Westminster to Wit.
_14th Aug. 1746._
Being asked where he was when the Rebellion in Scotland first broke
out, he saith, that he was in his own County in the parish of Urquhart,
where he continued from the beginning to the end of the Rebellion
without going to any Place of any Distance from the said Parish of
Urquhart. Being asked whether he was one of the Gentlemen consulted by
the Laird of Grant upon the occasion of the Lord President’s offering
a company to the said Laird for raising men for the Government which
Gentlemen refused to accept of the said one Company, he saith he was
not, nor was he ever advised with or consulted thereupon: Nor did the
Laird of Grant ever send to the Examinant or to his Father, who is
lately dead, to come to him in order to advise and consult with them
upon the measures to be taken upon that occasion: he saith, that the
Laird of Grant’s Bailly upon the Rebellion first breaking out told the
Grants publickly, that it was the Lairds desire that they should remain
peaceable and quiet, but the said Bailie told this Exam^t and his
father and two other Gentlemen of the name of Grant privately that it
was the said Lairds desire that a Company of the Grants should join the
Pretender’s son privately in order to protect the Country. He saith,
that he was never sent for during the Rebellion by the said Laird of
Grant upon any occasion to be advised with, or consulted with about it:
that in the Progress of the Rebellion, several different parties of the
Rebels came into that part of the Country, where the Exam^t was, and
pressed him to take on with them, but that he constantly refused them,
and would not have anything to do with them.
He saith, that he never was directly nor indirectly concerned in
receiving or conveying of any letters or verbal messages to or from any
Persons in the Rebellion to any persons whatever, nor did he willingly
harbour, protect, or supply in any shape any of the aforesaid Persons,
nor was he ever made privy to any designs or Intentions of the said
Rebels.
He saith, that different Partys of the Rebels who passed thro’ the
Country having threatened to use violence to some of the Grants unless
they would join them, a Party of them with a Gentleman at their Head,
went to Castle Grant to take the Directions of the Laird, and offer’d
to go and join Lord Loudoun or any one else, if he would give them
orders in writing for so doing: that the Laird of Grant told them, they
might go and join the Devil if they would, and imprisoned the Gentleman
who came along with them for two or three days for his officiousness.
He saith, that he made it his Business whenever he had an opportunity,
to dissuade those whom he could come at from engaging in the Rebellion,
and exerted his utmost endeavours to convince them of the rashness of
their undertaking.
Being asked whether he was privy to the Neutrality signed by some
Gentlemen amongst the Grants, whilst the Rebels were at Aberdeen, He
saith, he was not privy to it in any shape, nor doth he know who were
the conductors of that Neutrality.
After the Battle of Culloden some of the Grants remaining in arms for
the Pretender’s Son the Exam^t and his Father were sent to by the
Laird of Grant (who had never sent to the Exam^t or his Father during
the Rebellion before) to go to the said People and persuade them to
surrender: He saith, that he and his Father accordingly went to the
said men, and with the assistance of the Rev^d Mr. John Grant prevailed
with them to surrender, and marched with them for that purpose to
Inverness, where to his great surprise the Exam^t, His Father, and the
said Rev^d Mr. Grant were made Prisoners with the aforesaid Rebels, and
sent up hither for he does not know what.
He saith, that he verily believes that the ill-usage his Father met
with, served in a great degree to shorten his father’s life. He saith,
that all his and his Father’s Cattle were taken from them for some time
for not joining the Rebels: that he never held any correspondences with
the Rebels in any shape, nor ever was instrumental in serving them at
all, and that if he behaved civilly to them whilst they remained in the
Country where the Exam^t was it was out of Fear and not the effect of
Inclination.
Being asked whether it be his opinion that if the Laird of Grant had
wrote to the People in the Country to rise for the Government the said
People would have taken up arms for the Government, he saith, that he
verily believes if the laird of Grant had done so, the Country would
have joined the Kings Troops, and done all the service in their Power,
but this was neglected by the said Laird of Grant till the Battle
of Culloden was over, when the Exam^t joined the said Laird at his
request with 50 or 60 men, being all who were capable of bearing arms
in the Country, and that being the first and only Request which the
Laird of Grant ever made to the Exam^t upon occasion of the Rebellion.
(Signed) JAMES GRANTT.
_Whitehall, August 14, 1746._
Taken before me, THOS. WAITE.
To HIS GRACE the DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, one of his Majesty’s
Principal Secretarys of State, the PETITION of ALEXANDER GRANT
of SHEWGLY, Esq., JAMES GRANT his son, and the Rev. Mr. JOHN
GRANT, minister of the Gospel at URQUHART, prisoners in Tilbury
fort.[583]
Humbly sheweth, that Lewis Grant of Grant, Esq^r, son of Sir James
Grant, Bar^t, having with his men, some days after the Battle of
Culloden, joyned his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland did by his
Royal Highness’s Permission march with them to the Country of Urquhart
near Inverness, to seize and bring in such Rebels as should be found
in arms against the Government, That finding none he apply’d to your
Petitioners who were then (as they had been ever since this unhappy
rebellion) quiet and peaceable at their respective Homes entreating
them as persons of Rank and Figure in that Country to use their best
endeavours with such Rebels as might be still in Arms, to lay them down
and surrender to the said Mr. Grant, with assurances that he would
intercede with his Royal Highness in their behalf, and that after such
surrender they should be permitted to return to their respective Places
of Abode.
That your Petitioners were so successful as to prevail upon 84 Rebels
of the name of Grant to surrender themselves and their arms to the said
Mr. Grant, which he then thankfully and gratefully acknowledged as an
event that would entitle him to some merit in his Royal Highnesses
eye, and desired your Petitioners to accompany him and the said Rebel
prisoners to Inverness, which they did.
That your Petitioners to their own, as well as the Neighbourhoods great
surprise, were upon their Arrival at Inverness represented as Rebels
and corresponding with those in open arms and as prisoners taken by
him, and upon such false Information confined by his Royal Highness and
have since been sent up prisoners without the least ground or charge
but the false Information given by the said Mr. Grant.
That your Petitioners tho’ conscious of their own Innocence, and free
from any guilt, have upon the said false Information been sent from
Inverness to England and have in the course of the voyage been in no
shape distinguished from those in open Rebellion, that from the great
Hardships they have suffer’d, one of your Petitioners Alexander Grant
near 70 years old, and a creditor by Mortgage for large sums of money
upon the said Mr. Lewis Grant’s Estate, has been seized with and still
lies ill of a Malignant Fever, and being, by Reason of his close
confinement deprived of any assistance, is in danger of losing his Life
whereby the said Mr. Lewis Grant’s sordid ends would be answered should
this Petitioner die while under so heavy a charge as that of Treason.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray your Grace to take this
their very hard case into consideration and admit them to liberty
upon reasonable Bail to answer such charges as shall be brought
against them, or, at least, to change their present Confinement into
a more comfortable one with Liberty to an Agent to repair to them
at seasonable Times, the better to enable them to manifest their
Innocence, and the Falsehood and Malice of the Charge against them,
when called to an open trial.