Wigtown Sheriff court books

I have now started work on my newest project; indexing the Wigtown Sheriff court books. The cases obviously vary in gory detail however here’s one to whet your appetite!

At Wigtown and within the Court House thereof the thirtieth day of June Eighteen hundred and forty seven years

Sederunt Adam Urquhart Esquire Sheriff of the County of Wigtown.

Intran Patrick Hannay labourer Indicted and accused into the instance of Alexander McNeil Caird

Writer in Stranraer PF of Court for the Crime of Assault to effusion of blood and danger of life, in manner particularly mentioned in the Criminal Libel raised against him thereanent.

For the public prosecutor } For the Pannel
Alex McNeil Caird PF } Thomas F Smith Writer Wigtown

The libel being read over to the pannel in open Court, he pleads not Guilty.

The sheriff finds the libel relevant to infer the pains of law, but allows the pannel a proof in qualification and alteration, and remits him with the libel as found relevant to the knowledge of an Assize. Adam Urquhart

The following Gentlemen were there ballotted to pass upon the assize of the pannel Patrick Hannay vizt.

Special Jurors

John McGill farmer Barsalloch

Thomas Murray banker Wigtown

Colin Christison factor Barglass

William Brown tanner Whithorn

William McQween farmer Newmilns

Common Jurors

William Hunter farmer Causewayend

John Fraser farmer Isle farm

John McConnell farmer Grennan

Peter Kevan farmer Airies Knows

William Broadshaw farmer Backbraes

John McCandlish farmer Clauchrie

John McGuffie grieve Barnbarroch

Matthew Martin shoemaker Kirkcowan

John McCulloch farmer Skaith

Robert Kelly farmer Glenruther

At this stage of the proceedings the pannel pleaded Guilty as libelled. In witness whereof his Agent has subscribed this Plea in respect he declares he cannot write. Thomas S Smith p pannel.
The Pannel adduced the following Witness in alleviation vizt.

Samuel Shearman or Shearn labourer in Portlogan being No. 8 of the List of Witnesses appended to the Libel.

The Jury without retiring returned a Verdict unanimously finding the pannel Guilty as libelled in terms of his own confession, but by a majority recommending him to the leniency of the court.

The sheriff in respect of the foregoing Verdict Decerns and adjudges the pannel Patrick Hannay to be taken from the bar and imprisoned in the prison of Stranraer, subject to the rules of that Establishment, for the period of two calender months from this date; and warrant is hereby granted to the Keeper of said prison to receive, detain and liberate the pannel accordingly.

Adam Urquhart


© National Archives of Scotland - reference SC/19/51/1
Transcription © Graham Maxwell, April 2011

22nd SAFHS Conference

We have just received confirmation for our stall at the 22nd Scottish Association of Family History Societies (SAFHS) Conference in Edinburgh on Saturday 25th June 2011, 09.30-16.30. The  the Conference will be Adam House, 3 Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1HR so if your able to attend pop in and see us. We’ll be giving free help and advice all day and we’ll have some of our books for you to look through.

Many other people will be there too: various family history societies, Families in British India Society,  Scotsman Archives, Tay Roots and many others.

For more information visit  the Scottish Genealogy Society’s website: http://www.scotsgenealogy.com/Conference.aspx

Hope to see you all there!

William Richardson, Kirkcudbright 1787

As promised I have uploaded the Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal today, issue No. 6. The first article is very interesting - it is entitled “Discovery and Punishment of Murder by Circumstantial Evidence.”

It tells us about the case of William Richardson who murdered a woman in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in the autumn of 1786. William Richardson was found guilty on evidence and circumstance not on the testimony of witnesses. It’s a fascinating account although all very sad for the poor girl that was murdered.

I have ordered the appropriate high court minute book and will look at it when I’m in Edinburgh next week. I’ll let you know if it gives any further information.

I find these cases fascinating. If your family tree is anything like mine there will be a lots of “Ag. Labs” and very few people recorded in sasines or wills, so it’s nice to find documents outside of the OPR’s and census. As one customer said this week prison records add some “spice” to a family tree. Court papers can be a wonderful addition if your ancestor was tried, in fact we hope to have some exciting news about that later in the year!

If you’ve not already looked have a search in our prison registers and see if there are any black sheep in your family!

Church Denominations

As regular readers will know we have been publishing birth, marriage and death records which have been kept by non Church of Scotland churches. These are a very important source of information. Although the established church, the Church of Scotland, were supposed to keep a record of all births, marriages and deaths which took place in the parish in reality this did not always happen.

To understand more fully what was going on, how many denominations where in existence and therefore have a chance of finding your ancestors have a read at Chris Paton’s blog: Walking in Eternity. Chris also tells us he is writing a book entitled "Discover Scottish Church Records" which may help you in your quest to dig deeper into the past.

If you still need help though to find a specific elusive character in your family tree please email me and I’ll see what we can do for you. We give a free consultation to everybody!

info@maxwellancestry.com

Scottish Genealogy Society Sale

When we were in Edinburgh yesterday we had a wee trip into the Scottish Genealogy Society. They have a sale on so we bought a few new books and fiche for our library. Here’s the link to the online sale, you may find something interesting.

Here’s a few interesting items with good discounts, they have many more but these caught my eye:

How to find Shipping & Immigration Records in Australia. - Price: £3.00 - Was £9.00

Ecclesiastical - Lady Glenorchy Transcripts Communion Rolls 1785-1835. -  Price: £2.75 -  Was £5.25

Alumni & Grads. in Art, Aberdeen Colleges, 1850-1860. Price: £2.00 - Was £4.00

Hope you find something useful!!

1832 was a leap year!

If you have been on your toes this week you may have noticed that Friday's Chambers' Edinburgh Journal was dated the 3rd of March not the 4th as 1832 was a leap year.

I still like the idea of reading it each week on the correct date so from now on it will be uploaded on a Thursday.

If you have not already read this week's visit our website to either read online or save the images to your computer to keep forever.

www.maxwellancestry.com

Aye Can, can you?

In the excitement surrounding the release of the 1911 census we must not forget the 2011 census which is about to be taken here in Scotland. One of the questions is: “Which of the following can you do? Understand, speak, read or write: English, Scottish Gaelic, or Scots?”

English and Gaelic are fairly easy to answer. However, can you speak Scots? In fact, what is Scots? Well to help those of us in Scotland to answer this question more effectively a website has been set up by the Scottish government: www.ayecan.com. This website has snippets of the spoken Scots as well as a written description of the various dialects.

If you’re not living in Scotland though it’s definitely worth a look and a listen. See how much of the Scots you can understand! Listen to what your ancestors may have sounded like and see if any of the words are still spoken in your family today.

www.ayecan.com