Trials

Trials were commonly reported on, and one of the most popular topics printed in the Scottish broadsides. Crimes and the resulting trial could be printed in a number of issues to cover the original crime, the trial, the execution and confessions and last words. Many of the speeches made on the scaffold and confessions were not real, and instead imagined by the writers of the broadside. Below we have produced two summary visualisations that show what crimes people were tried for and the outcomes of the trials.