In Victorian Edinburgh, women who became pregnant out of wedlock were socially excluded (but never the man who got them pregnant in the first place...). Abortion was illegal. Backstreet abortions were life endangering, but it was that or abandon your child (and possibly hang for it if caught) - or pay a baby farmer to raise it for you.
Edinburgh's most famous baby farmer was Jessie King.
Jessie lived in Canonmills with her partner Michael Pearson. She had charge of several children at this point, including one named Alexander Gunn. Alexander seemed to be being well cared for, until one day he simply disappeared.
Jessie and Michael moved to Cheyne Street, in Stockbridge, throwing anyone who might have been trying to trace Alexander off the scent.
Shortly after that a baby girl in Jessie's care also disappeared.
Another baby disappeared as well.
In Stockbridge one day some boys were playing, and they discovered the strangled corpse of a male infant.
Jessie was questioned again about Alexander, but insisted the child had been passed on to her sister to be cared for. The authorities were unconvinced and began to search her house.
Jessie broke down and led them to the celler where the corpse of the baby girl lay. The dead child the boys found was baby Alexander.
Jessie was never charged over the disappearance of the third baby as no body was ever found, but she admitted to strangling Alexander in a fit of 'drunken melancholy', and to administering too much whisky as a sleep aid to the baby girl.
There was some question as to whether she was sane (I know if I was stuck in a flat in Edinburgh surrounded by screaming children, filthy nappies and not very much money, I'd be having some 'drunken melancholy' too. Oh, wait...) but was declared fit for trial and was found guilty and sentenced to death. She was held in Calton Jail, on Calton Hill before hanging.
She was the last woman ever to be hanged in Edinburgh.
