In the summer of 1661, the judicial records of Edinburgh documented the case of Issobell Burnie, a widow residing in the village of Sunniesyd, Liberton. Her legal proceedings began on 29 July 1661, marking the commencement of an intensive examination that would span at least two distinct trial sessions, identified in the archives as T/LA/276 and T/LA/403. Like many others entangled in the intensified witch-hunting climate of the mid-seventeenth century, Issobell was subjected to formal interrogation, which ultimately resulted in the documentation of a confession.
The extent of the allegations against Issobell is further illuminated by the testimony of her contemporaries, most notably Issobell Cauldwell. During the course of her own legal ordeal, Cauldwell explicitly named Issobell as an accomplice, a move that frequently served to expand the scope of such investigations. For Issobell, these connections and the subsequent judicial scrutiny represented a perilous intersection with the Scottish legal system, culminating in the formal recording of her involvement in a case that reflected the complex, communal anxieties of the Liberton parish during this turbulent period.