Quarter Sessions were a Royal Court of Justice that were held four times a year. Assizes courts tried more serious crime such as murder, rape and highway robbery and were held twice a year. Some Quarter Sessions in boroughs, including Berwick’s, were granted the right to try these more serious cases.

Within the Quarter Sessions records which form part of the Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Archives, there are a number of papers relating to the case of Margaret Dryden, who was accused of murdering her child in 1758. Margaret pleaded not guilty to the charge brought against her that she had “borne alive” a female child which she had then murdered by cutting its throat with a knife (value 6d).

This is the only official reference to the child’s throat being cut although it is referred to in the draft letter of 14 March 1758:
“The Throat of it appeared to have been Cut with a Ragged Instrument, and upon Searching the House of the said Drayden, a large Ragged Knife was found…”

After hearing the evidence and considering the case, the jury found Margaret guilty of the charge and said:
“that she be carried from hence to the place from whence She came from thence that she be carried to the place of Execution where she shall be hanged by the Neck until her Body be dead”.

However, instead of carrying out the sentence that day, it was to take place on 3 May 1758. Margaret was taken by cart to Gallow’s Knowe (at the bottom of Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-Tweed), where all executions took place, and there the sentence was carried out by the hangman. Among the Corporation’s accounts, a bill of expenses has survived which lists all of the expenses for the hanging. George Lindsey was paid 12s 6d for his services. He also obtained new shoes, stockings and a wig for the occasion. In total the expenses for the hanging amounted to £2-00-06 (about £360 today).