February in Victorian Edinburgh

4th February 1869

The Scotsman Newspaper features a letter to the editor entitled ‘Move On!’ –

‘Sir, I have found a good deal of amusement and some instruction in

perusing the discussion in your columns as to the relative drunkenness of

Scotland and other countries, and have been greatly impressed by the stanch

patriotism of several of the writers. Having taken up my residence here

(after long residence abroad) within the last few months, I have seen a good

many things in this beautiful city – I will not venture on the whisky theme –

that I think would not be tolerated in any other place I have visited. There is

a busy thoroughfare here connecting the North and South Bridges,

intersected by the High Street of the city. At the intersection there is every

day and all day long at each of the four corners of the pavement a mob of

dirty and disreputable blackguards of the very lowest and worst sort, who

literally block up the way. No respectable person, male or female, can pass

along this great avenue of commerce without stepping into the road, and

passing round the mob of unwashed; for not a man of them will stir an inch

to accommodate passengers; and the police constable stands looking on hour

after hour without daring to utter a “Move on!”. If any patriotic Edinburgh

man will look on for ten minutes at the spectacle of this dirty mob, and their

bearing towards the respectable passers by, he will probably come to think

that perfection has not yet been attained here. That the tradesmen of the

Bridge should quietly tolerate such a state of things shows that the abuse

must be of very ancient standing indeed’.

11th February 1869

The Edinburgh Evening Courant features a ‘Warning to Butchers’ – ‘At the

City Police Court yesterday – before Baillie Russell – a lad named James

Baxter, a butcher’s apprentice, residing at Raeburn Place, was accused of

having on the 5th of this month contravened the 99th section of the

Provisional Order, by conveying along the streets in an open van the

carcasses of animals slaughtered for sale without having them covered with

clean cloths. Baxter pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to pay a fine of 5s, or

be imprisoned three days.’

16th February 1874

In the Sheriff Summary Court on this date, Andrew Howieson, a Joiner, was charged

with a contravention of the Vaccination (Scotland) Act, in which it was alleged that

Howieson had refused to allow his infant daughter to be vaccinated. Pleading guilty,

Howieson stated that he considered one of his other children to have been poisoned as

a consequence of the vaccination. He was fined 35s or the option of ten days

incarceration.

18th February 1889

The Edinburgh Baby Murderer

A young woman named Jessie King was placed at the bar at the High Court of

Justiciary on this date, charged with the murder of three children. The details of the

charges were that: in April or May 1888, in a house in Ann’s Court, Canonmills,

Edinburgh, at that time occupied by Thomas Pearson, Jessie King murdered Alex

Gunn, aged twelve months by strangling him; in September 1888, in a house in

Cheyne Street, Stockbridge, Edinburgh, occupied by Thomas Pearson, Jessie King

murdered Violet Duncan Tomlinson, aged six weeks old by strangling or suffocating

her; also in October or November 1887, in a house in Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh,

occupied by Thomas Pearson, Jessie King murdered Walter Anderson Campbell, aged

five months, by strangling him. There was a large attendance of the public in the

court that day, and King, who was 27 years old and originally from Glasgow,

admitted the first two charges, but pleaded not guilty to the third charge. King’s

original statement was read out to the court, in which she stated that she had adopted

the child Gunn, and that her partner Thomas Pearson who at first was unwilling to

take the child in, changed his mind when she told him that she had received £3 from

the mother, at which time he agreed that the baby could stay for three or four weeks.

King said that they kept him from April until the end of May 1888, however when she

then found she was unable to support the child, she attempted to get him admitted to a

destitute home, however this was refused on the grounds that the child was

illegitimate. King stated that after this she had become very much the worse of drink

and strangled the child, as she had no means to support it. When the child was dead,

she placed the body in a locked box, and kept it there until the next day, when she

took it out and put it in a cupboard, where it remained for three days, after which the

couple moved from Canonmills to Stockbridge. At this point, the body was placed in

a cellar in the Stockbridge house, later being removed from there at the beginning of

October and placed on a piece of vacant ground at Cheyne Street. King stated that

Pearson had known nothing of this death, as she had told him she had managed to get

the child admitted to a home. On the matter of the child Tomlinson, King said that

this child had also been adopted by her, and this time she was paid the sum of £2 for

the baby. King maintained that Pearson had known nothing about this at the time, and

on getting the child home, she gave her some whisky to keep it quiet. However, it

would seem that the whisky was stronger that she thought and the child started to

choke. King responded by placing her hand on the child’s mouth, killing her. This

body was also placed in the cellar, where it remained until it was discovered by the

police. On the third charge, the murder of Walter Campbell, many witnesses were

called, with one witness, Janet Anderson, explaining that in May 1887, her sister

Elizabeth Campbell, had died and King had offered to adopt the child if the father

would pay a fee. The father, David Finlay, gave evidence that he had handed the

child to King and Pearson and paid them £5. He stated that they told him their

surname was Stewart. A neighbour from Dalkeith Road, where they were living at

this time, gave evidence that they arrived home suddenly with a child at that time,

however three months later the child disappeared, and when she asked King what had

happened, King told her she had taken him home as he was ill. Shortly afterwards,

King and Pearson left the locality. It seems that the house in Dalkeith Road was

thoroughly searched and no remains of a child were found. The third charge was

eventually disregarded and the jury found King guilty of the first two charges. The

judge, putting on his black cap, sentenced Jessie King to be hanged within the Calton

Jail on the 11th March. Whilst being sentenced, King gradually subsided into a

hysterical fit and had to be carried downstairs to the cells.

As Jessie King was thought to be a ‘woman of very low intelligence’, there was some

public opinion that she had been tempted by others due to living in poverty and that

she was bearing the blame for the wickedness of the others who gave their children

into her keeping. King had also later stated that she had been induced to confess in

her statement, being advised that if she did so, she would get off with a fairly brief

prison sentence. A petition was signed by 2000 persons asking for a reprieve for

King, however this proved unsuccessful.

The scaffold for the execution was erected close to a corridor between the male and

female sections of the prison. Berry, the executioner had arrived in Edinburgh a few

days previous to complete his preparations. King, a Roman Catholic, had been

attended by a priest the night before the execution was to take place. On the morning

of Friday 11th March 1889, at eight o’clock, Jessie King was hanged, death was said

to be instantaneous. A crowd of around 2000 people had gathered outside on the

Calton Hill to see the black flag raised.

22nd February 1869

The Edinburgh Evening Courant reports on an ‘Alarming Fire in Lothian

Road – Union Road Partially Destroyed’ – ‘Shortly after three o’clock

yesterday afternoon, an alarm was raised that fire had broken out in the

Union Hotel, Lothian Road, belonging to Mr Robert Kay. The alarm was

instantly given, and the outbreak of the fire reported to the Police Main

Office in the High Street; but meanwhile the increasing volume of smoke, and

the progress the flames were obviously making, spread terror among the

inmates of the whole building….In a very short space of time the fire engines

and fire brigade had arrived, and were ready for action…..The fire and 

A Victorian Fire Bucket

water together have worked much damage over the whole building….One little boy made his appearance at the foot of the staircase drenched with water, and his face blackened with the smoke, but carrying triumphantly a cat with its kittens which he had saved. A temporary covering for furniture brought to the street was found in Mr Quaglieni’s Curcus, the use of which

was readily given by the proprieter.’ Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, formed in 1824 following a series of disastrous fires, is Britain’s oldest municipal fire brigade. Edinburgh had particular difficulties for fire fighters due to the ‘built up’ and congested nature of the old town. Most fire engines had been manoeuvred by men until the mid-19th century, but with the introduction of horse-drawn fire engines, response time to incidents was much improved. In the absence of breathing apparatus, early firefighters had to grow beards to act as a form of smoke filter, which gave them the name ‘smoke-eaters’.

23rd February 1860

In the Police Court on this date, the case of the ‘Snowball Riot’ of Edinburgh came to

it’s conclusion after a nine day trial. This case seemed to involve fourteen students,

who on the date of the incident, had come into conflict with the police in the form of a

snowball fight. The disturbance seems to have descended into a riot, due to what

many witnesses describe as ‘rough usage’ by the police, who were reported to have

been using their batons vigorously. For the throwing of snowballs, one student was

fined £5, twelve other students were each fined £1 and the fourteenth student was

admonished.