From The Archives: Records in Highland Archive Service reveal crime and harsh punishments from the past
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Over on the Highland Archive Service’s social media platforms, we are focusing on crime and punishment-related archives as our November theme.
If you live in Inverness, you have probably walked past the Tolbooth countless times without giving it a second thought.
This very narrow building on the corner of Bridge Street and Church Street is now a clan heritage shop.
But did you know it has a rather interesting past?
The Tolbooth is where prisoners were held while awaiting trial or execution.
The Inverness Tolbooth Warding Book, which forms part of the Burgh Records, describes a case in April 1793, where John and Daniel Ross were brought from Elgin to Inverness to stand trial at the High Court, for shop-breaking and theft.
Found guilty, a Death Warrant was issued against them. They were sentenced to be "taken to the Tolbooth of Inverness (and to remain there) till Friday the Fifth day of July…upon that day betwixt the hours of two and four in the afternoon to be taken…to the Common place of Execution…there to be hanged by the neck upon a Gibbet by the hands of the Common Hangman Executioner until they are dead, which is pronounced for Doom."
However, Donald Ross’s sentence was commuted, the Warding Book indicating that: "The above sentence of death against Donald Ross was remitted by His Majesty on the 24 May 1793...to banishment to the Eastern Coast of New South Wales, or some of the Islands adjacent, for life, and his service assigned to the Contractor for the Transportation of Convicts for seven years."
However, the Tolbooth Warding Book records the execution of John Ross on July 5 "in terms of the sentence" – but the story does not end there as three days later, on July 8, Donald Ross was "liberated on condition of enlisting in His Majesties Forces".
Clearly the need for troops to fight the French was greater than that of the colonies.
In 1754, Anne Jackson was tried in Inverness and found guilty of forgery for fabricating a letter from a Laggan innkeeper to a merchant in Inverness.
The sentence of the court was for her to be paraded through the streets with "ANNE JACKSON AN INFAMOUS PERSON CONVICTED OF THE CRIME OF FORGERY" pinned to her chest, pilloried for an hour, "whipt thro the Town of Inverness by the hands of the common Hangman, receiving the ordinary number of stripes on her naked back" and then taken back to the Tolbooth to await banishment to "one or other of his majesty’s plantations in America".
It would be intriguing to know the contents of the forged letter that warranted such extreme punishment.
Public showings and banishment were common. Banishment could be from a specific county or the whole country, and from life terms to periods of a few years.
The Highland Archive Centre is open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. To make a booking or enquire about remote archive or family history research, email archives@highlifehighland.com, call 01349 781130 or visit www.highlifehighland.com/archives-service.
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