James Hunter - A Theft From an Old Soldier on West North Street

James Hunter has previously appeared in this blog, albeit a younger, better looking version with more hair. On that occasion he had been sentenced to seven years' penal servitude in April 1874 for the theft of a pair of trousers and a quantity of cloth from an address at Woolmanhill in Aberdeen belonging to a tailor, Peter Henderson. The severity of his sentence was a result of a previous conviction a year earlier for the theft of a bizarre range of items from a railway wagon belonging to the Great North of Scotland Railway Company.

The picture of James that appears at the top of this page was taken at Peterhead prison on 22nd February 1894, about six weeks before his discharge on licence. He had been sentenced to five years penal servitude in June 1890 as a result of a "Theft From an Old Soldier" as the headline ran in the Aberdeen Press & Journal of the 27th June. The old soldier in question was one John Robertson, a farm servant who had been in the army for eight years. After returning to Aberdeen from England, he had fallen into company with James Hunter and a George Nicolson on the 14th April 1890.

The trio embarked on something of a pub crawl: despite being refused drink in at least one public house on George Street, they each consumed around half-a-dozen drams of whisky before ending up at John Robertson's sister's house at 169 West North Street. The court proceedings, as reported by the Aberdeen Press and Journal, described the events that unfolded as follows,

"They then went to his sister's at West North Street. The accused saw his [Robertson's] purse because he paid three times out of it for the whisky they were drinking. When going into his sister's house, he had his money, for he asked for supper and took out his purse to pay it. He was the little the worse of drink at the time. (Laughter). His sister had to go out for supper. He asked Nicolson to shave him and took off his vest and jacket for the purpose. He hung them on the end of the bed and his purse and money were in them. The accused was sitting at the end of the bed in a chair beside the greatcoat; Nicolson was at the fire. His sister went out for soda water for him to sober up. Between the heat of the fire and the shaving he got sick".

That John Robertson felt sick was probably more down to the amount of whisky he had thrown down his neck rather than the combination of the heat of the fire and shaving. When John's sister returned to the house, James Hunter and George Nicolson made their excuses and left. Sometime after this, it was discovered that John Roberston's purse and the money within it were missing. 

A number of witnesses for the prosecution and the defence are called: amongst the latter is James Hunter's mother who turns out to be a less than perfect character witness having herself been previously convicted of receiving stolen goods, on that occasion concealing money inside her wooden leg.

The jury reached their guilty decision after only the briefest deliberation. In his summing up and passing sentence of five years' penal servitude, the judge, Lord Shand, makes much of James's status as a "habit and repute thief", stating that he had, 

"....seen a great deal of prison life in consequence of the habit of thieving in which he had indulged".

Following the trial, James Hunter was sent to the then fairly new prison at Peterhead, appearing there as an inmate on the 1891 census. Following his discharge on licence in April 1894, the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen records that James lived at a succession of addresses in Aberdeen (see image below) including  18 Headinghill, 64 Park Street, and 3 Garvock Street. 

If you missed our Granite Noir talk which takes a closer look at some of the individuals featured in this blog, you can catch up with it here.