Introduction
Auld Earlston was invited to give a talk to the members of Earlston's Wednesday Club. The subject of the talk was 'old Earlston'.
Since there's been a settlement here since the Neolithic period, Earlston is steeped in history — quite a scope for a 40-minute talk.
We focused on 4 picture postcards of the High Street taken long ago. The aim was to share some of the history of the buildings, people and events over the years.
This virtual walk would involve going as far south as Australia, as far west as Canada, north to the highlands and the town of Moray and east to Chirnside.
Why Chirnside? Well, in addition to the parish church, Earlston had three other churches - the United Free Church (also known as the East Church), the Relief Church (also known as the West Church) and the Free Presbyterian Church, more like a meeting hall, on Thorn Street and three of these churches had their origins in Chirnside.
Our walk will end with West Church, but our starting point will be the East Church,
and our story begins in Chirnside in 1674.
East Church
In 1674, the Reverend Henry Erskine, minister of Chirnside Church, married Margaret Halcrow at Dryburgh Abbey. Sadly, Mrs Erskine died soon after from a short illness.
Margaret came from a well-to-do Orkney family and had a fine jewellery collection. At her husband's insistence, Mrs Erskine's jewellery was buried with her, a fact noted by the sexton. So when the sexton came to screw down the coffin lid, he did so just hand tight.
The burial service was held in the late afternoon, so the sexton asked the minister if the grave could be filled the following day, to which the minister agreed.
However, later that night, the sexton returned to the grave. He quickly removed the coffin lid and saw the bejewelled ring he had earlier admired. He tugged at the ring, but it was stuck fast. He opened his pocket knife to remove the finger with the ring.
As the blade sliced flesh, Mrs Erskine let out the most awful blood-curdling scream and sat up in the coffin. The sexton leapt from the grave and sped off out of the cemetery.
Mrs Erskine managed to climb out of the grave and make her way back to the manse.
She hammered on the manse door, shouting, 'Open the door and let me in 'cause I'm fair clemmed with the cauld!'. Hearing the commotion, the maid opened the door to find her recently departed mistress now risen.
The maid fainted!
The Reverend Henry and Mrs Erskine had a fruitful marriage, raising three children: Ebenezer, Margaret, and Ralph. Mrs Erskine would outlive her husband by 20 years. This is hardly surprising, considering the shock he received on the night of her funeral!
According to Erica Hunt’s booklet “Chirnside Past and Present” the ring in question, is described as having a cluster of five large diamonds. She goes on to say that it was handed down from eldest daughter to eldest daughter and, at the time of writing, 1975, was in the possession of her cousin living in New Zealand.
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| Ebeneezer and Ralph Erskine Credit: www.dunfermlinehistsoc.org.uk |
Ralph and Ebenezer, who ordained as ministers, were the originators of the Secession Church. The doctrine of the Secession Church would prove very popular over the coming decades.
By the mid-1700s, some Earlston residents were dissatisfied with the minister of the parish church and withdrew to the Secession congregation of Stichill near Kelso.
When there were enough members at Stichill, they broke away and formed a congregation at Earlston.
In 1730, John Burnet, a house builder and carpenter from Moray, a town between Inverness and Aberdeen, had moved to Earlston, established a business there, and, in 1731, built a house called Moray Cottage.
Burnet was a seceder, as they called followers of the Secession church. He wanted to buy or rent land to build a church, but since no land was forthcoming, he decided to build a church in his yard.
By 1750, the first minister, Reverend John Dalziel, had been ordained. The congregation included people from Stichill, Hume, Gattonside, Galashiels, and Stow.
The Church grew and prospered over the years. By 1872, the original meeting room with thatched roof was replaced by a stone church known as the United Free Church or, more simply, the East Church. A manse was built at the rear of the church. The cost of the new church was £724.
Adjacent to the church was a grocer's shop owned by George and Ann Fairbairn, who lived next door in a house called Norwood.
The Fairbairn’s had no children or other relatives. However, since they were staunch seceders, they left their entire estate to the East Church. George died in 1902, and Ann in 1903.
The church used the land previously occupied by their shop to build a church hall. The building was known as the Fairbairn Hall before becoming better known as the church hall. It was completed in 1904.
Looking again at the postcard, we can see that the house on the right-hand side is Moray Cottage, which still stands today.
The church, built on the site of John Burnet's yard, has been demolished.
The building on the left was Fairbairn's shop, which was demolished to make way for the church hall.
The Commercial Hotel
Looking at the buildings in this postcard of the High Street, very little has changed. The shop in the bottom right corner is now a café; the small building with the tiled roof has been replaced by a house with an arch over the access to the yard at the back of the large white house.
That large house was the Commercial Hotel, the staging inn for stagecoaches travelling between Kelso and Edinburgh.
Until 1737, when the mill bridge was built, the main road out of Earlston to the west of the village was Kidgate. That lane ran down to the riverside, with a ford and a track leading up to the Blainslie road. The ford was really only suitable for farm carts and carriers wagons. There was a set of stepping stones next to the ford for pedestrians. If you were heading south, a track followed the river and met up with the Blainslie road at Packman's Burn.
William Cobbett, in his 1830 study of the English countryside, Rural Rides, captured the romance of the stagecoach felt by many:
The finest sight in England is a stagecoach ready to start. A great sheep or cattle fair is a beautiful sight; but in the stage coach you see more of what man is capable of performing. The vehicle itself, the harness, all so complete and so neatly arranged; so strong and clean and good. The beautiful horses, impatient to be off. The inside full and the outside covered, in every part with men, women, children, boxes, bags, bundles. The coachman taking his reins in hand and his whip in the other, gives a signal with his foot, and away they go, at the rate of seven miles an hour.
One of these coaches coming in, after a long journey is a sight not less interesting. The horses are now all sweat and foam, the reek from their bodies ascending like a cloud. The whole equipage is covered perhaps with dust and dirt. But still, on it comes as steady as the hands on a clock.
(Credit: Stage-coach History - Great North Road. https://greatnorthroad.co.uk/stage-coach-history)
What a load of romantic rubbish!
As far as 'The whole equipage is covered perhaps with dust and dirt', it was sure that the 'whole equipage' was covered with muck of a kind that is very beneficial for roses.
I suspect Mr Cobbett was being paid by the stagecoach companies to write a glowing review of stagecoach travel to encourage more passengers.
In truth, stagecoach travel was cold, damp, uncomfortable, and expensive. The roads were filled with ruts and potholes, muddy in winter and dusty in summer.
The coaches lacked proper springing, so passengers felt every bump and hole. The swaying motion of the coach made passengers quite ill.
Passengers and baggage were crammed onboard. 4 passengers inside the coach and 8 on top. The passengers on top shared the space with all the luggage and other bags. The single fares from Kelso to Edinburgh via Earlston were 11/- inside and 8/- on top. This was when the average weekly wage was 8/- to 12/- per week. Like airlines, luggage was an extra charge based on weight and size.
Of course, meals and accommodation were extra on longer routes (Edinburgh to London took 10 days, although this was reduced to 2 days by the end of the coaching age).
The stagecoach that ran from Kelso to Edinburgh was known as the Tweedside.
It ran on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from
Kelso to Earlston, stopping at the Commercial Hotel,
Earlston to Carfraemill via Blainslie and Lauder;
Carfraemill to Blackshiels;
Blackshiels to Edinburgh.
The coach left Kelso early in the morning and arrived in Edinburgh late afternoon or early evening. The return journey was made the following day.
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| Stagecoach leaving Edinburgh 1840 Credit: https///www.electricscotland.com |
Stagecoach companies sometimes added warnings to their timetables such as 'may take longer in winter', 'God willing', or 'barring accidents'.
Imagine if airlines included such warnings. It might sound something like this -
'Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is your Captain speaking. We're cruising at 35,000 feet. The weather at our destination is fair. We should have you on the ground in 2 hours, God willing and barring accidents. So sit back and relax …!’
The route taken by the coaches would carry them over the mill bridge, onto the Blainslie road, over Clatteringford Dean, where legend has it that Burke and Hare, the notorious body snatchers, left a body stolen from a grave in Earlston churchyard until it could be taken to Edinburgh to sell to the infamous Dr Knox.
Legend has it that when the grave of Nancy Kerr was found empty, the Earlston schoolmaster David Walker was sent to Surgeons Hall to identify the body.
The legend appears to be just that, a folk tale. There is no record of Nancy Kerr's death; Burke and Hare were murderers and not grave robbers, although David Walker was an Earlston school teacher.
However, the fear of grave robbers was real. Earlston had a mort-safe association to which members paid a subscription to protect their graves.
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| Mort Safes Credit: www.thevintagenews.com |
Mort-safes were coffin shaped, steel bar structures placed over coffins to deter robbers from breaking into them.
The Commercial Hotel's days as a stop for stagecoaches ended in 1868 when the last stagecoach ran through Earlston.
However, the Commercial Hotel was the site of a shocking crime.
This story starts in 1857.
That year, in Roxburgh, Alexander Waugh married Euphemia Davidson. At 32, Alexander was considerably older than his 20-year-old wife. At the time of their marriage, Alexander was a corn merchant.
Alexander died in 1873, when he was innkeeper of the Commercial Hotel.
Euphemia ran the hotel even though she had 6 children to raise single-handedly.
In 1875, she married John Johnston in Portobello. The marriage registration shows Johnston's occupation as a 'farmer'. Three months later, at their son's birth, Thomas, Johnston's occupation is shown as innkeeper.
The marriage initially appears untroubled; however, it had become increasingly acrimonious.
On December 11, 1877, Johnston spent the whole day drinking, and by evening, he was in a foul mood.
Some invoices that Johnston had run up were delivered that evening. Euphemia announced that she was not going to pay them. The pair started quarrelling, throwing Johnston into an even darker mood. At one stage, he was heard shouting, 'I'll blow your brains out'
The pair eventually retired to their separate bedrooms.
At breakfast, Euphemia asked Johnston to get a job to help her with the business, putting him in another dark mood.
Johnston got up from the table and went to the harness room in the yard. Euphemia went to the yard a few minutes later to feed the hotel cow.
As she walked across the yard carrying a pail of bran, Johnston appeared from the harness room with a double-barrelled shotgun.
From a range of about 5 feet, he fired both barrels into the back of Euphemia's head, killing her immediately.
Inside the hotel, Euphemia's daughter, 17-year-old Grace, heard the gunshots, as did Susan McGuire, a maid working in a different room from Grace. Both women ran to windows overlooking the yard to see Euphemia lying dead.
They ran into the yard and could see that Euphemia was beyond help.
Johnston stood outside the harness room door, trying to reload the gun. The women fled into the street to get help.
Andrew Murdison, the village plumber and slater, was passing and went to the yard to offer help.
He saw Euphemia's body and Johnston holding the shotgun, which he was still trying to reload. Andrew turned to get help, but his appearance was enough to force Johnston to throw the gun aside, and he dashed into the hotel, followed by Andrew.
When Andrew caught up with Johnston, he had found a cutthroat razor and made to draw the blade across his throat. Andrew knocked the razor from his hand and wrestled him to the floor.
The women had run into the street to get more help, and soon Johnston was subdued and tied up with a rope.
Acting Sergeant MacIntosh, the Earlston policeman, was away from home, so a telegram was sent to the Duns police, who arrived later in the day.
Johnston was taken into custody, and he appeared remorseful.
His trial was held in January 1878 in the Sheriff Court in Jedburgh.
He entered a plea of not guilty; however, after sitting listening to the testimony of Grace and Susan, he asked to be re-interrogated and entered a plea of guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
Considering he had murdered his pregnant wife, orphaned her 6 children and left his own son motherless, his sentence of 15 years in prison seems lenient.
Euphemia's children with ages at the time of her death were:
1858 Mary Wemyss Waugh 19
1860 Grace Horseburgh Waugh 17
1862 Joan Waugh 15
1865 Euphemia Ormiston Waugh 12
1867 Janet Waugh 10
1869 Richard Alexander Waugh 8
1875 Thomas Johnston 2
Market Square
It's hard to believe that the war's end could impact any Earlston resident, but we know of at least one affected person.
John Redpath was the son of farm servants. His parents wanted to give him the best break in life. They managed to get him an apprenticeship as a stonemason in Edinburgh.
He qualified in 1815, just after the war's end when thousands of troops were released from the army. Many were masons. So, instead of searching for a job in Scotland, he emigrated to Canada to seek fame and fortune there.
The Red Lion Hotel is in the right-middle distance. An opening, long since closed, leads to the stables at the rear of the hotel.
An incident related to the hotel demonstrated the power of the Church.
In 1861, the East Church issued a scandalous report. It was deemed that Thomas Grant and his wife Margaret, innkeepers of the Red Lion, were found to have kept a disorderly house. They were often seen drunk, which resulted in fighting.
The Grants were expelled from the Church.
This would have embarrassed the couple and may have been why they left the town a couple of years later.
But more than an embarrassment, being expelled from the Church barred a person from a church marriage, a Christian burial and access to poor relief.
The East Church was particularly rich, claiming it had no poor members. Nonetheless, the Church contributed to the parish church for its poor relief. The West Church, by comparison, was not well off and had to sell the Glebe due to a lack of funds.
Examples of aid provided to church members were 1/- paid to a woman and her three children, 4d to a poor woman for a bed., 6d to a blind man and his wife and 2//6 to Nancy Edmondson.
A look through the List of Paupers published by the parish church in 1872 shows that out of the first 20 names, only 3 were men. Men were expected to work until they died or hopefully had a son or daughter who could look after them in their old age. The men on the list were either injured or suffered some disability.
The list also shows that £3-7-8 was paid out to cover the funeral expenses of enrolled paupers. An example of funeral expenses was the funeral of Jason Henry of Brotherstone when the hearse cost 11/- with the additional expense of 3/6 for a mort cloth.
A mortcloth (from the Latin mors, meaning death) was a ceremonial cloth draped over a coffin (or the corpse if the family could not afford a coffin) at a funeral. Most families didn't have their own mort cloths - not unreasonable considering that anyone only needs it once! - instead hiring them for the occasion. In burghs, the individual trades might have their own mort cloths lent to members for the occasion. But in most cases, mort cloths were available to hire from the Kirk Sessions.
(Credit: Scottish Genealogy and Family History Research - News - Genealogy and Family History in Scotland. https://www.oldscottish.com/blog/category/dalmeny)
According to the records, Dalmeny parish mort cloths came in 2 sizes and 2 qualities:
The best large cloths cost £3, the second best large cloths cost £2
For children, best little cloths cost £1-16 and second best little cost £1,
The Church provided poor relief mainly to Earlston and Redpath residents but also to causes outside the area. For example, in 1862, aid was provided to Distressed Lancashire Weavers.
Donations were also made for health care. For example, a donation of £1-1-0 was made to Kelso Dispensary.
In 1777, the Kelso dispensary was founded with a generous donation from Mrs Baillie of Jerviswood, a local landowner. Treatment was free, and records kept by the first doctors show that he had treated a wide range of ailments.
For example, in 1778, the 70-year-old widow Tait was treated for dropsy. The outcome was listed as 'dead'. In 1778, David Notman of Earlston was treated for visceral obstructions. The outcome is listed as 'Cured and gave thanks'. In 1783, 2-year-old John Carey was treated for 'chin cough' (whooping cough). The outcome was 'cured'.
In 1818, hot and cold water baths were added to the building, as they were believed to have restorative powers.
This was obviously pre-NHS; by 1930, Berwickshire County Council had established several hospitals.
Gordon Hospital (opened in 1914) had 27 beds, of which 9 were reserved for TB cases.
The East Fortune Sanatorium (opened in 1922) is managed jointly by the Lothian, Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh, and Berwickshire councils. Berwickshire was allocated 16 beds, 6 for men, 5 for women, and 5 for children.
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| East Fortune Sanatorium Credit: www:uberexhub.com |
Other hospitals were available in Edinburgh. The Royal Infirmary and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children did not make charges, and no fees were paid. The Royal Maternity Hospital charged flat rates of £4-4s and £5-5s paid per case.
Berwickshire also had ambulance facilities. An ambulance was stationed at Gordon Hospital primarily to transport tuberculosis or infectious cases.
A second ambulance had been used to transport non-infectious and accident cases. However, it was destroyed by fire. As a result, non-infectious cases were transported by private car.
In Earlston, an Ambulance Association was created in 1942. It was disbanded in 1979.
On the left of the picture, you can see the Reading Room.
At an influential meeting held in the Reading Room in August 1864 a resolution was made: 'That a grain market be established in Earlston. That the market shall be weekly and shall be opened on the completion of the Berwickshire Railway.’
Money was raised by subscription.
Earlston had a long-established horse market on the East Green and a cattle market on the West Green. However, these were local events due to distance the livestock had to be driven.
With the advent of the railway, the cattle market could attract buyers and sellers from further afield.
It was hoped that the railway would offer a similar opportunity for grain.
The first grain market was held on October 9, 1865, and was a great success. The Market Square was crowded with grain carts, and the village was full of farmers' traps.
This led to the Earlston Corn Exchange Company Limited and the building of the Corn Exchange.
Building work commenced in 1868 and was completed the following year.
As it happened, the construction coincided with John Redpath's visit to Earlston. Redpath, now, in modern-day terms, a multi-millionaire, paid for the clock, bell and bell tower to be installed.
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Town clock mechanism with commemorative plate inscribed ‘The gift of John Redpath Esq. Montreal. To his native town of Earlstoun. AD 1869’ Credit: ‘A Gentleman Of Substance, Richard Felton. Published 2004 |
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| John Redpath's house in Montreal Credit: ‘A Gentleman Of Substance, Richard Felton. Published 2004 |
West Church
The West Church came about in 1778 because members were dissatisfied with the minister of the Established Church and formed the 'Relief Church'.
In 1871, at a meeting of Elders and Managers to discuss the amalgamation of the East and West Church, the vote was unanimous in favour of the Union.
At a subsequent meeting in April, it was suggested that Communion be held in the East Church, but the West Church would not agree. All further negotiations were broken off because of the arguing and unfriendly manner in which the West Church had shown itself against the East Church over the affair.
Consequently, it was to be 15 years before the Union went ahead!
However, our story is concerned not with petty squabbling but with a crime story that would shape not just local lives but also that of a nation. That story begins in 1829.
Sunday afternoon, July 19 1829, was a bright, sunny day.
The Reverend David Crawford stood at the door of the West Church, exchanging pleasantries with his congregation as they left following his service.
One congregant was Mary Pringle. Following the death of her husband, the Reverend John Wills, Mary had reverted to her maiden name.
The Reverend John Mills had been ordained in the West Church in 1807 and had died in 1814.
Since the Church provided John and Mary's house, Mary became homeless.
Fortunately, a wealthy congregant, Mr Hume from Carolside, owned a cottage on Kidgate and gave Mary the house rent-free for as long as needed. She continued to live there for the next 49 years.
That Sunday afternoon, Mary walked to her home. On opening the front door, she could see something was very wrong. Ornaments had been moved, and drawers had been opened and not shut.
She went to the back of the house and saw that the kitchen window was broken and the shutters had been forced open.
With sickening realisation, she knew that she had been robbed.
She felt violated.
Mary raised the alarm, and friends, neighbours, and family rallied around her. They comforted her, secured the cottage, and then compiled a list of all the missing items.
On Monday, they posted notices on Monday offering a reward for recovery of the stolen items.
On Monday night/Tuesday morning, Francis Burnet's house was robbed. Some clothing and a watch were taken. There was no sign of a break-in, and Francis was confident all doors and windows had been locked.
The following night, William and John Shiels' shop was broken into, and a range of drapery items were stolen.
Suspicion fell on Alexander Burnet of being the culprit after it was discovered he had obtained a skeleton key from Thomas Oldcorn, a blacksmith from Newtown. Also, Burnet had been seen each day preceding the thefts in Earlston.
John Shiels was informed by a man who lived between Smailholm and Kelso that a man fitting the description of Burnet was seen carrying a knapsack and two bundles of items similar to the missing items.
William rode to Mellerstain to obtain an arrest warrant for Burnet, issued by George Baillie JP.
John and William then went to Kelso and started making enquiries about Burnet. People told them that Burnet had said he was getting the stagecoach to Berwick and then taking the Newcastle coach.
The Shiels brothers decided that John would return to Earlston to care for the shop. In the meantime, William would ride to Coldstream to catch the 'Wellington', the express stagecoach that ran from Edinburgh to Newcastle via Coldstream.
When William arrived in Newcastle, he went straight to the Newcastle Town Marshall, Thomas Forsyth.
William showed Forsyth the arrest warrant and described the events in Earlston.
Forsyth ordered Edward Redhead, one of Newcastle's constables, to scour the town's streets, find Burnet, and arrest him.
Redhead found Burnet the following day in the Bigg Market, trying to sell his stolen goods.
Burnet led Redhead to his lodgings, the Rose and Crown pub in Percy Street, and showed him the stolen goods.
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| Percy Street, Newcastle 1854 Credit: www.farm3.statiscflickr.com |
By this time, Burnet was quite remorseful and had admitted his guilt. He promised to recover the items that he had already sold or recompense their rightful owners.
Since the crime was committed in Scotland, Burnet was escorted to the tollbooth in Duns.
In front of the Sheriff-substitute, Burnet made a complete statement, admitting his guilt.
He was then transferred to Greenlaw prison.
His trial date was September 19 1829, at the Jedburgh Court.
In the interim, Andrew Easton, Sheriff Officer of Duns, began collecting statements from the key personnel, namely Mary Pringle, Francis and James Burnet, William and John Shiel, Edward Redhead, Thomas Forsyth, Thomas Oldcorn, a blacksmith from Newton who had made Burnet a skeleton key, and Mary Shann, the wife of George Shann, who were the publicans of the pub in Percy Street.
The prosecution wasn't the only busy people.
Francis Burnet was desperate that his son should be shown some degree of leniency. He composed the following Petition -
PETITION ADDRESSED TO H.M. LORD ADVOCATE FOR SCOTLAND IN FAVOUR OF ALEXANDER BURNET
The Petition of the undersigned Heritors, Justices of the Peace, Ministers, Tenants and Householders in the Parish of Earlstown & neighbourhood Unto Sir Wm. Rae of St. Catherine's Bart. His Majesty's Lord Advocate for Scotland
Humbly Sheweth
That Alexander Burnet lately Joiner in Earlstown is now a prisoner in the Tolbooth of Greenlaw and is charged with housebreaking & theft. Into the details of this distressing case, your Petitioners do not think it necessary to enter as a Precognition has been taken and transmitted to your Lordship. But your Petitioners respectfully submit to your Lordship that the unhappy Prisoner is now for the first time incarcerated & that he has never been before tried or charged in any Court whatever. That as soon as he was apprehended, he made a full confession by means of which that part of the stolen property not found in his possession was immediately recovered & that he is resolved to plead guilty when brought to trial. That he is conducting himself with great propriety in jail, that he appears to be truly sorry for his misconduct & that he is anxious that his life be spared that he may repent of his wickedness and do what in him lies to repair the injury he has done to Society & his friends. Moreover the Prisoner is the son of respectable parents both alive who have succeeded in training a numerous family to habits of industry & virtue. Several of them now settled in the world are reaping the advantage of a character thus acquired. They have all suffered much through his misconduct. How much they have yet to bear will be determined in some degree by the measures of your Lordship towards the unhappy youth whose life is in your Lordship's hands. While your Petitioners submit these facts to your Lordship's consideration they humbly & earnestly pray that your Lordship may not regard the Prisoner as altogether unworthy of mercy, that his crimes may not call for the highest sentence which the law can inflict, that the restriction of the libel to be preferred against him may not be thought by your Lordship inconsistent with the great ends of substantial justice &the high duties which your office calls upon you to discharge.
May it therefore please your Lordship to take this Petition into your consideration & to restrict the libel to be preferred against Alexander Burnet that he may live to repent of his wickedness & that his friends may be spared the additional calamity which his undergoing the full penalty of the law would produce and which substantial justice does not appear to demand.
And your Petitioners shall ever pray…(1)
The Petition was signed by
1 MP
3 ministers
6 justices of the peace
5 Kirk elders
4 doctors
7 farmers
5 businessmen
1 solicitor.
At his trial, the charge sheet was read out:
ALEXANDER BURNET, present Prisoner in the tollbooth of Greenlaw, you are Indicted and Accused at the instance of Sir WILLIAM RAE of St Catharines, Bart. his Majesty's Advocate, for his Majesty's interest: THAT ALBEIT, by the laws of this
and of every other well governed realm, THEFT, especially when committed by means of HOUSEBREAKING, is a crime of an heinous nature, and severely punishable: YET TRUE IT IS AND OF VERITY, that you the said Alexander Burnet are guilty of the said crime, aggravated as aforesaid, actor, or art and part: IN SO FAR AS, upon the 19th day of July 1829, or on one or other of the days of that month, or of June immediately preceding, or of August immediately following, you the said Alexander Burnet did wickedly and feloniously break into and enter the house in Earlstown, in the parish of Earlstown, and shire of Berwick, then and now or lately occupied by Mrs Mary Pringle or Wills, widow of the late John Wills, minister of the relief congregation at Earlstown aforesaid, and now or lately residing there, by breaking a pane of glass in a window in the back of the said house, and opening the fastening of the shutters of the said window, or by some other means to the Prosecutor unknown; and having thus obtained entrance to the said house, you did then and there wickedly and feloniously steal, and theftuously carry away, from various parts of the said house, twelve silver tea-spoons, a pair of silver sugar-tongs, a silver watch, maker's name and number J. Michael, London, 7781, or having a similar name and number thereon, a small gold seal wanting the stone, and a purse containing twenty shillings or thereby in silver money, a gold ring, a Spanish silver coin, and a Danish silver coin, being all the property, or in the lawful possession of the said Mary Pringle or Wills…(1)
The charge sheet continued to describe the events and stolen items for the other thefts and concluded:
ALL WHICH, or part thereof, being found proven by the verdict of an Assize, or admitted by the judicial confession of you the said Alexander Burnet, before the Lord Justice-General, Lord Justice-Clerk, and Lords Commissioners of Justiciary, in a Circuit Court of Justiciary to be holden by them, or by any one or more of their number, within the burgh of Jedburgh, in the month of September, in this present year 1829, you the said Alexander Burnet ought to be punished with the pains of law, to deter others from committing the like crimes in all time coming.(1)
Burnet had admitted his guilt in a sworn statement, and sworn statements had been received from all the witnesses, so his guilt was beyond doubt.
The verdict was read to the court:
In respect of the foregoing judicial confession, Lord MacKenzie adjudges the said Alexander Burnet to be transported to beyond the seas for the duration of fourteen years from this date and that under the provisions and certification relevant in our Act passed in the fifth year of the reign of his present Majesty and ordains him to be carried to the castle of Jedburgh and then transmitted from thence to the jail of Greenlaw there to be detained till summoned for transportation in terms of the Act.(1)
Burnet was held in Greenlaw prison until the beginning of November, when he was transferred to a ship in Edinburgh. He joined 25 other convicts from prisons all over Scotland who had been sentenced to transportation.
On the voyage to London, the men would have no doubt told their stories of how they came to be there and the length of sentence they had received.
Men like Jacob Laird, 26, of Edinburgh, found guilty of housebreaking and sentenced to life; or William Miller, 54, from Glasgow, sentenced to 14 years for handling forged notes; and then there were 3 16-year-olds 2 found guilty of housebreaking and sentenced to 14 years and one for 7 years for theft; William Underwood, 20, from Dumfries was guilty off assault with the intent to rape who was sentenced to 7 years, half the tariff for housebreaking.
The ship arrived on the Thames on November 17, and the men were transferred to HMS Ganymede, a prison hulk.
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| HMS Ganymede Credit: www.hudgill.co.uk |
HMS Ganymede was a French warship until it was captured in 1809 off the coast of Lisbon. A prize crew was put onboard and sailed to the Royal Navy Dockyard at Chatham, London.
The French ship was stripped of its masts, sails, rigging, cannons, and all internal fixtures and fittings and renamed HMS Ganymede, a prison hulk.
Between 14 and 19 November, the Ganymede received 75 prisoners from Scotland and England. Most would be transported to New South Wales. One was destined for Bermuda. Some wouldn't survive the harsh conditions onboard the hulk. For example, Andrew West, 45, who was found guilty of theft at Jedburgh court on the same Burnet was sentenced, died onboard the Ganymede on April 9, 1832.
When the men arrived on board, they were stripped naked and washed in a communal washing area (with water from the Thames!). They were issued prison clothes, (a linen shirt, a brown jacket, and a pair of breeches) before being fitted with leg irons.
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| Washing on HMS Ganymede Credit: www.hudgill.co.uk |
The convicts were set to work in the dockyard doing whatever job they were deemed capable of.
The record of prisoners onboard Ganymede makes pitiable reading. Among the crimes listed for the convicts were the theft of a pair of shoes, an umbrella, a ham, and a cheese.
The harshest area to be sentenced appears to have been Lancaster. All 12 convicts from Lancaster were delivered to HMS Ganymede. Regardless of the severity of their crimes, each had been sentenced to life.
Burnet continued working in the dockyard daily and returning to the Ganymede each night until May 21, 1830, when he was transferred to the convict ship Lord Melville.
On June 6 1830 the Lord Melville, under the command of Captain Robert Brown, Burnet and 175 other convicts guarded by the 17th Regiment of Foot, set sail for Sydney.
The voyage would take 137 days. Thanks to the ship's surgeon, George Roberts, no one died onboard during the passage.
In Australia, Burnet took part in expeditions into the country's interior and became a national hero, earning an absolute pardon. He married, ran foul of the law again, and raised a family.
But that is another story.
(1) Source Citation
'Crown Office Precognitions', NRS Reference AD14/29/213; Index, Scottish Indexes (https://www.scottishindexes.com/adentry.aspx?adid=829213: accessed 20 Mar 2025); Original Source: National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.
