In August 1643, Euphame Henderson, a resident of the coastal burgh of Crail in Fife, became the subject of legal proceedings concerning allegations of witchcraft. The records of the Justiciary Court, indexed under reference C/LA/3108, document her formal accusation during a period when the prosecution of such charges was becoming increasingly systematic across the Scottish lowlands. As a resident of Crail, Euphame lived in a community where local kirk sessions and civil magistrates maintained a rigorous oversight of moral and spiritual conduct, and her case proceeded through the established judicial channels of the mid-seventeenth century.
Following the initial accusation, the process moved toward a formal trial, recorded under reference T/LA/1514. The judicial mechanism of the time required that these serious charges be examined through the lens of both ecclesiastical concern and secular law, reflecting the intersection of religious doctrine and civil authority in 1640s Fife. While the surviving documentation provides the structural framework of Euphame’s encounter with the court—detailing the dates of her apprehension and the subsequent legal steps taken—it serves as a stark testament to the administrative gravity with which the Scottish authorities treated these matters during this era.