John Audsley - "A Serious Charge Against A Late Sergeant of the Montrose Volunteers"

 

John Audsley's story is an intriguing one. For the majority of his life he seems to have been a respectable, hard working and even upstanding member of his community in Montrose where he was a member of the golf club and even a sergeant in the Montrose Volunteers. However, in 1883 he lost his wife which appears to have precipitated a number of desperate and rash decisions which ultimately saw him incarcerated in Peterhead Prison: his mugshot that you can see at the top of this page was taken on the 21st December 1893. 

Born in the "Old Town" district of Keith in 1835, his father, Joseph, was a "wool miller". Come the 1861 census and John is to be found lodging at an address on Ramsay Street in Montrose where his occupation is given as a "railway porter". Around eighteen months after the census, on 5th November 1862, John marries a domestic servant by the name of Margaret Clark at Ferry Street in Montrose. On the marriage certificate John's occupation is given as a "wood yard labourer".

It doesn't appear that John and Margaret had any children: on the 1871 and 1881 census returns the couple are noted as living at 14 Ferry Street and then at 20 India Street, Montrose. By the time of the 1891 census, John is widowed and a prisoner in Peterhead Prison which had then been open for around two years. 

The story of how he started on the path that led to prison is revealed in a report carried by the Dundee Courier of the 23rd June 1885 under the headline "An Old Man Yielding to Temptation", 

"John Audsley was charged with the crime of falsehood, fraud, and wilful imposition, and also of forgery and uttering".

According to the report, John had ordered a number of mahogany chairs, cabinets and other furniture from three cabinet makers in Montrose and asked for them to be delivered to Dundee where, he said, they were to be a wedding gift for his niece "who had kept house for him for some time". However, far from being a gift, John had instructed the furniture to be sold at auction in Dundee and he subsequently pocketed the proceeds. The defence makes much of John's previous good character, but he was still sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment.

Further evidence of John's fall from grace is next to be found in the Aberdeen Free Press of the 1st June 1888, 

"John Audsley, labourer, Montrose, was charged with having, on the term day, broken open three lock-fast trunks in the men's sleeping apartment on the farm of Ulaw in the parish of Ellon, occupied by Peter Craib, and attempted to steal therefrom. He pleaded not guilty but was was convicted on evidence".

For this crime John was sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment. His next conviction in April 1890 carried a much more severe sentence of five years' penal servitude and is the one that sees him incarcerated at Peterhead. The Dundee Advertiser carried a report of the charges against John under the title, "A Serious Charge Against a Late Sergeant of the Montrose Volunteers", 

"John Grant Audsley, a native of Keith, who resided for many years in Montrose, and has recently been living in Huntly, emitted a declaration before Sheriff Brown at Aberdeen on Saturday, on a charge of having, in the men's sleeping apartment at the farm of Muirton of Barra, in the parish of Bourtie, broken open three lock-fast trunks and stolen £3 1s.; and also of having broken open another lock-fast trunk with intent to steal. Audsley was well known in Montrose where he was a sergeant of the volunteers. He was some years ago convicted of fraudulently obtaining furniture from dealers there and having it disposed of in Dundee". 

John served just under four years of the sentence in Peterhead before being released on license on the 2nd February 1894. His entry in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen (see below) reveals that over the following fourteen months he stayed at various addresses in the city including 204 George Street, 14 Castle Terrace, 41 Blackfriars Street and 86 Gerrard Street. 

Come the 1901 census, John, then aged 66, was lodging at 7 Black's Buildings near Woolmanhill, his occupation listed as a "labourer in store". John died from heart failure at the Oldmill Poorhouse in Aberdeen on the 26th November 1907.

Many thanks to Dr. Dee Hoole (University of Aberdeen) for the following additional information: 

Following his death at the Oldmill Poorhouse, John's body was not claimed by any relatives and was sent to the funoratory in Henderson's Court adjacent to Marischal College. Subsequently, on 29th November 1907 his body was lawfully sent to the medical school at Marischal College and dissected by the anatomist Dr Robert Reid. He was interred (probably in the poor area at Nellfield cemetery) on 10th July 1908. By that date,  John's remains had been kept, worked on and used as teaching material by the medical school for over seven months.