In the spring of 1648, the records of the Linlithgow presbytery identified Agnes Dunlop as a subject of formal ecclesiastical inquiry. The administrative machinery of the seventeenth-century Scottish kirk, tasked with upholding moral and spiritual discipline, brought Agnes before the local authorities on March 15, 1648, to answer to charges of witchcraft. While the surviving documentation remains sparse regarding the specific nature of the allegations brought against her, the existence of a designated case file indicates that her situation was treated with the customary gravity afforded to such spiritual transgressions during this era.
By the end of that same month, the proceedings reached a critical juncture with the formal documentation of a confession. The records confirm that Agnes provided a statement to the presbytery in March 1648, a pivotal moment in the judicial process that followed her initial summons. Although the historical record offers no further illumination on the substance of these admissions or the ultimate resolution of her case, the brief entries contained within the archives provide a stark testament to the structured process of investigation and interrogation that defined the experience of those accused of maleficium in mid-seventeenth-century Scotland.