In the winter of 1630, Agnes Lawder, a resident of the burgh of Haddington, became ensnared in the legal proceedings of the Scottish witch trials. Her involvement was tethered to a broader wave of accusations initiated by Alexander Hamilton, who implicated a group of nine women in the region. Agnes was specifically linked to Margaret Alexander, another individual named within this circle of suspects. The records of the period reflect the grim reality of these judicial investigations, noting the eventual death of Margaret amidst the unfolding scrutiny of the accused.
Agnes appears only once in the surviving judicial records, which provide a stark account of her condition at the time of the proceedings. While her associates faced the machinery of the state, the clerk documented that Agnes was "greatilie diseased." This brief notation in case C/JO/2661 offers no further details regarding her specific accusations or the eventual outcome of her trial, leaving her story marked primarily by the intersection of her ill health and the legal upheaval in Haddington on February 3, 1630.