In the late spring of 1633, a woman known as Fingwall nein Tealgar was brought before judicial scrutiny regarding allegations of witchcraft. A resident of Ross, Fingwall found her fate subjected to the complex legal and ecclesiastical machinery that defined the Scottish witch trials of the seventeenth century. Her case, documented under reference C/LA/3303, reached a significant stage of procedural review on May 29, 1633, when her depositions were submitted for examination to the Bishop of the Isles.
The involvement of the Bishop underscores the gravity with which Fingwall’s circumstances were treated within the administrative hierarchies of the period. While the specific nature of the accusations against her remains preserved within the formal records of her trial (T/LA/2092), the case illustrates the intersection of local community testimony and the oversight of senior church figures. Through the systematic collection of depositions and subsequent review by the episcopacy, the trial of Fingwall serves as a pertinent example of the rigorous, if formalistic, legal processes that governed such proceedings in the Early Modern Highlands.