Note 1373 — Chapter XLI

To give the reader a notion of the evils which flowed from these irregular jurisdictions, we quote the following from the old Statistical Account of the Parish of Abernethy, in Inverness-shire:—“A few instances will be enough to mention, in case the reader should imagine that these things were lately done in Tippoo Sultan’s dominions. One of them lived in this parish, named Robert Grant, commonly called Bailie More. It is said he used to hang people for disobliging him. He seldom called juries. He hanged two brothers on a tree within a thousand yards of this town, and buried both in one grave, on the road side. The grave and stones above it are still visible. Another, named James Grant, commonly called Bailie Roy, who lived long in this parish, hanged a man of the name of Stuart, and after hanging him, set a jury on him, and found him guilty. The particulars are too long to be inserted here. The bailie had many reasons for being in such a hurry. The man was, unluckily for him, wealthy, and abounded in cattle, horses, sheep, and goats, all of which were instantly driven to the bailie’s home; Stuart’s children set a-begging, and his wife became deranged in her mind, and was afterward drowned in a river. It is not very long since. This same Bailie Roy, on another occasion, hanged two notorious thieves, parboiled their heads, and set them up on spikes afterward. At another time he drowned two men in sacks, at the bridge of Billimon, within a few hundred yards of this manse, and endeavoured to compel a man from Glenmore, in the barony of Kincardine, to assist him and the executioners he had with him in the business, which the man refusing to do, the bailie said to him, ‘If you was within my regality, I would teach you better manners than to disobey my commands.’ This bailie bought a good estate. There was another of them, called Bailie Bain, in this country, who became so odious that the country people drowned him in Spey, near the church of Inverallan, about two miles from hence. They took off his boots and gloves, left them on the bank, and drove his horse through a rugged place full of large stones. The tract in the sand, boots, &c., discovered what had become of him; and when a search was made for him down the river, a man met the party near the church of Cromdale, who asked them what they were searching for, they answered, for the bailie’s body, upon which he said, ‘Turn back, turn back, perhaps he is gone up against the river, for he was always acting against nature.’”