Broadside entitled 'Trials and Sentences'

Commentary

This crime report begins: 'Of the different persons who have stood their trials before the Circuit Court of the Justiciary, which commenced at Glasgow, on Wednesday the 12th September, 1821, when one Woman and two Men have received the awful sentence of Death.' This sheet was printed by John Muir in Glasgow in 1821.

Ann Wilson or Moore was sentenced to death for forging an Irish Bank 30 shilling note and was to be executed on the 24th October. M. MacIntyre and William Paterson were condemned to die on the same day for theft although their accomplice Margaret MacNair was dismissed. More minor cases were judged for W. Cabbin or Manks, Kenneth MacKenzie and Andrew MacKay.

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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