Adam Lyal

During his first declaration to the authorities, Adam Lyal stated that he was 25. This would mean that he was born in 1785.

1801 - Adam Lyal employed as a servant in the house of Sir (Henry?) Campbell, remaining there for 12 months.

1802 - Poor health forces him to leave. Travels to Stirling and resides with friends for about 2 years.

1804 - He enters the service of Colonel Dallison of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, based in Stirling for about four and a half years. While in service, he travels to different parts of England, the West Indies (for about 18 months) and then to Spain before returning to Scotland.

1808 - Colonel Dallison dies soon after return from Spain and Adam Lyal leaves service.

1810 - Joined the Edinburgh Militia although his Sergeant caught him with "too much to drink" and he was "swore in" as a deserter and imprisoned in Edinburgh jail for 2/3 days under the name of George Steel and then sent out to Dunbar and punished. He remained with the regiment for a further 5-6 weeks and then volunteered for the 93rd Regiment but never joined.

1810 - Leaves employment of John Craig's distillery near Glasgow on 5th October 1810.

John Lyal's (Adam's brother) declaration is sketchy and varies from Adam's. It seems that they met in Glasgow and decided to come to Edinburgh in search of work.

On 22nd October 1810, Adam buys a pair of pistols for 35 shillings in a shop on the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh (His brother was with him when he bought the pistols).They stay in a small public house in the Grassmarket.

The brothers claim that they had gone to Fife to try and find work at a new distillery, near Cupar. However they head to Kinross and the West country by Crook of Devon towards Sheriffmuir.

On the evening of Tuesday 23rd October 1810, Adam and John attacked Andrew Hay, a carrier between Alloa and Dunfermline, and robbed him of his pocket book containing about £10 sterling and a purse containing about twenty shillings of silver.

At around 12 noon on Thursday 25th October 1810, Adam and John attacked a cattle merchant called Matthew Boyd on the public road from Stirling through Sherriffmuir. He was on horseback, about 4 miles north of Stirling near a place called Damhead or Dumhead, when the Lyal's confronted him. Each pointed a pistol at him and Adam demanded his pocket book or whatever he had inside his vest while "threatening to blow his brains if the whole was not delivered". He was robbed of £126 and 9 shillings (a small fortune).

After running away (like all good highway robbers), they walked to Edinburgh from Alloa where they took a chaise the length of Queensferry and then another to Edinburgh, arriving in the city at about 9pm. This time it was no small public house they stayed in but 'Shaws Hotel' on Princes Street. They stay there all night.

Rising early to spend their new acquired 'earnings', Adam buys a pair of spurs for himself and a new pair of boots for his brother.

Arousing suspicion, they were apprehended at 9am on Friday 26th October 1810 and were taken to the Council Chambers for questioning. Found on the brothers were a number of items, including various notes of different banks and banking companies that they had robbed from Matthew Boyd, and the loaded pistols. On Saturday 27th October 1810 upon giving their declarations to the authorities, they confess to various crimes, and as a result, are both incarcerated within the Tolbooth Prison.

Took place on 3rd January 1811. The indict being read, Adam Lyal answered "Not guilty" and his brother said nothing. An Advocate claimed that John Lyal was not a "fit object for trial" because of his "idiotism" (was this a real or pretend fit of insanity?) As a result John was taken back to the Tolbooth.

The jury "all in one voice" found Adam guilty although his sentence was deferred until 14th February 1811.

On 14th February 1811 Adam Lyal was sentenced to be "Detained until Wednesday the 27th March" and that day to be taken to a place chosen by the Magistrates of Edinburgh as "a common place of Execution and then and there between the hours of two and four o'clock afternoon to be hanged by the neck by the hands of the Common Executioner upon a Gibbet until he be dead".

On 21st February 1811, a death warrant for Adam Lyal was received.

On 27th March 1811, the following was recorded in the Tolbooth Records: "Adam Lyal executed in the terms of his sentence". Noted only very briefly in The Scotsman and Edinburgh Courant
newspapers.

At his trial on 15th July 1812 when asked if he was guilty he said "that he did not know". The defence stated that "from his present extraordinary demeanour and appearance they were convinced that he laboured under mental incapacity to a certain extent".

Nevertheless he was found guilty and was sentenced to be
transported for "all the days of his life". If he returned to the country he would "suffer death". After being detained in the Tolbooth for almost a year he was transported to New South Wales, Australia on 2nd June 1813.