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| MATTHEW CLYDESDALE |
| Weaver and murderer, ?-1818 |
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Matthew Clydesdale, a weaver, was a "middle-sized,
athletic, and extremely muscular man, about thirty years of age".
He was also a murderer and the description of him is given by Dr.
Andrew Ure in 1818.
Dr. Ure was an ambitious researcher with
a special interest in the possibilities of bringing the dead back
to life.
Matthew Clydesdale and Andrew Ure were acquainted
through the good offices of Tammas, the Glasgow hangman, consigned Matthew Clydesdale
to the hereafter on November 4th, 1818.
The public hanging brought out a larger than
usual crowd, for a few reasons. Firstly, because it was two for
the price of one; a certain Simon Ross also met his end on the same
day for the heinous crime of robbery. Secondly, there hadn't been
a hanging for murder in Glasgow for almost ten years, and thirdly,
because Clydesdale had been sentenced to be hung and anatomised.
Once he was executed, his body was to be
immediately handed over to anatomists. Anatomy was also a public
occasion. So, those for whom a double hanging was not enough, could
troop off to Glasgow University after the first entertainment of
the day and watch the unfortunate Clydesdale being dissected and
experimented upon.
One of the anatomists for the day was Dr
Andrew Ure and the other, was Professor James Jeffray. Their specialist
subject for the day was "galvanisation", or, the animation
of dead bodies through the application of electricity. You can imagine
the attraction for the crowd. See a man die and afterwards watch
him twitching about as researchers applied belts of electricity
to various parts of the corpse. It must have been fun for all the
family.
And this was a particularly fun galvanisation.
Quite what made Clydesdale such a receptive receptacle is not clear.
But Ure and Jeffray had a wonderful time. They made the corpse display
"most horrible grimaces …. rage, horror, despair, anguish
and ghastly smiles". It was so successful that "several
gentlemen were forced to leave from terror or sickness and one gentleman
fainted".
The wonders of the law and medicine. Given
the recent , it would appear that little has changed in either "profession".
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