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This was published in Southlight 24, Scotland in the Autumn of 2018.

The Pedlar Boy by Denise Smithers

The  following is an historical account of a murder in a Scottish Borders valley. I have woven it into a story of how I imagine it may have unfolded.

It was getting late but not dark yet. A fine afternoon for November. They left the alehouse in Boreland together. The boy with a crude wooden box on his back painted red, marked him out as a pedlar boy. His companion was a rough skinned, diminutive man from County Mayo. 

The boy had no need for his company but the Irishman said he needed his path to the Ettrick Valley pointed out. He talked a lot as they climbed the hills behind the village and made their way over the top moor . As the wind got  up and the sky showed signs of darkening , the boy cast his eyes about looking for shelter. He had passed this way before and was no stranger to sleeping rough. The next few miles were exposed with no cottages but he knew of a sheepfold where he could bend some branches and cut some reeds for comfort. The Irishman kept talking , asking him questions  and the boy just kept putting one foot in front of the other and watching the sky. 

He found the sheepfold and checking the direction of the wind , sought the lee of the rough stone wall. As night came on he built up a little branched cover and laid reeds inside. The Irishman kept talking non stop, copied his work and built beside him. The boy went to drink from a nearby spring and then settled down with a heel of bread from his pocket.. Despite the noise of the wind and the Irishmans chatter, he fell asleep quickly with his wooden box as a pillow.

Twice in the night he stirred and wrapped himself up as rain came on . The Irishman did not stir, his head on his bag and his 2 hareskins spread over him, he slept through the night. 

By daylight the boy was up on his feet and at the spring for a drink, not waiting for the Irishman he headed down the hill towards the first of his calls at the nearest homestead. 

His red box contained stationery and hardware. 

The farmwife bought a small pan and gave the boy some cold porridge. 

As he went to leave, the Irishman came over the hill hailing him and calling to the farmwife for an egg or jug of milk. She shut the door and the  boy walked on . 

At further cottages in the wild Eskdalmuir valley the boy called at known places. He was greeted and even if nothing was bought a piece of bread or oatmeal was passed to him. The Irishman missed nothing, noting what was given and what was sold. 

The boy walked on and by midday he had reached the top of the valley. The last cottage had been visited and the road to Ettrick lay ahead. He pointed it out to the Irishman who feigned exhaustion and sat down beside the burn, requesting the boy to do like wise and share a piece.

His questioning turned to how much money the boy had made this  day and what he would do with it. The boy as usual did not answer. From the corner of his eye he saw the Irishman take off his ironclad clogs and lay his feet out on the grass. Within a second he made his move and grabbed the boys red box . The boy held tight as they wrestled. The Irishman took up one of his clogs and struck the boy on the back of his head.  He didnt stop there, and as the boy sunk to the ground unconscious, his hands released his pedlar pack. Quick as a flash the Irishman leapt on the box and after raiding the lads pocket of money and food, he made off as fast as he could to the Ettrick road. 

As he walked up the long hill he found a few more  homesteads and went about selling as the boy had done. He managed a few sales . He walked far that day and didnt stop until he found a wooded site where he settled for the night. 

The next morning he walked into the Ettrick Valley. At the junction of the track that led to Peebles he emptied the Pedlar boys box and threw it into a burn, keeping the few remaining items about himself, he walked on. 

Back at  Steelburnedge  Bush the next afternoon , 16 year old William Glendinning was looking for his fathers strayed sheep. Instead he found a body. A boy much the same age as himself lay on the ground . His face was briused. his arm across his chest and a cut above his eye. 

William ran for his father and together, with his brother and a farm hand they brought the cart laid with straw and an old plaid.  As they lifted the deceased onto the cart they saw the many head wounds and congealed blood to the back of his head. 

William ran to the surgeon at Burncleugh who came at once on horseback.  He ascertained that the boy had been killed with a heavy blunt instrument to the head .

The Good wife Glendinning identified the body as the Pedlar boy that had called at Upper Cassock the previous morn. She also said he had a travelling companion, a rough skinned Irishman with one eye and carrying hareskins and a barnbag . The surgeon took the boy away on the cart and made haste to the undertaker, and by night he was interred in Watcarrick graveyard. 

The following day William Glendinning returning to the scene, found a pair of mans clogs discarded not 15 yards from where the boys body had lain. The clogs were taken to the Surgeon, who said they were most likely the murder weapon.

The village folk were up in arms. several very distressed by the murder and lamenting that only the day before they had bought from the Lad or given him something. They all remembered the now missing Irishman. Several spoke to the Justice and expressed their shock . Sympathy for the boy abounded for the horrible end he had found in their valley. Many expressed fondness for him and mentioned that he was a little simple. 

Rallying, they urged the Justice to do all he could to find the Irishman and bring him to account. 

In memory of the boy and their horror,  a fund was begun by the villagers. All agreed the boy should have a proper headstone carved with his name and mentioning the great sadness they all had felt.

In Ettrick another boy was  crossing a burn and noticed a red wooden box in the water. He fished it out ,examined it, and took it home. 

The Irishman was pursued through Peebles and beyond. By January he was arrested in Nairn and brought to jail in Edinburgh. At first he denied all knowledge of the Pedlar boy . Then he admitted knowing him but leaving him alive and well.

At the trial he was found guilty and sentenced to hang. It is said He was without remorse .

On the 6th of June 1821 James Gordon of County Mayo was hung on Dumfries gallows for the wicked robbery and murder of James ( John) Elliott 16years old and Pedlar boy from Hexham.

The murderers body was donated for dissection . 

In Watcarrick graveyard Eskdalemuir stands the gravestone erected to the boys memory.

It reads.

"n memory of John Elliot pedlar, a young man of 19 years of age who came from the neighbourhood of Hexham in  Northumberland and travelling in company with a man of the name of James Gordon said to have come from County Mayo, was barbarously murdered by him at Steelburn Bushedge on the farm of Upper Cassock on the 14 th day of November 1820.

After the great exertions on the part of SirThomas Kilpatrick of Closeburn, Bart., Sheriff Depute of the county, The Hon, Captain Wm Napier of Thirlestone and many others. James Gordon (John) was caught at Nairn and brought to Dumfries after an interesting trail condemned and executed on 5th June 1821.

Inhabitants of Eskdalemuir in Abomination of this crime which was very bad, erected a stone 1/9/1821"

note the descrepancy in the boys ages. The gravestone differs from the account of the Trial. I have left it as is . 

When I came to eskdalemuir In 1985 I was told of this story by a local farmer who was shaking his head sadly at such a crime. 

When I finally decided to research this at Dumfries library in 2017, I initially drew a blank in the local registers. I found reports from the trial in the Edinburgh archives. On my second visit, I was lucky enough to be helped by an elderly lady in charge of the reference library, who had personal living memory of the story. She instantly recalled it and told me her Great Great Grandmother had told her about it. She provided the information of the two having left the alehouse in Boreland which I was unaware of and said the motive was robbery of the few coins the boy made. 

In Dumfries museum lies the grisly murder weapon, a pair of very small black leather clogs, wooden heeled and shod with heavy metal . They were in surprisingly good condition showing very little wear.

Dumfries gallows stood at the junction of Buccleuch Street and Irish Street where a yellow interjunction is now painted on the road . Each time I pass over it ,  I feel compelled to think about Gordons hanging and the murder he committed. 

This murder would have been horrible today but in 19th century wild Eskdalemuir it would have rocked the community for a long time - certainly enough for me to pick up the story 165 years later.