In the spring of 1597, Janet Ingram, a resident of the small community of West Burn in the parish of Belhelvie, Aberdeen, found herself drawn into the escalating judicial scrutiny surrounding witchcraft in the region. On the 21st of April, legal proceedings were formally initiated against her, marking the beginning of her entanglement with the authorities during a period characterized by heightened apprehension regarding occult activities. Her case, documented under reference C/JO/3111, reflects the systematic approach taken by the Scottish courts during this volatile era.
The records concerning Janet move swiftly from this initial entry to the subsequent legal process documented in trial record T/JO/1544. As a subject of these proceedings, she became a focal point of the local judicial apparatus, which sought to address the allegations brought against her according to the statutes and customs of late sixteenth-century Aberdeenshire. Through these surviving entries, Janet remains an individual firmly etched into the history of the 1597 witch hunts, representing the profound legal and social tensions that defined the lives of those caught in the reach of the early modern Scottish state.