On October 26, 1649, Marion Dobie, a midwife residing in the burgh of Haddington, became the subject of a formal legal inquiry regarding allegations of witchcraft. Her position as a midwife placed her at the intersection of community life and the precarious medical understandings of the mid-seventeenth century, a role often subject to intense scrutiny during periods of widespread judicial focus on maleficium. The administrative records catalogued under case C/LA/3293 document the initiation of these proceedings against her, marking the beginning of a process that would ultimately bring her before the court.
Following the initial accusations, the judicial process moved toward trial (T/LA/2016). Central to the legal proceedings against Marion was the production of a formal confession. In the context of the Scottish witch trials, such a document was a pivotal component of the record, serving as the primary evidence upon which the prosecution relied. While the specific content of the testimony provided by Marion remains anchored within the austere language of the seventeenth-century court records, the existence of this confession confirms that she acknowledged the charges brought against her before the authorities in Haddington.