1724: Half-Hangit Maggie Dickson
September 2nd, 2008 Headsman
Allegedly on this date in 1724, a young woman was hanged at Edinburgh’s Grassmarket for concealing her pregnancy.
Any number of details in this horrible/wonderful story are shaky, including the date: some sources make it 1728, a few say 1723, and only a handful attest a specific calendar date. Nobody seems to doubt the tale in the main, however — and it’s certainly excellent enough lore to deserve even a heavily asterisked entry.
Deserted by her husband, young Maggie Dickson took lodgings at an inn in exchange for work, and became pregnant by either the innkeeper or his son. (Again — details in the various sources available read like a game of telephone.) Since single* pregnant working-class women had about as many employment options as birth control options, Maggie kept quiet about her condition in the interest of keeping her job.
And since male parliamentarians figured their job was to keep young lasses of loose character and modest means on the straight and narrow by criminalizing their options, Maggie’s sleight-of-womb put her in violation of a law against concealing a pregnancy. (The same situation was playing out elsewhere in the British sphere at this time.)
When the resulting infant turned up dead, the trail led straight to Dickson … but the concealment of the pregnancy and birth were capital crimes on their own, making it immaterial whether it had been a miscarried pregnancy, an act of infanticide, or simply one of the many early 18th century babies to die in the cradle. The law was an indiscriminate instrument to prevent women terminating their pregnancies.
Nothing noteworthy about the hanging itself is recorded; it seems to have been one of the routine public stranglings of the age, and even the scuffle over the body between family and medical students hunting dissection-ready cadavers was a normal occurrence.
The family won. And en route to Musselburgh for burial, Maggie started banging on the inside of the coffin, and was forthwith revived. Officials decided the sentence of hanging had already been carried out … and her awestruck neighbors suddenly started seeing Maggie sympathetically
And they all lived happily ever after. This day’s principal, at any rate, gained a foothold in adequate prosperity, bore more children, and answered to the nickname “Half-Hangit Maggie Dickson” all the many more years of her life.
The story passed into legend; the dates, as we’ve alluded, fuzzed. One entrepreneurial English broadside publisher of the 19th century even transported the affair to February 1, 1813 — four years after a Concealment of Pregnancy Act reduced the penalty for Maggie Dickson’s “crime” to penal servitude. And near the site of the not-quite-Passion, should you call sometime in Edinburgh, you can raise Half-Hangit Maggie a pint at Maggie Dickson’s Pub.
I’le crye as fu’ o’ tears an egg,
‘Death, I’ve ae favour for to begg,
That ye wad only ge a flegg,
And spare my life,
As I did to ill hanged Megg,
That graceless wife-Broadside, ‘The last speech and dying words of John Dalgleish, Hangman of Edinburgh’
* Technically, she was still married but separated.
Part of the Themed Set: Judging Abortion.
Also on this date
- 1944: Six Milice collaborators in France
- 1772: Moses Paul
- 1983: Jimmy Lee Gray, drunk-gassed
- 1685: Dame Alice Lisle, first victim of the Bloody Assizes
Entry Filed under: 18th Century,Abortion and Infanticide,Arts and Literature,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Executions Survived,Hanged,Murder,Not Executed,Popular Culture,Public Executions,Scotland,Women
Tags: 1724, 1728, abortion, gender, infanticide, maggie dickson, pregnancy, september 2
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I have studied Maggie’s life now for over 6 years, and hope to publish a book on her life. I can clear up the hazy facts: she was definately hung on Sept 2nd 1724, i have seen JC records at National Archives of Scotland. She became pregnant by the landlords son William Bell who was considerably younger than Maggie. The hanging did not go well, John Dalgliesh the hangman tried to belt her with a stick as she tried to loosen the noose with her hands, the crowd threw stones at him for allowing her hands to become free (he had not tied them tight enough). Amazingly 9/10 months after the hanging she gave birth to a son. If anyone knows a publisher who will publish my book on Maggie Dickson (150,000 words) please contact me via email
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Hi Alison. I’m doing research project for uni about Margaret Dickson. I found it quiet difficult to find any correct inf about Maggie. I would like to ask you for small help. If you can supply my any books title or any other sources where I can find some true information about her. That will be really helpful! Thanks. Anna
March 24th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Anna, contact Haddington library, the best written piece can be found there, it was written in 1956 by an Alistair Bell. I will help you with any questions and will send you my synopsis.
Kind regards
Alison Butler
April 15th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Hi Alison. You can contact me on ana.morasina@gmail.com.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:39 am
[...] at the foot of Brodie’s Close, so that animation might be restored as in the historic case of “half-hangit Maggie Dickson,” a lady whose departed spirit was recalled by similar Jehu methods. In his own workshop his veins [...]
February 19th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
My novel “The Hanging of Margaret Dickson” is available to read on authonomy.com
Alison Butler
May 4th, 2010 at 4:57 am
[...] you didn’t report your pregnancy, the infanticide presumption went against you. We’ve seen this [...]
July 3rd, 2010 at 4:00 pm
[...] kan glädjas över att Maggie Dickson – som hängdes för ett ”brott” som idag är mindre allvarligt än en [...]
August 30th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
[...] Updated: According to Wendy Moore, there was an posthumous attempt at resuscitation, which was known to work sometimes. [...]
September 9th, 2010 at 6:14 am
The Hanging of Margaret Dickson is available to read as an E BOOK on Amazon Kindle…99p!
Best wishes,
Alison Butler
April 29th, 2011 at 8:12 am
[...] hangings were not unheard-of at this time … and if transportation was no mean sentence, the young criminal must have [...]
September 5th, 2011 at 9:30 am
tried to find the kindle ebook but does not come up anyone have any idea where to get a copy. thanking you
March 14th, 2012 at 4:59 am
[...] all, executing women for infanticide was happening where the Hamiltons had come from. And it would still be good enough for late 18th century [...]
April 1st, 2012 at 1:10 pm
[...] was sometimes associated with unruly public scenes, and with “executed” criminals surviving (and even intentionally calculating to survive) the [...]