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Year 1653
After the abolition of Popery, and establishment of the Confession of
Faith by authority of parliament, one of the first acts of the
legislature was to annex a punishment to 'the filthie vice of
fornication.' The punishment was for the first offence,
to pay a fine of L.40 Scots, (and upon failure of payment
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to undergo eight days imprisonment, and to
be fed upon bread and water), and to stand two hours upon the pillory.
For the second offence the fine was raised to 100 merks; and besides
being put upon the pillory, the convict was to have his or her head
shaved. And for the third offence the pecuniary mulct was
augmented to L.100 Scots, and the convict was ordained to be thrice
ducked in the deepest and foulest pool in the parish, and then to be
banished from the same for ever. And this zealous act has been
renewed so late as A.D. 1696.
On the 16th October 1652, a commission was produced in the Parliament
house at Edinburgh, from the commissioners of the Parliament of the
Commonwealth of England, and recorded in the books of Justiciary,
appointing George Smith, John March, Andrew Owen, and Edward Mosley,
Esquires, or any two of them, commissioners for the administration of
justice to the people of Scotland in causes criminal.
On the 21st of June 1653, Henry Whallie, Advocate General
**, prosecuted Jean Hamilton, Christopher
Little, and Margaret Jameson, before the Honourable George Smith and
Edward Mosely, two of those commissioners. The prisoners were
charged in the indictment with 'being all three accessory, art and part,
of stealing shirts and sheets forth of the house of Elisabeth Potter
widow in Newhaven, after the said Jean Hamilton her theftuous upbreaking
thereof, committed on the 6th day of May last: And the said
Christopher Little and Margaret Jameson for the crime of fornication
committed by them with each other.'
The prisoners, Little and Jameson, denied the theft, but acknowledged
the fornication, and submitted themselves to the mercy of the Court.
The jury, after hearing evidence, unanimously found the prisoners
Hamilton and Jamison, guilty of stealing the sheets and shirts, and
aquitted the prisoner Little of the same. They also
unanimously found the prisoners Little and Jamison guilty of
fornication. The Court sentenced Jean Hamilton to be
scourged for theft from the Castle hill to the Netherbow, and then to be
put into the Correction house till farther orders; and ordained Little
and Jamison for fornication instantly to pay L.40 Scots, and in case of
refusal to be kept prisoners for eight days, and fed on bread and small
drink, and next market day to stand an hour bare headed on the pillory;
the prisoner Little then to be set at liberty, but Jamison for the theft
to be put in the Correction house. |
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