In the early months of 1627, the legal machinery of Aberdeen turned toward Nanse Durie, a woman residing in the coastal community of Futtie. The transition from the suspicion of her neighbors to the formal sphere of judicial inquiry began on January 23, 1627, when her case was entered into the official registers of the local courts under reference number C/LA/2839. Situated at the mouth of the River Dee, Futtie was a close-knit environment where the domestic lives of residents were often subject to intense community scrutiny, a dynamic that frequently preceded the formal accusations of the period.
Following the initial filing of her case, Nanse was brought forward to face the rigors of the Scottish legal system. Her matter progressed to a formal trial, recorded under reference T/LA/474, which serves as the final archival trace of her experience within the judicial process. These records, while sparse, situate her firmly within the broader pattern of seventeenth-century Scottish witch trials, illustrating the procedural path that individuals in the northeast were compelled to follow once they became the subject of state or ecclesiastical examination.