In the spring of 1583, the legal machinery of the Scottish state focused its attention upon Matthew Bryce, a resident of East Glenbuck in the parish of Muirkirk, Ayrshire. The historical record, cataloged under case number C/LA/3164, identifies Matthew as the subject of judicial proceedings initiated on the 4th of March. At this time, the transition of witchcraft from a matter of ecclesiastical discipline to a crime subject to the secular courts was becoming increasingly entrenched in the Scottish legal landscape, placing individuals like Matthew within a complex web of local suspicion and formal indictment.
Following the initial filing of the case, the formal trial—documented as T/LA/1730—proceeded according to the judicial customs of the late sixteenth century. While the specific evidentiary details of his indictment remain sequestered within the surviving archival fragments, the administrative record of the trial marks Matthew as one of the documented figures caught within the broad scope of the witch trials that characterized this era in Ayrshire. The records pertaining to Matthew conclude with the procedural notation of his trial, serving as a testament to the systematic investigation of such accusations in the early modern period.