James MacPherson was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 outlaw, famed for his Lament or Rant, a version of which was rewritten by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...

. The original version of the lament is alleged to have been written by MacPherson himself in prison on the eve of his execution.

Early life

MacPherson was the illegitimate son of a Highland laird

Laird

A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...

, MacPherson of Invereshie, and a beautiful Tinker

Scottish Travellers

Scottish Travellers, or the people termed loosely Gypsies and Tinkers in Scotland, consist of a number of diverse, unrelated communities, with groups speaking a variety of different languages and holding to distinct customs, histories, and traditions...

 or gypsy  girl that he met at a wedding. The gentleman acknowledged the child, and had him reared in his house. After the death of his father, who was killed while attempting to recover a "spread" of cattle taken from Badenoch

Badenoch

Badenoch is a traditional district which today forms part of Badenoch and Strathspey, an area of Highland Council, in Scotland, bounded on the north by the Monadhliath Mountains, on the east by the Cairngorms and Braemar, on the south by Atholl and the Grampians, and on the west by Lochaber...

 by reivers - the boy was reclaimed by his mother's people. The gypsy woman frequently returned with him, to wait upon his relations and clan

Clan

A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

smen, who never failed to clothe him well, besides giving money to his mother. He grew up “in beauty, strength and stature rarely equaled.” MacPherson is reported as being a man of uncommon personal strength. He became an expert swordsman, and a renowned fiddler, and eventually became the leader of the gypsy band. The tinker-Gypsies then lived by buying and selling horses and seem to have been quite popular with the ordinary country folk.

Outlaw career

Though his prowess was debased as the exploits of a freebooter (pirate), it is certain, says one writer, that no act of cruelty, or robbery of the widow, the fatherless, or the distressed was ever perpetrated under his command. Indeed, it is alleged that a dispute with an aspiring and savage man of his tribe, who wished to rob a gentleman's house while his wife and two children lay on the bier for interment, was the cause of his being betrayed to the vengeance of the law. Thus he was betrayed by a man of his own tribe, and was the last person executed at Banff

Banff, Aberdeenshire

Banff is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Banff is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Macduff across the estuary of the River Deveron...

 previous to the abolition of heritable jurisdictions

Heritable jurisdictions

Heritable jurisdictions were, in the law of Scotland, grants of jurisdiction made to a man and his heirs.They were a usual accompaniment to feudal tenures, and the power which they conferred on great families, being recognized as a source of danger to the state, led to frequent attempts being made...

.

MacPherson had incurred the enmity of the rich lairds and farmers of the low country of Banff and Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...

, and especially of Duff of Braco, who organized a posse

Posse comitatus (common law)

Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...

 to catch him. "After holding the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray

Moray

Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...

 in fear for some years", says Chambers, "he was seized by Duff of Braco, ancestor of the Earl of Fife, and tried before the Sheriff of Banffshire (8 November 1700), along with certain Gypsies who had been taken in his company.

Before ultimately being brought to trial, MacPherson was captured several times but always escaped from his enemies. In Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

, his cousin, Donald, and a gypsy named Peter Brown, aided by the populace, rescued him from prison. Shortly afterwards, he was again captured, but was once more rescued, this time by the Laird of Grant.

Capture and trial

MacPherson's career of robbery had culminated in a “reign of terror” in the markets of Banff, Elgin

Elgin, Moray

Elgin is a former cathedral city and Royal Burgh in Moray, Scotland. It is the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town originated to the south of the River Lossie on the higher ground above the flood plain. Elgin is first documented in the Cartulary of Moray in 1190...

 and Forres

Forres

Forres , is a town and former royal burgh situated in the north of Scotland on the Moray coast, approximately 30 miles east of Inverness. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several occasions...

. Apparently under protection of the Laird of Grant, he and his band of followers would come marching in with a piper at their head. Perhaps he became too powerful for comfort for he was hanged at Banff in 1700, for bearing arms at Keith

Keith, Moray

Keith is a small town in the Moray council area in north east Scotland. It has a population of around 4,500....

 market. At the Saint Rufus Fair in Keith MacPherson was attacked by Braco's men, and was captured after a fierce fight in which one of Jamie's crew was killed. According to the traditional account penned by Jamie himself, a woman dropped a blanket over him from a window, and he was disarmed before he could get free of it. Duff and a very strong escort then took him to Banff prison.

It was still at that time a criminal offence merely to be an Egyptian (Gypsy) in Scotland, and it was under this statute that MacPherson was tried in November 1700. MacPherson and three others were brought to trial at Banff before Sheriff Nicholas Dunbar, Sheriff of Banffshire (who allegedly was a close friend of Duff's), on November 8, 1700, accused of: "Being ye mercats in yr ordinary manner of thieving and purse-cutting, or of the crimes of theft and masterful bangstree and oppression", and they were found "Fyllen, culpable, and convick" and sentenced "For sae muckle, as you, James MacPherson, are found guilty of being Egyptians and vagabonds and oppressors of his free lieges. Therefore, I adjudge and decern you to be taken to the cross of Banff to be hanged by the neck to the death".

The actual procès-verbal of his trial is still extant; the following is the text of the death sentence:

"Forasmeikle as you James McPherson, pannal [accused] are found guilty by ane verdict of ane assyse, to be knoun, holden, and repute to be Egiptian and a wagabond, and oppressor of his Magesties free lieges in ane bangstrie manner, and going up and down the country armed, and keeping mercats in ane hostile manner, and that you are a thief, and that you are of pessimae famae. Therfor, the Sheriff-depute of Banff, and I in his name, adjudges and discernes you the said James McPherson to be taken to the Cross of Banff, from the tolbooth thereof, where you now lye, and there upon ane gibbet to be erected, to be hanged by the neck to the death by the hand of the common executioner, upon Friday next, being the 16th day of November instant, being a public weekly mercat day, betwixt the hours of two and three in the afternoon....”

MacPherson’s Lament

While under sentence of death in the jail, during the week between his trial and his execution, MacPherson is said to have composed the tune and the song now known as MacPherson’s Lament or MacPherson’s Rant. Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

 says that MacPherson played it under the gallows

Gallows

A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...

, and, after playing the tune, he then offered his fiddle to anyone in his clan who would play it at his wake. When no one came forward to take the fiddle, he broke it - either across his knee or over the executioner's head – and then threw it into the crowd with the remark, "No one else shall play Jamie MacPherson's fiddle". The broken fiddle now lies in the MacPherson Clan museum near Newtonmore

Newtonmore

Newtonmore is a village in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of about 1000. The village is only a few miles from a location that is claimed to be the exact geographical centre of Scotland...

, Inverness-shire. He then was hanged or, according to some accounts, threw himself from the ladder, to hang by his own will. This was allegedly the last capital sentence executed in Scotland under Heritable Jurisdiction, taking place on 16 November 1700.

The traditional accounts of MacPherson's immense prowess seem justified by his sword, which is still preserved in Duff House, at Banff, and is an implement of great length and weight - as well as by his bones, which were found not very many years ago, and were allowed by all who saw them to be much stronger than the bones of ordinary men. He was assuredly no ordinary man, that he could so disport himself on the morning of his execution.

It is universally believed in the North-East of Scotland that a reprieve was on its way to Banff at the time of the execution. The legend has it that Duff of Braco saw a lone rider coming from Turriff

Turriff

Turriff is a town and civil parish in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. It is approximately above sea level, and has a population of 5,708.Turriff is known locally as Turra in the Doric dialect of Scots...

 and correctly assumed that he carried a pardon for Jamie from the Lord of Grant. As the story goes, he then set about turning the village clock 15 minutes ahead and so hanging MacPherson before the pardon arrived. The magistrates allegedly were punished for this and the town clock was kept 15 minutes before the correct time for many years. Even to this day it is reported that the town of Macduff

Macduff, Aberdeenshire

Macduff is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Macduff is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Banff across the estuary of the River Deveron...

has its west-facing town clock covered so the people of Banff can't see the correct time!

A text (and there are many variations) of "MacPherson’s Lament or Rant" follows:

I've spent my life in rioting,

Debauch'd my health and strength,

I squander'd fast, as pillage came,

And fell to shame at length.

Chorus:

Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,

Sae dauntingly gaed he;

He play'd a tune, and danc'd it roon'

Below the gallows-tree.

My father was a gentleman,

Of fame and honor high,

Oh mother, would you ne'er had borne

The son so doom'd to die.

Chorus

Ach, little did my mother think

When first she cradled me

That I would turn a roving boy

And die on the gallows tree

Chorus

Farewell, yon dungeons dark and strong,

The wretch's destinie!

M'Pherson's time will not be long

On yonder gallows-tree.

Chorus

O what is Death but parting breath?

On many a bloody plain

I've dar'd his face, and in this place

I'll scorn him yet again.

Chorus

But vengeance I never did wreak,

When pow'r was in my hand,

And you, dear friends, no vengeance seek,

It is my last command.

Chorus

Forgive the man whose rage betray'd

MacPherson's worthless life;

When I am gone, be it not said,

My legacy was strife.

Chorus

It was by a woman's treacherous hand

That I was condemned tae dee

Aboon a ledge at a windae she stood

And a blanket she threw o'er me

Chorus

Untie these bands frae aff o' my hands

And gie tae me my sword

There's no a man in a' Scotland

But I'll brave him at his word

Chorus

There's some come here tae see me hang

And some tae buy my fiddle

But afore that I dae part wi' her

I'd brak' her through the middle

Chorus

He took his fiddle into both of his hands

And he brak' it o'er a stone

Said, Nae ither hands shall play on thee

When I am deid and gane

Chorus

Now farewell light, thou sunshine bright, "

And all beneath the sky!

May coward shame distain his name,

The wretch that dares not die!

Chorus

O reprieve was coming o the Brig o' Dans

For ta set MacPherson free,

For they set the clock a quarter before

And they hanged him from a tree.

Chorus

Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,

Sae dauntingly gaed he;

He play'd a tune, and danc'd it roon'

And they hanged him from a tree.