James Stuart - The Fraudster From Fyvie

The previous blog featured the final image from the "Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen" which forms part of the historical records of Grampian Police. The next batch of mugshots come from an album that was kindly handed to Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives earlier this year by Craig Pithie of Aberdeen. Craig discovered the item amongst a collection of Victorian and Edwardian books that he had purchased at an auction house. The provenance of the album isn't clear, although an inscription at the front reads, 

"Castlegate 1967: probably the personal collection of a retired CID policeman of cases in which he was involved some sixty years ago".

The album contains 69 mugshots taken between 1890 and 1906, the majority of which relate to Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland, but which also contain some from further afield. These captivating images will be the subject of the Criminal Portraits blog over the next few months as we try to uncover the stories behind the photographs. 

It is immediately noticeable that the images of the criminals in this album are of a different style than those in the Register of Returned Convicts which were official mugshots, most of them taken at Perth and Peterhead prisons. The subjects were posed, often showing their hands to assist with identification, with the prison reference numbers also captured in the shot. By contrast, the batch of images in this latest album are much less formal: they are rough-and-ready "snaps" taken by the police to assist with the apprehension and identification process. It is almost certain that the photographs of those criminals who were local to Aberdeen would have been taken at the police station at Lodge Walk.

The first image to feature in the new volume is that of James Stuart. The 1901 census shows that he was born in Fyvie in 1856 and his occupation was an attendant at an asylum. His wife, Olivia, is also listed at their address of 94 Gerrard Street, Aberdeen, as are their five children. It was during 1901 that James carried out the theft for which he was apprehended three years later.

Detail from the Ordnance Survey plan showing Gerrard Street, where James Stuart lived in 1901

Aberdeenshire LXXV.11 (Aberdeen)

Revised: 1899 to 1900, Publication date: 1902

Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland 

https://maps.nls.uk/

From contemporary newspaper reports of his arrest in 1904 it is evident that James worked as an attendant at Marischal College when he committed the crime which merited his photograph being taken. The Aberdeen Press and Journal of the 5th September 1904 reveals more of the story under the headline "Apprehended In London":

"The Metropolitan Police in the Marylebone district on Friday apprehended James Stewart or Stuart, who is "wanted" in Aberdeen on a charge of theft of jewellery from a jewellers in Aberdeen committed as far back as 1901. Stewart, who was formally a sergeant in the army, was at the time of the alleged theft, an attendant to a professor at Marischal College and the jewellery is said to have come into his possession by a somewhat clever dodge. Wearing the blue uniform of the college attendants, it is stated that he went to the jewellers in question and represented that he had been sent to get some articles on approbation which were required for a presentation gift. His story was believed, the fact that  he wore the dress of a servant of the university no doubt being taken as a guarantee that the man's mission was a genuine one. After careful selection, Stewart chose a handsome gold watch, chain and appendage, and a massive diamond finger-ring, the whole amounting in value to between £30 and £40. The jewellery was never returned and Stewart disappeared. Despite the most vigilant efforts of the police, no clue to his whereabouts could be discovered. Descriptions of him together with his photograph were circulated at home and abroad but without result until the Marylebone police "dropped" on their man. Stewart was on Saturday handed over to detective Dey of the Aberdeen City Police, who arrived in Aberdeen with his prisoner yesterday. Stewart has already made the acquaintance of the interior of His Majesty's prison he having, about 20 years ago, been incarcerated for four months for fraud. It is understood that he will come before the Sheriff of Aberdeen today". 

Among the additional details that emerge in the report of the trial are that while living in London James Stuart was employed as an attendant at a hospital (St. Bernard's Hospital, otherwise known as the Middlesex County Asylum) and that at one time he had worked for a railway company in Aberdeen. 

The newspaper report of the 5th September 1904 quoted above refers to a previous conviction "about 20 years ago".  This too was reported in The Evening Express of the 27th April 1883 following his apprehension in Liverpool, under the headline "The Aberdeen Bank Swindle: Career of the Forger - A Thrilling Story" and provides further detail about James Stuart's earlier life, including that he used the alias of "Murison": 

"...Born of respectable parents he was well educated and attended the University here with the view of qualifying as a doctor. This idea, however, was never carried out, for subsequent to leaving Aberdeen, he appears in the capacity of a clerk in Glasgow. There at the age of 25 years he was apprehended for having forged a cheque for £154, and was sentenced to five years' penal servitude. He was liberated on licence from the prison of Pentonville about two years ago and at that time an endeavour was made to regain the reputation he had lost. In November last he enlisted as a soldier at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and was transferred thence to the depot at Perth".

By claiming that he was the servant of a Captain J.S. Burton of the Royal Engineers, Stuart subsequently duped a horse-hirer in Perth to loaning him a horse and dogcart which he took to Edinburgh by way of Stirling and Linlithgow. On route he tricked a number of hotel and innkeepers who, trusting Stuart's Black Watch uniform, provided him with meals and accommodation "on tick" thinking they would be reimbursed at a later date by Stuart's fictitious superior.

After selling the horse and cart in Edinburgh and using the proceeds to buy civilian clothing, he then travelled to Liverpool by train where he spent a number of days in the company of a "sweetheart" in Southport. Following this romantic break, he then sailed back to Aberdeen at the end of March, arriving in the city on the 31st. On the 2nd April he presented a forged cheque for £185 at a bank in the west end. The suspicions of the authorities were aroused, but not before Stuart had left the scene of the crime having cashed the cheque, travelling first  to Forres and then to Perth, Glasgow and back to the arms of his lover in Southport. He spent a "pleasant few days in Dublin" before once again travelling back to Southport where he was eventually arrested on Lulworth Road.  

The newspaper report paints a vivid caricature of James Stuart, describing him as:

"...fully six feet in height, of powerful build, perfect proportions and prepossessing appearance. He has travelled in different quarters of the globe and possesses good natural powers, largely improved by his early culture. A humorous vein would seem to enter largely into his composition, some of the incidents that occurred in his last escapade being very amusing...In Southport and suburbs he seemed to be on free and easy terms with everybody. Assuming the character of a ship captain, he stated at one place that he was in command of the Alaska, and had the audacity to engage a well known person as steward of the ship and he arranged to take with him on the next voyage to New York the son of a gentleman in delicate health. Hats were freely lifted in obeisance to him and the respectful salutation, "Good morning captain!", was quite general to the dispenser of brandy and soda. His spicy narrative of his various adventures was wound up by a laughing declaration that he would not have foregone the fun of the thing for fifty years penal servitude". 

The following additional details about James Stuart have been kindly supplied by a contributor to the "Fyvie Heritage" Facebook page:

James Stuart was born on the 26th of July 1858 at Greenmyre Farm, between Fyvie and Woodhead, where his father, Colin, was an agricultural labourer.  His father had previously worked at Braehead and Rothiebrisbane farms.  James' mother, Helen, appears to have died when he was very young, and he was left orphaned in his early teens.

    

On the 1871 census, when he was just 13, he was recorded as being an 'inmate' at the Skene Square Girls And Boys Industrial School in Aberdeen.  These schools were for the provision of pauper children whose parents were in the workhouse, or orphaned or abandoned children who were in the care of the workhouse.  The next census records him as staying with his brother in London and he was working as a plumber.  

  

By 1891 he was back in Aberdeen working at the docks and living with his wife and daughter, Olivia and Elizabeth at 18 Heading Hill, a place long since lost to modernisation.  In 1901 he was now an attendant at the Aberdeen Royal Lunatic Asylum, and living with Olivia and five children at 94 Gerrard St, just off George Street.

Christopher Byres - Our Last Mugshot From the 'Register of Returned Convicts' for Aberdeen

Christopher Byres was an accomplice of Robert Paterson who has featured in a previous Criminal Portraits blog. They were convicted of an "extraordinary theft of groceries" according to the Aberdeen Press & Journal of 22nd January 1892, having been tried for handling and reselling a vast quantity of stolen goods taken from the premises of William Davidson, a wholesale merchant, located on Castle Street, Aberdeen. The items in question were appropriated by a porter named William Jack, an employee of the wholesaler. Jack (who was tried separately) was in cahoots with Byres and Paterson, passing the goods to them and they in turn sold them on to other retailers in the city. Both Byres and Paterson were sentenced to five years' penal servitude on the 21st January 1892, which they served in Peterhead Prison. Incidentally, they were tried on the very same day as William MacDonald who has also featured in this blog.

Robert Paterson, accomplice to Christopher Byres.

Details of the case appear in the previous blog on Robert Paterson, so rather than repeating them here, let's take a closer look at Christopher Byres. He was born in 1865 to Stephen Byres (a 'general labourer' and 'fruiterer') and Helen Byres. He  was one of at least nine children, growing up at addresses on Albion Court and Castle Street in Aberdeen. He married an Isabella Still in 1886, although the couple never had any children. On the 1891 census, the couple are living on West North Street, with Christopher's occupation given as a 'provision dealer': it was at about this time that his dealing was beginning to become illegal.

Following his trial and time inside Peterhead Prison, where the image at the top of the page was taken on the 1st November 1895, he was released on licence on the 31st December 1895 and for the next year stayed at family addresses at 34 Albion Street and 14 Castle Street. By the time of the 1901 census, he and Isabella are living at 9 Wales Street, Aberdeen, which no longer exists but which lay roughly where the current Beach Boulevard now sits. His occupation was given as a 'dock labourer'. 

Wales Street, circa 1920. Christopher Byres lived at number 9 in 1901.

Come the 1911 census, Christopher and Isabella are living on Constitution Street, along with a nephew, Henry Byres, aged 10. Christopher Byres died in 1921 at the age of 56 from chronic interstitial nephritis, a disease of the kidneys. His death certificate mentions that at the time of his death he was employed as a sawmill labourer.

Christopher's mugshot brings us to the end of the images in the "Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen". The good news is that Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives holds another couple of volumes containing similar images....so the blog will go on!

Donald McNab - An Elusive Convict

Donald McNab's entry in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen is the most extensive within the volume. Spanning two pages (see images at the foot of the page) it provides the usual details relating to height and appearance, the date when he was convicted and when he was discharged, but it also provides a long list of addresses in Aberdeen at which he lived between 1895 and 1901. These included 64 Upper Denburn (with a "Mrs McNab", who was almost certainly a relative), 2 Stronach's Close, 9 and 12 Exchequer Row, 30 Shiprow and the Victoria Lodging House. Among the other details are that he had sojourns in Leith, Turriff and Peterhead as well as two further convictions for theft at the Sheriff Court in Aberdeen in 1898 and 1899, for which he received three months imprisonment on both occasions.

Despite this rich detail, additional information about Donald McNab has so far proved elusive. It is pretty certain that it was "our man" who was sentenced to 5 years' penal servitude by the High Court in Glasgow in October 1891 when a Donald McNab and a James Boyle (both listed as then living at 6 Meuse Lane, Cowcaddens) were tried for the assault of Amelia Boyland and for stealing her purse containing 15s. 9d. Her address was given as Stirling Street, also in Cowcaddens. Although there is a report of the trial in the North British Daily Mail of 22nd October 1891, it is annoyingly brief with no additional information.  Although the trial papers are kept at the National Records of Scotland (NRS) in Edinburgh under the reference JC26/1891/136, I've not yet had a chance to view these.

Detail from Ordnance Survey map showing Muse Lane, Cowcaddens, Glasgow, where Donald McNab lived in 1891

Ordnance Survey Sheet VI.6.25; Scale 1:500; Surveyed 1892-94

Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland 

https://maps.nls.uk/ 

The NRS catalogue description of the trial papers states that Donald McNab was a "van driver" by occupation: the 1881 census lists a Donald McNab, aged 18, occupation "van driver", as an inmate at HM General Prison, Perth. This would fit with what we know of Donald having previous convictions and the age is about right, but in the absence of any corroborating details I can only be 90% sure that this is the same person. Assuming that my educated guesswork is correct, the 1881 census gives Donald's place of birth as Crieff in Perthshire. However, I've not been able to find him on the 1871 census, so the trail goes cold.

The 1891 and 1901 census returns are similarly mute regarding Donald's whereabouts, although the evidence would strongly suggest he was living in Glasgow in early 1891 while the Register of Returned Convicts puts him at 8 Exchequer Row, Aberdeen, at around the time the 1901 census was conducted, on the 31st March.  

William MacDonald - "Daftie" and the Theft at Tarland

Along with the amazing collection of mugshots that form the basis of this blog, Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives is fortunate to hold several hundred "wanted" posters as part of the historical records of Grampian Police. That these posters survive at all is remarkable: the useful life of such items was limited and they were usually destroyed once the crime was solved or the missing property found. The survival of this particular collection is thanks mainly to the staff employed at the police stations in Dufftown and Elgin. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they evidently hoarded the posters that were sent to them from police forces throughout Britain. The collection even includes a poster published in 1910 by the Metropolitan Police offering a reward for information about the notorious murderer, Dr. Crippen.

As you might expect, many of the wanted posters relate to crimes that took place in the north east of Scotland, but only one of them has a corresponding mugshot in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen, something which was brought to my attention by my eagle-eyed colleague, Katy Kavanagh who also provided some of the background research relating to William McDonald, alias Strachan, alias Ramsay, alias Gordon...and who also rejoiced in the nickname "Daftie".

It is this nickname, together with his somewhat 'glaikit' expression, that originally brought the poster to our attention. It relates to a crime that William MacDonald had committed in Tarland in December 1891. His stock-in-trade was picking pockets with his list of crimes, some of which are listed on the poster, stretching back to 1859 when he was sentenced to 12 months in prison by the Justiciary Court in Inverness for offences committed at the market in Elgin. The following year, he was sentenced to 6 years penal servitude for a similar offence, and in 1867 he was sentenced to 10 years, with his arrest being reported in the Aberdeen Press & Journal of the 15th May 1867:

"Two notorious pickpockets, David Sutherland, alias "Headie" and William MacDonald, alias "Daftie", are in custody here. The former was captured plying his vocation along with his accomplice in a market in the parish of Bourtie, and the latter was picked up last night by the city police in the vicinity of the police office. A third associate who was seen doing business in Longside market, was also, we understand, captured in Ellon yesterday, and will be lodged in prison on a similar charge with that of the other two above-named. Farmers would do well to look strictly after their pockets at markets just now". 

In February 1879, MacDonald appears before the High Court in Edinburgh on another pickpocketing charge. On this occasion the crime had a more sinister aspect to it as the victim was described in The Scotsman of the 25th February as being "drugged" before being relieved of a silver watch, a gold chain, a locket and £5 15s. in cash.

Whether the intoxicant was alcohol or something stronger is not clear, although ensuring that those he robbed were not in full command of their faculties was a tactic that "Daftie" also used in subsequent crimes. Despite his claim to be "as innocent as the child unborn of stealing the watch", the High Court sentenced him to 7 years' penal servitude, after which he was to be subject to an additional 7 years police supervision. According to the precognition for the trial (which is held at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh), MacDonald was 35 years of age. He gave his address as Haddington Place, Edinburgh, and his birthplace as King's Cross, London. Intriguingly, and unusually, his occupation is also noted as a "photographer", although no one by his name (or aliases) appears as such in the Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory for 1878-79.

On the 7th December 1891 when MacDonald was arrested for the theft in Tarland to which the "wanted" poster relates, he described himself as a "travelling hawker, and hailing from Glasgow" which adds further confusion to his likely background. He was tried at the High Court in Aberdeen on the 21st January 1892, with the proceedings being reported at length in the Aberdeen Press & Journal. Among the details on the poster are that MacDonald "Frequented hotels etc., and while treating others to whisky, he himself invariably drank port wine". The newspaper report confirms this behaviour, with his hapless/drunk victims, James Anderson and John Ewen, being targeted at the Commercial Inn and the Aberdeen Arms Hotel in Tarland. In total, MacDonald stole £101 from the two farmers, which equates to a little over £13,000 in today's money.

Towards the end of proceedings, MacDonald makes a fairly pathetic plea for leniency:

"[The] Prisoner, leaning heavily against the rail, of the dock made a pieous appeal for mercy. He was an old man, he said, and had already done 23 years' penal servitude and 3½ years of short sentences. His breathing was bad and he was afflicted with rheumatism; and he begged his lordship to give him one more chance for life in his old age. 

LORD YOUNG: What do you want to do?

PRISONER: I want a short sentence and you will never see me in this court any more. You are a merciful man, I know; and I know that you will be merciful to me this day.

LORD YOUNG: I do not think on this occasion I should be justified - that I should be doing my duty to the community - if I let you at large with any reasonable possibility of your going about to such places as Tarland looking out for farmers and others who are intoxicated and emptying their pockets. (Laughter). That seems to be what you wish to have a chance of doing again; but I must prevent that if I possibly can. At the same time, I cannot possibly make your sentence now less than it was on the last occasion - 

PRISONER: Good Lord! I'm an old man! (Laughter).

LORD YOUNG: The ways of transgressors are hard, and I must sentence you to penal servitude for seven years

PRISONER (excitedly): I do not think I shall live to see it. (Renewed laughter)".

We know from his entry in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen (see below) that William MacDonald did indeed survive to see the other end of this sentence which he served in Peterhead Prison, being discharged on the 2nd August 1897. During the following months, he lived at various addresses in Aberdeen including Harriet Street, Marischal Street, Guestrow and Leadside Road. In September 1897 he was apprehended for failing to report a change of address for which he was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment. By the end of 1897 he is a resident of the West Poorhouse where he remains for much of 1898, apart from a short stay at the infirmary. 

         

 

 

 

Robert Paterson - "An Extraordinary Theft of Groceries"

Together with his accomplices, Christopher Byres and Gordon Bruce, Robert Paterson was one of a trio of criminals who were involved in an "extraordinary theft of groceries" according to the Aberdeen Press & Journal of 22nd January 1892, and were tried for handling and reselling a vast quantity of stolen goods taken from the premises of William Davidson, a wholesale merchant, located on Castle Street, Aberdeen. The items in question were appropriated by a porter named William Jack, an employee of the wholesaler. Jack (who was tried separately) was in cahoots with Paterson and his partners, passing the goods to them and they in turn sold them on to other retailers in the city. A number of these retailers were called as witnesses at the trial and were all remarkably clueless as to why they had been offered goods by Paterson at such attractive prices.

The thefts from the wholesaler took place on multiple occasions between August 1890 and November 1891, comprising a mind-boggling array of items including 108 tins of corned beef, 84 tins of mustard, 84 tins of roast beef, 6 cwts rice, and 2 cwts semolina. Also among the items listed were 20 cwts Davie's lustre, and 7 cwts James's lustre, otherwise known as "black lead", used for treating and polishing domestic stoves. The value of the stolen goods equated to about £45,000 in today's money.

The wholesale merchant was not in the habit of undertaking an annual stock-check, and it was only when he did so that the missing items came to light. The origin of the stock was traced with the help of invoices and corresponding serial numbers. Indeed, a representative from the packing department of Colman's of Norwich appears as a witness at the trial to vouch for the origin of the large number of mustard tins!

The judge who presided at the trial was the no-nonsense and irritable Lord Young who took exception to applause in his courtroom following a speech from the  defence counsel, stating:

"It is not like the good sense which, according to my experience, prevails in Aberdeen. It is a silly noise, and the people of this town are not a silly people".

While Lord Young may not have regarded the people of Aberdeen as silly, he undoubtedly took a dim view of Robert Paterson and his partners in crime. In his summing-up, the judge mentioned that Paterson had previously been found guilty of a similar offence in which he "induced an employer's servant in a shop to rob his master". Paterson, Byres and Bruce were ultimately found guilty of reset rather than theft - reset being defined as the dishonest possession of goods obtained by another, by way of theft, robbery, fraud or embezzlement, in the knowledge that they were obtained that way. 

Paterson was sentenced to five years' penal servitude, of which he served about three-and-a-half years inside Peterhead Prison where his mugshot was taken on the 10th October 1895. His entry in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen, below, shows that on his release in November 1895 he lived at 9 Berry Street for a short while and then at 46 Broad Street for the next year.

 

Peter Anderson - "It was drink that killed the woman and not the man"

Regrettably, domestic violence is as old as humanity itself, although thankfully there is far less acceptance of it as "just one of those things" than there once was. The connection between violent crime and alcohol is also well established: a defence of "the drink made me do it" is no defence at all, but that was not always the case.

In January 1889, Peter Anderson, a quarry worker who lived at Cluny, was accused of the murder of his wife, Ann Watt or Anderson, and he subsequently stood trial at the High Court of Justiciary in Aberdeen. The Aberdeen Free Press of the 23rd January 1889 reported the proceedings:

"He tendered a plea of culpable homicide, which the Court accepted. The Advocate Depute thought it right that he should state to the Court the reasons for accepting this plea. The prisoner committed this offence in the month of October [1888], and only married the deceased in the month of January last year. He was 33 years of age and the deceased was at her death 44. She had a croft at Ladymoss, Cluny, and the prisoner married her and moved into the croft along with her. On the day of the murder, the accused left home at nine o'clock in the morning, and went to a feeing market. He returned at nine o'clock in the evening and, undoubtedly, he was the worse for drink. His wife found fault with him and he seems to have struck her. Her son, a boy of twelve, interfered to protect his mother, and the accused struck him and pursued him through a field. He came back no doubt very much excited and plunged the knife into his wife's abdomen...Medical aid was procured, but in the unfortunate circumstances in which the woman was placed it was not possible to render such assistance as might otherwise have been available".

According to the newspaper report, the doctor who attended to Ann Anderson was "a man of great standing and experience". Nonetheless, his botched attempt to replace her intestines in the gloomy croft at four o'clock in the morning with only a paraffin lamp for illumination resulted in her death from obstruction of the bowels some three or four days later. The court went on to hear that the prisoner was given "the benefit of the doubt" because Ann Anderson would almost certainly have died from peritonitis, even if the procedure carried out by the doctor had been successful. 

In support of his good character, a number of positive references were read out in court from previous employers of Peter Anderson who had evidently spent a number of years in Dublin, probably between the late 1870s and mid-1880s. One of these testimonials read as follows:

"A commercial firm in Dublin certified that Anderson was employed by them for three or four years. They were pleased with his energy and honesty. He always conducted himself well and had a good deal of property under his charge. They trusted the judge would take into consideration that it was drink that killed the woman and not the man".

The counsel for the defence sought to apportion a hefty chunk of blame at the door of Ann Anderson herself, stating that: 

"On the day of this unfortunate occurrence, [Peter] Anderson had been at a feeing market, and returned home the worse for drink. His wife lectured him. He had nothing to say as to the terms she used, but taking what one knew of the habits of people in that class of life one could imagine that she probably used terms likely to irritate a man who was not in his sober senses. It appeared that he was cutting tobacco at the time, and in a moment of ungovernable passion, he struck her with the knife".

The use of the words "imagine", "probably" and "likely" convey just how much speculation surrounded the precise circumstances of Ann Anderson's death and the extent to which she was perceived to have been, at least in part, guilty of provoking her husband.

In his summing-up of the case, the presiding judge, Lord Kinnear, emphasised the lack of premeditation as a key factor, together with the difficult conditions in which the subsequent medical treatment had been performed in determining that Peter Anderson was guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide rather than murder. He was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude.

He served just over five years of this sentence at Peterhead Prison. He appears as an inmate there on the 1891 census, in which he is described as a widower and originally from the parish of Marnoch in what was then Banffshire. His mugshot (above) was taken inside the prison on the 29th March 1894. He was released on licence in May of that year, at which point his details would have been logged in the 'Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen' (below).

Between June 1894 and December 1895, Peter Anderson lived at various addresses in the city including Gerrard Street, Holburn Street and Nellfield Place. After a short spell living near Cove, he returned to Aberdeen, staying at 7 Rose Place, 4 Mannofield, 78 King Street, 5 Granton Place and 10 Mitchell Place.

Peter was to return to his roots in Banffshire: on the 1901 census he is to be found living with his brother and sister at 91 North Street, Aberchirder, in the parish of Marnoch. 

Elizabeth Waugh - Selling Sex to Exist in Victorian Aberdeen

Among the many incredible records held by Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives is a list of prostitutes compiled by the Police Commissioners in the January of 1855. Along with the names of nearly 500 women aged between 15 and 44 who were engaged in selling sex, the document also includes the proprietors and addresses of thirty-six public houses, “to which prostitutes and men resort” along with a similar number of “common brothels”, mostly concentrated on the Guestrow, Broad Street, Gallowgate and Shuttle Lane areas. Among the names listed is Elizabeth Waugh: her picture (above) appears in the "Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen" nearly twenty years after the list of prostitutes was compiled, following her discharge from the General Prison at Perth in October 1874.

A  detail from the 1855 Police Returns on Prostitution (Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives - CA/9/6/1)

showing the name of Elizabeth Waugh.

Between the ages of 15 and 59, Elizabeth was frequently on the wrong side of the law, being convicted over a hundred times for offences relating to breach of the peace, prostitution and theft. The prison registers for Aberdeen, Ayr and Perth together with the contemporary newspaper reports, trial papers and census returns all help to compile a vivid picture of her life.

Elizabeth was an inhabitant of Aberdeen at a time when it was growing very rapidly: between 1851 and 1901 the population of the city doubled from about 75,000 to 150,000. This expansion was due partly to an increasing birth rate but was also caused by migration of the existing rural population to the city, where employment might be easier to come by. However,  the vagaries of the economic cycle and the restrictive system of poor relief meant that some women had little option but to resort to prostitution in order to survive. Elizabeth's story provides a glimpse of the often chaotic lifestyle endured by these women.

Elizabeth was born in Ayr in about 1834. Precisely why the family moved north to Aberdeen is not known, although it is evident that she had two sisters, Mary Ann (born c.1831) and Jane (or Jean, born c.1837), both of whom were also involved in prostitution in Aberdeen at around the same time as their sister. The first record of a conviction for Elizabeth appears in the Aberdeen prison register of 1849 when she was found guilty of assault at just 15 years of age. Her address was given as Justice Street while her occupation was recorded as prostitution.

About a year later, Elizabeth appeared in court on the 11th April 1850 alongside Andrew Roork and James Killhowlie on a charge of theft. On that occasion the verdict handed to Elizabeth was one of 'not proven', although her two co-accused were each sentenced to seven years' transportation. The trial was also notable because an excessively sanctimonious witness, Thomas Farquharson, a shoemaker and resident of the Gallowgate, refused to take the oath in court. When the judge asked him why he was refusing, Farquharson replied that:

"...I don't think it right to swear. I am forbidden by Scripture to make use of oaths...I am commanded, "Swear not at all"". 

As a consequence of his short stroll up to the moral high ground, Farquharson was committed for contempt of court.

In December of 1851, Elizabeth is again in court, this time on a charge of assaulting two soldiers. Under the ironic headline of "A Heroine", the Aberdeen Press & Journal of the 17th December reported the trial as follows: 

"Elizabeth Waugh, a young lady who has had extensive experience in criminal business, was brought before Baillie Henderson, in the Police Court, on two several charges of assault, aggravated by their being to the effusion of blood. The heroism of the affair, consisted in the accused having drawn the blood of two sons of Mars. It appeared that the picquet or guard of the 42nd had visited a house in Frederick Street, in search of stragglers, when Waugh struck one of the soldiers, "several severe blows on the head, face, and other parts of his person, and did lacerate his face with her nails". The second assault was perpetrated on the sergeant, while also on duty, by striking him several severe blows on the head, etc., with an iron poker. Waugh plead guilty; and being an old offender, was sent to prison for 30 days, the first ten of which to be devoted to hard labour".

The ten days of hard labour would almost certainly have consisted of being subjected to the dreaded "crank", a piece of machinery comprising a handle which forced large ladles through sand contained inside a central drum. The load on the handle could be varied by the adjustment of screws, from which the slang term for a prison warden is thought to derive. The energy expended in turning the crank was utterly pointless, serving no useful purpose other than to exhaust the prisoner.

However pointless it may have been, a newspaper report of one of her trials in the Montrose Standard of the 12th January 1866 suggests that Elizabeth preferred hard labour and hints at her volatile personality:

"...Seventeen previous convictions were recorded against the prisoner. The Bailie said, - As you have been so often previously convicted, I shall send you to prison for sixty days, the half of that period with hard labour, and further - Prisoner: You'll give me all my time hard labour, if you please; it'll pass sooner awa'. Bailie - Oh, I have no objections; then your sentence is sixty days, with hard labour; and I further bind you over to keep the peace for six months, under a penalty of £5, or suffer thirty days' additional imprisonment. The prisoner, on receiving sentence, commenced swearing at the pitch of her voice, kicked open the door of the dock, and otherwise conducted herself in a most outrageous manner in the Court, and such was her strength that it took three constables to take her through to the prison, where she continued shouting and yelling for a considerable time".

From the entries relating to Elizabeth's many incarcerations in Aberdeen's East Prison during the 1850s and 60s she evidently lived at a number of different addresses in the city centre including Shuttle Lane, Broad Street, Peacock's Close, East North Street and Gallowgate.

Elizabeth Waugh's Aberdeen:

Detail from a map drawn and engraved by J. Rapkin, published by J. Tallis and Company, London, 1854.

Reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Scotland

https://maps.nls.uk/

Because of her persistent offending, it was only a matter of time before Elizabeth was to enter the convict prison system where she would serve much longer sentences than those that she was subjected to at the East Prison in Aberdeen. Her entry in the "Register of Returned Convicts" (see image at the foot of this page) shows that she was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude on the 31st January 1870. A brief report in the Aberdeen Press & Journal records that on that occasion she stole £26, a coat and a pair of boots from a ship's master while he was "in a state of intoxication".

The 1871 census, conducted on 2nd April, lists Elizabeth as an inmate of Ayr prison, she was 33 years of age with her occupation recorded as a "rag sorter". She had been admitted to Ayr prison almost a year earlier, on the 20th May 1870. Among the additional details given in the Ayr prison register (held by the National Records of Scotland) is that Elizabeth's religion was the "Free Church". Remarkably, the prison registers of the time also recorded the weight of the inmates on their admission and discharge: in Elizabeth's case, these figures were 145lbs and 137lbs respectively. When discharged from Ayr, a note in the prison register records that she was transferred to the General Prison at Perth on the 8th May 1872 where she remained until her liberation on licence on the 3rd October 1874. 

After her discharge from Perth, Elizabeth returned to Aberdeen, living on Harriet Street and McCook's Court, situated off the east side of the Gallowgate. She went to Dundee twice in 1875, once in the April and then again in the autumn when she was apprehended for theft and brought to Aberdeen, although on that occasion the case against her was dismissed.

In the following April of 1876, a report in the Aberdeen Press and Journal of the 12th April recounted how Elizabeth stole £30 12s from John Simpson, a farmer in Peterculter, 

"...The woman pleaded not guilty and was defended by Mr Smith. From the evidence it seems John Simpson, farmer, left home to attend a sale at Bellhelvie on Tuesday 2nd November, and on returning at night he met the prisoner and went with her to the premises of James Buie [a spirit dealer, Gallowgate] and treated her to a drink in a ‘box’ there for about half an hour. When he entered the premises of James Buie he had a £20 note and 10 £1 notes in a leather case which was placed in a pocket inside his vest. Having parted with the prisoner at the door of Buie’s shop the farmer proceeded to the premises of John Watt, spirit dealer, West North St, where he called for a drink but on opening the leather case he discovered that the money was gone".

The crucial piece of evidence in the case turned out to be the £20 note which was subsequently located after passing through several hands. As the Press and Journal report recounted the note in question was, 

"...traced to the possession of Alexander Mennie, junior, carter, then of West North St. This man on being examined stated, amid much laughter, that two days after her first liberation Elizabeth Waugh had met him and while in Donald’s public house in Crooked Lane, she offered him a bargain of the £20 note. She said that she would sell it for £6, whereupon he offered her £5 and got the note, paying for it in silver. Being shown the £20 note that Simpson had previously identified as that stolen from him, Mennie declared it to be the note that he had received from the prisoner".

Elizabeth was found guilty and sentenced to eight years' penal servitude which she served at the General Prison in Perth, appearing there as an inmate on the 1881 census. She is discharged on licence once again in December of 1883, when another entry in the "Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen" records that she lived on Chapel Lane, Exchequer Row and Chapel Row for the next eighteen months, until April of 1885.

Using entries in the Aberdeen prison registers, where her name appears many times, it is possible to follow Elizabeth's criminal career, which consisted mainly of multiple breaches of the peace, through to at least 1894 and probably beyond, although later registers have yet to be checked! In 1886 her occupation is still listed as prostitution, although thereafter she is frequently noted as a hawker or pedlar, sometimes with no fixed abode, but otherwise recorded as living at various addresses in central Aberdeen including Longacre, Chapel Lane, Chapel Court, Exchequer Row and Exchequer Court.

I am extremely grateful to Dr. Dee Hoole, University of Aberdeen, for a number of additional details regarding Elizabeth Waugh that have been used in the writing of this blog.