Bigamy, theft and prostitution
This month's post focuses on a wanted poster from the Banffshire Constabulary collection (item reference POL/B/9/4/487 ). It's part of a wider collection of almost 800 police information notices collected at Dufftown Station in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This example was sent out by the neighbouring Aberdeenshire Constabulary seeking three individuals – Barnett Burns, his wife Elizabeth and his sister Jane - for stealing £40 and a £255 deposit receipt (about £8500 in total in today’s money) from a drunk man near Inverurie in June 1918. I’ve been able to find out a bit more about Barnett and Elizabeth using newspaper reports and marriage and census records, and to say these individuals lived colourful lives would be an understatement. The poster states that Barnett and Elizabeth’s marriage was bigamous: this marriage occurred in Huntly in 1917. Barnett had married his first wife Christina in 1913 and Elizabeth her first husband George Begg Stewart, who was a soldi
