In the winter of 1612, the legal machinery of early modern Scotland turned its attention to a woman identified only as Robertson, a resident of Perth. On the 22nd of December, she was entered into the formal registers of the justice system under case number C/EGD/859. Little remains of the specifics regarding the nature of the accusations brought against her, yet her inclusion in the judicial record highlights the persistent scrutiny faced by individuals within the burgh during this period of heightened anxiety regarding malefice and the supernatural.
Following her initial registration, the judicial process concerning Robertson proceeded to the stage of formal legal proceedings. Her case was subsequently cataloged under trial reference T/LA/221. While the brevity of these surviving documents leaves the ultimate outcome of the proceedings against her to the silence of the archives, the records serve as a stark testament to the administrative rigor applied to witchcraft cases in 17th-century Scotland, marking her experience as a formal intersection between local suspicion and the state’s ecclesiastical and civil authorities.