Katherine Jones dochter, a woman of fifty years residing in the small community of Stenhous in Shetland, found herself ensnared by the machinery of the early modern Scottish witch trials in 1616. Her life story, while sparsely recorded, suggests she had been embroiled in accusations of witchcraft dating back nearly four decades, when she reportedly first encountered the devil as a young girl. This detail, noted in the grim annals of her trial, seems to have sealed her fate when brought before the Court of Justiciary in Scalloway, the administrative heart of Shetland during that period.
Katherine's trial occurred on the 2nd of October, 1616, amid a wave of witchcraft persecutions sweeping across Scotland. Her case was inscribed in the Sheriff Court books of the Sheriffdom of Yetland, emphasizing the formal nature and widespread practice of documenting such proceedings at the time. Ultimately, the court returned a guilty verdict. The sentence was execution, a grim outcome that meant she was both strangled and burned, practices typical of the era, presumed necessary to eradicate any remaining malevolent influences. Katherine's story, starkly preserved within these specific records, provides a haunting glimpse into the perilous world faced by those accused of witchcraft in early modern Scotland.