OS1/3/5/40

List of names as written Various modes of spelling Authorities for spelling Situation Description remarks
[continued from page 39]
by a few Chosen Confederates and being joined by some of the retainers of the murdered Gentlemen about midnight surrounded the Barns where the English Soldiers were cantoned who indulging a fancied security had after a deep Carousal betaken themselves to rest. Wallace learning that they kept no Guard or Watch, sent a party of men with ropes, made all the doors fast on the outside & procured a quantity of pitch. Wallace after placing his men so as to prevent the escape of any of the English, set fire to the thatch being covered with pitch and the Barns of Ayr being themselves made of wood, the flames spread to every part of the building with unrelenting fury while the screaming wretches within were received in attempting to escape - on the points of the Scottish swords and either killed or forced back into the devouring element. It is said that 500 perished in this awfully cruel manner. The severity of the retaliation can only be palliated by the nature of the war the parties were engaged in and the desperation to which the cruelty of the invaders had goaded on the wretched inhabitants.
Auld Ayr - 1832

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[Page] 40
Sheet 11 -- Ayr

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Nellie- Moderator, Marchbank 70

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