Commentary
This account begins: 'An account of the Execution of Charles M'Ewan at Edinburgh, on Wednesday the 7th April, for the Murder of Margaret Money, on the Firmouth Hill, in Aberdeenshire, with his behaviour in Jail, and at the place of Execution.' Published in Edinburgh by the city's booksellers. This broadside appears to have been hastily assembled, indeed it was published almost immediately after the events it recounts. The National Library of Scotland holds several reports relating to this case and this one has almost exactly copied the wording of previous accounts, but also includes some fresh text giving the most up to the minute information about the proceedings of McEwan's execution. 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.
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Date of execution and publication:
1824 shelfmark: F.3.a.14(23)
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