| Citation |
BEP(F.737.003
14 Feb 1737:21 (79)
Edinburgh, Octob. 28. On Tuesday last one John Crawford,
who rings the bells of the town kirk, fell in company with
two soldiers, and being in liquor boasted of his having
acted a considerable part in Jon Porteous's case: However
he was so cunning as to seduce the soldiers into the
steeple, where (he said) his wife lay in child bed, and that
they should eat a mouthful of the groaning loaf before he
was committed to prison. They accompanied him thither in
the mean time; but, in a place of refreshment, he suddenly
lock'd the door of the apartment into which he had carried
them, and getting hold of the bell-tow, let himself down
into the floor of the kirk. Not satisfy'd with leaving the
poor men in this dark and forlorn state, he went and told
the captain of the guard, that two soldiers were robbing his
house; but the plot being discovered, for as he was sliding
down, the bell toll'd, which alarm'd the city, People
thinking it was fire, they were acquitted, and he committed
to the city guard.
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