Alexander Masterton (approx 1785-aft 1847)
Flesher
Alexander Masterton, flesher, was born in Montrose, Angus, Scotland, and was a flesher (butcher) in Montrose. He lost his first wife under tragic, and somewhat mysterious, circumstances. His state of mind seems to have degenerated in his later years, and he appears to have been committed to an asylum.
Genealogy
Alexander Masterton was the son of Alexander Masterton and Janet Law, the evidence of a gravestone in Montrose Churchyard. Alexander Masterton therefore belongs to the large group of Mastertons that originated in the Forfar area. He married three times and had seven children. Fuller details of his extended family can be found at this link.
Aberdeen Journal
We are sorry to state that the lifeless body of the wife of Alexander Masterton, flesher in Montrose, was found in the basin, near the slaughter-house, on Saturday morning. The unfortunate woman left her house the evening previous, about 10 o'clock, with a lantern, to meet her husband, who was employed in the neighbourhood. The night was very dark, and it is supposed she slipped off the foot-path on the high broken ground, near the bridge of Tayock, into the tide, as the light was distinctly seen in that direction by two men who met her immediately before the accident, but who very remissly did not attend to the cries of the sufferer. Her husband, who was approaching the spot, saw the light extinguish, and heard a cry of distress; but, strange to tell, thought nothing of it till his arrival at home, when he in vain went in search of her.
Aberdeen Journal
30th November, 1814
On Tuesday last, Mr Alexander Masterton, butcher, Montrose, killed an ox, fed at Keithock, which weighed one hundred stones. The animal was well proportioned, and the largest ever seen in Montrose.
PERTH, March 25.
Aberdeen Journal
31st March, 1824
The London Gazette
Montrose, October 29, 1832.
THE subscribers, Trustees for the Creditors of the said Alexander Masterton, conform to trust deed in their favour, dated 5th September last, hereby intimate, that a scheme of division of the funds realized by them will be made up, and a dividend paid, after the 5th January 1833, to the Creditors of the Bankrupt who shall have previously lodged their claims, and affidavits thereon, with Robert Walker, Merchant, in Montrose, one of the Trustees; hereby certifying, those who shall fail to lodge their claims with the said Robert Walker, before that date, that they will be excluded from any share of the funds. (Not to be repeated.)
D. CHRISTIE.
WILLIAM MALCOLM.
JAS. LEIGHTON.
ROBT. WALKER.
The London Gazette
Number 18991
6th November, 1832
also published in the Edinburgh Gazette
Caledonian Mercury
HORRIBLE OUTRAGE. - Thursday forenoon, about eleven o'clock, when Alexander Thomson, Esq. writer, was proceeding from his office, High Street, to the Town Hall, he was attacked, in a most dastardly and inhuman manner, by a person who had followed his footsteps, and who, with a walking-stick, struck him from behind two or three heavy blows on the head and shoulders. On turning round to the assassin, he received another very severe and dangerous blow on the temples, and one or more on one of his wrists, and might have been murdered on the spot, but for the timely aid of Sergeant Cook, Hillside, and Mr Calvert, writer, who happened to be near, and who seized and delivered over the delinquent to the care of the police. The perpetrator of this dreadful outrage was an old butcher in the town, Alexander Masterton, who had given considerable annoyance to Mr Thomson recently. After being conveyed to the police cells, he became quite furious; and two medical gentlemen having certified that he is insane, application, we understand, has been made for his admission into the Asylum. - Montrose Review.
Caledonian Mercury
15th February, 1847
also
Arbroath Dundee Perth and Cupar Advertiser
16th February 1847