Abstract
Capital punishment occupies a central area of investigation within the annals of Western European penal history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However studies of Scotland have thus far garnered limited academic attention, especially when compared to practices in England. Based upon the extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of previously untapped primary sources, this thesis provides the most in-depth investigation into the use of capital punishment in Scotland between 1740 and 1834 to date. It examines some of the key themes permeating the wider historiography such as the theatre of the gallows and the changing nature of the public execution from a Scottish perspective in order to both enhance the current field whilst also providing a rethinking of some of the broader assumptions. Through an analysis of the fluctuations in Scotland’s use of the death sentence and the changing public discourse towards capital punishment throughout this period, the thesis will demonstrate the unique Scottish experience. Furthermore, it will highlight notable areas of comparison with practices in England, an area of research thus far largely neglected by Scottish and English crime historians alike. While previous studies of capital punishment have ended with the public execution, a central area of investigation in this thesis will be the enacting of post-mortem punishments upon the Scottish criminal corpse in the wake of the 1752 Murder Act. An analysis of the punishments of dissection and hanging in chains, and their place within the criminal justice system’s response to the crime of murder, presents a caveat in the long term narrative of the changing nature of capital punishment between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Highlights
It seeks to provide a fresh perspective upon key events in eighteenthand early nineteenth-century Scottish history including Anglo-Scottish relations in the post-Union period, the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and the rapid urbanisation, and population growth and density, witnessed in parts of the country, and how these things impacted upon the use of the death sentence
The diary of Sylas Neville, a medical student in Edinburgh in the 1770s, helps to shed light upon how the bodies were used during lectures.[63]. These sources allow for an exploration of dissection as a punitive measure whilst questioning how the bodies yielded by the Murder Act, albeit relatively few in number, were used for pedagogical purposes and in the pursuit of anatomical knowledge in Scotland. This opening chapter has laid out the key themes and research enquires to be addressed
It has detailed the extensive gathering and analysis of the range of primary source materials utilised in constructing the work and, in consultation with a large body of secondary literature, has provided the crucial context into which the analyses provided in subsequent chapters will be situated
Summary
The history of capital punishment has been the focus of extensive and sustained investigation, with the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries offering a pervasive attraction to crime historians of Western Europe. IV c.75), the year 1834 marked the final repeal of the clauses set out in the Murder Act. Despite the importance of these specific dates in bookending the study, these chronological parameters allow the book to demonstrate that the period between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth century was one of debate and transition in the use of the death sentence and one of fundamental change in the carrying out of the public execution spectacle in Scotland. A quantitative survey of the malefactors sent to the gallows, including analyses based upon the types of offences committed, the geography of capital punishment and the shifting proportions of capitally convicted offenders who were subsequently executed, allows the study to explore long-term patterns and developments in the implementation of the death sentence It facilitates examinations into peak periods of capital punishment in Scotland between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These sources allow for an exploration of dissection as a punitive measure whilst questioning how the bodies yielded by the Murder Act, albeit relatively few in number, were used for pedagogical purposes and in the pursuit of anatomical knowledge in Scotland
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