In March 1623, the judicial machinery of Fife turned its attention to Jonet Keirie, an indweller of the royal burgh of Inverkeithing. As documented in the extant legal records, Jonet was formally brought before the authorities to answer to charges of witchcraft. This process culminated on March 18, 1623, when her case, registered under the reference C/EGD/933, moved through the necessary administrative channels toward a trial, designated in the archives as T/LA/366.
The legal proceedings against Jonet reached a critical juncture with the recording of her confession. In the context of early modern Scottish jurisprudence, this document serves as the primary window into the state’s encounter with her. Having admitted to the accusations brought against her, Jonet became part of the extensive historical record of witchcraft prosecutions that defined this period in Fife, leaving behind a brief but definitive account of her involvement in the legal mechanisms of the seventeenth-century kirk and state.