In the autumn of 1631, the legal machinery of the Scottish kirk and state turned toward the parish of Inverkip, specifically targeting a resident of the small settlement of Breitfunnock named Katherine Patersoun. On November 3rd, Katherine, a married woman, was formally entered into the judicial record under case number C/LA/3259. This registration marked the initiation of a process that would see her moved from her domestic life in Renfrew to the scrutiny of the criminal courts, a common trajectory for many individuals caught in the fervor of the early seventeenth-century witch trials.
Following the initial filing, the proceedings moved toward the judicial inquiry known as trial T/LA/1885. While the records provide a stark summary of Katherine's status and location, they capture a singular moment in the history of Inverkip, where the weight of seventeenth-century jurisprudence was brought to bear upon her. By documenting her marital status and residence, the authorities firmly placed Katherine within the communal fabric of Breitfunnock, transforming her from a local inhabitant into a subject of the high courts during one of the most litigious periods of Scottish history.