In June 1708, Andrew Ratter, a resident of Calvister in the parish of Walls and Sandness, Shetland, found himself subject to legal proceedings that would place him within the jurisdiction of the Scalloway presbytery. At this time, the presbytery—which functioned contemporaneously with the authority exercised in Lerwick—oversaw the administrative and judicial response to allegations of maleficium, or harmful witchcraft. The records of his case, identified under the archives C/JO/3015 and T/JO/1280, mark him as one of the men caught in the persistent scrutiny of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Scottish ecclesiastical and civil courts.
The specific accusations brought against Andrew centered upon allegations of property damage, a common feature in rural Scottish witch trials where the well-being of livestock was inextricably linked to the economic stability of the community. According to the extant records, Andrew was formally charged in connection with the harm or death of animals in his vicinity. These charges, while limited in their surviving documentation to the destruction of property, reflect the profound anxieties regarding supernatural influence over the rural landscape that characterized the period.