Memoir of the Life and Trial of James MackCoull, or Moffat, Who Died.

1822. Edinburgh: Printed for John Anderson, 1822. Edinburgh: Printed for John Anderson, 1822. A Notorious Bank Robber and Confidence Man (and Folk Antihero) [Trial]. MackCoull, James, Defendant [1763-1820]. Memoir of the Life and Trial of James MackCoull, Or Moffat, Who Died in the County Jail of Edinburgh on the 22d December 1820; Containing a Full Account of His Trial Before the Jury Court, And High Court of Justiciary, At Edinburgh, For Robbing the Branch of the Paisley Union Bank at Glasgow of Twenty-Thousand Pounds. Edinburgh: Printed for John Anderson, Jun. And London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1822. vii, [1], 317 pp. Etched copperplate portrait frontispiece. Folding table. Octavo (8-1/4" x 5"). Contemporary calf, blind rules to boards, raised bands, lettering piece and gilt fillets to spine, edges rouged. A few minor nicks and scratches and light rubbing to boards, slightly heavier rubbing to extremities, small scuff along front joint, which is starting at foot. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing to a few leaves, light dampspotting and offsetting to endleaves, offsetting from frontispiece to title page. A handsome copy. $350. * Only edition. Mackcoull, also known by the aliases Captain James Moffat and James Martin, was a notorious British bank robber and confidence man who lived in England, Ireland and Scotland. His ability to evade capture for most of the life, manipulate the courts and, when finally convicted, avoid the noose, led many to see him as a kind of folk antihero. The Memoir relates to the event that ended his career, the robbery of the Glasgow branch of the Paisley Union Bank in March 1813. After several legal delays he was tried six years later and sentenced to death on June 1819. However, the trial increased his celebrity and this enabled him to persuade the judge to repeal his death sentence. He died in prison of natural causes in December 1820. Grant, Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh II:279-280. "James Mackcooll, alias Moffat," Newgate Calendar (accessed online). Catalogue of the Library of the Harvard Law School (1909) II:1136. (Inventory #: 82355)