February 12th 1781

Hoarding grain

For some ten years, between 1771 and 1781, there were periods of acute shortages of grain throughout Scotland. Meal riots broke out in many parts of Perthshire. Those hoarding, or profiteering from the shortages, could expect rough justice if discovered by these angry, hungry groups of men.

At a meeting of justices and heritors held in Perth in January 1773 it was agreed that, should a riot occur in Perth, a cannon “shall be fired once every five minutes for an hour at least.” In other parts of the country the parish bell was to be rung, “and all noblemen, gentlemen and other heritors with their tenants and dependants shall assemble and, armed with clubs and stout sticks, proceed to the place where the mobs are.”

On February 12th 1781 five men, all from Crieff, were put on trial. It was related that on the evening of December 15th they “had assembled with others in a riotous and tumultuous mob in the village of Crieff and broke into the dwelling house of William Maclellan, meal seller, whom they believed to be hoarding meal.” He was dragged from his house, put on a cart, and carried through the streets of Crieff and thence to the river Earn where “they threw him into the river with the cart above him putting him in fear and danger of his life.”

Considering the seriousness of the charge the sentences were surprisingly lenient. Two of the men received a verdict of non-proven, two more were given sentences of three and five months respectively and only one attracted the exemplary sentence of being publicly whipped through the streets of Perth and thereafter banished from Scotland.