Janet was a niece of the Cardinal Beaton whose body had been hanged over the walls of St Andrews to fulfill Wishart’s prophesy. She was the daughter of John Beton, second Laird of Criech, from whom she inherited her interest in the occult. She was a notable figure at Mary of Guise’s court, and later at the court of Mary Queen of Scots.
Her first legal husband died when she was twenty-three, but she admitted that by then she had already taken a lover. She was divorced from her second husband, Simon Preston of Craigmillar. She had one child with each husband.
Her marriage to Sir Walter Scott of Buccleugh produced six children before he was killed by his hereditary enemies the Kerrs. Those most closely involved were banished, but this didn’t satisfy Janet. At the head of two hundred Scotts, she rode to the Kirk of the Lowes in Yarrow. The Laird of Cranstoun, a Kerr supporter, claimed sanctuary there. Janet took and axe to the door and forced entry, tearing her victim from the altar.
At forty three, she had an affair with the twenty-four year old Lord Bothwell. After the relationship ended, they remained friends, and she was even willing for him to use her as a reason to divorce his wife when he wanted to marry Mary Queen of Scots. It was also rumoured that she had used witchcraft to bring Bothwell and Mary together.
Janet died in January 1568.