Catharin Mactargett, a resident of the coastal town of Dunbar in Haddingtonshire, found herself ensnared in the web of the late 17th-century Scottish witch trials. A woman of middling status, Catharin was married to a weaver, a trade that afforded them a seemingly adequate income. Nonetheless, whispers of her past as a beggar circulated, which, despite their enigmatic nature, set the stage for suspicion and social alienation.
In 1679, Catharin was accused of witchcraft, a charge grave enough to drive her into temporary fugitive status after a trial was convened at Haddington's circuit court. She, like others, was embroiled in allegations that bore the predictable, yet deeply perilous, taglines of the time: witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy, and renunciation of baptism, alongside the mortal sin of pledging body and soul to the Devil. Almost a decade later, these accusations caught up with her again, leading to a more decisive trial under a commission of justiciary in 1688. Here, Catharin's fate was sealed by a guilty verdict.
The records mention a confession recorded in the damp confines of the Tolbooth on the 19th of May, 1688, shortly before the final trial. In addition to her confession, Catharin's reputation was tainted further by mentions in other witch trial proceedings, as identified by Margret McClean and Annabell Stewart, both of whom labeled her a "Known Witch." Allegations of property damage—ranging from dairy production and livestock to ale supplies and entire estates—were pinned on her; these charges reflected the pervasive fear and turmoil attributed to supposed witchery. Catharin's story, like so many of her contemporaries, unfolds as a poignant chapter within the complex and turbulent history of the Scottish witch trials.