r, yet soon thereafter he took and obtained a lease from Lord
Bracco, of a farm called the Craggan, for which he was bound to pay
thirty pounds Scots of yearly rent; as also thereafter he obtained a
lease of the farm of Gleney, from ---- Farquharson of Inverey, for
which at present he was bound to pay a yearly rent, or tack duty, of
one hundred and five merks Scots, as appears from the judicial
declaration of him, the said Duncan Clerk, to be hereafter more
particularly taken notice of; and both of the said panels having been
apprehended in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, for
being guilty of the foresaid murder, and upon the twenty-third day of
January last, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four years, brought
into the presence of the Right Honourable Alexander Fraser of Strichen
and Hugh Dalrymple of Drummore, two of the Lords Commissioners of
Justiciary each of them gave different and contradictory accounts of
themselves, in so far as the said Duncan Clerk did then acknowledge, in
presence of the said Judges, that he was on the hill of Gleneye,
alongst with the said Alexander Bain Macdonald, both armed as above set
forth, on the day the said Arthur Davies was amissing; that the said
Alexander Macdonald fired a shot at some deer, but that about ten
o'clock the said Duncan Clerk parted with him on the hill, and came
back to his father's house, to which likewise the said Alexander
Macdonald came the same evening, where he lodged or stayed all night;
as also a paper containing a list of debts, beginning with the words,
"I, Duncan Clerk, in Gleneye, was put in Perth Jail," and ending,
"Angus Macdonald, 12 sh.," now marked on the back with the name and
sirname of the said Lord Drummore, being exhibited to him the said
Duncan Clerk, he acknowledged the same to be his handwriting, and that
it contains a list of debts due to him when he was imprisoned, as is at
more length to be seen in his said confession or declaration, signed by
him and the said Lord Drummore. LIKEAS he the said Alexander Bain
Macdonald did, upon the twenty-third day of January last, one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-four years, in presence of the said Judges,
acknowledge and declare, that one year, while he was Lord Bracco's
forrester, he went with the said Duncan Clerk to the Hill of Gleneye,
to search for deer, where he fired at them, but that about nine or ten
o'clock in the forenoon, Duncan Clerk went home to his father's hous