In the spring of 1597, the judicial authorities of Aberdeen turned their attention toward Margrat Cleraucht, a woman of very poor socioeconomic status who served as a domestic worker within the city. On April 25, Margrat was brought before the local court to face formal accusations of witchcraft, a period of heightened judicial activity in the region that often saw neighbors testifying against one another. Her involvement in the legal system was deeply intertwined with the broader web of communal suspicion, as evidenced by her name appearing in the testimonies of other individuals, including Jonet Cleraucht, during concurrent trials.
Despite the gravity of the charges leveled against her, the legal proceedings concluded swiftly on that same day. The court, having examined the evidence and testimony presented, returned a verdict of "not proven." Consequently, Margrat was cleared of the accusations brought against her. Unlike many others caught in the sweeping witchcraft trials of late sixteenth-century Scotland, she escaped the ultimate reach of the court’s censure, leaving behind a brief but definitive record of her survival within the volatile judicial landscape of Aberdeen.