Infanticide, an anonymous letter to John Murray, Lord Advocate of Scotland 1836

 

This anonymous letter accuses Alexander Greenlees of Campeltown of the crime of infanticide in November 1835. The Greenlees of Campbeltown (Argyll and Bute) appear to have been whisky distillers and so well-off enough to employ servants inlcuding a girl named only as Macmillan/McMillan in this letter; the surname was very common  in the district and I cannot provide a first name for the girl.

A case was opened in Campbeltown against Greenlees for "Child Murder" on 24 February 1836 but there is no further relevant record; the explanation may be this: born on the 6th October 1817 in Campbeltown, Alexander Greenlees died - according to a grave inscription in his home town - on the 11th April 1836 in Siam.

I am suspicious of the Siam death with this exact date, located for me by Dr Richard Forty. It is true that the principal merchant in Bangkok at this time was Robert Hunter of Glasgow who travelled back and forth to Siam. So there could have been a ship which went out to Bangkok at the right time and the Greenless family may have been able to put forward Alexander with or without Hunter's knowledge of the accusation against him. If he then died in Siam, Hunter or his local manager would have written to Scotland with the exact date of death. Siam would have provided better protection than India where the administration could have caught up with him. There was no British administration in Siam. 

It is still the case that the time-frame from early February to the supposed  date of Greenlees' death is very tight; further research would have to point to a ship completing a voyage from Glasgow to Bangkok within a two-month time frame. An alternative hypothesis is that Greenlees did not die, that his family pretended that he did, but that in reality he made his escape to some British colony, Australia or New Zealand for example, where he might have been able to create a new identity.

The anonymous letter has a BROOMIELAW postmark which is a dockside area in Glasgow and the writer who has detailed knowledge of the case may also have heard about a possible escape.

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Transcription

No Dateline and no signature

Addressed to: J.A. Murray Esqr.   M.P. for Leith    London with Mr Cleghorn written above in another hand

Postmarks: straight line BROOMIELAWE which should help identifications (The Broomielaw is a historic street and waterfront area on the north bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow) transit GLASGOW 8 APR 1836; Free Frank privilege mark in red dated 11 AP 1836 and applied in London

Docketing note: Anonymous Letter to the Lord Advocate

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As Lord Advocate for Scotland perhaps you have never heard if the following case which occurred in a Small Town in Argleshire some time ago a common report went through the town that a Girl the name of Macmillan servant to Alexr. Greenleas) was with child and that the Father of the child was Alexr. Greenlees Junr son of the Girls Master the Girl left her service on the 1^st Novr last in bad health and went to stay with an Aunt where Dr Mackae was called to see her on the 4^th Novr she got well in a few days & went to stay with her sister  at a farm about 10 miles from town Nothing was ever heard of her or her child from the time she left her service until the 5ht of Feby when the Body of a child wrapped in a sheet & petty Coat was found in a ditch near the town. McMillan girl was immediately suspected to be the Mother of the Child on account of Mrs Greenlees initials being on the sheet. The Procurator Fiscal immediately apprehended McMillan and young Greenlees and both were put into Gaol where they underwent several examinations the purport of which was that the Girl was delivered of a child in her Masters house about 2 o’clock on the morning of the 1^st Novr that after the child was born she gave it to its Father along with the sheet off the Bed and a petty Coat of her own that he immediately went away with it but she could not tell what became of it afterwards. She did not suppress her cries during the Labour and she thinks the whole of Greenlees’ family must have heard her, Greenlees’ daughter slept with her the night the Child was born yet this Girl says she never heard her but it easily can be proven where Mrs Greenlees  told that she had instructed her Daughter what to say in her examinations it likewise can be proven where the Girl McMillan told she neither said or did anyting but what she was bribed to, one medical man proves that the Girl McMillan was with child a second Medical man proves she was delivered of a child and other two proves that there were marks of violence on the head of the child found wrapt  in the sheet and petty Coat which the Public are certain was the very sheet and petty Coat which young Greenlees put the child into.

McMillan told her Agent that the child was born live that she gave it to its Father alive therefore he must have murdered it. The Agent made no secret of what was told him as McMillan said she had told her Aunt all about it.

The whole case was faithfully reported to the Crown Counsil at Edinbr – they sent back an order to liberate the Prisoners without the least show of Trial or any other thing whatever the Public say that Bribery must have been used to get the prisoners off but if so you will know in what Quarter cases of trifling importance to the above are often tried before the Lords of Justice & the offenders severely punished

If the above is not further looked after means will be taken to represent the case to Parliament