As also its informed that the said Alex Grant was assisting in sending men from the Country of Urquhart to join the Rebels. This is also false and injurious as it can be made plainly appear, that the sd Alexr Grant at three several times did turn back some of the Gentlemen of the Country wth a considerable body of men who marched bag and baggage under full arms six miles from their habitation, and that by the sd Alex Grants persuasion, tho the Country was very oft harased and threatened wth destruction, prevailed withal to stay at home till some time in February last that a Regiment of the Macdonalds came to the Country to force the men, or otherways under-go utter destruction by burning the country and destroying their heal effects, which to prevent the most of the Gentlemen with three or four score men went alongs, and with all the persuasion in the said Alex Grants power could not get them prevailed upon to stay.
And further to testifie the sd Alexr Grant his sincere endeavours to assist the Government. Mr. Grant younger of Grant wth five or six hundred of his men having come to the Country of Urquhart some time after the Battle of Culloden, in order to get the Grants of Glenmoriston and Urquhart to surrender, Mr. Grant did put upon him the said Alex. Grant in the strongest manner to concur and assist to get his purpose effectual, which the sd Alex Grant accordingly went about and with a great deal of labour and fatigue both night and day got them at last convinced, and with great difficulty prevailed with them to surrender, providing they could be made sure of their lives, which Mr. Grant not only engaged by Vow and Oath but by a very binding Letter under his hands to Grant of Daldeagan, which letter is still extant to produce in the Duke of Cumberland’s hands. This seems no less than a paradox in itself considering that Mr. Grant gave out to the Duke of Cumberland that he and his men apprehended them in Rocks and Woods. The next day after their meeting the said Alex Grant with 84 men of the Grants of Glenmoriston and Urquhart came near Mr. Grants lodging there and surrendered prisoners upon terms and gave up their arms before Sir Alexander Macdonald and several other Gentlemen, and the next day thereafter Mr. Grant with his men marched directly to Inverness with the surrender. But the said Alex Grant, being in a bad state of health after the fatigue and strugle he had in this interpose, came to take leave of his young Chief and return home, but Mr. Grant told him that he would not part with him till he had got the Duke of Cumberland to thank him for his services, and that it was otherways necessary his going to Inverness, to give a character of the Men for their more speedy Relief, which accordingly he comply’d wth, and less than an hour after their arrival at Inverness Mr. Grant sent for him to his own Lodging upon pretence of material business relating to this affair, and within two minutes after coming to him the said Mr. Lewis Grant told him that he was sorry to understand that he the said Alex Grant was to be made prisoner, which immediately was done and carried to the Comon Guard, Mr. Grant giving him the strongest assurance that he would be released the next morning. Its to be observed that if the said surrenders had been dismissed at Inverness according to Mr. Grants promise the whole Rebells then in arms in the Highlands of Scotland had surrendered in less than ten days, the Grants being the very first that did surrender.
As to James Grant his case what is laid to his Charge is still a mistery so that no particular answer can be made to it, but it can be always made appear that since the beginning of the Rebellion he stayed peaceably at home and after several attempts made upon him defied the Rebells request to move him any manner of way, and still continued so till Mr. Grant younger of Grant after the Battle of Culloden brought his Militia to Inverness, and having sent for a number of men to Urquhart to join him, the sd James Grant with sixty men directly march’d to Inverness, joined Mr. Grant and the rest of his men there, with whom he continued a Captain till such time as Mr. Grant returned from Urquhart to Inverness wth the surrenderers. The said James Grant was very assistful with his father to get the said number of men to surrender, wch Mr. Grant had never done but by their persuasion, immediately as they arrived at Inverness Mr. Grant employed the sd James Grant to make out a list of the number of men under his command in order to provide them Quarters, this being done was sent for, to come to his Lodgings, where he remained till his father came up, and with the same breath Mr. Grant told him he was to be made prisoner but not to be afraid, that tomorrow he would see him relieved, and so forth was carried with his father prisoner to the Comon Guard but never heard a word from Mr. Grant till this moment.
The said Alex Grant is informed that the said Mr. Lewis Grant has given as an article of accusasion agst him that some of his children had been sent by him the said Alex Grant to join and carry arms for the Pretender. The said Alex Grant owns so much of this Charge, that contrary to his inclination and frequent instruction his said Children (who were not staying with him) some of them did join the Rebell armie and the said Alex Grant offers to make it appear by Gentlemen of undoubted credit and firm attachment to the Government that he used all the interest he was master of both as a parent and a friend to the present Government to keep his children at home, and that from the time his children who so engaged had taken such resolution none of them durst ever appear in his presence. It is submitted whether or not the said Alex Grant could have done more to keep his children at home.
(Signed) Alexander Grantt.
James Grantt.
Castle Street, Sixth July 1746.
The Examination of James Grant of Sheugly, Esq.[582]
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 Examt 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 Examt was, and pressed him to take on with them, but that he constantly refused them, and would not have anything to do with them.