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  Committing for trial - receipt from the Steward Depute

Receipt from the Steward Depute of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright to the magistrates of the Burgh of Dumfries recording that he had received from them and taken into custody five women suspected of witchcraft. Dated 6 June 1671 (Dumfries and Galloway Council Archives, reference DUMFM:0202.3).

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Janet Hewat, Bessie Paine, Margaret Fleyming, Grissall McNae and Margaret McGuffock had been apprehended by the burgh of Dumfries on a charge of witchcraft. The Commission of Justicary sent to try them had ordered the magistrates of Dumfries to hand them over to the Steward of Kirkcudbright (or his deputes) for delivery to Kirkcudbright to stand trial. In this document the Steward Depute acknowledges that he had received the five suspects, and presumably (as the document was witnessed and signed in Kirkcudbright) delivered the suspects to the magistrates of Kirkcudbright.