In the spring of 1626, the legal machinery of early modern Scotland turned its attention toward the northern reaches of Caithness. On 28 March, a woman named Jonnet Budge was formally processed under the case reference C/EGD/967. As a resident of Caithness, Jonnet found herself caught within the rigorous judicial framework that governed witchcraft allegations during the reign of James VI and I, a period characterized by heightened anxieties regarding maleficium and the perceived supernatural influence of those living on the fringes of rural society.
Following the initial documentation of her case, Jonnet was subjected to the formal protocols of the Scottish criminal justice system. The subsequent trial, indexed as T/LA/436, moved her from the obscurity of a local accusation into the documented record of the High Court or regional commission. While the brief historical record preserves only the skeletal facts of her identity and the administrative timeline of her prosecution, the existence of these archives confirms that Jonnet remained a subject of intense official scrutiny throughout the spring of 1626.