As it is Halloween on Wednesday I thought it appropriate to tell you about lawless characters known as "resurrectionists". They went about the country around 200 years ago desecrating graveyards by digging up bodies that were sold to medical professors for the dissecting rooms of colleges. There was a strong suspicion, not without good reason, that graves were being tampered with in the kirkyard of my home-town Sanquhar.
Accordingly, as in other places, it became usual for relatives of the dead to set a watch over the graves of their friends and to guard them until such time the danger of interference was past. These night watchmen were townsmen, generally young tradesmen, who took it in turns. They were armed with guns and provided with an ample supply of food and drink to keep out the cold and fortify their courage.
There was something peculiarly eerie-like in those vigils and the reason that necessitated them that caused an indefinable feeling of fear and apprehension amongst everyone. There was no doubt that a watch was needed.
When John Thomson, the son of a Sanquhar doctor, was attending his medical classes in Edinburgh he was shocked one day to see on the dissecting table the body of a man he knew well, and who had been buried in Sanqhar kirkyard only a few days previously.
The resurrection business was carried on in quite a wholesale fashion and in some instances with little attempt at concealment. One fine summer day, when the weavers and other workmen had finished their mid-day meal and were standing in groups on the street, enjoying a smoke and talking over the news of the day, a gig with a lady and gentleman drove into the town from the west. It passed down the street and pulled up at an inn at the Townfoot. The man handed the reins to a boy, got out and entering the inn, ordered a glass of whisky, which he drank standing. A bystander passed a remark about the fine weather they were having then and enquired if the stranger had travelled far. He further ventured to ask if he wasn't going to treat his wife to a dram. The traveller replied that his wife never took spirits and, bidding his interrogator good-day, re-seated himself beside the lady in the trap.
Now while the stranger was in the inn some of the weavers came forward to have a look at the turnout as the gig was particularly smart looking and the horse a fine, dashing animal. The lady, who was heavily veiled and with a plaid drawn round her, sat erect in the trap, but the stiffness of her posture caused some curiosity among the onlookers. That increased when the man got in beside her because she didn't make the slightest movement when he got in, but sat bolt-erect, and when the horse made a move fell slightly forward. Then it was discovered that a rope was passed round her body fastening her to the back of the seat.
A shout immediately got up that it was a corpse the man had beside him and a rush was made for the gig. Putting his whip to the horse, the stranger quickly got away and the steed dashed down the street at full gallop with the weavers chasing after him. Who he was, or where he had come from and where he was going with his ghastly companion was never found out.
This and other incidents of a similar awesome nature kept the Sanquhar folk - old and young - in a state of timorous excitement for many a day. After the trial of Burke and Hare for the murder of Daft Jamie and others, which took place at Edinburgh in December 1828, resulting in the execution of Burke, terrible tales of "Burkers" and resurrectionists formed the theme of conversation at every fireside. Every now and again the good folks were startled by some of the wicked and loathsome doings of these ghoul-like wretches. This continued for many years.
The stories told about how the Burkers went prowling about at night in lonely roads and on the outskirts of villages. When they met with someone out alone, one of their number would creep up cautiously behind and place a sticking plaster over his nose and mouth. Others were ready with a sack, into which they thrust their victim, who quickly suffocated. The plaster left no incriminating mark and the body was taken to the doctors and sold to them for dissection.
Happily there are no resurrectionists or danger of graves being robbed nowadays, but two hundred years ago the fear was very real indeed and timid people did not care to venture out by themselves after dark.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here