Jamie Macpherson

James Macpherson
Born	c. 1675 Scotland
Died	16 November 1700(1700-11-16) (aged 24–25) Banff, Scotland
Occupation	Robber
Criminal charge	Robbery Bearing arms in a market Being Egyptian
Penalty	Death by hanging

Jamie Macpherson (c. 1675–1700) also known as James Macpherson was a Scottish outlaw, famed for his poetic work commonly called "Macpherson's Lament" said to have been composed by him on the eve of his execution. "Macpherson's Lament" is known also as "Macpherson's Rant" or "Macpherson's Farewell".

Early life

Macpherson was born in 1675, the illegitimate son of the Scottish nobility (Scottish Gaelic: flath) of Clan Macpherson of Invernesshire. His parents were the MacPherson Tacksman of Inverseie and a tinker or Roma woman whom he had met at a wedding. Macpherson's father acknowledged the child as his own and raised him in his house. The father died while leading an expedition to recover Highland cattle taken by reivers from Badenoch.

Outlaw career

In a time and place where cattle raiding and selling protection against theft were considered an honourable way of earning a living for oneself and one's clansmen, Macpherson is said, similarly to Rob Roy MacGregor, to have operated an extralegal Watch over the cattle herds of the Scottish gentry of Moray and to have been viewed as a Robin Hood figure.

Macpherson had incurred the enmity of the rich lairds and farmers of the low country of Banff and Aberdeenshire, and especially Duff of Braco, who organised a posse to capture him. "After holding the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray 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.

Capture and trial

It was still at that time a criminal offence merely to be "ane Egiptian" (Gypsy) under Scots Law, and it was under this statute that Macpherson was tried in November 1700. Macpherson and others were brought to trial at Banff before Nicholas Dunbar, the Sheriff of Banffshire—an alleged close friend of Duff—on 8 November 1700, accused of thievery. Macpherson was sentenced to death by hanging.

Dunbar's sentence against Macpherson remained in the written record, and his death sentence was as follows:

For sae meikle as you, James Macpherson and James Gordon, pannals [the accused], are found guilty, ane verdict of ane assyse, to be knoune holden, and repute to be Egiptians and vagabonds, and oppressors of his matie's free lieges, in ane bangstrie manner, and going up and doune the country armed, and keeping the mercats in ane hostile manner; and that you are thieves, and receptors of thieves, and that you are of pessima fama: Therefore, the Shireff-depute of Banff, and I, in his name, adjudges and decernes you, the sds James Macpherson and James Gordon to be taken to the cross of Banff, from the tolbooth yrof, where you now lye, and yr upon ane gibbet to be erected, to be hanged by the neck to the death, by the hand of the comone executioner, upon Friday nixt, being the 16 Nover instant, being a publick weeklie mercat-day, betwisxt the houres of two and three in the afternoon, and, in the meantyme, declairs their haill movele goods and gear to be scheat and inbrought to the fiscall, for his matie's interest; and recomends this sentences to be sene put in executioune by the magistrats of Banff

— Nicolas Dunbar, Sheriff of Banffshire (November 1700)

Macpherson's Lament

While jailed before the execution of his sentence, Macpherson is said to have composed his song known today as "Macpherson's lament" or "Macpherson's rant". According to Walter Scott, Macpherson played this tune beneath the gallows and then, after playing, offered his fiddle to his clansmen to play at his wake. No one came forward, and so Macpherson broke the fiddle either across his knee or over the executioner's head, throwing the pieces to the crowd, saying, "No one else shall play Jamie Macpherson's fiddle." The Clan Macpherson Museum in Newtonmore houses what remains of Macpherson's fiddle.

The traditional accounts of Macpherson's immense prowess seem justified 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.

Further reading

• Henderson, Hamish; Munro, Allie (1979). "Notes to 'The Muckle Sangs'". Scottish Tradition Vol. 5 (liner notes). Tangent Records. TNGM 119/D.
• Buchan, Norman (4 September 1958). "Title unknown". Weekly Scotsman.
• Kalweit, Sussane; Kochlin, Henry (26 November 2000). "MacPherson's Rant (or Lament or Farewell)". Henry's Songbook. MySongBook.de. Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
• Palmer, Roy (1980). Everyman's Book Of British Ballads. London: Dent. p. 116. ISBN 0460044524.