Banished from Scotland!

(Published in Fife Family History Society journal Vol 15 No 2)

 

It was once said 'A man is banished from Scotland for a great crime, from England for a small one, and from Ireland, morally speaking, for no crime at all!' By this standard, the crime that Agnes Cameron was accused of must have been considered a great one, for she preferred to choose banishment rather than stand trial.

Agnes Cameron (sometimes known as Nancy or Helen), lived with her husband Alexander Westwood alias Wasty or Wastie, a Labourer, at Backside Farm (now known as Percival) in the parish of Wemyss. They had married in 1784 in Kemback and had at least the following eight children: James (b 1785 Markinch), David (1787 Markinch), Janet (1789 Markinch), Agness (1791 Markinch), Alexander (1794 Markinch), John (1796 Wemyss), William (1799 Wemyss), and Lewis (1802 Wemyss).

In April 1805, a complaint was brought by Sir James Montgomery of Stanhope, Baronet, Advocate, against Agnes Cameron and one George Duncan, formerly carter and servant to Robert Bisset and Company Yarn Spinners at Haugh Mill1, Markinch parish. George Duncan was accused of Theft and Agnes Cameron of Reset of Theft.

“By the Laws of this and of every other well governed Realm, Theft, as also Reset of Theft, are Crimes of an heinous nature, and severely punishable”

It was claimed that during the summer of 1804, and again during February or March 1805, George Duncan, who was driving flax from Kirkcaldy to Haugh Mill for his employer, stole a quantity of foreign flax from his master’s cart, and delivered it to Agnes Cameron, and that she put it to her own use, knowing it to be stolen.

It was also claimed that on the 1st April 1805 or in March, George Duncan had stopped his master’s cart at or near Earlseat in Wemyss parish, and removed from it about two stones and six pounds Scots weight of foreign flax, which he gave to Agnes Cameron. She then was presumed to have carried it to be dressed at the house of Christian Thomson, wife of James Gardner, a flax dresser in Dubbieside2. Two stones and five pounds of the flax were later found at the Gardners’ house, wrapped in a sheet belonging to Agnes Cameron. One pound of flax, partly spun and partly unspun, was found in Agnes Cameron’s house.

If found guilty George Duncan and Agnes Cameron were to be punished severely to deter others from committing similar crimes. They were charged to appear before the Lord Justice General, Lord Justice Clerk, and Lords Commissioner of Justiciary in a Circuit Court of Justiciary to be held in the Criminal Court House of Perth upon the 4th May 1805. The Circuit Court was an itinerant court which tried criminal cases at various locations in Scotland.

On the 6th April 1805 Agnes Cameron was brought before Andrew Jamieson, Esquire, Sheriff Substitute of Fife. In his presence she gave a declaration which was signed by Jamieson, as she said she could not write. This declaration, together with the flax wrapped in Agnes Cameron’s sheet, and the pound of flax found in her house, were to be used in evidence at the trial, and so were lodged with the Clerk to the Circuit Court.

On the 16th April 1805, Robert Maule, Messenger at Arms, summoned the following witnesses against George Duncan and Agnes Cameron, under a penalty of 100 Scots Merks (£5): Robert Bisset, one of the Partners of Robert Bisset & Company, and manager of the Haugh Mill Spinning Company (he later owned the Leven Brickworks); James Thomson, Foreman to the Company; Christian Thomson, wife of James Gardner of Dubbieside, and Margaret Gardner his daughter; and Margaret Baxter, wife of Alexander Cairnie, Day Labourer at Earlseat.

He delivered to Agnes Cameron personally a copy of the Criminal Letters, and left a copy of the letters for George Duncan with his daughter at his house at Haugh Mill, because George Duncan could not be found. Having been suspected of the theft, George Duncan had absconded on the evening of the 2nd April 1805. Some considered this to be from a consciousness of his own guilt.

On the 17th April Robert Maule went to the Market Cross in Cupar, the Head Burgh of the Sheriffdom in which George Duncan lived and his lands were located. There, after crying several Oyesses, and open proclamation and public reading of the Criminal Letters, he commanded George Duncan to appear in court on the aforementioned date. He then attached a copy of the letters to Cupar Market Cross.

On the 4th May, George Duncan failed to appear at the courtroom. He was called for in court and three times at the door of the courthouse but still failed to appear. The Lord Justice Clerk therefore judged him to be an outlaw and fugitive from the law and said he should be ‘put to the horn’ - his whole moveable goods and gear were to be confiscated.

The petition which Agnes had prepared on 6 April was then presented to the court:

“To the Lords of Justiciary at the Circuit Court at Perth

After such a crime has been laid to my charge I would not incline to remain in this Country, and wishing to avoid a Trial, I am willing to be Banished Scotland for such a time, and under such certification in case of return, as your lordships may think proper.

May it therefore please your lordships to grant me banishment accordingly”

The Advocate Depute consented to this, and so the Lord Justice Clerk said she was to be banished from Scotland for all her life from the 4th of June 1805. If she ever returned to or was found in Scotland after that date she would be apprehended and transmitted from sheriff to sheriff until she was brought to the Tolbooth of Perth where the magistrates and keepers of the Tolbooth would detain her. On the next market day she would be whipped3 through the streets of Perth, receiving the ordinary number of stripes upon her naked back and then set free in order to go back into banishment.

Many questions remain at the end of this story. Would Agnes and George have been found guilty if they had stood trial, and if so what would their punishment have been? Where did Agnes go when she left Scotland, and did her family (her children being aged between 3 and 20) go with her? Perhaps she went to Australia since transportation there had started not long before.

My genealogical interest in this story is that I have been researching the name Wastie or Westie within Fife. As yet I have found no connection between Alexander Westwood/Wasty/Wastie and my ancestors, but I am still looking.

 

1. Haugh Spinning-Mill was built in 1794, to spin canvas yarns from flax and tow.

2. Although Dubbieside (or Innerleven) was part of Markinch parish, it was in fact at the mouth of the Leven and cut off from the rest of Markinch parish by the parish of Wemyss. I discovered its location when I was at the society’s dinner at Bayview Stadium and asked another committee member if she had ever heard of Dubbieside. She replied “You’re in it!”

3. Whipping of women remained legal until the Whipping Act of 1820. In 1862 whipping was abolished for offenders over 16 for theft or crimes against persons or property, save that children under 14 might still be whipped but the strokes should not exceed 12 and the instrument was to be a birch rod.