West Lothian - The Dark Side

Hubble, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1499763689 ISBN 13: 9781499763683

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

Using the indictments and witness statements for the following cases, I have written short stories about people who either originated from West Lothian or whose crimes were committed there in the earlier part of the nineteenth century. There are a great many thefts, as you would expect, but it is interesting to note how serious these crimes were considered when the articles being stolen are taken into consideration. Most people had few possessions unless they were from a relatively wealthy family and these articles had to be used for many years, unlike today's throwaway society. It is difficult to believe, for instance, that for stealing articles of clothing a young girl of 18 years could be transported to Tasmania. People knew down to the last handkerchief exactly what they owned and generally where they had seen it last. The demon drink! It is immediately obvious, and would no doubt be welcome reading to those in the temperance movement, that most of these incidents occurred due to "taking a dram" - alcohol. One must keep in mind that it was probably safer to drink beer in the nineteenth century, as diseases could be spread by drinking the polluted water which was available then. Alcohol was fairly cheap and many took advantage of this. There were many public houses (and these could merely be in the form of someone's house, for instance) in Scotland in general around this time. Anti social crime due to drinking alcohol is certainly not a new phenomenon, as the following pages will testify to.