In November 1699, Janet Wharrie, a married woman residing in the settlement of Knockfernock within the parish of Caerlaverock, Dumfries, became the subject of a legal inquiry regarding charges of witchcraft. The legal documentation associated with her case, preserved under reference C/JO/3025, details a series of grievances concerning her alleged involvement in the destruction of local property. These formal accusations centred specifically upon damage inflicted on livestock and the impairment of agricultural equipment, namely a plough.
The subsequent trial, recorded under T/JO/1290, addressed these claims, which were rooted in the common early modern anxiety surrounding the unexplained loss of working animals and the failure of vital farming implements. For Janet, the proceedings represented a precarious intersection of communal suspicion and the mechanisms of seventeenth-century Scottish law. By examining the specific allegations of property damage, the court sought to weigh the evidence against her in the context of the legislative statutes governing witchcraft during the post-Reformation era.