The obelisk on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill is not a trophy looted from Ancient Egypt but the Martyrs’ Monument erected in 1844 to honour five men, three Scots and two English, transported to Botany Bay in 1794. Their only ‘crime’ was to campaign for the right to vote.
The 1789 French Revolution had been welcomed in Britain with enthusiasm. It marked the end of the ‘Ancien Regime’. However, the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793 and the subsequent ‘Reign of Terror’ changed the mood of the British ruling establishment to one of fear and loathing. There was a crackdown on anyone suspected of spreading the ideas of revolutionary France. An army of spies and informers was deployed by the government.
Thomas Muir, a talented young Lanarkshire, was one of many arrested and charged with sedition. He was put on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in August 1793. Muir elected to defend himself before a hostile jury, schooled witnesses and with the formidable Lord Braxfield on the bench. Not surprisingly he was unanimously found guilty and sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation to Botany Bay. He never saw Scotland again.
The story of Thomas Muir is both tragic and inspirational.
Speaker
Eric Melvin
Eric Melvin is our speaker. Eric graduated with First Class Honours in History and Political Thought from Edinburgh University in 1967. He qualified as a secondary teacher of History and Modern Studies at the then Moray House College of Education gaining a Dip. Ed. in the process and the Staff Prize. Eric later gained an M.Ed. from the University of Edinburgh. He retired from teaching in 2005, working latterly for the City of Edinburgh Council as Headteacher at Currie Community High School. Eric has had several books published on various aspects of Edinburgh’s rich history including books for young readers.
