Outrage at Kildare

Horror of horrors – Aberdeen Press and Journal 19 November 1798: Letters from Rathangan relate an outrage committed near that place, scarcely paralleled even in the atrocities of the present rebellion: The house of a respectable clergyman in that neighbourhood...

Woman of distinction

Bravery at sea – Aberdeen Press and Journal 11 November 1799: This is at present in the Middlesex Hospital a young and delicate female, who calls herself Miss T-lb-t, and who is said to be related to some families of distinction: her story is very singular. At...

Indian Peter

Penny post man – Aberdeen Press and Journal 28 January 1799: On Saturday last died here, Mr Peter Williamson, well known for his various adventures through life. He was kidnapped when a boy at Aberdeen, and sent to America, for which he afterwards recovered...

Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother-in-law Joachim Murat

One of the Little Corporal’s most loyal soldiers ©Warren Nunn 2004 A HANDSOME, strikingly tall stable boy who would one day have Napoleon Bonaparte as his brother-in-law gives his name to Labastide Murat, one of a number of quaint villages that dot the hills of...

Dogmatic science

Dogmatism is real. We can all have it. Back more than a century ago, when civil debate graced our newspapers, it was refreshing to read reasoned essays such as that that follows. Titled “The dogmatism of science” it appeared in the Spectator of 17 December...