[2] MacPherson grew up a talented swordsman and fiddle player, who formed a gang which robbed the rich lairds of the Province of Moray and gave to the poor, making him a Robin Hood figure.
[3][2] The Parliament of Scotland had made it illegal to be or suspected of being Romani with the Gypsies Act 1609, so Macpherson lived as a criminal as soon as he joined his mother and furthermore he had angered a local land-owner, William Duff of Braco, who wanted to stop the robberies.
[4] After an aggressive confrontation in September 1700 with Duff's men at the St Rufus Fair in Keith, Macpherson fled but fell over a gravestone and was detained.
He was taken to Banff for trial under the 1609 act with three other outlaws; he was found guilty alongside his comrade James Gordon and both were sentenced to death by hanging.
[4][5] Whilst on death row, Macpherson composed his Rant which he performed when he was taken to the gallows at the mercat cross on 16 November 1700.