In October 1649, Janet Sympsoun, a resident of the settlement of Paiston within the parish of Ormiston, near Edinburgh, became the subject of legal proceedings concerning the crime of witchcraft. The records regarding her case, indexed under C/LA/3290, indicate a swift movement through the judicial system of the mid-seventeenth century. Shortly after the initial formalization of the case on the 24th of October, Janet was brought before the authorities to undergo the interrogation processes typical of the period.
The archival evidence confirms that Janet provided a confession during the same month. While the specific content of her testimony remains confined to the records of October 1649 (T/LA/2013), the existence of a signed or witnessed confession was a decisive element in the judicial handling of such accusations at the time. By the end of that autumn, her case had progressed from a local allegation in Paiston to a formal matter of record, marking her brief but documented intersection with the Scottish witch trials.