BAD EGG WELCHES ON RASCAL OVER COAT
The following unedifying tale appeared in the Caledonian Mercury on 18 March 1745, some four months before the arrival on Eriskay of Charles Edward Stuart and the outbreak of the Jacobite Rebellion.
We'd be grateful if any reader could tell us more about Colonel Laselle's Regiment. 'Quarrel-holes'—the flooded workings of an old quarry—were situated in the easternmost angle of today's Royal Terrace Gardens between London and Easter Roads. 'MAXIM' in the context below perhaps refers to a style (and size) of coat rather than a principle of conduct. The maxim of not conducting business on the Sabbath has been greatly neglected in Edinburgh over recent years, as has that of not buying hooky goods from strangers.
Henry Jenkins from the Dominion of Wales, and George Maclauchlan from Galloway, the former a Grenadier, the latter a Centinel in Colonel Laselle’s Regiment, having been confined by the Officers of said Corps as guilty of robbing, on Saturday the 9th instant at 1 o’clock at Night, Thomas Wallace and another Late Servants to Mr. George Chalmers Merchant in Leith, a Big Coat (the Property of their Master) on Leith-walk near Picardy:
The Magistrates of this City, willing to detect the Actors of the Robberies lately delivered in this Neighbourhood claimed the said Prisoners, whom the Commandant of the Regiment readily delivered […] last Friday. Their Honours and Assessors had that Day a Sederunt of near 9 Hours in examining several Witnesses, particularly the Woman in Canongate her Family, to whom they, under fictitious Names, offered the Coat to Sale.
Jenkins having been examined, frankly declared, That he and Maclauclan, at the Time and Place alledged, being together, Maclauchlan carried off the Big Coat, and that thereupon they fled: That […] Day Maclauchlan carried him to the Barn-yard of Quarrel-holes, and took up the Big Coat, which he had hid there under Straw: That they offered the same to […] that Night; but that the Woman would make no bargain on a Sunday: That after waiting several Times for said Woman to compleat the Sale, she told them she had delivered up the Coat to Baillie Wilson as stolen: That they had the Assurance to call at the said Baillie’s house to demand the same, &c. He further owned, That he had carried off a Plaid from a Girl who had followed the Regiment from Stirling, which he sold for a s.
—Maclauchlan, on Examination, was more stiff, and owned little, but what he knew must come out against him, such as, That he had been with Jenkins at offering to bargain about something with the above Woman; And being interrogate, If he did not ask Jenkins about the Matter? said, he did, and his Answer was, I have a MAXIM, upon which I can raise Money, and owned that he had deserted from the said Regiment.
—They were committed that Night to close Prison in the City Jail; and are supposed to be of the Gang that have infested this Part of the Country. Jenkins declared his Willingness to become a King’s Evidence.
