Broadside entitled 'Second Edition'

Transcription

SECOND EDITION

An account of the Behaviour and Execution of JAMES GLeN,
who was Executed at Glasgow on Wednesday the 12th of
December, 1827, for the inhumam Murder of his own Son,by
Drowning him in the Canal, nearPort- Duudas.

GLASGOW, 12th DECEMBER, 1827.

This day JAMES GLEN was Executed here, at the usual place of Execution, con-
victed of the murder of his own natural Son                                          

The child whom he so inhumanly put to death, was a fine little fellow of about 18
months old, but having refused to pay for its maintenance, its mother went to Glen's
lodginig in May last, to get some money from him, as she was not able to maintain
both it and herself, but he said she might go where she came from, as she would
get nothing from him The mother then said she would leave the child with him,
and he replied, " If she did he would droxr it in two hours,' and he but too faish-
fully kept his word, for having laid the child on the floor she departed, intending to
return next day for it,which she accordingly did, but he had taken away the child
the same night,saying that he was going to give it to an old mistress to keep it, but
on the morning of the 9th May last the body of a child was found in the Canal near
Ruchild draw bridge , and interred on the evening of the same day, but it was again
was interring,when the month recognised it to be her child , and the Surgeons who
camined the body gave it as their opinion that the child was first strangled and
then thrown   into the Canal, where upon Glen was immediately apprehended, and up
on being desired to say what he had done with the child, he said that he had given
it to an old woman along with 12S. whom he met in the Cowcaddens, and that he
had not seen the woman nor child since; and from other suspicions circumatances
he was committed for trial.

While in prison awaiting his trial, the Jail was broken, and he along with a num-
ber of other prisoners made their thier escape, and L.20 reward was othered for his appre-
hension, but it gave himself up next day declaring he could find no rest or peaer
of mind.                                          

His trial took place of Edinburgh on the 10th Nov. last and the evidence was so
clear that the July unanimously found him guilty, when he did not seem at all affect-
-ed on hearing his final doom pronounced.

Since his condemnation, he has conducted himself with a propriety of conduct be-
coming his awful Situation, confessed his committing the heinous offence, and,acqui-
esced in the justice of his sentence. The Rev. Dr. Muir of St. James's, the Rev.
Mr M'Farlane,Anderston and several other pious individuals   were assiduous in their
labours for his spiritual welfar and to whose exhortation he was most attentive.

On the present occasion the time of execution was changed from the morning
till after noon,the propriety of which change must be obvious?the intention of all
punishment is?Example, and had the execution taken place in the morning in this
clark and inclement season of the year, the great end of the punishment would have
been frustrated comparatively few would have witnessed The melancholy scene,
accordingly about two o'clock the Magistrates entered the Hall, and the prisoner
was immediately brought up, dressed in white, which was trimmed with black and
after a short stay he proceeded to the fatal scaffold, attended by some of the Rev.
Gentlemen who attended him in his lonely cell, where after a short time spent in
devotion, and the fatal noose being adjusted, he gave the signal, When the drop fell,
and death, closed his eyes on this world for ever, After hanging the usual time, the
body was taken down placed in a shall, and conveyed to the college for dissection.

During the short time that the unfortunate man was in the Court Hall, he confes-   
sed that he threw his child into the canal when it was asleep, but that he did not
strangle it .   He Said that he was under the influence of the devil at the time.

It not having been generally known that the execution was delayed till the after-
noon, an immense multitude assembled in the morning, which continued more or
less till the time of execution, when it was very great.

Glen was a native of New kilpatrick, and was generally employed as a carter in
this City and neighbourhood and was only about 22 years of age.

This is the third instance on record of a father being executed here for the mur-
der of his child, James Day, in 1790, and Adam Cox, in 1807, were both executed
for the like crimes. At one time females were frequently guilty of infanticide,but
since that great steeping stone to femals child murder, the "Infamous Stool of Re-
sentence has been comparatively abolished, the cases have greatly diminished.
                                                                           John Muir, Printer, Glasgow.

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