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The reference for the execution of Christine Sinclair for
murder in Edinburgh 29th Dec 1813.
The Encylopedia of Scottish Executions: Alex F. Young, Eric
Dobby Printing Limited,
Orpington Kent 1998.
Text Reference states in part,
Tried at Edinburgh for poisoning her 8 month old neice with
arsenic in the parish
of St Ola. She was brought from Kirkwall to Leith on the
excise cutter, Prince of Wales.
She was carried to the scaffold on a chair and her poor and
mean looking body was
afterwards given for dissection. The executioner was
John High of Edinburgh. She
is the only person of the surname Sinclair executed between
1750-1963.
The standard payment to the executioner was 7 pounds 10
pence. The capital
crimes were: Attempt to Murder, Bestiality, Forgery,
Hamesucken (the seeking
and invasion of a person in his dwelling house), Murder,
Piracy, Rape, Robbery,
Stouthrief (synonimous with robbery but taking place in a
dwelling house), theft,
high treason, willful fire raising (settine fire to any house,
barn or other building
or to growing corn, wood or coal heaps).
Sinclair
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