The Liverpool registered brigantine, John, was wrecked at Isauld near Reay, Caithness whilst under the command of Captain Morrison and carrying a cargo of dales, iron and hemp from the Baltic. Most of the crew were drowned.
The local people helped themselves to the cargo but James Hogg, a farmer at Borlum and an incomer, instigated a search for the plunder, an observance of the law that turned the people against him. A few tried hard to set fire to his home and finally he was forced to emigrate to America.
The chief agents in seeking to destroy Mr Hogg were Alexander Macdonald, William Elder, George Miller and Robert Farquhar, tenants in Isauld. They were indicted for wilful fire-raising and tried before the Justiciary Court at Inverness. After a trial of eleven hours the jury, with one voice, found the libel proven against William Elder and Alexander Macdonald. The Advocate-Depute, having restricted the libel to an arbitrary punishment, they were sentenced to be publicly whipped in Wick and Thurso, receiving in each of these places twenty-five stripes on their naked backs and thereafter to be banished to the plantations.
The John was 700 tons burthen.
The local people helped themselves to the cargo but James Hogg, a farmer at Borlum and an incomer, instigated a search for the plunder, an observance of the law that turned the people against him. A few tried hard to set fire to his home and finally he was forced to emigrate to America.
The chief agents in seeking to destroy Mr Hogg were Alexander Macdonald, William Elder, George Miller and Robert Farquhar, tenants in Isauld. They were indicted for wilful fire-raising and tried before the Justiciary Court at Inverness. After a trial of eleven hours the jury, with one voice, found the libel proven against William Elder and Alexander Macdonald. The Advocate-Depute, having restricted the libel to an arbitrary punishment, they were sentenced to be publicly whipped in Wick and Thurso, receiving in each of these places twenty-five stripes on their naked backs and thereafter to be banished to the plantations.
The John was 700 tons burthen.