Broadside entitled 'Trial and Sentence'

Commentary

This report begins: 'A Full and Particular Account of the Trial and Sentence of CHARLES McEWEN, who is to be Executed at Edinburgh, on Wednesday the 7th April, 1824, for the Barbarous Murder of Margaret Money (Mooney), and his body to be given for dissection.' This broadside sold for a penny and was published in Edinburgh by James Dogherty.

Charles McEwen, who was also known by five other names, killed Margaret Money, whom he had lived with 'as man and wife', by striking her on the head with an anvil. It is interesting that the man pled Not Guilty, considering there were 42 witnesses at his trial. This broadside also boasts a woodcut, foretelling McEwen's fate. It is interesting to note the same image also appears on the broadsides of other Edinburgh printers.

Broadsides are often crudely illustrated with woodcuts - the earliest form of printed illustration, first used in the mid-fifteenth century. Inclusion of an illustration on a broadside increased its perceived value, especially among the illiterate. To keep costs down, publishers would normally reuse their limited stock of generic woodcuts.

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