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Travellers' fear of burkers; stories of escapes from burkers...

Date 26 March 1988
Track ID 85577
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1988.011

Original Tape ID

SA1988.011

Summary

Travellers' fear of burkers; stories of escapes from burkers and other kidnappers.

Betsy Whyte and Stanley Robertson agree that they were brought up to be afraid of doctors and universities, because of the burkers who used to prey on Travellers. Betsy tells a true story about a doctor coming from Pitlochry to a Traveller camp and trying to steal the corpse of a baby that died, the child of Betsy's uncle. Stanley tells about an attempt to abduct a twelve-year-old girl while she was collecting water from a spring well. He heard this from the woman to whom it had happened, at the turn of the century. In another incident, two women Travellers escaping by hiding in a cornfield. They had a foundling child that had been left with them, and one of the women gave the toddler the breast to keep it quiet and was bitten.

Item Notes

Recorded at the Scottish Oral History Group Conference. Burkers were murderers who killed to sell the bodies to anatomists. The name is from the notorious William Burke (of Burke and Hare), who was hanged in 1829.

Recording Location

County - Midlothian

Parish - Edinburgh

Village/Place - Edinburgh

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good