In the early spring of 1622, Margaret Wallace, a 34-year-old resident of Lanark, found herself ensnared in the daunting grip of a witch trial. Margaret was married to a burgess, a craftsman whose trade once relied on the borrowing of an ‘elwand’ – a measuring rod often essential in his work – which he unfortunately broke. Despite residing in a middling socioeconomic status in a town like Lanark, the shadow of suspicion cast long and deep. Accused of attending witches' meetings, Margaret's case was thoroughly scrutinized, becoming one of the several high-profile cases reaching the Edinburgh courts that year.
Her trial, recorded under Case T/LA/57, took place on March 20, 1622, in the esteemed bastion of Edinburgh. The intricacy of the legal proceedings was noted, with both prosecution and defense citing various passages, notably from Delrio’s works — a testament to the complexities that surrounded such trials during this period. Despite the elaborate defensive pleadings, Margaret was found guilty. This verdict was primarily propelled by acts of denunciation against her, which had been recorded as early as 1613 during a Kirk session in Glasgow, alongside confessions procured under undisclosed means of coercion. Notably, other accused women, Christiane Grahame and Katherine Blair, mentioned Margaret as an accomplice, further complicating her predicament.
Margaret's execution was swiftly carried out on Castle Hill later that March, following the traditional method of being strangled and burned. Her story, woven with the threads of societal fear and judicial rigor of the early 17th-century Scottish witch trials, highlights the perils faced by women like her. Margaret Wallace’s case remains etched in history not only for the grave outcome but for the remarkable glimpse it offers into the societal and judicial dynamics of early modern Scotland.