Broadside entitled 'Trial and Sentence'

Commentary

This trial report begins: 'A Full and Particular Account of the Trial and Sentence of WILLIAM POLLOCK, who is to be Executed at Edinburgh, on Wednesday the 22d March, 1826, for the awful Murder of his Wife, on the 11th November last, at Gifford's Park, and his Body to be given to Dr Munro for Dissection.' It was printed in Edinburgh for a bookseller of unknown identity and priced at one penny

Another broadside in the National Library of Scotland's collection also deals directly with Pollock's trial. Whilst both sheets furnish the reader with the sequence of events following the death or murder, this particular broadside also gives a brief history of the Pollocks' family life. If enough interest was shown in a particular case, further broadsides often followed detailing the execution and the miscreant's last speech or dying words.

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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