Travellers' fear of burkers; stories of escapes from burkers...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1988.011
Original Tape ID
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
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good