In the year 1627, Margaret King, a woman of very limited means and marked by the itinerant lifestyle of a vagabond, found herself ensnared in the web of the witch trials that swept across Scotland during the early modern period. The presbytery records of Ellon, located in Aberdeen, indicate that Margaret was known within the community primarily by her socioeconomic status—"very poor." This grim label frequently guided the suspicions and harsh judgments of the time, as poverty and marginalization often intersected with accusations of witchcraft.
On the 11th of April, Margaret's name was entered into the annals as part of case C/JO/3007, marking the formal beginning of her trial. The trial itself, cataloged as T/JO/1260, positioned Margaret within a legal and social system predisposed to view those on the fringes with suspicion and fear. The records, though sparse, reflect an era when wandering women, like Margaret, without the protection of wealth or stable community ties, were particularly vulnerable to accusations of dealing in dark arts.
Margaret's occupation as a vagabond would have made her dependent on the goodwill of strangers for survival, a precarious position during a period where beggars were often stigmatized. Her means of living, recorded simply as "vagabond," perhaps served to inflame local anxieties about societal disruption at a time when communal stability was highly valued. Whether these circumstances alone were enough to cast the shadow of witchcraft over Margaret is not noted, yet they undeniably shaped the context of her trial and provide a poignant glimpse into the challenges faced by the poorest women during Scotland's witch trial era.