Airdrie, 1st September 1852
“My husband was employed as Brusher in #4 Pit Rochsoles and he left our house to go to his work there about 6 o’clock on the evening of Monday the 23 August 1852.
“I know he had to go to the store before going to the Pit which would detain him for sometime. About 12 o’clock the same night his dead body was brought home to our house. One of his arms and I think one of his legs were broken and his head was severely injured, but I did not pay particular attention to the nature of his injuries when I saw he was dead. Two doctors came to our house two days afterwards and examined the body, but altho I was at the house at the time, I did not go into the room where the doctors were with the body, but I remained outside the door until they were finished with their examination, except for a few minutes when I looked in the back window and saw them in the act of inspecting the body.
“This is truth. I cannot write.”
—Jane Bracken or Martin, widow of deceased William Martin and residing in Stand in the Parish of New Monkland.
Deposition of Rosanna Brack for the trial of Robert Rouatt, engineman, for culpable homicide in the death of William Martin, 30 September 18521
The William and Rosanna Martin family show up on the 1841 and 1851 Censuses of Scotland—and then they just disappear. With immigration, untimely death, and the ubiquity of illiteracy, that’s not an uncommon occurrence. With much searching, some luck, and deep dives into the Scottish court archives, we were finally able to piece together a good portion of their story.
The Rowatt trial documents provided a wealth of information about the area, William’s work, and even the words of “Jane” (Rosanna) Brack or Martin, as recorded in a deposition. Careful study of ordnance maps and correlation with census records gave us an accurate picture of where the Martins lived and what their neighborhood was like. Newspaper accounts filled in bits that were not recorded in the trial documents. Bit by bit we pieced together the story of one day that changed a family and their posterity forever.
August 23, 1852 was the saddest day in the life of the Martin family.
William Martin left home at about 6:00 p.m. on Monday, August 23, 1852, to get ready for his shift at the mine. He walked the mile or so to the company store where he may have sharpened his tools or purchased supplies. After leaving the store, he reached the mine at about 8:30 p.m.; it was still light out. When William arrived, the steam engine was being used to pump water out of the mine. William waited with a dozen or so other men for the pumping to finish so they could go down into the mine and do their work.1
The steam engine was used for both pumping water and running the lift for the mine. To switch from one to the other, the gears that came from the engine had to be connected to the gears of the pulley that ran the lift, or cages. This was done by moving a lever that brought the two sets of gears together. Two bolts were then screwed in and a wooden pin or “gib key” was inserted so the gears couldn’t come apart.2
Finally, Robert Rowatt, the engineman, was ready for them. The cage needed to be lowered from where it rested above on sneeks (wooden slats) when not in use. The mine shaft had two sides, the rise side and the dip side. Two cages (one in each side) were attached to the two ends of a rope that went over a pulley in the pithead (the framework above the mine). When one cage lowered the other would rise. At Rowatt’s command, the cage was raised and the sneeks were removed. Then the cage was lowered to the level of the pit mouth so William and the other workers could enter.
Three men got into the cage: William Martin and two of his neighbors, James Marshall and Thomas McLachlan. They carried with them an assortment of tools, including picks, shovels, and jumpers (long chisels). When one of them gave the signal “down,” Rowatt ran the engine and the cage began to descend. Then tragedy struck. After only a few seconds, the gears came apart and the cage fell freely to the bottom of the pit, 36 fathoms (216 feet) down.
“What is this you are about?” the pithead boss, Alexander Gillespie, asked Rowatt.
“I don’t know,” Rowatt replied.
“These men are killed.”4
The rapidly descending cage had caused the cage on the other side of the shaft to come rushing up and over the pulley at the pithead. Miners ran over to untangle the rope and pulley. They could hear the men moaning in pain at the bottom of the pit. James Marshall and Thomas McLachlan each had a brother on site at the mine who helped. The miners lowered Mr. Gillespie into the mine with a spare rope. David Marshall ran to find a cart to carry the injured men.
When Mr. Gillespie reached the bottom of the shaft, he found that James Marshall and Thomas McLachlan had managed to crawl out of the cage and onto the floor of the mine. William, however, was too badly injured to move. When the lift was working properly again, Gillespie took William to the surface in the cage and men carried him out onto the ground. William gave two labored breaths and then died from his injuries.5
Gillespie went back down and brought the other two men to the surface and they were carried by cart to their homes. Their injuries were severe but were not fatal. Each said he had passed out before the cage hit the mine floor.6
William’s body was taken home and arrived there about midnight. His body remained in the house for two days before two doctors came by to look for and find the cause of death.7
We can only imagine how hard it was for that mother and young children to see their husband and father lying dead in their two-room home. How Rosanna must have worried, with no income, no husband, five children, and Edward coming in four months! How Peter must have felt the weight of caring for the family descend upon his shoulders! He had just turned 13 and was eligible to begin working the full-time hours of a man in the mines.
And Robert Rowatt, the engine man, must have felt terrible for causing the accident. He stood trial on the charges of culpable homicide and culpable neglect of duty at the Glasgow High Court on Thursday, September 30, 1852. On the same day, Thomas Morton, another engine man, was charged with the same charges from an accident that had happened March 1, 1852. In each case, the engine man had not done his job properly, failing to securely screw down bolts and insert the gib key that kept the engine in gearing. In both cases, the bucket (or cage) fell down the pit and killed a man. Each man was found guilty by a jury of the lesser charge, culpable neglect of duty.8
The judge, Lord Brockton, sentenced each man to a year in prison with this admonition:
“Considering the great quantity of machinery now in this country, and the amount of life exposed every moment to great danger, and, above all, the frequent examples of negligence on the part of those in charge of such machinery, I cannot but look upon this as a very serious case. It is serious for the public, whom I am bound to protect; it is very serious to you, … whom I believe to be [a person] of excellent disposition, and … whom, I believe, will be oppressed to the last of your days with what should be your true punishment-the recollection that you have been … chargeable with causing the death of one man…. I must pronounce a sentence adequate to the degree of criminality found proven. I sentence … you to be imprisoned for the period of one year.”9
Monday, August 23, 1852, was a very sad day for all.
NOTES
1. From the deposition of Jane [Rosanna] Bracken [Brack] or Martin. Most of the information in this document was derived from witness statements and depositions given at Robert Rowatt’s trial. See “Trial papers relating to Robert Rouatt for the crime of culpable homicide, or culpable neglect of duty at No 4 Rochsoles Pit, Drumshangie.” Tried at High Court, Glasgow, 30 Sep 1852, Reference: JC26/1852/278, National Records of Scotland.
2. See testimony of Thomas M’Cormick, engine-keeper, No. 4 pit, Ibid.
3. Maps courtesy National Library of Scotland, Ordnance Survey, 25 inch to the mile. Surveyed in 1858 and published in 1860. Maps used include Lanarkshire, III.14 (New Monkland) and Lanarkshire, VIII.2 (New Monkland). See https://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=17&lat=55.89833&lon=-3.97781&layers=101&b=1&z=0&point=55.89590,-3.97412.
4. Testimony of John Fulton, Rouatt Trial Papers.
5. Ibid.
6. “I lost my senses by the fall.” See Thomas M’Lachlan Testimony, Rouatt Trial Papers.
7. See Testimony of Dr. James Campbell Telford, Rouatt Trial Papers.
8. See Alexander Forbes Irvine, Reports of Cases Before the High Court and Circuit Courts of Justiciary in Scotland: From June 1852 to December 1854, Scotland. High Court of Justiciary, T.& T. Clark, 1855, Footnote 1, p. 83.
9. For a more detailed account of the trial, see Glasgow Herald account here.
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