In July 1629, the judicial machinery of the Scottish state focused its attention upon Katherine Wemes, a resident of the town of Duns in Berwickshire. Her case, documented under reference C/LA/3022, serves as a formal entry in the extensive records of the early modern witch trials. By the time Katherine appeared before the authorities, the legal mechanisms governing such accusations had become a consistent feature of local and national life, reflecting the intersections of social regulation and contemporary theological anxieties regarding the nature of maleficium.
Following the initial registration of the case on July 13, Katherine was brought to trial under the reference T/LA/1284. This process marked the transition from local suspicion to the formal adjudication of the law. Within the context of seventeenth-century Duns, Katherine’s trial represents a specific instance of the complex interplay between community reporting and the rigorous legal procedures that characterized the prosecution of witchcraft in Scotland during this period.