AN APPRENTICE ELOPED, and a REWARD OFFERED for APPREHENDING HIM

JAMES ANDERSON, Apprentice as a Cooper to the Spey Salmon Fishing Company, ran off from his service at Speymouth, on the 14th of May current. He was born at Urquhart, in the county of Elgin, is about 21 years of age, five feet five inches high, fair complexion, and pitted with the small pox. He wore long tied hair, and had on when he went away, a short duffle grey coat, blue trowsers, and a striped vest. Whoever can give information concerning him to Mr Tod, at Fochabers, or Mr Pringle, at Tugnet, by Fochabers, shall, upon his being apprehended, receive a REWARD of TEN GUINEAS.

​It is supposed that he went towards Aberdeen, and that he had an intention of enlisting as a soldier. But after this public notice, it is entreated and expected, that no recruiting officer will receive him; because, in consequence of his indenture, of which there are still some years to run, he may be apprehended and taken back from the army or navy.

Died in Old Assembly Close on 23d ult, Mrs Isobel Taylor, aged 105. She was born in the parish of Crieff, county of Perth, on the 4th of March 1713, in the reign of Queen Anne. Her memory remained nearly unimpaired, and she would converse on the events of 100 years since, with surprising correctness. Her hearing and sight were good to the last day of her life, and her recollection continued till within an hour of her death.

​Aberdeen Journal, 6 May 1818 p. 4

Old Widow Ellis
This print was taken from a painting by Mr William Donaldson of this city, by whom it was exhibited and sold to the late Earl of Buchan. From a card, in the hand-writing of his lordship, we observe in addition to the information conveyed by the inscription on the Engraving, that Widow Ellis was married in 1745 to Francis Ellis, shoemaker in Keltie, Kinross-shire, who died next year of an iliac passion.

At the time the portrait was executed (December 1816), Widow Ellis lived in Rose Street, where she had resided for many years. The particulars of her life are few and uninteresting. She was a sensible, shrewd person; had been active in her youth, and retained even in old age an unusual degree of freshness and vigour.

​Kay, John. A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings. Edinburgh, 1877. New Edition. p. 154

​Pittenweem. Longevity. Thomas Adamson, weaver in Pittenweem, died on Saturday week at the advanced age of one hundred years, five months, and two days; having been born on the 1st of May 1746. Throughout the whole course of his lengthened pilgrimage, Thomas was never peculiarly distinguished as an instrument by whom the simple denizens of earth were excited to wonder or admiration. In the literary world, he was only characterised by the “noiseless tenor of his way”. In the commercial world, by means of his industrial apparatus, he made as much noise as any other wabster of the last century. In the political world, he was merely a silent observer of the election hubbubs, for which his burgh was so eminently distinguished in days of yore, having never been invested with the franchise, either under the old or new system. In the religious department of society, he created considerable stir and noise, having for many long years occupied the precentor’s desk in the Old Kirk, where he conducted the sacred music, and gave the people line upon line according to the fashion of the good old time. In this he always aided the devotion of the sincere, and sometimes supplied fuel to the fire of waggery that through all ages has been found smouldering even in the kirk itself. Through all the vissicitudes [sic] of the commercial horizon to which this nation has been subjected, Thomas managed to rear a numerous family, and keep himself beyond the pale of starvation by tossing the shuttle, harmonising the kirk, and polishing the cheeks and chins of his fellow mortals who could not perform that duty for themselves. Being a member of a respectable society in Pittenweem, called the Trades’ Box, he in his latter years derived much benefit from the funds thereof, when the infirmities of age began to cramp his energies. We are not aware, now that Thomas has departed from the stage of time, that he has left his equal in age on this coast.
Fife Herald 15 October 1846 p. 3

​Death of Thomas Adamson, the patriarch of Pittenweem - This event took place on Saturday morning last, October 3, at ten o'clock. He was born on the 1st of May, 1746, and on the 1st of May last, had completed the extraordinary long life of one hundred years. Mr Adamson was a weaver, and continued to ply the shuttle until within a very few years back. He was what most long livers are, an early riser; six o'clock scarcely ever found him in bed; he was generally up and at work by five. He had a strong clear voice, and was for many years precentor in the parish church. He had a perfect recollection of seeing Paul Jones sail past Pittenweem, on his way to Leith, about 70 years ago, and of the tempest which providentially arose and drove the pirate out of the Firth. He never was what may be called really sick, and never complained of a head-ache. For the last six months he was confined to bed, but felt no pain or sickness. He retained his senses to nearly the last day of his life, and during harvest he was every day inquiring about how far the different farmers had got in their crops. The failure in the potato crop gave him much uneasiness. During the whole of his long life, he was only three weeks absent from Pittenweem. His fortune was not chequered with ups and downs; he always continued to plod away at work. Perhaps the most remarkable event in his whole life was the meeting which was held in the Town Hall on the 1st of May last, in commemoration of his having on that day completed his hundredth year. His body was laid in Pittenweem Church-yard on Wednesday last, and the attendance at his funeral was numerous and respectable.
Dundee Courier 20 October 1846

At Maxwelltown, on the night of Sabbath last, Catherine M’Donald or Hutchison, at the extraordinary age of one hundred and four years. She was born in the castle of Edinburgh early in the ’45, a year memorable for the last attempt of the Stuart family to regain the throne which they had so long tilled. Her father, a private soldier, was stationed in the garrison at the time, and being ordered to repair to Dumfries, brought his daughter along with him. Soon after her father obtained his discharge, and with his wife and child settled in the Brig-end, and thus became one of the early colonists of the now thriving burgh of Maxwelltown. Here Catherine, best known as Mattie Hutchison, resided as girl, wife, and widow, for a hundred and three years, during which she lived under seven British Sovereigns. Through her long life she conducted herself with propriety, and showed great respect for the ordinances of religion. She was somewhat eccentric in her manners, and her dress to the last was of the primitive cut, fashionable eighty or ninety years ago. She was a little deaf, but with this exception, retained the full use of her faculties up till the day of her death. She was a widow for thirty years, and had one son, who died a few years before her. Latterly she was partly dependent for her support upon parish aid, but the path of life’s decline was smoothed by the benevolence of several charitable ladies, who were very attentive to the grateful centenarian.

​Dumfries and Galloway Standard 24 May 1848 p. 4

Death of a centenarian - On Sunday night last, Catherine M'Donald or Hutchison, residing in Corbelly Hill, Maxwelltown, departed this life, in the one hundred and fourth year of her age. She was born in Edinburgh Castle in the early part of 1745, when her father, a private soldier, was stationed with his regiment. Part of the force was ordered to Dumfries at the time of its occupation by Prince Charles Stuart in the ill-fated rebellion of the '45. Catherine, then a child at the breast, was brought by her parents to this town, and her father, having obtained his discharge, settled at the Brig-end, in which, now become the burgh of Maxwelltown, she has resided, girl and woman, for fully one hundred and three years. She wore her dress in the same fashion which prevailed when she was a young woman, and indeed, in all things was a thorough Conservative. With the exception of a slight deafness she preserved her faculties unclouded to the very last. Dumfries Herald.
Reprinted in the Dundee Courier 14 Jun 1848

On the 16th current, in the Old Fleshmarket Close, Canongate, William Wilson, commonly called Mortar Willie, at the advanced age of 106 years. He was taken from the plough in the rebellion of 1745, to serve in the Royal army, where he remained for several years. After being on the Continent he came home to this country, where he has since been employed in the capacity of druggist-man, 40 years of that time in this town. He has left an infirm old widow, aged 73, to whom he has been married 50 years, in very poor circumstances.

​Caledonian Mercury, 31 July 1815 p. 3

William Wilson, or Mortar Willie
This venerable personage was a native of Perthshire, and born in 1709, to use his own words, “within a bow shot of Castle Huntly”, parish of Longforgan. The first thirty years of his life were devoted to agricultural employment. He then enlisted, fought against the Pretender, and afterwards served for nineteen years in the army – the greater portion of which was spent in the German and American wars. (1) After obtaining his discharge, he wrought for nearly twenty years in a bark mill in the neighbourhood of London.

About 1778 he returned to his native country, and settling in Edinburgh, found employment in the capacity described in the Print. He was a long time in the establishment of Dr Burt of this city, who generously continued to pay him his usual allowance of two shillings daily for his labour, after he had attained the long age of a hundred years, and although unable to work more than a small portion of the day. Willie was gratefully sensible of the Doctor’s kindness in this respect – “Eh, man,” he would remark, on occasions when he had done little, “ye’ve got a bad bargain the day.” He was remarkably honest and attentive. He occasionally nursed the children; and as he sat by the fire, used to tell them amusing stories. He always rose about four in the morning; and, at this early hour, seldom failed to rouse the domestics of his employer, in order to gain admission to the laboratory. He lived in the Old Hard-Well Close, Canongate, where he died on the 16th July 1815, in the hundred and sixth year of his age. It is supposed that, but for a hurt he received by a fall, he might have lived several years longer. He left an infirm old widow, aged seventy-three, in very poor circumstances, to whom he had been married fifty years.

(1) He was for many years servant to Lord John Murray, eldest son of the Duke of Atholl, who in 1745 was appointed Colonel of the 42d Highlanders, and fought at the battle of Fontenoy.
(2) He had previously been in the employ of Mrs Macdonald, who kept a laboratory shop in the Lawnmarket, with whom Dr Burt served his apprenticeship, and to whose business he afterwards succeeded. Indeed the labours of Mortar Willie were not confined to one or two employers, his important services having been rendered, at various periods, to almost every drug establishment of any extent in town.

​​Kay, John. A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings. Edinburgh, 1877. New Edition. p. 101

​We hear from Buchan, that on Sunday the 29th ult. Margaret Keith, in Auchtydonald, was barbarously murdered. She was seen that morning with a man to whom she was supposed with child, who decoyed her to the river Ugie, and threw her in. she was scrambling to the other side, when the villain went across by a small bridge a little higher up, and ere she could reach the brink, he knocked her on the head by repeated blows of a bludgeon, when she sunk and perished. The murderer immediately absconded.
[Aberdeen Journal 21 July 1800, p. 4]

​O’er scenes of woe, where common griefs prevail
Where pity melts at sorrow’s mournful tale
Death’s solemn call in peaceful hope obey’d
No law transfress’d, no innocence betray’d
Oft has the muse pour’d forth her doleful lay
And wept the just effects of Heaven’s dread sway.
And shall no muse be found to wield the rod
And vindicate the injured laws of God?
No friend of truth to scan the murd’rous mind
And rouse the virtuous feelings of manking?
O say, thou impious wretch! What fiend posses’d?
What dire delusion steel’d thy hard’n’d breast?
Hadst thou no fear of God, no fell remorse
No dread of angry Heaven’s avenging curse?
No thought of that blest day – the first of seven
Ordain’d to life the souls of men to heaven?
Could nought awake thee, nought make thee relent
Or lay aside thy murderous intent?
No – nought avail’d, thy hardy soul enchain’d
Fix’d in its purpose to the last remain’d.
That sacred day, when mortals find release
And leave their toils to seek th’ Almighty’s peace
On that blest day the impious deed was done;
No covert sought, but brav’d the mid-day sun;
When all the neighbours to God’s house repair
And pour out all their souls in fervent prayer;
In pious adoration bend the knee
And leave the world to Satan and to thee.
Methinks I see thee bold, yet still afraid
Through all thy mien, thy purposes betray’d:
Now hurrying rapid on, now moving slow
As thy just fears impel thy feet to go;
On ev’ry hand thy guilt creates a spy
And dread detection trembles in each eye;
Till all the threat’ning ddangers having pass’d
And all thy guilty fears dismiss’d at last
Th’ infernal worker gives the needful aid
And crowns th’ intent his own devices laid.
But see the guileless object of thy hate
The hapless victim of a dreadful fate!
See her advance in homely, trustie guise
Thoughtless of aught thy malice might devise;
Perhaps deluded by some tale of love
Perhaps some proffer’d marriage vow to prove;
Mean was the conquest o’er such poor defence;
Unguarded, easy, heedless, see her come
With careless step, to meet her certain doom.
Perhaps no time allow’d, no respite given
No power to use the trembling lungs beneath
See her resisting, struggling hard for breath
And striving oft to shun the double death;
Till faint and languid in th’ unequal strife
She courts thy strangling grasp, scarce feeling life
And from that fatal brink where late she stood
Is thrown resistless sinking in the flood.
Yet she revives, and panting seeks the shore
And rears her head, thy mercy to implore;
Mercy, a boon thy ruthless soul deny’d.
Again, she plunges in th’ o’erwhelming tide.
Thy ready bludgeon ply’d with brutal force
In deepest gulph to sink the hated corse.
But say, what first impell’d thee? What the train
That brough thee under this relentless chain?
Where was thy manhood, where thy better sense
What the temptation to this foul offence?
Thy feelings though couldst not at once forego
And be the thoughtless worker of such woe.
No – thou hadst motives, motives worth such fruit
Motives, of all our ills the baneful root;
False pride, false shame, a sordid love of self
Fear of abridging thy well hoarded self
These were thy guides, these urg’d thee to conceal
By this black deed, what time would soon reveal;
These steel’d thy breast, and in the fatal hour
Mark’d thee a proper tool for hell’s dark power;
Crush’d all thy tender feelings, left thee blind
To every nobler impulse of the mind;
To all th’ inhuman guilt, the monstrous shame
The horrid action would in end proclaim;
A woman murder’d in deliberate mood
Thy savage hands imbru’d in human blood!
No provocation given, no passion try’d
But ineffective, merk, the victim died!
A mother too! A widow! Once the ward
Of manly feeling, virtuous regard;
A widow, reft of her protector’s arm
To shield her breast from ev’ry dire alarm;
A mother torn from all her wedded joy
Two little daughters and a smiling boy;
Torn from her house, her home by guileful art
Of unprepared for death to feel the smart;
Sent to her last account in trembling dread
With all her imperfections on her head.
Here, let us pause, and drop a silent tear
O’er this poor widow’s sad untimely bier
And hope, that mercy she from God will gain
Which, from relentless man, she fought in vain.
Her infants, may th’ Almighty shield from ill
And bend their tender hearts to do his will;
Preserve them in his ways till life be o’er
Then take them to himself to die no more.
And thou, ill-fated man! Whose impious deed
Has made each heart on Ugie’s banks to bleed;
If doom’d a wanderer o’er the world to roam
And ne’er in peace to hail thy native home
Thy greatest, only curse, O! May it be
In blackest dye thy heinous guilt to see;
The pangs of deep remorse still mayst thou know
And let thy conscience be thy greatest foe;
That, if no earthly doom thy crimes await
Thou may’st in wringing sorrow expiate;
With contrite heart thy Savior’s wrath remove
And flee the vengeful judgment from above.
And let the tale to youth this rule convey
To shun th’ approach of sin’s imperious sway.
From flight beginnings, mighty crimes arise
And little faults indulg’d, inure to vice;
The lesser sins, the greater always claim
To ease the anguish, and to hide the shame.
This awful truth the horrid tale declares
And youthful minds for wisdom’s paths prepares
Shewing in sin the progress of disgrace
And of forbidden roads the rapid downward pace.
[Aberdeen Journal 28 July 1800 p. 2]

​A Reward Offered
Whereas, upon Sunday the 29th day of June last, Margaret Keith, in Auchtydonald, was barbarously assaulted and drowned in the Water of Ugie, where her body was afterwards found – and whereas, there is the strongest reason to suspect, from some investigation already made, that this most atrocious deed was committed by JAMES CARLE, in Auchtydonald, who has absconded and fled from justice; these are offering a REWARD of TEN GUINEAS, to be paid by Chares Keith, in Pitcow of Kininmonth, to any person who will give such information to William Burnett, advocate in Aberdeen, procurator fiscal for the county, as may enable him to cause apprehend and incarcerate the said James Carle in the tolbooth of Aberdeen – or to any person whatever, who will procure the said James Carle to be confined within any jail in Scotland, upon intimation thereof being given to the said William Burnett.

​The said JAMES CARLE is by trade a weaver, aged 30 years or thereby, about 5 feet 8 inches high, stout made, has duskish hair, grey eyes, a sour look, and a swelling on one side of his neck. He left the part of the country where he resided, upon the 3d day of July last, and is said to have passed through the town of Aberdeen. He usually wore, when dressed, a dark green coat and a hat.
August 2, 1800.
[Aberdeen Journal 4 August 1800 p. 1]

Aberdeen
On Wednesday last, James Carle, who was lately advertised on suspicion of the murder of Margaret Keith, Auchtydonald, was brought into prison here.
[Aberdeen Journal 1 September 1800 p. 4]

​Aberdeen
On Saturday morning, the Circuit Court of Justiciary was opened here by Lords Craig and Armadale, with the trial of James Carle, accused of the murder of Margaret Keith in Achtydonald. The trial lasted till near 7 in the evening, when the jury inclosed, and are to return their verdict this morning at ten o’clock.
[Aberdeen Journal 22 September 1800 p. 4]

Aberdeen
On Monday Morning, the Circuit Court received the verdict of the jury, on James Carl, unanimously finding the libel not proven, on which he was dismissed from the bar.
[Aberdeen Journal 29 September 1800 p. 4]

​It having been suggested, that a small fund should be established for the future support of the THREE ORPHAN CHILDREN of the late Margaret Keith, in Auchtydonald, who was recently found murdered in the Water of Ugie – the smallest sum, for this purpose, will be thankfully received at Mr Ewen’s, Castlestreet.
[Aberdeen Journal 29 September 1800 p. 4]

​James Carle
On a Sunday morning, towards the end of June, another barbarous murder, equalling in atrocity that of Elspet Imlach, was committed at Auchtydonald, in Banffshire. Margaret Keith, a widow, living there with her children, had been courted by a man called James Carle, a weaver, to whom, at the time, she was supposed to be with child. Her body was found in the river Ugie. She had been decoyed out of her house on that Sunday morning, and had walked with Carle to the banks of the river, when he seized her, and threw her into the water. The poor creature contrived to scramble to the other bank, when her inhuman murderer seeing her likely to escape, ran up the side of the water, and having crossed it by a bridge, came again on his victim, and, as she was struggling in the water, gave her several blows on the head till she sunk and perished. Carle absconded, but in July following, he was committed to jail in Aberdeen on suspicion of the murder, and was tried at the September Circuit. Mr Gordon of Craig was counsel for the prisoner. We understand that Carle was not identified completely to the satisfaction of the Jury, who brought in a verdict of Not Proven. The evidence was in substance, that, on the Sunday morning, the woman was enticed out of her house by Carle; this fact was proved by the evidence of her children. Her body was afterwards found in the Ugie. A lad, who was keeping sheep on a hill, saw a man, whom he could not identify at the distance, struggling to keep something down in the water, but he did not pay much attention to this, as he thought that it was a person drowning a dog. The verdict of the Jury was unanimous, but, we believe, that it did not give satisfaction to the public at the time.
[Black Kalendar of Aberdeen, [by James Bruce]. Aberdeen, 1845. p. 182-183]

Marriage – At Fintray the 21st cur. Ann Ferguson, after a courtship of ten days, presented herself before the Altar of Hymen, and gave her hand to Robert Porter. The age of this venerable and happy pair amounts to about 150 years. So large was the company who honoured them with their presence, that it was judged expedient for the clergyman to perform the ceremony in the Grand Temple of Nature. That the scene of festivity might not be too soon interrupted by Sunday, the marriage was solemnized on Monday afternoon. In the evening there was an elegant ball, attended by many Ladies of the first rank in that corner of the country. From one family were present no fewer than 30 persons. An assembly so numerous, so chearful, and so elegant, has not been remembered at Fintray for 50 years past.
[Aberdeen Journal, 28 July 1800 p. 4]