In the spring of 1650, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials reached into the parish of Pencaitland, Haddington, to ensnare Alexander Bell. On May 29th of that year, Alexander was processed alongside five other individuals as part of a collective case (C/JO/2708). While the surviving archives provide no specific details regarding the nature of the accusations brought against him, the proximity of his arrest to those of his co-accused suggests a localized investigation, a common feature of the mass trials that periodically swept through the Scottish Lowlands during the mid-seventeenth century.
On that same day in May, Alexander provided a formal confession to the authorities, as documented in the trial records (T/JO/156). Though the content of this statement has not survived the passage of time, its formal registration marked the conclusion of his involvement in the preliminary stages of the judicial process. His case remains a notable entry in the archival record of Pencaitland, reflecting the formal legal procedures that governed the handling of witchcraft allegations during a period of intense religious and civil upheaval in Scotland.