In December 1561, the judicial records of Selkirk bear witness to the case of Janet Trumbill. At a time when the legal framework surrounding witchcraft in Scotland was yet to be formalised by the Witchcraft Act of 1563, Janet appeared before the authorities on the 23rd of that month. Her entry in the register, catalogued under reference C/JO/2965, marks her among those early individuals caught within the shifting socio-legal climate of mid-sixteenth-century Selkirkshire.
While the brief documentation preserves the date of her encounter with the court and her place of residence, the surviving records remain silent regarding the specific allegations levelled against Janet. Her inclusion in the judicial archive serves as a notable fragment of history, reflecting the broader administrative responses to local tensions in the Borders during the early years of the Scottish Reformation. For Janet, the proceedings on that winter day in Selkirk remain preserved in the ledger, representing a singular, documented point of intersection between a local woman and the developing processes of early modern criminal justice.