Daniel Mclaren

341

Maureen Withey on 19th October 2025

National Records of Scotland: Precognition against Daniel Wheler, Daniel MacLaren, William Law, Margaret Desley, Ann Westwater for the crime of theft by housebreaking at Howard Place, near Edinburgh. Daniel Wheler, alias Lantwheler, Age: 15, tailor, Address: Castlehill [Castle Hill], Edinburgh (Guildford 1827) Daniel MacLaren, Age: 17, mason, Address: Canongate, Edinburgh (Manilus 1827) William Law, Age: 14, brass founder, Address: Campbell's Close, Cowgate, Edinburgh (Eliza 1828) Margaret Desley, alias Duggan, Age: 13, Address: Anderson's Close, West Bow, Edinburgh and Halkerston's Wynd, Edinburgh (on board Princess Charlotte) Ann Westwater, Age: 12, Address: No fixed abode, formerly Halkerston's Wynd, Edinburgh, Origin: Born in Canongate, Edinburgh.(Princess Charlotte). ----------------------------------------------------------- High Court of Justiciary. Daniel Lantwheler, Daniel McLaren, and William Law,  three boys, for housebreaking and theft, and. Margaret Deslie or Duggan, and Ann Westwater, two young girls, for reset of theft, were next placed at the bar. Lantwheler and Duggan were charged with being habit and repute thieves. All the prisoners pleaded Not Guilty. The crimes charged against the boys were committed in the house of Mr J. S. Mack, solicitor-at-law, in Howard Place, Warriston, by entering the bed-room window on the first floor, from  the top of the water-barrel in the back-yard, no less than thirty-four articles of wearing apparel were carried  off, as were a gold watch and appendages, which latter have not been recovered. Agnes and Janet Burnside, servants to Mr Mack proved the circumstances of the robbery, and identified . the various articles exhibited in Court. Mr Mack saw Lantwheler in the Police Office, who had on a shirt and a pair of trowsers, his property The prisoners were apprehended in the house of a woman named Martinshall, in Halkerston's Wynd, where the property was also found, who was severely reprimanded by the Court for suffering the two oldest boys and the girls to harbour in her house, where they cohabited in one room, for which they paid her 8s. per week. Thomas Maconochie and officers of the police proved the habit and repute against the prisoners Lantwheler and Duggan, which closed the case for the Crown. Mr Leslie Melville, who appeared for the prisoner Law,  called his mother, brother, and sister, and also a neighbour, in support of an alibi, who all swore that he was at home  the. whole of the night in question. The Lord Advocate addressed the Jury. for the Crown as did Mr Ferguson for Lantwheler, Mclaren, and the two girls, and. Mr L. Melville for Law. The Lord Justice Clerk closed his summing up of the evidence to the Jury at twenty-five minutes past ten,  which at eleven o ' clock returned into Court with the following verdict :_—Unanimously find Lantwheler and M'Laren Guilty ; unanimously find the libel  against Law, Not Proven ; and , by a plurality of voices. Duggan and Westwater Guilty art and part. Lantwheler and Duggan were sentenced to be transported for life, and Maclaren and and Westwater to be transported for 14 years Caledonian Mercury, 14 Dec 1826, and The Scotsman, 13 Dec 1826.