Tullibody House had a beautiful orchard.

During the autumn the trees provided apples and pears that were used in the kitchens or added to the fruit bowl for the family to enjoy.

Like many orchards, it suffered from thefts, and not just from children chancing their luck. Adults too often entered to help themselves to the fruit, but this would land all of them in the local sheriff court.

On October 18, 1873, three people entered the orchard to take some apples.

William Risk and Ivy Brown, a moulder at Kelly Bank in Alloa, stole a quantity of apples still growing on the trees and this led them to appear before Sheriff Substitute W Bennet Clerk, although Risk failed to appear. The third person was never identified.

The orchard belonged to George Abercromby, 4th Lord Abercromby, who owned the Tullibody estate, and it was overseen by Robert Dudgeon, who was employed by Abercromby.

On the day in question, he had been on his way to work in the orchard when he spotted three men standing round one of the fruit trees around 100 yards away from him. He decided to creep up on them and catch them in the act of stealing the apples, and as he got closer, he spotted one of them up the tree.

Dudgeon managed to grab one of the culprits, that being Risk, before being noticed by the others. The one in the tree quickly jumped down, and along with Ivy Brown, ran off.

Risk tried to free himself but to no avail. The two who had run decided to turn round and started making their way back to their friend. Risk then called out ‘John,’ although no such person was there, and this scared them and they ran off again.

Dudgeon asked his prisoner his name and he gave it as Anderson, but the gardener instinctively knew this was false, so asked him again.

This time he gave his real name, Risk. Dudgeon roughly escorted Risk back to his home where he gave up the name of one of his accomplices, that of Ivy Brown. When asked who the third person was, he claimed he only knew him as Jamie.

He went on that they had only been going along the waterside when they decided to go up into the garden to see if any apples had been blown down.

The sheriff substitute, who listened to corroborative evidence, sentenced Brown to six days imprisonment.

What Risk was sentenced to, and who the third person was, is unknown.