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
358 B I0 GR AP H I C AL S KET C HE S.
of the murder, and collected many facts which tended to throw suspicion upon
him.
Mackcoull arrived in Dublin towards the end of November, or beginning of
December, following the death of Begbie.
Captain Moffat, frequented the gaming-tables, and was looked upon as a person
of respectability, till detected in the act of picking a gentleman’s pocket in the
pit of the theatre, for which he was committed to Newgate, but liberated before
the sessions commenced, in consequence of the death of his prosecutor.
About the end of October 1807 he returned to Edinburgh, took genteel lodgings
in Mid Rose Street, dressed well, and went out much in public. He associated
with many of the higher order of gamblers, and was frequently a guest at the
table of young men of fortune. He seldom went to Leith, and when met by
any of his former acquaintances, accounted for his absence by saying he had made
a voyage to the West Indies. He pretended at this period to make his living
by a new system of staining lamb and sheep skins; and he had a vat or two
erected at his lodgings, the better to deceive his acquaintances. Not long after
his return, the large notes of which Begbie had been robbed were found carelessly
laid in the hole of an old wall in Bellevue grounds on the north side of
the town then being taken down to make way for building. Mackcoull had
been often seen walking in this direction, and it was conceived that, afraid to
put the notes in circulation, he had adopted this mode of restoring them.’
Immediately after this, he changed his lodgings, taking up his abode at a gardener’s
house, about a mile distant, on the opposite or south side of the city.
This movement he accounted for on the score of ill health. Here he likewise
carried his vats, and kept up the show of shining leather ; but it was observed
that he always had plenty of money and wrokght very little. He was a great
favourite in the neighbourhood-smoked, and drank, and joked with every one j
and all his new acquaintances were fond of the “English gentleman.” Here
his wife paid him a visit, and being a well-bred woman, and dressed in the first
style of fashion, her appearance tended greatly to strengthen her husband‘s
credit.
At length, however, his good character waa blasted. The well-known vocalist,
Incledon, having played a few nights at the Edinburgh Theatre, immense
numbers flocked to see him, and it was !observed that Moffat was so fond
of theatricals, “that although then very corpulent, he did not care how much
he was jostled in the crowd.” On one of these occasions he was discovered in
an attempt to pick a gentleman’s pocket. n e got off with the money, and
Here he represented himself as ’
country.
agreed to put a particular mark on their notes, in order to ensure detection.
immediately intimated to the pmviucial banks and acted upon.
the grounda of Bellevue.
discovery.
plaoe where the murder waa committed.
not in Edinburgh at the time.
A meeting of all the bankers in Edinburgh w a ~ held next forenoon, at which they
This resolution waa
1 For more than three wekap&w, it was rumoured everywhere that they had been found in
This report must have been circulated for the purpose of leading to their
It is rather curious that the person who found them-a won-resided at the very
He had no ditficulty in proving, however, that he was
