In the late summer of 1622, the judicial machinery of Fife turned its attention toward Janet Robertsone, a married woman of lower socioeconomic standing residing in the coastal village of Aberdour. Janet lived within a community defined by its proximity to the Firth of Forth, where her husband earned a modest livelihood as a *dreger*, a profession involving the use of drag-nets to harvest shellfish from the seabed. Her life, deeply embedded in the maritime rhythms of the parish, became the subject of formal inquiry on August 28, 1622, when she was processed under the case reference C/EGD/914.
The legal proceedings against Janet moved swiftly from initial accusation to a recorded confession. While the surviving documentation of her trial (T/LA/356) remains sparse in its narrative detail, the existence of a formal confession indicates that she participated in the rigorous interrogation process standard for the period. As Janet stood before the authorities in Aberdour, the details of her testimony were inscribed into the record, formalising her transition from a private resident of the village into a subject of the early modern Scottish judicial system.