In the early months of 1591, the legal machinery of Scotland turned its attention to Nicol Murray, a tailor residing in the burgh of Haddington. As a man of middling socioeconomic status and a husband, Nicol occupied a settled position within his community, yet he found himself swept into the judicial proceedings that characterized this period of heightened scrutiny regarding the supernatural. On January 27, 1591, his case—archived under the reference C/LA/2910—was formally recorded, initiating the state’s formal engagement with his activities.
The procedural journey for Nicol moved from the initial documentation of the accusation toward the formal courtroom setting. Under the registration T/LA/984, the trial of Nicol proceeded through the established legal channels of the time. While the archival records preserve these specific administrative milestones, they offer a somber reflection of how an ordinary tradesman in late sixteenth-century Haddington became the subject of a criminal inquiry, marking his place within the broader and complex history of the Scottish witch trials.