13,123. How did it happen in this case?-Because we wanted our liberty. We did not want to agree to fish for Mr. John Robertson.
13,124. Would you not have been at liberty if you had fished for Mr. Robertson?-Our reason for not fishing for him was because Robert Mouat called all his tenants to the Moul, and ordered them to agree to fish for Mr. John Robertson for him two rising years.
13,125. Was Mr. John Robertson Mouat's trustee in his sequestration?-Yes.
13,126. Some of you declined to fish for him, and others engaged to fish?-Yes.
Boddam, Dunrossness, January 26, 1872, GILBERT IRVINE, examined.
13,127. Are you shopkeeper at Grutness to Mr. John Bruce, jun.?-I am.
13,128. Do you also act as factor on the estate?-I don't know that I could be called a factor exactly. I just do things about the estate as Mr. Bruce wishes me.
13,129. But you are sometimes employed as, a factor or overseer going about the estate?-Yes, at times.
13,130. Are you aware that the tenants on the Sumburgh estate in Dunrossness parish are under tack to Mr. John Bruce, jun., and are bound to deliver their fish to him?-It is understood that they are to do so, but some of them don't do it. There are some of them who have not fished for Mr. Bruce, and are not are very doing so at the present time; but these are very few. The general understanding is, that they are to deliver their fish to him.
13,131. How long have you been at Grutness?-About twenty-three or twenty-four years.