In the tumultuous period of 17th-century Scotland, Elizabeth Wood of Overkeith, a village in the parish of Humbie, Haddington, found herself embroiled in the fraught landscape of the Scottish witch trials. On the 13th of September, 1678, Elizabeth's name surfaces in historical records under case number C/EGD/686. Facing allegations of witchcraft, a charge that carried formidable implications in a time rife with suspicion and fear of the supernatural, she was summoned to appear for trial in Edinburgh. However, the records poignantly reveal an absence rather than active participation in her defence.
Elizabeth's trial, documented under T/LA/838, was ultimately marked by her non-appearance. On the appointed day, she did not present herself before the authorities in Edinburgh, a choice—or perhaps a necessity—that led to her being declared a fugitive. In the parlance of the period, to be "put to the horn" was a formal declaration of outlawry, signifying that Elizabeth was now considered beyond the law’s reach, living as a fugitive rather than risking the perilous outcomes that often accompanied such trials. Her evasion of trial suggests either a strategic withdrawal or a decision forced by circumstances we can only surmise; however, the result was a life marked by stigma and uncertainty.
Though the records do not divulge further details of her life following the trial’s verdict, Elizabeth Wood’s story echoes the broader narrative of many individuals accused of witchcraft during this era—individuals whose realities and reactions to the allegations varied widely, and whose personal experiences remain largely obscured by the formal language of legal documents.