Old travel Blog photograph of the drinking well in the market square in Carluke located four miles South East of Wishaw in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. This Scottish town was chartered as a Royal Burgh in 1662. Carluke expanded during through the industrial age, with work involving corn milling, cotton weaving, coal mining and the manufacture of bricks, glass, confectionery and jam. Major Thomas Weir was born in Carluke in 1599. He was the son of Thomas Weir, Laird of Kirkton, and his wife Lady Jean Somerville who was reputed to possess clairvoyant powers. He was a signatory to the Solemn League and Covenant and an officer in the Scottish anti Royalist army. As a Lieutenant, he served in Ulster during the Irish Rebellion of 1641. In 1650, he obtained the post of commander of the Edinburgh Town Guard, thus acquiring the rank of major. When the defeated royalist general Montrose, branded a traitor for changing sides, was brought to Edinburgh for execution, Weir notoriously mocked and abused him during his custody. Following retirement, Weir fell ill in 1670, and from his sick bed began to confess to a secret life of crime and vice. The Lord Provost initially found the confession implausible and took no action, but eventually Weir and his spinster sister, Jean Weir, known to her friends as Grizel, were taken to the Edinburgh Tolbooth for interrogation. Major Weir, now in his seventies, continued to expand on his confession and Grizel, having seemingly entirely lost her wits, gave an even more exaggerated history of witchcraft, sorcery and vice. Whilst as a high ranking public figure Weir was not believed at first, his own confession together with that of his sister sealed his fate. Both were quickly found guilty at their trial and sentenced to death in 1670.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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