After nearly 175 years since she was sentenced at Inveraray Jail, Helen Mackintosh’s crime is featured on television. Helen’s story is one of three TV adverts on STV this summer. The ads are all themed around the many interesting and varied stories visitors discover when visiting the Courtroom and Prisons at Inveraray.
Helen Mackintosh - Inveraray Jail
All three adverts can now be seen on the Inveraray Jail website here.
Helen’s sorry tale is detailed below, but there is no record of where she ended up…….
Helen Mackintosh –Thief
Helen Mackintosh, aged 38, from Campbeltown spent three months in Inveraray Jail awaiting transportation to Australia. She had been found guilty of theft and, with two previous convictions, had been sentenced by Lord Mackenzie on April 22nd 1836 to seven years transportation.
Three months earlier in Campbeltown she had stolen a blue drugget petticoat, an apron and a pair of moleskin trousers off a washing line. She had also removed one shift, two shirts and eight stockings off some bushes where they had been spread out to dry.
There had been snow on the ground at the time and the tracks of Helen Mackintosh’s stockinged feet had led Police Constable Andrew MacWilliam to her home. She was arrested, and as she refused to walk, was wheeled to the courthouse in a barrow.
There is no record of Helen Mackintosh going to Australia.‘