Crime in Liddesdale in the early 1800s

During the first year of Queen Victoria’s reign, Parliament passed an Act[1] enabling small debts to be more easily recovered in the Sheriff Courts. This established circuit courts in each county and to begin with Newcastleton was one of the four towns in Roxburghshire where this itinerating court was held. Hawick and Kelso each had Small Debts Court six times a year, Melrose four times, and Newcastleton three – on the first Wednesdays of April, August and December. Claims of up to £8s 3s 8d ( £8.18) could be brought before the Sheriff on these occasion, but as small debts don’t make news, the pages of the Kelso Mail are virtually devoid of references to the subject. The village’s first court was scheduled to take place on Wednesday 4th April 1838[2], but how often the court sat in Newcastleton and when it was was abandoned has not yet been discovered. The Sheriff had the discretion to alter the time or place of the court if, for example there wasn’t enough business to make it worthwhile.

The only court cases involving Liddesdale folk reported in the newspapers during the first four decades of the 19th century were criminal cases, either committed in Liddesdale or involving Liddesdale people. Housebreaking was the most frequent ( 6 cases between 1833 and 1838), assault (4 cases), desertion from the Militia (2) and poaching (2)[3]. Single cases were reported of highway robbery[4], forgery of bills[5], cheating at wrestling[6], and sheep-stealing[7]. A varied assortment indeed, but happily no cases of murder. It’s worth mentioning that many acts of lawbreaking must have been considered too trivial from inclusion in the paper which devoted most of its space to national and international news, and advertising. Over the forty years of this study, the proportions of local news rose considerably so that by the 1830s we find some cases described in great detail.

Mostly the offenders were tried at the Sheriff Court in Jedburgh, but the trial of ‘several gentlemen farmers’ convicted of killing game without a license in 1803 took place before the Justices of the Peace in the district of Castleton in the presence of the Procurator Fiscal.

Punishments were quite varied, and it’s hard to see any pattern to them :
six weeks in the correction house of the county for an assault[8]
£6 fine or six weeks in jail for assault and obstructing an officer of the law
two weeks in prison and a £20 fine for assault with an extrafour weeks if the fine was not paid[9]
two months hard labour for the theft of a pocket book[10]
‘four months in Bridewell, hard labour’ and ‘to find caution to keep the peace for one year under penalty of £20, which failing, to be imprisoned other three months’ for a double assault’[11]

For severity of sentence the case of William Davidson ‘alias David Steel’ stands out from all the rest. A Newcastleton man, Davidson had previously spent two years in Dumfries jail. This time he had broken into a house, forcibly opened a chest from which he stole several shirts, ‘trowsers’. A watch and various other items. The sheriff sentenced him to transportation for seven years.[12]

At the other end of the spectrum we are left wondering what drove Helen Scott to break into the house of William Little, Newcastleton, on the night of February 26, 1833, ot steal two pairs of blankets and a silver watch. Was she a destitute handloom weaver fallen on hard times, a widow, or an unmarried mother desperate to keep her child warm and fed during the bitter winter months?[13]

Two indidents make Newcastleton sound like the Wild West, except that there was no gunfire.

The scene is Walter Armstrong’s shop about four o’clock one Saturday afternoon in November 1820. Mr Armstrong is a linen and woollen draper[14] and spirit dealer and he also sells hardware. At the back of the shop in the warehouse James Thomson ‘ woodforester to the Duke of Buccleuch at Sandholm’ is bending down to measure some iron. The Gilebraehead blacksmith, Tom Turnbull, is in the warehouse too. The door opens and in walks William Ward ostensibly to buy whisky. Ward is accompanied by Charles Grive. For no apparent reason Ward kicks Thomson on the head and left hand. Thomson cries out: ‘What do you mean by that?’ and a struggle ensues in which Ward strikes Thomson’s left elbow with a 5-stone hammer ( the blacksmith described it as a smith’s fore-hammer). This ferocious blow rendered Thomson;s fingers numb for 36 hours. By the time the constable had been called, Ward had followed Thomson to George Douglas’s shop[15] where the unfortunate Thomson was knocked unconscious by Ward.

In the Circuit Court of Justiciary, Jedburgh, Ward claimed that Thomson had ‘used him ill’ while Thomson averred that he had given ward no provocation whatever. After hearing the evidence of several witnesses, the Jury declared Ward guilty, though ‘not to the effusion of blood’ , and the judge sentenced the attacker to six weeks in jail.[16]

We would be left thinking that Thomson was the innocent victim of a brutal attack were it not for the fact that his name crops up twice more in the Kelso Mail.

Could it be the same James Thomson who on March 11, 1837, assaulted George Foster Armstrong, son of the Newlands gamekeeper[17], and was himself attacked eighteen months later by Archibald Scott a short way from the village?[18] It begins to sound as if Thomson was a troublemaker.

Armstrong’s shop features in the news again in December 1839 – an unsolved crime this time. ‘Some person or persons unknown’ entered by boring holes in the cellar door opposite the two securing bolts which were removed using a piece of crooked wire. From the cellar it was a simple matter to slip through a trap door into the shop itself. The valuable assortment of draperies and groceries lay virtually untouched ( only a few pieces of cloth were taken), and as the intruder wasn’t interrupted or alarmed during his ‘felonious search’ it was reckoned that money had been the object of his visit.[19]

Appendix -
Summary of crime cases relating to Liddesdale reported in Kelso Mail giving date on which report appeared in the Kelso Mail, and (if reported) names of defendents, the crime they were accused of, where the trial took place and what the punishment was.

Date of report in Kelso Mail	Accused	Crime	Where tried	Punishment
Apr 16 1803	Several gentlemen farmers	Killing game without license	By procurator Fiscal before JPs in district of Castleton
Jul 7, 1803	John Little, labourer, Newcastleton	Failed to enrol in Militia
Jul 13, 1820	William Elliot, Castleton	Failed to appear at Dumfries on June 15, 1820 for Militia training and exercise
April 26, 1821	William Ward	Assault on November 11, 1820		6 weeks in prison in the correction house of the county
Nov 18, 1827	Ninian Elliot	Forgery of bills
May 16, 1833	Helen Scott	Theft of blankets and a watch	Sheriff Court, Jedburgh	4 months in prison
Apr 7, 1836	------ Nichol	Cheating at wrestling
Apr 11, 1836	Robert Cairns, labourer and Robert Inglis, driver	Assault and obstructing officer of the law	Sheriff court, Jedburgh	£6 fine or 6 weeks in jail ( Cairns) 6 weeks in Bridewell ( Inglis)
Mar 23, 1836	Robert Dixon Fleming, a deserter	Highway robbery
Jul 28, 1836	William and Helen Mair	Theft of sheep skin in smearing house at Twislehope on June 6, 1836
Dec 14, 1838	William McKay, Newcastleton and Archibald Scott	Theft of pocket book and assault	Sheriff Court, Jedburgh	2 months in prison with hard labour (McKay) 3 weeks or 10 shilling fine (Scott)
Nov 16, 1839	William Nichol, carter	Assault at Mangerton Holm ( similar previous offence)	Sheriff Court, Jedburgh	4 months in Bridewell, hard labour and 1 year probation under penalty of £20 fine or 3 months in jail
Dec 9, 1839	unsolved	housebreaking
Jan 21, 1841	John Telfer	poaching	JP Court, Jedburgh	1 month in Bridewell, £10 surety and 12 month’ probation
Jan 23, 1841	William Telfer, herd	Sheep stealing	Hawick	Imprisoned in Jedburgh castle

[1] Small Debt ( Scotland) Act 1837 (I Vic. Cap. 41.sec.26)
[2] Kelso Mail, October 30, 1837, p 1; Kelso Mail, March 15, 1838, p 1
[3] Kelso Mail, June 16, 1803 [page not noted]; Kelso Mail, January 21, 1841, p 3
[4] Kelso Mail, May 23, 1836, p 4
[5] Kelso Mail, April 7, 1836, p 4
[6] Kelso Mail, March 20, 1827, p1
[7] Kelso Mail, January 28, 1841, p 1; Kelso Mail, February 4, 1841, p 1
[8] Kelso Mail, April 26, 1826, p 4
[9] Kelso Mail, May 4, 1837, p 4
[10] Kelso Mail, December 14, 1838, p 4
[11] Kelso Mail, Novermber 16, 1839, p 4
[12] Kelso Mail, April 15, 1833, p 3
[13] Kelso Mail, May 16, 1833, p 4
[14] Pigot’s New Commercial Directory of Scotland for 1825-26, p 643
[15] John Douglas, joiner and cabinet maker is listed in Pigot’s Directory 1825-26, p643
[16] Kelso Mail, April 26, 1821, p 4
[17] Kelso Mail, May 4, 1837, p 4
[18] Kelso Mail, December 14, 1838, p 4
[19] Kelso Mail, December 9, 1939, p 4