On December 26, 1590, John Syn appeared within the legal landscape of early modern Scotland as the subject of a criminal case, identified in the official records under the index C/LA/3282. At a time when the Scottish authorities were increasingly preoccupied with the perceived dangers of maleficium and diabolical pacts, John was processed through the judicial machinery of Edinburgh. His entry into the legal archives remains stark, marking a moment where his life intersected with the heightened anxieties of the late sixteenth-century state.
The proceedings against John culminated on that same day, December 26, 1590, as documented in trial record T/LA/1942. His appearance before the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh confirms his inclusion in the formal index of those accused of witchcraft during this period. While the archival record provides these precise administrative markers, it leaves the specific charges and the ultimate outcome of the trial unstated, preserving John’s historical footprint as a brief but formal entry in the extensive judicial catalog of the Scottish witch trials.