In October 1616, the legal machinery of the Sheriffdom of Shetland converged upon Scalloway to preside over the case of Jonet Dynneis, a widowed resident of the island of Fetlar. The proceedings, documented within the Sheriff Court books, centred on allegations of property damage, specifically concerning the disruption and affliction of dairy production. Within the context of seventeenth-century Shetlandic society, where subsistence and the success of household husbandry were vital to survival, such accusations often served as the catalyst for formal intervention by the Court of Justiciary.
Following the trial on the 2nd of October 1616, the court delivered a verdict of guilty against Jonet. Reflecting the standard judicial response to witchcraft convictions during this era, the sentence mandated that she be strangled and burned. Records confirm that the execution was carried out, concluding the legal process initiated against her. This case remains a stark illustration of the gravity with which the authorities in the Northern Isles approached charges of supernatural interference in the daily economy of the parish.