Feeling in the wynds

The first police court in Scotland was established in Edinburgh in 1805. It was created to respond to the growing demand from the middle-class citizenry for a court that could handle minor civic and criminal justice efficiently and cheaply. The kinds of affairs it dealt with ranged from breaches of local bye-laws, the less severe range of criminal acts (which constituted the overwhelming majority of crime), to nearly all offences and contraventions. ¹ In accordance with its principles of speed and efficiency, the court made no transcripts of its proceedings, and its magistrates were unpaid, elected members of the civic elite of the town or city that the court represented. In its first month of sitting in August 1805, the Edinburgh Police Court dealt with over 300 cases, but by 1835 it was handling over 6,000 cases a year. ² As such, the police courts had a powerful role in the lives of urban populations, determining the way people lived and behaved in the growing towns and cities of nineteenth-century Scotland.