Donibristle Estate

Death records show 8 deaths at Muirton from 1746 to 1826, but there would have been significantly more since most records were ascribed just to Dalgety Parish. Records as late as 1826 would appear to show that there were still isolated residences in the area after Barns farms’ emergence. The fields though, would have been worked well before this date range, when the land would have been within the Dalgety Estate of the Earls of Dunfermline and, latterly, Lord Hay of Yester. There is no evidence of the Muirton name earlier than the early 18th century but
local historian Eric Simpson suggests that a place name mentioned, “The Dubbs”, in 17th century parish records may mean Muirton, as Dubbs would have indicated a muddy farm. There was apparently a trend in place naming to dispose of old Scots place names and assume more “proper” anglicised terminology. The small settlements often first developed near the baronial homes, so proximity to Dalgety House was to be expected.

And now we come to a specific event in Muirtons’ history. A Perth High Court record of a 21st September 1803 trial states;

Title: Trial papers of William Davie, residentor in Muirtoun, James Walker, residentor in Muirtoun, and William McCraw, residentor in Barns of Dalgety, all servants or late servants to the Earl of Moray, for the crime of murder.

Libelled that on the evening of 29 April 1803, William Davie, James Walker, and William McCraw enticed John Brown, late smith at Couston, Parish of Aberdour, County of Fife, to join their company and to partake of a quantity of spiritous liquors in the bakehouse adjoining to the House of Dunniebristle, Parish of Dalgety. The said Davie, Walker, and McCraw did then and there feloniously assault and maltreat the said John Brown by throwing him down on the floor, beating and bruising him. John Brown died within a few days thereafter on 3 May, his death being occasioned by the violent and cruel treatment he had received from the said Davie, Walker, and McCraw.

William Davie and James Walker failed to appear. Adjudged and declared to be outlaws and fugitives from His Majestys Laws, and put to the horn.

William McCraw pleaded not guilty. Found not guilty. Assoilzied simpliciter and dismissed from the bar.

The court Minutes reveal that all three accused were Day Labourers, ie labourers taken on for a fixed period and paid totally in cash.

To be “put to the horn” was the formal process of outlawing someone. More recently it was used for debtors rather than those absconding from serious charges. The process involved a horn being sounded three times in the local market town, which in this case would be Inverkeithing. There exists a “Register of Hornings” (yes seriously….), held by the Registers of Scotland but they have not responded yet to requests for information.

Earlier, on the 7th May, John Davie (a relation of William Davie?) who was the baker and brewer to the Earl of Moray, was imprisoned in the Tolbooth, Inverkeithing, accused of the murder or culpable homicide of John Brown. There is no record of him being put to trial, so it may be reasonable to assume that he was released.

We can find no further record of the fate of the outlaws, they certainly weren’t tried again at the High Court, but genealogy records reveal that a William McCraw was born in Aberdour on 28/4/74, married a Helen Robertson in Dalgety on 6/7/1811 and proceeded to have 4 children with Helen in Aberdour, one of whose names was Hugh, the same as his fathers’ name on his own birth certificate, so we can be reasonably confident that all the records might refer to the same person. This might just indicate that William McCraw was able to pick up the pieces of his
life within the community after his acquittal.

A William Davie was married to Jannet Walker and had a child, also William, in Dalgety on 6/11/1801. We can find no record of any of these after the date of the trial. This leaves a unsettling feeling that William might have left his wife and young child in the lurch when he absconded.

A James Walker was born in Dalgety on 1/11/72, but there is no record of him thereafter. There are several possible John Brown’s in Aberdour records, and the relevant one cannot be isolated, though interestingly, one of these possibilities was married to a wife with the surname of McCraw.

Soon after the date of the trial, the fermtoun of Muirton faded, to be replaced by the more modern farming unit, which itself, as we have said, was soon superceded by Barns farm. There must be some suspicion that the lack of documentation of the fermtoun, farm or court case in newspapers or easily obtainable Earl of Moray papers is possibly due to some embarrassment to the estate, with an attempt to clamp down on information flow. Perhaps, once covid restrictions are lifted, the Earl of Morays’ records at Darnaway may provide further information.

Finally, poor John Brown appears to have been totally forgotten, unlike his fellow, more celebrated Donibristle murder victims, the “Bonnie Earl” of Moray, who died with his Sheriff, Dunbar, more than 200 years earlier. Moray had a well known song written about him and his mother was powerful enough to create a stir in court and with the population, but his family, like Browns’, never received true justice for his murder.

We’d be delighted to receive thoughts and suggestions from any Scots legal history or family history buffs who can help shed any further light on the aftermath of John Browns’ death!