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.

Convictions for theft and receipt of stolen goods

On Monday last, Robert Christie, mariner on board the brig Pallas, was charged, on a complaint at the instance of the Procurator Fiscal, with having, in the course of the preceding night, stolen part of the stores of that Vessel, consisting of barley and meal.  Mrs Snodgrass, wife of an Ale Seller in Town, was also charged with having resetted the barley and meal, knowing the same to have been stolen; Of which they were both convicted, and sentenced by the Sitting Magistrate to confinement and hard labour in Bridewell; Christie for 4 months, and Mrs Snodgrass, for 2 months.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 14th April 1819.

Trial in Aberdeen Magistrates' Court

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.