Margaret Hendry or Ross - "The Women in the House Evidently Lived by Prostitution"

 

The ten year sentence that Margaret Hendry received at the Circuit Court in Aberdeen in September 1864 appears completely disproportionate to her crime of stealing a quantity of cloth, clothes and bed-clothes. However, her crime was aggravated by a string of previous convictions from the Police Courts of Aberdeen and Leith as well as from the Burgh and Sheriff Courts of Edinburgh. The Aberdeen People's Journal of the 24th September 1864 reported her appearance before the Circuit Court as follows:

Margaret Hendry or Ross (42) and William Thomson (58) were both charged with having committed three separate acts of theft. The articles in the first charge were stated to have been stolen from Euphemia Duff or Napier, wife of George Napier, Chronicle Lane, who had given them to the female prisoner to make into clothes; and those in the second and third from John Murphy who resided in the same place. 

The wonderfully named Chronicle Court (one surely worthy of J.K. Rowling) where the victims of Margaret's crime resided, was a long, thin close, that ran parallel to Queen Street and lay to the west of the East Prison, a site which is nowadays partially occupied by the footprint of the Town House Extension.

Reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Scotland

Ordnance Survey, Aberdeen 1866, Sheet LXXV.11.14

https://maps.nls.uk/ 

Newspaper reports and other sources covering the 1870s and 80s reveal that Margaret would have been a "well kent face" in this part of the city, particularly to the police. When she was discharged on licence in May 1871, the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen records that until at least August of that year she lived just a short distance away at Alexander's Court, which ran between the Gallowgate and Loch Street. Over the next few years, several newspaper reports of her court appearances reveal not only that she was frequently in trouble, but that she continued to live in the locality, at addresses off the Gallowgate and on the notorious Shuttle Lane. The Dundee Courier of the 4th June 1872 reported proceedings at the Aberdeen Police Court:

"On Saturday before Bailie Fraser...Jane Brown or Watt, Elizabeth Murray or McKenzie and Margaret Hendry or Ross were fined 15s., with an alternative of twenty days in prison for committing a breach of the peace in Alexander's Court, Gallowgate, on the 31st ult. The whole of the prisoners are well acquainted with the inside of police cells, this being the...fourth time that Hendry has received sentence at the Police Court. Hendry, however, was in 1864, sentenced at the Circuit Court to 10 years' penal servitude for theft, and as she was liberated three years before the expiry of her sentence, we understand that she will be reported at headquarters with a view to her being detained in prison for the unexpired term of her 10 years' sentence". 

Margaret's next appearance before the Police Court occurs in October 1879. The Aberdeen Press & Journal of the 18th October reported the case under the headline "The Best Help":

"Margaret Hendry or Ross (60) was charged with causing last night a breach of the peace in the house at McLean's Court, Gallowgate, occupied by David Wells, slater, and using abusive language, particularly towards Mrs. Wells. Accused, who has been three times previously convicted, pleaded guilty, saying that she had lost some money and spoken about it - heaven help her. The Baillie said that she should just help herself, for she was the sole cause of all her misfortunes. He imposed a fine of 10s.6d. with the option of seven days' imprisonment".

Given that she was in her early 60s, it is perhaps unlikely that Margaret was herself a prostitute when she again appeared before the Police Court in May 1884 charged with theft. Nonetheless, The Aberdeen Free Press of the 27th May reported that the Procurator-Fiscal was of the opinion that, "The women in the house evidently lived by prostitution". The house in question was on Shuttle Lane with the newspaper report giving a glimpse of what went on there:

"An old woman named Margaret Hendry or Ross...was charged with having, in the house of Jane Horn or Watson, Shuttle Lane, stolen a pair of boots from the person of a farm overseer. Accused said that she got the boots to be pledged from another person who was in the house at the same time. This plea was taken as one of not guilty...The overseer had come from the country on Saturday and had been drinking rather heavily. In the course of the day he found his way to a house on Shuttle Lane along with the accused. Here he got more drink which so stupefied him that he had but a hazy conception of what took place. He was certain, however, that he had his boots on before he went to Shuttle Lane. He fell asleep in the house and when he awoke made enquiry as to what had become of his boots...The women in the house evidently lived by prostitution, and the countryman, dazed with drink, had got mixed up with them. There was a tendency among many to turn away from these cases, thinking that the plundering that went on there, should be overlooked. They would ask what else a man who went to these houses could expect. At the same time this plundering could not be tolerated. The Baillie sentenced the accused to twenty-one days' imprisonment".

Margaret is next mentioned in the newspaper five months later, with a report in The Aberdeen Evening Express of 8th October 1884:

"Margaret Hendry or Ross (65) residing in Gallowgate, had her left leg broken below the knee, by falling down the stair, leading to a dwelling house in Sutherland's Court, between nine and ten o'clock last night. She was attended by Drs. Macgregor and Simpson, and afterwards taken to the infirmary".

Sutherland's Court was located on the east side of the Gallowgate: a set of stairs within the court is shown on the Ordnance Survey map, below, published in 1867. 

Reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Scotland

Ordnance Survey, Aberdeen 1867, Sheet LXXV.11.8

https://maps.nls.uk/ 

A fractured leg and a trip to the infirmary may well have had dire consequences for a woman of a lesser constitution than Margaret. However, she was evidently made of stern stuff and lived for another ten years: the statutory registers of births, marriages and deaths show that she died at the city poorhouse on the 24th April 1895 aged 76. The death certificate notes that she was the widow of a George Ross who had been a gardener, her parents being John Hendry (a joiner) and Margaret Hendry.

The following details have been kindly provided by Dr. Dee Hoole of the University of Aberdeen: 

After her death at the poorhouse, Margaret's body was sent to the medical school at Marischal College on 6th May 1895 and subsequently dissected by Dr. Reid and his students. It was worked on until it was interred on 2nd November 1895. The place of interment was probably Nellfield cemetery .