Offenders sentenced to imprisonment

In the course of the last fortnight, the following persons have been sentenced to confinement and hard labour in Bridewell, and other wise punished, as follows, viz. :-

Elizabeth Birnie, for striking and maltreating a Woman, to the effusion of her blood, to thirty days confinement in Bridewell.

Janet Allan, and Elizabeth McMillan, for stealing linen from a Bleach-green at Ferryhill, to three calendar months confinement there.

Mark Aikman, (an old offender), for breaking into several Weaving Shops in Aberdeen, and stealing therefrom, a considerable quantity of Cotton and other Cloths, to six calendar months confinement in Bridewell, and to receive one hundred lashes by the hands of the common Executioner - fifty, at the expiry of three months, and the remaining fifty, before his liberation.  And he is, over and above, banished the burgh and liberties for two years.

James Scott, a vagrant, without any visible means of subsistence, for going into a public-house near the  lime bason, and conducting himself in an improper manner, breaking windows, collecting a crowd of people on the streets, &c. was sentenced to two months confinement and hard labour in Bridewell, and banished the burgh for life.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 26th May 1819.

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.

Circuit Court Trials, Perth

At the Circuit Court at Perth, on Wednesday last, Robert Ruxton, Jean McMillan, and Elizabeth Beattie, were found guilty of abetting and aiding the riots which lately disgraced the town of Montrose.  Ruxton was sentenced to banishment for seven years beyond seas - McMillan six months in the jail of Forfar - and Beattie four months in the jail of Montrose.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 28th April 1813.

Banishment of John Fauset & Mary Storey

On Wednesday last, JOHN FAUSET, late quarrier at Gilcomston, and MARY STOREY his Wife, who have been in jail here for some time past, on suspicion of being concerned in the making and uttering of base money, were, on their own petition, banished by the Sheriff, from the county of Aberdeen, for the space of fourteen years, under the usual certification.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 7th October, 1812.