In the early months of 1627, the legal machinery of Aberdeen turned its attention toward Margaret Durie, a resident of the coastal community of Futtie. On the 23rd of January, her name was formally entered into the judicial records of the period under case file C/EGD/995. This initial administrative action set in motion the formal proceedings of the local courts, marking the beginning of a process that would ultimately bring Margaret before the scrutiny of the judicial authorities during the trial recorded as T/LA/473.
The documentation surrounding Margaret provides a stark glimpse into the legal landscape of seventeenth-century Scotland, where the intersection of community suspicion and statutory regulation often resulted in formal inquiry. Though the surviving records for Margaret are sparse, the existence of both a specific case file and a subsequent trial record confirms her transition from a resident of Futtie to a defendant within the Scottish legal system. Her experience remains a fragment of the broader history of the witch trials that shaped the social and judicial character of Aberdeen during this volatile era.