While her husband was away, probably serving in the Royal Navy, she became pregnant with a child out of wedlock
While her husband was away, probably serving in the Royal Navy, she became pregnant with a child out of wedlock, and she sadly drowned the baby soon after it was born. When people found out, she was sentenced to death and hanged at the Grassmarket in August 1724 by the hangman, John Dalgliesh.
Because Scottish law said her punishment was done once she was hanged, she could not be hanged again for the same crime (at that time, the words “until dead” were not part of the sentence).
Her "coming back to life" was seen by some as a sign from God, so she was allowed to go back to her old life. She remarried her husband, since death had separated them, and lived for another 40 years.
She became well-known in Edinburgh and got the nickname “Half-hangit Maggie.” There is proof she had neck problems and maybe even a broken bone in her neck, but much about her later life is not clear.
Today, there is a pub called Maggie Dickson’s near where she was hanged in the Grassmarket. Continue reading

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