Thomas Hepburn

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Maureen Withey on 1st August 2024

HIGH COURT JUSTICIARY Monday, Feb. 8.Thomas Hepburn, sawyer from Newburgh, Fife, was placed at the bar, accused of forgery, and uttering genuine a forged bill of exchange for £68, purporting drawn George Ower, wood merchant, Perth, and accepted by William Elder, wright. Strathmiglo; also ... letter purporting to be written by Ower Walker agent for the Glasgow Union Bank, at Auchtermuchty, requesting Mr Walker to discount the said hill. The prisoner pleaded Not Guilty, and Mr Deas, his Counsel, gave in special defences the effect that he did not forge or utter the bill ; that was his own house in the market place Newburgh the day libelled on, from 1 till 3 o’clock, and therefore could not the utterer of the forged bill and letter. The leading facts the evidence were—Mr Walker stated that the bill was offered for discount at his office between hours of ten and twelve o’clock of the October hut looking at it, suspected all was not right. It was all in one hand-writing, and the christian name of the acceptor was wrong spelt. The letter in which the bill was enclosed was Gorge Ower.” he was not positive that the prisoner was the person who brought the letter, but his general appearance was similar, he was dressed in dark clothes. Handed the bill to his son that he might compare the signature of the acceptor with some genuine subscriptions of Mr Elder. The bill was offered about eleven o’clock. Henry West Walker corroborated his father’s evidence. Was certain the prisoner was the person who brought the letter and bill. Went with him into private room, and pointed out that the bill was wrong drawn, and proposed to send it to Strathmiglo have it corrected; but the prisoner refused to remain, stating that his business in A was and that Ower had servants of his own, whom he might send ; that Mr had merely requested him, as was to be in Auchtermuchty, to deliver the letter; and. if the bill was not discounted, bring it back. Witness gave to prisoner the bill, but retained the letter, which he identified. Prisoner was a quarter hour in the office. Auchtermuchty is five miles from Newburgh. Andrew Allan, clerk to Mr Walker. deposed the prisoner being the person brought the letter and bill, was in the bank a little after 1 o’clock James Lawson, Grange, near was in the habit of employing the prisoner, a sawyer. was not at work the 10th October that was the market day in Newburgh. Saw him in the in. place dressed in his usual working-clothes, betwixt two and three in the afternoon. The witness detailed certain transactions between himself and the prisoner, who had been engaged in building a house. These bills were renewed, and ultimately the witness and the builder had retire them. This occurred in December and January last. Francis Arthur, cooper, Auchfermuchty, knows the prisoner, and saw him in that burgh on Tuesday the 13th October, about quarter eleven o’clock, the road Newburgh, Mr Ower and Mr Elder proved the bill and letter were forgeries. ... The Jury unanimously found the prisoner Guilty of forgery and uttering the document, knowing it to forged, was sentenced to transportation for life. Perthshire Courier, 11 Feb 1836 John Johnstone, weaver, from Newburgh, was charged was charged with the crime of perjury committed by him when under examination as an exculpatory witness in the case of Thomas Hepburn, who was tried before the High Court of Justiciary on 8th February last, and convicted of forging and uttering a forged bill for £68. The defence set up by Hepburn on that occasion was an alibi, and Johnstone deposed, that he saw Hepburn in his own house at Mount Pleasant, near Newburgh, and in his working clothes, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon of 13th October, when the truth, as sworn to byto by other witnesses, was, that Hepburn was at that time in a different dress, and in Auchtermuchty, which is five miles from Newburgh, and there uttering the forged bill for which he was sentenced to transportation for life; nor was the prisoner Johnstone in Hepburn's house at the time sworn to. The other witnesses adduced in Hepburn's case were now called and gave similar evidence as before. Dr Spens was called on the part of the prisoner, and stated, that he considered him of weak intellect, and an ignorant man, but not deranged; that Johnstone had told him in the jail, he was completely confounded by the cross-questioning on Hepburn's trial, which was more likely to be the case with a person of weak than one of strong intellect, though his memory might be as good in the one as in the other. The Jury returned a. verdict of Not  Proved and the prisoner was dismissed from the bar. Caledonian Mercury, 23 June 1836.

4

Paul Gavin Angus Barber on 31st July 2024

Thomas was a Weaver and fell on hard times as the mills began to open and with the birth of his 8th daughter. He forged money as a desperate attempt to get ahead in life and Finnish work on a house. After serving time on Van Dieman’s land, it was printed in the ‘Colonial times’ on the 7th July 1843 Thomas was made an official constable of the Ireland.

4

Helen Glass on 17th September 2015

At the time of his conviction, Thomas was married to Ann and had eight children. He and his family lived in Newburgh, Fife, Scotland.