Broadside listing persons to be tried at the Circuit Court of Justiciary, Glasgow

Commentary

This broadside begins: 'A list of those who are indicted, and to be tried before the Circuit Court of Justiciary, to be opened at Glasgow on Tuesday the 20th day of September 1791.'

In the first case, the accused, James Plunkett, attacked and robbed silversmith Robert Wilson. James Plunkett was sentenced to be executed on 26th October, but escaped from the Tollbooth on 11th October. A reward was offered for him, and he was apprehended at Aberbrothie (probably Arbroath) in Angus, but he was sent to the High Court in Edinburgh, where he eventually admitted his identity and was executed in Glasgow on January 11th 1792.

Reports recounting dark and salacious deeds were popular with the public, and, like today's sensationalist tabloids, sold in large numbers. Crimes could generate sequences of sheets covering descriptive accounts, court proceedings, last words, lamentations and executions as they occurred. As competition was fierce, immediacy was paramount, and these occasions provided an opportunity for printers and patterers to maximise sales.

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