In 1655, the judicial records of Caithness identified John Harper, a resident of the northern coastal town of Wick, as a figure caught within the reach of the Scottish witch-hunting apparatus. The procedural history of his case, preserved in archival references C/EGD/771 and T/LA/1930, indicates that the legal proceedings against him were interrupted by his departure from the jurisdiction of the circuit court. Rather than standing trial to face the charges brought against him, John chose to flee, an action that officially designated him a fugitive under the scrutiny of the state.
Because John remained a fugitive, the archival trail regarding his ultimate fate remains incomplete. While researchers such as Larner et al. have documented his inclusion on fugitive lists—specifically noting the record in JC17/1—the lack of a concluded trial means that his ultimate whereabouts or final legal outcome are not recorded in the historical record. Consequently, John occupies a liminal space in the history of the 1655 persecutions: a man identified by the authorities as a target for prosecution, whose abrupt flight effectively removed him from the formal narrative of the court, leaving the specific allegations against him preserved only in his absence.