In the spring of 1632, Marioun Widdrow, a resident of Houston in Renfrew, found herself drawn into the machinery of the Scottish judicial system. On the 29th of March, legal proceedings commenced against her, marking the beginning of a formal investigation into allegations of witchcraft. The records identify her as a woman living within the community of Houston, a village that, like many others in the region during the early seventeenth century, became a focal point for such accusations.
The documentation of her case, cataloged under C/LA/3271, underscores the administrative rigour applied to these trials. Following the initial record of her accusation, Marioun was brought before the authorities for her trial, listed under T/LA/1897. While the surviving archive provides the skeletal framework of the legal process initiated against her, it remains a testament to the specific period between 1563 and 1736 when the Scottish state and local kirk sessions actively sought to identify and prosecute those suspected of maleficium.