{{Short description|British folklore}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} thumb|300px|Tibbie Tamson's grave on Foulshiels Hill, near Philiphaugh '''Isabella Thomson'''<ref name=bm>''The Border Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly'', Volume 13 (1908), 178</ref> (d.1790), usually known by the dialect form of her name '''Tibbie Tamson''', was a Scottish woman who lived in the royal burgh of Selkirk in the Scottish Borders during the 18th century. Her isolated grave is a notable landmark, located on a hillside approximately 1.5 miles north of Selkirk at {{gbmapping|NT436296}}.<ref name=canmore>[https://canmore.org.uk/event/713939 Tibby Tamsons Grave], Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland</ref>
== Death and burial== Few facts are known about Thomson's life. There is a local tradition that Thomson, who lived in the Kirk Wynd in Selkirk, was a poor woman of weak intellect<ref name=bm/> who was treated with contempt in the town.<ref>[https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/gutenberg.org/4/7/8/0/47800/47800-8.txt "...the victim of religious despair...in a pious frenzy she took her own life..."], 1913, "Highways and Byways in The Border Illustrated", Andrew Lang & John Lang</ref> She is said to have been accused of stealing a length of yarn,<ref name=Hogg/> and was summoned to the sheriff court to face trial for the crime of petty theft. She took her own life and in common with others judged to have committed the crime of ''Felo de se'' her corpse was given to the burgh constable to be buried in unconsecrated ground.<ref name=Hogg>Garside, P.D. (editor). In {{cite book|last=Hogg|first=James|authorlink=James Hogg|title=The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner|orig-date=1824|year=2002|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-6315-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0PYlm9IOXycC&pg=PA252 |accessdate=12 May 2013|at=Note 171(a)}}</ref> At this period in Scotland as in England, suicides were often given a 'profane' burial unless family or friends were able to arrange interment secretly.<ref name=houston211>Contrary to popular belief, in both countries 'profane' burial was not actually specified by law, which only specified forfeiture of a suicide's property, but was often carried out as a matter of custom. See Houston, R. (2010). ''Punishing the Dead?: Suicide, Lordship, and Community in Britain, 1500-1830'', Oxford UP, p.211</ref> Accordingly she was placed in a pauper's coffin of deal, which was dragged out of the town while her neighbours threw stones and insults,<ref name=Hogg/> and was buried on Foulshiels Hill at the point where the Selkirk commonlands joined the estates of Bowhill and Philiphaugh.<ref name=canmore/> This practice of the burial of those guilty of ''Felo de se'' at the meeting of parish or estate boundaries was found elsewhere in rural Scotland, with a well-known fictional example in James Hogg's ''Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner'' (1823). Amongst other points, burial within boundary areas negated the issue of a community having to get permission from a landowner.<ref name=houston218>Houston (2010) p.218</ref>
thumb|left|Remains of inscription: "I THOMSON / FS 1790"
At some point after 1790 a rough stone was placed on the grave with "''I H / I THOMSON / FS 1790''"<ref name=canmore/> or "''H.L. I.T. F.S. 1790''" carved on it ("Here lies Isabella Thomson for suicide [or 'Felo de se'] 1790").<ref name=bm/> Thomas Craig-Brown, in his two-volume ''History of Selkirkshire'' (1886), stated that the stone had been placed there by Michael Stewart, a dyker in the service of the Duke of Buccleuch, who "reopened the grave that he might repair the indecent haste shown at her burial. In the woman's pocket he found one penny and one farthing."<ref name=brown>Craig-Brown, T. (1886) ''History of Selkirkshire'', v II, 174-175</ref>
The 19th century essayist John Brown said that the "grave [was] known and feared the country round",<ref name=brown109>Brown (1871) "Minchmoor" in ''Spare Hours'', p.109</ref> while in more recent times it has been described as "a memorial to the worst excesses of small-town unkindness".<ref name=omand227>Omand, D. (1995) ''The Borders Book'', Birlinn, p.227</ref> Each year as part of their traditional perambulation of Selkirk's commons, members of the Selkirk Common Riding Organisation pass by the place and in modern times place a wreath at the grave in remembrance of her.<ref>[http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/local-headlines/framed-in-time-1-221220 "Framed in Time"], 14 October 2010, thesouthernreporter.co.uk</ref>
==See also==
*Jay's Grave, an example of "ignominious" burial from England
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamson, Tibbie}} Category:History of the Scottish Borders Category:People from Selkirk, Scottish Borders Category:18th-century Scottish people Category:1790 deaths Category:Year of birth unknown