Half Hangit Maggie

Well this is a story about a fishwife who was hanged back in the 1700's in Edinburgh for concealing her pregnancy to a innkeepers son although still technically married but separated as the concealment of pregnancy act of 1690 meant she would be hanged the story goes that she tried loosening the rope when she was able to free her hands but she was pronounced dead after the hanging there was then a struggle between family and medical students for the cadaver and the family won they took the body of Maggie back to Musselburgh on horse and cart in the coffin and on the way back a moaning was heard coming from the coffin and when the lid was lifted she was found to be alive over a couple of weeks the church and judiciary argued what should happen to her and in the end they said that as the sentence had already been carried out that she could carry on her life as it must have been gods will, there is still a pub in Edinburgh's Grassmarket that carries her name she lived for another forty years after the hanging and the locals nicknamed her Half Hangit Maggie I tried to find out where she was buried a while ago and it referred to her being buried in this cemetery and this was the only grave I could find with a Maggie Dickson so I'm not sure if its the right grave but the story itself is fascinating one of what happened all these centuries ago in my home city