The legal proceedings against Anne Dunlop commenced on May 1, 1591, under the reference case C/LA/3157. As an individual swept into the judicial machinery of late sixteenth-century Scotland, Anne was subjected to the formal scrutiny of the era’s courts, which were then operating under the legislative framework established by the Witchcraft Act of 1563. This period represented a time of heightened anxiety regarding maleficium, where localized disputes and communal suspicions frequently transitioned from private grievances into formal indictments.
Following the initial registration of her case, the process against Anne progressed toward the trial phase recorded as T/LA/1675. While the archival documentation for this specific case is brief, it serves as a testament to the rigorous, bureaucratic nature of the Scottish legal system during this tumultuous era. By documenting her name, gender, and the specific dates associated with her trial, these records preserve the administrative reality of her experience within the judicial landscape of 1591.