On February 14, 1662, Elspeth Spence, a married woman residing on the island of Bute, became the subject of a formal legal inquiry recorded under case file C/JO/3256. Her appearance before the authorities occurred during a period of heightened judicial activity concerning allegations of witchcraft in Scotland. As a married woman within the Bute community, Elspeth occupied a social standing that would have been deeply scrutinized by local kirk sessions and civil magistrates during the investigation of her activities.
Following the initial proceedings of her case, the legal process against Elspeth transitioned to a trial, documented under reference T/JO/1909. The records provide the structural framework of her interaction with the seventeenth-century Scottish justice system, marking her path from the initial filing of the case to the subsequent adjudication. Her experience remains a documented entry in the broader historical narrative of the witch trials that permeated the region during the mid-seventeenth century.