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Monday 4 August 2014

Black Sheep Sunday: A Public Apology?



You can pick out such fascinating titbits when reading old newspapers  and I came across this entry recently.  

Hawick Advertiser, 25 January 1868:

PUBLIC APOLOGY


"I,  Mary Turnbull or Chisholm do hereby declare that I have falsely accused Margaret Thornburn or Wilson, wife of Archibald Wilson of improper conduct, and I do hereby apologies for the same.
Mary Turnbull, Ladylaw Place, Hawick
21st January 1868.”

The mind starts whirling as to what the accusation was!    We shall never know.    

***** 


Lookiong down on the mill town of Hawick

 The 1861 census for Hawick identifies an Archibald and Margaret Wilson aged 38 and 40 - no children listed.  Archibald's occupation was given as "wool puller"  in a town that was the centre of the Borders's textile industry.  

A Mary Turnbull married a James Chisholm in Hawick in 1856 - both popular surnames  in the Scottish Borders, so impossible to say if this was the perpetrator.  

Otherwise I have been unable to trace any further background on this story.  It does occur to me - how many ordinary people would be able to read the newspaper in 1868, so how "public" would be the apology. 

[Black Sheep Sunday is one of many daily prompts from Geneabloggers.com to encourage bloggers to write about their family history] 

2 comments:

  1. I wonder if her accusation would appear in the Kirk Sessions?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a thought, Pauleen. Thanks for the suggestion.

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