A variety of people were called upon to provide statements for Andrew Ballantyne’s trial. Crofters, constables, cabinet makers and now we have the statement from the post runner. 

John Stoddart, ran with the post between Fort Augustus and Inverness. He was unmarried and about 25 years old and lived with his father, James Stoddart, in Fort Augustus.

“I go twice every week to Inverness by the north side of Loch Ness, and return the following day. On Saturday the 8th day of June, when on my way to Inverness, and when about a quarter of a mile to the west of the public house at Ruskie, occupied by John Fullerton, I met a young man on horseback, going west toward Fort Augustus.

I recognised him as having met him about 8 days previously when on his way between Fort Augustus and Dingwall and on that occasion he told me that his name was Andrew Ballantyne and that his father was a shepherd in Ross-shire. We spoke together and I asked him where he got the horse and if it was his own, and he said that he had got it ‘over’ meaning Ross-shire, and that it did belong to himself.

He then turned back with me toward the public house, and he told me that he was going to Fort Augustus to endeavour to sell the horse at the market there on the following Monday, and he said that he thought he would get £5 for him – but I told him that I did not think he would as horses were cheap at present – and he answered that he would not be at a loss, as it only cost him £3.

We went into Fullerton’s house and had a dram together and Fullerton advised me to purchase the horse but having refused, Ballantyne asked Fullerton to purchase it himself but he also refused. Ballantyne did not say where or from whom he bought the horse, at this time, and as he had no means of keeping the horse until market day, I told him to put it on a piece of pasture ground at Fort Augustus belonging to my father, and we then parted, Ballantyne going westwards. I observed that it was a brown mare and although it was shod on the forefeet, it was not shod on the hind ones.

I returned to Inverness from Fort Augustus on the following day, in the afternoon, and saw the horse pasturing on the foresaid piece of ground, and indeed, one of my younger brothers came a part of the road and met me with the horse and I rode home on it. I saw Ballantyne that day for a short time, but he said nothing to me about the horse, but he told me that he lodged in Robert Helom’s house in the neighbourhood of Fort Augustus.

On Monday, Ballantyne came to my house, and he and I, along with some others, went to the market stance for the purpose of selling the horse there, as the market had not gathered by that time, he repeatedly asked me if he would offer the horse for £4, and then told me the horse belonged to his father who had lately gone to the south country and left the horse behind him. He told me nothing more about the horse but in a short time I met William McIvor police constable, who asked after Ballantyne and also about the horse which he had. I saw that he wished to apprehend him and I pointed him out to McIvor, and he was taken into custody, and McIvor also took possession of the horse, and took them both to Inverness, and I will know Ballantyne again if I saw him.

There was no saddle or bridle on the horse when I met Ballantyne as afore said. He did not tell me where he intended to go after he sold the horse, but before McIvor came up, he said that after he got it sold, we would ‘have a few drams together’.

On the foresaid Saturday, Ballantyne said distinctly that the horse belonged to himself having paid £3, but on the Monday, he said it belonged to his father, as aforesaid, but he did not say that he had got it from anyone. All which is truth.”

​John Stoddart

After this account from John Stoddart, there is really no way back for Andrew.