Commentary
This court report begins: 'GLASGOW SPRING CIRCUIT. / This day (April 26th) the Glasgow Circuit Court of Justiciary was opened by Lords M'Kenzie and Medwyn, when after the usual preliminaries were gone through, the court commenced with the trial of . . .' What follows is a list of individuals, along with the crimes they have committed and the sentences that were passed. This is one of many such circulars contained in the National Library of Scotland's broadside collection, all of which offer an interesting insight into 'everyday' crime and punishment in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland. The punishment for crimes, which by today's standards would be considered petty offences, were often severe. On Wednesday the 27th April, for example, John McKinlay was sentenced to be transported for seven years for stealing woollen yarn. Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.
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Probable date of publication:
1830 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.73(130)
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