In the spring of 1650, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch-hunts reached the parish of Kilmadock in Stirling, leading to the formal record of Margaret Spittel. On the 10th of April, her case was officially registered within the judicial system under reference C/JO/3317. As an individual residing in this rural community, Margaret found herself subject to the intensifying scrutiny of local authorities during a period when commissions for the trial of suspected witches were being granted with increasing frequency across the Scottish Lowlands.
The subsequent proceedings against Margaret moved into the trial phase, documented under record T/JO/2117. While the specific testimonies and accusations that precipitated her appearance before the court remain preserved within these archival identifiers, they reflect the broader socio-legal climate of mid-seventeenth-century Scotland, where local suspicions were systematically codified through judicial investigation. Margaret’s case serves as a singular point of evidence for the rigorous administrative processes that governed the lives and legal fates of women accused of witchcraft during this turbulent era.