The last week in September 1893 was a busy week for Blantyre visitors to Hamilton Sheriff Court. For all the wrong reasons.
Terence Nimmo, a miner from Stonefield was charged with committing a breach of the peace at Woodburn, Blantyre, pleading guilty and being fined 10s or 7 days imprisonment. His brother, Owen Nimmo was charged with obstructing the Blantyre constabulary with his horse and cart as they tried to take Terence to the Police Station. He pleaded guilty and was fined £1 or 14 days imprisonment.
The what followed was a fairly lengthy list of other matters from Blantyre, where this time it was women who had been causing the disturbances!
First up was Mary Lyon, or Shaw, a widow with no fixed residence. Pleading guilty to making a nuisance and row at High Blantyre the previous Saturday evening she told judges, “Let me off”. “Let me off now and the Lord will reward you. Don’t and a curse will befall.” Their honours not paying attention to any of it fined Mary 10shillings or 7 days in prison!
Mrs Doran from Springwell, Blantyre was next in the dock. Fined 10 shillings or 7 days imprisonment for causing an “uproar” in Springwell on the previous Saturday afternoon.
The Mrs Shaw of Craighead rows charged with assaulting Mrs Cullen there at their homes, on 18th August that year (1893). No little squabble. She literally boiled water in a pan and through it over her adversary. She pleaded not guilty maintaining it had ‘cooled down’, but she was found guilty and fined 15s or 10 days in prison.
Finally. Mrs Gallagher of Auchinraith Rows fined guilty for 10s for causing a disturbance and fighting there on 28th August.
Not sure what was going on in Blantyre that week, but the female gaol at Blantyre Police Station on Glasgow Road must have been packed!
AI imagines the scene
