Known as “Incorrigible Nancy”, Agnes Malloy Brown (1848-1915) was one of Scotland’s most-arrested women, racking up over 200 police court appearances in Bo’ness alone. See below for part of her rapsheet…
She was sentenced up to 60 days at a time in Calton Jail for:
drunkenness
breach of peace
throwing tea at her husband
unseemly conduct
biting a woman on the face
bawling in a churchyard
assault with a floor brush…
…smashing police station windows
throwing coal at a crowd
malicious mischief in a police cell
throwing jam-pot at husband
being prostrate in a shop doorway
“disturbing the manse”…
“very filthy language”
being riotous in a tavern
vagrancy
theft of a jacket
breaking fishmongers window
breaking neighbours window
breaking police barracks window…
… threatening minister’s wife
annoying the Town Clerk
climbing inside a distillery kiln
(with daughter) attacking neighbour in her own home
throwing boots at a constable’s house
It’s hard to know Nancy’s true total appearances. She had over 200 in Bo’ness Burgh Court (Police Court) and also appeared in Linlithgow Sheriff and Edinburgh City Burgh Courts. Other contenders for the title at the time included Edinburgh’s Flora Smith, who had her 169th appearance in March 1911, and Dundee’s Ann Dolan Hall (who had an unconfirmed 232 appearances in Edinburgh City Court in March 1902).