The historical record regarding Agnes Armstrong offers a brief but significant glimpse into the legal landscape of late seventeenth-century Scotland. On September 24, 1679, Agnes was formally documented in connection with a trial for witchcraft, identified as a resident of the area around Dumfries. Her case is inextricably linked to the administrative mechanisms of the period, as she appears specifically on a fugitive roll. This designation indicates that, at the time of the legal proceedings, Agnes had failed to appear before the court to answer the charges brought against her, prompting the authorities to record her status as a fugitive from justice.
While the geographical origins of Agnes have been a subject of scholarly deliberation—notably regarding the confusion between the parish of Canisbay in Caithness and a location near Dumfries—the records confirm her association with the latter. The archival evidence remains confined to these skeletal details, underscoring the bureaucratic rigor with which the state managed accusations of sorcery. By placing her on the fugitive roll on that autumn day in 1679, the judicial system formally marked Agnes within the ongoing narrative of the Scottish witch trials, capturing a singular moment in her life where the local legal apparatus intersected with her personal trajectory.