You can pick out such fascinating titbits when reading old newspapers and I came across this entry recently.
Hawick Advertiser, 25 January 1868:
Hawick Advertiser, 25 January 1868:
PUBLIC APOLOGY
"I, Mary Turnbull or Chisholm do hereby declare that I have falsely
accused Margaret Thornburn or Wilson, wife of Archibald Wilson of improper
conduct, and I do hereby apologies for the same.
Mary Turnbull, Ladylaw
Place, Hawick
21st January 1868.”
The mind starts whirling as to what the accusation was! We shall never know.
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| Lookiong down on the mill town of Hawick |
The 1861 census for Hawick identifies an Archibald and Margaret Wilson aged 38 and 40 - no children listed. Archibald's occupation was given as "wool puller" in a town that was the centre of the Borders's textile industry.
A Mary Turnbull married a James Chisholm in Hawick in 1856 - both popular surnames in the Scottish Borders, so impossible to say if this was the perpetrator.
Otherwise I have been unable to trace any further background on this story. It does occur to me - how many ordinary people would be able to read the newspaper in 1868, so how "public" would be the apology.
[Black Sheep Sunday is one of many daily prompts from Geneabloggers.com to encourage bloggers to write about their family history]
I wonder if her accusation would appear in the Kirk Sessions?!
ReplyDeleteThat's a thought, Pauleen. Thanks for the suggestion.
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