Publication Account

Date 1980

Event ID 1018002

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018002

Although G.S. Pryde claimed that there was a tollbooth at Lochmaben in 1563 (1950, 85), prisoners taken in Border conflicts were having to be lodged in the church during the reign of James VI (Twidale, n.d.,23). It appears that in 1612 and 1625 the king ordered a tolbooth to be built at Lochmaben stating clearly in the latter case that... the lower roumes may serve for prisons to malefactoures and the upper for keeping of courtis and administration of justice' (Wilson, 1974, 25). Money raised for the project went to a Perth bridge instead and no tolbooth was built. A tolbooth was erected in 1723 and a steeple was added through the benefaction of the Marquis of Annandale in 1743. It was described in 1840 as having a court house 1 in requisition chiefly by a dancing master for gala parties and below is a miserable jail of two apartments quite unfit for the lodgement and detention of a culprit' (Wilson, 1974, 26). The town hall was reconstructed and enlarged in 1869 (Wilson, 1974, 26).

Information from ‘Historic Lochmaben: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1980).