BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 357
larly unlucky-got into debt-and in consequence fled to Tonningen, and from
thence embarked for London. His native city being still too hot for him, he
resolved to try the atmosphere of the north. He set sail by one of the packets
for Leith, and arrived there in September 1805. Here, retaining his assumed
name of Moffat, he remained a few days at the Ship Tavern, kept .at that time
by one Cairns. He afterwards took lodgings in New Street, Canongate, where
he lived very retired. He generally dined every day at the Ship Tavern, walking
down by the Easter Road, and returning to Edinburgh in the evening by
Leith Walk, In the public room of the tavern he was fond of smoking and
drinking among the masters of the smacks, to whom he represented himself as
a Hamburg merchant, who had been obliged to leave in consequence of the
French. This plausible story was generally believed ; and, affecting to be witty,
he usually engrossed the whole conversation of the room.
Mackcoull is not known to have been engaged in any depredation till the
spring of 1806, when he was detected picking a gentleman’s pocket in the lobby
of the theatre. Breaking from those who held him, he was pursued by a town
officer of the name of Campbell, a very powerful man. Mackcoull ran with
great speed towards a stair which thon led from the head of Leith Street to the
Low Calton, through a close called the Salt Backet. Thinking he was about to
escape him, and having no assistance, Campbell struck him a severe blow with
his baton on the back of the head, when he fell senseless down the stair and
groaned deeply. The officer, thinking he had killed him, became alarmed, and
returned to the theatre without securing him. Mackcoull gradually recovered ;
and getting up, covered with blood, went to his lodgings, where he mentioned
that he had been set upon by some drunken sailors. He was confined for a
length of time by this accident, and retained a deep score on his forehead, which
he most likely had received on falling.
In the course of the summer and harvest prior to the murder of a man of
the name of Begbie, porter to the British Linen Company Bank, he was again
repeatedly seen in the Ship Tavern, but not subsequently. This mysterious deed
was committed about five o’clock on the evening of Thursday, 13th November
1806. The porter was on his return, as usual, from Leith with a parcel of
notes sealed in a yellow piece of parchment, and was stabbed in the side, while
in the entrance to Tweeddale’s Court, where the British Linen Company’s Office
was at that time, and which is now the printing-office of Messrs. Oliver and
Boyd, booksellers. It was stated in the Hw and Ci.y “that the murder was
committed with a force and dexterity more resembling that of a foreign assassin
than an inhabitant of this country. The blow was directly in the heart, and the
unfortunate man bled to death in a few minutes.”’ Several persons were apprehended,
but the murderer was never traced.; No suspicion attached to Mackcoull
at the time. More recently, hlr. Denovan investigated the circumstances
Begbie left a wife and four chdhen.
The most active ineasnres were adopted to discover the murderer. Rue and Cry bills were
thrown off during the night, and despatched by the mail-coaches in the morning to all parts of the