In May 1591, legal proceedings were initiated in Saltoun, Haddington, against a woman identified in the records only as a miller's wife. Living within a middling socioeconomic stratum, she occupied a role of local visibility and importance, as the miller’s household was central to the agrarian economy of the parish. The documents cataloged under the case reference C/LA/2913 detail the formal onset of an investigation that would culminate in the trial T/LA/994, conducted on the 8th of May of that year.
As the judicial process unfolded, the miller’s wife was subjected to the scrutiny of the local authorities during a period when the legal framework regarding witchcraft was actively intensifying across Scotland. Despite the brevity of the surviving documentation, these records place her firmly within the specific administrative and judicial climate of East Lothian in the late sixteenth century. The transition from the initial case filing to the subsequent trial highlights the gravity with which the court regarded the accusations brought against her, marking a pivotal and defining moment in her life within the Saltoun community.