In the summer of 1678, the judicial machinery of Haddington focused its attention upon a woman residing in the settlement of Woodhead, identified in the extant legal registers simply as the "Henwife." A woman of middling socioeconomic status, she was married to a local wobster—a weaver by trade—placing her firmly within the industrious fabric of seventeenth-century Scottish village life. Her case, documented under reference C/LA/3063, proceeded through the formal channels of the Scottish legal system during a period when concerns regarding maleficium were frequently addressed by local authorities.
On the 9th of July, 1678, the Henwife was brought before the court, an event recorded under trial reference T/LA/1445. While the records are sparse regarding the specific depositions or testimony provided against her, her appearance marks a distinct moment in the Haddington archives. The proceedings offer a stark glimpse into the administrative rigour applied to those accused of witchcraft, capturing the moment where the private life of a weaver’s wife intersected with the broader, often fatal, scrutiny of the early modern state.