Circuit court intelligence

William Lees, convicted of theft and assault, as mentioned before, received sentence of transportation for seven years, and David Kemp, convicted of theft, was sentenced to eighteen months confinement and hard labour in Bridewell.

William Strath, cattle dealer in Boghead, parish of Fyvie, accused of theft and assault, pleaded Guilty to the indictment, and was sentenced to a year's hard labour in Bridewell, and ordained to find caution to keep the peace for two years thereafter, under a penalty of 600 merks Scots.

William Forbes was indicted for the murder of John Allan, apprentice ship carpenter, on 16th March last, by stabbing him in the side with a pen-knife, on the road leading from Aberdeen along the Spittal to Old Aberdeen.  A number of witnesses were examined for the Crown, and several in exculpation of the pannel.  The Jury found, by a plurality of voices, the libel not proven; whereupon the pannel, after a suitable admonition from Lord Pitmilly, was dismissed from the bar.

William Hay, accused of theft, was upon his own petition, consented to by the Depute Advocate, banished from Scotland for life, under the usual certification.

The last trial before the Court was that of John Garden, alias Shockey de Garden, accused of three several acts of theft, and of being habit and repute a thief.  After the evidence had been gone through on the part of the Crown, the Advocate Depute restricted the libel to an arbitrary punishment, and admitted that the charge of habit and repute had not been proven.  The Jury, after deliberating for a few minutes, returned a verdict, finding the first charge not sufficiently proven, and the Pannel Guilty of the two last; whereupon he was sentenced to be transported beyond seas for seven years.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 24th April 1816.

William Forbes & Mary McDonald committed to Bridewell

In a scuffle in the Spital, on Sunday the 10th March current, John Allan, Ship Carpenter, received a Stab in the left side with a pen knife from William Forbes, Apprentice Watch-maker; in consequence of which, the said John Allan died on the morning of Friday last.  Forbes has been committed to prison, to stand his trial at the ensuing Circuit Court of Justiciary.

Mary McDonald, for Theft, was on 21st March current, committed to Bridewell for Three Months, and banished the Burgh for life.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 27th March 1816.

Prison sentences for violent assault

For several successive days in January last, a number of idle and disorderly persons, consisting partly of boys, and partly of sailors, apprentice tradesmen, and others, assembled in the neighbourhood of Old Aberdeen, trespassing on the fields, throwing stones, annoying passengers, and otherwise disturbing the public peace.  Several of them were apprehended; and on Wednesday last, Alexander McLean and John Solomon, sailors, and William Forbes, apprentice cork-cutter, were convicted before the Sheriff, on the complaint of the Procurator Fiscal, of having been actively engaged in these riotous proceedings: and also of having committed a violent assault on James Anderson, gardener in Old Aberdeen, at whom they had taken offence, on account of his endeavouring to drive the mob off his grounds.  McLean was sentenced to confinement and hard labour in Bridewell for three months, and Solomon and Forbes for two months.  It is hoped, this example will operate as a salutory check to similar practices in time coming.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 13th March 1816.