In the spring of 1632, the legal machinery of Renfrewshire was set in motion against Bessie Jaffray, a resident of the parish of Erskine. On March 29, 1632, Bessie was formally identified within the judicial records of the period, catalogued under case reference C/LA/3270. Her entry into the court system marked the commencement of a process that would ultimately lead to her appearance before a trial tribunal, recorded as T/LA/1896.
The documentation surrounding Bessie provides a stark glimpse into the administrative oversight of the era’s witch trials. While the records are brief, they confirm that the mechanisms of the local kirk session and the civil courts were focused directly upon her during those late winter months. As a resident of Erskine, Bessie found herself at the centre of an investigation that followed the standard legal protocols of seventeenth-century Scotland, situating her case within the broader context of the judicial efforts to identify and prosecute those accused of witchcraft during this turbulent period.