BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 481
359.’ WILLIAYS KIRVINGS,e cretary to the British Convention, or, as he is
styled in the Print, “ Citizen Skirving, a tried patriot and an honest man,” was
tried for sedition before the High Court of Justiciary, on the 6th January 1794,
and sentenced to be transported beyond seas for the term of fourteen years.
Mr. Skirving was accused of circulating a seditious hand-bill or paper, dated
“Dundee, July 1793,” and for which Mr. Palmer had already been tried and
sentenced to seven years’ transportation. He was further charged with having
been a member of a society denominated ‘‘ Friends of the People,” and secretary
to the British Convention that met in Edinburgh during the months of
October, November, and December 1793, and for writing and publishing
various other seditious writings, as specially condescended on in the criminal
letters or indictment on said 6th January 1794.
Some time previous to Skirving’s trial, in virtue of a general warrant issued
by Sheriff Pringle, his house, at the dead hour of night, was taken possession
of by a posse of sherif oflcers, and strictly searched, on the pretext of finding
seditious and treasonable publications or papers ; and after seizing a variety of
books and papers which they thought proper to consider of the above description,
Skirving, without any further ceremony or explanation, was taken into
custody and incarcerated in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, until liberated in due
course of law.
Mr. Skirving indignantly refused to be liberated on bail until his solicitor,
Mr. William Moffat, had taken the necessary steps to secure a legal investigation
and redress for such illegal and iizquisitorial procedure. General warrants
having for many years been found and declared by the supreme law of the land
to be illegal and oppressive, vide the decision of the Court of King’s Bench, in
the case of the celebrated Alderman Wilkes against the Secretary of State for
damages, 1764, Mr. Moffat accordingly lost no time in serving the Sheriff and
his Procurator-Fiscal with a protest on behalf of Skirving, grounded on the
foresaid illegal proceedings, demanding his immediate liberation from jail, and
restitution of the books and papers that had been so illegally seized or stolen
from his house, as therein specially condescended on j and failing restitution and
his liberation, the protest concluded by holding the Sheriff and all concerned
liable in exemplary damages. Mr. Skirving was soon thereafter liberated, but
the papers and property never were returned, nor any damages recovered for
their illegal seizure and abstraction, although in the similar case of Alderman
Wilkes he obtained a verdict for 55000 damages against Lord Halifax and his
Under Secretary of State, who signed and issued the warrant in question
In May 1794 Skirving was transported to New South Wales in the Surprise
Transport, with his fellow-sufferers, Muir, Palmer, and Margarot, and died there
about three years after his arrival. Margarot was the only one who outlived
the period of his exile, and who returned in good health and spirits, in 1811,
Nos. 359 and 360 not being amongst Ray’s Copperplates at the time of his death, they only
lately came into our possession. They are introduced here aa supplying a desideratum-the parties
portrayed being frequently alluded to throughout the Work.
VOL 11. 3Q