In August 1643, the legal machinery of seventeenth-century Scotland turned toward Margaret Lummisdane, a resident of the coastal burgh of Crail in Fife. Recorded under case file C/LA/3113, Margaret was drawn into the judicial process at a time when the authorities in Fife were increasingly preoccupied with the investigation of witchcraft. Her appearance in the court records marks the beginning of a formal legal encounter that would proceed from these initial proceedings to the specific trial documented under reference T/LA/1519.
As the matter transitioned into the trial phase, Margaret became the subject of the rigorous administrative scrutiny characteristic of the period. The records provide limited but firm evidence of the bureaucratic framework surrounding her case, noting her identity and place of residence within the burgh. Beyond these essential identifiers, the documentation stands as a preserved trace of the historical experience of a woman caught within the judicial climate of mid-seventeenth-century Scotland, capturing a singular moment in the legal history of Crail.