In 1869, a boy, James Mill of Kirkwall, was found guilty of stealing a silver Geneva watch. It belonged to John Thomson of Victoria Street Kirkwall. James Mill admitted his guilt and was sentenced to 14 days in prison. This was a valuable item and although John Thomson got his watch back it was a very unpleasant affair.
Readers may think this was a very harsh sentence and have a lot of sympathy for James Mill, but read on.
This was not a first offence for James Mill. The year before he had pled guilty to stealing tools. James (aged 14 at the time) and another boy Alexander MacDonald (aged 10) had stolen the tools from the locker on a boat belonging to Robert Brough at Grainshore. In this case James Mill was sentenced to 14 days in prison with the younger lad, Alexander McDonald being sent down for 3 days.
It seems that James and Alexander had been on quite a spree of crimes as they were also suspected of an extreme act of cruelty. A lamb was found with its ears nailed to the ground on the Grainbank Road, Kirkwall. This had been done whilst the lamb was still alive. The ears were badly torn as the poor animal had tried to escape. The act was described in The Orkney Herald (19 May 1868) of one of ‘revolting cruelty’, but although the two boys were suspected, there was not enough evidence to charge them.
It is believed that James Mill left Orkney and went to live in Leith working as a fisherman.
Fiona Grahame