In the summer of 1661, the legal machinery of the Scottish state focused its attention upon Jeane Gibeson, a woman of middling status residing in the village of Niddry, within the parish of Liberton, near Edinburgh. On June 28, 1661, formal records—filed under case reference C/JO/3149—were generated regarding her situation, marking the formal initiation of proceedings against her. This period was one of heightened judicial activity regarding allegations of witchcraft, and Jeane was drawn into the administrative scrutiny that characterized the era’s approach to such accusations.
The subsequent trial, recorded under reference T/JO/1659, placed Jeane at the center of a judicial process that sought to test the validity of the charges brought against her. As an inhabitant of the Niddry community, her position within the social hierarchy placed her among the middling sort, yet this did not insulate her from the reach of the circuit courts and local officials. The records concerning Jeane remain as a testament to the specific procedural path taken by the Scottish courts during this turbulent year, documenting the intersection of her life in Liberton with the wider legislative efforts of the mid-seventeenth century.