With apologies for its length, I am mailing this account of Gillespie v
Russell - The Torbanehill Case, at the suggestion of Professor Burt.

"Now, my Lords, I must say, that in the course of my own experience I have
never seen a case got up in the preparation with more care and industry
than this one has been, and I have never seen a trial conducted with
greater temper and talent and patience than this was, or with less of
incidental mishap in the course of it. I have never known a case more
thoroughly tried; and I must say that I do not expect ever to see a case
more thoroughly tried than this case was. Such was my impression at the
time, and such is my opinion now." (The Lord President, Court of Session, 1854)

Gillespie v Russel - The Torbanehill Case
Verbatim Reports of the Jury Trial of 1853 and the Motion for a New Trial
with Appendix
A New Edition
This is a verbatim record of the testimonies of many scientists, mineral
engineers, coalmasters, miners and others called to give evidence in a
famous jury trial in the Court of Session, over a period of six days, from
29th July to 4th August 1853. The pursuers were Mr & Mrs William Gillespie
of Torbanehill, near Bathgate, in West Lothian, the defenders James Russel
& Son, coalmasters, of Blackbraes, near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire. William
Gillespie was a theologian, his wife the proprietrix of the lands of
Torbanehill; James Russel, besides being a coalmaster and industrialist
with interests in iron and shipping, was a lawyer and a founding partner of
the Falkirk law firm, Russel & Aitken.

In and prior to January 1850, the defenders had a mineral lease of the
lands of Boghead, which adjoined the pursuers' property; and in that year
they acquired a similar lease of Torbanehill for a period of twenty-five
years. The lease was of "the whole coal, ironstone, iron-ore, limestone and
fireclay (but not to comprehend copper, or any other minerals whatsoever,
except those specified) in the lands of Torbanehill." A seam which the
defenders had worked in Boghead was continued in Torbanehill and was there
mined in great quantities and supplied to home and export markets,
apparently at such a profit as to attract the attention of Mr Gillespie,
who, encouraged by a Bathgate solicitor, came to believe that what was
being extracted was not coal but a valuable mineral not prescribed by the
lease.
The Gillespies pursued the case in the Court of Session, where it was tried
before the Lord Justice-General and a jury, in a hearing which started on
29th July and ended on 4th August 1853. Seventy-nine witnesses, including
distinguished scientists, mining engineers, coal managers and miners, were
called to give evidence. After six days, the jury took only a few minutes
to reach a verdict in favour of the defenders.

According to Professor Butt's biography of James "Paraffin" Young, who had
established a works not far from the Boghead and Torbanehill collieries,
the usefulness of Young's patent for a process of extracting oil from the
material supplied by James Russel & Son depended on its classification as
coal, so the Court's decision protected the value of the patent and a
long-term contract for the supply of the material, thus enabling his firm
to continue production until the expiry of the patent and the start of the
shale oil industry in 1863.1

Notwithstanding the verdict of 1853, the rejection of a motion for a new
trial in the Court of Session (1854) and the failure or withdrawal of
appeals to the House of Lords (1859), the dispute between the landowner and
the coalmasters appears to have ended in a settlement in 1860, according to
James Urquhart's biography of William Gillespie.2 Reference to a voluntary
agreement "whereby Gillespie was paid one-seventh of the value" is made
also in H. R. J. Conacher's contribution to The Oil-Shales of the Lothians.3

Having found the transcripts of the trial 4 such fascinating verbatim
records of the testimonies of so many scientists, mineral engineers,
coalmasters, miners and others,  I decided that, as they were such
exceedingly rare books, I should reproduce and publish a new edition of the
1862 transcript in the hope that it might be found a useful and interesting
primary source for the study of science, law, coal-mining and speech in the
middle of the 19th century. The appendix includes reports by Dr Frederick
Penny, Professor of Chemistry at the Andersonian University (now the
University of Strathclyde), Dr John Fleming, Professor of Natural Science,
New College, Edinburgh, and James Nicol, Professor of Natural History at
the University of Aberdeen.

The new edition, ISBN 0-9541663-0-2, with a preface by William Anderson of
Russel & Aitken, has 402 pages, excluding preface, introduction, list of
contents and plates, is published by Atholl Press, PO Box 737, Edinburgh
EH4 3TF.  (Copies may be obtained from the publisher or from Amazon.)

References
1. John Butt, James "Paraffin" Young, Edinburgh, 1983.
2. James Urquhart, The Life and Teaching of William Honyman Gillespie of
Torbanehill, Edinburgh, 1915.
3. H. R. J. Conacher, History of the Scottish Oil-Shale Industry, The
Oil-Shales of the Lothians (3rd edition), Edinburgh, 1927.
4. There are two published transcripts of shorthand notes taken at the
trial, one by Alexander Watson Lyell (Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh, 1853),
the other by J. Irivine Smith (Neill & Company, Edinburgh, 1862). Both are
extremely rare books.

Robin Russel (Robert N. Russell, Editor of Gillespie v Russel - The
Torbanehill Case)