This he also declares to be truth; and declares that the declaration
emitted by him on Saturday last, so far as is inconsistent with the
present, is not true.
GEORGE SMITH.
ARCHD. COCKBURN.
No. III.
At Edinburgh, 19th March, 1788.
The which day compeared, in presence of Archibald Cockburn, Esq.,
advocate, His Majesty’s Sheriff-depute of the shire of Edinburgh, George
Smith, present prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, who, being
examined, declares,
That the small crow, the false key, and the curling tongs, now shown to
him, are the same that were found by the declarant, William Middleton,
A. Williamson, and J. Murray, in an old dyke on the 16th instant, and
the label annexed to them is signed by the declarant as relative hereto,
of this date.
Declares that the said crow was carried to the Excise Office for the
purpose of opening the desks in the cashier’s room; that the said false
key is the one that opened the outer door of the Excise Office, and the
curling tongs were squared at the point by the declarant and taken to
the Excise Office for the purpose of opening the spring latch of the
outer door of the cashier’s room, which it did.
And, being shown a coulter and two wedges, declares that he believes
they are the same that were used in forcing open the inner door of the
cashier’s room in the Excise Office and were left there.
And, being also shown a spur, with the upper leather at it, declares
that it belonged to William Brodie; and the declarant tore the end of
the leather in order that it might appear, when found, to have dropped
from the foot by its being torn by accident by the buckle; that Brodie
brought the said spur to the declarant’s house, and from thence it was
taken to the Excise Office, on purpose that it might be left there, to
make it believed it had been done by some persons on horseback; that the
spur was left in the Excise Office by John Brown, as the declarant was
told by him upon the declarant’s questioning him if he had done it, and
the label annexed to the spur is signed by the declarant as relative
hereto, of this date.
And, being shown a parcel of ropes which the declarant is now told were
found in his house, declares that the declarant has no doubt but that
they are the same ropes which were brought to the declarant’s house by
Brodie, and, after being knotted into a ladder, were carried to the
Excise Office by the declarant, brought from thence by him, and
unknotted again in the declarant’s house, in which case he now sees they
are.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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