Burke and Hare murders Elizabeth Byrd used the events in her novels "Rest Without Peace" (1974) and "The Search for Maggie Hare" (1976). The murders have also been portrayed on stage and screen, usually in heavily fictionalised form. David Paterson, Knox's assistant, contacted Walter Scott to ask the novelist if he would be interested in writing an account of the murders, but he declined, despite Scott's long-standing interest in the events. Scott later wrote: Burke and Hare murders The Burke and Hare murders were a series of 16 killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were
Newington, Edinburgh known as the Prestonfield district. The Grange lies to the west. Even after the 1586 consolidation of land rights over the Burgh Muir, the area remained largely rural. The Newington Estate was purchased sometime before 1672 by John Lauder, a Baillie and Treasurer of Edinburgh, who thereafter took the landed designation "of Newington", until he became Sir John Lauder, 1st Baronet of Fountainhall. This family later also became possessed, by marriage, of the estate of The Grange, Edinburgh. With overcrowding of the city centre being initially alleviated by expansion to the north, creating the New Town, via the North Bridge,