In February 1662, the judicial authorities on the island of Bute opened proceedings against Issobell NcNeill, marking a significant entry in the seventeenth-century records of Scottish witch trials. The surviving documentation, identified under case reference C/JO/3261, situates Issobell within a period of intense ecclesiastical and civil scrutiny regarding perceived maleficium. As a resident of Bute, she became the subject of a formal legal investigation during a time when the Scottish courts were deeply preoccupied with the regulation of local communities through the lens of witchcraft legislation.
Following the initiation of the case, the judicial process transitioned to a trial, recorded under reference T/JO/1918. While the specific nature of the charges brought against her remains confined to these archival citations, the transition from initial case to formal trial reflects the procedural rigour applied to individuals accused during this era. Through these administrative markers, the history of Issobell survives as a record of the legal encounter between a Bute resident and the mid-seventeenth-century judicial system of Scotland.