GALLOWAY CONVERSATIONS: The Trail of the Broken Shoe with John Nelson

John Nelson is a keen local and family historian. At the age of 65, John rode a Clydesdale horse 130 miles into the Highlands, following in the footsteps of his ancestor’s stolen horse.           

In 1811, John Kerr gave hospitality to a band of tinker travellers. The following morning, John discovered that his favourite mare was gone. On checking further, he found that his guests of the night before, were also gone. He then began a dogged pursuit in appalling conditions for 150 miles into the Highlands. After a fight, John apprehended the culprits. They were tried, one thief was found guilty and hanged at the Tolbooth in Ayr; the other was sentenced to be transported ‘beyond the seas.’

John Nelson has published a book that has as its backbone, the true, tragic but almost unknown story of - The Last Man Hanged for Horse-stealing in Scotland.
with the title - On the Trail of a Broken Shoe.
John Kerr was John Nelson’s 3x great Grandfather.
The tale was told to John at his grandfather’s knee some 75 years ago.        

After many years of research UK wide, John had pieced together the story and decided, on the bicentenary of the heroic chase, to ride a Clydesdale horse all the way to Glencoe in the Highlands, following in the footsteps of his ancestor. Having known the story all his life, having researched the detail in dusty archives and spent ten days in the saddle, riding over mountain and moor, he is uniquely qualified to write the tale of
                  ‘The Last Man Hanged for Horse-stealing in Scotland’.                                                                                                                               

Such was the accuracy of his grandfather’s simple tale that he decided to check out many other fascinating stories. Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitler and Hirohito all affected his family; from the Peninsular War and Waterloo via Western Front and Salonika, to the Fall of Singapore and the Forgotten Army in Burma.  John has added these stories to the main theme, hence the subtitle of -
 With Tales of Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs of a Galloway family.