In the summer of 1661, Margaret Hart, a married woman residing in Edinburgh, found herself drawn into the turbulent judicial machinery of the Scottish witch trials. Her legal entanglement appears to have originated from the testimony of Sarah Ramage, who publicly identified Margaret as a "known witch." While her precise origins remain obscure, the mention of her name by Ramage suggests a possible connection to the Linlithgow area, though the network of individuals involved in her proceedings stretched as far as Duddingston, where witnesses to her eventual confession were based.
Following the accusations levied against her, Margaret underwent a series of formal examinations throughout the mid-summer of 1661. On July 13, she provided a recorded confession, a pivotal document in the legal process of the era. By August 20, the judicial proceedings reached a formal stage under case reference C/LA/2786, with charges specifically citing her participation in a "witches' meeting." Margaret’s case subsequently proceeded through multiple trial stages in Edinburgh, though surviving records from these proceedings provide no further detail regarding the specific outcomes of her hearings.