The life and adventures of david haggart. Written by himself, while under sentence of death; with an account of his execution

Glasgow: Printed for the booksellers, [s.d., c. 1850] 24pp. Woodcut on title page. Title within ornamental border. Disbound, six loose bifolia. A mid-eighteenth-century chapbook edition of the life, and ultimate execution, of thief and murderer David Haggart (1801-1821). On the bankruptcy of the firm of millwright for which he worked, Haggart turned to petty theft, becoming a regular pickpocket at fairs and racecourses around Kendal, Carlisle, and Newcastle, and sometimes as far north as Aberdeen. He was apprehended and imprisoned on six occasions, in four instances managing to escape from gaol. On 10th of October 1820, in escaping from Dumfries tolbooth, Haggart felled one of the guards with a stone, killing him. He remained on the run for several months before being re-arrested in March 1821. He was tried on the 11th of June found guilty of murder. A few days later he was hanged. While in gaol he partly wrote and partly dictated an account of his life and crimes, entitled Life of David Haggart, which was to be published after his death by George Robertson. The present chapbook appears to be a heavily reworked abridgement of the book, omitting the Scottish thieves' cant of the original. . 12mo.