Wee Scotch Whisky Tales by Ian R Mitchell

Author:Ian R Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781906000790
Publisher: Neil Wilson Publishing
Published: 2015-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Gillespie wrote this account of his work, glowing with professional pride, whilst in prison in 1827 awaiting trial for printing and circulating forged bills. This was then a capital offence, and he was convicted, and hanged in November 1827. Gillespie had probably hoped that an account of his loyal service to the state would result in a pardon, but it was not to be. Gillespie was a victim of his own efficiency, and the general success of the government’s policy of suppressing the illicit whisky trade. This meant that prosecutions for illicit distilling in Scotland fell from 3,000 a year in 1823 to less than 300 in 1827. And so too fell the exciseman’s bounties for seizure of the contraband. Gillespie, used to a generous income, turned to forgery to replace his declining bounties. It still seems harsh that a state which he had served so well, and so bravely, should in the end mete out to him a more severe punishment than was ever inflicted on any of the smugglers he caught. But all those smugglers he had had incarcerated, fined or simply forced into unwilling retirement, must have gloatingly echoed Burns’ words as Gillespie was hanged.

We’ll makk our maut, we’ll brew our drink

We’ll dance, and sing, and rejoice, man;

And mony braw thanks to the meikle black deil

That danced awa wi’ th’Exciseman.

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