On September 8, 1679, Geils Harley, a married woman residing in Fisherrow, Inveresk, was formally named in the Edinburgh Porteous roll of delinquent dittays. This official legal record placed her at the center of a judicial proceeding in Edinburgh, a city that served as the focal point for the administration of such grave criminal charges during the latter half of the seventeenth century. The entry concerning her case, cataloged under C/EGD/823, serves as a stark testament to the structured nature of the legal processes that governed accusations of this era.
The charges leveled against Geils were comprehensive, encompassing the serious capital offenses of witchcraft, sorcery, and necromancy. Beyond these specific acts, the legal documentation articulated the customary accusations of the period, alleging that she had participated in the renunciation of her baptism and had surrendered herself, both body and soul, to the Devil. As her name appeared on the Porteous roll—a list of individuals summoned to face trial before the circuit courts—Geils became part of a documented judicial framework that defined the state’s response to spiritual transgression in late seventeenth-century Scotland.