Jamie Macpherson was a Scottish robber, born in 1675, the illegitimate son of a Highland laird and a gypsy woman. He entered a life of crime although he was more like Robin Hood. He was arrested for bearing arms at a market and sentenced to death by hanging on November 16, 1700. Legend has it that he was about to be pardoned, but the town put forward their clock so the hanging would take place. Before he was hanged, he played this tune on the gallows, and then broke the fiddle across his knee, throwing the pieces to the crowd.