Chiefs of Grant > Memoirs

155
XL — DUNCAN GBANT of Abernethy, younger op Freuchie.
MARGARET MACKINTOSH (of Mackintosh), his wife.
1566-1582.
Duncan Grant, younger of Freuchie, predeceased his father, and
there is little to be gathered from the muniments as to his history. To
improve the position of the young Laird in the country, and to enable
him to assist his father in the management of his extensive territories,
and also probably as a provision on his marriage, John Grant of Freuchie,
in or about the year 1565, provided his son Duncan to the lands of
Abernethy. As has been shown in the Introduction, the Lairds of
Freuchie held these lands on lease, so early as the year 1516. This
is shown by a series of discharges for £40 as the yearly rental of the lands
granted by the Earls of Moray. In 1563 and 1564 the receipts for the
rent of Abernethy are in name of John Grant, fourth of Freuchie ; but the
rent for Whitsunday and Martinmas 1566 is paid by Duncan Grant,
younger of Freuchie, showing that he had entered into possession of the
lands before that date. He occupied the lands of Abernethy during his
life, and seems to have chiefly resided there.
Highland raids were still of frequent occurrence in the time of the
young Laird, and he and his father obtained a royal commission to deal
with offenders. In 1569 Duncan Grant was associated with his father
in a commission of justiciary by King James the Sixth, directed against
sundry persons who had made a raid on the lands of Rothiemurchus and
Glencarnie. The raiders had also killed a servant of Duncan Grant, and the
latter, with his father, succeeded in apprehending several of the marauders.
The king's commission of justiciary was necessary to enable the captors to
do justice, that is, to hang their prisoners. 1 The commission was dated at
St. Andrews on 16th August 1569, and on the 2d September following
Duncan Grant presented himself before the provost and bailies of Elgin,
1 Vol. iii. of tbis work, p. 1 3S.