Recap: In the early hours of a Saturday morning in June 1844, Andrew took a small brown mare from the stable of farmer Kenneth MacRae at Bottacks. He rode it south to the town of Fort Augustus. The Ballantyne family had on occasion borrowed horses from MacRae. When police questioned Andrew a few days later, he claimed to have borrowed the horse with permission on this occasion.

His claim was disputed by the owner’s family. To make matters rather more serious, the publican and the post runner at Fort Augustus both testified that Andrew had badgered them to buy the horse from him. Not surprisingly, the fifteen-man jury found the youth guilty of horse-stealing.

Just a few decades earlier, such a conviction would have been a hanging offence. But times had changed. By 1811, when the law was changed, there was growing philosophical and humanitarian ideas towards crime and punishment. The system favoured imprisonment for non-capital offences (fortunately for us!) and transportation to penal colonies.

The last man charged and convicted for horse theft in Scotland, prior to the change in the law in 1811, was George Watson. Horses were vital for daily work and transportation. The loss of a horse would directly affect a person’s ability to work and earn a living. The crime was taken very seriously and judged to be a capital crime to be a deterrent.

George Watson was with a group of travellers who were given shelter at Knockburnie Farm, near New Cumnock, by the farmer John Kerr. He was well-known for his kindness and would often offer shelter to those in need.

He was very angry the next morning when he discovered his best horse, a grey Clydesdale mare, had been stolen. He also discovered that his brother had also had a horse stolen from his farm, Marshallmark, which was nearby. The two men set off on the trail of the thieves.

William, the brother, gave up the hunt at Kilmarnock but John was determined to track them down. He set off on an epic journey. His horse had broken a shoe so it was easy to follow its tracks in the muddy trails.

His journey took him to Fenwick, Mearns, Glasgow, past Loch Lomond, to Tarbet. Here he continued on to Inveraray, climbing over the hills and glens. Once there, John managed to get a warrant for Watson’s arrest from the sheriff. He was also given the help of two constables who accompanied him on the rest of his journey.

They set off again and headed up to Dalmally and Glencoe. They travelled on to Appin and finally at Benderloch they caught up with the band of travellers. His journey became know as the ‘pursuit of justice.’

Watson tried to attack John but he was restrained by the constables and taken to Inveraray Jail. He was then taken to Ayr for trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang.

The grey Clydesdale mare was returned home to a very relieved farmer.

Andrew was very lucky that he did not suffer the same fate.

Britain had few large prisons and the crime rate was increasing . Where possible, the British Government sought to remove its petty criminals altogether by transportation to overseas colonies as convicts. As more people moved to live in cities in industrial areas of the country, the crime rate began to soar.

Andrew was sentenced to seven years transportation and taken to Millbank Prison and later to Pentonville Prison in London. Pentonville and Millbank were prisons designed to reform inmates. The routine was largely solitary confinement, interrupted only by bible study, reading and writing class, with lessons in a trade.

Normally one might expect a convict would be transported fairly promptly, but the colony of New South Wales had ceased transportation in 1840. However, Van Diemans Land was still taking prisoners until 1853. It appears there was a shortage of places to send the prisoners, so apparently they remained in prison in London for longer periods.

Fortunately for Andrew, a scheme was hatched to solve the prison problem. At the same time there was a growing demand for labourers, especially shepherds, in rural areas of the colonies, including those around the new settlement of Port Phillip (Melbourne). Between 1844 and 1849 some 1751 prisoners from Pentonville, Parkhurst, on the Isle of Wight which housed boys, and Millbank prisons, were shipped out to the colonies. As they left the shores of England, they were granted pardons conditional on their not returning before the end of their original sentence. These prisoners were termed “exiles.” Although resentment of the scheme by colonists in Port Phillip was initially fairly loud (the Argus newspaper was quite virulent in its opposition), it did not sway the British Government.