trial was initially scheduled for Glasgow on 19 May 1699, it appears that this court session never took place. The matter eventually reached the High Court in Edinburgh, where Elspeth remained under the shadow of a dittay—a formal statement of charges—throughout 1699 and into the following year. Finally, on 12 March 1700, the diet was deserted, and Elspeth was released, concluding a year-long period of judicial scrutiny.