In the 16th century, Edinburgh was commonly known to the French as “Lislebourg” or “Liethbourg” (i.e. Leith Town).
Leith, on the other hand, went by “Petit Leith” (i.e. Wee Leith).
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Leithtown and Wee Leith
Tag: Leith
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Execution, Edinburgh Style
Some unusual cases and executions in 16th and 17th century Edinburgh:
30th Jan 1603: Francis Moubray breaks his neck and dies escaping from Edinburgh castle. Next day was taken to gallows, hanged, quartered, beheaded, and displayed at the four city gates.
2nd July 1602: Alexander Rowan (ane cruel man) hanged for “setting ane woman’s bare arse on ane girdill quhen it wes red hot”
3rd July 1602: Johne Stewart beheaded for “cutting off ane man’s privat members”
1572: Christian Gudson, executed for biting off her husband’s finger
27th April 1601: For hanging a picture of the king and queen from a nail on the gibbet (to keep it off the ground), Archibald Cornwall hanged, gibbetted, and burnt.
13th May 1572: Two men and a woman hanged for bringing leeks and salt into Edinburgh without permission
20th February 1598: Thomas Dobie, for drowning himself in a quarry, he was hurled through town and hanged at the gallows.
16th June 1604: Robert Weir (for murder) was tied to a cartwheel and broken with the coulter of a plough.
Abt. 1770, a supposed “merboy” was caught by Newhaven oyster dredgers and was shown at Leith races, giving weight to merfolk as a “true species” i.e. not all were mer-maids. It was apparently preserved and kept in the museum of Alexander Weir of Edinburgh
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Ned Kelly’s Gang in Leith
On 4th Feb 1881, two men thought to have fled to Scotland from Ned Kelly’s bushranger gang assaulted 5 people with sticks and pistols on Leith’s Ferry Rd. After a police shootout one was arrested and one shot himself through the head on Commerical Street.
