‘This trial is no trivial matter. It affects me, but it affects the country more’: Sedition, the Scottish Martyrs and Scots Law

As he faced conviction for sedition in 1793, Thomas Muir lamented ‘this trial is no trivial matter. It affects me, but it affects the country more.’ This statement echoes the sentiment of the time wherein the carrying out of British penal policy impinged on the autonomy of Scots law, which was protected by the 1707 Act of Union. During a period of heightened political tensions at home and abroad the state looked to deter challenges to authority, including sedition, by ensuring that justice was enacted in the harshest sense without provoking accusations of tyranny. However, the case of Muir and his fellow ‘Scottish Martyrs’ posed major contentions to the authorities in Edinburgh, Whitehall and New South Wales. This article examines the spaces in which the bounds of criminality, the definition of punishment and the distinctions between English and Scots law were played out—namely, the courtroom, the transport ship and the penal colony. It demonstrates that the journey of the Scottish Martyrs through the legal system was shaped by political and legal frictions between Scotland and England, which encouraged British and imperial discussions around freedoms, legislative power and penal policy.