In the summer of 1633, the legal machinery of Caithness turned its attention toward Jonet Oig, a resident of the small settlement of Bilbister in the parish of Wick. On July 31, 1633, formal proceedings were initiated against her under the reference number C/LA/3307. During this era of early modern Scottish history, such accusations were often rooted in the intersection of local community tensions and the rigorous theological climate of the seventeenth-century kirk, which viewed claims of maleficium—harmful magic—with the utmost gravity.
The subsequent trial, recorded under the designation T/LA/2096, placed Jonet at the center of a judicial process that was typical of the period’s response to suspected witchcraft. While the records maintain a formal silence regarding the specific nature of the allegations brought against her or the final verdict rendered by the court, the existence of these documents confirms that she was subjected to the full scrutiny of the Scottish legal system of the time. Her experience remains a distinct point of historical record, illustrating the reach of the witch-hunting apparatus into the remote communities of the far north during the reign of Charles I.