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1617
Adultery was first made
capital in Scotland by Act of Parliament 1563. chap. 74.
The thunder
of the law in the statute immediately preceding, had been hurled against
witchcraft; and an act passed in the present century, 'ratifies and
revives all former laws and acts against drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking,
swearing, fornication, adultery, and all manner of uncleaness;' and it
specially and expressly revives * the Act above mentioned against
adultery. Notorious, or notour adultery, is, Imo, When children
are procreated between adulterers; 2do, When they are publicly known to
sleep with each other; or, 3tio, When being suspected of adultery, and
admonished by the Kirk to refrain from the vice, and to do penance for
the scandal; yet refusing obedience, they are excommunicated for the
same. James VI. Parl. 7. chap. 105.
John Guthrie was prosecuted for the crime of notorious
adultery. He was accused of having married a wife in the Shire of
Forfar, and deserted her **;
of having afterwards come to Leith; of
having laid aside the name of Laird, which he bore in Forfar, and
assumed that of Guthrie, and there marrying another wife, with whom he
cohabited for several years; and also, of committing adultery with
another woman. These facts he acknowledged before the Kirk-session
of Kirkliston, and did penance in sackcloth for his impurities.
Being
thus detected and stigmatized by the Church, the secular arm was next
stretched forth against him. A Warrant under the Royal Sign
Manual, dated at Whitehall, 26th of January 1617, was directed to the
Lord Justice General, and the other Justices. It set forth, that
the King's Advocate, by His Majesty's express command, was about to
prosecute the prisoner for the crime of notorious adultery, and required
the Justices instantly, on his conviction, to condemn him to death.
The Court had the humanity not to enter this warrant upon record till
about a month after the prisoner's conviction, when it sentenced him to
be taken to the Cross of Edinburgh, and hanged on a gibbet till he be
dead; and he appears to have been carried to immediate execution.
Two
other persons, Alexander Thomson
and
Janet Cuthbert, were also, by Royal
Warrant, tried for adultery on the same day with the prisoner, and were
convicted. But the King was pleased to direct, that out of his
princely clemency, they should not be put to death, but banished. |
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