Parliament Square execution site claim is a myth, says Wick historian
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Local historian Harry Gray has dismissed the notion that convicted criminals were ever executed in Wick.
He says it is a myth that public hangings were held in the historic Parliament Square area or anywhere else in the town.
Whippings did take place, and the location for these was the nearby Market Cross in High Street.
Mr Gray, a former chairman of the Wick Society and author of a book about the history of the town centre, was responding to a story in the John O'Groat Journal last week headlined "Wick’s execution site set for tidy-up".
It reported that the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council is to contact the owners of businesses adjacent to Parliament Square, just off the eastern end of High Street, with a view to carrying out some environmental improvements.
The report referred to local speculation that Parliament Square contained an execution site.
"That would be rewriting history," Mr Gray said. "It became a legend in the town, I suppose, but there was never an execution in Parliament Square. It is a myth."
He pointed out: "Wick had a unique method of dealing with anyone condemned to be hanged. If you were a condemned man, the family had a whip-round, bribed the hangman to go and live in another parish – Bower or Watten or whatever – and then the condemned man volunteered to be the hangman. And so it moved along."
This practice is mentioned in Frank Foden's book Wick of the North, published in 1996.
Dr Foden referred to a 1741 case in which William Callum had confessed to stealing a sheep – a capital offence – but "avoided the attentions of the hangman by taking on the appointment as town executioner himself".
Mr Gray's research suggested that the local executioner lived at Hangman’s Rig, in what is now Whitehouse Park, but there was no connection to Parliament Square.
He emphasised: "There were whippings, but not hangings."
At one point in the 18th century, lashings were administered by a public servant called William Bremner who was known as "Whippie".
The idea of a clean-up at Parliament Square was put forward at last week's monthly meeting of the community council. Members agreed to write to nearby business owners outlining the proposal.
Confirming that it is one of the oldest parts of Wick, Mr Gray said: "One of the first town halls was in Parliament Square. It was a different sort of layout. It was built there so they could overlook the river and watch all the things that were going on at the shore.
"It was a two-storey building with stores underneath and steps going up to the first floor where the town council met to 'parley'."
The town jail was at the bottom of Tolbooth Lane, initially on the eastern corner (what would later become known as "the Woolworths side") before a replacement was built just opposite.
"It was a wreck and people used to walk out of it," Mr Gray said of the original jail. "There was a story that a woman called Belle was in the jail and on the Sabbath morning two of her friends appeared, loaded with drink, and they invited the jailer to join them. They made him drink himself insensible and he fell asleep.
"So they took the key, locked the door behind them and threw the key away. He couldn't get out, he was stuck, so he broke a hole in the roof, just at the time everybody came out of the church – and here was him bellowing and shouting."
Mr Gray says another myth is that King James VI travelled to Wick to sign the deed when royal burgh status was granted in 1589.
"He was never in Wick," Mr Gray said. "He was too busy with his rebellious barons and that was the year he got married. There's no way he was going to come to Wick."
