William Philip - "The prisoner met him in Loch Street...and asked him for a dram"

The brief details that accompany the image of William Philip in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen include the he, "wants one front upper tooth and several double ones". Bearing in mind that he was only 28 years old on his discharge in September 1873, this hints at his poor state of dental health. The relatively high cost of treatment at the time, coupled with the small number of practitioners, meant that dental pain and tooth loss was a fact of life for most working class people. The diet that he would have endured in prison, a large proportion of which would likely have been gruel, would not have helped matters. In common with the other individuals featured in this blog, his stature (of five feet five-and-a-half inches) was small by today’s standards, something which was symptomatic of poor nutrition, and a subject to which we shall return to in future blog entries. 

Accused of theft, William Philip was tried on the the 17th April 1868. The Dundee Advertiser of the following day reported the case as follows,

"William Philip, from Aberdeen Jail, was charged with having stolen a purse containing 12s.6d. from the person of Robert Stronach, carter, Jack's Brae - the theft being committed in Loch Street, on Saturday 15th February 1868. Philip was libelled as a habit and repute thief, and two convictions for theft (both before the Sheriff and a jury in Aberdeen) were recorded against him. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. The evidence showed that Stronach received 15s. of wages on the date libelled. He spent some money on drink, but was sensible. The prisoner met him in Loch Street before eleven o'clock in the evening, and asked him for a dram. The prisoner then picked Stronach's pocket and ran away, but was almost immediately apprehended. The purse and the money were found on the Green, in Jopp's Lane, along which the prisoner had run. The jury unanimously found the prisoner guilty as libelled, and he was sentenced to seven year's penal servitude". 

After his discharge in 1873, it wasn't long before William Philip "Went to Dundee". For a brief period during September of that year he had temporary lodgings at 9 Exchequer Row in Aberdeen. According to the Post Office Directory for Aberdeen covering 1873/74 this address was also home to a Daniel McDougall, a slater, and James Black, a hairdresser who worked from premises on the Netherkirkgate.