Robert Pollock, younger, of Milnbourne, deposed: He was at Rainfield on
the 19th of October last, where he saw the three prisoners, but none of
them had arms except Dovehill, who had a carabine, but it was not he who
killed the major, for the former was standing with the witness at the
garden door when they heard the shot. Upon going up to the place, they
saw the major lying on his back, dead, his face bleeding, and a drawn
sword in his hand across his breast. Afterwards, when they came to
Renfrew, he heard the prisoner (Gillespie) acknowledge he shot the
major; but the witness did not see him have any fire-arms in his hand,
nor did he see Gillespie either receive from or return any fire-arms to
Dovehill. When Gillespie first acknowledged that he shot the major, he
did not speak of the latter’s having made any resistance; but after he
was taken into custody, he declared that, if he had not done the thing
he did, the major would have run him through the body.
Peter Paterson, late baillie of Renfrew, went with the three prisoners
into the garden of Rainfield the night Major Menzies was killed; it is
uncertain whether all of the prisoners had arms, only that Dovehill had
one or two pistols. He did not see Dovehill give a pistol to Gillespie;
but, after the major was killed, saw Gillespie deliver a pistol to
Dovehill, saying, “There is your pistol,” Dovehill and young Milnbourne,
a former witness, stood at the garden-door, while the deponent going
forward with the other two prisoners (Gillespie and Stevenson) came up
with the major, and one of them said to the deponent, “Baillie, here is
a man.” The man called out, “What is the matter, sir?” to which the
witness answered, “There was a man slain in Glasgow; that the slayer was
supposed to be skulking hereabout; and if you be the man, God Almighty
forgive you.” The person replied, “It is none of your business.” One of
the prisoners then called out, “Dovehill, here is the man.” The major
cried with an oath, “What have the rascals to do with me?” immediately
drew his sword, and advanced upon them in great rage. The deponent and
the prisoners retreated. He then heard a shot, but knows not whether it
came from Gillespie or Stevenson. When he returned, he saw the major
lying on his back, dead, and his sword in his hand lying across his
breast.
Captain Jarvais, of Lord Lindesay’s regiment, a witness adduced for the
prisoners, was present at the conference between the Provost of Glasgow
and Major Menzies. He heard the major call the town clerk “a fool,” and
the clerk answered him, “he was but an ass.” Upon this the major struck
the clerk over the head with his cane, and the clerk returned a very
severe blow with his fist. The company separated them, and the major
drew his sword, made a thrust at the clerk, who immediately cried out he
was wounded, and clapped his hand on the wound; and as he was going to
another room, the deponent saw the clerk fall and lie on the floor. The
witness went to the guard-house, and found the major was fled. The clerk
had no arms.
Simon Tennent, one of the baillies of Glasgow, heard the major call the
town clerk “a fool,” and the town clerk called the major “an ass;” saw
the major strike the former with his cane. The parties then grappled,
and were separated, when the deponent saw the glance of a sword pointed
towards the clerk, who immediately cried out, “A surgeon!” and died in
about seven minutes. He was told by all the company it was the major who
killed the clerk; and the latter, at the time of his death, had no arms,
not even a staff, in his hand.
James Gemmill, jun., merchant in Glasgow, on the day Mr. Park was
killed, saw the major come out of his, the town clerk’s chamber, in
haste, wanting his wig, and his sword drawn; saw him wipe his sword with
the flap of his coat and return it into its scabbard. Before the major
could arrive at the guard-house, whither he was going, the deponent
heard that the clerk was wounded, and then was told he was dead.
Captain Lindesay, of Lord Lindesay’s regiment, was present at the
scuffle between Major Menzies and the town clerk; saw the major’s arm in
the attitude of pushing with a sword; and immediately after the lounge
the clerk cried he was wounded. The former left the room without his
wig; the deponent took up the wig and followed, accompanying the major
to the Gorballs, where he took horse and fled.
William Napier, provost of Glasgow, was in the town clerk’s chamber the
day he was killed. Upon the notoriety of the murder and flight, he gave
orders to the three prisoners to pursue and apprehend the major. Mr.
Francis Montgomery, one of the Lords of Privy Council, deposed that, on
the day of the murder, he was applied to by the provost and magistrates
of Glasgow, to concur with them in securing the peace of the city, which
was in an uproar. The deponent went to the town clerk’s chamber, whose
dead body he found lying on the floor, and everybody crying that Major
Menzies was the murderer. The deponent concurred with the magistrates,
in ordering Dovehill, then in the room, to take some of the honest
townsfolk along with him, and to pursue and apprehend the murderer; upon
which the people dispersed peaceably.
The jury unanimously found the indictment not proved; found the
prisoners’ defence in terms of the interlocutor not proved; and found it
not proved that the major offered to surrender himself; upon which the
prisoners were dismissed from the bar.
This prosecution, ending very properly as it did, shows to what extent
hot blood existed between soldier and civilian, when a gentleman of the
major’s rank and position could, in so trifling a quarrel, on the
instant, kill an unarmed official, on duty in his chamber. The major and
his regiment must have, no doubt, been goaded to madness by the
continual worry and insult of the populace, of which system of annoyance
a notable specimen appears in this further trial, relating also to the
same Lord Lindesay’s regiment.
The trial, that of a writer in Edinburgh, one George Cumming, for the
murder of Patrick Falconer, soldier in Lord Lindesay’s regiment,
occurred in Edinburgh in October, 1695.
The indictment set forth, that the prisoner, being in the streets of
Portsburgh, a suburb of Edinburgh, on the 5th of the preceding month of
September, between nine and ten at night, the deceased, Patrick
Falconer, and two other soldiers of Lord Lindesay’s regiment, walked
peaceably by him, in the way to their quarters, when the prisoner gave
the soldiers opprobrious language, and, without any just provocation,
drew his sword, with which he maliciously run the deceased through the
body, of which he died within twenty-four hours.