General Chat

omg

shocked

* shocked what* Convent girl has murderer in tree ??

lol

You found me Nolls, my old school pal on the other side...Woody , more coincidence....Nolls and I were at school together in Edinburgh.....

sobs for stray poor stray

see theirs my scandel now you no why i went away to be a stray IV GOT BLUE BLOOD

im very very very very very very very distantly relate to royalty thats scandel enough for me 'sobs into her hankie'

Ohhhh! Polly how could you? Nolls

Thanks Woody....Keeps away from naughty Nolls...Nothing exciting in my tree..

Nudging this up for Polly

I have a convict on the first fleet to Oz in 1788.He was the brother of my 6/g.grandfather.He stole 6shillings and was due to be executed at Exeter in 1786,but this was changed to 7 years hard labour in the new colony.He was kept in a hulk on the Thames until the 1st fleet sailed,and was on 'The Charlotte'.I believe he arrived there,but can't trace anything in Oz afterwards. What has happened to the world?,we have gone from being very cruel with punishment,to the extreme of not being hard enough on REAL crime! Brenda

He sounds a really nasty character, Susan!!! It's okay, Nolls - I can't run very fast today!! It's really interesting though - when I saw the Archbishop Sharp bit I thought I remember something about that! I have a very old and heavy book called 'The Book of Scot's Worthies' which contains the Article of Covenant with all the signatures - I'll look for James Russell!

Oh Sue be sure your family secrets will catch up with you....look at Woody & me oh! dear! Norah

I've got rather more than my fair share of my Black Sheep but the closest scandal to me (not counting the fixing of election votes by a 2x great grandfather!) was 3x great grandfather who was imprisoned for attempting to murder his wife. He was acquitted due to insanity but kept locked up for his own safety and that of his relations. Much much further back I have a very nasty direct ancestor called Robert de Belleme who was a mass murderer. His castle was excavated by Time Team. Time Team historian Robin Bush said of him: 'We've come across many unpleasant characters on Time Team over the years but I think he takes the biscuit as the nastiest. He would take captives and refuse to ransom them, so that he could have the pleasure of torturing them to death. He would impale men and women on hooks. He starved 300 prisoners to death over Lent. And the worst thing of all was he had as a hostage his godson, a little lad, and because the child's father had displeased him he gouged out the child's eyes with his own bare fingernails.' I take some comfort in that he's my 25x great grandfather so I hope the genes are well and truly diluted!!! :(((( I am quite nice.........really I am. Sue

I'm running for cover Woody !! Norah

Norah - Archbishop James Sharpe is in my tree!! He was murdered on Magus Muir in 1679. His father was William Sharpe born in Banff Castle about 1590. His daughter married a Fraser (Lord Saltoun) and an illegitimate granddaughter married William Lascelles. They were the grandparents of Christian Watt m.s Noble whose memoirs were published a few years back!

One of my distant rellies James Russell in c1648 who was a Scottish Covenanter along with 4 others killed Archbishop Sharp, James made doubly sure he was dead by stabbing him twice! Norah

My 3xgreat grandad Edward Willday was an accountant in the 1870s, but one who had his fingers in the till, so to speak. Over two weeks in October 1875, he stole £723 10s 12d from his employer (I found a website calculator for money - last year that sum would have been worth £46,800+) and did twelve months' hard labour for it. In 1880, he then stole three chickens from someone else and got six months for it. As I worked it out, the first time he went to prison, he and his wife had six daughters, aged 12, 11, 9, 8, 5 and one who was a few months old. It seems they got by by working as fishmongers.

Yes one who was hung drawn and quarted. also my grandmother was murdered, another was the illegitimite son of a Countess who in the month of December, 1727, was indicted at the Old Bailey, for the murder of James Sinclair: —- by giving him a mortal wound with a drawn sword in the lower part of the belly; After a trial of eight hours, the jury found him guilty of murder, : a pardon was obtained for him and his companion, and they were accordingly set at liberty on the 5th of March, 1728. and another who had borne the train of Anne Boleyn, on her marriage to Henry VIII,