In the summer of 1649, legal records from the burgh of Queensferry in Linlithgow formally identified Janet Stevin as the subject of a judicial proceeding concerning the charge of witchcraft. Recorded under case file C/JO/3063, the proceedings were initiated on the 12th of June, marking a period of heightened judicial scrutiny regarding alleged supernatural practices in the region. The documentation provides little information regarding the specific nature of the accusations levied against Janet, situating her case within the broader context of the intense legal and religious investigations that characterized mid-seventeenth-century Scotland.
Following the initial filing, the legal process moved toward a formal adjudication, as noted by the entry for trial T/JO/1439. As an inhabitant of Queensferry, Janet became a figure caught within the rigid procedural framework of the early modern Scottish courts, where local officials and church authorities sought to resolve allegations of maleficium or diabolical pacts. The records for Janet remain part of the extant archive that catalogs the intersection of communal suspicion and the formalized pursuit of witchcraft, documenting the administrative journey from her initial indictment to the eventual convening of her trial.