In the mid-seventeenth century, the town of Dalkeith in Edinburgh became the setting for the legal proceedings against John Wilsone. On November 15, 1649, John was formally brought before the authorities to answer charges related to witchcraft. His case, documented under reference C/JO/2814, indicates that he was not the sole focus of the judicial inquiry, as his name appears on the record alongside one other individual whose identity remains similarly brief within the archival narrative.
Despite the scarcity of surviving details regarding the specific allegations or the local context of his arrest, the historical record confirms that a trial was initiated under reference T/JO/373. On the same day that his case was first recorded, John provided a confession to the court. While the content of that testimony has been lost to time, the administrative record of his confession marks the culmination of the sparse, extant documentation regarding his encounter with the Scottish justice system during the intense period of witch-hunting that characterized the post-Reformation era.