In the spring of 1624, the legal machinery of the Scottish kirk and state turned its attention toward Marioun Symsoun, a married woman residing in the settlement of Kinnel, within the parish of Kinneil in Linlithgow. On March 18, 1624, Marioun was formally entered into the judicial record under case file C/EGD/953, marking the commencement of proceedings that would eventually see her brought before the high court.
The subsequent progression of her case is documented in trial record T/LA/426. Within the formal structure of the early modern Scottish legal system, Marioun was subjected to the rigorous scrutiny of the period’s witch-hunting statutes. While the surviving records capture the administrative necessity of her trial—documenting the location of her home in the Lothians and the precise date her case was initiated—they remain as silent as the courtroom itself regarding the specific nature of the testimony or the particular grievances brought against her by her neighbors in Kinnel.