When Peter Reilly (alias Pat Reilly or John Brown) was discharged from prison on licence in June 1876 he lived at an address in Farquhar's Court, Aberdeen. This small court no longer exists but it used to be situated just off the north side of the Netherkirkgate. His entry in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen (see the image at the foot of the page) shows that he subsequently resided at 1 Virginia Street and also spent some time in Dundee before returning to Farquhar's Court the following year.
Together with the details of where he lived, Peter Reilly's entry in the Register of Returned Convicts also contains a revealing note about his state of health: under the "marks" heading it mentions that he was, "Pockmarked, wants one upper front tooth. Scrofulous marks on each side of neck". This last sentence indicates that Peter Reilly had suffered from tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands, otherwise known as scrofula. Symptoms of the disease can include the growth of large, unsightly "cold abscesses" on the neck with the overlying skin taking on a bluish-purple appearance. The incidence of scrofula was fairly common, as indicated by an appendix to the First Annual Report of the Commissioners Appointed Under the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1877, which provides figures between 1869-1878 for inmates treated for various diseases at H.M. General Prison, Perth, where Peter Reilly almost certainly spent part of his sentence. In 1871, for example, eight of the prisoners were treated for scrofula, one of which may well have been Peter Reilly himself.
The Register of Returned Convicts also shows that Reilly had been sentenced in September 1868 at Stirling. This little nugget of information enabled the report of his trial to be located in The Alloa Advertiser of 12th September 1868 which reads as follows:
"Peter Reilly was charged with theft by housebreaking, inasmuch as on the 17th January last he broke into the shop on High Street, Tillicoultry, occupied by Mr John Green, draper, and stole therefrom a money till, 2s. in copper, 3 bank pass books, 30 yards of woollen cloth, and other pieces of woollen and tweed cloth. He pleaded not guilty; but after trial the charge was found proven by the jury, and the prisoner was sentenced by the court to ten years' penal servitude. The prisoner, on receiving sentence, caused some sensation in court by telling his Lordship, "I'll be in hell before half of that time - at least I hope so".
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