On December 28, 1643, Jonnet Barber appeared before the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, marking her place within the formal records of the Scottish witch trials. As indicated by the index of the High Court, her case (C/LA/3283) was processed during a period when the Scottish legal system was increasingly systematizing the prosecution of those accused of maleficium and diabolical pacts.
The administrative trail left by the trial (T/LA/1943) records the convergence of judicial authority upon Jonnet on that winter day in the capital. While the surviving documentation is brief, it situates her within the specific legal infrastructure of the mid-seventeenth century, a time when such proceedings were a frequent occurrence under the jurisdiction of the High Court. Jonnet’s entry in the court index serves as a stark historical marker of the legal rigor applied to individuals brought before the bench during this intense era of religious and social upheaval.