In September 1678, the judicial machinery of seventeenth-century Scotland turned its attention toward Jannet Borthwick, a resident of the parish of Crichton in Midlothian. The legal process initiated against her, recorded under case file C/LA/2880, reflects the standard administrative procedures of the era, wherein accusations were formalized before being brought before a court of law. On the 13th of September, the state moved to address the allegations leveled against Jannet, setting into motion the formal proceedings that would determine the course of her life under the statutes governing the realm.
The subsequent trial, documented as T/LA/825, represents the culmination of this legal intervention. By the late seventeenth century, such trials were conducted within a rigorous framework of ecclesiastical and civil oversight, as the Scottish authorities sought to weigh the gravity of the charges brought against those in the local community. For Jannet, this judicial encounter marked a critical juncture, as the evidence and testimony surrounding her activities in Crichton were scrutinized within the exacting confines of the courtroom, adhering to the established legal protocols of the period.