There’s Been A Murder

Dear O’h dear and Lovely Tea Jenny,

On the way home from work, I spotted a plaque on the corner of the High Street and George IV Bridge. It explains that three brass plaques at the edge of the pavement were the site of the gallows for the last public execution in Edinburgh.

The man who met his fate there was George Bryce, the son of a coal merchant who lived in Ratho*. At a village dance George met Isabella Brown, a cook who worked in Ratho Villa and her friend Jeanie Seaton who also worked there as a nursemaid. George and Isabella started courting. He was quite smitten and proposed but she decided to call it off on account of him being a little too fond of the bevvy.

George took great exception to being dumped. He reckoned that the real reason for the break up was because Jeanie had badmouthed him to Isabella (rather than him being a complete p!sshead).

On 16th April 1864, fuelled by booze, George arrived at Ratho Villa and started beating Jeanie. She managed to escape the house but was caught by George at the entrance to a neighbour’s byre where he murdered her by cutting her throat with a razor.

He was arrested and tholed his assize** in Edinburgh, where he was sentenced to death. He was hanged on 21st June 1864, the last person to be publically executed in Edinburgh.

So, that’s today’s rather downbeat story. Hope that brightened your day!

C

*George’s family lived in the building which is now The Bridge Inn on the Union Canal at Ratho.

**Old Scots for stood trial (made me laugh)