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William Brodie | |
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 1788 Plate Illustration of William Brodie | |
| Born | (1741-09-28)28 September 1741 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 1 October 1788(1788-10-01) (aged 47) Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Resting place | St. Cuthbert's Chapel of Ease, Edinburgh |
| Other names | Deacon Brodie |
| Occupations | Locksmith,Councillor |
| Known for | Burglary |
| Children | 5 |
| Criminal charge | Robbery |
| Penalty | Hanging |
William Brodie (28 September 1741 – 1 October 1788), often known by his title ofDeacon Brodie, was a Scottishcabinet-maker,deacon of a tradesguild, andEdinburgh city councillor, who maintained a secret life as aburglar in order to support his mistresses and to fund a gambling addiction.
William Brodie was the son of Francis Brodie, Convenor of Trades in Edinburgh. His father's eminent position allowed William to become the Deacon of Wrights and Masons around 1781.[1]
In 1774, Brodie's mother is listed as the head of household in their Edinburgh home on Brodie's Close on theLawnmarket. The family (William and his brothers) are listed as "wrights and undertakers" on the Lawnmarket.[2] By 1787 William Brodie is listed alone as a wright living at Brodie's Close.[3] The house was built towards the foot of the close in 1570, on the south east side of an open court, by Edinburgh magistrate William Little, and the close was known as Little's Close until the 18th century.
With 'improvements' being made to Edinburgh, the mansion was demolished around 1835 and is now covered by Victoria Terrace. (At a later date, Brodie's workshops and woodyard, which were situated at the lower extremity of the close, made way for the foundations of the Free Library Central Library onGeorge IV Bridge.)
By day, Brodie was a respectabletradesman and Deacon (president) of theIncorporation ofWrights, which controlled the craft of cabinetmaking in Edinburgh, and this made him a member of the town council. Part of his work as a cabinetmaker was to install and repairlocks and other security mechanisms. He socialised with the gentry of Edinburgh and met the poetRobert Burns and the painterHenry Raeburn. He was a member of theEdinburgh Cape Club[4]
At night, however, Brodie became a burglar and thief. He used his daytime work as a way to gain knowledge about the security mechanisms of his customers and to copy theirkeys usingwax impressions. As the foremostlocksmith of the city, Brodie was asked to work in the houses of many of the richest members of Edinburgh society. He used the money he made dishonestly to maintain his second life, which included a gambling habit and five children by twomistresses, who did not know of each other and were unknown in the city.
He reputedly began his criminal career around 1768, when he copied keys to a bank door and stole £800, then enough to maintain a household for several years. In 1786 he recruited a gang of three thieves: John Brown, a thief on the run from a seven-year sentence oftransportation; George Smith ofBerkshire, a locksmith who ran a grocer's shop in theCowgate; and Andrew Ainslie, a shoemaker. By 1785 Brodie was spending his evenings gambling at a tavern on Fleshmarket Close owned by a Mr Clark. But his public reputation was high, and in the summer of 1788 he was chosen to sit on a jury in the High Court.[1]
The case that led to Brodie's downfall began on 5 March 1788, when he organised an armed raid on theexcise office in Chessels Court, onthe Canongate. He had made a copy of the entry key using putty on an earlier visit and, having made a key, simply unlocked the door. Brodie was accompanied by Smith, Ainslie, and Brown. All were dressed in black, and Brodie and Brown each carried a pair of flintlock pistols. They began around 8pm. Brodie was in high spirits and singing numbers fromThe Beggars Opera. They knew that although the excise office was closed, the night watchman did not come until 10pm. On arrival at Chessels Court, Ainslie stood watch outside.[1]
The plan was disturbed whenJames Bonar returned to his office unexpectedly at 8.30 pm. The gang escaped with only £16. Brodie hurried home, changed into more normal clothes, and went to the house of his mistress Jean Watt, on Libertons Wynd, hoping to create an alibi.[1]
On the same night, Brown approached the authorities to claim aKing's Pardon, which had been offered after a previous robbery, and gave up the names of Smith and Ainslie (initially saying nothing of Brodie's involvement). Brown also showed the authorities a cache of duplicate keys hidden under a stone at the base ofSalisbury Crags.[1]
Smith and Ainslie were arrested, and the next day Brodie attempted to visit them in prison but was refused.
Realising that he had flee, Brodie left Edinburgh on 9 March, arriving in London on 12 March. He was pursued by George Williamson, aKing's Messenger, who wrongly assumed that Brodie would make forDover in order to sail to the Continent. Having lost the trail in Dover, Williamson returned to Edinburgh. Meanwhile, Brodie was staying with an unnamed female friend in London. On 23 March, he boarded theLeith shipEndeavour, disguised as an elderly man in poor health under the name of John Dixon. The ship set sail for Edinburgh the following morning. But Brodie arranged to be disembarked instead inFlushing in the Netherlands, from where he travelled toOstend. On the boat he had given several letters to a Mr Geddes to deliver to another of his mistresses, in Cant's Close in Edinburgh. Geddes was suspicious and gave the letters to the authorities in Edinburgh. Williamson resumed his pursuit and found Brodie inAmsterdam, where he was planning to flee to the United States. Brodie was returned to Edinburgh for trial.[1][5]
The trial of Brodie and Smith started on 27 August 1788. At first there was no hard evidence against Brodie, although the tools of his criminal trade (copied keys, a disguise, and pistols) were found in his house and workshops. But with the evidence provided by Brown and Ainslie, who had been persuaded to turn King's Evidence, along with the self-incriminating lines in the letters Brodie had written while on the run, the jury found Brodie and Smith guilty.
Brodie and Smith were hanged at theOld Tolbooth, on the High Street, on 1 October 1788 before a crowd of 40,000, including Brodie's 10-year-old daughter, Cecil(e). The rope had to be adjusted in length three times as the bell of the adjacentSt Giles Cathedral tolled.[1]
According to one tale, Brodie wore a steel collar and silver tube to prevent the hanging from being fatal. It was said that he had bribed the hangman to ignore it and arranged for his body to be removed quickly in the hope that he could later be revived. If so, the plan failed. Brodie was buried in an unmarked grave in the northeast corner of the graveyard atSt. Cuthbert's Chapel of Ease, on Chapel Street.[1]
After the execution, reports of his being seen in Paris started to circulate, giving credence to the story of his escape from the gallows. But too many people had witnessed the execution for the story to be taken seriously.[6]
Popularmyth holds that Deacon Brodie built the first gallows in Edinburgh and was also its first victim. Of this,William Roughead inClassic Crimes states that after research, he was sure that although the Deacon may have had some hand in the design, "...it was certainly not of his construction, nor was he the first to benefit by its ingenuity".
Robert Louis Stevenson, whose father owned furniture that had been made by Brodie, wrote a play (withW. E. Henley) entitledDeacon Brodie, or The Double Life, which was unsuccessful. However, Stevenson remained fascinated by thedichotomy between Brodie's respectable façade and his real nature, and this paradox inspired him to write the novellaStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which he published in 1886.[7]
Deacon Brodie is commemorated by apub of that name onEdinburgh'sRoyal Mile, on the corner of theLawnmarket and Bank Street which leads down tothe Mound; and a close off the Royal Mile, which contained his family residence and workshops, bears the name "Brodie's Close".
A further two pubs carry his name, one inNew York City on the south side of the famous west side 46th Street Restaurant Row betweenEighth andNinth avenues, and the other inOttawa,Canada on the corner of Elgin and Cooper.
The titular character of the novelThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by the Scottish authorMuriel Spark claims to be descended from Deacon Brodie.[8] His double life serves as a metaphor for her duplicity, as well as her self-imposed demise. The novel has been adapted into aplay,film, andtelevision series.
In 1989, Bathgate rock bandGoodbye Mr Mackenzie wrote and recorded a track titled "Here Comes Deacon Brodie", which appeared on the B-side to their hit "The Rattler".
The "Deacon Brodie" episode of theBBC One television drama anthologyScreen One starredBilly Connolly as Brodie, aired on 8 March 1997, and was made in Edinburgh.
From 1976 to 1989, Deacon Brodie was a figure in the Chamber of Horrors section of theEdinburgh Wax Museum on theRoyal Mile.[9]
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