In 1679, Jannet Hill, a 45-year-old widow residing in North Leith near Edinburgh, found herself entangled in the perilous web of accusations that characterized the Scottish witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries. The parish of North Leith, where Jannet lived, had a history of amalgamation with its neighboring community of Leith, suggesting a tightly-knit environment where news—and suspicions—could spread quickly. For over two decades, Jannet's reputation had simmered under a cloud of whispers and wariness, suggesting that her neighbors viewed her with a mixture of suspicion and fear long before any formal accusations were laid against her.
Jannet's case first appears in historical records on the 8th of September, 1679, within the Edinburgh porteous roll of delinquent dittays. The record accuses her broadly of witchcraft, a charge that encompassed a variety of alleged malevolent acts including sorcery and necromancy. More grave, however, was the charge often appended to such accusations: the renunciation of baptism and the submission of one's soul to the Devil. This harsh and ominous imagery painted Jannet, like many accused witches of her time, not only as a practitioner of forbidden arts but also as a traitor to the Christian faith—a charge that intensified the public's fear and loathing.
The trial of Jannet Hill took place in Edinburgh, a city that was no stranger to the grim spectacle of witch trials. Being listed on the porteous roll of delinquent dittays, essentially a register of alleged crimes requiring punitive action, signified that Jannet had been formally recognized as guilty of breaching the moral and legal codes of her society. These rolls served as both an indictment and a public vilification, sealing the fate of those named within their pages. Thus, Jannet's story is enshrined in the somber narratives of the Scottish witch trials, a reminder of the turbulent and often perilous intersections of belief, fear, and justice in early modern Scotland.