James Of the Hill!

I never told you this before, but several years ago, while I was deeply involved in family tree research, I was flicking through some obscure reference book, let's call it "The History of Speyside" for instance, becuase I can't remember the name. The fact was that both myself and my wife had ancestors with the Grant surname, from the Inveravon area of Speyside, practically on the doorstep of Castle Grant. However, like many Scottish clans, their origins probably lay more in Normandy than the Highlands.

Anyway, I happened upon several historical reports from the area covering probably from about 1610 through to 1650, concerning an individual called James Grant of Carron aka "James of the Hill". The hill in question being Ben Rinnes, for James Grant was an outlaw and Ben Rinnes was his home turf. I collected up a few of these stories and decided to find out a bit more about the individual, simply out of curiosity. I was glad I did, because the man's life tells a fantastic tale. It started of with a family feud going back generations between the Grants of Ballindalloch and the Grants of Carron , some sort of dispute over border marches. Both families were minor nobility being off-shoots of the main Grant pedigree and therefore held close ties with the Chief of Clan Grant. (I suspect without checking that the photo above is of their mutual ancestor.)

James Grant subsequently murdered a relative of Ballindalloch, who had allegedly attacked his brother, and he was outlawed thereafter. He took to the hills and fell in with other unsavoury characters, until he had a veritable gang of villains at his disposal. They did whatever it took to survive, robbing, plundering, reiving and providing hired service to anyone who needed a bunch of rogues. James was finally caught by members of Clan Chattan after a hot pursuit in which he received about 15 arrow wounds. He was clearly a sturdy fellow, having already seen off a posse of MacGregor rogues sent by Ballindalloch. The rest of his gang were hung at Edinburgh, but he was imprisoned in the castle as a witness in the case of the murder of a son of The Gordon Earl of Huntly (one of those men to whom Grant had leant his services occasionally). As the trial progressed slowly, somehow Grant had rope smuggled into him in barrels of butter, eventually procuring enough to escape down the wall of the castle and cliff below. A never before or after repeated feat of daring.

He then returned to his home country, renewing his ties with the Gordons and bumping off the odd person who got in his way, before joining the Gordon cause to help defend Aberdeen against Montrose and his covenanting army at the Brig O'Dee. After this service to the crown and becoming a bit of a bounty hunter, he was finally pardoned of all crimes commited by himself, but of his fate there is no record. Presumably he died a peaceful death, which seemed so unlikely for most of his life.

I've only really given you a brief overview of the accounts of James Grant in this post, because I'd have to pull out all of my old notes which I haven't seen for years, in order to recant some more of his derring-do tales. Suffice to say that there's enough to make a book, and I'd like to think that I might be able to so that some day, if there's ever any rest for the wicked!