# List of all the criminals who have been executed in Glasgow for the last 62 years

LIST
OF ALL THE CRIMINALS
WHO HAVE BEEN EXECUTED IN GLASGOW
For the last 62 Years,
With their Names and Crimes, and the place and time of their Suffering.
likewise,
A List of the Names of a great number of Criminals, both Male and Female, who have been Executed, Burned, &c., in different parts of Scotland, for upwards of the last 200 years,
for the crimes of
BLASPHEMY, WITCHCRAFT, MURDER, INCEST, ADULTERY, PARRICIDE, TREASON, &c. &c.
Being a very Curious and interesting Book.
GLASGOW;
Printed and Sold by John Muir, 50, Prince’s Stree';
1828.
EXECUTIONS, &c.
THE following authentic List of Criminals who have been Executed at Glasgow, are taken from Cleland's Annals of Glasgow, and other official records. The particulars of the other Criminals are extracted from Arnot’s Criminal Trials, and must prove highly interesting to every intelligent Reader.
For Blasphemy.
Thomas Aikenhead, for denying the Trinity, &e., was executed at the Gallowlee, on the 8th January, 1697.
John Ogilvie, a Catholic, was tried in 1615, before the Protestant Magistrates of Glasgow, for saying of Mass, &c. He was found guilty, and hanged that same afternoon! Such was the liberality of our Protestant ancestors.
For Witchcraft.
Alison Pearson, was strangled and burned in May, 1588
Janet Grant and Janet Clark were burned in August, 1590.
​Agnes Simson of Keith, was burned in 1590.
Euphan M‘Calzeane, was burned in 1591.
Patrick Lawrie, in 1605, was burned alive.
Margaret Wallace. in 1620, was strangled and burned.
Isobel Young, in East Barns, was tried, for having by enchantment stopped a mill 29 years before: she was strangled and burned.
Alex Hamilton was burned alive in 1630, for having had many meetings with the devil, from whom he received as severe drubbing for not keeping an appointment.
In 1697, in the shire of Renfrew, seven persons were convicted and committed to the flames in one day.
John Neil was found guilty in 1631 and the usual sentence was pronounced.
Janet Brown and two other women, in 1649, were convicted, condemned, and executed in one day.
Elspeth Rule, who was tried before Lord ⟨Anstruthers at the⟩ Dumfries Circuit. on the (illegible text) May 1709 was burned on the cheek and banished Scotland for life.
The last person who was brought to the stake in Scotland, was condemned by Capt David Ross, ⟨Sheriff-depute⟩ of Sutherland in 1722.
The devil has never been seen in Scotland since.
For Adultery.
John Gutherie, was Executed at the Cross of Edinburgh, in 1617.
Patrick Robertson and Marion Kempt, were sentenced to be executed on a gibbet at the Castle hill, in 1627.
John Murdoch and Janet Douglas, both married persons, were tried in 1690. The ⟨libel⟩ was restricted, and they were banished for life.
The last person that was tried in Scotland for adultery, was the Rev. Mr. Nisbet of the Established Church of Scotland. He was a minister in Invernesshire, and was tried in 1762, and sentenced to be banished beyond seas.
This law with regard to adultery, still remains in force ⟨in⟩ Scotland.
Treason.
Francis Tennent, Merchant Burgess of Edinburgh, for writing a Seditious Pasquinade against the King, was executed in 1600.
Archibald Cornwall, town-officer in Edinburgh, for attempting to hang up the King's picture on the Gallows, was executed in 1600, and all his goods forfeited.
Mr. Andrew Chrichton, for Declining the Authority of the King and Privy Council, was banished for life in 1610.
John Fleming, for slanderous speeches against the King, was hanged at the cross of Edinburgh in 1615.
Thomas Rois, for writing and publishing at Oxford, a Pasquinade against the Scots, had his head struck off at the cross of Edinburgh, 1618.
James Skene, for Treasonable Opinions and Declarations, was executed at the cross of Edinburgh, in 1680, and beheaded.
Archibald Macdonald, son to Coll Macdonald of Barisdale, attainted of High Treason, was sentenced to be executed at the Grass-market of Edinburgh, in 1754, but he was afterwards reprieved, and received promotion in the army.
Leasing-Making
Mr. John Stewart, commissary of Dunkeld, for Leasing-Making against the Earl of Argyle, and fabricating and uttering lies and calumnies contrary to law, was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh in 1641.
Parricide.
John Dickson, for the murder of his father, was broke npon the wheel at the Cross of Edinburgh, in 1591.
Murder.
Thomas Armstrong, for the murder of Sir John Carmichael,
​was executed at the cross of Edinburgh, in 1601. He was afterwards hung in chains.
Alister Macgregor of Glenstra, Laird of Macgregor, for slaughtering the Laird of Luss’s friends, was hanged and quartered at the Cross of Edinburgh, in 1604.
Patrick Roy Macgregor, for murder, was hanged at Edinburgh in 1667, and his body hung in chains.
Agnes Johnston, for the murder of a child, was executee at the Grass-market of Edinburgh in 1676.
Andrew Rutherfoord of Townhead, for the murder of James Douglass, brother to Sir Wm. Douglass of Cavers, was beheaded at the cross of Edinburgh in 1674.
George Clerk and John Ramsay, for the murder of John Anderson, merchant in Edinburgh, were hanged there in 1676.
James Gray, Dyer in Dalkeith, for the murder of Archibald Murray, g ntleman of the King’s Troop of Guards, was beheaded at the Grass-market in 1678.
John Chislie of Dalry, for the murder of the Right Hon. Sir George Lockhart, Lord President of the Court of Session, had his right hand cut off, and then hanged on a gibbet, in 1689. The pistol was hung about his neck with which he committed the murder.
George Cumming, writer in Edinburgh, was found guilty of manslaughter, and executed in Edinburgh, in 1695.
James Stewart, in Aucharn, for the murder of Colin Campbell of Glenure, was executed at the ferry of Ballachelish, in 1752, and his body hung in chains.
Tumult within Burgh.
David Mowbray, and one Keith, a fencing master, for raising a tumult in Edinburgh, and rescuing a baker whom the hangman was whipping through the Canongate, were executed in Edinburgh, in 1686.
Piracy.
Captain Thos. Green, commander of the Worcester, a ⟨ship⟩ ​belonging to the East India Company, and the thirteen of his crew, were found guilty of piracy and murder, and of them were executed at Leith Sands, in April, 1705.
Incest.
Alexander Blair, tailor in Currie, for incest was executed at Edinburgh in 1630.
James Wilson, coal grieve at Bonhard, for Incest, was beheaded at Edinburgh in 1619.
William Drysdale and Barbera Tannahill for having committed incest with one another. Tannahill was executed at Edinburgh, in 1705, and Drysdale was banished for life. He was a widower, and she was his wife's sister.
Forgery.
Margaret Nisbet, for forging a bill upon the Duchess of Gordon was executed at Edinburgh, in 1726.
Breaking Gardens.
John Rait and Alexander Dean for breaking of Gardens, were executed at Edinburgh in 1623.
FINIS.
Printed and Sold by John Muir, 90, ⟨Princes⟩ Street.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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