On July 29, 1661, Margaret Hewingston, a resident of Musselburgh within the parish of Inveresk, Edinburgh, became the subject of a formal legal inquiry recorded under case file C/LA/2797. Following her apprehension, Margaret was held within the Tolbooth, where she was subjected to an unknown form of judicial interrogation. Under these conditions, she provided a formal confession to the charges of witchcraft leveled against her.
The official record of her trial, T/LA/376, notes a significant shift in her legal posture shortly thereafter, as Margaret formally retracted the testimony she had previously delivered while in custody. The brevity of the extant documentation regarding her case reflects the stark, procedural nature of 17th-century Scottish witch trials, where the admission of guilt—and its subsequent repudiation—served as the primary pivot upon which the judicial process turned.