Transcription
A full, true and particular account of a cruel, barbarous and inhu- man murder committed on the body of Margaret Rankin daugh- ter of John Rankin Polichorkin in Argyleshire, of which Archibald M'Allum, by whom she was big with child is suspected because he has fled from his father's house at Ardnoe. MAN's natural reason unassisted by divine grace, is still hurrying him on to the commission of daring acts of cruelty; but While these keep short of shedding human blood, We are apt to look upon them with less detestation, and paliate some part of their guilt in our minds; or even when blood is shed in a person's own defence when attacked by another person, we do not look upon it in so black a light as when one unprovoked attack, in cold blood an innocent, unsuspecting per- son with a manifest intention to take away his life. In the first case, the laws of both God and man has provided certain cafes in which the dilinquent is not to be punished with so great Severity as in the last, where we are premptorily forbid to spare or have pity upon them, but in anywise to put them to death; which if we do not, the scripture expressly saith, that we become partakers of their crime, and thereby bring innocent blood upon the land. It is very hard to account for the reasons which induce men to murder one another in cold blood,--and in such a manner as the following, where we may see a wretch em- brueing his hands in the blood of an innocent young woman, whose only crime to him, was, that the had too, too much regard for the inhumane monster! This wretch, (for I can- not call him a man) Archibald M'Alluw, son of John M'Allum in Ardnoe, in the shire of Argyle, he had pretended love, I say pre- tended (for it was only malice) to Margaret Rankin, daughter of John Rankin in Poli- chorkin in the county of Argyle, one of his father's neighbours, and, no doubt, had used all these hellish arts praised by villains, too often with success, to seduce her into a crimi- nal correspondence with him, to which she, alas! too easily consented. O! had the known his black heart, and the hellishness of his in- tentions, she never had consented to such criminality, nor suffered to unmerited a pu- nishiment from him : But to return, she at last proved with child by him, and was far ad- vanced in her pregnancy, and, no doubt im- portuning him to fulfill his promises of marry- ing her, to take away her reproach from a- mong women. This humble and reasonable requist only hurried him on to commit what he had no doubt, concerted before in his mind, the horrid intention of murdering her to be quite of her importunity, as he never had any intention of marrying her. This malevolent crime he put in practice on Sunday the l2th of August 1792, choos- ing that day as the most convenient for his infernal purpose, when her father and the rest of the family were at divine worship, who if at home would have protected her from his blood thirsty hands; on that day, as we may easily suppose, she had known the family's intentions and that the would be alone in the house, and therefore sent or desired him to come to her in order to consult how matters were to be settled, and as she had a heart full of honest sentiments, and the deepest regard for him, never doubted but that his dissem- bling professions were as sincere as her own, on that account little thought of her fast ap- proaching fate. He attended her at her fa- ther's house according to proposal, but little to her profit, for, when her people returned from church, to their great surprize, they found her strangled. With several marks of Violence upon her body. They could not think of any person who could be guilty of this except the said Archibald M' Allum, and as it was late before they could settle matters, they could not send that night, but, however, they sent next morning, and found that Archibald had absconded, and that night they heard he had been seen running through Glenkinlas in a frighted like manner on that day, which is the nearest road to the low country in order to escape. Fool that he is to think to escape from his own guilty con- science, and the wrath of an offended God. By this fatal catastrophe, he has not only brought wrath upon himself, but has render- ed two families compleatly miserable, his own family unhappy in having such an unnatural child who has brought disgrace upon them, such a disgrace as will bring their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave; while her family must be unconsolable in having a blooming daughter both debauched and murdered by such a villain. Now let us consider the case fairly, and we will easily fee what havock sin makes in the world, especially such sins as this. If he had been virtuous and married the woman, What a contrast! instead of the miserable situation they are now in, the one family a son and the other a daughter living together in harmony and peace, an offspring rising from thence to gladen their aged hearts, and make one gleam of joy shine on their evening hours, In, the mean time, I hope this will be a lesson to young women not to trust too far the flattering delusions of young men, for if their love be real, they will ra- ther chuse the solid enjoyment of the married state, than the stolen enjoyment of a criminal correspondence. What is remarkable, this man, so old in villainy, is only about 26 years of age, as may be seen by the advertisements for appre- hending him in the Glasgow news papers.
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1792 shelfmark: 6.365(093)
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