Storytelling is fundamental to the human condition. Stories have been used from ancient times to today, to tell us about our history, our culture, and instruct us in how to live safe, happy, and productive lives. Stories connect us to people from different cultures, places, and times, by showing us how the basic human condition remains the same throughout. We all experience emotion through our experiences, and when we hear stories from the past we feel connected, by recognising the emotions that our ancestors might have felt in that experience. In ancient times stories were shared through an oral tradition, but by the Victorian era stories were shared in many different printed media, the most common of which were the newspapers. Victorian newspapers related the news of the day, often using a storytelling style rather than the reportage of the modern era, with which we are more familiar. And they did so in true Victorian fashion, by cementing the Victorian ideas about morality, class, and faith.
Once such story, found in newspapers of the time, relates to an experience lived by my husband's 3x great granduncle, by the impressive name of James Porteous Watson Grosset. James Grosset was the son of Ebeneezer Grozart and Jane Dickson Shiels. He was born on 9th April 1843, in Middle Mains, Liberton Parish, Midlothian, Scotland. Ebeneezer his father was a blacksmith, as were so many other men in the family, but James Porteous Watson Grosset was a gamekeeper.
James Porteous Watson Grosset married Agnes Scott Laidlaw Dalgleish on the 10th April 1868, when he was 24 years old, and she was 22. James was at that time working as a gamekeeper for the Rosebery Estate at Temple, Midlothian. The Rosebery Estate was home to the Primrose family, and the Earls of Rosebery. At the time of James and Agnes' marriage, the Earl of Rosebery was Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, who had inherited the title and all that came with it, just a month earlier. Archibald Primrose was a Liberal politician, who was to become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1894- 1895. He was also known as Lord Dalmeny, until he succeeded his father as Earl of Rosebery.
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| Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Roseberry |
James Grosset and Agnes Dalgleish had 5 children together. Their first child was named James, and was born 3 months before their marriage, on the 23rd January, 1867. Their first daughter was born a year after their marriage, on the 31st January 1869. Subsequent children included Ebeneezer Grosset (born 1872), Jessie Grosset (born 1874), and Alexander Grosset (born 1874). It was shortly before their 15th Christmas together as a family, that the tale began to unfold.
The story tells a tale of our hero, gamekeeper James Grosset, and his two colleagues who were fatally wounded one moonlit night, by a pair of evil poachers. Reports of the case first appeared in December 1883, shortly after the crime had occurred. The reports relayed brief details of the event. Further accounts were published in January 1884, when it was understood that the crime had resulted in the deaths of two innocent men. These were short pieces, barely a paragraph each, and certainly not demonstrative of the storytelling style I've described above.
The next time the story appears in the newspapers we learn about the court case, against the two poachers; Robert Flockart Vickers, and William Innes. On the 10th March 1884 the case against Robert Vickers and William Innes was heard at the High Court of Justiciary, in Edinburgh. Lord Young was appointed judge for the case. Lord Young (aka George Young) was a highly esteemed lawman who had spent time earlier in his life as the Solicitor General for Scotland, and Lord Advocate for Scotland. It was Lord Young who created the Education (Scotland) Act in 1872, which compelled all towns and villages across Scotland to provide free education to children between 5-11. (It wasn't until 1891 that England followed suit, when it passed the Elementary Education Act.) George Young had been a member of Parliament for almost 10 years, before taking a position as a judge of the Court of Session in 1874, and adopting the title Lord Young. By the time the case against Vickers and Innes was heard, Lord Young had been presiding as a judge for a decade. The superiority of this judge speaks a little to the seriousness of the crime.
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| Lord Young (1819 - 1867) |
Both men pleaded 'not guilty'. The prosecution, led by the Solicitor General for Scotland, who was Alexander Asher at the time, laid out evidence proving that the accused, armed with shot guns, deliberately set out to attack the three gamekeepers, who were only carrying sticks at the time. It took but an hour for the jury to deliberate, returning to court to announce their verdict of 'guilty', found by a majority of 9 votes to 6. Lord Young passed the death sentence on both men, and also stated that the men should not hope for leniency. They would be hanged on the 31st March.
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| Alexander Asher (1835 - 1905) |
I find it very curious that all the articles about the crime up until this point were relatively short. It is only on the occasion of Vickers and Innes' execution that the story warrants significantly more column space. The last public execution in Scotland had taken place in 1867, and in England the last had taken place in 1868. Whilst executions continued, in private, clearly the public's desire to know details about each execution also continued. Newspapers were diligent in this work.
In the final published articles the story is told in full; from crime, to court case, to the background of the men who were found guilty, their family life, and faith, and finally their execution. Each part of the story includes more detail than given in earlier reports, and we hear the story in a lyrical style which today we would usually associate with fiction.
"It was a beautiful moonlight morning. The air was clear and bracing, a sharp wind was blowing, and altogether the weather seems to have been highly favourable for a nocturnal ramble, but particularly so for poaching purposes. So James Grosset, the head gamekeeper on the estate of Rosebery, appears to have thought, for he, with John Fortune, another gamekeeper, then residing near Moorfoot, and John McDiarmid, a rabbit trapper, residing at Rosebery, suspecting that advantage would be taken of the moonlight and the breeze went out to watch for trespassers."
Later the story further unfolds, using the witness statement of James Grosset as the foundation of the prose. We learn that James Grosset and his fellow game keepers had searched the Rosebery Estate for poachers, and had decided to retire, satisfied that the land, and it's game was safe. On arriving home, however, James heard a gun shot, so he departed immediately, collected the two under keepers and with sticks in hand, went straight towards the direction of the gunshot. A second shot rang out, which took them towards the bridge over the Edgelaw Reservoir, by the Redside Brae. Eventually they saw the two men, Vickers and Innes.
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| Edgelaw Reservoir |
"Grosset and his companions then lay down by the fence. After a careful look around the poachers began to descend into the field in the direction of the gamekeepers. When they had approached to about 15 yards of them, Grosset, Fortune, and McDiarmid sprang to their feet."
Clearly, the men did not run away. James Grosset went on to testify what was then said, and the subsequent actions.
"Grosset stated:- "I knew both of the men. I called out to Innes, 'There is no use of running or going on like that; I know you, Innes.' I knew the other man to be Vickers, but I did not know his Christian name. Innes called out to stand back. Innes got up his gun, and said to Vickers, "You take that one and I will go for this." I saw the guns raised by both men. Both fired, but there was a second or so between the shots. Vickers fired first, and McDiarmid fell. In a second or two Innes fired, and the shot hit me on the back. Four pellets went into my back at the moment I was stooping to ask McDiarmid if he had been hurt. I immediately got up and made for Fortune, who fell from a shot fired by Vickers. I asked Fortune if he was shot, and the answer was, "A ball right through the heart," and he added, "What will my poor wife do or say?" Innes pointed the gun straight at me when he was between 10 and 15 yards away, and fired, but the cap missed fire. I told Fortune to keep quiet and I would run for assistance. Fortune just gave a moan. The men by this time were on the edge of the hill, and were engaged again loading their guns. I identify the prisoners as the two men. I have known Innes for seventeen years and the other for two or three years. I knew the men quite well by sight. When I was about to go I heard Innes say to Vickers, 'Load quick and don't let that b---- get away; give him another shot.' I did not hear a reply, but a second or two afterwards I heard one say (I thought it was Vickers), 'We will get him at the bridge,' referring to the bridge over the reservoir. I went towards the bridge till I got out of sight of the men, when I went in an opposite direction, and proceeded to Simpson's farm and roused the inmates.'"
James Grosset, chief witness for the prosecution, obviously escaped, but John Fortune died 2 days later. John McDiarmid died a few weeks later, on the 8th January, both due to the wounds sustained on that night in December.
Vickers and Innes, after their sentencing and despite their 'not guilty' plea, gave a confession that corroborated James Grosset's testimony. They claimed that they had simply intended to wound the men, to allow for their escape, and they denied that they planned to catch the head gamekeeper at the bridge. Instead, they escaped and were apprehended before the day was out.
Despite Lord Young's warning that leniency should not be hoped for, a petition for clemency was sent to the Home Secretary, signed by many people. It argued that the wives of Innes and Vickers did not give witness, and could have testified that the two men did not leave their respective family homes that night. This argument was received as a moot point, as it had been agreed that the men left while the rest of their households were sleeping, and were likely still sleeping when the men returned home again. The Home Secretary at the time was Lord Harcourt, under the prime minister William Gladstone. Both Lord Harcourt and the Earl of Rosebery were politicians in the Liberal party, and they clearly knew and worked together. Lord Harcourt decided to not ask the Queen to alter the course of the law in this case. We will never know if the Rosebery connection caused Lord Harcourt some bias in his decision to not show leniency.
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| Lord Harcourt (1827 - 1904) |
And so, the double execution went ahead; in recompense for the double murder. On the 31st March, 1884, the two men rose early. The newspaper article reported that they had spent, in true Victorian vigour, their last few days in prayer, and reflection, having confessed their guilt. They sent messages of love to their families. It was said of Vickers that,
"He deplored the bad example he had shown his children, and the evil effects which his conduct might entail upon them; but that which cheered and pleased the rev. gentleman most was that the doomed man requested him to call on the families of the murdered gamekeepers to express his sorrow at the trouble he had brought upon them, and to say that he died praying for them along with his own wife and family. At Innes' own request the rev Mr Keay waited upon him yesterday at 6 o'cock, and remained with him until the hour of execution."
The execution of Innes and Vickers was to be a private event, however it seems that supporters of the men started to arrive on the hill outside the wall surrounding Calton Jail, early that morning. The newspaper report suggested that there were up to 5000 people, including men, women, and boys, who waited quietly and without demonstration, for the signal that the execution had taken place; a black flag which was to be raised over the small wooden building which housed the gallows.
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| Calton Jail was once the biggest jail in Scotland. |
"Many seemed to belong to the mining classes, some of whom, having acquaintance with the prisoners, had come in from Gorebridge in the morning. There were no demonstrations of feeling. Silence prevailed everywhere, the vast crowd waiting anxiously the moment when the hoisting of the black flag should announce that all was over."
The condemned men were allowed a final service where much penitential prayer and sermonising was related to them by the Reverend Mr Wilson.
"He then addressed Vickers and Innes, enjoining them to be brave and strong in the strength of their position as humble, penitent, believing sinners with full reliance on the mercy of God, and to let the last act of their life be a perfect surrender of their soul into the hand of Christ. Then would their first awakening in the life to come be a realisation of the truth. "Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow. The 'Amen' which followed this exhortation was joined in by every one present, of whom many were deeply affected."
The Reformer, a Glaswegian newspaper, gave details in their report, about the condemned men's home lives.
"Both were notorious poachers, even their best friends admitting that they were 'fond of a shot.' Between January 1878 and December 1882 Innes had been three times convicted of day poaching, and once of illegal possession of game, as also of assaulting a witness that had given evidence in one of the cases referred to; while against Vickers one conviction for poaching stood recorded, the offence having been committed in Innes' company. Innes would seem to have been a rough and ready, blustering, thoughtless man, who rushed into any rash enterprise, regardless of consequences. Vickers had the reputation of having been, of all his associates, the coolest, most calculating, most determined, and one of the most intelligent. Innes combined with a naturally low cast of mind, the grossest ignorance. He could neither read nor write. Vickers on the other hand is said to have had parts which, if properly cultivated and directed, might have made him a business man. Though coarse in habits, manner, and appearance, he seems to have been in some degree the superior of his companion."
The Reformer, based on the Victorian understanding of morality, attempted to understand the behaviour of Vickers and Innes, by looking at their background.
"Beyond the facts that they were 'fond of a shot' which in this mining community simple means that they were irreclaimable poachers, and they could 'take a dram' with their neighbours on a pay-night, which comes round once a fortnight, little is known of the antecedents of the men. Innes appears to have been left while yet an infant to the care of his father- a poor weak man. The boy was neglected, and grew up in the village of Gorebridge to be a wild, thoughtless lad, ever ready for, and very frequently concerned in, mischief. He became a miner, and worked for the most part in the Arniston pits, near Gorebridge. He became somewhat more settled as he advanced in years, but even after he had married the servant girl at the Gorebridge inn, he stuck to his gun, as well as to his pay-night indulgence. His cottage in Stobhill, just round the corner from the public house in which it is believed Vickers and he arranged the fatal poaching expedition, is said to have been the scene of more that one domestic quarrel, though there is nothing to indicate that he and his wife lived for the most part in other than good terms. He seems to have been a fair worker, but as he occasionally took more drink than was good for him, he saved absolutely nothing, and has accordingly left his wife and children in poverty. As a rule, the people about regarded him as a rough fellow; yet they speak of him kindly, and regard his fate and the condition of those he has left behind with genuine sympathy. Vickers also was a native of Gorebridge. According to one statement, he appears to have come of a race of poachers, and he himself is alleged to have taken to the unhappy practice from an early age. He married while yet young and his wife is spoken of as a woman of intelligence and of a kindly and industrious disposition. Vickers, like Innes, was a good worker, but saved nothing. While Innes was a man of quarrelsome tendency, Vickers is said to have been quiet and good tempered, though when roused he became very violent, and spoke and acted with determination. He too was fond of a 'dram', but is not spoken of as given to excess. Neither men paid much attention to their children; but in this respect Vickers had, if anything, the better reputation. They seldom or never entered a church. As regards the unfortunate families, it appears that soon after the murders, Mrs Innes, who is thirty-nine years of age, applied to the Parochial Board for aid, and now receives 6s per week for her four children, who are aged respectively ten, nine, six, and two years. Mrs Vickers, who is thirty-four years of age, has eight children. The eldest, a boy of fifteen, and the second, a girl of thirteen, earn irregular and small wages. The others are aged respectively eleven years, nine, seven, five, four, and one. For the support of her children she receives from the Parochial Board 7s per week."
The main crux of the final reports were to detail the act of the executions. It makes hard reading so I won't go into that here. I've included all the clippings
here, in case there is a desire to read more. James Berry was their executioner. He had been assisting executions for a number of years, but in 1884 James Berry was in his first year of acting as the nation's executioner. James Berry worked in this role for 7 years, eventually resigning the position in 1892. James Berry carried out 131 executions by hanging in those 7 years, and the heaviness of those acts bore him down. He said, in his book "The Hangman's Thoughts Above the Gallows"
that "the law of capital punishment falls with terrible weight upon the hangman and that to allow a man to follow such an occupation is doing him a deadly wrong." James Berry almost took his own life as a result of the weight of his career's work, but was saved by an evangelical Christian. Following this experience James Berry became an evangelist himself, and worked to promote the abolition of the death penalty, until his death in 1913.
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| James Berry was the first executioner in the UK, who could read and write. He wrote two books about his experiences as the nation's executioner; The Hangman's Thoughts Above the Gallows, and My Experiences as an Executioner. |
One very interesting article regarding the case, from the newspapers of the time reads like an Op-ed piece from todays news media. It questions the justice of sentencing two men to death on a majority verdict, rather than a unanimous vote. In Scottish law there is not just the binary choice of guilty or not guilty. Scottish juries have a third option; that of 'not proven'. The author of this ancient op-ed points out that if just two more jury members had chosen to be more merciful, Vickers and Innes would have been found 'not proven'. The article goes on to question the morality of taking two lives, for two lives, leaving four widows, and all their children without an income, all because a couple of men went out to find some game to supplement their meagre diet. It's a refreshing take on the case, compared to the Victorian morality pieces shared in other papers. James Porteous Watson Grosset was the only man that survived that moonlit night. His wife's widowhood was delayed, but only by 13 years. James Grosset died on 31st January 1897, at the age of 54. His early passing was caused by an intestinal obstruction. The death record does not make a connection with the gun shot wound he received in his back in 1884, but family lore tells us that the family at least believed that his early death was in part a result of that gun shot wound.
The Grosset family was residing in a property on the Rosebery Estate, while James Grosset was head gamekeeper; he had worked as a game keeper on the estate for 32 years. Upon James Grosset's death the family should have left the property, and the family story goes that the Earl of Rosebery wished for Agnes and the family to move to the bothy, a smaller residence on the estate. Agnes' daughter, also named Agnes, was at the time employed by Sir William Haldane, as his children's nanny. Lord Haldane was a lawman and had trained at Edinburgh University. He was the Crown Agent at the time, and as such worked for the Scottish department of public prosecution, called the Crown Office. The head of the Crown office is called the Lord Advocate, and it is the Crown Agent's job to advise the Lord Advocate on prosecution matters. His first child was born in 1893, and so Agnes had worked for Lord and Lady Haldane for at least 4 years by 1897. She appealed to Lord Haldane regarding the question of her mother's accommodation, and asked him to intercede on her mother's behalf. He was clearly talented in the art of persuasion, as the result of Agnes' request was that the mother Agnes, and her family were permitted to remain in the home until Mrs Agnes Grosset passed away.
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| Lord Haldane called this fairy tale looking castle home; Clone House. |
Agnes Grosset remained at the Rosebery Farm Cottage, until her passing on the 14th October 1922, at the age of 78. She was laid to rest, with her husband James Grosset, in the Temple kirkyard.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/storytelling-is-human-1.5511027
https://blog.history.in.gov/the-devils-in-the-details-how-to-enhance-storytelling-with-historical-newspapers/
https://www.storybench.org/how-newspaper-stories-went-viral-in-the-19th-century/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Haldane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Primrose,_5th_Earl_of_Rosebery
https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/200348040-rosebery-house-temple
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorebridge#History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Young,_Lord_Young
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Asher
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2051%3A1-12&version=NIV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2015%3A18-23&version=NIV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Berry_(executioner)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_Kingdom#:~:text=12%20May%201867%3A%20Robert%20Smith,last%20public%20execution%20in%20Scotland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_morality
https://thepeerage.com/p31106.htm#i311056
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