In the spring of 1617, Agnes Knox, a fifty-year-old married woman residing in Bathgate, Linlithgow, became the focus of judicial scrutiny regarding the crime of witchcraft. The records of the period, specifically preserved under case file C/EGD/884, indicate that the legal proceedings against her were initiated in late March. By the 23rd of April, the formal mechanisms of the Scottish ecclesiastical and civil courts had advanced, with the presbytery noting that a trial was to be held in Linlithgow to address the charges brought against her.
The circumstances surrounding the case were notably complex, as the accusations did not stop with Agnes. Historical accounts reveal that she had adult children who were also caught within the same web of suspicion and subsequently accused. The trial, documented in record T/LA/239, marks a significant moment in the local history of the region, illustrating how the intense atmosphere of the 1617 witch trials could deeply entrench itself within the fabric of a single family unit in West Lothian.