In the summer of 1630, the judicial machinery of Selkirkshire turned its attention toward Alexander Baillie, a resident of Gaitonsyde. On the 17th of June, Alexander was formally processed through the legal system under case reference C/LA/2864. This administrative beginning marked the entry of his name into the annals of the Scottish witch trials, a period defined by an intense legal and religious scrutiny of individuals perceived to be operating outside the boundaries of established social and spiritual order.
Following his initial processing, Alexander was subjected to the rigours of a formal trial, recorded as T/LA/666. While the surviving documentation focuses on the procedural mechanics of his case, it captures a distinct moment of intersection between the inhabitants of the Borders and the seventeenth-century kirk and state authorities. As Alexander faced these proceedings, he became part of a complex historical narrative that saw men and women across Scotland held to account under the Witchcraft Act of 1563, leaving behind only the stark numerical markers of his arrest and subsequent trial.