Andrew Meklejohn

Level 349

Maureen Withey on 22nd January 2023

HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY. There were four men appointed for trial Monday before this Court, which were disposed of as follows: Andrew Meiklejohn, alias Buchanan, alias Whinny, and John Hunter, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging them with two acts of theft by opening lockfast places, aggravated in the case of the first-named prisoner by his being habit and repute a thief. The first charge was laid as as having been committed on the 24th September, in the house of Archibald Douglas, publican at Guildtown, a village on the Perth and Blairgowrie road, and consisted of £8 5s. 6d. in cash, six silver tea-spoons, and a silver sugar spoon; the second as committed on the following day, 25th September, in the house of Angus Cameron, innkeeper at the shore of Newburgh, in Fifeshire and consisted of thirty sovereigns, a silk purse, and child's frock sleeve in which the money hail been wrapped. Evidence was led in support of the first charge, to the effect that the prisoners had entered Douglas' house under pretence of getting refreshment, and that soon after, two drawers, which were previously locked, were found to have been to have been opened. and the money and spoons abstracted; the spoons were all found on the person of Hunter when apprehended next day. In support of the second charge, it was proved that th« prisoners had gone into Cameron’s at Newburgh, and called for a dram, that they were shown into a room up stairs, where they remained about half-an-hour. The mistress of the house took suspicion on being offered payment a second time for the spirits they had had, and immediately discovered that her drawers had been opened, and the sovereigns were gone. She gave the alarm within fire minutes, and the prisoners were soon afterwards taken into custody. Nineteen sovereigns were found deposited in a dunghill at which Meiklejohn was seen standing, two on his person, one dropped at his foot after he was apprehended, and two more were found on the road. large bunch of skeleton keys were found in an adjoining garden ; and a pick-lock and two more keys were found in the council room of Newburgh, where the prisoners had been taken for examination, which pick-lock, on being on being applied by a blacksmith, readily opened Cameron's drawers. Two criminal officers from Glasgow proved the aggravation against Meiklejohn ; they had known him for ten years ; during the last five he had the reputation of a common thief, and was known not only by the three different aliases in the indictment, but by the more classical cognomen of The Sniveller. The Jury were addressed the Solicitor-General for the Crown by Messrs Bell and Jamieson for the pannels, and the Lord Justice Clerk charged the Jury, who returned verdict of Guilty. Meiklejohn was sentenced to transportation for life, and Hunter for fourteen years. Perthshire Constitutional, 5 Feb 1836.