Trial of Duncan Terig, alias Clerk, and Alexander Bane Macdonald — Part 13

ALEXANDER M'PHERSON _alias_ M^CGILLAS, in Inverey, being solemnly sworn, purged of malice and partial council, and interrogate, aged twenty-six years, unmarried, Depones, That in summer one thousand seven hundred and fifty, he found lying in a moss bank in the hill of Christie, a human body, at least the bones of a human body, of which the flesh was mostly consumed, and he believed it to be the body of Serjeant Davies, because it was reported in the country that he had been murdered in that hill the year before. That when he first found this body, there was a bit of blue cloth upon it pretty entire, which he took to be what is called English cloth; he also found the hair of the deceased, which was of a dark mouse colour, and tied about with a black ribbon: That he also observed some pieces of a stripped stuff, and found also lying there a pair of brogues, which had been made with latches for buckles, which had been cut away by a knife: That he, by help of his staff, brought out the body, and laid it upon plain ground, in doing whereof some of the bones were separated one from another: Depones, That for some days he was in a doubt what to do, but meeting with John Growar in the moss, he told John what he had found, and John bid him tell nothing of it, otherways he would complain of the deponent to John Shaw of Daldownie, upon which the deponent resolved to prevent Growar's complaint, and go and tell Daldownie of it himself; and which having accordingly done, Daldownie desired him to conceal the matter, and go and bury the body privately, as it would not be carried to a kirk unkent, and that the same might hurt the country, being under the suspicion of being a rebel country: Depones, That some few days thereafter, he acquainted Donald Farquharson, the preceding witness, of his having seen the body of a dead man in the hill, which he took to be the body of Serjeant Davies: That Farquharson at first doubted the truth of his information, till the deponent having told him that a few nights before when he was in bed, a vision appeared to him as of a man clad in blue, who told the deponent, "I am Serjeant Davies;" but that before he told him so, the deponent had taken the said vision at first appearance to be a real living man, a brother of Donald Farquharson's: That the deponent rose from his bed, and followed him to the door, and then it was, as has been told, that he said he was Serjeant Davies who had been murdered in the Hill of Christie, about near a year before, and desired the deponent to go to the place he pointed at, where he would find his bones, and that he might go to Donald Farquharson, and take his assistance to the burying of him: That upon giving Donald Farquharson this information, Donald went along with him, and finding the bones as he informed Donald, and having then buried it with the help of a spade which he the deponent had alongst with him: And for putting what is above deponed upon out of doubt, Depones, that the above vision was the occasion of his going by himself to see the dead body, and which he did before he either spoke to John Growar, Daldownie, or any other body: And further Depones, that while he was in bed another night after he had first seen the body by himself, but had not buried it, the vision again appeared naked, and minded him to bury the body; and after that he spoke to the other folks above mentioned, and at last complied, and buried the bones above mentioned: Depones, That upon the vision's first appearance to the deponent in his bed, and after going out of the door, and being told by it he was Serjeant Davies, the deponent asked him who it was that had murdered him, to which it made this answer, that if the deponent had not asked him, he might have told him, but as he had asked him, he said he either could not or would not, but which of the two expressions the deponent cannot say; but at the second time the vision made its appearance to him, the deponent renewed the same question, and then the vision answered, that it was the two men now in the panel that had murdered him: And being further interrogate in what manner the vision disappeared from him first and last, Depones, That after the short interviews above mentioned, the vision at both times disappeared and vanished out of his sight in the twinkling of an eye; and that in describing the panels by the vision above mentioned as his murderers, his words were, Duncan Clerk and Alexander Macdonald: Depones, That the conversation betwixt the deponent and the vision was in the Irish language: Depones, That several times in the harvest before the Martinmas after seeing the said vision, he was applied to by Duncan Clerk, the panel, then to enter home to his service at that time, which accordingly he did, and staid in his service