Upon the 9th day of November current, Alexander Ross, William Ross, James Pillar, Alexander Pillar, Robert Fleming, William Burnett, George Brown, and Hugh McSween, boys mostly under 15 years of age, were all brought to trial before the Magistrates, at the instance of the Procurator Fiscal, accused of no less than Twenty-two different acts of Theft, committed within the past two months, upon the property of Merchants, and others within the Town, by these boys, who had formed themselves into a gang. And upon the 12th current, Ann Bowie, Confectioner and Pye-maker in Aberdeen, was in like manner brought to trial, for inticing the foresaid boys into her Shop, encouraging them to spend money for Pies and Puddings, and resetting several articles from them, knowing that they had procured their money for property stolen by them, and that the articles so resetted by here were stolen. The Sitting Magistrate, on the evidence being closed, and after addressing the Prisoners, and such of their Parents as were present, in a most impressive and feeling manner, sentenced them as follows, viz.:- Alexander Ross, (the eldest of the gang) to six months confinement and hard labour in Bridewell, and to receive fifty lashes on his bare back by the hands of the Common Executioner, the day previous to his liberation; George Brown (about 13 years of age, who had formerly been punished by imprisonment in the Tolbooth for stealing,) to four months confinement and hard labour in Bridewell, and to receive twenty-five lashes on his bare back by the hands of the Common Executioner, the day previous to his liberation; William Ross, James Pillar, Alexander Pillar, Robert Fleming, William Burnett, and Hugh McSween, each to two months confinement and hard labour in Bridewell; and Ann Bowie, to three months confinement and hard labour in Bridewell.
Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 13th November 1816.
