In the bewitching autumn of 1679, in the serene setting of Laudersdale, Haddington, life took a perilous turn for a young servant named Janet, last name unknown to history but caught vividly in the annals of the Haddington trials. Janet served in the household of William Hunter, a life of humble means and labor that should have been unremarkable were it not for the shadow cast by accusations of witchcraft that loomed over her. Her plight is recorded in a Haddington porteous roll, dated a few days before her trial on the 9th of September. The accusatory language adhered closely to the template of the times: witchcraft, sorcery, and necromancy; renunciation of baptism; and the ultimate yielding of herself to the Devil in both body and soul.
Barefooted and heartsore, Janet faced the formidable machinery of the Haddington judicial system. The peril was palpable, yet the records from the trial, conducted on September 9, reveal that shortly after, on September 12, Janet was declared a fugitive. This temporary escape from justice steered her away from the gallows that awaited many others accused in those merciless times. Her story, suspended in the historic ether without sufficient detail to illuminate her journey, remains a single thread amidst the vast tapestry of Scotland's witch trials, a poignant testament to one individual's encounter with one of history's darker epochs.