Criminal Trials. Circuit Court of Justiciary, Dumfries April 19 and Ayr April 22. Broadside

Glasgow: John Muir, 1819. First printing. Ephemera. Very good overall. A broadside issued for the court in Dumfries & Ayr in Scotland for the session held April 19 [1819] and Ayr April 22.

Dumfries: Henry McNish (transported 29 Mar 1820 on the Mangles to NSW); John Brown and James Brown (no transportation record near 1820); Samuel Ferguson and Mary Bunton (housebreaking and theft) - He is transported July 1821 on the Lord Hungerford arriving in Tasmania in July 1821; no record for Bunton; Margaret Kerr (theft) imprisonment for 12 months; Peter Finlay & W. Donnel (theft, housebreaking, hanged) Ayr: John McNeil, Joseph McNeil (housebreaking, theft) - hanged.

Three men: Arthur McCan alias M. Keand, John Killan alias Kelly, and John Stott, weavers, were accused of 5 acts of highway robbery. John Killan alias Kelly was apprehended (the other two either escaped or were never caught) pled not guilty but confessed to being with the other two, and brought authorities to the place where event took place and where a watch was hidden. Witnesses could not identify Killan. Though pronounced guilty, because of his youth and honesty, he was recommended unanimously to be given mercy. "Lord Pitmilly... pronounced, in a manner awfully impressive, ... the sentence... the prisoner to be executed at Dumfries on Wednesday the 26th of May... The prisoner, who, during the trial, conducted himself with great propriety, now fainted, and was carried out of Court in that state."

This broadside is held by the SLNSW. It is not located on OCLC, LibHub or National Library of Scotland. OCLC: 181717771 cites a slightly later "Criminal trial" in Glasgow, 27th of April, 1819, held by the Univ of Glasgow and the SLNSW. The date is not printed, but the date "on Friday the 28th May" is a Friday in 1819. The printing is also consistent with other similar broadsides we have handled.

Text 4 x 13.5", slt. soiled at bottom edge, uneven margin on the lower left side.