Broadside relating the last words of James Dick

Commentary

This account begins: 'The LAST SPEECH, Confession, and dying Words of JAMES DICK, who was executed at Glasgow on Wednesday the 16th of May 1792, and his Body given to the Professor of Anatomy to be dissected. For the horrid and cruel murder of his own Wife.' Published in Glasgow by Joseph Galbraith.

James Dick was a 32 year-old shoemaker. He had a turbulent marriage to his alcoholic wife Isobel Russell, and after many arguments, murdered her at their home in Glasgow's Briggate. The quality of writing is so good, the publisher promises to print a second part, which is also held by the National Library of Scotland.

One of the most poignant sections is at the very end when Dick says of his wife, 'In the course of time that we have been together she has born me six children, which are all dead, thank God for it.'

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