Broadside entitled 'Trial and Sentence'

Transcription

       Trail

and Sentence.

An account of the Trial   and Sen-
trnce of John Douglas,   who is   to
be Executed at Edinburgh on Wed-
Wensday the 28th of January, 1824.
for Highway Robbery, between Por-
tobello and Musselburgh off Novem-
ber last.

This day Wednesday Dec,   24th   1823,   came on before the
Court   of Justiciary,   the   trial   of   John   Donglas, for the
robbery of Mr James Anderson, residing et Whim, near
Gullane, in the County of Haddington, on the night of the
1st November last, in a lane leading towards the sea on the
Musselburgh road.

James Anderson was in a honse in   Fleshmarket Close,
on the night of the 1st   November   1823,   where   he   had
some porter; left the house, and met an   acquaintance who
was along with Douglas at the head of said close. Douglas
said he belonged to Musselburgh, upon which Anderson ad-
vised Douglas to take a ticket in the Portobello coach, as he
had done, Douglas went to the coach-office and pdrchased a
ticket, for which he paid 1s.    They sat next to one another
in the coach.    After arriving at Portobello, Mr Anderson
said that as he had a niece in Portobcllo where he could get
a Bed, he would go no farther,   Douglas   said, he knew her,
and that she was an out-relation of his.    The witness propos-
ed to call at a public house which he knew, and Douglas
said he would shew him it, they went forward for some time
when witness observed   he had surely   taken   him wrong,
Douglas pointed to a light a small distance from them, they   
entered, but found it was nat the house,   he told Mr Bairns-
feather, that that man, pointing to Douglas, had taken him
wrong.    They got in a half-mutchkin of spirits and Douglas
offered to pay 4 1/2d, but Mr   Andrrson bade him lift it up
and pay the next.    Mr Anderson then proposed to be going
and Douglas offered to   convoy him. At   a short distance
from the house, Douglas   forced   him    to turn down a lane,
where he knocked him down, placed his knee upon his
chest, and took from his pockets a silver hunting watch, and
sixteen shillings, and run off down towards the sea. Mr An-   
derson returned to the house and told he was robbed by the
man he was drinking   with....The pannel was   apprehended
in his fathers   house, and the watch was found below the
pillow.                  

The Jury, without leaving the box, returned a verdict of
Guilty, with a recommendation to mercy.

The Lord Justice Clerk addressed the prisoner at consi-
derable   length, giving him   the   most salutary advice as to
regulating   his conduct   for   the short   remaining   days of.
his   life.    He then   passed the awful sentence of the   law,
which was, that he be executed at the common place of exe-
cution, head of Liberton's Wynd, Edinburgh, on Wednesday
the 28th day of January next;   observing at the same time,
that from the enormity of the crime, together with the cir-
cumbtance of his having stood trial at   that bar before, he
had no grounds   whareon   to   found any hope of mercy, al-
though in accordance with   the Jury's recommendation, ap-
plication will be made to the proper quarter.         

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