[2] A man and five women were held in the tolbooth, tried for witchcraft in the courtroom and then executed in October 1649 during the Great Scottish witch hunt.

[4] By the late 1720s, the old tolbooth was dilapidated and the local laird, Charles Maitland, 6th Earl of Lauderdale, whose seat was at Thirlestane Castle, contributed £100 towards the rebuilding of the structure: it was rebuilt in stone with a harled finish and the works were completed in 1735.

Above the doorway, there was a pair of blind oculi, with voussoirs at the cardinal points, and the whole structure was surmounted by a gable which was broken by a clock tower with a pyramid-shaped roof and weather vane.

[1] In 1790, a new bell, cast by George Watt of Edinburgh, was installed in the clock tower[6] and, on 18 July 1793, during a severe and prolonged thunderstorm, a "ball of fire struck the steeple above the Tollbooth, and did considerable damage".

[10][11] The future Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, visited the town hall to make a speech in support of the local Labour Party candidate, Robert Spence during the December 1923 General Election.