William & James Stevenson, foxhunters

TO THE PUBLIC.

WILLIAM and JAMES STEVENSON, FOXHUNTERS, and JAMES KENNEDY, their SERVANT, being lately imprisoned, on a charge of having fired from a Wood upon a party of Officers of Excise, while escorting a seizure of smuggled goods down the Glen of Clova, in Angus-shire, on the 11th of February last - they, individually, think it proper publicly to state and assert, in the most solemn manner:

1.  That they had no concern with the smuggled goods in question, and are not engaged in smuggling in any way whatever.

2.  That they had no previous knowledge of the assault, said to have been committed upon the Officers of Excise, and were not accessory to the same in any way, and have no knowledge whatever of any person or persons guilty of, or concerned in, that assault.

And they entreat their Employers, and the Public, to disregard the charge which has been brought against them, and suspend judgement, until the issue of their trial.  [Illegible]

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 19th 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.

Circuit court cases

Yesterday, the Circuit Court of Justiciary was opened here, by the Right Hon. Lords Hermand and Gilles, and proceeded to the trial of James Ritchie, from the Parish of Gamrie, accused of stealing 30 sheep from the Parks of Gordon Castle; he was unanimously found guilty by the jury, who also, with one dissenting voice, recommended him to mercy, on account of his youth, being only 17 years of age.  He was sentenced to be hanged at Aberdeen, on Friday the 5th of June.

James Ritchie, lately Cattle Dealer at Tillymair, Parish of Tough, accused of falsehood, fraud, and wilful imposition, by uttering two bills with false and fictitious subscriptions, was unanimously found guilty, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment.

John Grant, lately Blacksmith at Muiresk, Parish of Turriff; William Grant, lately Blacksmith there; and James Daun, at Hillockhead of Glass, accused of different acts of assault.  John Grant, having broke out of prison, failed to appear.  William Grant pled guilty, to one act of assault; James Daun pled not guilty.  The diet was deserted against James Daun, pro loco et tempore; the other charges against William Grant being also passed from, and in consideration of previous long confinement, he was sentenced to be imprisoned for three months.

Jean Mathieson, lately residing in Aberdeen, accused of child-murder and concealment of pregnancy, pled guilty to concealment of pregnancy, but denied the murder, which charge being passed from, she was sentenced to three months imprisonment.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 22nd April 1818.

Court cases

At a Justice of Peace Court lately held at Turriff, in an action at the instance of Mr Chisholm in Lendrum, against a female servant for disobedience of orders, and deserting her service, - the Justices fined her in the forfeiture of her wages, and twenty shillings.

On Monday, John Brown, a vagrant, who had been detected in the act of stealing some wearing apparel from a farm house in the parish of Fyvie, where he had been charitably allowed a night's lodgings, was sentenced by the Sheriff, to confinement and hard labour in Bridewell, for six months.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 7th May 1817.

Trial of apprentice surgeons from Keith

Yesterday the Circuit Court of Justiciary was opened here by the Right Hon. the Lords Pitmilly and Reston.

The first case which occupied the attention of the Court was that of James Taylor, John Gordon, and George Pirie, Apprentices to Mr John Gordon, Surgeon in Keith, accused of violating the sepulchre of the dead, by taking up the body of John Bremner, recently interred in the Church-yard of Keith.  The pannels, who were all young men, pled guilty to the charge; and a jury having been impanneled, found them guilty, in terms of their own confession; but on account of their youth and other circumstances, unanimously recommended them to the clemency of the Court.  The Advocate Depute very candidly admitted all the circumstances tending to alleviate their guilt, particularly their ingenuous confession of the offence, their youth, and anxiety to make every pecuniary compensation to the relatives of the person whose grave they had violated.  All these circumstances were embodied in a Memorial or Petition to the Court, in their behalf, signed by most of the respectable inhabitants of Keith. - Their Lordships concurred in giving weight to these facts; and after a suitable and very impressive address from Lord Reston, followed by Lord Pitmilly, they were sentenced to be imprisoned for four months in the jail of Banff.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 23rd April 1817.

Conviction of John Dow and Charles Dow

On Wednesday last, John Dow, and Charles Dow, labourers, were convicted before the Sheriff, of an obstruction of one of the Officers of the court, and an attempt to rescue a person apprehended by him under a warrant from the Sheriff, and were sentenced to be imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Aberdeen; John Dow for one calendar month, and Charles Dow for fourteen days.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 19th February 1817.

Circuit court: cases of William Law, George & John Downie and Joseph MacHardy

On Monday last, the Circuit Court of Justiciary was opened here by the Right Honourable Lord PITMILLY.

There were only two cases before his Lordship.  The first of which was that of William Law.  The libel against him was of a very formidable nature - not less than two separate charges of housebreaking and theft, aggravated by prison breaking.  The pannel pleaded guilty of the crime of prison breaking, but denied the rest of the libel.  Owing to the panel having acknowledged his guilt of one of the charges, by petitioning the Sheriff of Kincardineshire for voluntary banishment on a prior occasion, the Public Prosecutor departed from that charge, and confined himself to the charge against the pannel of breaking in to the house of Isabella Smith, in the neighbourhood of Stonehaven, and carrying off various articles narrated in the indictment.

It appeared that Isabella Smith had, about the end of the year 1812, left her house, and gone on a visit to a daughter in Arbroath; and during her absence, her dwelling house had been forcibly entered, and completely ransacked of every article of value.  Sometime after, a bed and bed-tick, the property of Smith, was traced to the house of John Duncan, broker in Montrose, and was clearly proved to have been purchased from the pannel; but none of the other articles were ever heard of.  The Public Prosecutor attempted to bring the housebreaking home to the pannel; but the evidence on this part of the libel, though strongly presumptive, was by no means conclusive on the point.  The Jury were enclosed, and returned a verdict yesterday morning, when they unanimously found the pannel, upon his own confession, guilty of prison-breaking, and of stealing a bed and bed-tick, the property of the said Isabella Smith; but found the other parts of the libel not proven.

His Lordship then pronounced sentence of transportation against the pannel for 14 years.

Thereafter came on the trial of George and John Downie, and of Joseph Machardy, accused of assaulting and deforcing Malcolm Gillespie, excise officer, to the effusion of his blood and danger of his life.  The Public Prosecutor passed from the charge in so far as related to Machardy; and the pannels, George and John Downie, pleaded "guilty in part" which was afterwards explained by their Counsel to import a denial of the deforecement, and a denial of having assaulted or beat the exciseman to the danger of his life; but they admitted, that they had been engaged in a scuffle with the said exciseman, and had struct him so as (they were since informed) to draw blood from his body.  The Advocate-Depute acquiesced in the accuracy of this qualified confession; and thereafter an appeal to the clemency of the Court and Jury was made on behalf of the pannels, in respect of their candid confession, - their submissive and voluntary appearance to meet the justice of their country, - and their previous good characters, of which a proof was offered by respectable witnesses then attending.  The Court judged it unnecessary to go into any proof on the matter of previous character, of which no impeachment had been made; and a Jury having been enclosed, they unanimously, and without leaving the box, found the pannels guilty in terms of their confession; but recommended them to the clemency of the Court.

Sentence of imprisonment in Bridewell for the period of nine months was pronounced upon them, after a suitable admonition from the Bench, and at the end of the period of their confinement, to find bail for their good behaviour for three years.

Counsel for the Crown, Mr Home Drummond; for the Pannels, Mr Gordon.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 28th September 1814.

Christian Benzie imprisoned

On Friday last, Christian Benzie, servant to a family in this place, was detected in having stolen various articles of wearing apparel, &c. in her master's house, and, upon her own confession was sentenced to three months imprisonment in Bridewell, by the sitting Magistrate.  What aggravated this girl's offence was, that she had practised the most artful means to fasten the guilt of her own conduct upon her fellow servant; and had even gone the length of emitting a declaration in court in regard to various missing articles, which she alleged to have been purloined by said servant; and which were afterwards found in her own possession.  We think this statement due to the character of the servant in question, who was detained in custody for some days, owing to the base artifices of said Christian Benzie.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 12th May 1813.

Alexander Bower, Fordyce

Upon Saturday the 8th curt. a vagrant calling himself Alex. Bower, a native of the parish of Fordyce, was apprehended at Huntly by the constables, and brought before the Justices there, charged with theft; and the same being clearly proven, they sentenced him to be confined in Bridewell (which seems to him to be a place of amusement, he having been there twice before) for the space of twelve months, therein to be kept at hard labour.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 12th May 1813.

Imprisonment of convicted swindler

Friday last, Donald Mackay, a notorious swindler and impostor, who, on false pretences, particularly giving himself out as a Drover and Cattle Dealer, had obtained money from several Gentlemen and others in this place, stood an hour on the pillory, with a label on his breast denoting his crime; and was afterwards drummed through the streets to Bridewell, where he is to be confined 12 calendar months, and in the course of that period is to receive 50 lashes on his back, by the common Executioner.

Published in the Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 27th January 1813.