Hanging at the Old Tolbooth

Brodie and Smith were hanged at the Old Tolbooth, on the High Street, on 1 October 1788 before a crowd of 40,000, including Brodie's ten-year-old daughter, Cecil(e). Since 1785, executions in Edinburgh had taken place on the roof of a two-storey extension on the west side of the Old Tolbooth, which provided a platform equipped with a gallows so that the public could view hangings. A popular myth holds that Brodie built the first gallows in Edinburgh and was its first victim, but William Roughead concluded that although the Deacon may have had some hand in the design, it was certainly not of his construction, nor was he the first to benefit by its ingenuity.