In the early summer of 1618, the legal machinery of the Scottish state turned its attention toward John Stewart, a landless man living as a vagabond in the burgh of Irvine, Ayrshire. On June 2, 1618, John was formally processed under the case reference C/EGD/887, marking the beginning of a judicial scrutiny that would involve multiple trial appearances recorded in the Justiciary records under T/LA/2228 and T/LA/244.
The proceedings against John centered on allegations of property damage, specifically concerning the destruction of boats. Throughout the course of these legal examinations, he provided a formal confession to the authorities. While the records do not detail the specific supernatural mechanics he was alleged to have employed, the focus on the targeted destruction of maritime vessels points to the common early modern anxieties regarding the vulnerability of communal resources to suspected malefice. Following the recorded confession and the subsequent trial proceedings, the case remains a stark reflection of the intersection between the itinerant status of a landless subject and the severe judicial response to accusations of witchcraft in the seventeenth century.