In the early months of 1623, the judicial machinery of the Scottish state focused its attention upon Christian Harlaw, a resident of the coastal burgh of Inverkeithing in Fife. Little remains of the private life of Christian, yet the administrative traces of her legal ordeal are preserved in the surviving records of the High Court of Justiciary. On the 27th of February 1623, her case, cataloged under the reference C/EGD/930, transitioned from local suspicion into the formal register of the Scottish legal system, marking the commencement of a process that would ultimately see her face the tribunal.
The trajectory of this case culminated in the proceedings held under the reference T/LA/368. As with many women caught within the legislative framework established by the Witchcraft Act of 1563, Christian was subjected to the rigorous scrutiny of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities of the period. While the specific evidentiary details of her examinations are not extant, the existence of these official court documents confirms that Christian was processed through the mechanisms of a state that viewed such accusations as matters of grave public concern, requiring documented trial and resolution.