Anniversary of 1820 execution gets the chop
Covid-19 means event is postponed for a year
Plans to mark the 200th anniversary of one of Britain’s most notorious public executions - which took place in Stirling - have been postponed.
Andrew
Hardie from Glasgow and John Baird of Condorrat were hanged in Tolbooth Square on September 8, 1820, having been found guilty of treason as part of the Radicals movement of the time.
History buffs were even due to come from Down Under for a commemoration event, which has now had to be shelved because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, organisers are hopeful that the programme can still take place in 2021, albeit a year late.
David Smith, the former learning officer at the Stirling Smith, now works in local schools as the ‘History Guy’. He says that while “barbaric”, the event was a “remarkable moment in Scottish history”. Hardie and Baird, both young weavers, had been told by the Stirling trial judge, “I can hold out little or no hope of mercy... as you were the leaders, I am afraid that example must be given by you”. “Two thousand people crammed the street to witness a huge injustice,” said David.
“Two young men who had spoken out against dreadful working conditions and poverty, were about to be barbarically hung and beheaded.
“It was so shameful a public display that no one from Stirling would step up and be seen to carry out the execution.
“Even though this was a very wellpaid job, the executioners had to be secretly brought in from Glasgow and wore hoods to escape identification by the upset crowd.”
Granny Duncan, a local Stirling character, showed great kindness to Baird and Hardie, when they were in Stirling Castle awaiting execution – smuggling letters and food into their cells.
Both Baird and Hardie, requested that Granny Duncan should attend after their executions. On the day of the execution, it is said that Hardie called out from the scaffold, ‘Are you there, Granny?, to which she replied, ‘Aye, Andrew, my puir laddie’. ‘Bide to the end, then,’ were Hardie’s last words to her.
The event is commemorated by a small plaque on the Tolbooth.
David said: “Some of the best educated, self taught working classes in Europe existed in Scotland. They were aware of a growing movement of support for the rights of man.
“Ordinary people had no voting rights whatsoever. It was the start of radical thoughts and arguments for safety and a living wage. But 200 years ago, the wealthy classes had all the power and saw this as sedition, even treason.
“Other groups of Radicals around Britain had attempted and failed in protest. Baird and Hardie were completely set up by Government spies and led into a trap.
“It’s the stuff of war-time spy movies. Baird and Hardie never knew each other. The agents provocateurs tore a card in half and gave each one a part saying, ‘match this to the other and you will find your friend in the protest’. And so they did, at Condorrat. They marched in early morning towards Falkirk to make speeches to a small crowd, but the trap was sprung and most were shot at and rounded up by Hussars and Yeomanry at Bonnymuir. “Nineteen were taken to Stirling Castle. The rest of the rebels were sentenced to be transported overseas to penal colonies in New South Wales and Tasmania.”
So significant an event was this in a shameful past that it was due to be marked on August 8 in Stirling by a large group of descendants from Tasmania and New South Wales. however Covid19 changed all that.
“A local team of historians and cultural groups had been planning a series of events with Stirling Council to explore the lessons to be learned from the past,’ said David. “Perhaps next year we can look again at this idea.”
The execution took place on September 8, 1820.
The axe made for the execution and the cloak worn by the executioner, are still in the Stirling Smith Museum.
Baird and Hardie were buried in paupers’ graves in Stirling, but the bodies were exhumed in 1847 and taken to Glasgow, where they were re-interred at Sighthill, where a monument now stands.
Even though this was a very well-paid job, the executioners had to be brought in from Glasgow and wore hoods to escape identification by the upset crowd David Smith The ‘History Guy’