_Notable Scottish Trials_
Deacon Brodie
PRINTED BY
WILLIAM HODGE AND COMPANY
GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH
1906
[Illustration: The first meeting of Deacon Brodie and George Smith.
(_After Kay._)]
Trial of
Deacon Brodie
EDITED BY
William Roughead
Writer to the Signet
[Illustration]
GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH
WILLIAM HODGE & COMPANY
TO
THE HONOURABLE LORD DUNDAS
THIS VOLUME
IS
BY KIND PERMISSION
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY
THE EDITOR
PREFATORY NOTE.
The following report of this interesting trial is prepared from the
original record, with additional particulars from contemporary sources.
No connected account of the life of William Brodie having hitherto been
attempted, the Editor has endeavoured to give in the introduction as
complete a view as is now possible of his remarkable career.
To Sheriff Moffatt, Lanark, and Mr. William Brown and Mr. John A.
Fairley, Edinburgh, the Editor is under obligation for the use of MSS.,
books, and prints in connection with the subject. His thanks are also
due to Dr. Joseph Anderson, Keeper of the Scottish National Museum of
Antiquities, who has allowed him to photograph Deacon Brodie’s lantern
and keys and to make excerpts from the records of the Cape Club. For
permission to publish for the first time facsimiles of Brodie’s letter
to the Duchess of Buccleuch and the MS. register in his Family Bible,
the Editor is respectively indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Alexander
Anderson, Librarian of the Edinburgh University Library, and the Plans
and Works Committee of Edinburgh Town Council.
Mr. Bruce J. Home has not only kindly permitted the reproduction of two
drawings from his well-known work, “Old Houses in Edinburgh,” but has
made a drawing of the old Excise Office, Chessel’s Court, expressly for
the present volume.
W. R.
EDINBURGH, _November, 1906_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction, 9
The Trial--
FIRST DAY--WEDNESDAY, 27TH AUGUST, 1788.
Indictment, 72
List of Witnesses for Prosecution, 74
List of Assize, 75
List of Witnesses for Defence, 76
Interlocutor on the relevancy, 78
List of the Jury, 79
Objection to specification of Crown productions, 80
Objection repelled, 87
_Evidence for Prosecution._
1. William Scott, 87
2. Joseph Mack, 88
3. Thomas Longlands, 89
4. John Geddes, 90
5. Margaret Tweddle or Geddes, 94
6. Robert Smith, 94
7. James Laing, 95
8. John Macleish, 95
9. John Duncan, 96
10. William Mackay, 96
11. Alexander Thomson, 97
12. Laurence Dundas, 98
13. Janet Baxter, 98
14. James Bonar, 99
15. Isobel Wilson, 99
16. John Kinnear, 99
17. Grahame Campbell, 100
18. Mary Hubbart or Hubburt called, 101
Debate as to the admissibility of Hubbart, 101
Objection that she is the wife of Smith repelled, 104
Witness withdrawn owing to misnomer, 106
19. Daniel Maclean, 106
20. John Clerk, 106
21. David Robertson, 107
22. William Middleton, 107
23. Alexander Williamson, 108
24. James Murray, 109
25. George Williamson, 109
26. Andrew Ainslie called, 111
Debate as to the admissibility of Ainslie, 111
Objection to Witness repelled, 115
Ainslie’s evidence, 115
Objection to production of Five-pound Note, 119
Objection sustained, 121
27. John Brown, _alias_ Humphry Moore, called, 122
Debate as to the admissibility of Brown, 122
Objection to Witness repelled, 132
Brown’s evidence, 132
Declarations of George Smith, 138
Declaration of William Brodie, 149
Letter, William Brodie to Matthew Sheriff, 150
Two Letters, William Brodie to Michael Henderson, 152
Copy Letter or Unsigned Scroll, No. I., 154
Copy Letter or Unsigned Scroll, No. II., 156
Account or State of William Brodie’s affairs, 158
Letter, Lee, Strachan & Co., to Emmanuel Walker & Co., 159
_Evidence for Defence._
1. Matthew Sheriff, 160
2. Jean Watt, 161
3. Peggy Giles, 162
4. Helen Alison or Wallace, 163
5. James Murray, 164
6. James Laing, 164
7. Robert Smith, 164
The Lord Advocate’s Address to the Jury, 165
Mr. John Clerk’s Address to the Jury, 174
The Dean of Faculty’s Address to the Jury, 181
The Lord Justice-Clerk’s Charge to the Jury, 197
SECOND DAY--THURSDAY, 28TH AUGUST, 1788.
Verdict of the Jury, 201
Plea in Arrest of Judgment, 202
Plea repelled, 208
Address to the Prisoners and Sentence, 209
APPENDICES.
I. Notes on the Trial of Deacon Brodie, 211
II. A brief Account of the Judges and Counsel engaged on the Trial
of Deacon Brodie, 217
III. A List of Publications on the Subject of or having Reference to
the Trial of Deacon Brodie, 232
IV. The Brodie Family Bible, 238
V. Excerpts from the Records of the Cape Club, 243
VI. Excerpts from the Guild Registers of the Burgh of Edinburgh, 245
VII. Excerpts from the Records of the Edinburgh Town Council, 246
VIII. Advertisements relating to certain of the Robberies committed by
Deacon Brodie, 251
IX. Narrative of the Facts respecting the Robbery of Bruces’ shop, 257
X. State of the Process at the instance of John Hamilton, 262
XI. An Account of Mr. Brodie’s being seized at Amsterdam, 264
XII. The Journal of Mr. Groves, 265
XIII. Copies of Two Autograph Letters of Deacon Brodie, 268
XIV. Speech which George Smith intended to have made at his Trial, 270
XV. An Account of the Execution of the Prisoners, 272
XVI. The Old Excise Office, 277
XVII. An Account of the Proceedings against John Brown, _alias_
Humphry Moore, at the Old Bailey, in April, 1784, 278
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
The first meeting of Deacon Brodie and George Smith, _Frontispiece_
Foot of Brodie’s Close, Cowgate, _facing page_ 12
Cock-fighting Match between the Counties of Lanark and
Haddington in 1785, 15
Head of Brodie’s Close, Lawnmarket, 25
The Old Excise Office, Chessel’s Court, Canongate, 31
Deacon Brodie’s Dark Lanthorn and False Keys, 43
George Williamson, King’s Messenger for Scotland, 50
George Smith at the Bar, 55
The Old Tolbooth of Edinburgh, 62
Deacon Brodie, 66
The Solicitor-General (Robert Dundas), 81
Lord Hailes, 105
Lord Eskgrove, 113
Lord Stonefield, 130
Charles Hay (afterwards Lord Newton), 160
The Lord Advocate (Ilay Campbell), 165
John Clerk (afterwards Lord Eldin), 174
The Dean of Faculty (Hon. Henry Erskine), 181
The Lord Justice-Clerk (Lord Braxfield), 197
Facsimile of first page of MS. Register in the Brodie Family
Bible, 238
Facsimile of Deacon Brodie’s Letter to the Duchess of
Buccleuch, 269
DEACON BRODIE.
INTRODUCTION.
Few cities have preserved more faithfully than Edinburgh the traditions
of former days, and none is richer in the material of romance.
Throughout the length of the Royal mile extending from Holyrood to the
Castle Hill, each tortuous wynd and narrow close owns its peculiar
association, each obscure court and towering “land” has contributed, if
but by a footnote, to the volume of the city’s history. And where these
visible memorials have perished beneath the slow assault of time, or
succumbed to the more lethal methods of modern improvement, the legends
which they embodied survive their dissolution and serve in turn to
perpetuate their fame.
Of the many memories that haunt the lover of old Edinburgh, wandering
to-day among the vestiges of her romantic and insanitary past, perhaps
the most curious is that of William Brodie, Deacon of the Wrights and
doyen of the double life; by day “a considerable house carpenter” and
member of the Town Council; by night a housebreaker and the companion of
thieves.
It is nearly a hundred and twenty years since Deacon Brodie played out
his twofold part at the west end of the Luckenbooths one grey October
afternoon in 1788; but the close in the Lawnmarket which bears his name
remains to this day. Here he was born and lived, man and boy, robber and
decent burgess, for many reputable years; here his old father passed
away, happy in the possession of so excellent a son; and from hence did
the son essay that “last fatal” adventure, the issue of which was, for
him, discovery and the scaffold.
The house itself has long since vanished--a victim to the indiscriminate
destruction which has swept away so much else worthy of preservation.
You can no longer see the heavy oaken door with the cunning lock of the
Deacon’s own contriving, and the turnpike stair down which, with mask
and lantern, he so often stole at midnight upon his secret and criminous
affairs. But if you follow him in fancy down the High Street and past
the Nether Bow, to where a gloomy “pend” leads into Chessel’s Court, you
will find the tall front of the old Excise Office still rising within
its “palisadoes,” behind which lurked the trembling Ainslie; and if it
be about the dusk of the evening, and your imagination is informed with
the spirit of the place, you may even see the man rush wildly forth from
the doorway up the court, and hear, in the succeeding silence, the three
blasts of an ivory whistle.
* * * * *
The trial of Deacon Brodie has many claims upon the attention of a later
age. It is of value to the antiquarian for the vivid picture it presents
of the manners and customs of our forbears at a time when the life of
Edinburgh yet flowed in the ancient arteries of the old city on the
ridge, although beginning to circulate more freely in the spacious
thoroughfares of the New Town already invading the fields across the
valley. To the lawyer it is notable as affording a singularly graphic
view of the old-time practice of our criminal Courts, as well as for the
galaxy of legal talent engaged upon its conduct--with such men as
Braxfield on the bench and Henry Erskine and John Clerk at the bar the
proceedings could lack neither picturesqueness nor importance. The
psychologic interest of the chief actor’s character and the dramatic
elements in which his career abounds make a more general appeal; and so
long as human nature remains the same will the story of the Deacon’s
downfall be accorded an indulgent hearing.
That story had for Robert Louis Stevenson a strong attraction. As early
as 1864 he prepared the draft of a play founded upon it, which--after
being at various times re-cast--finally took shape in the melodrama,
“Deacon Brodie, or the Double Life,” written in collaboration with the
late W. E. Henley, and published in 1892. It may even be that the
conception of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was suggested to Stevenson by
his study of the dual nature so strikingly exemplified in his earlier
hero; while in other of his writings he has touched the Deacon with a
felicitous and kindly hand.
Introduction.
The birth of Deacon Brodie is thus recorded in the Register of Births
for the city of Edinburgh--
“Monday, 28th September, 1741. To Francis Brodie, wright, burgess,
and Cecil Grant, his spouse, a son named William.
Witnesses--William Grant, writer in Edinburgh, and Ludovick Brodie,
Writer to the Signet. Born the same day.”
It is an inexplicable circumstance, although by no means uncommon, that
so goodly a family tree as that of the Brodies should, in due course of
nature, bear such degenerate fruit as the subject of this entry was
destined to prove. His great-grandfather, Francis Brodie of Milnton,
Elginshire, was a member of a family well known in the North of
Scotland, and his grandfather, Ludovick Brodie of Whytfield, was a much
respected Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, who, on his death in 1758,
was the oldest member of the Society. His father, Francis Brodie, was
born in 1708, and in 1740 married Cecil, daughter of William Grant,
writer in Edinburgh, with whose family he was already connected. Both
the Deacon’s grandfathers, therefore, were members of the legal
profession.
There will be found in the Appendix a copy of a MS. Register of Births
and Deaths kept by Francis Brodie in his family Bible, together with
some account of that interesting volume, from which it appears that
William was the eldest of eleven children, most of whom died in infancy.
The entry relating to his birth has been cut out of the Register,
presumably on his public disgrace some forty-seven years later.
Francis Brodie was a substantial wright and cabinetmaker in the
Lawnmarket of Edinburgh, where he carried on an extensive and prosperous
business. In 1735 he was made a Burgess, and in 1763, a Guild Brother of
his native burgh. That he stood high in the estimation of his
fellow-craftsmen is evidenced by his being, in 1775 and 1776, elected a
member of the Town Council as Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights,
and again in 1779 and 1780, in the same capacity; while in 1776 he also
represented the Incorporated Trades of the city as their Deacon
Convener. A further proof of the position and circumstances of the
family is to be found in the fact that the close in which their house
was situated became known by their name.
This mansion, the most important in the close, was originally the town
residence of the Littles of Craigmillar, having been built by William
Little, a magistrate of Edinburgh, in 1570, whose brother, Clement
Little, was the founder of the University Library. In the earlier titles
of the property the close bears the name of its old residenters; but in
Edgar’s map of 1742 it appears as Lord Cullen’s Close, from the eminent
judge, Sir Francis Grant of Cullen, who in turn resided there. Brodie’s
Close was formerly a “throwgang” or thoroughfare passing from the
Lawnmarket to the Cowgate, the upper portion of which alone has escaped
the “improvements” that have so effectively changed the features of this
part of the Old Town. The area occupied by the Deacon’s dwelling is now
covered by Victoria Terrace, the building having been demolished about
1835, when the principal carved stones of the mansion were transported
by Clement Little’s descendants, in whose possession the property
remained, to the garden of the family seat, Inch House, near Liberton,
as relics of the habitation of their ancestors. The lower extremity of
the close, in which were situated the Deacon’s workshops and woodyard,
survived until a later date, the last traces of it disappearing to make
way for the foundations of the Free Library.
In the fine old tenement at the head of the close--often erroneously
described as Brodie’s residence--is still to be seen the decorated hall
of the Roman Eagle Lodge, a famous Masonic society of the eighteenth
century, immediately beyond which, on the east side of an open court,
stood the Deacon’s house. It is thus described by Chambers in his
“Traditions of Edinburgh” as it existed in 1825--“Brodie’s house is to
be found in its original state, first door up a turnpike stair in the
south-east corner of a small court near the foot of the close. The outer
door is remarkable for its curious, elaborate workmanship. The house is
well built, and the rooms exhibit some decorations of taste. The
principal apartment, of which the ceiling is remarkably high, contains a
large panel painting of the ‘Adoration of the Wise Men,’ and has an
uncommonly large arched window to the west.” What became of this
painting, which was attributed to Alexander Runciman, is now unknown.
Of the early years of William Brodie we have, unfortunately, no record,
but it may be assumed that he received an education suitable for the son
of a well-to-do burgess. He was apprenticed
[Illustration: Foot of Brodie’s Close, Cowgate.
(From a Drawing by Bruce J. Home.)]
to his father’s trade, and in due time became associated with him in his
thriving business. In those days no self-denying ordinance obtained in
the Town Council, and Francis Brodie’s municipal connection secured for
him and his son the most of the city work. The young man had the ball at
his foot, as the saying goes, and only good behaviour and application to
business were required for the attainment of an assured position.
Unhappily for himself, however, he soon exhibited that taste for
dissipation which ultimately led to such dire results; and while his
days were occupied in following his respectable employment, in which he
speedily obtained proficiency, his nights were largely devoted to
gambling and kindred pursuits.
The social customs of the time were not conducive to steadiness and
sobriety among the youthful citizens. It was the Edinburgh of Humphrey
Clinker and of Topham’s Letters; the “Auld Reikie” of Fergusson’s
convivial muse--
Auld Reikie! wale o’ ilka town
That Scotland kens beneath the moon;
Whare couthy chiels at e’ening meet
Their bizzing craigs and mou’s to weet:
And blythly gar auld Care gae bye
Wi’ blinkit and wi’ bleering eye.
The early hours of the evening were at that period universally spent by
Edinburgh tradesmen in one or other of the innumerable taverns of the
old town. So soon as the business of the day was over, as Fergusson
tells us--
When auld Saunt Giles, at aught o’clock,
Gars merchant louns their shopies lock,
There we adjourn wi’ hearty fock
To birle our bodies,
And get wharewi’ to crack our joke,
And clear our noddles.
“All the shops in the town,” says Chambers, “were then shut at eight
o’clock, and from that hour until ten--when the drum of the Town Guard
announced at once a sort of licence for the deluging of the streets with
nuisances, and a warning of the inhabitants home to their
beds--unrestrained scope was given to the delights of the table.” At the
latter hour the more reputable roysterers sought their homes; but it was
then that the clubs, which formed so prominent a feature of the old city
life, began the business of the evening. Fergusson, who has given us in
his incomparable “Auld Reikie” a glowing picture of the Edinburgh of his
day, thus alludes to the subject--
Now Night, that’s cunzied chief for fun,
Is wi’ her usual rites begun;
Thro’ ilka gate the torches blaze,
And globes send out their blinking rays.
Now some to porter, some to punch,
Some to their wife, and some their wench,
Retire, while noisy ten-hours drum
Gars a’ your trades gae dandring home.
Now mony a club, jocose and free,
Gi’e a’ to merriment and glee;
Wi’ sang and glass, they fley the pow’r
O’ care that wad harass the hour.
But chief, O Cape! we crave thy aid,
To get our cares and poortith laid:
Sincerity, and genius true,
Of Knights have ever been the due:
Mirth, music, porter deepest dy’d,
Are never here to worth deny’d;
And health, o’ happiness the queen,
Blinks bonny, wi’ her smile serene.
Of this, the most famous of the Edinburgh social clubs, Brodie was
admitted a member on 25th February, 1775. The Cape Club usually held its
festivals in James Mann’s tavern, facetiously known as “The Isle of Man
Arms,” situated in Craig’s Close. The roll of the Knights Companions of
the Cape contains many celebrated names, including those of David Herd,
the antiquarian; Robert Fergusson, the poet; Alexander Runciman, the
painter; and Sir Henry Raeburn--William Brodie’s election occurring four
months after Fergusson’s death. Each member was required to assume some
fanciful title, Brodie taking that of “Sir Lluyd.” On the margin of the
roll prefixed to the minute-book an ingenious member has drawn a
representation of his last public appearance on the new drop, some
thirteen years later. The insignia of the Sovereign of the Cape are in
the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, together with the club
records, excerpts from which relating to Deacon Brodie will be found in
the Appendix.
Had young Brodie been satisfied with the legitimate and very ample
convivialities afforded by the Cape Club it would have been better for
himself. But he became a frequenter of a disreputable tavern kept by
James Clark, vintner, at the head of the Fleshmarket Close, where
gambling by means of
[Illustration: Cock-fighting Match between the Counties of Lanark and
Haddington in 1785, at which Deacon Brodie was present.
(_After Kay._)]
dice was nightly practised in a select company of sharpers and their
dupes. It is probable that this house still survives in the truncated
portion of the close remaining between the High Street and Cockburn
Street. He also developed, among other “gentlemanly vices,” a passion
for cock-fighting, at that time a fashionable recreation among the young
bloods of the capital, and was a regular attender at the _mains_ held in
the cock-pit belonging to Michael Henderson, stabler in the
Grass-market, of whom we shall hear further in the sequel. Brodie, who
is said to have lost large sums in betting on his favourite sport, was
present, among other “eminent cockers,” at the historic match between
the counties of Lanark and Haddington, of which an account is given in
“Kay’s Portraits.” In allusion to this contest, Kay observes--“It cannot
but appear surprising that noblemen and gentlemen, who upon any other
occasion will hardly show the smallest degree of condescension to their
inferiors, will, in the prosecution of this barbarous amusement, demean
themselves so far as to associate with the very lowest characters in
society.” Brodie himself kept game-cocks in a pen in his woodyard, and
retained to the last his attachment to the “art of cocking.” Between his
bets at the cock-pits and his gambling at Clark’s, the young man must
have got rid of a good deal of money; and it is believed that he had
already begun to supplement his income by the nefarious means which
later he certainly employed.
One night in August, 1768, the counting-house of Johnston & Smith,
bankers in the Exchange, was entered by means of a false key, and
upwards of £800 in bank notes carried off. Two nights afterwards £225 of
the money was found, wrapped in paper, at the door of the Council
Chamber; but the balance was never recovered, and no clue to the
delinquent could be obtained. The discovery, many years afterwards, of
Deacon Brodie’s exploits induced a strong suspicion that he was
concerned in the affair. It was then recollected that, prior to the
robbery, the Deacon had been employed in making various repairs on the
premises, and had frequent occasion to be in the bank. The key of the
outer door, from which it was ascertained he had taken an impression in
putty, usually hung in the passage, a custom of which the Deacon, as we
shall find, often afterwards took unscrupulous advantage.
At this time, however, no one dreamt of suspecting Brodie, whose secret
dissipations were known only to his disreputable associates. Outwardly
he was following worthily in his father’s footsteps, and, on 9th
February, 1763, was, like him, made a Burgess and Guild Brother of
Edinburgh. In September, 1781, he also became a member of the Town
Council as Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights, and his connection
with the Council continued from that date till the year before his
apprehension, as follows:--Deacon of the Wrights in 1782 and 1783;
Trades Councillor in 1784, and, again, Deacon of the Wrights in 1786 and
1787. In 1785 he was not a member of the Town Council. Robert Fergusson,
in his poem, “The Election,” has, with his usual felicity, portrayed the
humours of an Edinburgh municipal election according to the old mode,
when--
... Deacons at the counsel stent
To get themsel’s presentit:
For towmonths twa their saul is lent,
For the town’s gude indentit.
The minute of Deacon Brodie’s last election, on 20th September, 1786,
will be found in the Appendix, together with other excerpts from the
Council records, bearing upon his official life.
In the new Deacon’s first year of office occurred the political contest
between Sir Laurence Dundas, who had represented the city in Parliament
from 1760 to 1780, and William Miller, afterwards Lord Glenlee. The Town
Council was divided into two hostile camps, and extraordinary efforts
were made by each party to secure the return of its own candidate. Both
claimed to have been duly elected member for Edinburgh; but, as the
result of a parliamentary inquiry, Sir Laurence retained the seat.
Deacon Brodie made a conspicuous figure in this election by keeping back
his promise to vote for either party, in consequence of which he became
a man of great moment to both the candidates, because upon his vote the
election turned.
* * * * *
On 1st June, 1782, Convener Francis Brodie “died of the Palsy att his
own house in Edinburgh, att 5 o’clock afternoon, in the 74th year of his
age”; and William, his son, reigned in his stead. We read in the
_Annual Register_ for 1788--“However extraordinary it may appear, it is
a certain fact that Mr. Brodie at the death of his father, which
happened about six years ago, inherited a considerable estate in houses
in the city of Edinburgh, together with £10,000 in specie; but by an
unhappy connection and a too great propensity to that destructive,
though too predominant passion, gaming, he is reduced to his present
deplorable situation.” That the Deacon owned some heritable property
other than the family mansion in Brodie’s Close, appears from a
statement by the author of “Kay’s Portraits” (1877, vol. I., pp. 141-2).
It is there said that a house in Gourlay’s Land, Old Bank Close, was
purchased from the trustee for the Deacon’s creditors in 1789 by William
Martin, bookseller and auctioneer in Edinburgh, who subsequently sold
the property to the Bank of Scotland in 1793. From the state of affairs,
which he prepared at a later date as aftermentioned, it is evident that
Brodie owned, in addition to this property, three other tenements,
respectively situated in Horse Wynd, at the Nether Bow, and in World’s
End Close. We also find from the Council records that, in 1785, he was
speculating in the building lots of the New Town.
The “unhappy connection” above mentioned refers to the Deacon’s two
mistresses, Anne Grant and Jean Watt. Anne Grant resided in Cant’s
Close, and her relations with William Brodie must have been long
continued, for she had borne three children to him, the eldest, Cecil,
being a girl of twelve at the time of his trial. To Anne Grant he
addressed one of the letters written after his escape from Scotland, by
which, as will be seen, he was traced and brought to justice. Jean Watt,
by whom he had two boys, lived in Libberton’s Wynd, close to his own
house, and was the principal witness to the _alibi_ attempted to be set
up for him at his trial. Each of these women was presumably ignorant of
the other’s existence, and the Deacon’s connection with both appears to
have been unknown to his family and friends. After his father’s death
his sister, Jean Brodie, presided over his household; his other sister,
Jacobina, to whom he refers in his letters as “Jamie,” having married
Matthew Sheriff, an upholsterer in Edinburgh.
It seems incredible, regard being had to the confined and crowded stage
on which the old city life was played, that Deacon Brodie’s protracted
peccadilloes escaped the notice of those “stairhead critics,” who,
Fergusson tells us--
Wi’ glowring eye,
Their neighbours’ sma’est faults descry.
But, if the facts were generally known, the estimable reputation which
he nevertheless enjoyed is characteristic of the social conventions of
his day.
Had it not been for the Deacon’s unhappy propensity for gambling and
dissipation, his circumstances at this time should have been highly
satisfactory. During his term of office he was regularly employed by his
fellow-Councillors to execute wrightwork in connection with the
town--his accounts for the year 1782-3, for instance, amounting to
upwards of £600. In addition to the city work, his social and official
position had secured for him the best cabinetmaking business in
Edinburgh; but, notwithstanding these advantages, he was frequently at a
loss for money.
Deacon Brodie was already, in Stevenson’s striking phrase, “a man
harassed below a mountain of duplicity,” and to one so circumstanced it
is not surprising that the idea occurred of putting his professional
opportunities to an unlawful use. He knew the locks and bolts of all the
houses of his customers; was familiar with their internal arrangements
and the habits of the owners; and could, without incurring remark,
exhibit in such matters a professional interest in the houses of his
friends and acquaintances. No doubt he was sometimes consulted, at a
later stage, as to the best means of defence against his own infraction.
He was shortly, as we shall see, to become the leader of a gang of
robbers, whose mysterious depredations, under his skilful conduct, were,
during eighteen months, to baffle the authorities and strike terror to
the hearts of wealthy burgesses; but at the outset of his career of
crime the Deacon worked alone.
“Many a citizen,” says Stevenson, “was proud to welcome the Deacon to
supper, and dismissed him with regret at a timeous hour, who would have
been vastly disconcerted had he known how soon, and in what guise, his
visitor returned. Many stories are told of this redoubtable Edinburgh
burglar, but the one I have in my mind most vividly gives the key of all
the rest. A friend of Brodie’s, nesting some way towards heaven in one
of these great ‘lands,’ had told him of a projected visit to the
country, and afterwards, detained by some affairs, put it off and stayed
the night in town. The good man had lain some time awake; it was far on
in the small hours by the Tron bell; when suddenly there came a creak, a
jar, a faint light. Softly he clambered out of bed and up to a false
window which looked upon another room, and there, by the glimmer of a
thieves’ lantern, was his good friend the Deacon in a mask.”
Another story, illustrative of the methods of this pioneer of amateur
cracksmen, is as follows:--One Sunday an old lady, precluded by
indisposition from attending the kirk, was quietly reading her Bible at
home. She was alone in the house--her servant having gone to
church--when she was startled by the apparition of a man, with a crape
over his face, in the room where she was sitting. The stranger quietly
lifted the keys which were lying on the table beside her, opened her
bureau, from which he took out a large sum of money, and then, having
locked it and replaced the keys upon the table, retired with a
respectful bow. The old lady, meanwhile, had looked on in speechless
amazement, but no sooner was she left alone than she exclaimed, “Surely
that was Deacon Brodie!”--which subsequent events proved to be the fact.
On both of these occasions it is to be noted that, although the Deacon
was recognised, no action was taken by his victims. In the first
instance the man hesitated to denounce his friend; in the second the old
lady preferred to doubt the evidence of her senses--a striking proof of
the advantages conferred by a respectable reputation.
Apart altogether from the question of gain, it is probable that Deacon
Brodie, in adopting these criminal courses, was influenced by the
dramatic possibilities of his new part. The minor duplicities which
hitherto he had so successfully practised would thus be capable of
development upon a larger stage; and, to one of his peculiar
temperament, the prospect doubtless afforded fascinating opportunities
for deception. To rob a friend’s house of an evening, and in the morning
condole with him upon his loss; to carry through some daring burglary
overnight, and gravely deliberate next day in the Council Chamber as to
offering a reward for discovery of the perpetrator--these were
situations after the Deacon’s heart.
Throughout the whole course of the robberies which we are about to
consider, it is to be kept in view that Deacon Brodie retained the
respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens--for his reputation among the
associates of his secret life is immaterial; daily pursued his lawful
avocations; and regularly attended the meetings of the Council, taking
his share in the conduct of the town’s affairs. And so masterly was his
performance of this dual _rôle_ that no suspicion of the Deacon’s
integrity was aroused, until the failure of the “last fatal” business of
the Excise Office and the treachery of an accomplice shattered, at once
and for ever, the elaborate fabric of his deceit.
We can form a vivid impression of the appearance of Deacon Brodie about
this time from the description of him which was circulated some two
years later. From this it appears that he was a small man--“about 5 feet
4 inches”--of a slender build, and looking younger than his age. He had
“dark brown, full eyes, with large black eyebrows, and a cast with his
eye that gave him somewhat the look of a Jew,” a sallow complexion, and
a peculiar manner of speaking, “which he did full and slow.” From the
minute details of his dress and toilet it is evident that the Deacon was
something of a dandy, or, in the language of the day, “a macaroni.” He
had also “a particular air in his walk, and moved in a proud, swaggering
sort of style,” while the advertisement includes such particulars as the
size of his ankles and the turn of his calves. We shall afterwards find
that this very candid portrait was not appreciated by its original.
* * * * *
About the month of July, 1786, there arrived in Edinburgh a man who was
to exercise a powerful influence for evil upon the Deacon’s fortunes.
This was George Smith, a native of Boxford, near Newburgh, in Berkshire,
who was travelling the country as a hawker with a horse and cart. He was
a stranger to Edinburgh, and put up at Michael Henderson’s house in the
Grassmarket, having heard it mentioned on the road as a traveller’s inn.
Soon after his arrival he fell sick, and, his illness lasting for some
four months, he was reduced to selling his goods, and finally his
horse, in order to support himself and his wife, for whom he had
meanwhile sent into England to join him. Among the frequenters of
Michael Henderson’s tavern were two men, Andrew Ainslie and John Brown
_alias_ Humphry Moore, of whom, prior to their doings in connection with
the robbing of the Excise Office, but little is known. Ainslie is
designed in the Crown list of witnesses as “sometime shoemaker in
Edinburgh,” but his attention to his professional practice was less
marked than his addiction to dicing and the company of cheats.
Brown--like Smith, an Englishman--was a noted sharper, and had been
convicted of theft at the Old Bailey in April, 1784, and sentenced to
transportation beyond the seas for a term of seven years. He had,
however, contrived to escape from justice, and was then lurking in
Edinburgh, ready for any villainy that might prove remunerative.
With these two agreeable acquaintances Smith beguiled the tedium of
convalescence in various games of hazard, in which, owing to the skill
of the players, but little was left to the blindness of Fortune; and at
this time he first made the acquaintance of Deacon Brodie, who, in
connection with his cock-fighting proclivities, had long been a patron
of the house. It is probable that, at this juncture, the Deacon’s
resources were at a low ebb. Notwithstanding the income he derived from
his varied interests and pursuits, his passion for gambling was a
constant drain upon his purse, and the expense of maintaining no less
than three establishments at once must also have been considerable,
while the success of his earlier robberies doubtless induced him to
extend his future operations by the assumption of a partner.
Be that as it may, we have it from Smith’s second declaration that
Brodie, early in the intimacy which, in spite of the disparity in their
social positions, speedily sprang up between them, suggested to him in
the course of conversation “that several things could be done in this
place, if prudently managed, to great advantage, and proposed that they
should lay their heads together for that purpose.” Smith is said to have
been at one period of his career a locksmith in Birmingham, and his
abilities in this direction may have first led the Deacon to select him
as an accomplice. From the readiness with which Smith embraced this
proposition we may assume that his past record was not so blameless as
he would have us believe.
In the following account of the burglaries (other than that of the
Excise Office) committed by Deacon Brodie and his associates, the
details are given from the various statements made by Smith, and, so far
as possible, in his own words; but there is good reason for believing
that these by no means disclose the full extent of the depredations for
which the gang was responsible.
When the invalid was sufficiently recovered, the new friends, “in
consequence of this concert, were in use to go about together in order
to find out proper places where business could be done with success.” In
the course of these interesting excursions, Smith relates that one
evening in November, 1786, they visited a hardware shop in Bridge Street
belonging to Davidson M‘Kain, armed with false keys, an iron crow, and a
dark lantern. Having opened the outer door, Smith entered the shop, his
companion remaining outside to watch. Smith was inside for about
half-an-hour, and Brodie, becoming impatient, called out what made him
stay so long--was he taking an inventory of the shop? The result appears
to have been disappointing; but among the goods removed was a red
pocket-book, which Smith presented, as a token of gratitude, to “Michael
Henderson, stabler in Grassmarket, his daughter.”
About a fortnight later the two worthies again repaired to M‘Kain’s shop
with the view of making a more thorough clearance. The same methods were
adopted; but before Smith could get to work he was disturbed by
movements in a neighbouring room, and fled, shutting the shop door after
him. Brodie had already beaten a retreat. A little later, however, the
pair walked arm-in-arm down Bridge Street to reconnoitre the premises,
but, seeing a man on the watch, “and a guard soldier standing opposite
at the head of the stair which goes down to the Fleshmarket, they passed
along the bridge, and afterwards went to their several homes, as nothing
could be done further that night.” This, according to Smith, was their
first joint depredation; but there is reason to believe that a much more
important robbery, which was committed on 9th October, the previous
month--when a goldsmith’s shop near the Council Chambers was broken into
and many valuable articles carried off--was also the Deacon’s
handiwork.
An ostensible occupation had been found for Smith, and he was
established in a house in the Cowgate, where his wife and he kept a
small grocery shop. Brodie had now introduced his new friend to his own
favourite “howff”--Clark, the vintner’s at the head of the Fleshmarket
Close--where it was their habit to foregather nightly for the purpose of
gambling and discussing future opportunities for the exercise of their
felonious talents. Hither, also, came Ainslie and Brown, from the
lodging which they occupied together at the foot of Burnet’s Close, but
who were not yet admitted to share the others’ councils. On 8th
December, we read that “the shop of John Law, tobacconist in the
Enchange, was broken into, and a cannister containing between ten and
twelve pounds of money carried off.” This robbery, though not confessed
to by Smith, was probably committed by him and Brodie.
Stimulated to further efforts by the inadequate results of these
operations, the Deacon now proposed to Smith a more important
undertaking. He had recently been employed by the magistrates, in
consequence of the lowering of the streets, to alter the door of the
shop in Bridge Street belonging to Messrs. John & Andrew Bruce,
jewellers, there. This, he said, “would be a very proper shop for
breaking into,” as it contained valuable goods, and his familiarity with
the lock would make it an easy matter to effect an entrance. It was
accordingly agreed that they should meet at Clark’s on the evening of
Saturday, 24th December, for the purpose of carrying out the robbery.
Arriving there, they fell to playing hazard with other members of “the
club,” as it was called by the questionable characters who frequented
the house, and Smith, the luck being against him, soon lost all his
money. Brodie, on the other hand, was winning steadily, and refused to
leave, turning a deaf ear to his friend’s repeated reminders that
business should come before pleasure and their work awaited them. It was
nearly four in the morning when Smith decided to wait no longer, “as the
time for doing their business was going,” and started by himself upon
the exploit. The lock presented no difficulties, and, by the light of
his dark lantern, he was able to reap an excellent harvest. “Ten
watches, five of them gold, three silver, with the whole rings, lockets,
and other jewellery and gold trinkets in the show-boxes,” were all
stuffed into two old black stockings and carried by Smith to the
hospitable Mr. Henderson’s stable, where he hid them in a manger, and
was at last free to seek the shelter of his grocery establishment in the
Cowgate.
Smith was up betimes on the Sunday, and by eight o’clock was “tirling”
at the door in Brodie’s Close, to inform the Deacon of what he had
missed. The maid told him, however, that her master was still in bed, so
Smith left a message that he wanted to see him, and returned home. Later
in the day the Deacon called upon him, and Smith, having meantime
fetched the black stockings from the Grassmarket, poured out upon the
bed their glittering contents, remarking, “You see what luck I have been
in; you might have been there, but, as you did not go, you cannot expect
a full share. But there are the goods; pick out what you choose for
yourself”--which certainly seems handsome behaviour on Smith’s part,
although Brodie afterwards complained that he had been treated badly in
the matter. The Deacon accordingly selected for his own use a gold seal,
a gold watch-key set with garnet stones, and two gold rings. They valued
the whole articles at £350 sterling, and must have been good judges, for
that was the figure which the owners themselves subsequently put upon
the goods.
That same day they walked past Bruce’s shop several times to see if the
robbery had been discovered, but found everything as they had left it.
Delighted at the success of his coup, Smith boldly proposed returning
that night “in order,” as he said, “to sweep the shop clean,” but Brodie
dissuaded him from so hazardous an attempt. They then consulted as to
the safest means of disposing of the goods, with the result that, on the
following Wednesday, Smith set off with them on foot to Dunbar, and from
thence took the mail-coach to Chesterfield, where he parted with them to
one John Tasker _alias_ Murray--who had previously been banished from
Scotland--for £105. The Deacon had advanced five and a half guineas for
the expenses of the journey, and, on his return, Smith repaid this sum,
and entrusted Brodie with the balance to keep for him, and give him as
he required it; but Brodie “gained a great part of it at play.” The
Deacon, therefore, did not do so badly after all.
[Illustration: Head of Brodie’s Close, Lawnmarket.
(From a Drawing by Bruce J. Home.)]
It is interesting to note in passing that during this period--the winter
of 1786-7--Deacon Brodie had for an opposite neighbour no less a person
than Robert Burns. While the poet was sharing his friend Richmond’s
lodgings in Baxter’s Close, Lawnmarket, there also dwelt in the adjacent
Wardrop’s Court Alexander Nasmyth, the artist, whose portrait of Burns
was painted at this time. It is probable that the poet, the painter, and
the Deacon foregathered with other kindred spirits at Johnnie Dowie’s
tavern in Libberton’s Wynd, the recognised resort of the Edinburgh wits
of that day.
* * * * *
The partners seem to have rested satisfied with the substantial profits
of their last transaction for a considerable time, for the next robbery
of which we have any details was not carried out till 16th August, 1787.
In this, for the first time, they had the advantage of Ainslie’s
assistance, he being taken into their confidence for that end. The three
repaired to Leith, to the shop of John Carnegie, a grocer at the foot of
St. Andrew Street, which Ainslie and Smith entered by means of
pick-locks--Brodie remaining without to watch--and carried off “350
pounds of fine black tea,” at that period a very valuable haul. Two
wallets were filled from the chests in the shop, but “Ainslie being ill
at this time and Brodie being weakly,” they were forced to abandon one
of the wallets, which they hid in a shed in a field by the Bonnington
Road, where it was afterwards recovered. The Deacon objected to the
other wallet being taken to his house, and what became of it is not
known.
In their next undertaking the company was raised to its full strength by
the accession of John Brown _alias_ Humphry Moore, whose previous
experiences in England eminently qualified him to take an important part
in such criminal enterprises. Brown appears to have been spending the
autumn in Stirlingshire, but his visit was suddenly brought to a close
in September on his banishment from that county by the Justices of the
Peace for a theft committed by him within their jurisdiction. This was a
more boldly conceived robbery than the gang had yet attempted--no less
than the theft of the silver mace belonging to the University of
Edinburgh. The Deacon, in the course of those walks with Smith, in which
healthful exercise was combined with an eye to business, “carried” the
latter “to the College Library, where, having observed the mace
standing, Brodie said that they must have it.” Ainslie was accordingly
sent to see where the mace was usually kept, and reported that it was in
the Library, where the others had seen it. Accordingly, on the night of
29th October, 1787, the quartet proceeded to the University. “Having got
access at the under gate, they opened the under door leading to the
Library with a false key, which broke in the lock; and thereafter they
broke open the door of the Library with an iron crow, and carried away
the College mace.” The magistrates offered a reward of ten guineas for a
discovery of the thieves, but without success. The mace was forthwith
despatched to the accommodating Tasker, of Chesterfield, at the
appropriate address of the “Bird in Hand,” and the macer thereof knew it
no more.
Brown appears entitled to the credit of planning the next robbery, and
took a leading part in its execution. In those days the merchants of
Edinburgh usually resided above their business premises, and the key of
the shop was hung on the inside of the door--a habit highly appreciated
by the Deacon’s little band. Brown brought to Smith the key of a shop
belonging to one John Tapp, which, he said, also opened the door of that
gentleman’s house; and Smith, having cast a professional eye over same,
assured him “there was nothing in it.” Thereafter, one evening about
Christmas time, between nine and ten o’clock, Brown dropped in upon John
Tapp, whom he detained in his shop over a friendly and seasonable
bottle. His associates, meanwhile, opened the house door with a false
key and rifled the good man’s repositories, making off with “eighteen
guinea notes, and a twenty shilling one, a silver watch, some rings, and
a miniature picture of a gentleman belonging to Tapp’s wife, which
picture they broke for the sake of the gold with which it was backed.”
One wonders if Mrs. Tapp mentioned the loss to her husband. These
valuables accompanied the mace to Chesterfield, where John Tasker
_alias_ Murray seems to have driven a brisk, though illegitimate, trade,
along with a letter to him, written by Brown in Smith’s name, arranging
for their disposal.