Trial of Deacon Brodie

by Unknown

APPENDIX XVI.

The Old Excise Office.
(From the Daily Review of 24th January, 1873.)

One after another houses rich in historical associations and of a character that rendered the Old Town of Edinburgh remarkable, are being swept away by our Improvement Trustees. Their disappearance, while undoubtedly required for the sake of the sanitary welfare of their neighbourhoods, must excite in the minds of many a twinge of regret on several accounts; and as in the case of remarkable men, we cannot suffer their removal from the places that knew them so long to take place without directing attention to their distinctive features and history.

A tenement that would be a fit subject for antiquarian research is being levelled with the ground at present in the Nether Bow. It was one of the finest specimens of a class of houses which extended nearly the whole length of the High Street in former times—having wooden fronts projecting four or five feet in front of the masonry, thus giving the erection a more pasteboard appearance than the labourers who pull them down find to be in reality the case. While glass was still a luxury, and light to be enjoyed had to be sought for outside the dwelling, the old Edinburgh citizen, when building his house, took care to erect in front of its windows a wooden balcony, resting on sturdy pillars, that rose to the edge of the roof. Thus a piazza was formed on the ground floor under which the wares of the shop-keepers of the period were exposed, and a series of galleries above, where the burghers would step out from their houses of an evening to enjoy the air, and particularly the light, while watching the passers-by below, and where their children would play when the rain made the street not so agreeable for that purpose. In course of time, when glass came generally into use, the front of these balconies was boarded up and pierced with windows, and in many cases the shops below advanced a step, so as to keep flush with the frontage above. Hence the singular appearance of many of these tenements. Of this class was the old Excise Office. Its front was somewhat ornamental. Neat wooden pilasters divided the windows from each other. At its eastern corner, immediately below Baron Grant’s Close, an outside stair that projected into the street before the alteration we describe led to a spiral stair, over the door leading to which was the pious inscription, “Devs Benedictat,” and the date 1606. From this it would seem that the building was anything but new when taken possession of by the Hanoverian Excisemen. It is probable that it lodged more gentle persons and people who were held in better estimation than the officials that were regarded as the detested fruit of the Union. They took possession of the premises soon after that event in our history, stuck up the Royal arms on the face of the building, and set themselves to levy duty on the merchandise that entered the city by its principal gate, the Nether Port, the then direct avenue from the neighbouring seaport. Since George the Second’s reign the Excise Office has had many a shift, and the building in Nether Bow many other strange occupants. While the character of the latter has been steadily declining, the prosperity of the Excise has been as uniformly increasing. The office was shifted to a more commodious house in the Cowgate, pulled down subsequently for the southern piers of George IV. Bridge; then to a house in Chessel’s Court, in the Canongate, where the notorious Deacon Brodie committed his great robbery; next to Sir Lawrence Dundas’ mansion in St. Andrew Square; afterwards to Bellevue House, in Drummond Place, since pulled down; and subsequently to where it is now. Two closes passed underneath the old Excise Office tenement; one was Baron Grant’s Close, and the other Society Close. The Baron’s fame has not descended to these days, and his name only lives on the wynd that once was his. But the other close has had rather a remarkable history. On its west side there was a curious old house with the following inscription over its main door:—“R. H. Hodie mihi eras tibi cur igitur curas.” The date was obliterated by time. A curious turnpike stair led to the flats above. The tenement was the property of Aleson Bassendyne, the famous old Scottish topographer, who issued, in 1574, a beautiful folio Bible. The close at first bore his name; subsequently it was called after a Baron of Exchequer belonging to the house of Panmure, and last of all Society Close, from the circumstances that in a large stone mansion which the judge occupied, at the foot of the close, was afterwards housed the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge founded in 1701, and erected into a body corporate by Queen Anne. There were many other buildings in the narrow wynd of great age and much interest, but they have been swept away. Now that these buildings have been removed, the obstruction presented to the traffic of the street by John Knox’s house and church is more observable. But we would suffer much greater inconvenience ere we consented to the removal of the house of our venerable Reformer.

APPENDIX XVII.

An Account of the Proceedings against John Brown alias Humphry Moore at the Old Bailey in April, 1784.

Humphry Moore was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 5th of February last, twenty guineas, value £21, and four pieces of foreign gold coin called doubloons, value £14 8s., the property of John Field, in the dwelling-house of John Brown.

The material circumstances of this case, as they appeared in evidence, were as follow:—The prosecutor, John Field, was walking along James Street, Convent Garden, when a person unknown joined company with him, and soon afterwards picked up a purse which was lying at a door. The prosecutor was persuaded to go to a public-house with him, being told that he was entitled to half the contents. From one end of the purse the stranger produced the following receipt:—“Feb. 2. 1784.—Bought of William Smith, one brilliant diamond-cluster ring, value £210, and received at the same time the contents, in full of all demands, by me, William Smith;” and from the other end he pulled out the ring itself. In the course of the conversation the prisoner entered the room, praised the beauty of the ring, and offered to settle the division of its value. Upon the stranger’s lamenting that he had no money about him, the prosecutor said that he had forty or fifty pounds at his lodgings at Chelsea. “That sum will just do,” said the prisoner. A coach was immediately called, and all three were drawn to the prosecutor’s lodgings. The prosecutor and stranger went into the house, leaving the prisoner at the Five Fields, and they afterwards joined him at the Cheshire Cheese. The prisoner said, “I will give you your share of the ring if you will be content until to-morrow.” The prosecutor put down twenty guineas and four doubloons, which the stranger took up and carried away, leaving the ring with the prosecutor, and appointed him to meet next day to have the money returned and £100 for his share of the ring. The prosecutor attended the next morning at the place of appointment, but neither of the parties came. The ring was of a very trifling value.

The jury were of opinion that the prisoner was confederating with the person unknown for the purpose of obtaining the money by means of the ring, and did therefore aid and assist the person unknown in obtaining the twenty guineas and four doubloons from the prosecutor. They accordingly found him guilty of stealing, but not in the dwelling-house subject to the opinion of the twelve judges whether it was felony.

Mr. Justice Willes (after stating the indictment and the circumstances that appeared in evidence, proceeded thus)—This matter was submitted to the opinion of all the judges, the first day of last Michaelmas term, except Lord Mansfield, who was absent, and they all agreed in the distinction between the parting with the possession and the parting with the property; that in the first case it was a felony, and in the last case it was not. Nine of the judges were of opinion that in this case possession only was parted with, it being merely a pledge, till the supposed value of the ring was delivered. Two of the judges thought that the doubloons were the same as money, and were of opinion it was a loan, and was a parting with the property; but nine of the judges were of opinion it was felony, and the judges could not distinguish this from the following case of the King and Patch. The prisoner was indicted for stealing a watch and some money. He picked up a ring and a purse in the street, and, pretending he had found it, offered to divide the money with the prosecutor, and opening the purse there was a ring and bill of parcels, stating the ring to be a diamond one, of £147 value, and a receipt for that sum. Different modes were proposed for the distribution; at last the prisoner asked the prosecutor if he would give him his money and watch and take the ring? Two other men that were in company took up the watch and money, and the prisoner got the prosecutor out of the room, under pretence he had something particular to say to him, and the two men ran away with the watch and money. The prosecutor was uneasy, and the prisoner said he knew the two men. The prisoner was apprehended, and the ring was found to be of the value of 10s. only. It was objected by the counsel for the prisoner that it was not a felony. But Mr. Justice Gould, Mr. Baron Perryn, and Mr. Justice Buller held it should be left to the jury to say what was the intention of the prisoner to get the money and watch, for if the whole was a scheme of the three men, it was felony, according to the case of the King and Peers, where a horse was hired for the day by two men who went directly and sold him; and Mr. Justice Gould left it to the Jury whether the prisoner and the other two men were not all in concert together. Upon the whole, therefore, of your case the majority of the judges are of opinion that you are guilty of the felony, and not merely of a fraud, and that judgment must be passed upon you accordingly.