In the summer of 1661, David Johnston, a 38-year-old collier from Newton, Edinburgh, found himself embroiled in the tumult of Scotland's witch trials. David, a man of lower socioeconomic standing in a society where the margins were often fraught with suspicion, was accused of engaging in sinister practices, a charge that revolved around an alleged pact he claimed to have made with the Devil thirteen years prior. According to the records, he was said to have encountered this malevolent figure while on one of his routine journeys transporting coal to Edinburgh, a lifeblood occupation for those in his trade but one which may have also isolated him and exposed him to rumors.
David's trial was a swift affair in Edinburgh, bearing all the hallmarks of the period's harsh legal proceedings. On July 29, 1661, amidst much fanfare and formality signified by the presence of the central justiciary and the Books of Adjournal, David was found guilty of attending a witches' meeting, a damning accusation during a time of heightened fear of the supernatural. The confessions recorded in the Tolbooth, which David initially made and later retracted, carried a profound weight in his conviction. Torture records, notably the use of a haircloth, suggest the severe methods employed to extract such confessions—a practice not uncommon in trials of this nature.
Despite the gravity of his situation, David's name surfaced in other related trials, notably cited by William King and deemed an accomplice with Walter Cowan and Margaret Daillis. Yet, just a day after his trial, on July 30, 1661, the sentence was executed per the court's grim verdict: David was strangled and subsequently burned, his death marking yet another somber chapter in the history of the Scottish witch hunts. As with many in his position, the record of his life and trial serves as a reminder of the complex interplay of fear, societal pressures, and judicial power in early modern Scotland.