In September 1661, the judicial machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned its attention to Isabel Henderson, a married woman residing in the Canongate district of Edinburgh. While the broader political landscape of the era was marked by the Restoration of the monarchy, the local record captures a more intimate transition toward the formal mechanisms of the law. Identified in the registers of the Privy Council as the wife of a local indweller, Isabel was drawn into the legal process on the 18th of September, marking the commencement of her proceedings under the reference number C/JO/2923.
The documentation surrounding the case is brief, yet it situates Isabel within the rigorous bureaucratic structure of seventeenth-century Scottish justice. Following the initial registration of her case, the records indicate that the matter proceeded to the formal stage of trial under reference T/JO/1073. Although the archives offer limited insight into the specific depositions or testimonies brought against her, the existence of these entries confirms that Isabel was subjected to the full gravity of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities tasked with managing allegations of witchcraft during this period of heightened scrutiny.