The 1690 Scottish ‘Act Anent Murdering of Children’

 

Latheron was a quoad omnia parish  - a parish for civil and religious purposes. The kirk session had authority to act as a court.

In 1762,16 October, the Latheron session clerk wrote: “This day was presented the Act of Assembly ordering to engross in our minutes An Act of Parliament William and Mary Anent Murdering of Children, the tenor thereof follows”…(the clerk left a page to add the information but did not return to it – see page 183).

 

The 1690 Scottish ‘Act Anent Murdering of Children’ stipulated that ‘if any woman shall conceal her being with child, during the whole space, and shall not call for and make use of help and assistance in the birth, the child being found dead or amissing, the mother shall be holden and repute the murderer of her own child.’

This 1690 Act in abbreviated form, was read out to congregations in Scotland regularly.

Thus, in certain circumstances, if a woman had concealed her pregnancy and the birth of an infant that had subsequently died, or had any still birth, miscarriage, or abortion, even if there was no direct evidence, this was open to interpretation as infanticide. Some women in Scotland were executed for this crime or faced deportation or a prison sentence. In 1709 Janet Mitchell, who was about 28 years old and worked as a servant maid to John Watt in Sunnyside, Saline, was tried in Dunfermline and hanged for the murder of her new born child. 

However, it also seems that during the eighteenth century the Scottish courts exercised discretion when sentencing offenders. The Latheron kirk session elders admitted their inability to stop James Sinclair, Younger, of Latheron, and curb his sexual immorality. So he went on ruthlessly for almost twenty years ‘taking’ single women, many of them his servants. At least one of these occasions was clearly a violent rape – see Elspet MacKenzie – a crime hard to prove and would never have ‘stuck’ to Sinclair. The women themselves had to confess their pregnancy to the kirk elders, endure humiliating public admonish and shame, followed by a lifetime of struggle to bring up their child. And there was always the terrifying possibility that if their baby did not survive the pregnancy and delivery they could be charged with murder. The midwives themselves could be scary. There are several records where the midwife, when the woman was in the extremities of labour, demanded she speak out the name of the father. If the woman refused, the midwife might withdraw her necessary assistance. 

Engraving of Scotswomen singing while waulking cloth, c. 1770

I have done some cut and paste with this old engraving to make a point. It looks a bit strange but it is not a joke. The impact on the thirteen women and twelve babies, victims of James Sinclair, Younger, of Latheron, was incalculable and would have affected at least two generations of his victims.The man on the left walks away.

Thirteen women pregnant by James Sinclair Younger of Latheron.

1757,13 Dec. Baby George baptized. Sinclair presented baby.

1761,16 Aug. Elspet Gun. Brought forth a dead baby.

1763, 11 Sep. Baby Emelia baptized. Sinclair presented baby. Mother Janet Oag.

1763, 18 Dec. Katherine Forbes pregnant. Appeared before session.

1764, 18 Mar. Baby Janet baptized. Sinclair presented baby.

1764, 12 Jun. Elizabeth Gun pregnant. Appeared before session.

1766, 6 Aug. Baby Jean (or Jane) baptized. Sinclair presented baby.

1769, 15 Jan. Marste Sutherland pregnant. Appeared before session.

1769, 16 Apr. Elspet MacKenzie pregnant. Appeared before session.

1769, 13 Aug. Baby William baptized. Sinclair presented baby.

1771, 24 Nov. Elspet Gun pregnant. Appeared before session.

1773, 31 Oct. Elspet MacKenzie pregnant. Appeared before session.

1776, 2 May. Baby Elizabeth baptized. Sinclair presented baby.

 

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/virtual-volumes/  Latheron kirk session, Minutes (1734-1776, with gaps) Pages 150 – 183 - 333

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/virtual-volumes/ Latheron kirk session, Baptisms 1754-1765 Page 41

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/virtual-volumes/  Latheron kirk session, Minutes (1764-1766) Baptisms Page 181

https://dunfermlinehistsoc.org.uk/the-execution-of-janet-mitchell/

 

ACT Anent Murthering of CHILDREN

Our soveraigne lord and lady the king and queen’s majesties, considering the frequent murthers that have or maybe committed upon innocent infants, whose mothers do conceale their being with childe and doe not call for necessary assistance in the birth, whereby the new borne childe may easily be stifled or being left exposed in the condition it comes to the world it must quicklie perish; for preventing whereof, their majesties, with advyce and consent of the estates of parliament, doe statute, enact and declare that if any woman shall conceal her being with child dureing the whole space and shall not call for and make use of help and assistance in the birth, the child being found dead or amissing, the mother shall be holden and repute the murderer of her own childe, and ordaines all criminall judges to sustaine such processes, and the lybell being remitted to the knowledge of ane inqueist, it shall be sufficient grounds for them to return their verdict finding lybell proven and the mother guiltie of murder, tho there be noe appearance of wound or bruise upon the body of the childe, and ordaines this act to be printed and published at the mercat cross of the head burghs of the severall shyres and to be read in all the paroch churches be the reader of the parish.

William II and Mary II: Manuscript 1690, 15 April, Edinburgh, Parliament Parliamentary Register At Edinburgh July 19 1690 Legislation

https://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?action=print&id=52648&filename=william_and_mary_ms&type=ms