In the late summer of 1661, the legal machinery of the Scottish state focused its attention upon Jonnet Fargrieve, a resident of Newbattle in the county of Edinburgh. On the 8th of August, the judicial processes of the period—governed by the Witchcraft Act of 1563—formally identified Jonnet as the subject of a criminal inquiry. The records concerning her case, catalogued under the reference C/JO/3153, indicate that the accusations levelled against her were grave in the eyes of the seventeenth-century court, centred specifically upon the charge of entering into a pact with the demonic.
Following the initial proceedings of 1661, the case moved toward a formal adjudication, and records indicate that a trial was held in 1665 (T/JO/1665). Within the context of early modern Scottish jurisprudence, these proceedings necessitated a rigorous examination of the accused’s spiritual and social conduct. For Jonnet, this trial marked the culmination of a legal process that sought to resolve the serious allegations brought against her by her community in Newbattle. While the archival remnants of the case remain sparse, they provide an essential testament to the stark reality of the witch trials that permeated Scottish society during this volatile century.