On 14 February 1662, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned toward an individual identified in the records only as NcNeill, a married woman residing on the Isle of Bute. Her case, documented under reference C/JO/3260, emerged during a period of intense judicial scrutiny across the Lowlands and the islands, as local authorities grappled with perceived threats of maleficium. While the archival trail remains sparse regarding the specific nature of the allegations brought against her, the formal initiation of proceedings marked the beginning of a precarious ordeal within the seventeenth-century ecclesiastical and secular court system.
Following the initial registration of her case, NcNeill was processed for trial under reference T/JO/1917. The transition from accusation to formal trial signifies that her circumstances had reached a critical juncture in the local administration of justice. As a married woman in the Bute jurisdiction, she was subjected to the rigorous examination methods characteristic of the era, which sought to reconcile community anxieties with the strict statutes governing witchcraft. Despite the brevity of the extant records, the transition to trial indicates that NcNeill was moved through the standard judicial channels established to investigate such serious charges during the mid-seventeenth century.