The Cumnock Poaching Riot of 1833

Until 1831 only the owners of very large estates and their heirs could legally kill game; no one could buy or sell it. But since many wealthy and otherwise respectable citizens like to have it for their dinner, they were willing to break the law to get it. It is against this background that we can now turn to consider the events that unfolded in Cumnock in January 1833.

In late 1832, a band of poachers, regularly organised, and acting under commanders of their own number and choosing, said to be from Glasgow and its neighbourhood, and who are supposed collectively to amount to no less a number than twenty-five, began to operate in the area around Cumnock and Auchinleck. This "daring" band were "infesting and sweeping the game" The members of the band were undoubtedly armed: a Cumnock correspondent of the Ayr Observer stated that "a stranger can form but little idea of the ferocious and reckless nature of these desperadoes. Their threats and imprecations and personal appearance yielded in nothing to what one is apt to conceive of the most thorough-paced bandit".

It was generally believed that the greater part of the game which they killed was sent to Glasgow for sale, but it was also known that what was not sent to Glasgow found a ready sale in two public houses, one in Cumnock and one in Auchinleck. It was stated that on occasion more that twenty hares were sold in a single night in each of these public houses, besides unnumbered pheasants and partridges. Clearly there was a market for their catch, a market which probably went fairly well up the social ladder. The poachers, it was said, spent their nights together in one or other of these pubs, passing the night "in jollity and riot".

These depredations were obviously a matter of considerable concern to the estates, and on the 10th January 1833, the gamekeepers on the Dumfries House estate learnt that a party of four poachers was active in the vicinity of Cumnock. A thorough search was made and a poacher was disturbed at his work on the Marquess of Bute's farm of Roseburn: he was pursued and eventually captured on the lands of Garlaff. With some difficulty, he was brought into Cumnock and, conveyed to, and secured in, the house of Hugh Campbell, grocer and innkeeper.

After his capture, the three other poachers came into Cumnock to ascertain his fate; they were seen by the writer, William White, "passing down the street", and he recognised them as three men for whom a warrant was out. They appear to have been in Campbell's house when they were arrested: certainly they were held there. The poachers were secured in Campbell's house under a warrant granted by a local JP, Alexander Allason of Glaisnock, "in terms of the new Trespass Act"; of them, the one who had been detained on Garlaff was taken from Campbell's to the Dumfries Arms, where he was tried, convicted on the clearest evidence, and, after he had refused either to give his name or to pay the fine imposed, ordered to be conveyed to the jail in Ayr. While in the Dumfries Arms, he tried to escape, and it was found necessary to secure him with ropes until the cart which would take him to Ayr arrived.

In the meantime, word had obviously spread through Cumnock that some of the poachers had been captured, and "in consequence of considerable excitement prevailing, and a disposition to riot being manifested" the powers that be decided to postpone the trial of the other three until the following day. At this point, presumably, a party of constables was brought together to secure these three at Campbell's until then: the hope being that the strong feelings exhibited would have subsided. A cart and driver having been found, they were brought to the Dumfries Arms at about six o'clock in the evening. When the cart arrived at the inn door, a crowd had collected, amounting from two to three hundred; and from the cries and groans which they uttered, it was now evident that they were taking part with the poachers.

The cart, with the prisoner, had not proceeded two hundred yards when a few of the ring-leaders in the mob commenced an active and determined attack upon the constables who were in charge of the prisoner, and having overpowered them, cut the ropes, and rescued him out of their hands. The cart was driven by David Smith, a carter in Cumnock, while amongst the constables assigned to convey the prisoner to Ayr were John Goldie, a sheriff officer, William Drennan and James McMillan.

After he was rescued the poacher was conveyed through the town of Cumnock in triumph before making his getaway. James Johnstone, assistant schoolmaster, recalled having seen him, after he had been liberated, "running round the Relief Church and down a close", where he climbed a wall with another man: he also saw James Patrick, a sawyer in Cumnock, preventing people from following the poacher down the close.
The mob, having tasted success, were now intend on freeing the other three poachers, and began to assemble in front of Hugh Campbell's house. An account given, by Hugh Robertson, the 10 year-old son of the waiter at the Dumfries Arms. He watched the crowd outside the inn, and heard many of their cries, such as 'Rescue' and 'Liberty', and others, which could be construed as having a radical political message, such as 'Let Every Man for Liberty' and 'Let the Fowls of the Air be Common Property'. By this time, the crowd was becoming more riotous using threatening behaviour and turning violent- so that it was judged prudent for the Court to issue orders for the constables and the gamekeepers present to keep the three poachers in custody in Campbell's.

A reasonably coherent account was given by James Baird, merchant in Cumnock. He was among the constables detailed to detain the poachers within Campbell's house. According to him there was shouted conversation between the crowd and the poachers: the crowd asking them if it was time yet to free them. Soon afterwards the force of the crowd pushed in the window and shutter of the room they were in; the shutter was put up again, and one of the assistant constables stood with his back against. It was however again pushed, with such force that it, and the man holding it, were thrown across the room. At this point, according to Baird, the mob rushed into the room through the door. Before the room was invaded, Peter Bannatine had fired a shot out of the window above the heads of the crowd.

[Bannatine was a gamekeeper on the Auchinleck House estate of Sir James Boswell. [Air Advertiser, 1833,]

Again according to Baird, when the mob came into the room, they grabbed at the gun of Robert Collins, gamekeeper at Ballochmyle, and in the ensuing mêlée it had gone off, killing David Reid, mason of Barshare, who had been one of the constables guarding the three poachers. Baird, and other witnesses, stated that Collins had called out to the crowd to be careful, for the gun was loaded and cocked. After Reid was shot, there was general confusion, and the three poachers escaped. Another witness, George Patrick, one of the gamekeepers, averred that one of the poachers, whom he named as Lindsay, had been the first to grab Collin's gun.
The death of Reid may have had a sobering effect on the crowd: at all events, they had achieved their objective of liberating the poachers. A rider was sent, post haste to Ayr, and the Sheriff Substitute and the Procurator Fiscal came to Cumnock, examined witnesses and took precognitions. As a result, Robert Collins was charged with culpable homicide, and a number of people from Cumnock were charged with mobbing and rioting, deforcement and assault.

They were: David Reid, plasterer, James Patrick, sawyer, John Thomson, carter, John White, carter, George Dickie, shoemaker, John Robertson, nailer, John Hunter (also known as Hunter Downie), labourer, John Miller, weaver, and Hugh Murdoch, sheriff officer.

All were to appear at the next Circuit Court of Justiciary in Ayr, which was to be in April 1833. In the days following the liberation of the poachers, it was reported that they were back at their work. On the 11th January the day when the authorities had planned to try them in the Dumfries Arms they were seen hunting for game on the Auchinleck House estate, and in the course of the same month, they were seen poaching in and around the parishes of Sorn and Muirkirk.

The trials resulting from these events took place in Ayr on the 22nd April 1833. The case against David Reid, plasterer, and his co-accused was heard first. From the point of view of the prosecution, this was not without its disappointments. One of the accused, Hugh Murdoch, failed to appear: as he had been employed as a sheriff officer, it is perhaps not surprising that he had chosen to flee: he was outlawed. Next, the defence successfully argued that the libel against John White had been incorrectly drawn up, as he lived at Stepends, which was in Auchinleck parish, not Old Cumnock. The point was proved, and White was allowed to walk free. The cases against Hunter (or Downie) and Miller were passed down to a lower court. Finally, the defence argued successfully that as neither the petition nor the warrant for the detention of the poachers bore their names, these were not legal arrest warrants, and that therefore the poachers detained at Campbell's had not been legally detained, and thus they could not have been illegally freed.

[Ayr Observer, 23rd April 1833. It emerged later that both Miller and Hunter or Downie had also absconded after the events: Miller for eight days or so, and Hunter for some months.]

Much of the evidence that was led by the defence centred on the action of the mob in attacking David Smith and his cart, and freeing the lone poacher. William Drennan testified that he had been hit by David Reid, and this was corroborated by another of the constables with the cart, James McMillan. Drennan also identified James Patrick and John Thomson as being among the crowd which attacked the cart. As we saw above, Patrick was also seen assisting the man's escape down a close near the Relief Church, and he and Thomson were also seen in the mob at Hugh Campbell's.

[Ayr Observer, 23rd April 1833, When questioned about the rescue, David Smith claimed that he had his back to the cart, and had thus not seen the rescue.]

In his summing-up, the presiding judge, Lord Gillies, said to the jury that he believed the case against Reid had been clearly made: the jury concurred and found Reid guilty. They returned verdicts of not proven on the others: i.e. Patrick and Thomson, together with George Dickie and John Robertson, against whom no material evidence appears to have been led at all. Reid was sentenced to nine months imprisonment.
The case against Robert Collins followed. Many of the witnesses were the same as in the previous trial: the most pertinent again being the merchant, James Baird. It was clear that there was no desire to convict: the Advocate-Depute, in addressing the jury, said that "he had felt it his duty to investigate and bring forward this distressing case, for the public satisfaction; and from the evidence led it was quite clear that the gun had gone off in the general confusion, and that the death of the unfortunate man was entirely accidental". Lord Gillies, in another pointed address to the jury, said "he was happy to find .. that the person placed at the bar was perfectly innocent". The jury having conversed with each other, agreed, Collins was found not guilty, and set free. On 21st June 1833, John Hunter (alias Hunter Downie) and John Miller appeared before the Sheriff Criminal Court in Ayr. The case against Miller was found not proven, but Hunter was found guilty, and given a jail sentence of two months.

The outcome of a day of communal madness, therefore, in Cumnock was that the poachers had escaped, and had resumed their depredations, one man had died, leaving a widow and five children, while two men went to jail for riotous behavior.
The Observer's correspondent asked a question which, perhaps, we can no more answer confidently at this distance than he could at the time: "It is naturally and uniformly asked by every individual in this quarter, and at a distance, in whose presence the subject is mentioned, what could have induced the inhabitants of Cumnock to take part with these poachers, seeing that their whole conduct was of that description which every good member of society ought to deprecate in the most unqualified manner". He does, however, have some thoughts on the subject:

"The impression on the minds of the thinking part of the community is that a number of individuals whose duty it was to have prevented riot and kept the peace acted behind the curtain and instigated some of those desperate characters who are to be found in every place to riot; and a crowd having collected, and ardent spirits having been liberally supplied to them from the house of Campbell, it was industriously inculcated on their minds that they ought to view the matter in a political point of view- that the poachers were to be made the victims of the aristocracy, and that it was oppressive and unjust to punish any man for killing game- that game was free to every person- and that the law would soon come to be administered in such a way so that no country gentleman would have it in his power to punish any person whatever therefore. Such specious arguments as these coming from individuals, heads of families, who ought to have conducted themselves in a respectable manner, and accompanied by the war-whoops of radicalism, aided with the supply of ardent spirits above mentioned, converted the congregated crowd to one mass of frenzy and madness".

(In his letter which appeared in the Ayr Observer, 5th February 1833, Campbell vehemently denied supplying 'ardent spirits' to the crowd, claiming that wine had been taken from his shop during the confusion.)

Afterwards:
Alexander Allason of Glaisnock, the JP who authorised the arrest warrants, died on the 30th June 1833.
David Reid, mason, of Barshare, Cumnock, left a widow and family to mourn his loss. His wife, Marion Murdoch, age 42, had given birth to a daughter, Margaret, on the 5th January 1833, 5 days before David Reid was shot. Marion Murdoch or Reid died at Milzeoch Farm, Cumnock, on the 9th May 1870.

Although acquitted, Robert Collins born c.1794, and had been a gamekeeper on the Ballochmyle estate since at least 1826,(44) and was a resident of Mauchline parish when he married, on 27th December 1822, to Mary Hunter from the neighbouring parish of Sorn.
On 10th September 1833, nine calendar months after the riot, the Ayr Observer reported that 'this morning -- Collins, gamekeeper to Claud Alexander, Esq., of Ballochmyle was engaged in cleaning a double-barrelled gun, and not being aware that one of the barrels was loaded, it went off and wounded him so severely, that he died in half an hour'. His wife, Mary Hunter, did not long outlive him and died, aged 37, on the 5th November 1837. They are buried in the churchyard at Catrine.

Hugh Campbell remained in business in Cumnock as a grocer and spirit merchant. He died there on the 16th February 1850. [Ayr Advertiser, 21st February 1850,]
'No complaint ever had to be offered over the efficiency of the local police provision. J.P. Courts met in the old parish school in the Square (with jail attached) till 1839 and thereafter in a Court House built in the Townhead. This became also the police station after the creation of a County Constabulary in 1858'.

The above is from Ayrshire Notes by Robert Close.