Robert Scott, Murderer 1823 -UPDATE

Robert Scott, was the subject of two recent blog posts on his trial and execution for murder in Earlston in 1823. A reader came across an article in “The Scotsman” of 19th  August 1930, which throws further light on the crime, under the heading “ The Earlston Tragedy of 1823”. 

After the Earlston Fair, Robert Scott had an altercation with two men, Robert Simm and James Aitchison as they made  their way home to Greenlaw.  They were violently attacked and left for dead.  Robert Scott was arrested, tried at Jedburgh Circuit Court, defended by  J. G. Lockhart, son in law and biographer of Sir Walter Scott.   Different accounts were given of the case of the quarrel, but Robert Scott was found guilty and sentenced to death. 

The Scotsman account gives us a description of Robert Scott as:

"Aged 36, six foot in height, thick set and heavily built, with black hair, head and features normal, and nose flat."

 But the reporter  commented sympathetically on the prisoner's  demeanour on his journey in procession from Jedburgh Jail to the scaffold near Fans, Earlston - the scene of his crime, with the words: 

"Immense crowds in Jed. witnessed his departure.  The  streets were thronged with immense crowds as  the impressive procession left the town for Earlston.  Never before was such a spectacle seen in the locality.  It  was a sad and peculiar scene. The Provost and Magistrates of the burgh dressed in deep mourning, delivered the person of the culprit to the sheriff deputy.   The person of the culprit was accompanied  in the carriage by the Rev. James Clark of Jedburgh  and the Governor of  the Castle  Jail. After the irons had been cut off, the prisoner appeared firm and composed.   Officials from Berwickshire took over at the county boundary.

The Procession  moved slowly and silently  through Earlston.  The greatest decorum was shown by the inhabitants. Thousands of spectators surrounded the scaffold.  The prisoner ascended the scaffold in  a lively manner. Devotional exercises were engaged in, with the prisoner reciting the Lord's Prayer. He prepared to meet his fate with utmost fortitude. He even untied his own necktie, and for a short time remained in silent prayer.  He  gave the signal and was instantly dropped into eternity."

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Given the early date of 1823, when communications were limited, it is  amazing how the event in a small Berwickshire village was featured in newspapers across the country.  A search on British Newspapers Online  on the FindMyPast website revealed reports in the:

Aberdeen Press and Journal 
Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh 
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal
Durham County Advertiser

Morning  Advertiser, London
Morning Chronicle, London 

Oxford University and City Herald 
Perthshire Courier 
Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser, London

Staffordshire Advertiser

Scots Magazine, Edinburgh 

Yorkshire Gazette. York

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 Earlier blog posts on Robert Scott can be found at: 

• An Earlston Murder and Execution, 1823 
• The Cost of Robert Scott's Execution in 1823

The Costs of Robert Scott's Execution in 1823.

The previous post on the Auld Earlston blog told the tale of Robert Scott, who, on the night after the Earlston Fair, murdered two men on the road near Fans, and was duly tried and executed on the spot where he committed the crime.

 Section of the handbill giving the news of Robert Scott's execution. ** 

The account book of the Sheriff Officer has survived and  gives us details of  the costs of  the execution and the transporting of the body to Edinburgh for medical dissection.  The report, transcribed below, makes fascinating reading - not least for the amount spent on refreshments and liquor!

                                                  

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In connection with Scott’s confinement in Greenlaw Jail:

• William Matthewson, Greenlaw, renders the account ­: 29th July 1823 for  removing the irons of Scott sundry times - 3s.  To  one large swell in Scott’s irons - 1s.10d.
   
• George Robertson, barber, renders an account for shaving- eleven times at 2d, each  - 1s.10d.  Cutting Scott’s hair - 2d.

The accounts after Scott was handed over to the Sheriff of Berwickshire are rendered to the Right Honourable Barons of Exchequer by Andrew Easton, Sheriff Officer, Berwickshire. Among the items are the following:

• Paid a joiner affixing chair in cart for conveying Scott from Earlston to the place of execution  - 3s.6d.
   
• Paid for conveying police officer and hangman going to the scaffold early in the morning to adjust the rope (sic) etc
   
• Paid additional expenses at Earlston ordered by the sheriff to superintend the watch on the scaffold; waiting on the sheriffs and giving instructions relative to the execution   - 16s9d.
   
• For refreshments to the extraordinary constables at Greenlaw going to the execution of Scott  - 5s.9d.
   
• Paid to Mr Carter, Earlston, for whisky etc. to man watching the scaffold per order of the sheriff, per receipt  -  16s.9d.  and one bottle 2s.
   
• Paid Mr Duffy, Fans, for straw
   
• To Mr Carter for three bottles of whisky for the men  - 8s.4d.
   
• To self for same and horse from Monday 27th to Wednesday 29th ordered to remain by the sheriff  -  £1.6s.6d.
   
• For a cheese to the men at the scaffold  - 2d.
   
• Paid Walter Dickson, Fans, for a breakfast for seven men  -  7s.0d.
   
• Also to same for eleven men for victuals for watching the scaffold -  6s.10d.

(It is said that the watchers amused themselves playing cards using the waiting coffin as a table.) 
  

• To Andrew Darling for peats  - 4s.6d.
   
• To George Gibson for bread and candles for night when watching -  11s.6d
  
  
• To Mr Carter for bottle of wine and gin ordered to be taken to the scaffold by the sheriff  - 10s.0d.
   
• The refreshments at Greenlaw for the extraordinary constables returning from
  the execution  -  5s.6d.
   
• To tolls and corn for George Pringle’s horse and cart when going to Earlston to convey Robert Scott’s body to Edinburgh -  1s.2d.
   
• Paid the bill at Earlston ordered for two constables to remain at the inn by the sheriff  two days -  13s.9d.
   
• For a lanthorn when escorting the corpse to Edinburgh -  3d.
   
• Paid bill for man and horse at Shaw’s, Lauder  -  13s.3d.
  
• The refreshments at Carfraemill men and horse  -  2s.6d.
   
• Also at Pathhead the same -  1s.6d.
   
• To a porter in Edinburgh conducting the cart to the place where the corpse was going  -  1s.
   
• Paid fee to keeper of cottage getting admission  -  1s,
   
• Paid porter searching for a Mr McKenzie, dissector, to take charge of the corpse - 1s 
   
• Paid bill at Mr Watson’s, Edinburgh, for men and horse  - £1.19s.0d.
   
• George Ingram’s account for men and horse returning from Edinburgh  -  19s.10d.
   
• Expenses in returning from Edinburgh to Dunse -  6s.3d.
   
• Tolls going and returning from Edinburgh  - 1s.6d.

Total £16.1s.1d 

£16 in 1823 is equivalent to £919  in today's money. 
1s 6d is equivalent to £4.30
Source: National Archives Currency Converter
 
The total account rendered by the Procurator Fiscal on 15th December 1823 to the Exchequer for the Execution of Robert Scott £243.2s.7d. 

 The Gallows was probably included in the above total. It cost £150. It was afterwards kept in an outhouse at Blandfield Cottage at a rent of £6 yearly. 

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**  "Execution".  Edinburgh, 1823. Printed for William Johnston. Price One Penny.
On the National Library of Scotland website at  http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/14644

Until the mid 19th century, broadsides (or handbills) were the forerunner of the popular press. Printed on one side of a single sheet of paper, they were designed to be displayed in public places.

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An Earlston Murder & Execution, 1823.

INTRODUCTION

If you think major crime in Earlston in Berwickshire  is rare, things have been relatively quiet for the last two hundred years, apart from two murders and a public hanging. 

Many people know about the 1877 murder, when Euphemia Johnstone, the landlady of the Commercial Inn, was killed by a shotgun blast at six yards range by her husband John. Although he claimed it was accidental, he was found guilty and served fifteen years hard labour in prison.  However few people know about the double murder in 1823 which led to a public execution on a gallows near Fans.

BACKGROUND

In the 1800s Earlston Fair was an important day. Farm labourers and farmers walked about the Square and negotiated deals for labour for the next year. The deal could involve a farm labourer and a “bondager” who worked with him, and in return accommodation and a “boll of wheat or potatoes” were part of the deal. The farmers struck the meanest bargain they thought would be effective and every cart in the countryside was needed at the next quarter day to move entire families and all their worldly goods from one inadequate farm cottage to another.

Only those,  who stood above these grim economic facts of life, could concentrate on the other features of the fair – the shows, the minstrels, the cheapjacks, the fortune tellers and the taverns and beer tents. At the fair of 1823, Rob Scott was only there for the beer – his job was secure, and he could afford to devote the day to serious drinking. 

THE CRIME 

The Scotsman of the following Saturday (July 5^th 1823) told the sad tale of how the day resulted. 

“HORRID MURDER  On Monday last, at Earlston Fair, there was a quarrel between Robert Scott, the Earlston carrier, and two other men belonging to that place, and Scott having been worsted, said he would be revenged ere long. He proceeded to follow the unfortunate men on their road home and having got a piece of an old pailing, he struck one of them dead on the spot, and dreadfully mangled the other who is since dead.

Scott then went to a public house and got a dram and told them that he had done for one and thumped the other well, and directed them where to find them. They instantly proceeded to the spot and found the unfortunate men weltering in their blood. Scott was instantly apprehended, and lodged in Greenlaw jail by the Sheriff, and he has since confessed the deed.”

 Other accounts differ in details – Scott is elsewhere described as a gamekeeper, and his victims (James Aitcheson, a cooper, and Robert Sim, a horse dealer) came from Greenlaw, but there is no doubt that Scott quarrelled with the other two and followed them on their road home. There is no doubt about the severity of the injuries either. Aitcheson, who died immediately, had a fractured skull and his nose was slit, and Sim had a fractured leg as well as head injuries and facial  lacerations. 

The trial took place at Jedburgh two months later, and the jury took only eight minutes to find Scott guilty. The judge, Lord Pitmilly, gave sentence:

 “That he should be, on Wednesday the 29^th day of October next, delivered over by the Sheriffs of Roxburghshire to the Sheriffs of Berwickshire to be by them taken to the most convenient place for execution, near to the spot where the murders were committed, and there be hanged by the neck till he be dead, and afterwards the body be given to Dr Monro (the Edinburgh Professor of Anatomy) for dissection."

The case received wide coverage in the press across Britain as far afield as Cornwall and Inverness -  as evidenced by the number of entries listed in the British Newspapers Online. 

 THE EXECUTION
 A "Scotsman" article of 1st November 1823 gave a detailed account of the execution, describing Robert Scott as "a powerful and muscular man".  On the day of execution, he was taken  from Jedburgh Jail to Earlston with an impressive escort.  

The newspaper concluded "The crowd of spectators , which amounted to many thousands from all parts of the country,  behaved with the utmost propriety, and many of them seemed deeply affected by the awful spectacle".

One such spectator was twelve year old Robert Carter, who later emigrated to New York and became a prominent publisher there.  His daughter in writing his biography included her father's memory of the execution:

"Thousands came to witness the execution. I was in that crowd. At a turn of the road I was within a few feet of him, and such a haggard face I never saw. It haunted me for many a year. When on the scaffold, he , in a loud voice that was heard by thousands,  prayed for mercy - that he might be delivered from blood guilti-ness, — prayed for the widows whom he had made widows, and for the children whom he had made fatherless. I never heard such earnest pleading, and I never forgot it."

 The account book of the Sheriff Officer has survived and records bills for the tolls paid in conveying the body to Edinburgh and breakfasts (and large quantities of whisky) for the eleven men who watched the scaffold. Legend records that the eleven men spent the night in playing cards on the coffin of the condemned man.  (This will feature as a forthcoming blog article)

THE AFTERMATH   
It was not quite the last hanging in Berwickshire. After the lapse of the  custom of public execution on the scene of the murder, there was a “private” hanging in Lauder Jail fifty years later.

Robert Scott’s family emigrated to Canada and did well there. But if you want to visit the scene of the last public hanging in the county, there is a wood called “Scott’s Plantation” at the turn of the road about a mile east of Fans farm.

The Auld Earlston Group  thanks  Dr.John Burns 
for contributing this article. 

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SOURCES  

• British Newspapers Online  at FindMyPast.
• Broadside "Execution".  Edinburgh, 1823. Printed for William Johnston. Price One Penny. On the National Library of Scotland website at  http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/14644
  Until the mid 19th century, broadsides were the forerunner of the popular press. Printed on one side of a single sheet of paper, they were designed to be displayed in public places.
  
  
• "Border Advertiser": 14th August 1886:   "The Greenlaw Murder"  from "The Scottish American Journal" by " Native", who later signed himself as A. L. C. Wroxeter, ONtario.
  
• “The Southern Reporter : 11th December 1986:    "Turbulent History at EarlstonFans, by J. R. Milner.
• "An Old Berwickshire Town", by Robert Gibson.
  
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