The last woman to be publicly executed in Scotland screamed for mercy and fainted as she was dragged to the gallows to be hanged outside Dumfries Prison on Tuesday, April 29th, 1862. She was Mary Timney, 27, who beat to death her neighbour Ann Hannah, 40, because, she alleged, Miss Hannah had refused to lend her any money or allow her to gather firewood on her farm at New Galloway, Kirkcudbrightshire.
At her trial Mary Timney said Miss Hannah had started the fracas by kicking her before she retaliated with a knife, a poker and a hammer. She told the court that she was jealous of the victim, who had acquired an influence over her husband. Sentenced to death, she cried, Oh, my Lord, dinna do that! Give me anything but that, let the Lord send for me!