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[Creeperopolis]

In September 1826, Margaret Warden, a young servant girl living near Dundee, Scotland, died of arsenic poisoning. She was pregnant at the time of her death; the father was George Smith, the son of Warden's employers, Mary and David Smith. The attending doctor initially thought Warden died of cholera, but rumours of poisoning soon spread and she was exhumed. Her stomach contents were tested; arsenic was found, and Mary Smith was committed in October for trial in Edinburgh for her murder. Her defence advocates called nearly fifty witnesses, and the trial was delayed twice to allow the prosecution time to prepare. When the trial began on 5 February, the illness of a juror led to the trial being restarted on 19 February with a new jury.

The advocates for the defence included Francis Jeffrey and Henry Cockburn, both leading Scottish advocates of the day; the prosecution was led by William Rae, the Lord Advocate. Testimony at the trial made it clear that Smith had given Warden something to drink shortly before she became ill. The defence called witnesses who testified that Warden had said she would "do some ill to hersel"[1] and similar statements that implied she might have committed suicide. The medical evidence for the presence of arsenic was questioned by the defence, but in his instructions to the jury, the judge, David Boyle, told them that they should accept as fact Warden's death by arsenic, and consider whether it had been administered by Smith. Boyle's instructions concluded at 5:30 a.m. on 20 February, about twenty hours after the trial began. At 2:00 p.m. that afternoon, the jury returned a verdict of not proven, acquitting Smith of the crime.

The trial was described in 1923 by the historian A. H. Millar as "in several particulars ... the most remarkable trial that ever took place in Scotland".[2] It was the subject of much contemporary interest, and accounts of it were published that recorded the testimony of the many witnesses who were called. Popular opinion at the time was that Smith, who became known as "the Wife o Denside", was guilty, and ballads were written about the case. One of Smith's own defence lawyers later wrote that he was sure she had committed the murder. The writer Walter Scott attended the reading of the verdict, and had no doubt of Smith's guilt; he commented afterwards that "if that woman was my wife, I should take good care to be my own cook!"[3]