The Execution of Deacon Brodie and George

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

24687

Title

The Execution of Deacon Brodie and George Smith

Description

The High Street is filled with crowds who have come to see the execution of William Brodie and George Smith outside the Edinburgh Tolbooth.

Artist / maker

Ritchie, Alexander A.

Size

25.7cms x 33.7cms

Type

Oil on panel

Location

City Art Centre

Accession number

1978/254

Deacon William Brodie lived a double life - by day he was a respectable member of society and by night a burglar and a thief. Brodie was a cabinet maker, a Deacon of the Incorporation of the Wrights and Masons, and a member of Edinburgh Corporation. He used his daytime job to check out the houses where he was working and to copy the door keys by taking wax impressions.
Brodie was eventually discovered and found guilty. He was hanged with one of his accomplices, George Smith at the Edinburgh Tolbooth on 1 October 1788. It is said the gallows was of his own design.
The story of the double character of Brodie was one of the inspirations for Robert Louis Stevenson to write The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. As a child Stevenson had a wardrobe made by Brodie in his bedroom. This wardrobe is now displayed in The Writers Museum.

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