'
MEMOIRS
THE JACOBITES
OF 1715 AND 1745.
BY MRS. THOMSON,
AUTHOR OF
" MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF HENRY THE EIGHTH,"
" MEMOIRS OF SARAH, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH," ETC.
VOLUME I.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
in rtinavi> to
1845.
LONDON :
Printed by S. & J. BBNTLKT, WILSON, and FLF.Y,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
P E E F A C E.
IN completing two volumes of a work which has
been for some years in contemplation, it may be
remarked that it is the only collective Biography
of the Jacobites that has yet been given to the
Public. Meagre accounts, scattered anecdotes, and
fragments of memoir, have hitherto rather tantalized
than satisfied those who have been interested in the
events of 1715 and 1745. The works of Home, of
Mr. Chambers, and the collections of Bishop Forbes,
all excellent, are necessarily too much mingled up
with the current of public affairs to comprise any
considerable portion of biographical detail. Certain
lives of some of the sufferers in the cause of the
Stuarts, printed soon after the contests in behalf
of those Princes, are little more than narratives of
their trials and executions ; they were intended merely
as ephemeral productions to gratify a curious public,
and merit no long existence. It would have been,
indeed, for many years, scarcely prudent, and cer-
tainly not expedient, to proffer any information con-
cerning the objects of royal indignation, except that
which the newspapers afforded : nor was it perfectly
iv PREFACE.
safe, for a considerable time after the turbulent times
in which the sufferers lived, to palliate their offences,
or to express any deep concern for their fate. That
there was much to be admired in those whose me-
mories were thus, in some measure, consigned to obli-
vion, except in the hearts of their descendants;
much which deserved to be explained in their mo-
tives ; much which claimed to be upheld in their self-
sacrifices, the following pages will show. What-
ever leaning the Author may have had to the un-
fortunate cause of the Stuarts, it has not, however,
been her intention only to pourtray the bright or-
naments of the party. She has endeavoured to show
that it was composed, as well as most other political
combinations, of materials differing in value some
pure, some base, some noble, some mean and va-
cillating.
As far as human weakness and prejudice can per-
mit, the Author has aimed at a strict scrutiny of
conduct and motives. In the colouring given to
these, she has conscientiously sought to be impartial :
for the facts stated, she has given the authorities.
It now remains for the Author publicly to acknow-
ledge the resources from which she has derived some
materials which have never before been given to
the Public, and for which she has to thank, in se-
veral instances, not only the kindness of friends, but
the liberality of strangers.
A very interesting collection of letters, many of
them written in the Earl of Mar's own hand, and
PREFACE. V
others dictated by him, is interwoven with the bio-
graphy of that nobleman. These letters were written,
in fact, for the information of the whole body of
Jacobites, to whom they were transmitted through
the agent of that party, Captain Henry Straiton,
residing in Edinburgh. They form almost a diary
of Lord Mar's proceedings at Perth. They are con-
tinued up to within a few hours of the evacuation of
that city by the Jacobite army. For these curious
and characteristic letters, pourtraying as they do, in
lively colours, the difficulties of the General in his
council and his camp, she is indebted to the friend-
ship and mediation of the Honourable Lord Cock-
burn, and to the liberality of James Gibson Craig,
Esq.
To the Right Honourable the Earl of Newburgh, the
descendant and representative of the Radcliffe family,
her sincere and respectful acknowledgments are due
for his Lordship's readily imparting to her several
interesting particulars of the Earl of Derwentwater
and his family. She owes a similar debt of grati-
tude to the Viscount Strathallan, for his Lordship's
communication to her respecting the House of Drum-
mond. To the Honourable Mrs. Bellamy, the de-
scendant of Viscount Kenmure, she has also to offer
similar acknowledgments, for information respect-
ing her unfortunate ancestor; and for an original
letter of his Lordship; and she must also beg to
express her obligations to William Constable Max-
well, Esq., and to Mrs. Constable Maxwell, of Ter-
Vi PREFACE.
regies, the descendants of the Earl of Nithisdale, for
their courteous and prompt assistance. To James
Craik, Esq., of Arbigland, Dumfriesshire, she is in-
debted for a correspondence which continues, as it
were, an account of that family during the later part
of the year 1745. To Sir Fitzroy Grafton Maclean,
Bart., she owes the account of his clan and family,
which has been printed for private circulation. She
is also grateful to a descendant of the family of
Lochiel, Miss Mary Anne Cameron, for some in-
teresting particulars of the burning of Achnacarry,
the seat of her ancestors.
In some of these instances the information de-
rived has not been considerable, owing to the total
wreck of fortune, the destruction of houses, and the
loss of papers, which followed the ruthless steps of
the conquering army of the Duke of Cumberland.
Most of the hereditary memorials of those Highland
families who engaged in both rebellions, perished;
and their representatives are strangely destitute of
letters, papers, and memorials of every kind. The
practice of burying family archives and deeds which
prevailed during the troubles, was adopted but with
partial advantage, by those who anticipated the worst
result of the contest.
In recalling with pleasure the number of those to
whom the Author owes sincere gratitude for kindness
and aid in her undertaking, the name of Charles
Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. renews the remembrance of
that store of antiquarian information from which
PREFACE. Vll
others, far more worthy to enjoy it than herself,
have owed obligations. The Author has also most
gratefully to acknowledge the very kind and valuable
assistance of Archibald Macdonald, Esq., of the Re-
gister Office, Edinburgh, to whom she is indebted
for several original letters; and of Robert Cham-
bers, Esq., to whose liberality she is indebted for
several of her manuscript sources, as well as some
valuable advice on the subject of her work. To Dr.
Irvine, Librarian of the Advocate's Library, Edin-
burgh, the Author offers, with the most lively plea-
sure, her sincere acknowledgments for a ready and
persevering assistance in aid of her undertaking.
Again, she begs to repeat her sense of deep obli-
gation to Mr. Keats, of the British Museum, the
literary pilot of many years' historical research.
LONDON,
October 27, 1845.
INTRODUCTION.
THE HISTORY OF THE JACOBITES properly begins with
the brave and conscientious men who followed James
the Second to France, or fought and bled for him
in the United Kingdom. Of the few nobles whom
that Monarch had distinguished by his friendship
when Duke of York, or graced with his favours
when King, three only in Scotland remained attached
openly to his interests : these were the Duke of Gor-
don, the Lord Balcarras, and Claverhouse of Dundee,
who may be regarded as the parents of the Jacobite
party in Scotland. "The other nobles of the late
King's party," remarks a great historian,* " waited
for events, in hopes and in fears, from the Old Go-
vernment and the New, intriguing with both, and
depended upon by neither."
Upon the death of Dundee, a troop of officers who
had fought under the standard of that great General,
and who had imbibed his lofty opinions and learned
to imitate his dauntless valour, capitulated, and were
suffered to leave the country and retire to France.
Their number amounted to a hundred and fifty :
they were all of honourable birth, and glorying in
* Dalrymple.
VOL. I. b
X INTRODUCTION.
their political principles. At first these exiles were
pensioned by the French Government, but, upon the
close of the civil war, those pensions ceased. Finding
themselves a burden upon King James, they formed
themselves into a body-guard, which was afterwards
incorporated with the French army. It may fairly be
presumed that this remnant of Dundee's army, four
of whom only returned to Scotland, were instru-
mental during their abode in France in maintaining
a communication between the Court of St. Germains
and their disheartened countrymen who had remained
in their Highland homes. Abroad, they supported
their military character as soldiers who had fought
under Dundee : they were always the foremost in the
battle and the last to retreat, and were distinguished
by a superiority in order and discipline, no less than
by their energy and courage.
There can be no doubt but that the majority of
the great landholders in England, as well as the
Highland chiefs, continued, through the reign of
William and Mary, disposed to high Tory views;
and that had not the popular cry of the Church
being in danger aided the designs of the Whigs, the
Highflyers, or rigid Tories, would not have remained
in quiescence during that critical period, which re-
sembled the settling of a rushing current of waters
into a frothing and bubbling pool, rather than the
calm tenour of a gently-flowing stream. Throughout
the distractions of his reign, it was the wise policy
of William the Third to balance parties ; to bestow
INTRODUCTION. xi
great posts upon moderate men; to employ alter-
nately persons of different opinions, and by frequent
changes in his Ministry, to conciliate the good-will
of both factions; and this was all that that able
Monarch could effect, until time should extinguish
political animosity.
Queen Mary, educated in Tory principles, and
taught by her maternal uncle, the Earl of Ro-
chester, to consider every opposition to the Sove-
reign's will as rebellion, was scarcely regarded in
the light of an enemy to the doctrine of passive
obedience and non-resistance, notwithstanding her
unfilial conduct ; * and it is remarkable that, during
her life, great favour was shown at Court to the
Highland partisans of James the Second ; distinc-
tions were as much avoided as it was possible ; and
the personal prepossessions of the Queen were sup-
posed to be on the side of the High Church Tories.
During the reign of Anne, notwithstanding the coa-
lition of Godolphin, Marlborough, and other leaders
of the moderate Tories with the Whigs, and the
reputation and glory which their combined abilities
and characters obtained, a conviction was still pre-
valent that the heart of the Queen was disposed to
the restoration of the ancient race, and that her days
would not close before a design to secure the suc-
cession to her nephew would be matured, and the
Act of Succession, which was chiefly the offspring of
* Rapin. Dissertation on the Origin and Government of England,
vol. xiv. p. 423.
b 2
xii INTRODUCTION.
Whig policy, should be set aside. There was, doubt-
less, not only in the mind of Anne, but in that
of her sagacious predecessor, an apprehension that
after the death of the last of their dynasty, the suc-
cession would again be fiercely disputed. Impressed
with this conviction, it was a favourite scheme of
William to invite the child, who afterwards, under
the name of the Chevalier St. George, was the hero,
in dumb show, it must be acknowledged, of the In-
surrection of 1715, to receive his education in Eng-
land under his kingly care; to be bred up a Pro-
testant; and to make that education the earnest
of his future succession. The proposal was rejected
by James the Second, to the great prejudice of his
son's interests, and to the misfortune, it may be
presumed, of the British nation. For one can
scarcely suppose a more perfect combination of all
the qualities calculated to form a popular Monarch,
in this country, than the natural abilities of the
Stuart race, perfected under the able guidance of so
reflective a ruler so accomplished a general so
consummate a statesman, as William. The educa-
tion which that Monarch had planned for the young
Duke of Gloucester shows how enlarged and prac-
tical were his views of the acquirements necessary
for a Sovereign : it presents a scheme of tuition
which, if it may be deemed not wholly adapted to
the present day, was on the most comprehensive and
liberal scale. But James, acting, at all events, with
the consistency of a sincere believer, returned, as
INTRODUCTION. Xlil
Dalrymple expresses it, " slowly and sadly to bury
the remembrance of his greatness in the convent of
La Trappe;" and all future attempts on the part
of his posterity to recover the throne of their an-
cestors were frustrated by the hollowness of French
professions of friendship.
The tranquil demeanour of the Jacobite party
during the reign of Anne may seem surprising,
when we consider the avowed favour and protec-
tion which were held out by Louis the Fourteenth
to the royal exiles of St. Germain. During the
lifetime of James, who considered that he had ex-
changed the hope of an earthly for that of a hea-
venly Crown, there was little to wonder at in this
inactivity and apparent resignation. Had it not
been for the influence of an enthusiastic, high-minded,
and fascinating woman, the very mention of the cause
would probably have died away in the priest-thronged
saloons of St. Germains. To Mary of Modena the
credit is due if credit on such account is to be as-
signed for maintaining in the friends of her con-
sort, for instilling in the breast of her son, a desire of
restoration ; that word, in fact, might be found, to
speak metaphorically, written in her heart. To her
personal qualities, to her still youthful attractions,
to her pure mind, and blameless career of conjugal
duty to the noble, maternal ambition which no
worthy judge of human motives could refuse a tri-
bute of pity and admiration to her disregard of low
and unworthy instruments to advance her means, as
xiv INTRODUCTION.
in the case of Lovat, even the warmest partisans of
the Revolution were forced to do justice. The disin-
terested and sagacious Godolphin is said to have
done more: he is supposed to have cherished such
a respectful enthusiasm for the young mother who
thus supported the claims of her son, as might have
become the chivalric Surrey. Whatever were the
fact, during the existence of Anne, the payment of
a dowry to Mary of Modena, the favourable under-
standing between her son, as he grew up to man's
estate, and the English Court, the small reward
offered for his apprehension, the conniving at the
daily enlistment of men in his service, and the in-
dulgence shown to those who openly spoke and
preached against the Revolution, were certain indi-
cations and ample proofs that had the Queen's life
been prolonged, some effectual steps would have been
taken to efface from her memory the recollection of
her early failure of duty to King James, and to
satisfy the reproaches of her narrow, though con-
scientious mind. That such was the fact, the de-
claration or manifesto of the Chevalier, dated from
Plombieres, August 2, 1714, and printed in French,
English, and Latin, attests; and the assertion was
confirmed by a letter from the Duke of Lorrain to
the English Government. This favourable disposi-
tion on the part of Anne proves that she gave no
credence to the report of the supposititious birth of
the Prince ; although, in her youthful days, and when
irritated against her step-mother, she had entered
INTRODUCTION. XV
into the Court gossip on that subject, with all the
eagerness of a weak and credulous mind.
Nourished in secret by these hopes, the Jacobites in
England constituted a far more important party than
our historians are generally willing to allow. The
famous work entitled, " English Advice to the Free-
holders of Great Britain," supposed to be written by
Bishop Atterbury, was extensively circulated through-
out the country : it tended to promote an opposition cry
of " the Church in danger!" by insinuating that the
Whigs projected the abolition of Episcopacy. It was
received with great enthusiasm ; and was responded to
with fervour by the University of Oxford, which was
inflamed with a zeal for the restoration of the Stuarts ;
and which displayed much of the same ardour, and
held forth the same arguments that had stimulated that
seat of learning in the days of Charles the First. To
these sentiments, the foreign birth, the foreign lan-
guage, and, above all, the foreign principles of the King
added considerable disgust: nor can it be a matter
of surprise that such should be the case. It appears,
nevertheless, extraordinary that the opposition to so
strange an engrafting of a foreign ruler should not
have been received with greater public manifestations
of dislike than the unorganized turbulence of Oxford
under-graduates, or the ephemeral fury of a London
populace.
In Scotland a very different state of public feeling
prevailed. In England men of commerce were swayed
in their political opinions by the good of trade, which
XVI INTRODUCTION.
nothing was so likely to injure as a disputed succes-
sion. The country gentlemen were, more or less, un-
der the influence of party pamphlets, and were liable
to have their political prejudices smoothed down by
collision with their neighbours. Excepting in the
northern counties, the dread of Popery prevailed also
universally. The remembrance of the bigotry and
tyranny of James the Second had not faded away
from the remembrance of those whose fathers or
grandfathers could remember its details. In the High-
lands of Scotland the memory of that Monarch was,
on the other hand, worshipped as a friend of that
noble country, as the Stuart peculiarly their own,
as the royal exile, whose health and return, under
various disguises, they had pledged annually at their
hunting- matches, and to whose youthful son they
transferred an allegiance which they held sacred as
their religion.
Nor had James the Second earned the devotion of
the Highland chieftains without some degree of merit
on his own part. The most incapable and unworthy
of rulers, he had yet some fine and popular qualities as
a man ; he was not devoid of a considerable share of
ability although it was misapplied. His letters to
his son, his account of his own life, show that one
who could act most erroneously and criminally, did,
nevertheless, often think and feel rightly. His ob-
stinate adherence to his own faith may be lamented
by politicians ; it may be sneered at by the worldly ;
but it must be approved by all who are themselves
INTRODUCTION. XVll
staunch supporters of that mode of faith which
they conscientiously adopt. In private society James
had the power of attaching his dependents ; and per-
haps from a deeper source than that which gave at-
traction to the conversation of his good-natured, dis-
solute brother. His melancholy and touching reply
to Sir Charles Littleton, who expressed to him his
shame that his son was with the Prince of Orange :
" Alas! Sir Charles! why ashamed? Are not my
daughters with him?" was an instance of that readi-
ness and delicacy which are qualities peculiarly ap-
propriate to royalty. His exclamation at the battle
of La Hogue, when he beheld the English sailors
scrambling up the sides of the French ships from their
boats "None but my brave English could do this!"
was one trait of a character neither devoid of sensi-
bility, nor destitute of certain emotions which appear
incompatible with the royal patron of Judge Jeffries,
and with the enemy of Monmouth.
During his residence, when Duke of York, at Holy-
rood, accompanied by Anne Hyde, when Duchess of
York, James became extremely popular in Edin-
burgh ; in the Highlands his hold of the affections of
the chieftains had a deeper origin. The oppressor
of the English had endeavoured to become the
emancipator of the chieftains. The rigour of the
feudal system, which was carried to its utmost extent
in the Highlands, although softened by the patriarchal
character of the chiefs, was revolting to the chieftains
or landholders under the yoke of some feudal noble-
XVlll INTRODUCTION.
man or chief; and they became ambitious of becoming
direct holders from the Crown. It was a scheme of
James the Second to abolish this system of infeuda-
tion,' by buying up the superiorities, apian, the com-
pletion of which was attempted by William the Third,
but defeated by the avarice and dishonesty of those
who managed the transaction. The chieftains, how-
ever, never forgot the obligation which they owed to
James :* they refused all offers of emolument or pro-
motion from his successor; and they adhered to the
exiled King with a loyalty which was never shaken,
and which broke forth conspicuously in the Insurrec-
tion of 1715. " The Highlanders," says Dairy mple,
" carried in their bosoms the high point of honour
without its follies."
Without entering into the various reasons which
strengthened this sentiment of gratitude and alle-
giance; without commenting upon the partly patri-
archal nature of the clan system, and the firm com-
pact which was cemented between every member of
that family by a common relationship of blood ; it is
sufficient to remark, that to a people so retired, in many
parts insulated, in all, apart from daily intelligence,
far away from communication with any whose free
disquisitions might possibly stake their opinions, it
was not surprising that the loyalty to James should
continue unalloyed during two successive reigns. It
burned, indeed, with a steady though covered flame.
The Insurrection of 1715, which seems, in the pages
* See Introduction to the Memoirs of Cameron of Lochiel, p. 22.
INTRODUCTION. xix
of history, to break forth unexpectedly, was long in
being organized. From Anne's first Session of Par-
liament until the completion of the Union, Scotland
was in a state of ferment, and violent party divisions
racked civil society. In 1707, the famous Colonel
Hooke was sent to the northern parts of Scotland
from France, to sound the nobility and chieftains
with respect to their sentiments, to ascertain the
amount of their forces, and to inquire what quantity
of ammunition and other warlike stores should be ne-
cessary to be sent from France. A full account of
affairs was compiled, and was signed by fifteen noble-
men and gentlemen, amongst whom the Duke of
Athole, who aspired, according to Lockhart, to be
another General Monk, was foremost in promoting the
restoration of the youthful son of James the Second.
This mission was followed by the unsuccessful attempt
at invasion on the part of James, in 1708; when, ac-
cording to some representations, there was a far more
reasonable prospect of success than at any later period.
The nobility and gentry were, at that time, well pre-
pared to receive the royal adventurer; the regular
army was wholly unfit, either in numbers or ammuni-
tion, to oppose the forces which they would have raised.
The very Guards, it is supposed, would have done duty
on the person of James Stuart the night that he landed.
The equivalent money sent to Scotland to reward the
promoters of the Union, was still in the country, and
a considerable part of it was in the Castle of Edin-
burgh; and a Dutch fleet had recently run aground
XX INTRODUCTION.
on the coast of Angus, and had left there a vast
quantity of powder, shot, and cannon, and a large
sum of money, which might have been secured. Eng-
land was, at this time, distracted with jealousies and
factions; and although the great Marlborough was
then in the vigour of his youth, ready to defend his
country, as well as to extend her dominions, there
were suspicions that the General was not wholly ad-
verse to the claims of James Stuart.*
How far these expectations might have been rea-
lised, it is difficult to say. The French newspapers
had proclaimed the preparations for invasion, and
Louis the Fourteenth had taken leave of James, wish-
ing him a prosperous voyage, and expressing, as the
highest compliment, " the hope that he should never
see him again," when a slight, accidental indisposition
disturbed the whole arrangement. The royal youth
was taken ill with the measles; upon which the
French troops which had embarked at Dunkirk dis-
embarked. A fatal delay was occasioned; and the
French fleet, after an ineffectual voyage, went
" sneakingly home," " doing," as one of the most
active Jacobites remarks, " much harm to the King,
his country, and themselves."
Such was the fate of the attempt, in 1708, to place
James Stuart on the throne of his ancestors ; and it will
readily be believed that the ill-starred endeavour did
not add to the probable success of any future enter-
prise. Scarcely had the accession of George the
* Lockhart, vol. i. p. 239.
INTRODUCTION. Xxi
First, an event which a certain historian denominates
" a surprising turn of Providence," taken place, than
the removal of Lord Bolingbroke from office announced
to the Tory party that they had lost their best friend
at Court. Upon this intelligence reaching the High-
lands, many of the Jacobites took up arms ; but this
hasty demonstration of good will to their cause was in-
stantly suppressed. The Chevalier was, nevertheless,
proclaimed King in the night time, and three noble-
men, the Duke of Gordon, the Marquis of Huntley,
and Lord Drummond, were kept prisoners in their own
houses. In the middle of November, the Chevalier's
Declaration, asserting his right and title to the Crown
of England, was sent by a French mail to many per-
sons of rank in this country. For some months the
country was in a state of ferment, such as, perhaps,
had never been witnessed since the days of the Great
Rebellion. The Jacobites were centered in Oxford,
but Bristol was also another of their strongholds ;
the course of justice was impeded there by riots ; and
every effort was made, both there and elsewhere, to
influence the elections, which were carried on with a
degree of venom and fury, exasperated by the cry of
" the Church in danger!"
In February, 1715, the Duke of Argyle, Cbm-
mander-in- Chief of his Majesty's forces in Scotland,
received information that a vessel containing arms
and ammunition -had landed in the Isle of Sky, and
that five strangers had disembarked there, and had
instantly dispersed themselves throughout the'coun-
xxii INTRODUCTION.
try. This was the first positive indication of the
combination, which already comprised most of the
ancient and respected names in Scotland. This con-
federacy, as it may be called, had existed ever since
the peace of Utrecht, under the form of the Jacobite
Association. In 1710, the formation of the October
Club had shewed plainly the bias of the country
gentlemen, who, according to a judge of men's mo-
tives who was rarely satisfied, " did adhere firmly to
their principles and engagements, acting the part of
honest countrymen and dutiful subjects." *
About the month of May, the report of James
Stuart's intended invasion of Scotland, and parti-
culars of the preparations made for it in Eng-
land, Scotland, and France, became public. Mea-
sures were, of course, instantly taken to guard the
coasts of England and Scotland, and to augment
land forces. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended
in England, and in Scotland. An Act, passed in
1701, for preventing wrong imprisonments, and
against undue delay in trials, was also suspended
from the twenty -third of July, 1715, until the
twenty-fourth of the ensuing January. A fleet, un-
der the command of Sir George Byng, was ordered
to cruise in the Downs; and the most active and
vigilant measures were taken in order to put the
nation into a position of defence. The former intended
invasion of 1708 was not forgotten, and it acted
like a warning voice to the English Ministry. A
* Lockhart, vol. i. p. 324.
INTRODUCTION. xxiii
Whig Association was framed among persons of rank
and influence: and in Edinburgh a body of volun-
teers was formed, who might daily be seen exercising
in the Great Hall of the College.
Meantime the Jacobites were increasing in strength.
During the last six years collections had been
made in the continental nations, purporting to be
for a " gentleman in distress," and the amount was
said to have exceeded twelve millions.* Of this sum,
one hundred thousand pounds was entrusted to the
Earl of Mar.
The whole scheme of the insurrection was matured,
and the Chevalier had been proclaimed King in dif-
ferent towns in Scotland, when the death of Louis
the Fourteenth cast such a damp over the spirits
of the party, that there ensued a consultation as to
the expediency of their separating and returning to
their homes. In this emergency, unhappily for the
brave and ardent men whom he had assembled at
Braemar, the influence of the Earl of Mar, and the
arguments which his sanguine spirit suggested, pre-
vailed ; and the assembled chiefs parted, only to meet
again at their appointed places of rendezvous.
The scheme of the Insurrection of 1715 embraced
three different movements. In the north, the Earl of
Mar was to possess himself of all the rich coasts of
Fife, and also to maintain, in the name of James the
Third, the northern counties, which, with few ex-
ceptions, were soon under the control of the insur-
* Reay, p. 187.
XXIV INTRODUCTION.
gents. An attempt was made upon the southern
parts of Scotland, by sending Brigadier Mackintosh,
with a strong detachment of men, to cross the Firth
of Forth, and to land in the Lothians, there expecting
to be joined by friends on the borders and from
England. In the west, a rising of the south-country
Scots, under the command of Lord Kenmure, was
projected ; whilst in Northumberland the English
Jacobites, headed by Mr. Forster, with a commission
of General from Lord Mar, and aided by the Earl
of Derwentwater, was to give the signal and incentive
to the adherents of James in the sister Kingdom, as
well as to co-operate with the Scottish forces under
the commands of Brigadier Mackintosh and Viscount
Kenmure. An attack upon Edinburgh was also con-
certed.
Such is the outline of a plan of an insurrection
to the effect of which the Earl of Mar declared the
Jacobites had been looking for six and twenty years.
How immature it was in its conception how defi-
cient in energy and union was its execution how
unworthy was its chief instrument how fatal to the
good and great were its results and, by a singular
fortune, how those who least merited their safety
escaped, whilst the gallant and honest champions of
the cause suffered, will be fully detailed in the fol-
lowing pages. Let it be remembered that the task
of compiling these Memoirs has been undertaken with
no party spirit, nor with any wish to detract from
the deep obligations which we owe to those who pre-
INTRODUCTION. XXV
served us from inroads on our constitution, and op-
pression in our religious opinions. It has been,
however, begun with a sincere wish to do justice
to the disinterested and the good; and, as the task
has proceeded, and increased information on the sub-
ject has been gained, it has been continued with a
conviction that, whatever may be the nature or
merits of the abstract principles on which it was
undertaken, the Insurrection of 1715 forms an epi-
sode in the history of our country as creditable to
many of the ill-fated actors in its tragic scenes, as
any that have been detailed in the pages of that
history.
LONDON,
October 28, 1845.
VOL. I.
CONTENTS
THE FIRST VOLUME.
JOHN EBSKINE, EARL OP MAE . (with a Portrait) 1
JAMES RADCLIFFE, EARL OF DERWENTWATER
(with a Portrait) 224
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR .... 282
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL . 313
MEMOIRS OF THE JACOBITES.
JOHN ERSKINE, EARL OF MAR.
" THE title of Mar," observes Lord Hailes, " is one
of the Earldoms whose origin is lost in its antiquity."
It existed before our records, and before the era of
general history: hence, the Earls of Mar claimed
always to be called first in the Scottish Parliament
in the roll of Earls, as having no rival in the an-
tiquity of their honours.
From the time of Malcolm Canmore, in the year
1065, until the fourteenth century, the family of
De Mar enjoyed this Earldom ; but on the death of
Thomas, the thirteenth Earl of Mar, in 1377, the
direct male line of this race ended. The Earldom
then devolved upon the female representatives of the
house of De Mar; and thence, as in most similar
instances in Scotland, it became the subject of con-
tention, fraud, and violence.
VOL. I. B
2 JOHN ERSKINE,
Isabel, Countess of Mar and Garioch, the last of
the De Mar family, was won in marriage by a sin-
gular and determined species of courtship, formerly
common in Scotland; the influence of terror. The
heiress of the castle of Kildruminie, and a widow, her
first husband, Sir Malcolm Drummond, having died
in 1403, her wealth and rank attracted the regards
of Alexander Stewart, the natural son of Robert Earl
of Buchan, of royal blood. Without waiting for the
ordinary mode of persuasion to establish an interest
in his favour, this wild, rapacious man appeared in
the Highlands at the head of a band of plunderers,
and planting himself before the castle of Kildrummie,
stormed it, and effected a marriage between himself
and the Countess of Mar. Alexander Stewart, in
cooler moments, however, perceived the danger of
this bold measure, and resolved to establish his right
to the Countess and to her estates by another pro-
cess. One morning, during the month of September
1404, he presented himself at the Castle gate of Kil-
drummie, and formally surrendered to the Countess
the castle, its furniture, and the title-deeds kept
within its chests; thus returning them to her to do
with them as she pleased. The Countess, on the
other hand, holding the keys in her hand, and de-
claring herself to be of " mature advice," chose
the said Alexander for her husband, and gave him
the castle, the Earldom of Mar, with all the other
family estates in her possession. She afterwards
conferred these gifts by a charter, signed and sealed
EARL OF MAR. 3
in the open fields, in the presence of the Bishop of
Ross, and of her whole tenantry, in order to show
that these acts were produced by no unlawful coercion
on the part of her husband. The said honours and es-
tates were also to descend to any children born in that
marriage. Some of her kindred listened resentfully
to the account of these proceedings of Isabel of Mar.
The next heir to the Earldom, after the death of
Isabel, was Janet, grand-daughter of Gratney, eleventh
Earl of Mar. This lady had married Sir Thomas
Erskine, the proprietor of the Barony of Erskine, on the
Clyde, the property of the family during many ages;
and she expected, on the death of the Countess of Mar,
to succeed to the honours which had descended to her
by the female line. By a series of unjust and ra-
pacious acts on the part of the Crown, not only did
Robert, Lord Erskine, her son, fail in securing his
rights, but her descendants had the vexation of seeing
their just honours and rights revert to the King,
James the Third, who bestowed them first upon his
brother, the accomplished and unfortunate John Earl
of Mar, who was bled to death in one of the houses
of the Canongate, in Edinburgh ; and afterwards,
upon Cochrane, the favourite of James the Third.
The Earldom of Mar was then conferred on Alex-
ander Stewart, the third son of King James ; and
after his death, upon James Stewart, Prior of St.
Andrews, who had a charter from his sister, Queen
Mary, entitling him to enjoy the long contested
honour. But he soon relinquished the title, to as-
H 2
4 JOHN ERSKINE,
sume that of Moray, which had also been bestowed
upon him by the Queen: and in 1565 Mary re-
paired the injustice committed by her predecessors,
and restored John Lord Erskine to the Earldom of
Mar.
The house of Erskine, on whom these honours now
descended, has the same traditional origin as that of
most of the other Scottish families of note. In the
days of Malcolm the Second, a Scottish man having
killed with his own hand Enrique, a Danish general,
presented the head of the enemy to his Sovereign, and,
holding in his hand the bloody dagger with which the
deed had been performed, exclaimed, in Gaelic, " Eris
Skyne," alluding to the head and the dagger ; upon
which the surname of Erskine was imposed on him.
The armorial bearing of a hand holding a dagger,
was added as a further distinction, together with the
motto, Je pense plfts, in allusion to the declaration of
the chieftain that he intended to perform even greater
actions than that which procured him the name which
has since been so celebrated in Scottish history. The
crest and motto are still borne by the family.
This anecdote has, however, been rejected for the
more probable conjecture that the family of Erskine
derived its appellation from the estate of Erskine on
the Clyde :* yet it is not impossible but that tradition
may, in most cases, have a deeper source than we are
willing to allow to it. " There are few points in
ancient history," observes a modern writer, " on which
* See Wood's Peerage of Scotland.
EARL OF MAR. 5
more judgment is required than in the amount of
weight due to tradition. In general it will be found
that the tradition subsisting in the families themselves
has a true basis to rest upon, however much it may
be overloaded with collateral matter which obscures
it."*
But that which ennobled most truly the first Earl
of Mar, of the house of Erskine, was his own probity,
loyalty, and patriotism. Destined originally to the
church, John, properly sixth Earl of Mar, carried
into public life those virtues which would have
adorned the career of a private individual. In the
melancholy interest of Queen Mary's eventful life,
it is consolatory to reflect on the integrity and
moderation of this exemplary nobleman. Too good
and too sensitive for his times, he died of a broken
heart, the result of that inward and incurable
sorrow which the generous and the honest expe-
rience, when their hopes and designs are baffled by
the selfish policy of their own party. " He was,
perhaps," says Robertson, " the only person in the
kingdom who could have enjoyed the office of Regent
without envy, and have c left it without loss of repu-
tation.'^
From the restoration of John Earl of Mar to his
family honours, until the reign of Charles the First,
the prosperity of this loyal and favoured family in-
creased, interrupted indeed by some vicissitudes of
* Histories of Noble British Families by Henry Drummond, Esq.
Preface to Part I. t Robertson's History of Scotland, ii. 32.
6 JOHN ERSKINE,
fortune, but by no serious reverses, until that period
which, during the commotions of the Great Rebellion,
reduced many of our proudest nobility to compara-
tive poverty.
Among other important trusts enjoyed by the
family of Erskine, the government of the Castle of
Edinburgh, and the custody of the principal forts in
the kingdom, attested the confidence of their Sove-
reigns. To these was added by Mary Queen of
Scots, the command of the Castle of Stirling, and the
still more important charge of her infant son. To
these marks of confidence numerous grants of lands
and high appointments succeeded, obligations which
were repaid with a fidelity which impoverished the
family of Erskine ; and which produced, towards the
close of the seventeenth century, a marked decline in
their fortunes, and decay of their local influence.
John, ninth Earl of Mar, the grandfather of the
Jacobite Earl, suffered severely for his loyalty in
joining the association at Cumbernauld, in favour of
Charles the First. He afterwards raised forces at Brae-
Mar for the King's service, for which he was heavily
fined by the Parliament, and his estates were seques-
trated. During all this season of adversity he lived in
a cottage at the gate of his house at Alloa, until the
Restoration relieved him from the sequestration.
His son Charles, who raised the first regiment of
Scottish Fusileers, and was constituted their Colonel,
began life as a determined Royalist ; but disapproving
EARL OF MAR. 7
of the measures of James the Second, he had prepared
to go abroad when the Prince of Orange landed in Eng-
land. He appears afterwards to have pursued some-
what of the same wavering course as that of which
his son has been accused, and, joining the disaffected
party against William, he was arrested, but afterwards
released. The heavy incumbrances upon his estates,
contracted during the civil wars, were such as to
oblige him to sell a great portion of his lands, and to
part with the ancient Barony of Erskine, the first
possession of the family. This necessity may almost
be considered as an ill omen for the future welfare of
a family ; which never seems to be so utterly brought
low by fortune, as when compelled to consign to
strangers that from which the first sense of import-
ance and stability has been derived.
Under these circumstances, certainly not favourable
to independence of character, John, eleventh Earl of
Mar of the name of Erskine, and afterwards Lieute-
nant-general to the Chevalier St. George, was born at
Alloa, in Clackmannan, where his father resided. He
was a younger son of a numerous family, five brothers,
older than himself, having died in infancy. His mo-
ther, the Lady Mary Maule, eldest daughter of George
Earl of Panmure, gave birth to eight sons, and a
daughter. Of the sons, the Earl of Mar and his
brothers, James Erskine of the Grange, afterwards
the husband of the famous and unfortunate Lady
Grange ; and Henry, killed at the battle of Almanza
8 JOHN ERSKINE,
in 1707, alone attained the age of manhood. The only
sister of Lord Mar, Lady Jean, was married to Sir
Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn, in Stirlingshire.
The Earl of Mar succeeded to the possession and
management of estates, heavily encumbered, in
1696.* His qualities of mind and person, at this
early period of his life, were not eminently pleasing.
His countenance, though strongly marked, had none
of the attributes of intellectual strength. In person
he is said to have been deformed, although his por-
trait by Kneller was skilfully contrived to hide that
defect ; his complexion was fair : he was short in
stature. In his early youth the Earl is declared by
historians who were adverse to the Stuarts, to have
been initiated into every species of licentious dissi-
pation, by Neville Payne : and the young nobleman is
characterized as " the scandal of his name."f Al-
though his ancestors had been devotedly attached to
the interests of the exiled family, yet, it was to be
shewn how far Mar preferred those interests to his
own, or upon what principles he eventually adopted
the cause of hereditary monarchy, which had already
brought so much inconvenience, and so many losses to
his father and grandfather.
The first political prepossessions of the young Earl
must certainly have been those of the Cavaliers ; such
was the name by which the party continued to be
called who still desired the restoration of James the
Second, and fervidly believed in the fruition of their
* Wood's Peerage. The year of his birth is not stated.
t Cunningham's History of Great Britain, i. 326.
EARL OF MAR. 9
hopes. His father had indeed, to use the words of
Lockhart of Carnwath, " embarked with the Revolu-
tion ;" but had given tokens of his deep contrition for
that act, so inconsistent with his hereditary allegiance.
But the unformed opinions of the young are far more
easily swayed by events which are passing before their
eyes than by the cool reasonings of the closet ; and the
inclinations of the Earl of Mar's childhood were likely
soon to be effaced by the state of public affairs. The
later occurrences of the reign of William the Third were
calculated not only to repress the spirit of Jacobitism,
but to shame even the most enthusiastic of its par-
tisans out of a scheme which the sagacity of William
had defeated, and which his wisdom had taught him
to forgive. It was in the year 1696, just as the Earl
of Mar succeeded to his title, that the projected inva-
sion of the kingdom, and the scheme of assassinating
the King, were defeated : that William, hastening to
the House of Commons, gave to the nation an account
of the whole conspiracy. The House of Commons,
without rising from their seats, then " declared that
William was their rightful king, and that they would
defend him with their lives." It was at this important
aera that James the Second, after long waiting at Calais,
and casting thence many a wishful look towards
England, returned to St. Germains, " to thank God
that he had lost his country, because it had saved his
soul."* The hopes of the Cavaliers were thus wholly
extinguished: and to these circumstances were the
* Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 100.
10 JOHN ERSKINE,
first observations of the youthful Earl of Mar doubt-
less directed.
His guardians, seemingly desirous of retrieving the
affairs of the family, had endeavoured to imbue his
mind with Revolution principles;* and the famous
association which acknowledged the title of William
to the throne of England, framed about this time,
was signed by many who became in after life the
friends of the Earl of Mar. This was precisely the
period when that political profligacy, too justly
charged upon the leading men in this country, and
which induced them, under the impression that the
exiled family would be eventually restored, to cor-
respond with the Court of St. Germains, was tran-
quillized, although not eradicated by the great policy
and forbearance of WiUiam.f That single reply of
William's to Charnock, who had trafficked between
France and England with these negotiations, and who
offered to disclose to the King the names of those who
had employed him; these few words, " I do not wish
to hear them,"! did more to soothe discontents, and to
repress the violence of faction, than the subsequent
executions in the reign of George the First.
The Earl of Mar, left as he was at the early age of
fourteen to his own guidance, very soon displayed a
remarkable prudence in his pecuniary affairs, and a
desire to repair by good management the fortunes of his
family, a point which he accomplished, to a certain
* Chambers's Biography, art. Erskine.
f See Dr. Coxe's MSS. in the British Museum, vol. iii.
| Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 98.
EARL OF MAR. 11
extent. His dawning character shewed him to be
shrewd and wary, but possessing no extended views,
and disposed to rest his hopes of elevation and dis-
tinction upon petty intrigues, rather than to look
upon probity and exertion as the true basis of great-
ness. His great talent consisted in the management
of his designs, " in which," remarks one who knew him
well, " it was hard to find him out when he desired to
be incognito ; and thus he shewed himself to be a man
of good sense, but bad morals."*
On the 8th of September, 1696, the Earl of Mar
took his seat in the Scottish Parliament, protesting, as
his forefathers had done, against any Scottish Earl
being called before him in the Eoll. He became a
frequent, but indifferent speaker in Parliament; but
his continual activity, and the address which he soon
acquired as the fruit of experience, together with the
position which he held, as one generally understood to
be well affected to the new order of things, yet of suffi-
cient importance to be gained over to the other side,
soon made him an object for party spirit to assail.
During the reign of William, the Earl of Mar con-
tinued constant to the side to which he had declared
himself to belong. His pecuniary embarrassments, act-
ing upon a restless, ambitious temper, rendered it diffi-
cult to a man weak in principle to retain independence
of character : and it must be avowed, that there are
few temptations to depart from the road of integrity
more urgent than the desire to raise an ancient name
* Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. i.p. 114.
12 JOHN ERSKINE,
to its original splendour. No encumbrances are so
likely to drag their victim away from integrity as
those by which rank is clogged with poverty.
In April, 1697, Lord Mar was chosen a privy
councillor; and shortly afterwards invested with the
Order of the Thistle ; and the command of a company
of foot bestowed upon him. On the death of Wil-
liam his fortune was rather improved than deterior-
ated, although he continued to attach himself to the
Revolution Party, who, it was generally understood,
were very far from being acceptable to the Queen.
" At her accession," declares a Jacobite writer, " the
Presbyterians looked upon themselves as undone ;
despair appeared in their countenances, which were
more upon the melancholic and dejected than usual."
The management of Scottish affairs was, nevertheless,
entirely in the hands of the advocates of the Revo-
lution ; and one of their greatest supporters, the
Duke of Queensbury, was appointed High Commis-
sioner of the Scottish Parliament, notwithstanding
the representations of some of the most powerful
nobility in Scotland.
To the party of this celebrated politician the Earl
of Mar attached himself, with a tenacity for which
those who recollected the hereditary politics of the
Erskine family, could find no motives but self-interest.
James, Duke of Queensbury, was, it is true, the son
of one of the most active partisans of the Stuart
family, to whom the house of Queensbury owed both
its ducal rank and princely fortune. Possessed of
EARL OF MAR. 13
good abilities, but devoid of application, and with the
disadvantage to a public man of being of an easy,
indolent temper, this celebrated promoter of the union
between Scotland and England, had acquired, by
courtesy, and by a long administration of affairs, a
singular influence over his countrymen. His cha-
racter has been written with a pen that could scarcely
find sufficient invectives for those politicians who, in
the opinion of the writer, were the ruin of their coun-
try. The Duke of Queensbury falls under the heaviest
censures. " To outward appearance," says Lock-
hart, " he was of a gentle and good disposition, but
inwardly a very devil, standing at nothing to advance
his own interest and designs. Though his hypocrisy
and dissimulation served him very much, yet he be-
came so well known, that no man, except such as
were his nearest friends, and socii criminis, gave him
any trust; and so little regard had he to his pro-
mises and vows, that it was observed and notorious,
that if he was at any pains to convince you of his
friendship, and by swearing and imprecating curses
on himself and family to assure you of his sincerity,
then, to be sure, he was doing you underhand all the
mischief in his power."*
These characteristics must be viewed as proceeding
from the pen of a partisan ; nor can we wonder at the
contrariety of opinion which prevails respecting any
public man who proposes a great and startling measure.
Honours, places, and a pension were showered down
* Lockhart, vol. i. p. 45.
14 JOHN ERSKINE,
upon this most fortunate of ministers ; and his career
is remarkable as having been cheered by the favour
of four sovereigns of very different tempers. In his
early youth, after his return from his travels, the
Duke of Queensbury was appointed a Privy Councillor
of Scotland by Charles the Second. He held the same
post under James the Second, but resigned it in 1688.
The reserved and doubting William of Orange placed
him near his person, making him a Lord of the Bed-
chamber, and captain of his Dutch guard ; eventually
he became Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, and to
abridge a list of numerous employments and honours
Lord High Commissioner of Scotland. So far had
Queensbury's fortunes begun with the Stuarts and
continued under the House of Orange. It appeared
unlikely that the successor of William she who in her
first speech announced that her heart was " wholly
English," to mark the distinction between herself and
the foreigner who had sat on the throne before her,
would adopt as her own representative in Scotland
the favourite of William ; yet she continued Queens-
bury in that high station which it was believed
none could fill so adequately in the disturbed and
refractory kingdom of Scotland. *
During the early years of Queen Anne's reign, and
in the season of his own comparative prosperity, the
young Earl of Mar entered into his first marriage, at
Twickenham, with Lady Margaret Hay, daughter of
John Earl of Kinnoul. The wife whom he thus se-
* Granger, vol. ii. p. 31. Somerville's Queen Anne, p. 184.
EARL OF MAR, 15
lected was the daughter of a house originally adverse
to the principles of the Revolution. William Earl of
Kinnoul, in the time of James the Second, had re-
mained at St. Germains with that monarch. But
the same change which had manifested the political
course of Lord Mar, had been apparent in the father
of Lady Margaret Hay. The Earl of Kinnoul was
afterwards one of the Commissioners for the Union,
and supported that treaty in Parliament; yet, when
the Rebellion of 1715 commenced, this nobleman was
one of the suspected persons who were summoned to
surrender themselves, and was committed a prisoner
to Edinburgh Castle. His daughter, the Countess of
Mar, was happily spared from witnessing the turmoils
of that period. Married in her seventeenth year, she
lived only four years with a husband whose character
was but partially developed, when, in 1707, she died
at the age of twenty-one, having given birth to two
sons. She was buried at the family seat at Alloa
Castle, an ancient fortress, built in the year 1300, one
turret of which still remaining rises ninety feet from
the ground. Seven years intervened before Lord Mar
supplied the place of his lost wife by another union.
His days were, indeed, consumed in public affairs,
varied by the improvement of his Scottish estates,
embellishing the tower of Alloa by laying out beau-
tiful gardens in that wilderness style of planting
which the Earl first introduced into Scotland.* He
* Of Alloa the following account is given. " Alloa House, situated
in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, in the midst of a fine
16 JOHN ERSKINE,
had the reward of seeing his efforts succeed, the gar-
dens of Alloa being much eulogized and visited.
This was by no means Lord Mar's only recreation;
architecture was his delight, and he introduced into
London the celebrated Gibbs, who, out of gratitude,
eventually bequeathed a large portion of his fortune
to the children of the Earl.* It is refreshing to view
this busy and versatile politician in this light before
we plunge into the depths of those intricate politics
which form the principal features of his life.
It was during the year 1703 that a political asso-
park, the seat of the Earl of Mar, and the subject of a fine Scottish
song, is a place worthy of visit. The principal part of the building
was destroyed some years ago by fire, and with it the only certain
original portrait of Queen Mary existing in the kingdom. The original
tower, a building of the thirteenth century, the walls of which are
eleven feet thick, and ninety feet high, alone remains. In it James
the Sixth and his eldest son, Henry, were successively educated under
the care of the Mar family. The cradle of the former, and his little
nursery-chair, besides Prince Henry's golfs, were preserved in the tower
till a recent period, when they fell into the possession of Lady Frances
Erskine, daughter of the late venerable Earl of Mar, who, we understand,
now preserves them, with the care and veneration due to such valuable
heirlooms, in her house in Edinburgh. The country in every direction
round Alloa is extremely level and beautiful, interspersed with numerous
fine seats, and abounding in delightful little old-established bower-like
villages. Among the latter we would particularize one called the Bridge
of Allan as everything which a village ought to be soft, sunny, and
warm a confusion of straw-roofed cottages, and rich massy trees ; pos-
sessed of a bridge and a mill, together with kail- yards, bee-skeps, colleys,
callants, old inns with entertainment for man and horse, carts with their
poles pointing up to the sky, venerable dames in drugget knitting their
stockings in the sun, and young ones in gingham and dimity tripping
along with milk-pails on their heads.
" Besides all these characteristics as a village, the Bridge of Allan boasts
of a row of neat little villas for the temporary accommodation of a num-
ber of fashionables who flock to it in the summer, on account of a neigh-
bouring mineral well." Chambers^ Picture of Scotland.
* Wood's Peerage.
EARL OF MAR. 17
elation or club was framed consisting of the chief
nobility and gentlemen of fortune and afterwards
known by the name of the Squadrone Volante. They
acquired distinguished popularity and influence by the
patriotic character of the measures which they intro-
duced into the Scottish Parliament; and by their
professions of being free from any court interest,
they gained the confidence of the country. They
were firm friends of the Kevolution party, great
sticklers to the Protestant succession, forming a se-
parate band distinct from the Whigs, yet opposed to
the Cavaliers, or, as they were afterwards called,
Jacobites. The power of the Squadrone was, in a
great measure, the result of those jarring counsels in
the Scottish Parliament, which only coalesced upon
one theme, independence of England interference
of " foreign" or English counsels, as they were termed.
This combination was headed by the Duke of Mont-
rose, the Marquis of Tweedale, and several other
Scottish noblemen, to whom adhered thirty com'
rnoners.*
During the existence of this association, the cele-
brated " Queensbury affair," as it was usually called,
involved the temporary disgrace of the Duke of
Queensbury, and first brought to view those con-
venient doctrines of expediency which afterwards
formed so marked a feature in the character of Lord
Mar.
The " sham plot," as it is called by Jacobite writers,
* Somerville's Queen Anrie, p. 167.
VOL. 1. C
18 JOHN ERSKINE,
was a supposed intended invasion of Great Britain,
disclosed to the Duke of Queensbury by Simon Fraser
of Beaufort, afterwards Lord Lovat ; whose very name
seems to have suggested to his contemporaries, as it
has since done to posterity, the combination of all
that is subtle, treacherous, and base, with all that is
dangerous, desperate, and remorseless in conduct.
This tool of the court of St. Germains came over
from France, in company with John Murray, who was
sent to watch his proceedings, and also to aid his
object in procuring the promises of the most dis-
tinguished Highland chieftains to the furtherance of
the projected invasion of England. The assistance of
Captain Murray was conjoined on this occasion, the
fidelity of that gentleman having been ascertained by
the court of St. Germains ; whilst there existed not a
human being who did not instinctively distrust Beau-
fort : to Mary of Modena, who far more ardently de-
sired the restoration of the Stuarts than her consort
James, he was peculiarly obnoxious.
The exiled Queen's fears proved well founded, for
no sooner had Beaufort landed in England, than he
formed the scheme of converting this secret enterprise
into a means of obtaining reward and protection from
the Duke of Argyle, whose mediation with the Duke
of Queensbury he required for private reasons; he
therefore notified his arrival to Argyle, who had been
his early and hereditary friend, offering at the same
time to make great disclosures, if he had previous
assurances of remuneration.
EARL OF MAR. 19
Such is the account of most impartial writers, and
more especially of those who lean to the Whig party:
but, by the Jacobites, the very existence of a con-
spiracy to invade England at this time was denied,
and the whole affair was declared to be a scheme of
the Duke of Queensbury's to undermine the repu-
tation of the Cavaliers, and " to find a pretence to vent
his wrath, and execute his malice against those who
thwarted his arbitrary designs," for the completion of
a treaty of union between Scotland and England,
which had been in contemplation ever since the days
of William the Third.*
After much deliberation the Duke of Queensbury
was induced to have several communications with
Eraser of Beaufort, and to listen to the information
which he gave, all of which the Duke transmitted to
Queen Anne, although he concealed the name of his
informant. In consequence of Eraser's disclosures,
several persons coming from France to England were
apprehended on suspicion of being engaged in the
Pretender's service, and an universal alarm was
spread, as well as a distrust of the motives and pro-
ceedings of Queensbury, who thus acted upon the
intelligence of an avowed spy, and noted outlaw, like
Eraser. A temporary loss of Queensbury's political
sway in Scotland was the result, and a consequent
increase of power to the Squadrone Volante.
It was at this juncture that the Earl of Mar came
* Somerville, p. 177. Memoirs of Scotland, London, 1714. Defoe's
History of the Union, p. 64.
c2
20 JOHN ERSK1NE,
forward as the advocate of the Duke of Queensbury's
measures, and the opponent of the Squadrone Volante,
who had now completely fixed upon themselves that
name, from their pretending to act by themselves, and
to cast the balance of contending parties in Parlia-
ment. The opposition of Lord Mar to the Squadrone
was peculiarly acceptable to the Tories, or Cavaliers,
who had recently applied to that faction to assist
them -in the defence of their country against the
Union, but who had been greeted with an indignant
and resolute refusal.
The Earl of Mar therefore appeared as the cham-
pion of the Cavaliers, and for the first time won their
confidence and approbation. " He headed," writes
the bitter and yet truthful Lockhart, " such of the
Duke of Queensbury's friends as opposed the Marquis
of Tweedale and his party's designs; and that with
such art and dissimulation, that he gained the favour
of all the Tories, and was by them esteemed an
honest man, and well inclined to the royal family.
Certain it is, he vowed and protested as much many
a time ; but no sooner was the Marquis of Tweedale
and his party dispossessed, than he returned as a dog
to the vomit, and promoted all the court of England's
measures with the greatest zeal imaginable."* The
three parties in the Scottish Parliament, according to
the same authority, consisted of the Cavaliers, that
remnant of the Jacobite party which remained vigor-
ous, more especially in the Highlands, since the days
* Lockhart Papers, vol. i. p. 114.
EARL OF MAR. 21
of Dundee, of the Squadrone, " or outer court party,"
and of the present court party, consisting of true
blue Presbyterians and Revolutioners.* With the
interests of the latter party the Earl of Mar was un-
doubtedly engaged.
Scotland was at this time, and continued for several
years, racked with dissensions regarding the Treaty
of Union. No one can form an adequate idea of the
heartburnings, feuds, parties, and tumults, by which
that great measure was preceded, and followed, without
looking into the contemporary writers, whose aim it
ever is to heighten the picture of passing events;
whereas the calm historian subdues it into one general
effect of keeping.
The Earl of Mar took a prominent part in second-
ing the treaty ; no man's commencement of a career
could be more opposed to its termination than that
of this politician of easy virtue. The Duke of
Queensbury was for some time so hated in Scotland
as scarcely to venture to appear there, but contented
himself with sending the Duke of Argyle as com-
missioner, and " using him as the monkey did the
cat in pulling out the hot roasted chesnut." But
when he was, after an interval, reinstated in power,
Lord Mar was again his devoted ally. The influence
of the Duke over every mind with which he came
into collision was, indeed, almost irresistible. " I
cannot but wonder," remarks the indignant Lockhart,
" at the influence he had over all men of sense,
* Lockhart.
22 JOHN ERSKINE,
quality, and estate; men that had, at least many of
them, no dependance on him, yet were so deluded
as to serve his ambitious designs, contrary to the
acknowledged dictates of their own conscience." 1
In 1706, in the beginning of the session of Parlia-
ment, the Earl of Mar presented the draught of an
Act for appointing Commissioners, to treat of an
Union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England.
Thus was he the instrument of first presenting to the
Scotch that measure so revolting to their prejudices,
so singularly distasteful to a proud and independent
people. It is impossible to judge how far Lord Mar
was convinced of the expediency of the Treaty, or
whether he was, in secret, one of those who feigned
an affection for the measure, whilst, in their hearts,
they wished for the preponderance of the votes against
it. The Treaty of Union was espoused by those in
whose opinions Lord Mar had been nurtured, and
originally, according to De Foe, it had been mooted
by William the Third, who declared that this Island
would never be easy without an union. " I have
done all I can in that affair," he once observed;
" but I do not see a temper in either nation that
looks like it : it may be done, but not yet."f
The Treaty, retarded by many interests, clashing
between nations, but, more especially, by the burning
recollections of massacred countrymen in the blood-
stained valley of Glencoe, was now brought into dis-
cussion just when the Earl of Mar was at that age
* Lockhart, p. 116. f Daniel De Foe on the Union, p. 64.
EARL OF MAR. 23
when a thirst for gain, or an amoition to rise is un-
quenched, in general, by disappointment. Differing
in one respect from many Cavaliers, in being of a
family strictly Protestant, Lord Mar had not the
inducement which operated upon the Catholics, in
their undiminished, ardent desire to restore the young
Prince of Wales to the throne. Differing, again, in
another respect from many of the Jacobites, Lord
Mar had not the tie of a personal knowledge of the
exiled King to fix his fidelity; or, what was con-
sidered far more likely to have sealed his, or any ad-
herent allegiance, he had enjoyed no opportunities
of cultivating the favour of the enthusiastic, bigoted,
and yet intelligent Mary of Modena, whose exertions
for her family kept alive the spirit of Jacobitism
during the decline of her royal devotee and the child-
hood of her son. Lord Mar seems to have been
reared entirely in Scotland, and he might perhaps
come under the description given by the eloquent
Lord Belhaven of a Whig in Scotland: " A true,
blue Presbyterian, who, without considering time
or power, will venture all for the Kirk, but some-
thing less for the State;"* but that his subsequent
conduct contradicts this supposition.
The Treaty struggled on through a powerful and
memorable opposition. It is a curious instance of
Scottish pride, that one of the objections made to the
Commissioners appointed to treat of the Union, was,
that there were six or eight newly-raised families
* DC Foe, p. 322.
24 JOHN ERSKINE,
amongst them, and but few of the great and ancient
names of Hamilton, Graham, Murray, Erskine, and
many others.* Never was there so much domestic
misery and humiliation, abroad, for poor Scotland, as
during the progress of this Treaty. The fame of
Marlborough, and the fortunes of Godolphin, were
now at their zenith; they were considered as the
great arbiters of Scottish affairs, the Queen being
only applied to for the sake of form. These two
great statesmen treated the Scottish noblemen to
whom the Cavaliers entrusted the success of their
representations, with a lofty insolence, which galled
the proud Highlanders, and went to their very hearts.
" I myself," writes the author of Memoirs of Scot-
land, " out of curiosity, went sometimes to their levies,
where I saw the Commissioners, the Duke of Queens-
bury, the Chancellor, the Secretary, Lord Mar, and
other great men of Scotland, hang on near an hour;
and when admitted, treated with no more civility
than one gentleman pays another's valet-de-chambre ;
and for which the Scots have none to blame but
themselves, for had they valued themselves as they
ought to have done, and not so meanly and sneak-
iagly prostituted their honour and country to the
will and pleasure of the English Ministry, they would
never have presumed to usurp such a dominion over
Scotland, as openly and avowedly to consult upon
and determine in Scots' affairs.f
* Lockhart. Letter to one English Lord concerning the Treaty, 1702,
vol. i. p. 272. t Memoirs, p. 74. De Foe, p. 321.
EARL OF MAR. 25
At home, the spirit of party ran to an extent which
cannot be called insane, because the interests at stake
were those dearest to a high-spirited people. " Fac-
tions," exclaimed Lord Belhaven, " in Parliament, are
now become independent, and have got footing in
councils, in parliaments, in treaties, in armies, in
incorporations, in families, among kindred ; yea, man
and wife are not free from them."* " Hannibal,
my Lord," he cried, in one of what Lockhart calls
his long premeditated harangues, "Hannibal is at
our gates; Hannibal is come the length of this
table; he is at the foot of this throne: he will de-
molish the throne; if we take not notice, he will
seize upon these regalia; he'll take them as our
spolia opima, and whip us out of this House, never
to return again."
In order to understand the effect of the Act of
Union upon the hopes of the Jacobite party, it is
necessary to take into consideration the following
facts. The Act of the English Parliament, by which
the Crown had been settled on Queen Mary and her
sister, extended only to the Princess Anne and her
issue. After the death of the Duke of Gloucester,
and about the end of the reign of William the
Third, another . settlement was made, by which the
Crown was settled on the House of Hanover; but
no similar Act was passed in Scotland. And at the
beginning of Queen Anne's reign, and until after the
Union, the Scottish Parliament were legally possessed
* Memoirs, p. 74. De Foe, p. 371
26 JOHN ERSKINE,
of a power to introduce again the exiled family into
Great Britain.*
During the course of the negotiations for the
Treaty of Union, the Earl of Mar formed an alliance
with the celebrated Duke of Hamilton. In the con-
sideration of public affairs at this period, it may not
appear a digression to give some insight into the
character of one who headed the chief party in the
Scottish Parliament, and with whom the Earl of Mar
was, at this period of his life, in frequent inter-
course.
James Duke of Hamilton was at this period nearly
fifty years of age. His youth had been passed in the
gay court of Charles the Second, as one of the Gentle-
men of the Bedchamber of that monarch, an office
which he only relinquished to become Ambassador
Extraordinary to France, where he remained long
enough to serve in two campaigns under Louis the
Fourteenth. Upon the death of Charles the Second,
Louis recommended the young nobleman, then termed
Earl of Arran, strongly and essentially to James the
Second, who made him Master of his Wardrobe, and
appointed him to other oifices.
Under these circumstances it is not surprising that
in the honest and warm feelings of the Duke of
Hamilton, affection for the Stuarts should form a
principal feature. He had the courage to adhere
firmly to James the Second, amid the general obloquy,
and to accompany the monarch on his abdication to
* Introduction to DC Foe's History of the Union, p. 16.
EARL OF MAR. 27
his embarkation at Rochester. " I can distinguish,"
he said, at a meeting of the Scottish nobility in Lon-
don, over which his father, the Duke of Hamilton
presided, " between the King's popery and his person.
I dislike the one, but have sworn to do allegiance to
the other, which makes it impossible to withhold
that which I cannot forbear believing is the King
my master's right : for his present absence in France
can no more affect my duty, than his longer absence
from us has done all this while."
Notwithstanding these professions, upon the unfor-
tunate conclusion of the affair of Darien, the Earl of
Arran, after twice encountering imprisonment upon
account of the Stuarts, esteemed it his duty to his
country to take the oaths to King William, in order
to qualify himself to sit in Parliament. ,
The character of the Duke of Hamilton presents a
favourable specimen of the well-principled and well-
intentioned Scotchman, with the acknowledged vir-
tues and obvious defects of the national character.
He was disinterested in great matters, refusing many
opportunities of worldly advantage, and bearing for
the first eight years of his public career, a retirement
which is always more galling to an ambitious temper
than actual danger; yet, it was supposed, and not
without reason, that, whilst his heart was with the
Cavaliers, or country party, the considerations of his
great estate in England occasioned a lukewarmness
in his political conduct, and broke down his opposition
to the Union. Wary and cautious, he could thus
28 JOHN ERSKINE,
sacrifice his present hopes of a distinction which his
talents would have readily attained, to his adherence
to a lost cause; but his resolution failed when the
sacrifice of what many might deem inferior interests,
was required.
The Duke soon formed a considerable party in the
Parliament ; and his empire over the affections of his
countrymen grew daily. To those to whom he con-
fided, the Duke was gracious and unbending ; but
a suspicion of an insult recalled the native haughti-
ness attributable to his house.* " Frank, honest,
and good-natured," as he was esteemed by Swift, and
displaying on his dark, coarse countenance, the cha-
racteristics of good sense and energy, the Duke was
a bitter and vindictive foef characteristics of his
age, and of a nation undoubtedly prone to wreak a
singular and remorseless revenge on all who offend
the hereditary pride, or militate against the prejudices
of its people.
Endowed with these qualities, the whole career of
James Duke of Hamilton was a struggle between his
love for his country, and his consideration for what he
esteemed its truest interests, and his desire to support
the claims of the royal family of Stuart. His poli-
tical career has been criticised by writers of every
faction; but it must be judged of as having taken
place in times of peculiar difficulty, and a due credit
should be given to the motives of one who displayed,
during the greater portion of his life, forbearance and
* Memoirs of Scotland, p. 31. t Mackay.
EARL OF MAR. 29
consistency. " Had not his loyalty been so unalter-
able," writes Lockhart, " and that he would never en-
gage in King William's and his Government's service,
and his love to his country induced him to oppose
that King and England's injustice and encroachments
on it, no doubt he had made as great a figure in the
world as any other whatsoever, and that either in a
civil or military capacity."* " The Duke of Hamil-
ton's love for his country," observes a contemptuous,
anonymous assailant, " made him leave London, and
follow King James, who had enslaved it. His love
to his country had engaged him in several plots
to restore that prince, and with him, tyranny and
idolatry, poverty and slavery. "f Upon the odious
principle of always seeking out for the lowest and the
most selfish motive that 'can actuate the conduct of
men, a principle which is thought by weak and bad
minds to display knowledge of the world, but which,
in fact, more often betrays ignorance, another part
of his conduct was misjudged. The reluctance of the
Duke of Hamilton, in 1704, to nominate a successor
to the throne of England, before framing the treaty
touching " the Commerce of Scotland and other Con-
cerns," was ascribed by many to the remote hope
of succeeding to the Crown, since, in case of the ex-
clusion of the Princess Sophia and her descendants,
his family was the .next in succession, of the Pro-
testant Faith. Such was one of the reasons assigned
* Lockhart Papers, vol. i p. 54
t Memoirs of North Britain, p. 113.
30 JOHN ERSKINE,
for the wise endeavour which this nobleman exerted
to prevent an invasion of the kingdom by James
Stuart during the reign of Anne, and such the motive
adduced for his advice to the Chevalier to maintain
terms of amity with his royal sister. It was the
cause calumniously assigned of his supposed decline in
attachment to the exiled family.*
But, notwithstanding the inference thus deduced,
the Duke of Hamilton continued to enjoy, in no ordi-
nary degree, popular applause and the favour of
Queen Anne, until his tragical death in 1712 occur-
ring just before the Rebellion of 1715, spared him the
perplexity of deciding on which side he should embark
in that perilous and ill-omened insurrection.
This celebrated statesman, one who never entered
into a new measure, nor formed a project, (" though in
doing thereof," says Lockhart, " he was too cautious")
that he did not prosecute his designs with a courage
that nothing could daunt, now determined to win over
the Earl of Mar from the Duke of Queensbury. The
Duke of Hamilton was the more induced to the
attempt, from the frequent protestations made by the
Earl of Mar of his love for the exiled family ; and he
applied himself to the task of gaining this now impor-
tant ally with all the skill which experience and
shrewdness could supply. Hamilton was considered
invincible in such undertakings, and was master of a
penetration which no one could withstand. "Never
was," writes Lockhart, " a man so qualified to be the
* Wood's Peerage, vol. i. pp. 714, 717 ; also Mackay's Memoirs, p. 178.
EARL OF MAR. 31
head of a party as himself; for he could, with the
greatest dexterity, apply himself to, and sift through,
the inclinations of different parties, and so cunningly
manage them, that he gained some of all to his."
But the Duke met in Lord Mar with one equally
skilled in diving into motives, and in bending the
will of others to his own projects. In the encounter
of these two minds, the Duke is said to have been
worsted and disarmed; and the Earl of Mar, by his
insinuations, is suspected to have materially influenced
the conduct of that great leader of party. " I have
good reason to^ suppose," says Lockhart, " that his
Grace's appearing with less zeal and forwardness in
this ensuing than in former Parliaments, is attri-
butable to some agreement passed between them
two."*
For the effect of his newly-acquired influence over
the Duke of Hamilton, and for his other services in
promoting the Union, the Earl of Mar was amply
rewarded. During the Parliament of 1705, he was
constituted one of the Commissioners of that Treaty,
his name being third on the list. In 1706, he
was appointed one of the Secretaries of State for
Scotland; and afterwards, upon the loss of that
office, in consequence of the Union between the
two countries, he was compensated by being made
Keeper of the Signet, with the addition of a pen-
sion, f Those who were the promoters of the Treaty
* Lockhart Papers, vol. i. p. 115.
t Wood's Peerage, art. Erskine of Mar.
32 JOHN ERSKINE,
must have required some consolation for the gene-
ral opprobrium into which the measure brought the
Commissioners. The indignant populace converted
the name of " Treaters" into Traitors : the Parlia-
ment Close resounded with " very free language,"
denouncing the " Traitors." That picturesque en-
closure, since destroyed by fire, was crowded by a
vehement multitude, who rushed into the outer Par-
liament House to denounce the Duke of Queensbury
and his party, and to cheer the Duke of Hamilton,
whom they followed to his residence in Holyrood
House, exhorting him to stand by hig country, and
assuring him of support. The tumults were, indeed,
soon quelled by military force; but the delibera-
tions of Parliament were carried on at the risk of
summary vengeance upon the " Traitors :" and the
eloquence of members was uttered between walls
which were guarded, during the whole session, by all
the military force that Edinburgh could command.
The Duke of Queensbury was obliged to walk "as if
he had been led to the gallows,"* through two lanes of
musqueteers, from the Parliament House to the Cross,
where his coach stood; no coaches, nor any person
who was not a member, being allowed to enter the
Parliament Close towards evening : and he was
conveyed in his carriage to the Abbey, surrounded
both by horse and foot guards.
On the 1st of May, 1707, the Articles of Union
were ratified by the Parliament of England. That
* Memoirs of Scotland, p. 224.
EARL OF MAR. 33
day lias been set down by the opponents of the mea-
sure as one never to be forgotten by Scotland, the
loss of their independence and sovereignty. Super-
stition marked every stage of the measure as hap-
pening upon some date adverse to the Stuarts. On
the fourth of November the first Article of the Union
was approved ; on a fourth of November was William
of Orange born. On the eighth of January the Peer-
age was renounced; on an eighth of January was the
warrant for the Murder at Glencoe signed. The rati-
fication of the Article of Union was on the sixteenth
of January. On a sixteenth of January was the sen-
tence of Charles the First pronounced. The dissolution
of the Scottish Parliament took place upon the twenty-
fifth of March, according to the Old Style, New Year's
Day: that concession might therefore be esteemed a
New-year's Gift to the English.
Finally, The Equivalent, or Compensation Money,
that is, " the price of Scotland," came to Edinburgh
on the fifth of August, the day on which the Earl of
Gowrie designed to murder James the Sixth. *
The discontents and tumults which attended the
progress of the Union ran throughout the whole coun-
try, and pervaded all ranks of people. Yet it is
remarkable, that the nobility of Scotland should have
been the first to fail in their opposition to the mea-
sure; and that the middle ranks, together with the
lowest of the people, should have been foremost to
* Memoirs of Scotland, p. 340.
VOL. I. D
34 JOHN ERSKINE,
withstand what they considered as insulting to the
independence of their country. The very name and
antiquity of their kingdom was dear to them, although
there remained, after the removal of James the First
into England, little more than " a vain shadow of a
name, a yoke of slavery, and image of a kingdom."f
It was in vain that the Duke of Hamilton had called,
in the beginning of the debates on this measure, upon
the families of " Bruce, Campbell, Douglas," not to
desert their country : the opposition to the Union was
bought over, with many exceptions, with a price ;
twenty thousand pounds being sent over to the Lords
Commissioners to employ in this manner, twelve thou-
sand pounds of which were, however, returned to the
English Treasury, there being no more who would
accept the bribe. The Earl of Mar and the Earl of
Seafield had privately secured their own reward,
having bargained " for greater matters than could be
agreed upon while the kingdom of Scotland stood in
safety."!
Amidst the resentment of the Scotch for their in-
sulted dignity, it is amusing to find that this Union
of the two countries could be deemed derogatory to
English dignity ; yet Dean Swift, among others, con-
sidered it in that light. " Swift's hatred to the Scot-
tish nation," observes Sir Walter Scott, " led him to
look upon that Union with great resentment, as a
measure degrading to England. The Scottish them-
* Cunningham's Hist. Great Britain, p. 267. t Ibid. p. 61.
EARL OF MAR. 35
selves hardly detested the idea more than he did; and
that is saying as much as possible."*
Swift vented his wrath in the verses beginning with
these lines :
" The Queen has lately lost a part
Of her entirely-English heart,t
For want of which, by way of botch,
She piec'd it up again with Scotch.
Blest Revolution ! which creates
Divided hearts, united states !
See how the double nation lies
Like a rich coat with skirts of frize :
As if a man in making posies,
Should bundle thistles up with roses !"
That the conduct of Lord Mar throughout this
Treaty was regarded with avowed suspicion, the
following anecdote tends to confirm : Lord Godolphin,
at that time First Lord of the Treasury, wishing to
tamper with one of a combination against the Queens-
bury faction, sent to offer that individual a place if
he would discover to him how the combination was
formed, and in what manner it might be broken.
But the gentleman whose fidelity he thus assailed, was
true to his engagements; and returned an indignant
answer, desiring the Lord Treasurer's agent " not to
think that he was treating with such men as Mar and
Seafield."|
At this time the Earl of Mar was said to be in the
full enjoyment of Lord Godolphin's confidence, and to
* Swift's Works, edited by Sir W. Scott, pp. 14, 72.
f The motto on Queen Anne's coronation medal.
J Cunningham, p. 71.
D 2
36 JOHN ERSKINE,
have been one of those whom the treasurer consulted,
in settling the government of Scotland. The rumour
was not conducive to his comfort or well-being in his
native country; and the Earl appears to have passed
much more time in intrigues in London than among
the gardens of Alloa.
It was not long before the effects of the general
discontent were manifested in the desire of the ma-
jority of the Scottish nation to restore the descendant
of their ancient kings to the throne, and even the
Cameronians and Presbyterians were willing to pass
over the objection of his being a Papist. " God may
convert the Prince," they said, " or he may have Pro-
testant children, but the Union never can be good."'
The middle orders openly expressed their anxiety to
welcome a Prince to their shores, whom they regarded
as a deliverer : the nobility and gentry, though more
cautious, yet were equally desirous to see the honour of
their nation, in their own sense of it, restored. Epis-
copalians, Cavaliers, and Revolutionists, were unani-
mous, or, to use the Scots' proverb, " were all one
man's bairns." This state of public feeling was
soon communicated to St. Germains, and Colonel
Hooke, famous for his negotiations, was, according to
the writer of the Memoirs, " pitched upon by the
French King, and palmed upon the court of St. Ger-
mains, and dispatched to sound the intentions of the
principal Scottish nobility. This agent arrived in
Scotland in the month of March, 1707. The paper
* Memoirs of Scotland. Cunningham, p. 157.
EARL OF MAR. 37
containing assurances of aid to James Stuart was
signed by sixteen noblemen and gentlemen ; but the
Earl of Mar was, at that time, engaged in a very
different undertaking, and was in close amity with Sun-
derland, Godolphin, and the heads of the Whig party.
The spring of 1708 discovered the designs of
Louis, and the news of great preparations at Dun-
kirk spread consternation in England. At this junc-
ture, the first in which the son of James the Second
was called upon to play a part in that drama of which
he was the ill-starred hero, the usual fate of his race
befel him. He came to Dunkirk hastily, and in private,
intending to pass over alone to the Firth of Forth.
He was attacked by the measles; at a still more cri-
tical moment of his melancholy life, he was the victim
of ague : both of them ignoble diseases, which seem to
have little concern with the affairs of royalty. The
delay of the Prince's illness, although shortened by the
peremptory commands of the French King to proceed,
was fatal, for the English fleet had time to make pre-
parations. A storm drove the French fleet north-
wards; in the tempest the unfortunate adventurer
passed the Firth of Forth and Aberdeen ; and although
the fleet retraced its course to the Isle of May, it was
only to flee back to France, daunted as the French ad-
mirals were by the proximity of Sir George Byng and
the English fleet, who chased the enemy along the
coasts of Fife and Angus. It was shortly after this
event that the Pretender, upon whose head a price of
a hundred thousand pounds was set by the English
38 JOHN ERSKINE,
Government, first assumed the title of Chevalier of
St. George, in order to spare himself the expense of
field equipage in the campaign in Flanders.
The conduct of the Earl of Mar, in relation to
conspiracy, has been alluded to rather than declared
by historians. He is supposed not to have been, in
secret, unfavourable to the undertaking. He was,
nevertheless, active in giving to the Earl of Sunder-
land the names of the disaffected with whom he was
generally supposed to be too well acquainted. Many
of those who were suspected were brought to London,
and were in some instances committed to prison, in
others confined to their own houses. On this occasion
the advice of the great Marlborough was followed,
and the guilty were not proceeded against with more
severity than was necessary for the Queen's safety.
The same generous policy was in after times remem-
bered, in mournful contrast with a very different
spirit.
It was the ill-fortune of Mar to give satisfaction
to none of those who had looked on the course
of public affairs during the recent transactions;
nor was it ever his good fortune to inspire confi-
dence in his motives. Some notion may be formed of
the thraldom of party in Scotland by the following
anecdote :
In 1711-12 the Queen conferred upon the Duke of
Hamilton a patent for an English dukedom ; but this,
according to a vote of the House of Lords, did not
entitle him to sit as a British Peer. Indignant at
EARL OF MAR. 39
being thought incapable of receiving a grace which
the King might confer on the meanest commoner, the
Scotch Peers took the first opportunity of walking out
of the House in a body, and refusing to vote or sit in
that House. In addition to the affront implied by
their incapacity of becoming British Peers, it was
more than hinted that it would not be advisable for
the independence of the House if the King could
confer the privileges of British Peers upon a set of
nobles whose poverty rendered them dependent on
the Crown.
Just when this offensive vote of the House was the
theme of general conversation, Dean Swift encoun-
tered the Earl of Mar at Lord Masham's. " I was
arguing with him, (Lord Mar)," he writes, " about the
stubbornness and folly of his countrymen; they are
so angry about the affair of the Duke of Hamilton,
whom the Queen has made a Duke of England, and
the Lords will not admit him. He swears he would
vote for us, but dare not, because all Scotland would
detest him if he did ; he should never be chosen again,
nor be able to live there."*
The Earl of Mar continued to be one of the Repre-
sentative Peers for Scotland, having been chosen in
1707, and rechosen at the general elections in 1708,
1710, and 1713.f
Upon the death of the Duke of Queensbury in
1711, the office of Secretary of State for Scotland
* Swift's Letters, vol. ii. p. 488 ; also p. 487, note by Sir W. Scott,
t Wood's Peerage. Swift's Letters, p. 475. See note.
40 JOHN ERSKINE,
became vacant, and the Duke of Hamilton and the
Earl of Mar were rival expectants for the high and
important post. Government hesitated for some time
before filling up the post, being disposed rather to
abolish it than to offend any party by its disposal,
and deeming it as an useless expense to the Govern-
ment; nor was it filled up for a considerable time.
The tragical death of one who, with some failings,
deserved the affection and respect of his country, pro-
cured eventually to the Earl of Mar the chief manage-
ment of public affairs in Scotland. Whilst on the
eve of embarking as Ambassador Extraordinary to
France, upon the conclusion of the peace of Utrecht,
the Duke of Hamilton fell in a duel with his brother-
in-law, Lord Mohun, a man whose course of life had
been stained with blood, but whose crimes had met
with a singular impunity.
The character of Lord Mohun seems rather to have
belonged to the reign of Charles the Second, than
to the sober period of William and Anne. The
representative of a very ancient family, he had the
misfortune of coming to his title when young, while
his estate was impoverished. " His quality intro-
duced him into the best company," says a contem-
porary writer, " but his wants very often led him
into bad." He ran a course of notorious and low
dissipation, and was twice tried for murder before he
was twenty. His first offence was the cruel and al-
most unprovoked murder of William Mountford, an
accomplished actor, whom Mohun stabbed whilst off
EARL OF MAR. 41
his guard. The second was the death of Mr. Charles
Coote. For these crimes Lord Mohun had been
tried by his peers, and, strange to say, acquitted. On
his last acquittal he spoke gracefully before the Peers,
expressing great contrition for the disgrace which he
had brought upon his order, and promising to efface
it by a better course of life. For some time this able
but depraved nobleman kept to his resolution, and
studied the constitution of his country.* He became
a bold and eloquent speaker in the House on the side
of the Whigs; and he had attained a considerable
popularity, when the affair with the Duke of Hamilton
finished his career before the age of thirty.f
A family dispute, exasperated by the different sides
taken by these two noblemen in Parliament, was the
cause of an event which deprived the Jacobite party
of one of their most valuable and most moderate
leaders ; for had the counsels of the Duke of Hamilton
prevailed, the Chevalier would never have undertaken
the futile invasion of 1708, nor perhaps have en-
gaged in the succeeding attempt in 1715. Upon the
fortunes of the Earl of Mar, the death of the Duke so
far operated that it was not until all fear of offending
the powerful and popular Hamilton was ended by
his tragical death, that the appointment of Secretary
was conferred upon his rival. The Whigs were ca-
lumniously suspected of having had some unfair share
* Mackay's Characters, p. 94.
t Swift added, in his own hand, to this eulogium, this remark : " He
was little better than a conceited talker in company."
42 JOHN ERSKINE,
in the death of the Duke, an event which took place
in the following manner.
Certain offensive words spoken by Lord Mohun in
the chambers of a Master in Chancery, and addressed
to the Duke of Hamilton, brought a long-standing
enmity into open hostility. On the part of Lord
Mohun, General Macartney was sent to convey a
challenge to the Duke, and the place of meeting,
time, and other preliminaries were settled by Ma-
cartney and the Duke over a bottle of claret, at the
Rose Tavern, in Covent Garden. The hour of eight
on the following day was fixed for the encounter, and
on the fatal morning the Duke drove to the lodgings
of his friend, Colonel Hamilton, who acted as his
second, in Charing Cross, and hurried him away. It
was afterwards deposed, that on setting out, the Co-
lonel, in his haste, forgot his sword; upon which the
Duke stopped the carriage, and taking his keys from
his pocket, desired his servant to go to a certain
closet in his house, and to bring his mourning-sword,
which was accordingly done. This was regarded as
a fatal omen in those days, in which, as Addison
describes, a belief in such indications existed.
The Duke then drove on to that part of Hyde
Park leading to Kensington, opposite the Lodge, and
getting out, walked to and fro upon the grass be-
tween the two ponds. Lord Mohun, in the mean
time, set out from Long Acre with his friend, General
Macartney, who seems to have been a worthy second
of the titled bravo.
EARL OF MAR. 43
Lord Mohun having taken the precaution of order-
ing some burnt wine to be prepared for him upon his
return from the rencounter, proceeded to the place
of appointment, where the Duke awaited him. " I
must ask your Lordship," said Lord Mohun, " one
favour, which is, that these gentlemen may have no-
thing to do with our quarrel." " My Lord," an-
swered the Duke, " I leave them to themselves." The
parties then threw off their cloaks, and all engaged;
the seconds, it appears, fighting with as much fury
as their principals. The park-keepers coming up,
found Colonel Hamilton and General Macartney
struggling together ; the General holding the Colonel's
sword in his left hand, the Colonel pulling at the
blade of the General's sword. One of the keepers
went up to the principals : he found Lord Mohun in
a position between sitting and lying, bending towards
the Duke, who was on his knees, leaning almost
across Lord Mohun, both holding each other's sword
fast, both striving and struggling with the fury of
remorseless hatred. This awful scene was soon
closed for ever, as far as Mohun was concerned. He
expired shortly afterwards, having received four
wounds, each of which was likely to be mortal. The
Duke was raised and supported by Colonel Hamilton
and one of the keepers; but after walking about
thirty yards, exclaimed that " he could walk no
farther," sank down upon the grass, and expired.
His lifeless remains, mangled with wounds which
showed the relentless fury of the encounter, were
44 JOHN ERSKINE,
conveyed to St. James's Square, the same morning,
while the Duchess was still asleep.*
Lord Mohun, meanwhile, was carried, by order of
General Macartney, to the hackney-coach in which
he had arrived, and his body conveyed to his house
in Marlborough Street, where, it was afterwards re-
ported, that being flung upon the best bed, his Lady,
one of the nieces of Charles Gerrard, Earl of Maccles-
field, expressed great anger at the soiling of her new
coverlid, on which the bleeding corpse was deposited. f
* The following letter shows that the Duke anticipated the result of
the duel.
*
London, Nov. 14, 1712.
MY DEAR SON,
I have been doing all I could to recover your mother's right to her
estate, which I hope shall be yours. I command you to be dutiful to-
wards her, as I hope she will be just and kind to you ; and I recom-
mend it particularly to you, if ever you enjoy the estate of Hamilton,
and what may, I hope, justly belong to you, (considering how long I have
lived with a small competence, which has made me run in debt,) I hope
God will put it into your head to do justice to my honour, and pay my
just debts. There will be enough to satisfy all, and give your brothers
and sisters such provisions as the state of your condition and their quality
in Scotland will admit of.
I pray- God preserve you, and the family in your person. My humble
duty to my mother, and my blessing to your sisters. If it please God I
live, you shall find me share with you what I do possess, and ever prove
your affectionate and kind father, whilst HAMILTON.
I again upon my blessing charge you, that you let the world see you
do your part in satisfying my just debts.
Addressed thus : " To my dear Son the Marquis of Chilsdale."
Memoirs of the Life and Family of James Duke of Hamilton.
t The Lady Elizabeth Gerrard, the sister of Lady Mohun, and Duchess
of Hamilton, is said to have been " a lady of great wit and beauty, and
EARL OF MAR. 45
General Macartney escaped. It appeared on oath
that he had made a thrust at the Duke, as he was
struggling with Mohun; and it being generally be-
lieved that it was by that wound that the Duke died,
an address was presented' to her Majesty by the
Scottish Peers, begging that she would write to all
the kings and states in alliance with her, not to
shelter Macartney from justice.*
A deep and general grief was shown for the death
of the Duke of Hamilton. In Scotland mourning
was worn, and the churches were hung with black.
It was in vain that the Duchess offered a reward of
three hundred pounds for the apprehension of Macart-
ney ; the murderer had fled beyond seas.
The Cavaliers lost, in Hamilton, an ornament to
their party, from the strict honour and fidelity of his
known character. But the crisis which the unfor-
tunate Duke had in vain endeavoured to avert was
now at hand, and the death of Queen Anne brought
with it all those consequences which a long series of
cabals, during the later disturbed years of the
Queen's existence, had been gradually ripening into
importance.
The Earl of Mar had openly espoused the High-
church party in the case of Sacheverel ; and he had
on that account, as well as from the doubt generally
all the fine accomplishments that adorn her sex." Through her the
great estates in Lancashire and Staffordshire came into the family of
Hamilton.
* Wood's Peerage ; also " Life of the Duke of Hamilton," a scarce
tract, p. 102.
46 JOHN ERSKINE,
entertained of his fidelity, little reason to expect
from the House of Hanover a continuance in oflice.
No sooner had the Queen expired, than those whom
Lord Mar had long, in secret, been regarding with
interest, expressed openly 'their disappointment at the
result of the last reign.
" The accession of George the First," remarks Dr.
Coxe, " was a new era in the history of that Govern-
ment which was established at the Revolution. Under
William and Anne the Stuart family can scarcely be
considered as absolutely excluded from the throne;
for all parties, except the extreme Whigs, looked for-
ward to the possibility of the Stuarts returning to
the throne. But, in fact, the Revolution was not
completed till the actual establishment of the Bruns-
wick line, which cut off all hopes of a return without
a new revolution."*
When the news of Queen Anne's dangerous con-
dition reached the Chevalier de St. George, he was
at Luneville; but he repaired instantly to Barleduc,
where he held a council. As he entered the council-
chamber, he was heard to exclaim, " If that Princess
dies, I am lost."f There was no doubt that a cor-
respondence with the exiled family had been carried
on with great alacrity, during the last few years of
Queen Anne's reign, with the cognizance of the Sove-
reign ;| and that large sums were spent by Mary of
* Coxe MSS. 9128. Plut. cxxxviii. H. British Museum,
t Ibid. See a Letter in French, dated April 5, 1714, p. 1.
t Coxe MSS.
EARL OF MAR. 47
Modena, and by her son, in procuring intelligence of
all that was going on in the English Court.
Immediately after the Queen's death, Atterbury,
Bishop of Eochester, proposed to Lord Bolingbmke
to proclaim James at Charing Cross, and offered, him-
self, to head the procession in lawn sleeves. But
Bolingbroke shrank from the enterprise; and, with
an exclamation of passion, Atterbury exclaimed,
" There is the best cause in Europe lost for want of
spirit." The boldness of the proposition, and the
ardent temper from which it originated, recall, with
regret, the remembrance of one who, as Lord Hailes
in his notes on Atterbury's Correspondence has re-
marked, was " incapable of dark conspiracies."*
The Chevalier was then residing at Barleduc, with
a suite of sixty persons; some of whom boasted of
having taken part in the conspiracies against William
the Third, and were proud of having compassed the
death of that Sovereign. From time to time, Eng-
lishmen of distinction travelled from Paris to Bois-
leduc, under pretext of seeing the country, but in
fact to proffer a secret allegiance to the Prince. The
individual to whom these attentions were addressed,
is described by an anonymous emissary of the English
Court, as leading a regular life, hunting when the
* Lord Mahon's Hist. England, vol. i. p. 139. See also a scarce little
book to be met with in the Advocate's Library in Edinburgh (Atterbury's
Correspondence, with marginal notes by Lord Hailes) : " By what ac-
cident these Letters have been preserved," says the noble Editor, " I
know not : by what means they are now brought to light, I am not at
liberty to explain."
48 JOHN ERSKINE,
weather permitted, and hearing mass, every day with
great precision and devotion. " II est fort maigre,"
adds the same writer, " assez grand; son teint est
brim, son humeur et sa personne ne sont pas deV
agreables." In another place, it is added, " II paroit
manquer de jugement et de resolution :" an opinion,
unhappily, too correct. On the question being put
by Bolingbroke to the Duke of Berwick, whether the
Prince was a bigot, the answer was in the negative.
" Then," said Bolingbroke, " we shall have no ob-
jection to place him on the throne." This anecdote,
which was told by the Chevalier himself to Brigadier
Nugent, probably gave countenance to the rumour
spread in England, that James was likely to re-
nounce the Catholic faith, and conform to the English
Church.f
The Earl of Mar and his brother, Lord Grange,
were now the two most considerable men in Scotland.
Lord Grange had been made Lord of Session in 1707,
and afterwards Lord Justice Clerk, during the three
last years of Queen Anne's reign. His character
presents traits even more repulsive and more danger-
ous than the time-serving and duplicity of the Earl of
Mar. Lord Grange was one of those men whom the
honest adherents to either party would, doubtless,
gladly have turned over to the other side. His abili-
ties, if we judge of the high appointments which he
held, must have been eminent; but he was devoid of
all principle, and was capable, if the melancholy and
* See the Letter before quoted. t Cunningham, vol. ii. p. 440.
EARL OF MAR. 49
extraordinary history of his unhappy wife be true, of
the darkest schemes.
It would be difficult to reconcile, in any other man,
the discrepancy of Lord Grange's real opinions and
of his subsequent efforts to restore the House of
Stuart; but, in a brother of the Earl of Mar, the
difficulty ceases, and all hopes of consistency, or ra-
ther of its origin, sincerity, vanish. Lord Grange is
declared to have been a " true blue republican, and,
if he had any religion, at bottom a Presbyterian;"
yet he was deeply involved in transactions with the
Chevalier and his friends.*
Lord Grange was united to a lady violent in tem-
per, of a dauntless spirit, and a determined Hano-
verian. Their marriage had been enforced by the laws
of honour, and was ill-omened from the first; there-
fore, where respect has ceased, affection soon languishes
and expires. The daughter of Cheisly of Dairy, a man
of uncontrolled passions, who shot Sir George Lock-
hart, one of the Lords of Session, for having decided
a law-suit against him, Mrs. Erskine of Grange,
commonly called Lady Grange, inherited the deter-
mined will of her father. It was said that she had
compelled Lord Grange to do her justice by marry-
ing her, and " had desired him to remember, by
way of threat, that she was Cheisly 's daughter." For
this menace she suffered in a way which could only
be effected in a country like Scotland at that period,
* Lockhart of Carnwath, vol. i. p 446 ; also " Notices of Lady
Grange," by Dr. Mackay.
VOL. I. E
50 JOHN ERSKINE,
and among a people held in the thraldom of the
clans. Her singular history belongs to a later pe-
riod in the annals of those events in which so much
domestic happiness was blasted, never to be recovered.*
With his brother, Lord Mar was in constant corre-
spondence, during his own residence in London ; and
although Lord Grange was skilful enough to conceal
his machinations, and to retain his seat on the bench
as a Scottish judge, there is very little reason to
doubt his secret co-operation in the subsequent move-
ments of the Earl.
Acting as if "he thought that all things were
governed by fate or fortune,"f George the First re-
mained a long time to settle his own affairs in Han-
over, before coming to England. This delay was
employed by the Earl of Mar, in an endeavour to
extenuate the tenor of his political conduct of late
years in the eyes of the Sovereign, and in placing
before the King the merit of his services and his
claims to favour. The letter which he addressed to
George the First, when in Holland, was printed by
Tonson, during the year 1715, with prefatory re-
marks by Sir Richard Steele, whose comments upon
this production of a man who, scarcely a year after it
was written, set up the standard of the Pretender at
Braemar, are expressed in these terms :
" It gives me a lively sense of the hardships of
civil war, wherein all the sacred and most intimate
* See "Notices of Lady Grange," by K. Mackay, M.D., 3rd edition.
Glasgow, 1819. + Cunningham, vol. ii. p. 441.
EARL OF MAR. 51
obligations between man and man are to be torn
asunder, when I cannot, without pain, represent to
myself the behaviour of Lord Mar, with whom I had
not even the honour of any further commerce than
the pleasure of passing some agreeable hours in his
company: I say, when even such little incidents
make it irksome to be in a state of war with those
with whom we have lived in any degree of familiarity,
how terrible must the image be of rending the ties of
blood, the sanctity of affinity and intermarriage, and
the bringing men who, perhaps in a few months
before, were to each other the dearest of all mankind,
to meet on terms of giving death to each other at the
same time that they had rather embrace!" Thus
premising, and declaring that he could with difficulty
efface from his mind all remains of good will and pity
to Lord Mar, Sir Richard Steele subjoins a docu-
ment, fatal to the reputation of Lord Mar the
following letter, which Lord Mar addressed to the
King, in explanation of his conduct.
LORD MAR TO THE KING.
" SIR,
" Having the happiness to be your Majesty's
subject, and also the honour of being of your servants,
as one of your Secretaries of State, I beg leave by
this to kiss your Majesty's hand, and congratulate
your happy accession to the Throne ; which I should
have done myself the honour of doing sooner, had I
not hoped to have had the honour of doing it per-
E 2
52 JOHN ERSKINE,
sonally ere now. I am afraid I may have had the
misfortune to be misrepresented to your Majesty, and
my reason for thinking so is, because I was the only
one of the late Queen's servants whom your Ministers
nere did not visit, which I mentioned to Mr. Harley
and the Earl of Clarendon, when they went from
hence to wait on your Majesty; and your Ministers
carrying so to me was the occasion of my receiving
such orders as deprived me of the honour and satis-
faction of waiting on them and being known to them.
I suppose I had been misrepresented to them by some
here upon account of party, or to ingratiate them-
selves by aspersing others, as one party here too often
occasion; but I hope your Majesty will be so just as
not to give credit to such misrepresentations.
" The part I acted in bringing about and making
of the Union when the succession to the Crown was
settled for Scotland on your Majesty's family, when
I had the honour to serve as Secretary of State
for that kingdom, doth, I hope, put my sincerity and
faithfulness to your Majesty out of dispute. My
family had had the honour for a great tract of years to
be faithful servants to the Crown, and have had the
care of the King's children (when King of Scotland)
entrusted to them. A predecessor of mine was ho-
noured with the care of your Majesty's grandmother,
when young ; and she was pleased afterwards to
express some concern for our family, in letters I now
have under her own hand.
" I have had the honour to serve her late Majesty
I
EARL OF MAR. 53
in one capacity or other ever since her accession to the
Crown. I was happy in a good mistress, and she was
pleased to have some confidence in me and regard
for my services. And since your Majesty's happy
accession to the Crown, I hope you will find that I
have not been wanting in my duty in being instru-
mental in keeping things quiet and peaceable in the
country to which I belong and have some in-
terest in.
" Your Majesty shall ever find me as faithful and
dutiful a subject and servant as ever any of my
family have been to the Crown, or as I have been to
my late mistress the Queen. And I beg your Ma-
jesty may be so good not to believe any misrepresen-
tations of me, which nothing but party hatred and
my zeal for the interest of the Crown doth occasion ;
and I hope I may presume to lay claim to your royal
favour or protection. As your accession to the Crown
hath been quiet and peaceable, may your Majesty's
reign be long and prosperous; and that your people
may soon have the happiness and satisfaction of your
presence amongst them, is the earnest and fervent
wish of him who is, with the humblest duty and
respect, Sir, your Majesty's most faithful, most dutiful
and most obedient subject and servant, MAE."
" Whitehall, August thirtieth, 1714, o. s."
This disgraceful letter was ineffectual. The Mori-
arch, " whose views and affections were, according
to Lord Chesterfield, singly confined to the narrow
54 JOHN ERSKINE,
compass of his Electorate," and for " whom England
was too big," acted with a promptness and decision
which gave no time for the workings of faction. An
immediate change of ministry was announced by
Kryenberg, the Hanoverian resident, at the first
Privy Council ; and among other changes, Lord Towns-
hend was appointed in the place of Lord Bolingbroke.
Well might Bolingbroke exclaim, " The grief of my
soul is this; I see plainly that the Tory party is
gone."*
For many months Lord Mar continued to main-
tain such a demeanour as might blind those of
the opposite party to his real intentions. It seems,
indeed, certain that at first he hoped to ensure a
continuance in office by exerting his influence in
Scotland to procure the good conduct of the clans:
he was successful in obtaining even from some of
those Highland chieftains who were afterwards the
most deeply implicated in the Eebellion, an address
declaring that they were " ready to concur with his
Lordship in faithfully serving King George. " Your
Lordship," states that memorial, " has an estate and
interest in the Highlands, and is so well known to
bear good will to your neighbours, that in order to
prevent any ill impression which malicious and de-
signing people may at this juncture labour to give of
us, we must beg leave to address your Lordship, and
entreat you to assure the Government, in our names,
and in that of the rest of our clans, who, by distance
* Lord Mahon, vol. i. p. 152.
EARL OF MAR. 55
of the place, could not be present at the signing of
our letter, of our loyalty to his sacred Majesty, King
George."* This address was signed by Maclean of
that Ilk, Macdonald of Glengary, Mackenzie of Fra-
serdale, Cameron of Lochiel, and by several other chiefs
of clans, who afterwards fought under the banners of
the Earl of Mar. It furnishes a proof of the great
influence which the Earl possessed in his own country,
but he had not the courage to present it to the King.
His Majesty, on the contrary, on hearing of this ad-
dress, was highly offended, believing that it had been
drawn up at St. Germains in order to insult him, and
his refusal to receive it was accompanied by an order
to Lord Mar to give up the seals.
The Earl lingered, nevertheless, for some time in
London, where he had now some attractions which
to a less ambitious mind might have operated in
favour of prudence. In the preceding year, July,
1714, he had married, at Acton in Middlesex, the
Lady Frances Pierrepoint, the second daughter of
Evelyn, first Duke of Kingston, and the sister of
Lady Mary Wortley. The Countess of Mar was, at
the time of her marriage, thirty-three years of age,
being born in 1681. She does not appear to have
been endowed with the rare qualities of her sister's
mind ; but that she was attached to her husband, her
long exile from England on his account, sufficiently
proves. Her married life was embittered by his
* " A Collection of Original Letters relating to the Rebellion of 1716."
Edinburgh, 1730.
56 JOHN ERSKINE,
career, and her latter days darkened by the direst of
all maladies, mental aberration.
It is singular that so recently before his final
effort, Lord Mar should have connected himself with
a Whig family. The Marquis of Dorchester, who was
created, by George the First, Duke of Kingston, was
a member of the Kit Cat Club, and received early
proofs of the good will of the Hanoverian Sovereign.
It is true that Lady Mary Wortley augured ill of the
match between her sister and Lord Mar, detesting as
she did the Jacobite party, and believing that her
sister was " drawn in by the persuasion of an offi-
cious female friend," Lord Mar's relation. But there
is no reason to conclude that the Duke of Kingston in
any way objected to a match apparently so dissonant
with his political bias.*
Whilst Lord Mar remained near the court, the dis-
coveries made by the Earl of Stair in France, com-
municated the first surmise of an intended invasion
of England. Several seizures of suspected people
warned one who was deep in the intrigues of St.
Germain, not long to delay the open prosecution of
his schemes. The melancholy instance of Mr. Harvey,
who was apprehended while he was hawking at Combe,
in Surrey, alarmed the Jacobite party. Mr. Harvey
being shown a paper written in his own hand, con-
victing him of guilt, stabbed himself, but not fatally,
with a pruning-knife which he had used in his garden.
* Introductory Anecdotes to Lord Wharncliffe's Edition of Lady M.
Wortley's Letters, p. 26.
EARL OF MAR. 57
Upon some hope of his confessing being hinted, it was
answered that his Majesty and the Council knew more
of it than he did. The celebrated John Anstis, the
heraldic writer, was also apprehended, and warrants
were issued for the seizure of other suspected persons.
Notwithstanding his strong family interest, the
Earl of Mar could scarcely consider himself secure
under the present state both of the country and the
metropolis. The events of the last year had suc-
ceeded each other with an appalling rapidity. The
flight of Bolingbroke had scarcely ceased to be the
theme of comment, before the general elections ex-
cited all the ill blood and fanaticism which such
struggles at any critical era of our history have
always produced. Eiots, which have been hastily
touched upon in the histories of the period, but
which the minute descriptions of memoirs of that
period show to have been attended with an un-
usual display of violence and brutality on both sides,
broke out upon every anniversary which could recall
the Stuarts to recollection. On St. George's day, in
compliment to the Chevalier, who, according to an
observer of those eventful days, " had assumed the
name of that far-famed Cappadocian Knight, though
every one knew he has nothing of the valour, cou-
rage, and^ other bright qualities of the saint," a
tumult was raised in London, and among other out-
rages, passengers^through the streets of the City were
beaten if they would not cry " God bless the late Queen
and the High Church !" Sacheverel and Bolingbroke
58 JOHN ERSKINE,
were pledged in bumpers by a mob, who burnt, at the
same time, King William in effigy.* A similar con-
tagion spread throughout the country; Oxford took
the lead in acts of destruction ; her streets were filled
with parties of Whigs and Tories, both of them in-
furiated, until their mad rage vented itself in acts of
murder, under the pretence, on the one hand, of a
dread of popery, on the other, on a similar plea of re-
ligious zeal. A Presbyterian meetinghouse was pulled
down, and cries of " An Ormond !" " A Bolingbroke !"
" Down with the Koundheads !" " No Hanover !" " A
new Restoration !" accompanied the conflagration. On
the same day similar exclamations were again heard
in the streets of London; and all windows not illu-
minated were broken to pieces. The tenth of June,
the anniversary of the Chevalier's birthday, was the
signal for a still more decisive manifestation. On
that day three Scottish magistrates went boldly to the
Cross at Dundee, and there drank the Pretender's
health, by the name of King James the Eighth,
for which they were immediately apprehended and
tried.
The impeachment of Lord Oxford still further ex-
asperated the country, which rang with the cry, " No
George, but a Stuart." The peaceable accession of
the first monarch of the Brunswick line has been
greatly insisted upon by historians; but that still-
ness was ominous ; it was the stillness of the air
before a storm; and was only indicative of irreso-
Reay, p. 136.
EAEL OF MAR. 59
lution, not of a diminished dislike to the sway of
a foreigner.
It is supposed that an intercepted letter which the
Duke de Berwick, the half-brother of the Chevalier,
addressed to a person of distinction in England, first
gave the intelligence of an intended invasion.'* The
burden of that letter was to encourage the riots
and tumults, and to keep up the spirits of the people
with a promise of prompt assistance. The impeach-
ment of Viscount Bolingbroke and of the Duke of
Ormond followed shortly afterwards; and although
these noblemen provided for their own safety by
flight, they were degraded as outlaws, and in the
order in Council were styled, according to the usual
form of law, " James Butler, yeoman," and " Henry
Bolingbroke, labourer/' and the arms of Ormond were
taken from Windsor Chapel, and torn in pieces by the
Earl Marshal.
The English fleet, under the command of Sir George
Byng, was stationed in the Downs, in case of a sur-
prise. Portsmouth was put in a state of defence;
and, during the month of July, the inhabitants of
London beheld once more a sight such as had never
been witnessed by its citizens since the days of the
Great Rebellion. In Hyde Park the troops of the
household were encamped, according to the arrange-
ments of General Cadogan, who had marked out a
camp. The forces were commanded by the Duke of
Argyle. In Westminster the Earl of Clare reviewed
" Reay, p. 152.
GO JOHN ERSKINE,
the militia, and the trained bands were directed to be
in readiness for orders. At the same time fourteen
colonels of the Guards, and other inferior officers,
were cashiered by the King's orders, on suspicion of
being in James Stuart's interest ; so deep a root had
this cause, which many have pretended to treat as a
visionary scheme of self-interest, taken in the affec-
tions even of the British army.
A proclamation ordering all Papists and reputed
Papists to depart from the cities of London and West-
minster, was the next act of the Government. All
persons of the Eoman Catholic persuasion were to be
disarmed and their horses sold; a declaration against
transubstantiation was to be administered to them,
and the oath of abjuration to non-jurors.* After
such mandates, it seems idle to talk of the tyranny
of Henry the Eighth.
There is no doubt but that the greatest alarm and
consternation reigned at St. James's. The stocks fell,
but owing to the vigilance of the Ministry, informa-
tion was obtained of the whole scheme of the invasion,
in a manner which to this day has never been satis-
factorily explained.
The Earl of Mar must have trembled, as he still
lingered in the metropolis. It is probable that he
waited there in order to receive those contributions
from abroad which were necessary to carry on his
plans. He was provided at last with no less a sum
than a hundred thousand pounds ; and also furnished
* Reay, p. 171.
EARL OF MAR. 61
with a commission dated the seventh of September,
1715, appointing him Lieutenant General and Com-
mander in Chief of the forces raised for the Che-
valier in Scotland.* Large sums were already col-
lected from Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and France,
to the amount, it has been stated, of twelve millions.
It has been well remarked by Sir Walter Scott, in
his notes on the Master of Sinclair's MS., that " when
the Stuarts had the means, they wanted a leader (as
in 1715); when (as in 1745) they had a leader, they
wanted the means."
With the eye of suspicion fixed upon him, his plans
matured, his friends in the north prepared, the Earl
of Mar had the hardihood, under such circumstances,
to appear at the court of King George. A few weeks
before the Habeas Corpus Act had been suspended;
but the Earl trusted either to good fortune, or to his
own well-known arts of insinuation. He braved all
possibility of detection, and determined to carry on
the game of deep dissimulation to the last moment.
On the first of August, 1715, the Earl of Mar
attended the levee of King George. One can easily
suppose how cold, if not disdainful, must have been
his reception ; but it is not easy to divine with what
secret emotions, the subject on the eve of an insur-
rection could have offered his obeisance to the Mon-
* This commission was long doubted, and was even denied by the
Chevalier. It is, nevertheless, signed by his Secretary, and is among
the valuable papers which, belonging to Mr. Gibson Craig of Edinburgh,
have been liberally placed at the service of the author.
62 JOHN ERSKINE,
arch. Grave in expression, with a heavy German
countenance, hating all show, and husbanding his
time, so as to avoid all needless conversation; with-
out an idea of cultivating the fine arts, of encou-
raging literature, or of even learning to speak Eng-
lish, George the First must have presented to his
English subjects the reverse of all that is attractive.
A decided respectability of character might have re-
deemed the ungainly picture ; but, although esteemed
a man of honour, and evincing liberal and even bene-
volent tendencies, the Monarch displayed not only an
unblushing and scandalous profligacy, but a love for
coarse and unworthy society. His court is said to
have been modelled upon that of Louis the Fifteenth ;
but it was modelled upon the grossest and lowest prin-
ciples only, and had none of the elegance even of that
wretched King's depraved circles ; and public decency
was as much outraged by the three yachts which
were prepared to carry over King George's mistresses
and their suite, * when he visited Hanover, as by the
empire of Madame de Pompadour. It must, inde-
pendent of every other consideration, have been gall-
ing to Englishmen to behold, seated on their throne,
a German, fifty-four years of age, who from that very
circumstance, was little likely ever to boast, like Queen
Anne, " of an English heart." " A hard fate," ob-
serves a writer of great impartiality, " that the en-
thronement of a stranger should have been the only
means to secure our liberties and laws!"f
* Caledonian Mercury, 1722. t Lord Mahon, p. 147.
EARL OF MAR. 63
A week after he had been received at the levee of
King George, the Earl embarked at Gravesend in a
collier, attended by two servants, and accompanied
by General Hamilton and Captain Hay. They were
all disguised, and escaping detection, arrived on the
third day afterwards at Newcastle. It has been even
said, that in order the better to conceal his rank,
the Earl of Mar wrought for his passage. * From
Newcastle Lord Mar proceeded northward in another
vessel; and landing at Elie, in Fifeshire, went first
to Grief, where he remained a few days. He then
proceeded to Dupplin, in the county of Perth, the
seat of his brother-in-law, the Earl of Kinnoul, and
thence, on the eighteenth of August, crossing the
river Perth, he proceeded to his own Castle of Kil-
drummie, in the Braes of Mar. He was accompanied
by forty horse.
On the day after the arrival of the Earl at Kil-
drummie, he despatched letters to the principal Jaco-
bites, inviting them to attend a grand hunting-match
in Braemar on the twenty- seventh of August. This
summons was couched in this form, for fear of a
more explicit declaration being intercepted, reveal-
ing the design; but the great chiefs who were thus
collected together were aware that " hunting" was
but the watchword.
A gallant band of high-spirited chieftains an-
swered the call. It is consolatory to turn to those
who, unaffected by the intrigues of a Court, came
* Lord Mahon ; from the Master of Sinclair's MS.
64 JOHN ERSKINE,
heartily, and with a disinterested love, to the cause
of which the Earl of Mar was the unworthy leader.
First in rank, was the Marquis of Huntly, eldest
son of George, the first Duke of Gordon, and of that
daring Duchess of Gordon, a daughter of the house
of Howard, who, in 1711, had presented to the
Dean and Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh a silver
medal, with the head of the Chevalier on one side,
and on the other the British Islands, with the word
" Reddite." The learned body to whom the Duchess
had proposed this dangerous gift, at first hesitated
to receive it: after a debate, however, among their
members, it was agreed that the donation should be
accepted, and a vote was passed to return thanks to
the Duchess. The Advocates then waited in a body
upon the Duchess, and expressed their hopes that her
Grace would soon have occasion to present the Faculty
with a second medal on the Restoration.* The Duke
of Gordon, notwithstanding his having been brought
up a Roman Catholic, was neutral in the troubles of
the Rebellion of 1715, but his son took a force of
three thousand men into the field, the clan siding
with the young Marquis rather than with their
chief. The Marquis of Huntly was, probably for that
reason, spared in the subsequent proceedings against
the Jacobites, his participation in their schemes being
punished only by a brief imprisonment.
William Marquis of Tullibardine, one of the most
constant friends to the House of Stuart, the Earl of
* Burke's Peerage.
EARL OF MAR. 65
Nithisdale, and the Earl Marischal, also appeared at
the time appointed. It was the fortune of the Mar-
quis of Tullibardine, like that of the Marquis of
Huntly, afterwards to appear in the field un-
sanctioned by his father, the Duke of Athol, who
either was, or appeared to be, in favour of Govern-
ment, whilst his son headed the clan to the number
of six thousand. Lord Nairn, the younger brother
of the Marquis, also joined in the undertaking. Of
these distinguished Jacobites, separate lives will here-
after be given in this work: it therefore becomes
unnecessary any further to expatiate upon them here.
Of some, whose biography does not present features
sufficiently marked to constitute a distinct narrative,
some traits may here be given.
Charles Earl of Traquair, who hastened to Brae-
mar, was one of those Scottish nobles who claimed
kindred with royalty. He was descended from Sir
James Stewart, commonly called the Black Knight
of Lorn, and from Jane, daughter of John Earl of
Somerset, and widow of King James the First. One
of Lord Traquair's ancestors, the first Earl, had le-
vied a regiment of horse, in order to release Charles
the First from his imprisonment in the Isle of Wight ;
but, marching at the head of it at the battle of Pres-
ton, he and his son, Lord Seatoun, were taken pri-
soners and conveyed to Warwick Castle, where they
languished four years in imprisonment, with the know-
ledge that their estates had been sequestered.
Connected with the family of Seatoun, on his mo-
VOL. I. F
66 JOHN ERSKINE,
ther's side, the Earl of Traquair had married the
sister of Lord Nithisdale, being thus nearly related
to two of those chiefs who gladly obeyed the sum-
mons of Lord Mar to the hunting-field. The Earl
of Traquair appears to have escaped all the penalties
which followed the Rebellion of 1715, perhaps be-
cause he does not appear to have taken any of his
tenantry into the field.
Less prudent, or less fortunate, William Mackenzie,
Earl of Seaforth, joined the standard of James Stuart
with a body of three thousand men. He was at-
tainted when the struggle was over, and his estates,
both in Scotland and England, forfeited. He es-
caped to the Continent; but, in 1719, again landed
with the Spaniards at Kintail ; and was wounded
at the battle of Glenshiels, but being carried off by
his followers, again fled to the Continent, with the
Marquis of Tullibardine and the Earl Marischal.
Lord Seaforth was one of those to whom the royal
mercy was shown. George the First reversed, his
attainder, and George the Second granted him ar-
rears of the few duties due to the Crown out of
the forfeited estates. The title has been eventually
restored.
James Livingstone, Earl of Linlithgow, was amongst
the many who experienced less clemency than the
Earl of Traquair. He had been chosen one of the
sixteen representative peers of Scotland, on the death
of the Duke of Hamilton; and enjoyed the possession
of considerable family estates, which were eventually
EARL OF MAR. 67
forfeited to the Crown. He led a band of three
hundred clansmen to the field.
Perhaps one of the most sturdy adherents of the
Chevalier St. George was James Maule, fourth Earl
of Panmure. In his youth this nobleman had served
as a volunteer at the siege of Luxembourg, where he
had signalized his courage. In 1686, he succeeded
his brother, and added to the honours of a peerage
those of a character already established for bravery.
To these distinctions was added that of being a Privy
Councillor to James the Second ; but he was removed
upon his opposing the abrogation of the penal laws
against Popery. Whilst thus protesting against
what might then be deemed objectionable innova-
tions, Lord Panmure was a firm adherent of James,
and vigorously supported his interests in the con-
vention of estates in 1689.
The accession of William and Mary drove this true
Jacobite from the Scottish Parliament. He never
appeared in that assembly after that event, having
refused to take the oaths. Of course he disapproved
of the Union ; and the next step which he took was
to join the standard of the Chevalier.
After that decisive proceeding, the course of this
unfortunate nobleman's life was one of misfortune, in
which his high spirit was sustained by a constancy of
no ordinary character. At the battle of Sherriff
Muir, the brave Panmure was taken prisoner, but
was rescued by his brother Harry, who, like himself,
had engaged in the rebellion. Panmure escaped to
F2
68 JOHN ERSKINE,
France: he was attainted of high treason, his
estates, which amounted to 345 6/. per annum, and
were the largest of the confiscated properties, were
forfeited, as well as his hereditary honours. Twice
were offers made to him by the English Govern-
ment to restore his rank and possessions, if he would
take the oath of allegiance to the House of Hanover ;
but Panmure refused the proffered boon, and preferred
sharing the fortunes of him whom he looked upon as
his legitimate Prince. When he joined the Jacobites at
Braemar, Lord Panmure was no longer a young, rash
man : he was in the sixty-fifth year of his age. His
wife, the daughter of William Duke of Hamilton, was,
after his attainder, provided for by act of Parliament
in the same manner as if she had been a widow. His
brother, Harry Maule, of Kellie, a man of consider-
able accomplishments, was so fortunate as to be en-
abled to return to his native country, and died in
Edinburgh in 1734. But Lord Panmure, like most
of the other brave and honest men who preferred
their allegiance to their interest, finished his days in
exile, and died at Paris, in 1723.*
Kenneth Lord Duffus was another of those noble-
men who had already established a character for per-
sonal bravery. He was a person of great skill in
maritime affairs, and was promoted by Queen Anne
to the command of the Advice ship of war, with
which, in 1711, this gallant Highlander engaged
eight French privateers, and after a desperate resist-
* Buchan's History of the Keith Family.
EARL OF MAR. 69
ance of some hours, he was taken prisoner, after
receiving five balls in his body.
He was, however, released in time to engage in the
Rebellion of 1715; and though it does not appear
that he took any followers to fight beneath the Che-
valier's standard, he was included in the Act of
Attainder. The intelligence was communicated to
Lord Duffus when he was in Sweden. He resolved
immediately to surrender himself to the British Go-
vernment, and declared his intention to the British
Minister, at Stockholm, who notified it to Lord Towns-
hend, Secretary of State. Notwithstanding this
manly determination, Lord Duffus was arrested on
his way to England, at Hamburgh, and was detained
there until the time specified for surrendering had
expired. He thence proceeded to London, where he
was confined more than a year in the Tower, but
released in 1717, without being brought to trial.
Lord Duffus died, according to some accounts, in
the Russian service ; to others, in that of France. He
married a Swedish lady, and attained to the rank
of Admiral.*
Such were some of those Jacobite chieftains whose
history has sunk into obscurity, partly from the diffi-
culty of obtaining information concerning their career,
after the contest was at an end. Amongst those who
met Lord Mar in the hunting-field, but who afterwards
became neutral,f although most of his clan joined in
* Buchan's History of the Keith Family ; also Scottish Peerage,
t See Patten's List of Chieftains,
70 JOHN ERSKINE,
the Rebellion, was the Earl of Errol, one of a family
whose fame for valour was dated from the time of the
Danish invasion. The origin of the House of Errol
is curious, and marks the simplicity of the times.
An aged countryman, named Hay, and his sons,
had arrested the progress of the ruthless conquerors
in a defile near Lanearty in Perthshire. The old
man was rewarded by Kenneth the Third with as
much land in the Carse of Gowrie as a falcon from a
man's hand flew over until she lighted. The bird flew
over a space of six miles, which was thence called
Errol, and which is still in possession of the family ;
and the old man and his sons were raised from the
rank of plebeians by the assignment of a coat of arms,
on which were three escutcheons, gules, to denote
that the father and the two sons had been the shields
of Scotland. The family grew in wealth and esti-
mation, and the office of Hereditary High Constable
of Scotland was added to their other honours.
The Countess of Errol, the mother of the High
Constable, and sister of the Earl of Perth, had already
taken a decided part in the affairs of the Jacobite
party. When Colonel Hooke had been sent over in
1707 to Scotland, she had met him at the sea-coast,
and had there placed in the hands of that emissary
several letters from her son, expressing his earnest
intention to support the cause of the Chevalier. The
Earl of Errol had also received Hooke at his castle,
and had entertained him there several days, and em-
ployed that time in initiating Hooke into the various
EARL OF MAR. 71
characteristics and views of the Jacobite nobility in
Scotland. He was thus deeply pledged to aid the un-
dertaking at that time (the year 1707) ; and in a letter
to the Chevalier, the Earl expressed his hopes that
he might have the happiness of seeing his Majesty,
" a happiness for which," he adds, " we have long
sighed, to be delivered from oppression." The Coun-
tess of Errol also addressed a letter to .the mother of
James Stuart, as the Queen of England, declaring
that the delays which the Scotch had suffered had
not " diminished their zeal, although they had pro-
longed their miseries and misfortunes."'' 5 ' Whether,
upon the rising in 1715, the views of Lord Errol were
altered, or that female influence had been lessened by
some circumstance, does not exactly appear. He
kept himself neutral in the subsequent outbreak,
notwithstanding his appearance at Braemar, and
although his clan were for the most part against the
Government.! The Earl of Errol died, unmarried, in
1717: his adherence to his Jacobite principles were
not, therefore, put to the test in 1745.
To these noblemen were united Seaton, Viscount
of Kingston, whose estates were forfeited to the
Crown ; Irvingstone Viscount of Kilsyth, one of
the representative peers, who died an exile at Eome
in 1733; Lord Balfour of Burleigh; Lord Ogilvy,
afterwards Earl of Airly, and Forbes, Lord Pitsligo.
This last-mentioned nobleman was a man of a grave
* Secret History of Colonel Hooke's Negotiations pp. 26, 110.
f Patten, p. 232.
72 JOHN ERSKINE,
and prudent character, whose example drew many
of his neighbours to embark in an enterprise in
which so discreet a person risked his honours and
estate. He was the author of essays, moral and
philosophical ; and either from respect to his merits,
or from some less worthy cause, his defection in
1715 passed with impunity. But, in 1745, the
aged nobleman again appeared in the field, infirm
as he was: and one of the most pleasing traits in
Charles Edward's noble, yet faulty character was his
walking at the head of his forces, having given up
his carriage for the use of this tried adherent of his
father. Attainder and forfeiture followed this last
attempt, but the sentence was reversed by the Court
of Session, from a misnomer in the attainder ; and
the venerable Lord Forbes, surviving many who had
set out on the same course with him, had the com-
fort of breathing his last in his native country. He
died at Auchiries in Aberdeenshire, in 1762."""
Several of these noblemen had been long contem-
plating the possibility of James's return to Scotland.
Like the Earl of Errol, they had been dissatisfied with
the prudence of the Duke of Hamilton, whose policy
it had been to postpone the risk of a precarious under-
taking, and whose foresight was acknowledged when
it was too late. Lord John Druramond, Lord Kil-
syth, and Lord Linlithgow, had been all deeply con-
cerned in the schemes and speculations which had
been formed in 1707, on the subject of the Resto-
* Buchan's History of the Keith Family, p. 153.
EARL OF MAR. 73
*
ration; but the zeal of Lord Kilsyth had been
doubted, from his intimacy with the Duke of Ham-
ilton, who was then objectionable to the violent
Jacobite leaders. 45 "
These chieftains were not unworthy to come into
the same field with Tullibardine, Nithisdale, Marischal,
and their brave associates. A still nobler band of
associates was formed in the different members of the
house of Drummond, a family who could boast of
being derived from " the ancient nobility of the
kingdom of Hungary:" and from the daughters of
whose house Charles the Second was lineally descended
in the ninth and sixth degree. Well may it be
called " the splendid family of Drummond," even if
we regard only its proud antiquity, or the singular
" faithfulness of the family, or the accomplishments
and virtues which characterised many of its members."
Nothing can be finer than the manner in which the
claims of birth are placed before us, in the address
of William Drummond of Hawthornden to " John
Earle of Perthe," in his manuscript " Historic of the
Familieof Perthe:"
" Though, as Glaucus sayes to Diomed (in Homer),
* Like the race of leaves
The race of man is, that deserves no question : nor receaves
His being any other breath ; the wind in autumn strowes
The earth with old leaves ; then the spring the woods with new endowes,'
" yet I have ever thought the knowledge of kindred
and genealogies of the ancient families of a country a
* Colonel Hookc's Negotiations.
74 JOHN ERSKINE,
matter so far from contempt, that it deserveth highest
praise. Herein consisteth a part of the knowledge of
a man's own selfe. It is a great spurr to vertue to look
back on the worth of our line. In this is the memory
of the dead preserved with the living, being more
firm and honourable than any epitaph. The living
know that band which tyeth them to others. By this
man is distinguished from the reasonless creatures,
and the noble, of men from the base sort. For it often
falleth out (though we cannot tell how) for the most
part, that generositie followeth good birth and parent-
age."* The two members of the Drummond family
who attended Lord Mar in his famous hunting-field
were James Earl of Perth, and William Drummond,
Viscount Strathallan.
The Earls of Southesk and Carnwath, the Viscounts
Kenmure and Stormont, and the Lord Rollo, complete
the list of Scottish peers who were present on this
memorable occasion. But perhaps the more remark-
able feature of the hunting-match was the arrival of
twenty-six gentlemen of influence in the Highlands,
men of sway and importance, of which it is impos-
sible, without a knowledge of Highland manners, to
form an adequate notion. The constitution of the
clans is thus pourtrayed by one who knew it well.
" In every narrow vale where a blue stream bent
its narrow course, some hunter of superior prowess, or
* See " Genealogie of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Drum-
mond, by the First Viscount Strathallan," Appendix. For this curious
and elaborate work I am indebted to the Rev. Arthur Drummond.
EARL OF MAR. 75
some herdsman whom wealth had led to wealth and
power to power, was the founder of a little community
who ever after looked up to the head of the family
as their leader and their chief. Those chains of moun-
tains which formed the boundings of their separate
districts had then their ascents covered with forests,
which were the scene of their hunting-excursions :
when their eagerness in pursuit of game led them to
penetrate into the districts claimed by the chief of
the neighbouring valleys, a rash encounter was the
usual consequence, which laid the foundation of future
hostilities."*
These petty wars gave room for a display of valour
in the chiefs, and led to a mutual dependence from
the followers. Alliances offensive and defensive were
formed among the clans, and intermarriages were
contracted between the confederated clans, who go-
verned their followers by a kind of polity not ill regu-
lated. The chief had the power of life and death
over his large family, but it was a power seldom used.
A chieftain might be cruel to his enemies, but never
to his friends. Nor were those paternal rulers by any
means so despotic as they have been represented to
be ; of all monarchs their power was the most limited,
being allowed to take no step without permission of
their friends, or the elders of their tribe, including
the most distant branches of their family. The
kind and conciliatory system adopted towards their
clansmen accounts for the warm attachment and fi-
* MS. Account of Several Clans, by Mrs. Grant, of Laggan.
76 JOHN ERSKINE,
delity displayed towards their chiefs ; and these senti-
ments were heightened to enthusiasm by the songs and
traditions of the bards, in which the exploits of their
heroes were perpetuated. Still there is nothing, as
it has been justly said, so remarkable in the political
history of any country, as the succession of the High-
land chiefs, and the long and uninterrupted sway
which they held over their followers.* The system
of clanship gives all the romantic interest which the
Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 inspire ; it perfects a
picture which would only otherwise be a factious
contention for power ; it was annihilated only after
the last of the Stuarts had fled for ever from the moun-
tains of Scotland.
It was at the head of the clans that the Earl of Mar
frequently placed himself, at the battle of Sherriff
Muir : he now welcomed their chieftains to the field.
Among these were General Hamilton, General Gordon,
Glengary, Campbell of Glendarvel, and the lairds of
Auchterhouse and Aldebar.
So great an assembly of those whom the Chevalier
afterwards not inaptly termed " little kings," was by
no means unusual at that period. It was the custom
among the lords and chieftains in the Highlands to
invite their neighbours and vassals to a general ren-
dezvous to chase the deer upon the mountains, and
after the diversion was over, to entertain the persons
of note in the castle hall. This expedient would,
therefore, have excited but little attention, had it not
* Brown's Highlands, vol. i. p. 131.
EARL OF MAR. 77
been for several years the practice of the Jacobites to
hold these hunting-parties annually, in order to main-
tain the spirit of the association, which had been
carried on since the peace of Utrecht.
The halls of Kildrummie received the noblemen
and chieftains that day beneath its roof, and the
Earl of Mar addressed his guests in a long, premedi-
tated harangue. He is described as having little pre-
tension to eloquence ; but his hearers were probably
not very fastidious judges, and from the influence
which the Earl acquired over those whom he led on
to the contest, it may be inferred that he understood
well how to address himself to the passions of a High-
land audience.
At first the Earl was heard with distrust, at least
if we may credit the account of one on whom, perhaps,
too great a reliance has been placed. *
" It is true, that at first," says Mr. Patten, " he
gained little or no credit among them, they suspecting
some piece of policy in him to ensnare them; but
some were weak enough to suck in the poison, and
particularly some of those who were with him at
his house, called Brae-Mar. These, listening to him,
embraced his project, and, as is reported, engaged
* The Rev. Robert Patten, from whose animated narrative many
other writers have implicitly copied, was a man of indifferent character,
who accompanied Mr. Forster, in the insurrection in Northumberland,
as his chaplain. He afterwards turned king's evidence, and appeared
against those whom he had served. For this act of treachery his pension
was raised (as I find by the Caledonian Mercury for 1722) from 50/. to
80/. a-year. He dedicates his History of the Rebellion to Generals Car-
penter and Wills.
78 JOHN ERSKINE,
by oath to stand by him and one another, and
to bring over their friends and dependants to do the
like."*
The Earl began his harangue by expressing a
deep regret for having promoted the Union, which
had delivered his countrymen into the hands of the
English, whose power to enslave them was far too
great, and whose intentions to do so still further
were manifest from the proceedings of the Elector
of Hanover ever since he ascended the throne. That
Prince regarded, according to Lord Mar, neither the
welfare of his people, nor their religion, but solely
left the management of affairs to a set of men who
made encroachments in Church and State. Many
persons, he said, were now resolved to consult their
own safety, and determined to defend their liberties
and properties, and to establish on the throne of these
realms the Chevalier St. G-eorge, who had the only
undoubted right to the Crown, who would hear their
grievances, and redress their wrongs. He then in-
cited his hearers to take arms for the Chevalier,
under the title of King James the Seventh; and
told them, that for his part, he was determined to
set up his standard and to summon all the fencible
men of his own tenants, and with them to hazard his
life in the cause. To this declaration he added the
assurance, that a general rising in England and as-
sistance from France would aid their undertaking;
that thousands were in league and covenant with
* Patten, p. 151.
EARL OF MAR. 79
him to establish the Chevalier and depose King
George.
To these inducements were added others. Letters
from the Chevalier were read to the assembly, pro-
mising to come over in person; with assurances that
ships, arms, and ammunition would be dispatched to
their aid.*
The proposals of Lord Mar were unfolded with
such address, and his popularity was at that time so
great, that one might have supposed an immediate
assent to his schemes would have followed. On the
contrary some degree of persuasion was required : the
Highlanders are slow to promise, but sure to fulfil.
The very chieftains who hung back from a too ready
consent, never deserted the cause which they once
undertook. The universal fidelity to the part which
they espoused was violated in no instance during the
first Rebellion.
At length the assembled chiefs swore an oath to
stand by the Earl of Mar, and to bring their friends
and dependants to do the same. However, no second
meeting was at that time determined upon: every
man went back to his own estate, to take measures
for appearing in arms after again hearing from the
Earl of Mar, who remained among his own people
with few attendants. But the Jacobites were not idle
during that interval. They employed themselves in
collecting their servants and kindred, but with the
utmost secrecy, until everything was ready to break
* Mar Papers.
80 JOHN ERSKINE,
out. Nor were they long kept in suspense. On the
third of September, another meeting at Abbone, in
Aberdeenshire, was held, and there the Earl directed
his adherents to collect their men without loss of
time. He returned to Braemar, and continued for
several days gathering the people together, until they
amounted, according to Keay, to two thousand horse;
although some have said that there were only sixty
followers at that time assembled.*
On the sixth of September, the standard of the
Pretender was set up at Braemar, by the Earl of Mar,
in the presence of the assembled forces. The super-
stitious Highlanders remarked with dismay, that, as
the standard was erected, the ball on the top of it
fell off; and they regarded this accident as an ill
omen. " The event," says a quaint Scottish writer,
" has proven that it was no less."f
This grave accordance in the verification of the
omen, was a feature of the times and country.
" When a clan went upon any expedition," observes
Dr. Brown in his valuable work upon the Highlands,
" they were much addicted to omens. If they met
an armed man they believed that good was portended.
If they observed a deer, fox, hare, or any four-footed
beast of game^ and did not succeed in killing it, they
prognosticated evil. If a woman, barefooted, crossed
the road before them, they seized her, and drew blood
from her forehead." This mixture of fear of vision-
ary evils, and courage in opposing real ones, of cre-
* Rcay. p 191. f Reay, p. 191.
EARL OF MAR. 81
dulity and distrust, strength and weakness, presents
a singular view of the Highland character. It had,
however, in many respects, no inconsiderable influence
upon the contests of 1715 and 1745.
From Braemar the Earl proceeded to Kirk Mi-
chael, a small town, where he proclaimed the Che-
valier, and set np his standard. He then marched to
Moulin in Perthshire, where he rested some time,
collecting his forces.
It is a remarkable fact, that up to this period the
Earl of Mar was acting without a commission from the
Chevalier. The disposition which is too predominant
in society, and which leads men always to add the
bitterness of invective to the mortification of failure,
has attributed to the Earl of Mar, relatively to this
commission, a line of conduct from which it is agree-
able to be able to clear his memory. It was not
very long after the meeting in Braemar, that Lord
Mar discovered that there was what he called " a
devil" in his camp, in the person of the Master of
Sinclair, whose manuscript strictures upon the un-
fortunate and incompetent leader of the Jacobites
have contributed to blacken his memory.
According to the Master of Sinclair, the Earl of
Mar produced at the meeting a forged commission;
but this statement is not only contradicted by Lord
Mar's own account, but completely invalidated by the
fact that the commission is in existence, among vari-
ous other curious documents and letters, many of
which place the character of Lord Mar in a much
VOL. I. G
82 JOHN ERSKINE,
fairer light than that in which it has hitherto been
viewed. The Earl of Mar, in a justification of his
conduct, printed at Paris, and added to Patten's His-
tory of the Rebellion, gives the following account of
the affair:
" It was near a month after the Earl of Mar* set
up the Standard before he could produce a commis-
sion, and it is no small proof of the people's zeal for
their country that so great a number followed his
advice and obeyed his orders before he could produce
one. It must, though, be owned, and it is the less to be
wondered at, that his authority being thus precarious,
some were not so punctual in joining him, and others
performed not so effectually the service they were sent
upon, which, had they done, not only Scotland, but
even part of England, had been reduced to the Che-
valier's obedience, before the Government had been in
a condition to make head against us."f
The commission was, however, at that time written,
although it had not been sent over to Scotland. It is
dated the seventh of September, 1715, and is super-
scribed James R.| The Earl of Mar was doubtless
aware that such an instrument was in preparation.
* It seems to have been the custom of that period to write in the third
person when in memoirs and statements. Lord Lovat's manifesto is in
the same style.
t Patten, p. 257.
J A copy from the original, for which I am indebted to Mr. Gibson
Craig, is given for the confirmation of Lord Mar's assertion :
" James the Eighth, by the grace of God King of Scotland, England,
France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to our right trusty
EARL OF MAR. 83
When the Earl had first arrived in Scotland, he
found, as he himself alleges, the people far more eager
to take arms than his instructions allowed him to per-
mit; but before actual steps were commenced, that
ardour was cooled by two circumstances : first, by the
Chevalier's not landing in England, as the Jacobites
and well -beloved Cousin and Counsellor, John Earl of Mar, &c. We
reposing especial trust & confidence in your loyalty, courage, experi-
ence, and good conduct, doe by these * * constitute and appoint
you to be our General and Commander in Cheif of all our forces, both
by sea and land, in our antient kingdom of Scotland. Whereupon you
are to take upon you the said command of General and Commander in
Cheif, and the better to support you in the said authority, our will and
pleasure is, that you act in consert with and by our * * *
We doe likeways hereby empower you to grant commissions in our
name to all officers, both by sea and land, to place and displace the same
as you shall think fitt and necessary for our service, to assemble our said
forces, raise the militia, issue out orders for all suspected persons, and
seizing of all forts and castles, and putting garrisons into them, and
to take up in any part of our dominions, what money, horses, arms, and
ammunition and provisions you shall think necessary for arming, mount-
ing, and subsisting the said forces under your command, and to give
recepts for the same, which we hereby promise to pay. By this our
Commission, we likeways here empower you to make warr upon our
enemies, and upon all such as shall adhere to the present government
and usurper of our dominions. Leaving entirely to your prudence and
conduct to begin the necessary acts of hostility when and where you
think most advantageous conducing to our restoration ; and we doe
hereby command all, and require all officers and souldiers, both by sea
and land, and all our subjects, to acknowledge and obey you as our
General and Commander as Cheif of our army ; and you to obey such
furder orders and directions as you shall from time to time receive from
us. In pursuance of the great power and trust we have reposed in you.
" Given at our Court at Bar le due, the seventh day of September,
1715, and in the fourteenth year of our reign.
" By His Majestie's command,
" Sic Subscribitur,
" THOMAS HIGGINS."
o 2
84 JOHN ERSKINE,
had confidently hoped ; and, secondly, by the Duke of
Berwick's riot coming to Scotland.* The vigorous
measures adopted by Government made, therefore, a
far greater impression on the public mind than could
have been expected had the Earl of Mar been boldly
seconded by him who was most of all interested in the
event of the contest. The Lord Advocate summoned
all the principal Jacobites to appear at Edinburgh
within specified periods, in order to give bail to Go-
vernment for their allegiance. " Many," says Lord
Mar, " seemed inclined to comply." Yet the number
of those who did comply with the summons was in-
considerable ; the rest, including the most honoured
names in Scotland, rushed into the insurrection.
The different heads of noble houses dispersed, and each
in the district in which he had most power, and in
the principal towns proclaimed the Chevalier King.
The Fiery Cross was sent throughout the country,
with blood at one end, and fire at the other ; and it was
afterwards asserted by some of the rebels who were
tried at Liverpool, that they were forced into the
service of the Chevalier, the person who bore that
cross assuring them that, unless they hastened to
Mar's camp, they were to perish by blood and fire.t
Intelligence of the death of Louis the Fourteenth,
which had happened during the preceding August,
reached Scotland at this time, and cast an universal
gloom over his party. It was even disputed whether the
* Patten, p. 256.
f Note in Reay. From the Weekly Journal, Feb. 4th, 1715-16.
EARL OF MAR. 85
Jacobite leaders should not disperse until news of the
Chevalier's landing should reassure them, or the cer-
tainty of a rising in England should give vigour to
their proceedings. At this critical moment Lord Mar
published a declaration which has been printed in
most of the histories of the period, exhorting all
those who were well-affected to the good cause to put
themselves under arms, and summoning his confe-
derates to the Tower of Braemar, on the eleventh
of September, promising them, in the name of the
King, their pay from the moment of setting out.
" Now is the time," said the Earl, " for all good
men to show their zeal for his Majesty's service, whose
cause is so deeply concerned, and the relief of our
native country from oppression and a foreign yoke
too heavy for us and our posterity to bear.
" In so honourable, good, and just a cause," he
added, " we cannot doubt of the assistance, direction,
and blessing of Almighty God, who has so often
rescued the royal family of Stuart, and our country
from sinking under oppression.
" Your punctual observance of these orders is ex-
pected, for the doing of all which, this shall be to you,
and all you employ in the execution of them, a suf-
ficient warrant."
In a very different tone was a letter, written
the same night by the Earl to his baillie of Kil-
drummie: from this epistle, so characteristic of the
politic Earl of Mar, it was manifest that .his own
followers were more tardy in the field than those of
86 JOHN ERSKINE,
the other chieftains of the Highlands. The means
taken to intimidate and compel them are strongly
characteristic of the state of society in Scotland at
that period.* The reluctance of his clan must have
been a subject of deep mortification to Lord Mar,
when, in one evening, the summons of the Fiery Cross,
paraded round Loch Tay, a distance of thirty-two
miles, could assemble five hundred men, at the bid-
ding of the Laird of Glenlyon, to join the Earl of
Mar.f
A few days after the assembling of the forces, the
Earl of Mar, assisted by his Jacobite friends, pub-
lished a manifesto, asserting the right of James the
Eighth, by the grace of God, King of Scotland, &c.,
and pointing to the relief of the kingdom from op-
pression and grievances.^
Whilst the adherents of James were thus assem-
bling in the North, a brave but unsuccessful attempt
was made to surprise the castle of Edinburgh. Ninety
chosen men, under the command of Lord Drummond,
were engaged in this undertaking, of which the design
was, to seize the citadel and to place it under the com-
mand of Lord Drummond; then the artillery within
the castle was to be employed in firing their rounds
by way of signal to different posts, in concert. Fires
were to be lighted up on the hills as a signal to Lord
Reay, p. 193. t Brown's Highlands, vol. i. p. 129.
| Mar Papers. In these there is a copy of this Manifesto ; but since
it has been- printed in Reay's History of the Rebellion, and others, I
do not think it necessary to insert it here.
EARL OF MAR. 87
Mar to march and take possession of the city. The
failure of this design was owing to the disclosure
of one Dr. Arthur, a physician in Edinburgh, to his
wife, who gave information of the whole plan to
the Lord Justice Clerk, to whom she sent an un-
signed letter the evening she had gained from her
unwilling husband intelligence of the scheme. This
failure, the first of those adverse events which dis-
heartened the spirits of the Jacobites, was, however,
less deplored than it would have been, had not the
progress of the Earl of Mar's exertions borne the most
flattering aspect. In September, the Earl marched to
Logaret, where his forces still increased, and thence
into the beautiful region around Dunkeld ; here he was
joined, with fourteen hundred men, by the Marquis of
Tullibardine, and by five hundred Campbells from the
Breadalbane territory, headed, not by their chief, but
by Campbell of Glenderule, Campbell of Glenlyon,
and John Campbell, the Earl's chamberlain. En-
forced also by the addition of two hundred High-
landers from different quarters, the Earl of Mar
resolved to make the town of Perth his head-quarters.
This was a wise resolution: the situation of that
fine city presented the most important advantages to
the General of the Jacobite forces. Seated on the
river Tay, and near the sea-coast, it gave the Earl
the control of the East Lowlands, of the rich counties
of Angus, the Carse of Gowrie, Mearns, Murray,
Aberdeen, and Banff, and also of the Shire of Fife.
It also cut off the communication between the north
88 JOHN ERSKINE,
and the south of Scotland, so that the friends of
Government could neither act nor fly from the enemy.
Thus all the usual posts were stopped. The revenues
of the public fell into the hands of the insurgents,
who gave receipts for them in the name of James the
Eighth, and the landowners in the counties subject to
the Earl were taxed at whateyer rate he chose to
impose. Perth continued to be the head-quarters of
the Lieutenant General until a few days before this
diastrous contest was finally closed.
At the first general review at Perth, the forces of
Lord Mar amounted only to five thousand men; but
a few weeks afterwards, by the accession of his
friends in the north, they were increased to the num-
ber of twelve thousand, both horse and foot, of well
appointed men. That Lord Mar's hopes were high,
and, at this period, not without reason of, at any rate,
a partial success, the following letter addressed by him
to Captain Henry Straiton,* at Edinburgh, is & proof.
It relates, in the first instance, to the insurrection in
Northumberland, under the guidance of Mr. Forster,
a gentleman of suspected zeal and little discretion, to
whom Lord Mar unwisely trusted the conduct of the
gallant but ill-fated bands who fell at Preston :
" From the Camp of Perth, October 12th, 1715."t
" SIR,
" It was yesterday afternoon as I got yours
of the ninth, which you may be sure was very ac-
* The Chevalier's agent there.
f- The orthography of this letter is copied from the original, with the
exception of the abbreviations usual at that period.
EARL OF MAR. 89
ceptable, and also the others you sent me. Tom
Forster tells me in his of the sixth, that they had
taken the field that day with a hundred and sixty
horse ; that he had sent to the gentelmen of Lancaster
who he expected to join him, and also the gentilmen
from the scots side, that he expected two thousand
foot from my camp and five hundred horse, that the
town of Newcastle had promist to open their gates
to them, and that they intended to take possession
of Tinmouth.
" They have been better than their word in coming
together so soon, and I would fain hope it has been
occasioned by some consort with our friends further
south, who are to join them, and that the Duke of
Ormond is in England before this time, as I have
reason to believe he is.
" My letters by M r . E ne* had not then reached
those on the boarder, but when they do, I hope it will
put the project of shooting themselves up in Tinmouth
out of their thoughts ; what good could they do there ?
I have wrote so fully by M r . E ne upon the subject
of the way of their disposeing of themselves, that I
need say little of it now. You certainly know of the
detachment of two thousand foot, lying these severall
dayes on the coast of Fife, to get over, if possible;
but now^that there 's five men of warr in the Firth,
I'm afraid it is not; however, they are stile about it,
and will do what they can : but for finding horse that
way, you will easily see is impracticable, unless the
* Erskine.
90 JOHN ERSKINE,
passage were open, and I hope our friends on the
boarder will not want horse from us. I was very
fond of the project of getting the passage of the whole
armie opened, when I wrote by Mr. E ne ; but since
that time, beside that of more men of warr comeing
into the Firth, there's another thing I know since,
which makes me alter my thoughts about it, at least
of doing it soon, were it in my power. Mr. Ogilvie
of Boin arrived here from France on the sixth, as
perhaps you have heard, with my new commission,
of which I send you a copie inclosed, and letters from
Lord Bolingbroke; but I know you have accounts of
a latter date at Edinb. so I need say the less of them.
Lord Bolingbroke tels me, that in all probability, the
King wou'd land very quickly in the north of Scot-
land; so until we be so happie that he comes to us,
or at least we hear from him again, which by those
letters I expect every day, I judge it were not pru-
dent for me to pass the armie at Leith or Queens-
ferry, were it in my power, for that wou'd be leave-
ing the enimie bewint the King and us, and he might
have difficulty in passing over to us, and being in
danger of the enimie ; but this of passing the whole
armie at any of these places seems not likely to be
in our power.
" Lord Huntly and Earl Marishall are come up to
us with their people in very good order, but Lord
Seafort is not, being deteaned by forceing Earl Suth-
erland to submitt before he left that country, which
he has done by this time, and will be with us soon.
EARL OF MAR. 91
I make his not being come up the reason of our lying
still here, but that of our expecting the King or one
from him, is the true one ; and I think we must do,
until that happen, so as long as we loose no credit
by it. I thought it was necessary to let you know
this, the better to advise our friends in the South
what meassurs to take ; which they had best deter-
mine by the success of our detachment getting over to
them, what expectation they have of friends in
England joining them, and what is to be expexted
about Edinburgh. If they should be prest in Eng-
land, which I hope will not be the case, and could do
nothing at Edinbrugh, they can march throw the
south and west of Scotland to Dumbartonshire, where
before they can be, Generall Gordon's armie or a con-
siderable detachment of it, will be before they can
reach it, which they will aply join and be saif til
we meet them. Glengarry is actually marcht from
Auchalator that way alreddy. I have taken care to
have detachments at all the places on the coasts,
where I judge the King can land, so I hope all is
safe for him when he comes on it ; and so many of the
cruisers being in the Frith make the coast pretty
clear, which is one good our detachment in Fife has
done, should they do no more. We have this day
sent two gentelmen to France (I hope) a safe way
with a letter to the Regent from the noblemen and
gentelmen here, which we had resolved on before
Boin arrived ; but should the King be come off before it
arrives in France it can do no hurt and may do good.
92 JOHN ERSKINE,
"I have wrote to Lord Bolingbroke (who is to remain
in France to negotiate the King's affairs there during
his absence,) a full account of things here; and if
the King be come off, which I hope in God he is, he is
to lay it before the Queen, to whom I have likewise
wrote. I'm exceeding sorry for the loss of honest
Keith's son, but these gentelmen will have it yet payd
home to them.
"As to your going to the South, or staying at Edin-
brugh, I scarce know what to say. I wish you could
be in both places ; but since that cannot be, I leave it
to yourself to do which you think will be of most use
to the service. If you go South I beg you may settle
a correspondence 'twixt Edin b and this, and acquaint
me with it.
" I heard to-day that my letters to our friends in
the West, desireing they might go immediately South
to join Lord Kenmore, came safe to hand, so I hope
they will be with him soon. I have sent you
some of the manifestos which were printed at Aber-
deen, and are finely done : I wish they may come to
you saif. I also send you encloset a letter to Sir Rich.
Steele, which I leave open for you to read and take
a copie of. Pray seal it and get it put into the post-
house ; and I wish you could get it printed at Edin-
burgh, tho' let me not seen it; and if you send a
copie to any of your correspondants at London and
Newcastle, to get it printed there it would do no hurt.
I'm endeavouring to get a correspondence settled by
barks from the point of Fife to Newcastle, which
EARL OF MAR. 93
may be of use to us, especially if the communications
twixt us and Ed r should be stopt."
On the very day of the Earl's arrival at Perth,
Mr. James Murray, second son of Lord Stormont
arrived from St. Germains, bringing assurances of
support, and letters from the Chevalier, who had
appointed him Secretary of State for the affairs of
Scotland. Mr. Murray is said also to have presented
the Earl of Mar with a patent, creating him Duke of
Mar, Marquis of Stirling and Earl of Alloway : " And
though," observes an historian, " there was little more
said about it, yet the relation seems justified by this,
that in some of the papers printed at Perth, he is
styled the Duke of Mar."*
Extensive preparations were also declared to be
in progress for the invasion of England. Twelve
large ships were actually at that time at anchor in
Havre, St. Malos, and other places. These vessels,
with several frigates of good force, were loaded with
ammunition, and manned with generals, officers, and
soldiers. A particular account of the " Pretender's
Magazine" is extant. But these preparations were
all frustrated by the remonstrances of the Earl of
Stair at the Court of the Regent of France. Ad-
miral Byng was sent with a squadron to cruise on the
coast of France, and the ships ready to sail for the
enterprise against England were obliged, by command
of the Regent, in order not to implicate the French
* Reay, p. 221.
94 JOHN ERSKINE,
Government, to declare that they were thus employed
without the sanction or knowledge of the Regent.
Thus, even whilst Mr. Murray was raising the san-
guine hopes of the Jacobites to the highest pitch, their
evil star had again prevailed. They were, indeed,
singularly unhappy in those in whom they placed
confidence. Their schemes perpetually got wind:
whether it were owing to the irresolution of some of
their partisans, or to the great participation which
the female sex took in the affairs of the Chevalier's
party, it is difficult to determine.
The Jacobite ladies were as fearless as they were
persevering. The Duchess of Gordon, whose present
of a medal to the Faculty of Advocates denoted her
principles, and whose son, the second Duke of Gordon
suffered a brief imprisonment on account of his share
in the insurrection, was one of the most approved
channels of communication between the two parties.
She generally resided in Edinburgh, where she occu-
pied herself as a mediator between some of the Pres-
byterians and the friends of James. Colonel Hooke
mentions her as one of the depositories of all that
was going on during his mission.
The Earl of Mar, in his letters, refers repeatedly to
different ladies with approval of their zeal and courage,
and mentions one of his fair confederates in the north
of Scotland, through whose hands many of his letters
were sent to different chieftains; but these channels
may not, in all cases, have been so secure as the
Earl conceived.
* Mar Papers.
EARL OF MAR. 95
The proceedings of the English Government were,
meantime, marked with energy and judgment. The
various movements of the insurgent party were met
in every direction by a systematic resistance, the de-
tails of which have been minutely detailed by histori-
ans, and belong not to a narrative which is chiefly of
a personal nature.
On the fourteenth of September, the Duke of Ar-
gyle, Commander in Chief of his Majesty's Forces in
Scotland, and General of the army, arrived in Edin-
burgh. The interest of this able and powerful no-
bleman in the Western Highlands, his zeal for the
Protestant succession, were sufficient reasons for his
appointment to this important office. The following
original letter from George the Second, then Prince
of Wales, gives an insight into the views which were
entertained by George the First upon the mode of
conducting the warfare in Scotland. It is among
various other papers in the Mar Correspondence.
" St. James's, 7th October, 1715."
" I have- learned, my dear Duke, by your two last
expresses, the embaras you are in through the want
of regular troupes. We have used such efforts that
the King has consented last Wednesday to detach to
you four batallions from Ireland, to reinforce your
camp. Orders have been given to cause those marche
who are nearest, and to cause them embarque as
they come up, without waiting for their conjunction.
It appeares yet by the departure of the Duke of
96 JOHN ERSKINE,
Ormond, from Paris, that the malcontents continue
in their wicked design of raiseing up troubles in this
kingdom here, which is the cause that hinders me
from sending you Campbell yet, untill that I see
if he will not be necessary for his post, where I think
that it is best every body should be fixed. As soon
as all appearance of Rebellion is ended here, I shall
dispatch you him, if you shall have need of him there.
With respect to the orders you demand, it would be
very difficult to give you them positive, not knowing
the situation of your affairs, as you may judge your-
self. The King remits himself entirely to your
judgment, and to your conduct. All that I can say
to you is not to hazard an action without a probable
appearance of carrying it, rather to shune an en-
gadgment, and to yeild to them the ground, than to
expose the affairs of the King to such ill consequences
as would follow from a defeat. In case that my Lord
Mar march into England before that you receive
your reinforcement, I think you would do very well
to allow him at least with your cavalery, and to
harass him untill that we march to meet him. This
last reasoneing is my own properly, but which you
will judge yourself, if practicable or not. Farewell,
my dear Duke ; be assured of my esteem, and my
sincere friendship."
(Signed) " GEORGE P."
The Earl of Mar now began to fortify Perth, and
brought up fourteen pieces of cannon for that pur-
EARL OF MAR. 97
pose from Dundee and Dunotter Castle. His time
and thoughts were at this time occupied in concerting
and encouraging the movements of the southern in-
surrection conducted by Viscount Kenmure. There
can be no better means of showing the state of the
Earl's hopes and feelings at this time, than by giving
them in his own words.
TO VISCOUNT KENMURE.
" MY LORD,
" I wish your Lordship and Mr. Forster may
have gott my letters, which I took all the care I
could to send safe. I wrote last by a lady on the
twenty-third, and she is so discreet and dextrous,
that I make little doubt of its going right. I have
since had two from an indisposed friend of ours on
your side the water, and with them one of the
twenty-second from Brigadier Mackintosh to him,
where he tells of his being joined by your Lord-
ship and five hundred horse with you, Lords With-
rington and Derwentwater, Mr. Forester, and about
six hundred English gentlemen. Your Lordship
may be sure this was very agreeable news to me,
and now, with the blessing of God, if we do not
mismanage, I think our game can scarce fail. By
Brigadier Mackintosh's letter, it seems the English
are all for your going to England in a body to put
into execution a certain design, and our countrymen
are for first having the Pass of Stirling opened, and
our armies joined. I apprehended there would be
VOL. i. H
98 JOHN ERSKINE,
difference about this before I saw that letter, as your
Lordship would easily see by what the lady carried.
It is indeed a difficult point to know or advise
which of the two is the best for the King's affairs;
and we on this side Forth being so ignorant of your
situation on the other side, and also of the condition
of England, that I could not take it upon me to
determine in it, or to give any positive orders what
your Lordship should do ; but after stating the ad-
vantages of both, and what might happen according
as the enemy should act, I left it to be advised and
determined among yourselves on that side, who could
not but know a great deal more, as you should judge
it best for the King's interest in generall.
" I know our indisposed friend, for whose judgment
I have a very great regard, advised coming to Dal-
keith, and we have a report from Fife last night that
you have done so.
" I long impatiently to know what resolution your
Lordship and the noblemen and gentlemen with you
have come to. It is of great consequence and de-
serves to be well weighed. If you are now come to
Dalkeith, I will adventure to tell my thoughts in it,
which I was not quite so clear in before when you
were at a greater distance from it. That place was a
far way from the other, where I judge the secret
design was to be put in execution; and I am afraid
before you can get there they'll have so strength-
ened the place, and filled it with troops, that the
design would prove impracticable with the small
army you have, and it might prove, too, (especially
EARL OF MAR. 99
if the Dutch troops come to England,) that you could
not penetrate farther into that country with safety,
and retiring back into Scotland would have many
inconveniences.
" Dalkeith is but a short way from Stirling, where
we on this side must pass (I mean near it), and I
hope we shall attempt it very soon ; and when we do,
your being in the rear of the enemy could not but
very much incommode them, and be of great ad-
Tantage to us. The Duke of Argyle would be so
hemmed in at Stirling by your being on the one
hand of him and our being on the other, that I
scarce see what I can do but to intrench myself,
and by that our passage over Forth and joining of
you might be very easy; nor do I see how the Duke
of Argyle in those circumstances can subsist long
there. Were we once past Forth and joined on the
south side, we should soon make our way good to
England, and then should be much more able to put
in execution the project of our English friends, with-
out being in any danger of returning back to Scot-
land. It would be of great consequence to have
possession of Edinburgh, but I hear just now that
the Duke of Argyle has sent two regiments of
dragoons, so tho' perhaps that may prevent your
getting possession of that town, yet I scarce believe that
they will be able with all the detachments that the
Duke of Argyle dare adventure to send from Stirling
to make any attempt against you at Dalkeith, which
is so strong a place naturally ; and should the enemy
H 2
100 JOHN ERSKINE,
return again from Stirling, you might either follow
them in their rear without danger, or take possession
of Edinburgh. Were once Lord Seaforth come up to
us and General Gordon with the clans which I expect
every day, I shall not be long of leaving this place,
and I shall likewise be able to send more foot over
the water, as I sent the last, if you want them, and
your being at Dalkeith, they could easily join you.
Should most of the Dutch troops come to Scotland,
as is probable they will, it would be very hard for us
here to pass Forth without your assistance, which
would be a great loss and a grateing thing. I hear
to-day from about Stirling that Sir William Blacish
is upon the head of several thousands in the North
of England, but your Lordship and our English friends
will know the truth of this better : be it as it will,
I do not think it alters the case much. The main
and principal thing is for us to get soon joined all in
one body, then I am sure we should be more con-
siderable than all the force the Government, with the
six thousand Dutch, can bring against us, and when
once the British troops see so considerable a force
together, asserting their King's and their country's
cause, I cannot believe they will, but rather join us,
and restore their country to peace and liberty.
" These, my Lord, are my humble thoughts, but
they are with submission to your Lordship's and
the King's friends with you who are equally con-
cerned with us, and I know equally zealous, and you
all certainly know a great deal more than me here.
EARL OF MAR. 101
" I beg your Lordship may make my compliments
to our countrymen, with you, and to those noblemen
and gentlemen of England who have so handsomely
and generously joined you. I long impatiently to be
with you, and with all the haste I can.
" I send copies of this three different ways, that
one or other of them may certainly come to your
hands.
" I also send by one of them, if not two, a power
for your Lordship to raise money for the use of your
armie, which my commission for the King fully em-
powers me to do and give.
" I wish this may come to your hand, and I long
to hear from your Lordship, which it being necessary
I should soon, I am, with all respect, my Lord, your
Lordship's most obedient humble servant,
" MAR."*
It was the intention of Lord Mar to remain at
Perth until all the Jacobite clans should have joined
his army; but having gained the intelligence that
some arms for the use of the Earl of Sutherland were
put on board a vessel at Leith, 'to be taken north-
wards, he determined to take possession of them.
The master of the vessel had dropped anchor at Brunt
Island, for the purpose of seeing his wife, who was
there : Lord Mar sent a detachment to surprise the
harbour, which succeeded, in carrying off the spoil,
back to Perth. A report was at the same time raised
* Mar Papers, communicated by Mr. Gibson Craig.
102 JOHN ERSKINE,
in Stirling : that the Earl was marching to Alloa, the
Duke of Argyle forthwith ordered out the picquets of
horse and foot, and, also, all the troops to be ready to
march out to sustain them, if required. But the
Jacobite army did not appear; and the report of
their advance to Stirling was believed to be a false
alarm, contrived by Mar in order to draw off the
attention of the Duke of Argyle from the expedition
to Brunt Island.
The insurgents were now masters of the eastern
coasts of Scotland from Brunt Island to the Murray
Frith, an extent of above one hundred and sixty miles
along the shore. On the western side, the Isle of Skye,
Lewis, and all the Hebrides were their own, besides
the estates of the Earl of Seaforth, Donald Mac Do-
nald, and others of the clans. So that from the
mouth of the river Lochie to Faro-Head, all the coast
of Lochaber and Ross, even to the north-west point of
Scotland, was theirs: theirs, in short, was all the
kingdom of Scotland north of the Forth, except the
remote counties of Caithness, Strathnaver and Suther-
land beyond Inverness, and that part of Argyleshire
which runs north-west into Lorn, and up to Lochaber,
where Fort William continued in possession of the
Government.
The Earl of Mar had resolved to impose an assess-
ment upon the large extent of country under his sway,
to raise money for the use of his army. It was of
course an unpopular, though doubtless a necessary
measure. The sum of twenty shillings sterling was
EARL OF MAR. 103
to be paid by each landholder upon every hundred
pounds Scots of valued rent; and, if not paid by a
certain day, the tax was to be doubled. In levying
this assessment, the friends of the Government were
far more severely treated than those of the Chevalier ;
and the Presbyterian Ministers, who had dared to
raise their voices in their churches against the Pre-
tender, as they called the Chevalier, were commanded
to be silent on that subject; their houses were plun-
dered, and many of them were driven by tyranny
from their homes.*
The northern clans were now on their march to
join the camp at Perth. First came the famous Laird
of Mackintosh, better known as Brigadier Mackintosh,
chief of that numerous clan in Invernesshire. His regi-
ment, composed of five hundred men, whom he had per-
suaded to join in the insurrection, was considered the
best that the Earl of Mar could boast. The Marquis
of Huntley, with five hundred horse and two thousand
foot, next arrived; and the Earl Marischal shortly
afterwards brought a thousand men to the camp.
But Lord Seaforth, afraid lest in his absence the Earl
of Sutherland should invade his country, was still
absent ; and the anxiety of the Earl of Mar for his
arrival is expressed in more than one of his letters.
The whole strength of the army amounted to sixteen
thousand seven hundred men ; this number was after-
wards diminished by the detachment sent southwards
by the Earl, and by the number of three thousand
* Rcay, pp. 236, 237.
104 JOHN ERSKINE,
who were dispersed in garrisons. But it was no com-
mon force that was now encamped at Perth.
At this critical moment where was the individual
for whom these great and gallant spirits had ven-
tured their all, the hills so dear to them, their
homes, the welfare of their families, to say nothing of
that which Highlanders least consider, their personal
safety? At this moment, the ill-advised and irre-
solute James Stuart, was absent. What could have
been his counsels? who were his advisers? of what
materials was he made? why did he ever come? are
questions to which the indignant mind can scarcely
frame a reply. The fact, indeed, seems to be that
his heart was never really in the undertaking; that
he for whom the tragedy was performed, was the only
actor in it who did not feel his part; it was reserved
for a nobler and a warmer nature to experience the
ardour of hope, and the bitter mortifications of dis-
appointment.
It was not until the middle of October that the
Earl of Mar took any personal share in the contest
between the Jacobite army and that of the Govern-
ment. Hitherto he had remained at Perth, acting
with an ill-timed caution, and apparently bestowing
far more attention upon the ill-fated insurrection in
Northumberland, aided by the low country Scots
under Lord Kenmure, than upon the proximate dan-
gers of his own army. The detachment of a body
of troops under Brigadier Mackintosh, sent in order
to assist the Lowlauders, who were marching back
EARL OF MAR. 105
into Scotland, accompanied by the forces under Mr.
Forster and the Earl of Derwentwater, was the im-
mediate cause of the two armies coming to an en-
gagement. The Earl of Mar in his narrative thus
explains his plans and their failure.
The detachment under Brigadier Mackintosh having
been sent, " occasioned," Lord Mar says, " the Duke
of Argyle's leaving Stirling, and going with a part of
his army to Edinburgh. Now, had the Scots and
English horse, who were then in the south of Scot-
land, come and joined the fifteen hundred foot, (under
Brigadier Mackintosh) as was expected ; had the
Highland clans performed, as they promised, the ser-
vice they were sent upon in Argyleshire, and marched
towards Glasgow, as the Earl of Mar marched towards
Sterling, he had then given a good account of the Go-
vernment's army, the troops from Ireland not having
yet joined them, nor could they have joined them
afterwards. But all this failing by some cross ac-
cidents, Lord Argyle returned with that part of his
army to Scotland, and the Earl of Mar could not
then, with the men he then had, advance further
than Dumblane, and for want of provisions there,
was soon after obliged to return to Perth."
" But immediately after that we had got provisions,
and that the clans and Lord Seaforth had joined us,
we marched again towards the enemy; and not-
withstanding the many difficulties the Earl of Mai-
had upon that occasion with some of our own people,
he gave the enemy battle : and, as you saw in our
106 JOHN ERSKINE,
printed account of it, had not our left wing given
way, which was occasioned by mistake of orders and
scarcity of experienced officers, that being composed
of as good men, and marched as cheerfully up to the
field of battle as the other, our victory had been
complete. And as it was, the enemy, who was ad-
vanced on this side the river, was forced to retire
back to Sterling." *
Such is the Earl of Mar's comment upon the
battle of Sherriff Muir, of which the friends of Go-
vernment gave a very different representation.
The Earl had, it is evident, no disposition to risk
a general engagement before the Chevalier arrived in
Scotland. He had sent two gentlemen to the Prince
to learn his determination, and had resolved to remain
at Perth until their return. During his continuance
in that city he employed himself not only in throwing
up entrenchments round the town, but in publishing
addresses to the people, to keep up the spirits of the
Jacobites. Since the Earl was never scrupulous as to
the means of which he availed himself, we may not
venture to reject the declaration of an historian of no
good will to the cause, that he ordered " false news"
to be, printed and circulated ; and published that
which he hoped would happen, as having already
taken place. " The detachment," he related, " had
passed the Forth, had been joined by the army in the
South, were masters of Newcastle, and carried all
* The Earl of Mar's Journal, as printed at Paris. At the end of
Patten's History of the Rebellion, and addressed by Lord Mar to Colonel
Balfour, p. 259.
EARL OF MAR. 107
before them ; and their friends in and about Lon-
don had taken arms in such numbers, that King
George had made a shift to retire." These false-
hoods were printed by Freebairn, formerly the King's
printer at Edinburgh, whom the Earl had established
at Perth, and provided with the implements brought
by the army from Aberdeen.*
In the beginning of November, the Earl of Seaforth
arrived at Perth, and the Mac Invans, the Maccraws,
the Chisholmes of Strath-Glass, and others, completed
all the forces that Lord Mar expected to join him.
Truly might the Earl say, " that no nation in such
circumstances, and so destitute of all kind of succour
from abroad, ever made so brave a struggle for re-
storing their prince and country to their just rights. "f
But the usual fate of the Stuarts involved their de-
voted adherents in ruin: or rather, let us not call
that fate, which may be better described by the word
incapacity in the leaders of their cause.
The want of ammunition, which was to have
been supplied from abroad, was now severely felt.
" I must here add one thing," says Lord Mar,
" which, however incredible the thing may appear,
is, to our cost, but too true: and that is, that from
the time the Earl of Mar set up the Chevalier's
standard to this day, we never received from abroad
the least supply of arms and ammunition of any kind ;
though it was notorious in itself, and well known,
that this was what from the first we mainly wanted ;
* Reay, p. 197. t Earl of Mar's Journal.
108 JOHN ERSKINE,
and, as such, it was insisted upon by the Earl of Mar,
in all the letters he writ, and by all the messengers
he sent to the other side."*
On the ninth of November it was determined, at a
great council of war, to march straight to Dumblane,
with the ultimate view of following the Brigadier
Mackintosh into England, with the main body of the
army, amounting to nine thousand men, whilst a de-
tachment of three thousand should, if possible, gain
possession of Stirling.
The engagement which ensued, and which was
called the battle of Sherriff Muir, was fought on a
Sunday ; after both armies had been under arms all
night. No tent was pitched for the Duke of Argyle's
men, either by officer or soldier, on that cold No-
vember evening. Each officer was at his post, nor
could they much complain whilst their General sat
on straw, in a sheepcote, at the foot of the hill,
called Sherriff Muir, which overlooks Dumblane, on
the right of his army. In the dead of the night,
the Duke, by his spies, learned where the enemy
were ; for, although on account of the hills and broken
ground, they could not be seen, they were not at two
miles' distance. This was at Kinback; at break
of day, the army of Argyle was completely formed,
and the General rode up to the top of the hill to recon-
noitre the foe.f
The Earl of Mar, meantime, had given orders for
his army to form to the left of the road that leads to
* Earl of Mar's Journal. t Reay, 308.
EARL OF MAR. 109
Dumblane, and whilst they were forming in front of
the town of Dumblane, they discovered the enemy on
the height of the west end of the Sherriff Muir. A
council of war was then held, and it was resolved,
nemine contradicente, to fight.
The Earl of Mar's forces had also been ready for
combat during the whole of the night. To the High-
landers the want of shelter was of little consequence.
It was usual to them, before they lay down on the
moor, to dip their plaids in water, by which the cloth
was made impervious to the wind ; and to~ choose, as
a favourite and luxurious resting-place, some spot
underneath a cover of overhanging heath. So late as
the year 1745, they could not be prevailed on to use
seats. * It was therefore with unimpaired vigour that
they rushed on to the combat.
The Earl of Mar placed himself at the head of the
clans : perhaps a finer, a more singular, a more pain-
ful sight can rarely have been witnessed than the
rush of this great body "of Highlanders to the en-
counter. It was delayed by the Earl of Mar's des-
patching his aide-de-camp, Colonel Clephan, to Lord
Drummond, and to General Gordon, with orders to
march and attack immediately. On their return,
pulling off his hat, he waved it with an huzza, and
advanced in front of the enemy's formed battalions.
Then was heard the slogan or war-cry, each clan hav-
ing its own distinctive watch- word, to which every
clansman responded, whether his ear caught the sound
* Brown's Highlands.
110 JOHN ERSKINE,
in the dead of night, or in the confusion of the combat.
Distinguished by particular badges, and by the pecu-
liar arrangement and colours of the tartans, these
devoted men followed the Earl of Mar towards the
foe.
But the action cannot be described in a manner
better adapted to this narrative, than in the words
of Lord Mar himself, in his letter on the very day
of the engagement, to Colonel Balfour, whom he had
left in command of the garrison at Perth. It is
dated Ardoch, November 13th, 1715.
Ardoch, Nov. 13th, 1715."
" I thought you would be anxious to know the
fate of this day. We attacked the enemy on the end
of the Sherriff Muir, at twelve of the clock this day,
on our right and centre; carried the day entirely;
pursued them down to a little hill on the south of
Dumblane ; and there I got most of our horse and a
pretty good number of our foot, and brought them
again into some order. We knew not then what was
become of our left, so we returned to the field of
battle. We discerned a body of the enemy on the
north of us, consisting mostly of the Grey Dragoons,
and some of the Black. We also discovered a body
of their foot farther north upon the field where
we were in the morning ; and east of that, a body as
we thought of our own foot, and I still believe it
was so. I formed the horse and foot with me in a
line on the north side of the hill, where we had
EARL OF MAR. Ill
engaged and kept our front towards the enemy to
the north of us, who seem'd at first as if they in-
tended to march towards us; but upon our forming
and marching towards them, they halted and marched
back to Dumblane. Our baggage and train-horses
had all run away in the beginning of the action.
But we got some horses and brought off most of the
train to this place where we quarter to-night about
Ardock, whither we march'd in very good order:
and had our left and second line behaved as our
right and the rest of the first line did, our victory
had been compleat: but another day is coming for
that, and I hope ere long too.
" I send you a list of the officers' names who are
prisoners here, besides those who are dangerously
wounded and could not come along, whose words of
honour were taken. Two of these are the Earl of
Forfar, who I'm afraid will die, and Captain Ur-
quhart, of Burn's Yard, who is very ill wounded.
We have also a good number of private men pri-
soners ; but the number I do not exactly know.
" We have lost, to our regret, the Earl of Strath-
more and the Captain of Clan Kanald. Some are
missing, but the fate we are not sure of.
" The Earl of Panmure, Drummond of Logie, and
Lieutenant Colonel Maclean are wounded.
" This is all that I have to say now, but that I am,
" Yours, &c. " MAR."
" P.S. We have taken a great many of the enemy's
arms."
112 JOHN ERSKINE,
Lord Mar, on this occasion, showed a degree of
personal bravery worthy of the great name which he
bore. He had placed himself on the right, and, as he
was giving orders to the Macdonalds to charge that
battalion of the enemy opposite to them, he encoun-
tered a very close fire. " The horse on which my
Lord was," writes an eye-witness on the Jacobite side,
" was wounded, for he fell down with him upon
the fire, and got away, and my Lord immediately
mounted another horse: he exposed his person but
too much, and showed a great deal of bravery, as did
the other lords about him."*
The army of the Duke of Argyle lay on their arms
all night, expecting that the next day the battle
would be resumed ; but, on Monday the fourteenth of
November, the Duke went out with the piquet guard
to the field to view the enemy, but found them
gone : and leaving the piquet guard on the place, he
returned to Dumblane, and thence to Stirling, car-
rying off with him fourteen of the enemy's colours
and standards, and among them the royal standard
called the Restoration, besides several pieces of ar-
tillery, and many prisoners, some of them men of
rank and influence.
Both sides claimed the victory of Sherriff Muir as
their own; but, however it may be argued, it is
certain that with only three thousand effective troops,
Argyle had contrived " to break the heart of the
rebellion," and to subdue an army such as could
* Mar Papers.
EARL OF MAR. 113
never again be reassembled. Between six and eight
hundred of the Jacobites are stated to have fallen on
the field,* and several, among whom was the brave
Earl of Panmure and Colonel Maclean, were among
the wounded. Lord Mar, nevertheless, celebrated
the engagement as if it had been a victory.
Thanksgiving-sermons were ordered to be preached
at Perth, and a Te Deum sung in the church; and
ringing of bells, and other demonstrations deceived
the hearts of those who knew little of the real injury
done to the cause, or amused others whose nearest
interests had not suffered in the Sherriff Muir. A
paper was also circulated containing a report of the
battle, of course highly favourable to the Earl of
Mar's part in what he called his victory. The
following is the statement which he sent to the
Chevalier.
THE EARL OF MAR TO THE CHEVALIER.f
" Nov. 24, 1715.
" SIR,
" It was but yesterday that I had accounts of
your being at sea, and I thought myself obliged to
do all in my power to let you know the state of affairs
in this island before you land in it, so that you may
not be disapointed upon your comeing.
" I had the certain account yesterday of those who
had appear'd in arms besouth Forth, and in the north
Reay, p. 309.
t From the MS. letter in the possession of Archibald Macdonald, Esq.
VOL. I. I
114 JOHN ERSKINE,
of England, all being made prisoners at Preston in
Lancashire, which I'm aflraid will putt a stop to any
more riseings in that country at this time.
" Your Majesty's army, which I have the honour to
command, fought the enime on the Shirreff-Muir,
near Dumblain, the thirteenth of this moneth. Our
left behav'd scandalously and ran away, but our right
routed the enimies left and most of their body.
" Their right folio w'd and pursued our left, which
made me not adventure to prosecute and push our
advantage on our right so far as otherwayes wee
might have done, however wee keept the field of
battle, and the enimie retir'd to Dumblain.
" The armie had lyen without cover the night
before, and wee had no provisions there, which
oblidg'd me to march the armie back two milles
that night, which was the nearest place where I
could get any quarters. Next day I found the armie
reduced to a small number, more by the Highlanders
going home than by any loss wee sustained, which
was but very small. So that and want of provisions
oblidg'd me yet to retire, first to Auchterarder, and
then here to Perth. I have been doing all I can
ever since to get the armie together again, and I
hope considerable numbers may come in a little time ;
but now that our friends in England are defeated,
there will be troops sent down from thence to re-
inforce the Duke of Argyle, which will make him so
strong, that wee shall not be able to face him, and I
am affraid wee shall have much difficultie in makeing
EARL OF MAR. 115
a stand any where, save in the Highlands, where wee
shall not be able to subsist.
" This, Sir, is a melancholy account, but what in
duty I was oblidg'd to let you know, if possibly I
can, before you land ; and for that end I have endea-
vour'd to send boats out about those places where I
judg'd it most probable you would come;
" Ther's another copie of this upon the West Coast,
and I wish to God one or other of them may find
you, if your Majesty be upon the coast.
" By the strength you have with you, your Majesty
will be best able to judge if you will be in a con-
dition, when join'd with us, to make a stand against
the enimie. I cannot say what our numbers will be
against that time, or where wee shall be, for that will
depend on the enimie, and the motions they make;
but unless your Majesty have troops with you, which
I'm affraid you have not, I see not how wee can
oppose them even for this winter, when they have
got the Dutch troops to England, and will power in
more troops from thence upon us every day.
" Your Majestie's coming would certainly give new
life to your friends, and make them do all in their
power for your service; but how far they would be
able to resist such a formed body of regular troops as
will be against them, I must leave your Majestic to
judge.
" I have sent accounts from time to time to Lord
Bolingbroke, but I have not heard once from any of
your Majestie's servants since Mr. Ogilvie of Boin
i2
116 JOHN ERSKINE,
came to Scotland, nor none of the five messengers 1
sent to France are return' d, which has been an in-
finite loss to us. I sent another, which is the sixt,
to France, some days ago, with the account of our
victory, who I suppose is sail'd ere now.
" May all happiness attend your Majestic, and
grant you may be safe, whatever come of us. If it do
not please God to bless your kingdoms at this time with
your being settled on your throne, I make no doubt
of its doing at another time; and I hope there will
never be wanting of your own subjects to assert your
cause, and may they have better fortune than wee
are like to have. I ask but of Heaven that I may
have the happiness to see your Majestic before I die,
provided your person be safe; and I shall not repine
at all that fortune has or can do to me.
" Your Majestic may find many more capable, but
never a more faithful servant than him who is with
all duty and esteem, Sir, your Majestie's most dutiful,
most faithfull and most obedient subject and servant,
" MAE."
" From the Camp of Perth, Nov. 24, 1715."
A fortnight previously the Earl of Mar had ad-
dressed the following curious letter to Captain Henry
Straiton,* at Edinburgh, to whom many of Lord
Mar's epistles are written. The allusion to Margaret
Miller refers to Lady Nairn, the sister-in-law of the
Marquis of Tullibardine, and wife of Lord Nairn,
who, in compliance with a Scottish custom, took his
* The agent of the Jacobites in Edinburgh.
EARL OF MAR. 117
wife's title, she being Lady Nairn in her own right.
The allusion to " a dose" which will require the air
of a foreign country to aid it, seems to offer some
notion of the Earl's subsequent flight.
" Novemb. 8th, 1715.
" SIR,
" I had yours of the fourth this forenoon, which
was very wellcome. And I hope we shall soon see
the certainty of what the accounts makes us expect of
these folks' arivall. I sent of a pacquet yesterday
with an answer to Margaret Miller's of the second,
and in it I sent a copie of my last to Mr. H n,
which was dated the second and third, of which I
sent him copies two different waves, so I hope he'll
get one of them at least. They were pressing them
to go into England; and now that they are actually
gone their, and in so good a way, I am easie as to
that. I hope God will direct and assist them.
" I thought to have marcht from this to-day.
The foot are mostly gone, and I march with the horse
to-morrow morning. Our generall revew is to be at
Auchterardor on Thursday morning, and then to
march forward immediately. It is of great use to
hear often from you, and to have accounts of our
friends in the north of England, and what is doing
in England beside ; so I know you'll write as often
as you can find occasions. I fancie I may hear to-
day from our friends in the north of England, for I
hope they had some days ago a way of sending
directly. It seems the Duke of Argyll's absence
118 JOHN ERSKINE,
from London is not like to do his own court of
interest there much good. I hope our manifesto's
being disperced at London, will have good effect;
and I long to see what the prints call the Pre-
tender's declaration, and the declaration of the
people of England. The run upon the bank, I hope,
will not lessen. The public credit must not be once
ruined to make it raise again, and I hope that time
may be sooner than we think of. We have rainy
weather, but that is an inconveniencie to the enimie as
well as to us. My humble service to Margaret Miller :
I thank her for the information she gives me, of one
about me giving intelligence ; but other friends may
be easie about it, for I am sure there is nothing in it ;
and I know what made them belive, which I confess
had colour enough. I wish she would get the Doctrix
to send a new dose to the patient she knows of, for
there was a little too much of one of the ingredients
in the last, which toke away the effect of the whole.
It is the ingredient that has the postponeing quality
in it ; and the patient's greatest distemper is the ap-
prehentions he has of a perfect cure being long of
comeing, and that it is not to be til he get the air
of another country. The dose must be carefully made
up, and no appearance of its comeing from any other
hand but the Doctrix' own. Ther's some copies here-
with sent of a paper printed on this side the water, of
which I hear severall are at Stirling. The other
two papers I got to-day are given to revise, and are
to be printed soon. I send you a copie of a letter
EARL OF MAR. 119
was wrote t'other day, and sent to the Cameronians
in the west. I wish you could send this one to some
of them in the south. This is all I will trouble you
with ; but I hope both to get from you and give you
good news soon, and I ever am, with all sincerity and
truth, yrs. &c.
" Perhaps Capt. R n will not be found to have
done so much hurt as was thought he designed ; but
this is not to bid trust him yet."
By two manuscript letters among the Mar papers,
it appears, however, that the account soon afterwards
published by Lord Mar was not so full of artifice and
untruths as his enemies represented. " He kept the
field of battle until it was dark," says one writer, in a
letter dated from Perth (November the 19th, 1715);
" and nothing but want of provisions prevented us
from going forward the next day. We hear the
Whigs give various accounts of the battle, to cover
the victory; but the numbers of the slain on their
part being eleven or twelve hundred, and ours not
above fifty or sixty, and our keeping the field when
they left it, makes the victory incontestable. Your
friends that I know here mind you often, and they
and I would be glad to have the opportunity to drink
a bottle with you beyond the Forth."
Another eye-witness gives a still more detailed ac-
count.* " I have yours of the seventeenth, with the
paper inclosed, wherein that gentleman has taken the
* Mar Papers, in the possession of Gibson Craig, Esq.
120 JOHN ERSKINE,
liberty to insert many falsehoods relative to the late
action, a true and impartial account of which I here
send you, which is but too modest on our side, and
many things omitted that will be afterwards made
publick, particularly their murdering Strathmoir, after
he had asked quarters, and the treatment they gave
to Panmuir and several others, who, I hope, will be
living witnesses against them. The enclosed is so
full that I have little to say, only that we have not
lost a hundred men in the action, and none of note,
except Strathmoir, and the Captain of Clan Konald."
The cruel spirit of party destroyed the generous
characteristics of the soldier, during the excitement of
the combat : but how can we palliate the conduct of
one of the King's generals, Lord Isla, after the fierce-
ness of the encounter was over ? The letter re r
ferred to discloses particulars which were hushed
up, or merely glanced at, in the partial annals of
the time.
" So soon as they saw us coming down upon them,
they marched off in great haste towards Dumblain,
and left several of our people they had taken, among
which was Lord Panmuir, who offered to give his pa-
role, not knowing what had passed upon the eighth;
but he was told by the person he sent to Lord Isla,
that he could not take a parole from a rebel, and they
were in such haste that they lost him in a little house,
with several others near the field, where we found
them when we advanced and brought him along with
EARL OF MAR. 121
us to Ardoch, two miles furder, where we stayed all
night and next day, until that we heard the enemy
were marched off to Stirling. He is now pretty well
and in no danger. Earl Loudoun passed him as he
lay in the field, without taking any notice of him, and
he was wounded there by the dragoons after he had
surrendered to them; but I hope there will be one
other day of reckoning for these things. My Lord
Mar sent off two or three people to take care of Lord
Forfar when he heard he was wounded, and one of
them waited of him to Stirling. He expressed a good
dale of consern that he should have been ingadged
against his countrymen, and sent a breslet off his
arm to Lord Mar, so that we all wish he may live. A
good pairt of our baggage and the provisions we had,
were distroyed by our own people who went of from
our left. We are now getting provisions and every
thing ready as soon as possible; and I am hopefull we
will be in a condition in a very few days to pass forth
without oposition.
" We have got accounts this day of a victorie ob-
tained by our friends in the south, the particulars of
which we long for. I have sent you some copies of
the printed account of the action to give our friends.
" So adieu."
Notwithstanding the humane attentions shewn by
the Earl to Lord Forfar, that brave and generous
nobleman died of his wounds. After lingering more
than three weeks, he expired at Stirling on the eighth
122 JOHN ERSKINE,
of December. He was wounded in sixteen different
places, but a shot which he received in his knee seems
to have been the most fatal injury. The conduct of
the Earl appears in strong contrast with that of the
Earl of Isla ; but we must remember that each party
had its own chroniclers. It is, nevertheless, a result
of observation, more easily stated than explained, that
through the whole of the two contests, both in 1715
and 1745, the generous and somewhat chivalric bear-
ing of the Jacobites was acknowledged; whilst a
spirit of cruel persecution marked the conduct of
some of the chief officers on the opposite side. The
Duke of Argyle indeed, in his own person, presented
an exception to this remark, which chiefly applies to
those secondary to him in command and influence.
The conduct of Lord Mar, in retreating to Perth
after the affair of Sherriff Muir, has been severely
censured. But, as Sir Walter Scott has observed,
he met with that obloquy which generally follows
the leader of an unsuccessful enterprise. According
to Lord Mar's own account (and it has been cor-
roborated by others), his retiring to Perth was un-
avoidable. The Highlanders, brave as they were,
had a custom of returning home after a battle; and
many of them went off when the engagement was
ended. The Earl of Mar was not, therefore, in
a condition to pursue the advantage which he had
gained, but was forced to await at Perth the arrival
of the Chevalier, or of the Duke of Berwick ; on the
notification of which, the Highlanders would have
EARL OF MAR. 123
rallied to his' standard. No supplies had been sent ;
the gentlemen of the army, as well as the men, had
been long absent from their homes, and were living
at their own expense,; and therefore were impatient
for leave of absence. To add to the general dis-
couraging aspect of affairs, the fatal result of the
English insurrection, under the command of Mr.
Forster, was communicated at this time.
At first the result of the battle of Preston was
represented to the Jacobites at Perth in a very dif-
ferent light to that in which the defeat of the English
Jacobites afterwards appeared. The following is an
extract of a letter from Lord Mar, dated the twentieth
of November. " This day we hear from good hands
that they (the English Jacobites) have had a victory,
for which we have had rejoicings, and I hope in God
they are in a good way by this time. Let me hear
from you often, I beg it of you, and I'll long for the
particulars of that affair.
" I am doing all I can to get us again in a condition
to march from home. It will not be so soon as I
wish, which is no small mortification to me, but our
friends; you may depend on it, that it shall be as
soon as I can, and no time shall be lost. It is
wonderfull that neither the King nor the Duke of
Ormond comes, nor that I have not accounts from
them. Now that there is so considerable a party
appearing in England, I hope they will put it off no
longer. I hope all your friends in England are well
in particular, but pray let me have an account of it.
124 JOHN ERSKINE,
" Lord Tullibardin and Lord George are well ; they
are gone again to Atholl to bring back their men,
who went off that they might retrieve their honour,
as I doubt not but they will. It is a great pity if
poor Strathmore and Clanronald, and I'm afraid
honest Auchterhouse, is killed, for we can get no
account of him.
" I wish our prisoners may be as civilly treated as
theirs are with us. They are all sent to Dundee (the
officers I mean), where they have the liberty of the
town, and wear their swords. My compliments to
our sick friend, who I am sorry is still so; but he
has had a good second and secretary.
" Pray let us have some good news now, and I am
with all truth and esteem, Yours, &c."
" Perth, November 20, 1715."
" Lord Panmure recovers pritty well. The enimie
give out that he gave his parole when he was pri-
soner, but it was not so, he off 'red it them but they
wou'd not take it from a rebel as they call'd him,
and neither did Strewan ; so they were both resqued."
These letters place Lord Mar in a somewhat more
estimable light than the usual statements have done.
The truth is, that we ought never to judge of a man's
actions before we have had an insight into his real
motives and circumstances at the* time. Few indi-
viduals had greater difficulties to contend with than
Lord Mar.
Harassed by cabals among the adherents of the
EARL OF MAR. 125
Chevalier ; unable to account for the continued reserve
and absence of that Prince; and weakened greatly
both by the secession of the clan of Fraser, who had
joined the Insurgents with Mackenzie of Fraserdale,
but who now went away, and joined him whom they
considered as their real chieftain, the infamous Simon
Fraser, of Beaufort, Lord Lovat; the Earl began to
listen to those who talked of capitulating with
the enemy. He found, indeed, that he was forced to
comply with the wishes of the chieftains, some of
whom were making private treaties for themselves.
It must have been a bitter humiliation to Lord Mar
to have sent a message to his former rival in politics,
the Duke of Argyle, " to know if he had power to
treat with him;" but the measure appears from
the following letter to have been unavoidable. It was
written after the news of the defeat at Preston had
reached Perth. It bespeaks some degree of compas-
sion and consideration for a man whose councils
were distracted by dissensions, and who was em-
barrassed beyond measure by the absence of the
Chevalier, to whose arrival he looked anxiously to
give some hopes of revival to a sinking cause. The
Master of Sinclair, to whom Lord Mar refers as a
" devil," and who, since the disaster at Preston was
known, " appeared in his own colours," was the
eldest son of Henry, eighth Baron Sinclair, a de-
voted adherent of the House of Stuart, and one of
those who had withdrawn from the Convention of
1689 when the resolution to expel James the Second
126 JOHN ERSKIN 7 E,
was adopted. John, Master of Sinclair, was after-
wards attainted, and never assumed the title of his
father, although pardoned in 1726.*
November 27th, 1715.
" SlB,
" I had yours of the twenty-second, the twenty-
fifth, and also spoke with the person you mention
in it; I suppose he wou'd see you, as he returned.
The disaster of our friends in England is very un-
lucky, both to affairs there and here. Since we
knew of it here a devil, v, T ho I suspected for some
time to be lurking amongst us, has appeared openly
in his own colours. I forsaw this a-comeing some
days ago. I have endeavoured to keep people from
breaking amongst themselves, and was forced to go
into the first step of it; but I hope we shall be
able to have the manadgement of it, and prevent
its doing any hurt, but to confounde in time come-
ing the designs of those who were the promoters
of it. It was by the advise of all your friends
what I have done, so let not our folks be alarmed
when they hear of it from I g. It is odd
where the K * can be all this time, since, by
all appearance and all the accounts we have, he has
left France long ago ; but that must quickly appear,
and I hope to get things staved off til it does. But
without his comeing what can be done? Tho' I hope
that will not be the case. It is odd that others write
of Col. H y and Doctor Abor y, both at Parise,
* King.
EARL OF MAR. 127
and that they do not write themselves, tho' I'm told
to-day that there's a letter from them to me at Edin-
burgh, which I long for. We are told of troops come-
ing from Englande, both English and Dutch. I doubt
if they'll ventur to quitt with both, and I would fain
hope that none of them will come soon. God grant
that the K be safe. If he go to England, as we
are told he designed, I doubt not but he knows of
support there. I confess there's a great deal lost by
his long delay, but that certainly was not in his power
to help, else it wou'd not have been so. If he still
come here, I hope we will yet be able to make a stand
for him this winter, but I thought I was obledged to
let him know the true situation before he land,
which I have done to the best of my pow'r, and
lodged letters for him in the places where I thought
it most likely he wou'd come, so that he may not be
dissapointed by expecting to find things better than
they are. He has been so long by the way that it
wou'd seme he is not comeing to England, but that
he is comeing round about Ireland to Scotland ; and
neither he nor D d* be in England. It wou'd
seem that they will not stir there, which would make
it a very hard task here ; but I hope Providence will
protect him, and yet settle him on his throne.
" I find it will be sometime before I can stirr from
hence, and if the enemy get not reinforcments, I
judge they will not stirr either ; but as soon as they
get them they certainly will, and I'm afraid we shall
* Duke of Ormond.
128 JOHN ERSKINE,
be oblidged to take the hills, which is a could quarter
now. I wish you knew a great many particulars I
have to tell you, but it is not safe writing them;
there are some people with us who it had been good
for the King they had stay'd at home, where they
want not a little to be, and will leave us at last, but
we must make the best of them, tho' there be but ill
stuff to make it of as the saying is. Never had man
so plaguie a life as I have had o' late ; but I'll do the
best I can to go threw it, and not be unworthy of the
trust reposed in me. My service to Mr. Hall, and I
hope he'll make my compliments to his correspondent
at P se,* who he mentions in his to me ; but its odd
that I have heard from none there myself ever sine
B n came, especially since other letters come through.
I must own I have not had many encouragements,
but that should be nothing if I had encouragements
for others. Should it please God that the King's
affairs should not succeed, but that people capitulated,
I do not purpose to be a Scots or Englishman if they
would let me, and all that I wou'd ask for myself is
liberty to go abroad, for in that case I wou'd rather
live in Siberia than Britain. If the King does not
come soon, I find people will not hold out long ; but if
he does, there are honest men enough to stand by him
and not see him perish. Pray let me hear from you
as often as you can, and when you write to Mrs.
Miller f make my compliments to her. I wish some
of our men here had her spirit. I hope you are now
* Paris. t Lady Nairn.
EARL OF MAR. 129
perfectly recovered, but pray take care that you fall
not ill again. Adieu.
" Pray cause give the enclosed to my brother as
soon as it comes to your handes. I beg you may ap-
prise our friends at London and Parise of what has
been done hear to-day ; the sending to Argle at Stirling
a message about articles of treaty, as appears from
other papers, which I tel you I was forced to go
into ; that they may not be surprised at it and think
we have given all over, which might have very bad
consequences in both places. Do this by the first
post. All will come right again if the King come
soon to Britain."
The answer returned by the Duke of Argyle to
Lord Mar's overture was this : that " he had no suf-
ficient powers to treat with the Earl of Mar and his
Council as a body, but that he would write to Court
about it."
To this reply, which was sent with much courtesy
by the Duke, a rejoinder was made, " That when the
Duke should let the Earl of Mar and his Council
know that he had sufficient power, then they would
make their proposition." The proposal was sent up
to St. James's, but no further notice was taken of it,
nor were the powers of the Duke of Argyle extended
to enable him to come to any terms with Lord Mar.
But although the negotiation thus died away, the
weakness it betrayed among the Jacobite party was
highly prejudicial to their cause.
VOL. I. K
130 JOHN ERSKINE,
James, during all the recent events, had been en-
gaged in making several attempts to leave St. Maloes.
He had gone openly on board ships which were laden
with arms and ammunition for his use, but had with-
drawn when he found that his embarkation was
known. He therefore changed his plans, and cross-
ing to Normandy, resolved to embark at Dunkirk.
Having lurked for several days, disguised as a mariner,
on the coast of Brittany, he went privately to Dun-
kirk, where he embarked, attended by the Marquis
of Tynemouth, the eldest son of the Duke of Berwick,
Lieutenant Cameron, and several other persons, on
board a French ship, which, according to some accounts,
" was laden with brandy, and furnished with a good
pass-port." Thus at length having ventured on the
ocean, the Prince set sail towards Norway; but
changed his direction, and steered towards Peter-
head, in Aberdeenshire. During all this time, the
Earl of Mar suffered from the utmost anxiety and
perplexity for one who was unworthy of the exer-
tions made for his restoration. This is evident from
the following letter, dated November the thirtieth,
to Captain Straiten:
" The accounts of that person's* way of going on,
and the danger he is in, confound me; but I hope
Providence has not preserved him all this while to
destroy him at last. I am doing all I can to make
it safe ; and perhaps what we thought our misfortune,
* The Chevalier.
EARL OF MAR. 131
(the men going home after Sheriff Muir,) may prove
our happiness, they being where that person is to
come, and I send troops there immediately."
" I knew before I got yours that the Duteh troops
were coming here.""" Those by sea may come soon,
but those by land cannot be here a long time. They
will now power in all the troups from England on us ;
but I hope we may hold it this winter in spite of
them, tho' we shall have hard quarters in the High-
lands. In case of what Mr. H 11 writes me prove
true, and happen, for fear of accidents after it does,
were it not fitt that you should write to France to
send some ships to cruise up and down the north-
west coast to save the person Mr. H 11 writes of,
if things should not prove right? and our friends in
France can either send them from thence or Spain,
round Ireland? I hear of but two little ships of
warr on that coast; and the ships I would have sent
may pass as marchant ships tradeing and putting in
by accident therabouts, which they often do. Pray
think of this, and write of it soon to France, as I
intend to do to-night by an express I am sending;
and were it not fitt you should write of it too to some
trusty friend at London? But it must be done with
the utmost caution, for fear of disheartning the Eng-
The Dutch auxiliaries, to the amount of 6000, demanded by the
English government, as accorded by treaty, arrived, to the number of
3000, in the Thames, on the 16th of November, expressly to assist in
suppressing the rebellion, and proceeded to Scotland on the 25th. They
were afterwards followed by 3000 more, who, being obliged to put in at
Harwich, marched on by land. Reay, p. 327.
K 2
132 JOHN ERSKINE,
lish. Tho' the safty of that person is of such conse-
quence that all ways is to be taken for it, and all
accidents guarded against.
" I wrote to you the twenty-seventh, and in it
I gave you account of an affair which happened
amongst us, which obliged us to send a message to
the Duke of Argyll. I hope this came safe to your
hand. His answer was very civil, and our return
was in the words following, viz : ' We are obliged to
the Duke of Argyll for his civility; that, since he
has no powers to treat with us, we can say no more
now; but if at any time he shall have them, and
let us know it, we shall give our answer.'
" I hope this affair has been so manadgd that all the
spirit of division amongst us is crusht ; and pray
take care to informe our friends at London and Parise
about it, that it may not alarme them. I am affraid
of its alarmeing the Regent, and keeping him from
doing anything for the King ; for which reason I send
an express to Lord Bolingbroke to-night. I suppose
it will be ten or twelve dayes at least before the
Duke of Argyll will have a return, and we may
know much before that time. If they agree to a
treaty, it is still in our own power; and if not, I
hope people will stand together for their own sake.
" You speak in your two last as if you were opresst
about our divisions. All I shall trouble you further
in relation to this, there are odd people amongst us,
and those of whom it should not have been expected ;
they had instild their spirit so farr into many, that
EARL OF MAR. 133
there was no steming the tide but by going into it,
or else breaking amongst ourselves, and, like them,
make a seperat peace; but now those wise folk are
ashamed of themselves, and are disclaimed by those
who they said comissioned them. I do all I can
to make others forgett this behaveour of those people,
and I hope we shall be as unite as ever. If the King
come, I am sure we shall ; and if God is not pleased
to bless us with his presence, whatever we do shall
be in consert.
"I beg to hear often from you, and particularly
what you can learn of the motion of the enimie and
their designs.
" I send a reinforcement to-night to Bruntisland of
a hundred men, and there was fifty in it before.
" Lord Seaforth went north some time ago, and
severall of Lord Huntly's people; so I hope they to-
gither will be able to keep Lord Sutherland from
doing much mischife, and e'er long to reduce him and
all the King's enimies there. We are not yet in so
much apprehention of them as Mr. H 11 seems
to be. I am mightily pleased you are so much re-
covered, which I know by your hand-writeing ; but
I can scarce conceave how you get yourself keept free
of our enimies, may you do long so, and
" I am sincearly yours, &c. Adieu."
On the first of December, the Earl having still heard
no tidings of the Chevalier, and being ignorant of
his real movements, again writes in all the un-
134 JOHN ERSKINE,
certainty, and with the circumspection of one who
knows not whether his letter will be received.. He
seems always to have sent duplicates of his letters.
" I am in the utmost pain about the K ,* and
I have done all in my power to make him safe, but I
hope Providence will protect him. I sent one for
France this morning, and I hope he may sail in a day
or two, but let that not keep you from writeing there
too. I would fain hope that the Regent has altered
his measurs, and is comeing into the K 's intrest,
else I do not see how it had been possible for him to
get thro' France : if so, I have good hopes, and I wish
he may come to us; but if not, and that England do
nothing, I wish he were safe again where he formerly
was, for we shall never be able alone to do his bussi-
ness, and he will be in the utmost danger after starve-
ing a winter in the Highlands. Lord Huntley is
still very much out of humour and nothing can make
him yet believe that the K 's a-coineing. He in-
tends to go north, under the pretext of reduceing
Lord Sutherland, and his leaving us at this time
I think might have very bad effects, which makes
me do all I can to keep him. The Master of
Sinclair is a very bad instrument about him, and
has been most to blaim of any body for all the
differences amongst us. I am plagued out of my
life with them, but must do the best I can. I ex-
pect now to hear every day of the K 's landing;
* The King.
EARL OF MAR. 135
but should he be any time of comeing, and the Duke
of Argyll get his powers and send us word of it
before he come, our old work will begin again, and I
am sure I shall be deserted by a great many. Some
people seem so farr from being pleased with the news
of the K 's comeing, that they are visiblie sorry
for it ; and I wish to God these people had never been
with us, for they will be our undoing! and what a
plague brought them out, since they could not hold it
out for so short a time? I shall be blamed, I know,
over all Europe for what I am entirely innocent of. It
will be my own ruin beside, but if that could advance
the K 's affairs I am contented. In time I shall
be justified when my parte in all this affair comes
to be knowen, and I bless God I have witnesses
enough who have seen all; and if accidents do not
happen them, my papers will show it to conviction,
for I have been pretty exact in keeping copies and a
journal!.
" Since I have wrote so fully to you, I do not write
to Mr. H 11, for which I hope he'll forgive
me.*
" I am anxious to know if my brother got my note
that was inclosed to you in that of the twenty-
seventh, which was to caution him in a thing that
I was affraid his over great concern for me might
make him do, and which would vex me extreamly if
he did.
" I long to hear from you again, as I suppose you
* Lord Grange.
136 JOHN ERSKINE,
will from me ; and as soon as I know of what you'll
expect to hear of from me, you shall. Adieu."
In a few days afterwards Lord Mar had gained more
precise intelligence of the Prince's movements ; on the
delay at St. Maloes he puts the favourahle construc-
tion of the vessel's having been wind-bound, as will be
seen by the following letter. The dissensions in his
counsels, aided, as he hints, by the influence which the
Master of Sinclair exercised over the Marquis of
Huntley, were, still, not among the least of his diffi-
culties.
" December 6th, 1715.
" SIR,
" Last night one of the messengers I had sent to
France returned, and there came with him to Mont-
rose, Mr. Charles Fleeming and General Eclin; but
they are not yet come here, nor some money that
came along with them. I have a letter from the
King, the fifteenth of November, N. s. from St. Malos ;
sever all from Lord Bolingbroke, the last of which
was the twenty-seventh, and he belived the King
then to be saild, and he had been wind bound there
three weeks ; but he did not sail, as I understand
from the messenger til the eighteenth inst., he hav-
ing seen a letter from Col. Hay at St. Maloes, to
Mr. Arbuthnot, two dayes after he sailed. God send
him safe to us, for which I have done all in my
power ! It is in the hands of Providence, and I
hope God will protect him. It is not to be known
EARL OF MAR. 137
where he is to land, and indeed it cannot be known
certainly. Even this has not quite cured all the
whims amongst us. Lord grant a safe landing, and
I hope that will. The Duke of Ormond is gone to
England, and I believe he has some troops with him
and arms and ammunition.
" I hear from Fife to-day that there landed at Leith
on Sunday last four hundred of the Dutch troops. I
hope that's all that are comeing by sea. I have the
King's Declaration, which is to be reprinted here,
and shall be dispers'd in a few days. The less that it
be spoke that the King is to land soon, I believe the
better, until he actually does, for that but make
the Government more alert. Were he but once
landed, I have reason to belive that there will be
a new face of affairs seen abroad as well as at home
in the King's favour, which is all I dare yet ad-
venture to trust of it to paper; but I hope in God
were the King once with us all will be well.
" There are more officers comeing to us from abroad
different wayes, so it's likely they may be dropping in
every day. The Duke of Berwick stays behind for a
very good reason, and is to follow. The King has
been pleased to confer new honours on me, but I do
not think it fitt to take it on me til he comes, and if
it pleases not God he come to us safe, I am indifferent
what becomes of all I ever had, and this may go with
the rest. It is goodness in him, and more than I
askt or deserve. I will long to hear from you ; and
tho' I desire you not to let the news I write you be
138 JOHN ERSKINE,
much talkt of, yet I suppose it will be no secret, for
I am obliged to communicate what I get to so many
that it cannot possible be keept, and yet I cannot help
this. Tho' Lord Huntley said little to me to-day
upon my shewing him my letters, yet I know it from
good hands he is not a bitt in better humour, and
that he will now positively go north ; which I suppose
he'll write of to me to-morrow, for 'tis seldom now
he'll either see me or let me see him, tho' I take all
the ways I can to please and humour him, but all
will not do : however, I hope will not have many fol-
lowers. Master of Sinclair is gone this day to see
his father upon a sharp letter he had from him yes-
terday about his behaviour. Some others are ashamed
of the part they acted, but if the King come not soon
all of them will relapse again. The clans stand firm,
and I hope will to the last.
" Pray try to get notice of what private letters
from London say upon our proposeing terms, and
let me know as soon as you can. Adieu."
It is curious to trace the revival of the Earl's
hopes, and the increase of his confidence. The fol-
lowing letter contains, among other circumstances, a
reference to the supposed attempt of the Earl of Stair,
in France, to assassinate James.
g IR " December 10th, 1715.
" Yesterday I had yours of the fourth and fifth,
for which I thank you. I wrote to you on the eighth,
EARL OF MAR. 139
which I hope you got safe, and in it I told you of one
of the messengers I had sent to France being returned,
and with him General Eclin and Mr. Charles Fleming,
and some money: since that Doctor Abercromby is
returned and Lord Edward Drummond is come with
him and brought some more money. They come off
the same day with the others, and landed the same
day at Aberdeen the others did at Montrose. They
only brought duplicates of the dispatches I had by the
others, and a letter to me from the Q with a
pacquet from her to the K , by which you may
be sure he is sail'd, and we hourly expect to hear
of his landing. Since those people came, those
amongst us who had been uneasy, are now comeing
to be in good humour again, particularly Lord
Huntley; and I have agreed to his going north
with some of his horse to get all his people there to-
gether to suppress those about Inverness, and also to
have them in readiness against the K. comes. Pray
God send him safe and soon, and then I do not de-
spair of things going right still. Our whole pri-
soners almost, I mean the private men, are like to
take on since they heard of the K g's being certainly
a-comeing; and since they saw the two enclosed pa-
pers, they say that were he once come, there will be
news of their armie and all those prisoners. Even
those who do not lift with us, pray openly for the
K , and that God may keep him out of the hands
of his enimies.
" The two enclosed are sent about to a great many
140 JOHN ERSKINE,
places: it is better to delay dispersing the K 's
declaration til he arrive, since I hope that is near.
" I admear we hear no certain accounts of the
Duke of Ormond, for the fifteenth inst. the K and
Q too write to me that he was saild a second time
for England.
" Pray God it may be well with him, and if he do
not, then I wish he may come here with all my heart.
" We have heard nothing as yet of the Duke of
Argyle's return from London, and I imagine we shall
hear nothing from him upon it, when he does get it,
and I hope he shall never be askt for it more by us.
The Duke of Atholl will himself send his men against
Crafourd.
" I believe I forgot to tell you in my last that Colonel
Hay mist very narrowly being murdered in France,
takeing him for the K (being in one of his cheases),
by Lord Stair's gang, and in their pockets Lord
Stair's orders were found to go to such a place, and
there obey what orders they should receive from Count
Douglass* (Lightly), let them be never so desperate.
This is something so horrid that I want words to
* The following note is annexed to this letter. It is in the hand-
writing of Bishop Keith : " Son of Sir Wm. Douglass, colonel of a regi-
ment, and who had come over with the Prince of Orange to England,
and was made Knight and Colonel by the said Prince, as says my
Lady Bruce. The story Wm. Erskine, brother to the Earl of Buchan,
told me, as the King and he were travelling through France at this
period, they saw the Chevalier's picture set up in some of the post-
houses, and they were told this was done by the desire of the English
Ambassador, who had promised a reward to those who should stop and
apprehend the person whom the picture resembled."
EARL OF MAR. 141
express it. I tell it you just as those from France
tell me. The fellow was imprisoned by the govern-
ment there and reclaimed by Lord Stair. Lord Clair-
mont was actually reclaimed by the Eegent before
they come away; so his being brought to England
after, may work something. I have just now a
packet of news sent me by A. M., for which I thank
you. Notwithstanding this great new General's being
come, I see not how they can do anything at Stirling
till the Dutch join them, and that cannot be yet for
some time ; pray Heavens the K come before them !
I know by other accounts as well as yours, from
abroad, that they are not above four thousand com-
plete, and some of these are lost. Our Highlanders
have got in their heads a mighty contempt for them,
which may do good. This goes by the Hole,* from
when your packet yesterday was sent me. I have
nothing further to add now, but I hope soon to send
you agreable news. Pray give my service to I. H.
and desire him to make my compliments to his land-
lady and tel her, I hope she is now right with her
son, which I am exceeding glad of. Adieu."
At length, on the twenty-second of December,
James landed at Peterhead, after a voyage of seven
days. His arrival dispelled many doubts of his per-
sonal courage, since, after all his deliberations, he
adopted by no means the least hazardous course by
traversing the British ocean, which was beset by
* A concealment in the House of Kineil, near Borrostowness.
142 JOHN ERSKINE,
British men-of-war. He had sailed from Dunkirk in
the small vessel in which he had embarked, and
which was followed by two other vessels, containing
his domestics, and stores for the use of his army.
His immediate attendants were disguised as French
officers, and his retinue as seamen. It had been the
Chevalier's original intention to have landed in the
Frith of Tay; but observing a sail which he sus-
pected to be unfriendly, he altered his course, and
landed at Peterhead, where the property of the Earl
Marischal was situated. The ship in which the
Chevalier sailed was, however, near enough to the
shore to be able, by signals, to make signs to his
friends of his approach. At Perth the intelligence
was received with the utmost joy, and produced a
most favourable effect, even among the prisoners of
war, which Lord Mar describes in the following
letter. Up to the twenty-eighth of the month he
had not seen the Prince :
" The 28th December.
" Tours of the twenty-second I have got just now
by the Hole, and I sent one that way to you yes-
terday from our friend here, in which you have the
joyfull news of the King's safe arival, which I hope in
God will effectually sement what you recomend to us.
Our friend went yesterday morning to meett his mas-
ter, who I hope will be here with us again Friday ; I
pray God turn the hearts of his enemies, both for the
sake of him and their poor country! It will be a
monstruous crime never to be forgiven, if they now
EARL OF MAR, 143
draw their swords against him, since he has been pleased
to give them a most gratious indemnity for all that is
past, without exception. All will now soon be dis-
persed in the North that opose him. Sutherland's
men are all deserting him, and the Frasers are all
gone home. I make no doubt but that we are masters
of Inverness, and so consequently the whole North be-
fore this time. I make no doubt but that the King's
presence will forward everything : it has already had
great effects here: and those that were for separate
measurs have reason to be ashamed, and I hope they
will make amends by their future behaveor. We
have sent over some of the declarations, and ane other
paket of them is gone this night. Now is the time
for every body to bestir themselves, and that all
resort here to their master. I ame persuaded you'l
not be idle. Those that made a pretext of the King's
not being landed, are now left unexcusable; and if
those kind of folks now sit still and look any more
on, they ought to be worse treated than our worst
enemies. I beg of you to send us what accounts you
can learn on your side, and what they are now to do
upon this news. I hope in God we shall now be soon
ready to give them a meeting! It will be of con-
sequence for us to hear often from your side, and we
have little other accounts than from you. I have
sent yours by ane express this day to our friend, and
I hope to hear from you soon in return to the last
that went on Munday. The K lay on Saturday
night at the Earl of Marischall's house; he had a
144 JOHN ERSKINE,
very good and safe passage, and has given them a
fair slip, for I supose they did never rekon on his
coineing the near way. I hear there is a great resort
to him, since he landed, of all ranks.
" The Duke of Athol* sent a pairty of two him-
dered of his men yesterday morning, under the comand
of his brother Lord Edward, and his son Lord James,
to Dunkeld to have surprised our garison there, which
consisted of about one hundred men of the clans ; but
it seems the garison had notice of it some hours be-
fore they came, and gave them such a warm recep-
tion, that they retired in great haste with the loss of
two men killed by our out-sentinels and five or sixe
wounded. I belive his Grace's men had no good
will to the work, and were brought their against
their inclinations. They had nott then gott the ac-
count there of the King's arival, els I belive they
had not atempted it. I wish our garison were now
at Brunt Island, but I hope that loss soon be made
up. I hope you'l omitte no occasion in letting us
hear from you. Adieu.
" The above is writte to H. S.,f but it will serve
you both to forward it to him. I got the money and
the cloas safe. I expect to hear from you soon. I
have yours of the twenty-third. I have sent over a
paket to be dispersed, and some ane other way.
Your letters are longer be the way than they need so
* The younger brother of the Marquis of Tullibardine, but assuming
the forfeited title as head of the house.
t Henry Straiton.
EARL OF MAR. 145
order it. Fall on some proper way to gett the en-
closed delivered by some person, but be not seen in
it yourself. If ane answer can be got, send it."
The Chevalier slept in the town of Peterhead on
the first night of his landing, but on the second he
was received at Newburgh, a seat of the Earl Maris-
chal; and the adherents who welcomed him as their
Prince, had there an opportunity of forming a judg-
ment of one whom they had hitherto known only by
the flattering representations of those who had visited
the young adventurer, at his little Court in Lorraine.
In person, James is reported by the Master of Sin-
clair to have been " tall and thin, seeming to incline
to be lean rather than to fill as he grows in years."
His countenance, to judge by the most authentic
portraits* of this Prince, had none of the meditative
character of that of Charles the First, whom the Che-
valier was popularly said to resemble : neither had it
the sweetness which is expressed by every feature
of that unhappy Monarch, nor had his countenance
the pensiveness which wins upon the beholder who
gazes upon the portraits of Charles. The eyes of the
Chevalier were light-hazel, his face was pale and long,
* I have had the advantage of seeing an original crayon portrait of
the Chevalier, in the possession of Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., of Edin-
burgh ; also, a miniature painted at Rome, belonging to Mr. Sharpe.
In the miniature the eyes are darker, and have more animation than in
the crayon drawing. The portrait lately placed at Hampton Court
gives a much more pleasing impression of James Stuart than either of
these likenesses : the countenance is animated and benevolent.
VOL. I. L
146 JOHN ERSKINE,
and in the fullness of the lips he resembled his mother,
Mary of Modena. To this physiognomy, on which
it is said a smile was rarely seen to play, were
added, according to the account of a contemporary,
from whose narrative we will borrow a further
description, " a speech grave, and not very clearly
expressive of his thoughts, nor over much to the pur-
pose; his words were few, and his behaviour and
temper seemed always composed.
"What he was in his diversions we know not; here
was no room for such things. It was no time for
mirth. Neither can I say I ever saw him smile.
Those who speak so positively of his being like King
James the Seventh, must excuse me for saying that
it seems to say they either never saw this person or
never saw King James the Seventh; and yet I must
not conceal that when we saw the man whom they call-
ed our King, we found ourselves not at all animated
by his presence; and if he was disappointed in us, we
were tenfold more so in him. We saw nothing in
him that looked like spirit. He never appeared with
cheerfulness and vigour to animate us: our men
began to despise him ; some asked if he could speak.
His countenance looked extremely heavy. He cared
not to come abroad among us soldiers, or to see us
handle our arms to do our exercise. Some said the
circumstances he found us in dejected him. I am
sure the figure he made dejected us ; and had he sent
us but five thousand men of good troops, and never
himself come, we had done other things than we have
EARL OF MAR. 147
done. At the approach of that crisis when he was to
defend his pretensions, and either lose his life or gain
a Crown, I think, as his affairs were situated, no man
can say that his appearing grave and composed was
a token of his want of thought, but rather of a sig-
nificant anxiety grounded on the prospect of his in-
evitable ruin, which he could not be so void of sense
as not to see plainly before him, at least, when he
came to see how inconsistent his measures were how
unsteady the resolution of his guides, and how impos-
sible it was to make them agree with one another."*
It was at Grlammis Castle, the seat of the Earl of
Strathmore, that the Earl of Mar drew up a flatter-
ing account of the Prince, which he caused to be
printed and diligently circulated.! The whole is
here given, as affording an insight into all that was
going on:
" I have had three of yours since I left Perth,
but I wonder I have no letters from London. I mett
the King at Fetteresso on Tuesday se'night, where we
stayed til Friday ; from thence we came to Brichan,
then to Kinnaird, and yesterday here. The King
designed to have gone to Dundee to-day, but ther's
such a fall of snow that he is forced to put it off
* " A True Account of the Proceedings at Perth," by a Rebel, sup-
posed to be the Master of Sinclair.
t That portion of the letter only which refers to the Chevalier appears
to have been printed. I have given the entire letter from which the
account was taken. A portion of this letter is published in Brown's
History of the Highlands, vol. iv. p. 332.
1.3
148 JOHN ERSKINE,
til to-morrow, if it be practicable then; and from
thence he designs to go to Scoon. There was no
haste in his being there sooner, for nothing can be
done in this season, else he had not been so long by
the way. People every where as we have come along,
are excessively fond to see him and express that duty
they ought. Without any compliment to him, and
to do him nothing but justice, set aside his being a
prince, he is realie the finest gentelman I ever knew.
He has a very good presence, and resembles King
Charles a great dele. His presence, tho', is not the
best of him; he has fine partes, and dispatches all
his buissiness himself with the greatest exactness. I
never saw any body write so finely. He is afable to
a great degree w*out looseing that majestic that he
ought to have, and has the sweetest temper in the
world. In a word, he is even fitted to make us a
happie people, were his subjects worthie of him. To
have him peaceablie settled on his thron is what
these kingdomes do not deserve; but he deserves it so
much, that I hope ther's a good fate attending him.
I am sure ther's nothing wanting to make the rest of
his subjects as fond of him as we are, but thus know-
ing as we now have the happiness to do. And it
will be odd if his presence amongst us, after his run-
ning so many hazards to compass it, do not turn the
hearts of even the most obstinat. It is not fit to tel
all the particulars, but I assure you, since he arived,
he has left nothing undone that well could be to gain
every body, and I hope God will touch their hearts.
EARL OF MAR. 149
His Majestie is very sensible of the service you have
done him, and he desires you may continue, for which
he hopes he may yet be able to reward you. He
wrote to France as soon's he landed, and sent it with
the shipe he came in, which we hope got safe there
long ago. It is not often that we can have oppor-
tunity of writeing or sending there, and the Queen
and others will be mighty impatient to hear fre-
quently; therefore his Majestie expects you should
write there frequently, and give them all the accounts
you can. I have reason to hope we shall very quickly
see a new face on affairs abroad in the King's favour,
which is all I dare comitt to paper. The Government
will nott certainly send all the strength against us
they can, but e'er long, perhaps, they may have oca-
sion for their troups else where.
" I belive one wou'd speak to you lately of a kind of
comisary of the Dutch, that may be spoke to, which
by no means ought to be neglected, and he being on
your side the watter, it is left to you, and you must
not stick at offering such a reward as he himself can
desire, which I shall see made good: there should no
time be lost in this, and I'll be glad to know soon if
there be any hopes that way.
" Tho' the way of sending letters betwixt us be now
much more difficult than ever, yet you must write as
often as you possiblie can get any probable way of
sending of them safe; and pray give us all the
accounts you can. I have ordred some of the King's
declarations for England to be sent you, and when
150 JOHN ERSKINE,
they come to your hands you wou'd get some way of
sending them to London and other places of England.
Send the enclosed for my wife under a cover, as you
used to do; by my not hearing from her, I am affraid
my last has not come to her hands. When any comes
from her for me, pray take care that you send them a
safe way. We long to know what effects the news
of the King's arivall had at London, Stirling, and
Edinburgh. I suppose you still hear from Kate
Bruce. I do not understand what she means by
going to the country, which she mentions in her letter
to you.
" I see in one of the prints that Lawrance is come off
from London, so by this time he must certainly be in
Scotland ; pray let me know what you hear of him.
If he be come, I suppose he'll understand himself so
well as our prisoner, that he will immediately give
himself up to us again.
" The King wears paper caps under his wige, which
I know you also do ; they cannot be had at Perth, so I
wish you could send some on, for his own are near out.
" We are in want of paper for printing ; is there no
way to send us some from your side?
" Pray, send my wife one of the Scots and one of
the English declarations at the same time my letter
goes, but under another cover. Adieu.
" Since writeing I have yours of the thirty-first and
first, for which I thank you, and am just going to
read them to my master."
EARL OF MAR. 151
Little dependance can be placed on the entire ac-
curacy of either of these varying descriptions, the
one penned by a disappointed, and perhaps wavering,
adherent, the other by a man whose personal interests
were irrevocably involved with those of James. We
must trust to other sources to enable us to form a
due estimate of the merits of this ill-starred Prince.
James Stuart was at this time in his twenty-seventh
year. From his very cradle he had been, as it might
seem to the superstitious, marked by fate for a destiny
peculiarly severe. His real birth was long dis-
puted, without the shadow of a reason, except what
was suggested by a base court intrigue. This slur
upon his legitimacy, which was afterwards virtually
wiped away by the British Parliament, was neverthe-
less the greatest obstacle to his accession, there being
nothing so difficult to obliterate as a popular impres-
sion of that nature.
Educated within the narrow precincts of the exiled
court, James owed the good that was within him to
a disposition naturally humane, placable, and just,
as well as to the communion with a mother, the fide-
lity of whose attachment to her exiled consort bespoke
a finer quality of mind than that which Nature had
bestowed on the object of her devotion. By this
mother James must doubtless have been embued with
a desire for recovering those dominions and that
power for which Mary of Modena, like Henrietta
Maria, sighed in vain, as the inheritance of her son ;
152 JOHN ERSKINE,
but the stimulus was applied to a disposition with
which a private life was far more consonant than the
cares of sovereignty. Rising as he does to respect-
ability, when we contrast the good nature and mild
good sense of the Chevalier with the bigotry of James
the 'Second, or view his career, blameless with some
exceptions, in contrast with the licentiousness of
Charles the Second, there were still no high hopes
to be entertained of the young Prince ; his character
had little energy, and consequently little interest : he
was affable, just, free from bigotry although firm
in his faith, and capable of great application to busi-
ness ; but he wanted ardour. From his negative
qualities, the pitying world were disposed to judge
him favourably. " He began the world," says
Lockhart, " with the general esteem of mankind; but
he sank year by year in public estimation : his Court
subsequently displayed the worst features of the
Stuart propensities, an intense love of prerogative;
and his mind, never strong, became weaker and weaker
under the dominion of favourites."
The ship in which James had sailed returned to
France immediately to give the news of his safe ar-
rival, and at the same time Lieutenant Cameron,
the son of Cameron of Lochiel, was dispatched to
Perth to apprise the Earl of Mar of the event. Upon
the spur of the moment the Earl, accompanied by the
Earl Marischal and General Hamilton, and attended
by twenty or thirty persons of quality, on horseback,
EARL OF MAR. 153
set out with a guard of horse to attend him whom
they considered as their rightful Sovereign. The
cavalcade met the Chevalier at Fetteresso, the prin-
cipal seat of the Earl Marischal. " Here," says Reay,
" the Chevalier dressed, and discovered himself," and
they all kissed his hand, and owned him as their
King, causing him to be proclaimed at the gates of
the house. At Fetteresso the Prince was detained
during some days by that inconvenient malady the
ague. Meantime, the declaration which he had pre-
pared, and which was dated from Commercy, was dis-
seminated, and was dropped in some loyal towns by
his adherents in the night-time, there being danger
in promulgating it openly.*
On the second of January, 1715-16, the Chevalier
proceeded to Brechin, and thence to Kinnaird;
and on Thursday to Glammis Castle, the seat of the
Earl of Strathmore. On the sixth of January he
made his public entry into Dundee on horseback,
at an early hour. Three hundred followers at-
tended him, and the Earl of Mar rode on his right
hand, the Earl Marischal on his left. At the sug-
gestion of his friends, the Prince shewed himself in
the market-place of Dundee for nearly an hour and
a half, the people kissing his hands. The following
extract from a letter among the Mar Papers affords a
more minute and graphic account of the Chevalier's
demeanour than is to be found in the usual his-
tories of the day.
* Reay, 352.
154 JOHN ERSKINE,
" I hear the Pretender went this day from Glams
to Dundee, and comes to Scoon to-morrow ; and I am
shourly informed that your old friend Willie Cal-
lender went to Glams on Wensday and kissed the
Pretender's hand, of whom he makes great speeches,
and says he is one of the finest gentlemen ever he
saw in his life. Its weell that his landing is keept
up from the army, for he has gained so much the
good will of all ranks of people in this country that
have seen him, that if it was made publick it's thought
it might have ill effects among them. He is very
affable and oblidging to all, and great crowds of the
common people flok to him. When he toke horse
this morning from Glams, there was about a thousand
country people at the gate, who they say, gave him
many blessings: he has tuched several of the ivil,
as he did some this morning. He is of a very plea-
sant temper, and has intirely gained the hearts of all
thro' the places he has passed. He aplyes himself
very closs to business, and they say might very weell
be a Secretarie of State. He has declared Lord Mar-
ischall one of his bedchamber. The toun of Aberdeen
made him ane address, as did all the other touns as
he passed; and I hear he is, at the request of the
episcopal clergy in this country, to apoint a day of
thanksgiving for his safe arival, and like ways a
proclamation, to which will be referred his declaira-
tion, with something new, which shall be sent to you
with first ocasion. There came a battalion of Bre-
dalbins men to Perth on Tuesday, and ane other of
EARL OF MAR. 155
Sir Donald M c Donalds this day ; and they are now
daily getting in more men.
" This is all the intelligence I can give you, and I
hope to hear from you again soon, and lett me know
what certain number are now come over, and what
more designed. Deliver the enclosed and tell him
these papers could not be gott him just now, but shall
per next. I ame affraid poor W. Maxewell wild be
dead before you get this, of a fever and a flux : he is
given over this two days. Write soon."
After the display at Dundee, the Chevalier rode to
the house of Stewart of Grandutly, in the neighbour-
hood, where he dined and passed the day. On the
following day he proceeded along the Carse of Gowrie
to Castle Lyon, a seat of the Earl of Strathmore,
where he dined, and went thence to Fingask, the seat
of Sir David Threipland. On the eighth of January
he took up his abode in the royal palace of Scoon,
where he intended to remain until after his coro-
nation.
For this event preparations were actually made
by the Earl of Mar, whose sanguine spirit ap-
pears to have been somewhat revived by the pre-
sence of the Chevalier. The addition of a new dig-
nity to his own ancestral honours had marked the
favour and confidence of James. Before the arrival
of the Chevalier in Scotland, the Earl of Mar had
been informed that a patent of dukedom was made
out for him ; on which he thus expressed himself in a
156 JOHN ERSKINE,
letter, written before the Chevalier's landing, full of
gratitude and professions.*
"Your Majesty has done me more honour than I
deserve. The new dignity you have been pleased to
confer on me is what I was not looking for; and
coming from your Majesty's hands is what gives it
the value. The patent is not yet come, but tho' it
had, I think I ought not to make use of it till your
Majesty's arrival."
The Earl of Mar had now had an opportunity of
throwing himself at the feet of the King, which, as he
expressed, " is the thing in the world he had longed
most for." But still, the difficulties in his path
seemed to be rendered more insurmountable than ever
by the arrival of James.
In the first place, the landing of the Chevajlier
evidently sealed the doom of those gallant and un-
fortunate noblemen who had been taken prisoners at
Preston; and rendered all hopes of mercy futile.
The sixteenth of January, which witnessed the form-
ing of the Chevalier's council at Perth, was the day
on which the unfortunate Derwentwater, Nithisdale,
Kenmure, Wintoun, and Widdrington, petitioned for
two days' delay to prepare for their trials. Their
doom was hurried on in the general panic ; and in the
addresses from both Houses of Parliament to King
George, it was declared by the members of those
assemblies " that the landing of the Pretender in this
* MS. Letter in the possession of Alexander Macdonald, Esq., of the
Register Office, Edinburgh.
EARL OF MAR. 157
kingdom had greatly encreased their indignation
against him and his adherents."
It is impossible that the Earl of Mar could have
heard, without deep commiseration, and perhaps
remorse, of the peril in which those ill-fated adherents
of James were placed, although he may not have
anticipated the full severity of the law. In one of
his subsequent letters he remarks : " By the news I see
the Parliament is to have no mercie on our Preston
folks: but I hope God will send them salvation in
time." One of his greatest sources of anxiety had
been respecting the movements of the Duke of Or-
mond, upon whose making a diversion in favour of
James, in England, Mar had counted. The news
that Ormond, after having been seen on the coast
of England, had returned, disheartened, was brought
by the Chevalier, who heard of it at St. Maloes.
The only chance of success, the last hope, were cen-
tered in this resource. The failure of this expecta-
tion was fatal, as Lord Mar conceived, to the cause,
and on it he grounded his own subsequent with-
drawal from England.
The entrance of the Chevalier into Perth, on the
ninth of January, was attended with far less enthusi-
asm than the previous portion of his progress. His
reception was comparatively cold. On asking to see
their " little kings" (the chieftains) with their armies,
the Highlanders, diminished in numbers by the se-
cession of the Marquis of Huntley and the absence
of Lord Seaforth and others, were marched before
158 JOHN ERSKINE,
him. James could not help admiring their bear-
ing; but the small amount of troops in the camp
filled him with a dejection which he could not con-
ceal. When, a few days afterwards, the unfortunate
Prince addressed his council for the first time, he
said, with mournful truth, these words. " For me, it
will be no new thing if I am unfortunate : my whole
life, even from my cradle, has been a constant series
of misfortunes." This sentiment of ill-presage was
re-echoed in the address of the Episcopal clergymen.
" Your Majesty has been trained up," said these
divines, at Fetterosso, " in the School of the Cross,
in which the Divine grace inspires the mind with
true wisdom and virtue, and guards it against those
false blandishments by which prosperity corrupts the
heart." And as this school has sent forth the most
illustrious princes, Moses, Joseph, and David, it was
hoped that a similar benefit would accrue to the
character of the Prince whom the Episcopal Clergy
thus welcomed to their country.
Meantime the project of crowning the Chevalier at
Scone amused the minds of the people, and con-
tinued to be the subject of diligent preparation by
the Earl of Mar. Unhappily a ship laden with
money and other aids, had been lost on its passage
from France, close to the Tay, for want of a pilot.'"
The difficulties which were augmented by this mis-
fortune, are alluded to in the following extract from
one of Lord Mar's letters.
* Mar Papers.
EARL OF MAR. 159
" January 15th, 1716-16.
" I wrote to you yesterday by one that used
to come here from Mr. Hall, which I hope will come
safe to your hands. At night I had yours of the
fourteenth, and this night that of the tenth. The
caps do pritty well, and I have orders to thank you
for them. I send you one of his own ; if you can get
such paper t'is well, and if not, the other is what
he likes best of any that you sent; so let some of
either one or other come when you have an occasion.
" I am sorry Mr. Brewer* is ill, for his presence
here wou'd be of great use; and as soon as he is
able I wish he wou'd come, which I am ordered to
tel you, and also that you may endeavour to get
a copie of the coronation of King Charles the First
and Second, which certainly are to be had in Edin-
burgh. Willie Wilson had them, and perhaps some
of his friends may have got copies of them from him,
which may be had.
" I spoke to one some time ago about makeing a
crown in pices at Edinburgh and bringing it over
here to be put togither, who, I believe, talkt to you
of it. That man was here some days ago, but went
away before I knew it is wisht that such a thing
could yet be done, which is left to your care.
" In case there be occasion for it here, as I wish
there may, bulion gold is what I'm afraid will be
wanting, but it will not take much. Had not the
misfortune I wrote to you of hapn'd to Sir J. Ers-
* Thomas Bruce, afterwards Earl of Kincardine.
160 JOHN ERSKINE,
kine* there had been no want of that. We have got
no farther account of that affair, tho' we have people
about it; but if they do not succeed this night or
to-morrow when the spring tide is, it is lost for ever.
There is more by the way tho', and I hope will have
better fate. I have ordered more papers to be sent
you, and certainly you have more of them before
now. It is mighty well taken what that lady (the
letters from London say) has ordered, as to those you
sent her, which you are desired to let her have; and
I do not doubt she will do the same as to those con-
cerning E d. Adieu."
By the next letter it appears that the good opinion
entertained by Lord Mar of the Chevalier was real;
since the whole of the epistle has the tone of being a
natural effusion of feeling, and is a simple statement
of what actually took place, and not the letter of a
diplomatist.
" SIR,
" I have seen a letter from Mr. S g, who had
spoke with you on the subject I formerly wrote to you
of, concerning that fo f y of the D h to a gen-
tleman with us, Mr. S q's friend, and upon it our
master has thought fit to write the enclosed to him,
and orders me to tell you that you must cause give
him an hundred guineas at the delivery of the letter.
The letter is left open for your perusal, and I wish it
may have effect, as perhaps it may. There's no time
* The loss of the ship from France.
EARL OF MAR. 161
to be lost in it, and I'll long to know what passes in
it, and what hopes you have of him. I sent you
credit for five hundred pounds, which I hope you got
safe; but if by any accident it should not come to
your hands, Mr. S q there, is a certain goldsmith
that will advance what there is occasion for this way.
I send you enclosed a letter, which may be of use
in an affair I wrote of in my last.
" We have got severall deserters since the K.
came, and last night nine came in with their clothes
and arms, and says many more will follow soon,
which I wish we may see. They say, too, that the
two regiments of dragoons are marcht from Glasgow
for England, and that two are to go from Stirling to
replace them. Were they designing to march against
Scoon, sure they would not do this, nor is it possible
they can do anything in this weather; but if they,
notwithstanding, attempt it, perhaps they may find
frost in it.
" As I am writing I have received yours of the
thirteenth. I read it to the K g, and delivered him
the enclosed letter from Mr. Holmes, which was very
well taken, as you will see by the enclosed return,
which you'll take care to forward safely; and pray do
me the favour to make my compliments there.
" Perhaps you'll hear things of the two northern
powers* that will look odd to your other friends, as
no wonder; but all will come right again the time
* An allusion to the Marquis of Huntley and Lord Seaforth.
VOL. I. M
162 JOHN ERSKINE,
they had taken being out in a few days. There's one
sent some days ago to assist them, so I hope things
will be soon right there, tho' they have done much to
spoil them, and each of them makes an excuse of
one another as they have done from the begining.
The K , you will see by all the enclosed, is not
spareing of his pains. You must fall on the right way
of having them all delivered.
" That to Seaforth he writes upon the great pro-
fessions he made when in France ; he is such a fellow
that I'm afraid it will do little good.
" I have nothing else material to say just now,
but I cannot give over without telling a thing which
I'm sure will please you that the longer one knows
the King the better he's liked, and the more good
qualities are found in him; that of good-nature is
very eminent, and so much good sense that he might
be a first minister to any king in Europe, had he
not been born a king himself. He has allowed Neil
Campbell to go to Edinburgh t'other day on his
parole, he being ill, and it was with so much good
nature that was evident in his doing of it, that it
charmed me. I wish you could get notice how Neil
represents it or expresses himself when he gets there ;
for I wrote it at length to the gentleman who wrote
to me about him. Adieu.
" If people from S q be designing to come to us,
they should either do it soon or give us assurances of
doing it soon as we are in view of each other; and
these assurances must be such that we can depend on,
EARL OF MAR. 163
for our conduct must in a great measure be regu-
lated by what we expect that way.
" It were highly necessary that methods and mea-
sures were concerted for the right way of doing this,
which you should let such of them as you know are
so trusted know, and it is absolutely necessary that
they either send one to me about this, or let me know
it certainly some other way, that we may not be
drawing different ways when we are designing the
same thing.
" We have no return of the last message which was
sent to the good man of the house you wrote of, and
t'is above eight days ago. I believe he designs right,
tho' t'is odd."
The enthusiasm which was at first displayed to-
wards the Chevalier was soon cooled, not only by his
grave and discouraging aspect, but by his fearless and
impolitic display of his religious faith. He never
allowed any Protestant even to say grace for him, but
employed his own confessor " to repeat the Pater
nosters and Ave Marias: and he also shewed an
invincible objection to the usual coronation oath,
a circumstance which deferred the ceremony of
coronation, Bishop Mosse declaring that he would
not consent to crown him unless that oath were taken.
This sincerity of disposition for it cannot be called
by a more severe name especially diminished the
affections of the Chevalier's female episcopal friends,
who had excited their male relations to bear arms in
M2
164 JOHN ERSKINE,
his favour. But the circumstance which weighed the
most heavily against James, was the order which he
published, on hearing that the Duke of Argyle was
making preparations to march against him, for burn-
ing the towns and villages, and destroying the corn
and forage, between Dumblane and Perth. This act
of destruction, from the effects of which the desolate
village of Auchterarder has never recovered, was de-
termined on, in order that the enemy might be in-
commoded as much as possible upon their march; it
added to the miseries of a people already impo-
verished by the taxes and contributions which the
Jacobites had levied. It appears, however, from a
letter of James's, since discovered, or perhaps, only
suppressed at the time, to have been an act which he
bitterly regretted, and the order for which he signed
most unwillingly. He was desirous of making every
reparation in his power for the ravages which were
committed in his name.*
On the ninth of January a council of war was held
by the Duke of Argyle at Stirling, where, by a sin-
gular coincidence, the council sat in the same room in
which James the Second, then Duke of York, had, in
1680, been entertained by the Earl of Argyle, to
whom he had proposed the repeal of the sanguinary
laws against Papists. The refusal of Argyle to con-
cur in that measure, the consequences of his con-
duct, and his subsequent death, are circumstances
which, doubtless, arose to the remembrance of his
* Mar Papers.
EARL OF MAR. 165
descendant, as he discussed, in that apartment, the
march towards Perth.
The country between Stirling and Perth was
covered with a deep snow ; the weather was one con-
tinual storm ; it was therefore impossible for the
army of Argyle to proceed until the roads were
cleared, a process which required some time to effect.
It is asserted, nevertheless, by an historian, that upon
Colonel Ghest being sent with two hundred dragoons
to reconnoitre the road leading to Perth, that the
greatest panic prevailed in that town: immediate
preparations were made for defence, and nothing was
to be seen except planting of guns, marking out
breastworks and trenches, and digging up stones,
aad laying them with sand to prevent the effects of a
bombardment.* The Earl of Mar, nevertheless, does
not appear, if we may accredit his own words, to have
even then despaired of a favourable issue. The fol-
lowing letter betrays no fear, but speaks of some
minor inconvenience, which is far from being of a
melancholy description. The difficulty of procuring
the right sort of ribbon for the decoration of the
Garter, is altogether a new feature among the adver-
sities of royal personages. It seems strange that
James should not have provided himself, before quit-
ting France, with all that was necessary to preserve
the external semblance of majesty.
* Reay, p. 364.
166 JOHN ERSKINE,
" January 20th, 1715-16.
" I wrote to you the eighteenth, and sent severall
others enclosed, which I hope will come safe to you.
The inclosed, markt D. F., is from the King to Davie
Floid at London, which he desires you may take care
to gett conveid to him safly and soon, it being of
consequence. The other is for my wife, which I beg
you may forward as usewall.
" We are told that ther's some foot come to Dum-
blain, and that ther's more expected there. And they
still talk as if they designed to march their whole
armie against us nixt week. Perhaps they intend it,
but with this weather I see not how 'tis in their
power. If they do tho', upon their expecting we are
to abandon Perth upon their aproach, as Pm told
they believe, they will find themselves mistaken,
for all here are resolved to stand it to the last, and
perhaps we will not wait their comeing the lenth, but
meet them by the way. We might have left it
indeed, some time ago ; but that time is past, and the
King's being with us alters the case in every respect.
After all, I cannot get myself to belive that they will
actually come to us in haste, and if they do they may
mistake their reckning. Sure I am, it were impos-
sible for us to march to them in this snow, and our
folks are as good at that as they. The snow puts me
in mind of the children of Israel's pillar of smoke
and pillar of fire ; and to say truth, ther's something
EARL OF MAR. 167
in the weather very odd and singular; I never saw
such.
" My cloathes are almost all worn out, haveing left
some at the battle : I know not if you could get me
any made and sent from Edinburgh ; but if you could,
I should be glad of it. Ther's one^Bird was my tay-
ler, and I belive has my measur, or some old cloathes
of mine, that he could make them by. Perhaps he's
a whig tho', and will not do it. I would have them
deep blew, laced with gold, but not on the seams. I
have but one starr and no riban, but 'tis no great
matter for that, a better man than I is in the same
case ; he has only one scrub, one which he got made
since he came, and no right riban. I believe ther's
neither of that kind of blew nor green riban to be got
at Edinburgh; but if you could get some tolorablie
like it, you send some of both. Wine is like to be a
more sensible want. We got a little Burgundy for
the King, but it is out ; and tho' we know of a little
more, I'm affraid we shall scarce get it brought here;
and he does not like clarit, but what youl think odd,
he likes ale tolerably well. I hope they will send us
some from France, but with this wind nothing can
come from thence. George Hamilton saild on Satur-
day last, and I belive is there long e'er now, which I
heartily wish he may, and I hope you shall soon see
the effects of his going with what he caried with
him.
" I am affraid Macintosh's men in England may be
in hard circumstances for want of money. The King
168 JOHN ERSK1NE,
has ordred some for them, which is this daye given
to a friend of theirs who was sent to me from the
North, who sayes he knows how to get it remitted to
them.
" By the news I see the Parliament is to have no
mercie on our Preston folks, but I hope God will send
them salvation in time.
" I wish you would send us the newspapers oftner,
for we get them but seldome; the soonest way of
sending them is by A. W. at Kirkaldy, who will find
some way of sending them to us, notwithstanding of
their garisons in Fife.
" I'm affraid what I wrote to you of formerly to be
in danger will never be recovered, for it could not at
this time, tho' it was try'd ; and I fear shall not the
next either, tho' we are to do all we can about it, and
it was too much to go that way.
" We have heard nothing further as yet from the
goodman of the house, as you call him, which I am
surprized at. I can say no more now, so Adieu."
If we may believe the public prints of the day,
dissensions now arose between the Chevalier and the
'Earl of Mar: the former blaming his general for
having urged him to come over, when he had so
small a force to appear in his favour; the latter, re-
criminating that the failure of aid from the Con-
tinent had discouraged the Chevalier's friends. The
Earl of Mar was severely blamed, to quote from the
same source, for having deceived the Chevalier in
EARL OF MAR. 169
making him believe that the forces in Scotland were
more considerable than they really were, and for
giving his Scottish friends reason to suppose that the
Chevalier would bring over foreign auxiliaries. That
the former part of these allegations against Mar was
untrue, is shewn by the letter which has been given,
explaining to the Prince the state of affairs; and
rather discouraging him from his attempt.* That
the whole report was groundless, was manifested by
the favour and confidence which James long con-
tinued to extend to the Earl after his exile abroad.
For some time, the Earl or Mar and his party
contrived to keep up their hopes. The season was
indeed in some respects their friend, since it neces-
sarily impeded the movements of Argyle's army
against them. The winter of 1715-16 was one of
the most severe that had been felt for many years,
not only in Scotland, but abroad. In France and
Spain the cold was so excessive, and the snow so
deep, that the country people could not go to the
market towns to buy provisions, whilst the plains
were infested with bears and wolves, emboldened by
the desolation, and ranging over the country in great
numbers.f
Whilst the intense frost lasted, the three thousand
Highlanders who were encamped at Perth were able
to defy the English army, although now supplied
with artillery and amunition from Berwick. Their
* Flying Post, or the Post Master, for January 28 and 31, 1716.
t Evening Post, Feb. 2, 1716.
170 JOHN ERSKINE,
security was furthermore increased by a heavy fall
of snow succeeding a partial thaw, and followed by
a frost, which rendered the roads more impracticable
than ever, especially for the foot-soldiers. This
circumstance had even occasioned some deliberation
whether it would not be advisable for the Duke of
Argyle to defer his march to Perth until the winter
should be ended. Until the middle of January, it
was the full intention of the Highlanders, and also
that of the Earl of Mar, to stand the event of a
battle, let the enemy's force be what it might. That
they purposed thus to maintain their ancient cha-
racter for valour, was, even as those most adverse
to them allow, the prevalent report. It is borne
out by the Earl of Mar's correspondence. On the
twenty-third of January he thus writes to Captain
Straiton :
" The 23rd January.
" I have yours of the seventeenth and the twen-
tieth both togather last night, and a paket from H.
in the last. I wrote to you on Saturday the old way,
and sent you a paket enclosed, which I belive is of
consequence, so I hope it's come safe, and that H.
has gott it. He has had two or three sent him from
this of late, different ways, and one goes of this day
by the near way he sometimes uses. We hear from
all hands of the preparations against us, but we re-
solve to stand it, cost what it will, and if they come
out we will certainly give them battle, lett their
number be never so great. It must now be plain to
EARL OF MAR. 171
all* that will allow themselves to see, that nothing
less is designed by the present managers than the
intire ruin and destruction of this poor country, and
of every honest man in it ; and if this will not be an
awakened people, I know nothing that will. Since
this then is plainly the case, there can be no choise
in dying honourably in the field for so just a cause,
or leving to see the ruin and intire destruction of our
country, our King, and our friends and relations.
For my part, I shall prefer the first with all cheer-
fulness, and never desire to live to be a witness to the
latter, which certainly will be the case if it please
God our King should be defeat."
The next paragraph of this letter speaks mourn-
fully of disappointment in those on whose aid the
Earl had counted.
" It must be a strange infatuation that has gott
amongst people, especially those that always pretended
to be friends to our cause, many of whom told before
the King came that they wad certainly joyn him
when he landed, and made his not being with us
the only objection, and now when he is come they
make some other shift ; I must say such people are
worse than our greatest enemies; and if any mis-
fortune should befal the King or his cause, (which God
forbid !) I think they that pretended to be our friends
have very much to count for, and are more the cause
of it than any others, since no doubt the ashourances
that many gave to joyn us when the King landed
172 JOHN ERSKINE,
was a chief motive for his comming to us. I hope in
God we shall be able to opose them tho' their num-
bers should be greater, and to their shame and con-
fusion be it if they come against us. I hope very
soon the King will have such assistance as will de-
feat all their designs, and that his affairs will take
a sudden turn in other pairts."
The most serious defection from the Jacobite
cause was the submission of the Marquis of Huntley
and the Earl of Seaforth to the victorious arms of
the Earl of Sutherland, aided by Lord Lovat, in
Invernesshire. Seaforth had collected, on the Moor
of Gilliechrist, twelve hundred men, the remnant of
those whom he had been able to save from 'Sherriff
Muir ; but finding that Lord Sutherland had resolved
to force him into an engagement, he owned King
George as his lawful Sovereign, and promised to lay
down his arms. This had occurred early in December,
and, according to Lord Mar, before the Earl of Sea-
forth, in those remote regions, could have heard of
the Chevalier's landing. Mar therefore regarded it
as a temporary cessation on the part of Seaforth and
Huntley, for a given period, of hostilities against the
Government.
As far as related to Lord Seaforth, the belief of
Lord Mar was correct. At the end of the days
agreed upon for the cessation of arms, Seaforth drew
his people together, the influence of clanship enabling
him to summon them at will, like a king ; and again
EARL OF MAR. 173
appeared in arras. This was the consequence of the
news that James had landed having reached Inver-
ness. But Seaforth could not retrieve the cause of
James in the North, nor repair the effects of even
a temporary submission. Eventually he returned to
the party which he had espoused, and escaped to
France. The Marquis of Huntley made his own
terms with the Government.
At this critical juncture, unanimity still prevailed,
according to Lord Mar, among the assembled chief-
tains at Perth. " I do assure you," he writes, " that
since the arms came here, there has not been a
quarrel of any kind happened among us not even
among the Highland men, which is very extraordi-
nary ; and you may depend upon it there is the
greatest unanimity here just now, and all fully re-
solved to stand to it, let what will come. I pray
God preserve our King from the wicked and hellish
designs of his enemies ! I hope we will be apprized
of their motions, so as to be in readiness to receive
them."
*
These expressions were written, but the letter
which contained them was not sent, on the twenty-
third of January. The postscript, written in a hur-
ried hand, shows that the camp at Perth was not
unprepared for the coming attack.
" Since . writing of the inclosed, I have two from
you which I gott last night with the paket; and ane
account of that detachment of horse comming out,
174 JOHN ERSKINE,
who we hear came the lenth of Acterardie,* upon
which account the whole army here were ordred to
be in a readyness to march this morning, and we
have no account they are returned : we hear it was
to vew the roads, and to try if it was practicable
to march their army, which they will find very hard
to doe while this weather holds. The account you
gave in yours of their motions and that detachment,
was very distinct. The K. read it himself, it came
prety quick. I entreat you fail not to lett us have
what accounts you can learn, for what comes from
you are among the best we can gett.
" The K. ordered a review of the whole army here
this morning, and they are all to hold themselves
ready at one half ane hour's advertisment. Lett me
hear from you soon. Adieu."
Again, on the twenty-fourth of January :
" What is above should have gone this morning,
but was delyed. Six hundered of the clans are gone
out this night to reinforce the garison of Braco and
Grief. I hear they have orders to destroy the corn-
yards and barns about Achterardir and Black Ford,
which we hear were revewed by the enemy yesterday.
The King signed thir orders, I can ashour you, most
unwillingly ; and caused put it in the order that
every thing should be made good to the poor people,
with a gratuity ; and if any of them pleased to come
to Perth, they should be maintained and all care
* Auchterarder.
EARL OF MAR. 175
taken of them. This you may take for truth, for no
doubt they will make a great noise about it.
" We have just now got ane account of a ship being
come into Montross, but we know not yett what she
brings. Adieu, writte soon. I am in haste."
" Eleven att night."
On the twenty-fourth of January, the Duke of
Argyle marched to Dumblane, with two hundred
horse, to reconnoitre the roads. The report that the
enemy was approaching, was quickly conveyed to
Perth ; and now was the order to burn and destroy
the village of Auchterarder, the contents of the
houses, all stores of corn and forage, mournfully and
promptly executed. It was supposed by this, that
the march of Argyle's forces would be impeded; but
it produced no other inconvenience to that army than
obliging them to lie one night in the open air; whilst
the unpopularity it brought on James and his ad-
visers, was long the subject of comment to their
enemies. It is consolatory to those who wish to judge
favourably of James to find this declaration in Lord
Mar's correspondence.
" The King was forced, sore against his will, to
give these burning orders, as all of us were, could we
have helped it; but this extraordinary manoeuvre of
the enemy made it absolutely necessary. A finger
must be cut off to save the whole body. I have
ordered some copies of a proclamation to be sent you.
17G JOHN ERSKINE,
There is about two of the places burnt, and there's
another ordred about the rest. Adieu.
" It was not amiss that this proclamation were
sent to London."
In pursuance of the cruel and impolitic commands,
to which Lord Mar refers, three thousand Highlanders
were sent forth to the act of destruction. Auchter-
arder, Crieff, Blackford, Denning and Muthel, were
mercilessly burned; and the wretched inhabitants
turned out at that inclement season to destitution,
without a roof to shelter them. Many decrepid
people and children perished in the flames.* Had
James sought, in truth, to prepare a way for the Go-
vernment in the hearts of the people, he could not
have adopted a more suitable means. In the Duke
of Argyle, he had a generous and humane adversary
to deal with, one whose forbearance laid him under
the imputation of a want of zeal for the cause of
the Government, and rendered him no favourite at
the English Court. The fashion at the Court of St.
James's, according to a letter in the Mar Papers,
was, to rail against the Duke, and even George the
First and those about him joined in the unjust and
ungrateful abuse.
Even so late as Sunday, the twenty-ninth of
January, when Argyle's troops left Stirling and
advanced to Braco Castle, Lord Mar appears to have
been in ignorance of their actual movements. Per-
haps, like the busy world of London politicians, he
Reay, p. 364.
EARL OF MAR. 177
regarded the project of an attempt upon Perth in
such weather as impracticable. Such was the opi-
nion at St. James's. " Argyle's friends here," writes
one near the Court, " speak of the march and the
attempt at present as madness." And another indi-
vidual writes, that " one half of their people must
die of cold, and the other be knocked o' the head.
So it seems Argyle is dragg'd to this matter. We
cannot perceive, by all the letters that come up, any
particular certainty as to Lord Mar's number and
his designs. The Court are positive he will not
stand; and they, as well as Ridpeath, assert strongly
that the Pretender is gone already as far as Glammis.
The Jacobites fancy that if he went thither, it
was to meet and assemble these officers that were
landed."*
Whilst in this state of perplexity Lord Mar thus
writes :
"Jan. 29th.
" SIR,
" I have keept the man that brought yours of
the nineteenth and twentieth, from A. W., on Satur-
day, till now, that I might have a sure and speedy
way of writeing to you when anything of consequence
happened, which we were expecting every minut last
night. I wrote one to you when I belived the
enemie's front to be at Auchterarder, and despatcht
it ; but late at night getting intelligence of that party
* Mar Correspondence.
VOL. I. N
178 JOHN ERSKINE,
of the enemie who were marching towards Aucter-
arder haveing marcht back without comeing the
lenth of that place to Dumblain, if not to Stirling,
without halting by the way, I stopt my letter and
kepp it till they actually march, and then perhaps I
may yet send it to you, there being some other things
in it necessary for you to know upon that emergance
which is needless other wayes.
" In it I told you of my haveing received yours of
the eighteenth on Sunday, and last night those of the
fifteenth and twenty-first both togither.
" By all appearance the enemie resolve to march
against us, as one might say, whether it be possible
or not. They sent a party of horse and foot to Dum-
blain on Sunday, which came near to Auchterarder
yesterday, I belive to try if the thing was practicable,
but they returned to Dumblain as above. We shall be
forced to burn and distroy a good deal of the country
to prevent their marching, which goes very, very much
against the King's mind, as it does mine and more of
us ; but ther's an absolat necessity for it, and I believe
it will be put in execution this night or to-morrow
morning, which grieves me. Could it be helpt ? this
way of their makeing warr in this, I may say, im-
practicable season, must have extraordinary me-
thods to oppose it. And I hope in God, any that
suffers now, it shall soon be in the King's power to
make them a large reparation. After all, when they
have no cover left them, I see not how it is possible
for them to march. We are like to be froze in the
EARL OF MAR. 179
house ; and how they caii endure the cold for one
night in the fields, I cannot conceive; and then the
roads are so, that but one can go abreast, as their
party did yesterday ; and ther's no going off the road
for horse and scarce for foot, without being lost in the
snow; but if, after all, they do march, we must do
our best, and 1 hope God will preserve and yet pros-
per the King, who is the best prince I belive in the
world.
" As for news in the kingdome of Fife, I suppose
you wou'd hear that a party of the MGrigors some
dayes ago from Faulkland attacquet a party of Swise
and militia from Leslie and beat them, takeing thirty-
two prisoners, wherof eleven horse, as I hear. I have
not time to say more, so adieu."
" January 29th, 1715-16."
Again, in another letter on the same day, the Earl
still seems to consider the game as not then lost. It
is amusing to find how, in the carrying on of his
projects, he availed himself of the aid of ladies,
and how troubled he sometimes found himself with
" busie women." Whilst this letter was being
penned, Argyle was employing the country people
around Auchterarder in clearing the roads of snow :
and, on the following day, he had advanced towards
Tullibardine, within eight miles of Perth. On that
very Sunday, Lord Mar thus writes : it is evident he
had at this time formed no plan of retreat.
N 2
180 JOHN ERSKINE,
" Sunday, 11 o'clock forenoon, Janu 29th, 1715-16.
" SIR,
" Since I wrote to you I have got yours of the
twenty-second, one of the twenty-third, and two of
the twenty-fifth; the last of which, tho' the first
wrote, I got not til this morning. I wou'd have
wrote to you these two dayes by post, but we have
had so many alarms of the enimie's marching towards
us, that I had not time, as I have very little to say
anything just now, for I expect ivery minut to hear
of their being marcht from Dumblain, where a con-
siderable number of them have been these two dayes
this way.
" The enclosed you must take care to send by the
first post which is opened again on purpose for you to
read, but I'm affraid you will not understand it all.
As to that paper you sent me which came from Eng-
land, there can be nothing said to it from hence just
now, only that they are to do the best they can ; and
I hope shortly that country shall have sent them where
withall to enable them to make a better figur than
they have hitherto done. We are not in a condition
here to give them any help just now. Ther's one
Mrs. Lawson, who seems to be a diligent body, that
complains a little that you do not allow her to see
you often enough, which I take to be the complaint of
an over busie woman, than which ,ther's nothing more
uneasie ; but just now such people must be humoured,
and she has really been usefull. Before this goes
'tis very likely I may have occassion to inclose one I
EARL OF MAR. 181
formerly wrote to you upon a certain occasion, but
did not then send as I told you in another, the thing
not then hapning, but we expect it every minut.
Deserters of all kinds come in to us pritty fast,
foreigners as well as subjects ; and if they but give
them time, I am perswaded great numbers will.
" 'Tis now five o'clock and we have no accounts of
any of the enimie being come further than Dodoch,
where a partie of them came last night, so I'll
detain the messenger. This goes by no stranger. Per-
haps they may find the roads impracticable, and by the
burning that they can advance no further, at which,
indeed, I shall not be much surprised ; and if so, may
be forced to delay their extraordinary march til more
human weather for making warr. The King was
forced, sore against his will, to give these burning
orders, as all of us were, could wee have helpt it ;
but this extrodinar manuver of the enimie made it
absolutly necessary : a fingor must be cut of to save
the whole body. I have ordered some copies of a
proclamation to be sent you, there is about two ot
the places burnt, and ther's another order about the
rest. Adieu.
" It were not amiss that this proclamation was
sent to London. The little young letter enclosed is
for Lady Wigton, which pray cause deliver."
On Tuesday, the last day of January, the Duke of
Argyle passed the river Eru, and took possession of
Tullibardine. It has been stated by several his-
182 JOHN ERSKINE,
torians that the Jacobites fled from Perth on the
same day; but the following letter from Lord Mar,
dated the first of February, shows that the flight
could not have taken place until the following day.
This curious letter, which was written at the early
hour of six in the morning, is unfinished. It is the
last in the series of that correspondence which has
formed of itself a narrative of Lord Mar's life, from
his first taking upon himself the office of General
and Commander-in- Chief, to the hour when he
virtually resigned that command. In the midst of
pressing danger his sanguine nature seems not to
have deserted him : his love of the underplots of
life, the influence of " Kate Bruce," and the arrange-
ments for a coronation, were as much in his thoughts
as in the more hopeful days before Sherriff Muir
and Preston.
" Wednesday, about six forenoon,
ffebruary 1st, 1716.
" On Monday evening I gave you the trouble of
a greatly long letter, mostly on indifferent subjects,
and sent it off yesterday to A. W. If I was too
tedious upon what concerned a woman and a Prince,
it was with a good intent, and to make matters
plain. By what I hear from R. B., and the Hole,
that Argyle's forces were yesterday forenoon at Stir-
ling, and so was the regiments of dragoons there and
St. Ninian's, for accounts of motions there and there-
abouts, on both sydes of the river, you may expect
EARL OF MAR. 183
it best sent from R. B., the Hole, and a grave
gentleman.
" By yesternight's post I sent of M c Quart's letter;
and indeed, in most or all letters I write to that
quarter for ten weeks past, I alwayes requested that
whatever was to be done might be quickly done. I
lykeways sent to London between fyve or six, several
honest hands, to put off the proclamation declaration
about burning, and that paper of which I some days
ago sent you two copies. And now I begin to think
I have been in the wrong to Mr. S g, in the
short character I gave you of him, at least, if it be
true that I am told, that he is not only author of that
paper I sent you the two copies of, but has got a
very great number of them printed ; and tho' I may
be an insufficient judge, I must acknowledge I am
very well pleased with the paper, for I think it full
of plain truths ; and besydes other dispersings, I did
indeed yesterday cause putt in fiftein copies of it in
the Lords of Session's boxes.
" The litle letter to my good Lady W.* I caused
carefully to be delivered. I wish all women had
some share of her good, sweet, easie temper, for, as
you will observe, over-busied women are most un-
easie; and I have had much experience of it within
these four months past in many instances, and with
more persons than one or two. The only incon-
venience I had by Kate Bruce lodging in the same
house with me was, it brought in too many women
* Porbably Wigton.
184 JOHN ERSKINE,
upon me, and some of these brought in others, and
to this minute I cannot with descretion get quit of
them.
" A good time ago you were pleased to tell me
you could not well conceive how I got myself keept
free, but if you now knew what a multitude knows
where I lodge, you would wonder more; and indeed
it is no litle admiration to myself: but as soon as
I have so much strenth, and can fynd a convenient
place (which is not easie), I will change my quarters,
if it were for no other reason than to be quit of
useless people of both sexes, that interrupt me from
busieness, or trouble with impertinent questions. And
whyle I am accuseing others of indescretion, I wish I
am not so myself in so much insisting upon and
troubling you with such matters.
" At Perth I have gott a collection of all papers
relating to the coronation of King Charles the First
and Second, and shall send them whenever you think
fitt; but I suppose it may be convenient to lett the
present hurrie a little over before I send them to
you.
" How the great Generalls can imploy their hors
to great purpose in the deep snow, or how men and
hors will long hold out in such weather, is what I
do not understand. I hope a shorter time than they
imagine will destroy, even without the help of an
enemy, at least, make many, both men and hors,
inserviceuble."
EARL OF MAR. 185
Much had been going on in the meantime, to
which Lord Mar, perhaps from the fear of spreading
a panic, does not even allude to his correspondent in
Edinburgh. When it became known in Perth that
Argyle had left Stirling, the advisers of the Chevalier
were dismayed and distracted by contending counsels.
But the mass of the army expressed a very different
sentiment, rejoicing that the opportunity of a ren-
contre with the enemy was so near : congratulations
were heard passing from officers to their brother
officers, and the soldiers, as they drank, pledged their
cups to the good day near at hand. The council,
meantime, sat all night : the irresolution of that body,
towards morning, was disclosed to the impatient sol-
diery: the indignation of the brave men, and more
especially of the Highlanders, burst forth upon the
disclosure of what had passed in the council. The
gentlemen volunteers resented the pusillanimity of
their leaders : and one of them was heard to propose
that the clans should take the Chevalier out of the
hands of those who counselled him to retreat, and
added that he would find ten thousand gentlemen in
Scotland that would risk their lives for him. A
friend of Mar, after remonstrating with these mal-
contents, asked " What they wished their officers to
do?" "Do!" was the reply; "what did you call
on us to take arms for? was it to run away? What
did the King come hither for? was it to see his
people butchered by hangmen and not strike a note
186 JOHN ERSKINE,
for their lives? Let us die like men, and not like
On the thirtieth of January the Chevalier himself
opened another council in the evening, and in a few
words proposed a retreat. Lord Mar then addressed
the meeting, and advocated the measure with a degree
of ingenuity and eloquence which, at that moment,
we are disposed rather to condemn than applaud;
yet, his reasons for abandoning Perth were such,
as in cool reflection were not devoid of justice, and
they might be founded upon a humane consideration
for the brave adherents of a lost cause. He stated,
first, as the cause of his proposal, the failure of the
Duke of Ormond's invasion of England. Secondly,
the accession of foreign troops to the Duke of Argyle's
force. Lastly, the reduced number of the Chevalier's
troops, which then amounted to four thousand, only
two thousand three hundred of which were properly
armed. Even in that weak condition the Chevalier
would, according to Lord Mar's subsequent state-
ment, gladly have maintained Perth, or ventured a
battle; but when the enemy with an army of eight
thousand men were actually advanced near to the
place, it was found impracticable to defend Perth?
the town being little more at that time than an open
village; and the river Tay on one side, and the fosse
on the other, being both frozen over, it would have
been easy to enter the town at any quarter. Added to
this, the mills had been long stopped by the frost, so
* Brown's Highlands, vol. iv. p. 337.
EARL OF MAR. 187
that there were not above two days' provision in the
town. There were no coals to be procured: the
enemy had possession of the coal mines in Fife, and
wood was scarce. The Earl also contended that the
Highlanders, however able in attack, were not accus-
tomed to the defence of towns.
Eeasons equally cogent were employed against go-
ing out to fight the enemy, and a retreat northwards
was at length proposed. But it was no easy task
to bring the brave spirits who had hailed the ap-
proach of Argyle, to accord in sentiments which might
spring from discretion, but which ill agreed with the
Highland notions of honour. The council, after a
stormy debate, was broken up in confusion, and ad-
journed until the next morning.
Some hours afterwards, a few, who were favour-
able to the abandonment of Perth, were summoned
privately by Lord Mar ; and it was then agreed not
to fight, but to retreat. For a time this determina-
tion was concealed from the bulk of the army, but
it gained wind ; and on the evening of the thirty-first
of January, eight hundred of the Highlanders indig-
nantly left Perth, and retired beyond Dunkeld, to
their homes. That very night, also, the Chevalier,
who had far less of the Scottish Stuart within him
than of that modified and inferior variety exemplified
in the British line of the family, disappeared from
the town, and repaired to Scone. He supped and
slept in the house of the Provost Hay ; and on the
following morning, at an early hour, was ready for
188 JOHN ERSKINE,
retreat. To do the Chevalier justice, there was,
according to Lord Mar's journal, much difficulty in
persuading him to this step : it was found necessary
to convince him that it had become a duty to retire
from the pursuit of the Government, which, as long
as he was in the country, would never cease to perse-
cute his followers, who could not make any terms
of capitulation so long as he remained. He was
obliged, at last, to consent : " And, I dare say,"
adds Lord Mar, " no consent he ever gave was so
uneasy to him as this was."* Of that point it
would be satisfactory to be well assured.
On the first of February, four hours after the un-
finished letter of Lord Mar was written, the Jacobites
abandoned Perth, and crossing the frozen stream of
the Tay, took their route to Dundee. They went
forth in such precipitation, that they left their can-
non behind them, a proof that they never hoped to
oppose again the victorious arms of Argyle. About
noon the Chevalier, accompanied by Lord Mar, fol-
lowed his people towards the North. He is said to
have been disconsolate, and, shedding tears, to have
complained " that instead of bringing him a crown,
they had brought him to his grave." This murmur
and these tears having been reported to Prince Eu-
gene, of Savoy, that General remarked " that weeping
was not the way to conquer kingdoms."!
The Jacobites marched direct for Dundee, along
the Carse of Gowrie. The Duke of Argyle's forces
" Patten, p. 248. t Reay, p. 367.
EARL OF MAR. 189
entered Perth only two hours after the Highland
army had entirely cleared the Tay, which, happily for
their retreat, was frozen over with ice of an extraor-
dinary thickness. At Dundee the Chevalier rested
one night only; but leaving it on the second of
February, was again succeeded by Argyle and his
squadrons, who arrived there on the following day.
The unfortunate Prince pursued his way to Mon-
trose. His route along the sea-coast gave credence
to a report which had now gained ground, of his in-
tention of embarking for France. The loudest mur-
murs again ran through the Highland forces, worthy
of a noble leader, and the sight of some French
vessels lying near the shore confirmed the general
suspicion. This was, nevertheless, somewhat allayed
by an order to the clans to march that evening at
eight o'clock to Aberdeen, where, in accordance with
the crooked policy and deceptive plan of Lord Mar,
it was represented that large supplies of troops and
arms would meet them from France. * But a very
different scheme was in agitation among those who
governed the feeble James, and perhaps, with right
motives, guided him to his safety.
A small ship lay in the harbour of Montrose, for
the purpose, originally, of carrying over an envoy
from James to some foreign court. This vessel was
now pitched upon to transport the Chevalier ; the
size being limited, she could accommodate but few
passengers: and therefore, to avoid confusion, the
Chevalier " himself thought fit to name who should
190 JOHN ERSKINE,
attend him." " The Earl of Mar, who was the first
named, made difficulty, and begged he might be left
behind; but the Chevalier being positive for his
going, and telling him that, in a great measure,
there were the same reasons for his going as for his
own, that his friends could more easily get terms
without him than with him, and that, as things now
stood, he could be of no more use to them in their
own country, he submitted."*
The Chevalier then chose the Marquis of Drum-
mond to accompany him : this nobleman was lame
from a fall from his horse, and was not in a condition
to follow the army. He, as well as the Earl of
Mar, the Lord Tullibardine, and the Lord Linlith-
gow had a bill of attainder passed against them.
The Chevalier on that account was desirous of taking
these other Lords with him ; but both were absent :
Lord Tullibardine was at Brechin with a part of the
foot, and Lord Linlithgow at Berire with the horse.
He ordered the Earl Marischal, General Sheldon, and
Colonel Clephan to accompany him.
After these arrangements the Chevalier issued se-
veral orders which reflect the utmost credit upon his
disposition. After appointing General Gordon Com-
mander-in-chief, with all necessary powers, he wrote
a paper containing his reasons for leaving the king-
dom, and, delivering it to the General, gave him at
the same time all the money in his possession, except
a small sum which he reserved for his expenses and
those of his suite; and desired, that after the army
* Lord Mar's Journal.
EARL OF MAR. 191
had been paid, the residue should be given to the im-
poverished and houseless inhabitants of Auchterarder.
He then dictated a letter to the Duke of Argyle, in
which he dwelt at some length upon his distress at
being obliged, " among the manifold mortifications
which he had had in this unfortunate expedition," to
burn the villages. The letter, which was never
delivered to the Duke of Argyle, is in the possession
of the Fingask family.*
Having completed these arrangements, the Che-
valier prepared to take leave for ever of the Scottish
shores. The hour had now arrived which was ap-
pointed for the march of the troops, and the Che-
valier's horses were brought before the door of the
house in which he lodged : the guard which usually
attended him whilst he mounted, were in readiness,
and all was prepared as if he were resolved to march
with the clans to Aberdeen. But meantime, the
Chevalier had slipped out of his temporary abode
on foot, accompanied only by one servant; and going
to the Earl of Mar's lodgings, he went thence, at-
tended by the Earl, through a bye-way to the water
side, where a boat awaited him and carried him
and the Earl of Mar to a French ship of ninety
tons, the Marie Therese, of St. Malo. About
a quarter of an hour afterwards two other boats
* A copy is given of the Prince's letter in Dr. Brown's work on the
Highlands, vol. iv. p. 340. It. is a sort of expostulation with the Duke,
but mildly and sensibly expressed. " I Tear," he said, alluding to the
British people, " they will find yet more than I the smart of preferring a
foreign yoke to the obedience they owe me."
192 JOHN ERSKINE,
carried the Earl of Melfort and Lord Drummond,
with General Sheldon and ten other gentlemen, on
board the same ship: they then hoisted sail and
put to sea; and notwithstanding that several of the
King's ships were cruizing on the coast, they sailed
in safety, and after a passage of seven days, arrived
at Waldam, near Gravelines, in French Flanders.
The Chevalier sailed at nine o'clock. Some hours
afterwards, Earl Marischal and Colonel Clephan
arrived at the shore, but they could get no boat to
convey them, for fear of the men-of-war that were
cruizing near. The Marie Therese, nevertheless,
got out of reach of these vessels before daylight.
With what reflections Lord Mar left his native
country a prey to the power of an irritated Go-
vernment, cannot readily be conceived. That he
left it at such a moment, is a fact which for ever
stamps his memory with degradation. The deserted
adherents of James, being in no condition to make a
stand against the Duke of Argyle, betook themselves
to holes and caves, mostly in the remote parts of the
Highlands, where many lurked until they could safely
appear; but such as were most obnoxious took the
first opportunity of ships to carry them into foreign
countries; and vessels were, to this end, provided
by the Chevalier with such success, that many
escaped from the pursuit of justice.
James, accompanied by the Earl of Mar, proceeded
to his former residence at St. Germains, where, in
spite of the wishes of the French Government that
EARL OF MAR. 193
he should repair to his old asylum in Lorraine, he
wished to remain. In Paris, the Chevalier met two
of his most distinguished adherents, the faithless
Bolingbroke, and the popular Duke of Ormond.
Although aware of the unsoundness of Bolingbroke 's
loyalty, James received him cordially. " No Italian,"
says Bolingbroke, " ever embraced the man he was
going to stab with a greater show of affection and
confidence."
For some time the Chevalier lingered in Paris,
hoping to see the Kegent. " His trunks were
packed, his chaise was ordered at five that after-
noon," writes Lord Bolingbroke, " and I wrote word
to Paris that he was gone. Instead of taking post for
Lorraine, he went to the little house in the Bois de
Boulogne, where his female ministers resided; and
there he continued lurking for some days, pleasing
himself with the air of mystery and business, while
the only real business which he should have had at
heart he neglected."*
Avignon was now fixed on as the retreat of the
Chevalier; and thither, after some delay, he retired,
to an existence politically forgotten by the Conti-
nental powers, until the war with Spain and the
consequent declaration of the Spanish King in his
favour recalled him to importance.
Lord Mar, meantime, occupied himself in fruitless
endeavours to excite, once more, the struggle which
had just ended so fatally. As far as France was
* Bolingbroke's Letter to Sir William Wyndhatn.
VOL. I.
194 JOHN ERSKINE,
concerned, all those schemes upon which Mar suc-
cessively built were futile: no aid could ever be
expected during the Regency. " My hopes," said
Bolingbroke, speaking of the Jacobite cause, " sunk
as he [Louis the Fourteenth] declined, and died when
he expired. The event of things has sufficiently
shown that all those which were entertained by the
Duke [of Ormond], and the Jacobite party under
the Regency, were the grossest delusions imaginable."*
Some of the remaining years of Lord Mar's life
were, nevertheless, devoted to chimerical projects,
for which he received in return little but disappoint-
ment, ingratitude, and humiliation. One of his
schemes was to engage Charles the Twelfth of Swe-
den on the side of the Chevalier. In a letter to
Captain Straiten, the Chevalier's agent in Edinburgh,
he signified that if five or six thousand bolls of meal
could be purchased by the King's friends and sent
to Sweden, where there was then a great scarcity,
it would be of service to his master in conciliating
the good will of Charles. This proposal was com-
municated by Mar's desire to Lockhart of Carnwath,
to Lord Balmerino, and to the Bishop of Edinburgh.
But it was the sanguine disposition of Mar which
alone could lead him to suppose such a scheme prac-
ticable. It was, in the first place, found impossible
to raise so large a sum from men, many of them
exiles, or involved in difficulties from the expenses
of the recent insurrection. It was also deemed folly
* Letter to Sir Win. Wyndham, p. 139.
EARL OF MAR. 195
to conceive that so large a quantity of Scotch meal
as was necessary could be exported without exciting
the suspicion of Government.
The next plan which Lord Mar contrived was not
so fully unfolded as the project of which Charles the
Twelfth was to be the object. He wrote to Edin-
burgh, soon after the failure of the first scheme, to
this effect : that a certain foreign prince had entered
into a design for the restoration of James : that it
" would look odd if his friends at home did not
assist him;" and he wished they would fall on some
means to have in readiness such a sum as they could
afford to venture in his cause when a fair opportunity
occurred. The hint was taken up seriously by the
zealous Lockhart of Carnwath, and assurances were
sent from " several persons of honour, that they
would be in a condition to answer his Majesty's call."
Among these, the Earl of Eglintoun offered three
thousand guineas ; and the others " would have given
a good round sum." The conduct of the English Go-
vernment to the Duke of Argyle, who had been su-
perseded as Commander-in- Chief in Scotland, and
the strong personal friendship between Lockhart and
the Duke, emboldened Mar to hope that a negotiation
might be entered into with Argyle, and that he might
be persuaded to join in their schemes. At the same
time, Lord Mar enjoined the strictest secrecy in all
these affairs, and with reason, for the letters of the
exiled Jacobites abounded in false hopes and plans;
and many of their correspondents at home had not
o 2
196 JOHN ERSK1NE,
the discretion to conceal their delight, when the
sanguine expectations of their party prevailed over
despair.
The agent employed by Lockhart to treat with the
Duke of Argyle was Colonel John Middleton. By
him Lockhart was, however, assured that his Grace
would neither directly nor indirectly treat with Mar,
for " he believed him his mortal enemy, and had no
opinion of his honour; and," added Middleton, " I
cannot think Mar does, more seriously now than be-
fore, desire to see Argyle in the King's measures,
lest he eclipsed him." It was therefore resolved by
Lockhart, that the correspondence between the Che-
valier and Argyle should be contrived without Mar's
cognizance. A letter was written to James, and was
forwarded by Captain Straiten, enclosed, to the Earl
of Mar, who was, in another epistle from Lockhart,
" entreated not to be offended that the contents of the
letter were not communicated to him, because he was
bound to impart the same alone to the King."
This letter, containing a proposal so important to the
interests of James, is supposed never to have reached
the Chevalier. Mar, distrustful and offended, is sus-
pected of having broken it open, and given it his own
answer in a letter to the Duke of Argyle, which
tended to affront and repel the Duke rather than to
invite him to allegiance. When, some time after-
wards, Lockhart's son spoke on the subject to the
Chevalier at home, and represented what a fair op-
portunity had been lost, the Prince replied, " that he
EARL OF MAR. 197
did not remember ever to have heard of it before."*
Whether Mar was misjudged or not must be a matter
of doubt, but this anecdote proves how little respect
was entertained for his good faith, or even for his
possessing the common sentiments of gentlemanly
propriety, when the suspicion of breaking open a
letter which had been entrusted to him was attached
to his conduct.
In consequence of the difficulty of bringing any
scheme to bear, from the want of a head, Lockhart
had contrived a plan of having trustees in Scotland
to conduct it, to be empowered by James to act
during his absence, and in his behalf. This plan
had the usual obstacles to encounter among a set of
factious partisans, who were only united when the
common danger pressed and common services were
required, but discordant and selfish in the calmer days
of suspense. Mar, perhaps, with greater wisdom than
he was allowed to display, did not advance the
scheme; his reluctance to promote it was ascribed
to his love of power in Scotland ; but since the plan
was resented by Tullibardine, Seaforth, and Pen-
mure,f as infringing upon their dignity, there is as
good reason for believing that it was the suggestion
of an intriguing ambition on the part of the proposer,
as that Mar resisted it on selfish grounds. The no-
tion was excellent, but the difficulty was to find
men of sufficient fidelity, honesty, and prudence to
exercise functions so delicate.
* Lockhart, vol. ii. p 17. t Ibid.
198 JOHN ERSKINE,
The spirit of Jacobitism seems scarcely, at this
period to have been checked in the bosoms of the
resolute people who had suffered so much; and the
Netherbow and the High Street of Edinburgh still
resounded at times with the firing of musquetry, di-
rected against a harmless rabble of boys who betrayed
the popular feeling by the white roses in their hats.*
Nor was the lingering enthusiasm for the Jacobite
cause confined to the lower classes in either country.
It is almost incredible that men of Whig principles,
who held high offices in the Government, should, at
various times, have engaged in correspondence with
the agents of James ; yet such is the fact.
Among those who were involved in these dangerous
negotiations, Charles Earl of Sunderland, the son-in-
law of Marlborough, and at that time Prime Minister
of George the First, was one with whom Lord Mar
treated. Among the Sunderland Papers is to be
found a singular letter from the Earl of Mar to the
Earl of Sunderland, urging that nobleman to assist in
inducing his royal master to accede to a proposal
from which he might himself derive a suitable advan-
tage. " We find," says Dr. Coxe, " unequivocal
proofs that Lord Sunderland, who was considered at
the head of the new administration formed in 1717,
was in secret correspondence with the Pretender and
his principal agents." f
* Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 64.
t Coxc's Papers in the British Museum, MS. 9129. Plut. cxxxviii.
ii.
EARL OF MAR. 199
The letter referred to from Lord Mar, on which Dr.
Coxe has inscribed the word " curious," began with
professions of respect and confidence on the part of his
Lordship, to whom it was quite as easy to address
those expressions to a man of one party as of the other.
It contained also a promise of secrecy, and an exaction
of a similar observance on the part of Lord Sunder-
land. He then alluded to the misfortunes into which
the British nation was thrown by the disputed succes-
sion, and the violence of party spirit in consequence.
The subtle politician next touched on the subject
of George the First, whom he delicately terms, " your
master."
" Whatever good opinion you may have of your
master, and the way that things are ordered there at
present, does not alter the case much; his health is
not so good as to promise a long life, and he is not
to live always even if it were good, nor will things
continue there as they are, any longer than he lives
at most."
He then suggests that the Earl would have it in
his power to prevent the dangers resulting from a
disputed succession, " which can only be prevented
by restoring the rightful and lineal heir."
" I can assure your Lordship," he continues, " my
master has so many good qualities, that he will make
the nation happie, and wants but to be known to be
beloved ; and I dare promise in his name, that there
is not any thing you could ask of him, reasonable,
for yourself and your friends, but he would agree
200 JOHN ERSKINE,
to. My master is young, in perfect good health,
and as likely to live as any who has pretensions to
his crown, and he is now about marrying, which, in
all appearance, will perpetuate rightfull successors to
him of his own body, who will ever have more friends
in those kingdoms, as well as abroad, than to allow
the house of Hanover to continue in possession of
their right without continual disturbance."
The Earl then suggests that George the First
should secure to himself the possession of " his old
and just inheritance, and by the assistance of l his
master,' and those who would join, acquire such new
ones on the Continent as would make his family more
considerable than any of its neighbours.
" Britain and Ireland will have reason to bless
your master for so good and Christian an action;
and Europe no less for the repose it would have by
it : and your master would live the remainder of his
life in all the tranquillity and splendour that could
be required, and end his days with the character of
good and just."
Lord Mar was at this time on the borders of
France, where he proposed to wait until he received
Lord Sunderland's reply, in hopes that the Minister
of George the First might be induced to give him a
meeting, either in France or Flanders. " If you
approve not of what I have said," he adds, " let it
be buried on your side, as, upon my honour, it shall
be on mine." " I am afraid," he adds in a postscript,
" you know not my hand; but I have no other way
EARL OF MAR. 201
of assuring you of this being no counterfeit than by
writing it myself, and putting my seal to it."
The following remarks on this letter are interest-
ing ; they were penned by Dr. Coxe :
" Singular as this overture, made at such a period,
may appear, we have strong proofs that it was not
discouraged by Sunderland ; for he not only procured
a pension for the exiled nobleman, but even flattered
the Jacobites with hopes that he was inclined to fa-
vour their cause. This we find by intelligence given
at a subsequent period by the Jacobite spies."
The following addition to the above-stated remark
of Dr. Coxe is even yet more astonishing :
" On the death of Lord Sunderland the secret of
this correspondence became by some means known to
the Regent Duke of Orleans, and he hastened to make
so important a communication to the King of Eng-
land. The letter written on this occasion by the
British agent at Paris, Sir Luke Schwaub, and the
reply of his friend Lord Carteret, then Secretary of
State, are highly curious, because they prove, not
only the correspondence, but the fact that it was
known and approved by the King."*
* I find that the biographers of Lord Mar, in the short lives given
of him, (see Chambers 's Scottish Biography, Georgian Era, &c.) have
overlooked this correspondence. The letter from Sir Luke Schwaub, in
French, with a translation, and the answer of Lord Carteret, in the Coxe
Papers, although not exactly relevant to my subject, are interesting.
" A thousand thanks," writes the generous Lord Carteret, in reply to
Schwaub, " for your private letter, which affords me the means of ob-
viating any calumny against the memory of a person who will always be
dear tome." [That is, Lord Sunderland.] "I have shown it to the King,
202 JOHN ERSKINE,
How near were the unfortunate Stuarts to
that throne which they were destined never to
ascendt
Upon the disgrace of Bolingbroke, and on his re-
turn to England, the Seals had been offered by James
Stuart to Lord Mar, who refused them on the osten-
sible ground that he " could not speak French." The
actual reason was perhaps to be sought for in a far
deeper motive.*
In 1714 the celebrated Lord Stair had been sent as
Ambassador to France, chiefly to watch over the pro-
ceedings of the Jacobites, and to cement a friendship
with the Duke of Orleans, on whom King George
could not rely. The brilliant and spirited manner
in which Lord Stair executed this commission, the
splendour by which his embassy was distinguished,
and his own personal qualities, courtesy, shrewdness,
and diligence, contributed mainly to the diminution
of the Jacobite influence, which declined under his
exertions. It was from Lord Stair's address that
Bolingbroke, or, as Stair calls him in his correspond-
ence, Mr. York, was confirmed in his disgust to the
Jacobite cause.
Between Lord Stair and the Earl of Mar an early
who is entirely satisfied with it." The anxiety on the part of Govern-
ment to secure the papers of Lord Sunderland, was extreme, and affords
a collateral proof of this connivance. The mysterious documents were
seized by order of the King, and inspected by Lord Townshend, and not
a trace of the correspondence was left when the papers were restored
to the family. The seizure occasioned a suit between the executors
of the Earl of Sunderland and the two Secretaries of State. Coxe MSS.
* Hardwickc Papers, vol. ii. p. 252.
EARL OF MAR. 203
acquaintance had existed. Agreeably to the fashion
of the period, which led Queen Anne and the Duchess
of Marlborough to assume the names of Morley and
Freeman, Lord Stair and Lord Mar, in the early days
of their confidence, had adopted the familiar names of
Captain Brown, and Joe Murray.
Lord Mar had remained in Paris until October
1717; he then went into Italy with the Duke of Or-
mond ; but previous to his departure he called on
Lord Stair, and remained in the house of the Ambas-
sador for four or five hours. He appears to have
declared to Lord Stair that he then looked upon the
aifairs of his master as desperate. " He flung out,"
as Lord Stair wrote, " several things, as I thought,
with a design to try whether there was any hopes of
treating." Lord Stair, not liking to give an old
friend false hopes, declined " dipping into particu-
lars;" adding at the same time, in his account of
the interview, " he would not have dealt so with
me : but in conversation of that kind there is always
something curious to be learned."
They parted without explanation, and Lord Mar
proceeded to Rome. The correspondence between
these two noblemen ceased for nearly two years." 5 '"
During that interval, James had married the Princess
Clementina Maria, a daughter of Prince Sobieski,
elder son of John King of Poland. The marriage
could scarcely have been solemnized, since it took
place early in May 1719, before we find Lord Mar
* Hardwicke Papers, vol. ii. p. 565.
204 JOHN ERSKINE,
at Geneva, on his way from Italy, resuming his
negotiations with Lord Stair.
LORD MAR TO LORD STAIR.
May 6th, 1719.
" Good Captain Brown will not, I hope, take amiss
his old acquaintance Jo. Murraye's writing to him at
this time; and when he knows the occasion, I am
persuaded he will forgive him, and comply, as far as
he can, with what he is to ask him. My health is
not so good just now nor for some time past, as you
would wish it ; and I am advised to drink the waters
of Bourbon for it, as being the likest to those of
the Bath of any this side the sea, of which I for-
merly found so much good. The hot climate where I
have been for some time past, by no means agrees
with my health; and I am persuaded that where
some of our company is gone will still do worse
with me.
" The affair in which it might be thought my
Captain would employ me being now, I suppose,
over for this bout, there needs be, I should think, no
objection to what I should ask.
" I am come part of the way already ; but I would
not go much further, without acquainting you with
it. And now I beg that on the consideration of the
health of an old friend, you will give me allowance or
furlo to go to the waters of Bourbon, and to continue
there so long as I may have occasion for them during
the two seasons this year; and I promise to you I
EARL OF MAR. 205
shall do nothing in any way, the time of my being
there, but as you would have me; so that this allow-
ance can be of no prejudice to the service. If you
cannot give me the furlo yourself, I imagine your
Colonel will not refuse it, if you will be so good as to
ask it for me.
" But because the first season of the waters is
going fast away, I should be glad you could do it
without waiting to hear from your Colonel about it,
who, I should think, will not take it amiss when you
acquaint him with your having ventured to do so.
Do not, I beg of you, think there is any fetch in this,
or anything but what I have told you, which, upon
honour, is nothing but truth, and all the truth.
" I hope there will be no occasion of your mention-
ing your having had this trouble from me to any,
unless it be to your Colonel and one or two about
him, and the person, it is like, you must speak to
where you are. There is one with me, an old school
acquaintance of yours too, Mr. Stuart of Invernethy,
whom you have seen dance very merrily over a sword ;
and if the allowance is granted me, 1 hope it will not
be refused to him, for whom I promise as I do for
myself.
" When I have done with the waters, I hope there
will be no objection to my returning to Italy again, if
I have a mind ; but I judged it fit to mention this to
you.
" The person who delivers you this, will get con-
veyed to me what you will be so good to write."
206 JOHN ERSKINE,
Whilst he was thus in treaty with his former friend,
Lord Mar was stopped on his way to St. Prix, near
Geneva, by the orders of the Hanoverian Minister:
his papers were seized and sealed up; and among
them, a copy of that which was written to Lord
Stair as Captain Brown. Lord Mar, who had borne
an assumed name, disclosed his real rank, and wrote
to Lord Stair f*or assistance, again urging permis-
sion to go to the waters of Bourbon, or, if not allowed
to go into France, the liberty to return to Italy,
" where," he said, "I may end my days in quiet;
and those, probably, will not be many in that cli-
mate." Whilst awaiting the reply of Lord Stair, the
Earl was treated with respect by the authorities of
Geneva; and " had only to wish that he had a little
more liberty for taking air and exercise." He ex-
pected that Lord Stair's answer could not arrive in
less than a fortnight : in the meantime, he adds, " I
shall be obliged, on account of my health, to ask the
Government here a little more tether." *
His indulgent friend, Lord Stair, was, meantime,
urging his cause by every means in his power. " I
wish Lord Mar," he wrote to the English Ministry,
" was at liberty upon his parole to the town of
Geneva, or he had permission to go to the waters
of Bourbon. I should be glad to know what pen-
sion you would allow him till he be restored?"
Lady Mar was now in Rome, whither she had
followed her husband soon after his leaving Scotland.
* Hardwicke Papers, p. 586.
EARL OF MAR. 207
Her jointure, it appears, was stopped by the Com-
missioners, and she was unable, without that supply,
to travel from Rome to Geneva. She was, probably,
aware of Lord Mar's intention to leave the Chevalier's
service, for the Earl had written a long letter, ex-
planatory of his situation and intentions, to her
father, the Duke of Kingston. " I have offered him
for Lady Mar's journey," says Lord Stair, " credit
upon me for a thousand pounds." Yet notwithstand-
ing this liberality, Lord Mar now began to be ex-
tremely uneasy at Geneva, and to fear that the Go-
vernment meant " merely to expose him." In vain,
for some time, did Stair plead for him, with Secretary
Craggs and Lord Stanhope. They were evidently,
from Lord Stair's replies to their objections, afraid
to have any dealings with him. " As to Lord Mar,"
writes Stair, " the things that shock you, shock me;
but our business is to break the Pretender's party
by detaching him from it, which we shall effectually
do by letting him live in quiet at Geneva or else-
where, and by giving him a pension. Whatever his
Lordship's intentions may be, it is very certain, in
a few months, that the Jacobites will pull his throat
out, you know them well enough not to doubt of
it. The Pretender," he adds, " looks upon Mar as
lost, and has had no manner of confidence in him ever
since Lady Mar came into Italy. They looked upon
her as a spy, and that she had corrupted her hus-
band. This, you may depend on it, is true." Little
more than a week afterwards, Lord Stair informed
208 JOHN ERSKINE,
his friends that " Lord Mar was outrd at the usage
he had met with. He says our Ministers may be
great and able men, but that they are not skilful at
making proselytes, or keeping friends when they have
them. I am pretty much of his mind."
It was, doubtless, as Lord Stair declared, the full
determination of Lord Mar at that time to leave
the Chevalier's interests. " The Pretender, I know,"
said Stair, " wrote him the kindest letter imaginable,
since his [the Pretender's] return into Italy, from
Spain, with the warmest invitations to return to his
post."
The letters which Lord Stair had received, in
the course of this negotiation, from Lord Mar, were
instantly sent to Hanover. They were in some in-
stances written in his own hand, but without signa-
ture, and in the third person. In the first which
he wrote to Lord Stair, Mar announced that he had
quitted the service of James, and was desirous of
making peace with King George upon the promise of
a pardon, and the restoration of his estates.
" You are to consider," says Lord Stair, writing to
the Secretary of State at home concerning this pro-
posal, " whether it will be worth the while to receive
him. In my humble opinion the taking him off
will be the greatest blow that can be given to the
Pretender's interest, and the greatest discredit to it.
And it may be made of use to show to the world that
nobody but a Papist can hope to continue in favour
with the Pretender. I wish," adds the Ainbas-
EARL OF MAR. 209
sador, " you may think as I do. I own all his faults
and misfortunes cannot make me forget the long and
intimate friendship and familiarity that has been
between him and me." It is consoling to find any
politician acting upon such good old-fashioned max-
ims, the result of honest feeling.
Lady Mar having now joined her husband, Lord
Mar resolved to make his escape from Geneva. Lord
Stair advised him against it ; but adds, in his letters
to his friends at home, " I could hardly imagine that
a man of his temper, and in his circumstances, will
refuse his liberty when he sees he has nothing but
ill usage and neglect to expect from us." *
Thus ended this negotiation, the main conditions
of which were, provided Lord Mar kept himself free
from any plots against the Government, an offer of
the family estate to his son; and, in the interim, till
an act of Parliament could be obtained to that effect,
a pension of two thousand pounds sterling, over and
above one thousand five hundred pounds paid of
jointure to his wife and daughter. f
It was the fortune of Lord Mar on this, as on
many other occasions, to reap the ignominy of having
accepted this pension, without ever receiving the
profits of his debasement.
During the absence of Lord Mar at Geneva, his
Countess, who remained in Rome, received the follow-
ing letters from the Chevalier and his Princess, Maria
Clementina : these epistles show how desirous the
* Hardwicke Papers, vol. ii. p. 600. t Chambers, art. Erskine.
VOL. I. P
210 JOHN ERSKINE,
Chevalier still was to retain Lord Mar in his
interests.*
" Montefiascony, Sept. 9, 1719.
" The Duke of Mar's late misfortunes and my own
situation for some months past, hath occasioned my
being much in the dark as to his present circum-
stances, which touche me too nearly not to desire you
will inform me particularly of them. The last letter
I had from him was in the begining of May, from
Genua, in which he mentioned to me his ill state of
health, and something of your comeing to meet him
at Bourbon waters; but the season for them now
advanceing, or rather passeing, I reckon that whether
he had gone thither or not, he will soon be here on
ye receipt of the note I sent you t'other day for him,
and by consequence that what measures he may have
taken with you about your meeting him will be
altered on sight of that. I thought it necessary to
inform you of these particulars to prevent any
thoughts you might have of a journey so expensive
and now useless : for as to his liberty, I make no
doubt but that it will immediately follow the cer-
tainty of my return to this country. I should think
it not prudent to write any politicks to him now, not
knowing what fate my letters might meet with ; but
there is no secret in your sayeing all that is kind from
me to him. If you cannot exagerate as to my impa-
tience to see him, after all our mutual misfortunes
* From original letters, for which I am indebted to Alexander Mac-
donald, Esq., of the Register Office, Edinburgh,
EARL OF MAR. 211
and adventures, and I am sure he will be glad to
know and see me more happy in a wife than I can be
otherwayes, in most respects.
" I hope soon to have the -satisfaction of seeing you
at Rome, when I believe I shall soon convince you
that if you and your lord have in the world
many false friends, I am and ever shall be a true
one to you both. JAMES R."
LETTER FROM THE PRINCESS CLEMENTINA TO
THE COUNTESS OF MAR.
" Montefiasconi, 23rd. Sept.
* " JE vien de recevoire, votre chere letre par
Mr. Clepen, et vous sui bien oblige", de F attention
que vous av^ eu, de mervoyer dute"e, lequell ne sau-
roit que e*tre bon venant de vous; vous me marquez
avoire de la peine a ecrire le fransoi, mai votre esprit
vous, laprendera bientot. Le Roi me charge de vous
faire, se compliment et soy et aussi persuadez, de 1'es-
time que j'auray toujour pour votre merite.
" CLEMENTINE R.
" J'ambrase de tous mon coeure la charman petite,
J'espere dan peu de le pouvoire faire persbnnellement,
et a vous de mfone. Nous nous port-on tres bien;
1'aire d'icy est foie bonne."
A subsequent letter is addressed " A ma cousine La
Duchesse de Mar" and subscribed " votre affectione'e
cousine, Clementine ;" yet notwithstanding these pro-
* The spelling is preserved as in the original.
p2
212 JOHN ERSKINE,
fessions of confidence and affection, the seeds of dis-
trust were, it seems, soon sown between James and
the Earl and Countess of Mar. At first the sugges-
tions to their disadvantage were repelled. " There has
been enough pains," writes James, " taken from Rome
within these few days to do you ill offices with me,
but I can assure you with truth they have made no
impression upon me, nor will they produce any other
effect than to make me, if possible, kinder to you.
But when I see you I shall say more on this head, for
'tis fitt you should know your false from your true
friends; and among the last you shall ever find me*
" JAMES R."
An order, dated the ninth of October, 1719, that all
such boxes " as are in the Duchesse of Mar's custody
should be first naled by her, and then delivered with
their keyes to Sir William Ellis," written in the Che-
valier's own hand, shews either that Lady Mar was
on the eve of her departure from Italy, or that a
breach of confidence had taken place.f
Lord Mar, with impaired health, and writhing
under the rejection of his offers, returned to Italy.
There, had he adhered to a resolution which he had
formed, of not interfering in public affairs, he might
still have closed his days in tranquillity.
Notwithstanding the apparent continuance of the
Chevalier's regard, he never forgot the treaty be-
* These words were written in the Chevalier's own hand,
t Letters in the possession of A. Macdonald, Esq.
EARL OF MAR. 213
tween Lord Stair and the Earl of Mar. The whole
of this intrigue, discreditable as it was, has been
reprobated by all who have touched upon this
portion of Lord Mar's history. His accepting
the loan of a thousand pounds from Stair, an
old friend, for the purpose of ensuring Lady
Mar's journey, has been censured, I think, with too
great severity. But, although it be desirable to set
to rights matters of fact, yet, it is always unsatisfac-
tory to begin the defence of a bad cause. There
is no evidence to show that Lord Mar ever received
a pension: he was not thought worth conciliating;
but that circumstance, in this case, and after a dis-
play of his willingness to receive all that could be
granted, assists very little in his vindication, and
rather adds to the degradation of one whom no party
could trust.
Soon after Lord Mar's return to Rome, the seeds
of disunion between James and his young and high-
spirited wife began to disturb the minds of all who
were really well wishers to the Stuarts.
Maria Clementina, reported by Horace Walpole to
have been " lively, insinuating, agreeable, and enter-
prising," had encountered, soon after her marriage
with James, the too frequent fate of many who were
sacrificed to royal marriages. She had quickly per-
ceived that her influence was inferior to that of the
Prince's favourites: she was shortly made aware of
his infidelities: she became jealous, without affec-
tion; and her disappointment in her consort was
214 JOHN ERSKINE,
that of a proud, resentful woman, to whom sub-
mission to circumstances was a lesson too galling
to be learned.
The Prince, after the fashion of his forefathers,
was governed by favourites : like Charles the First,
he had his Buckingham and his Strafford; and his
miniature Court was rent with factions. But the
Chevalier had neither the purity of Charles the First,
nor the charm of character which gilded over the
vices of Charles the Second. His household was an
epitome of the worst passions; and his melancholy
aspect, his want of dignity and spirit, his bigotry, and
even his unpopular virtue of economy, cast a gloom
over that turbulent region. It was bitterly, but
perhaps truly said of him, " that he had all the su-
perstition of a capuchin, but none of the religion of
a Prince."* Like most of his immediate family,
his character deteriorated as he grew older. He did
not rise under the pressure of adversity; and his
timid, irresolute nature was crushed by the effects of
his cruel situation.
Colonel John Hay, of Cromlix, the brother of the
Earl of Mar's first wife, and of George, seventh Earl
of Kinnoul, succeeded in obtaining mastery over his
subdued nature. The lady of Colonel Hay, Margery,
the third daughter of Viscount Stormont, was said,
also, to have possessed her own share of influence
over the mind of the Chevalier. Of the real existence
of any criminal attachment between the Prince and
* Bolingbroke.
EARL OF MAR. 215
Mrs. Hay, there is, however, considerable doubt ;
and it has been generally regarded as one of those
rumours raised for a purpose, during the continuance
of a fierce contention for power.
Clementina had also her favourites ; and a certain
Mrs. Sheldon, who had had the charge of Prince
Charles Edward, had acquired her confidence. This
choice was peculiarly infelicitous.
Mrs. Sheldon was reported to be about as un-
worthy a favourite as the unhappy Princess could
have selected. According to Colonel Hay, she was
the mistress of General Dillon, one of the most ar-
dent adherents of the Stuarts, and the spy of the Earl
of Mar.* For four or five years, nevertheless, after
Prince Charles's birth, she continued to be his gover-
ness, and to sway the feelings of his mother, in the
same manner as confidants and dependants usually
direct the angry passions of their mistresses into the
most dangerous channels.
During the height of Colonel Hay's favour, the
confidence of the Chevalier in Lord Mar visibly de-
clined, as appears in the following letter to one of his
adherents in Scotland.
" I have always been unwilling to mention Marr,
but I find myself indispensably engaged at present
to let my Scots friends know that I have withdrawn
my confidence entirely from him, as I shall be obliged
to doe from all who may be any ways influenced by
him. This conduct is founded on the most urgent,
* Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 221.
216 JOHN ERSKINE,
strongest, and most urging necessity, in which my
regard to my faithfull subjects and servants have the
greatest share.
" What is here said of Marr, is not with a view
of its being made publick, there being no occasion for
that, since, many years ago, he put himself under
such engagements, that he could not serve me in a
publick capacity, neither has he been publickly em-
ployed by me."
To this it was answered, by the confidential friend
to whom the remarks were addressed, "It is some
time agoe since your friends here had doubts of the
Earl of Marr ; and thence it was that I was directed
to mention him in the manner I did in my last two
letters, it being matter of no small moment to us
to know in whom wee might confide thorowly, and
of whom beware, especially when a person of his
figure was the object." *
Affairs were in this state ; the Chevalier distrustful
of Lord Mar, and devoted to his rival, Colonel Hay ;
the Princess heading an opposite faction, nominally
commanded by Mrs. Sheldon, but secretly instigated
by Lord Mar; when, in 1722, the conspiracy of At-
terbury was discovered by the British Government.
The Earl of Mar was at that time in Paris, and
Lord Curteret who was at the head of affairs in Eng-
land, remembering the Earl's former negotiations with
Lord Stair, dispatched a gentleman to Mar, with
instructions to sound that nobleman as to his kiiow-
* Lockhart Papers.
EARL OF MAR. 217
ledge of the plot. Lord Mar happening to be in
Colonel Dillon's company when the messenger reached
Paris, and soon divining after one interview the
nature of the embassy, it was agreed between him and
Dillon, that they would do James's cause a service by
leading the British Government off the right scent.
They therefore drew up, in conjunction, an answer to
Lord Carteret. What was the nature of that reply,*
does not appear; but its result was such as to cast
upon Lord Mar a degree of odium far greater than
that which he had incurred in Lord Stair's business.
He was accused by Atterbury with having, on that
occasion, written such a letter as had been the cause
of his banishment; with having betrayed the secrets
of the Chevalier St. George to the British Government ;
and of several other charges of " base and treacherous
practises, discovered by the Bishop of Eochester,
that the like had scarce been heard of, and seem'd to
be what no man, endued with common sense, or the
least drop of noble blood, could perpetrate ; and that
the King's friends were at a loss in not knowing what
credit to give to such reports, tho' they apprehended
the worst, from the directions he had lately given of
having no correspondence with Mar or his adherents,
from whom he had withdrawn all confidence "
Shortly after this declaration the Chevalier de-
clared Colonel Hay to be his Secretary, and created
the favourite Earl of Inverness ; between whom and
* See various papers in the State Paper Office. Collections for
1722.
218 JOHN ERSKINE,
the Earl of Mar an antipathy, which had now
become open hostility, prevailed. " The Duke of
Mar," wrote the Earl of Inverness to Lockhart,
" has declared himself my mortal enemy, only because
I spoke truth to him, and could not, in my conscience,
enter into his measures nor approve his conduct, tho'
I always shunned saying any thing to his disadvan-
tage, but to the King alone, from whom I thought I
was obliged to conceal nothing."*
With respect to the treachery towards Atterbury,
the justification of Lord Mar rests upon the testimony
of Colonel Dillon, and other persons who saw the
Earl's letter to Carteret. It is also certain that
James accorded his approval to Mar's conduct in
that affair. No positive intention of mischief can
be made out against Mar; but his habit of rarely
acting a straightforward part, his insatiable love of
interference, and his mistaking cunning for policy,
brought upon him the mournful indignation of the
exiled Atterbury, and fixed upon him a grave im-
putation which it were almost impossible to wipe
away.
Another charge brought by Atterbury against
Lord Mar, was his advising James to barter his
pretensions to the Crown for a pension. But this
accusation is refuted by the two letters, of which
vouchers are given in the Lockhart Papers, on which
the allegation is founded. These letters were written
from Geneva to the Prince and to Colonel Dillon, f
Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 149. f Id- P- 183.
EARL OF MAR. 219
Lastly, Lord Mar stood charged with a scheme,
discovered to Atterbury by Lord Inverness, for the
restoration of the Stuarts, which, under pretence of
replacing them on the throne, would for ever have
rendered that restoration impracticable. From this
allegation Lord Mar justified himself by referring to
the scheme itself, which he was declared to have laid
before the Regent of France with the intent to ruin
James. Of this scheme, the two main features were,
first to re-establish the ancient independence of Scot-
land and Ireland: secondly, that a certain number
of French troops should remain in England, and that
five thousand Scots, and as many Irish troops, should
be sent to France and kept in pay by the French
King, for a certain number of years. There is cer-
tainly a great deal of Mar's double policy, his
being all things to all men, in such a scheme. He
declared, however, and proved that he acquainted
James with his plan in confidence, and that Colonel
Hay sent a copy of it to the Bishop of Rochester.
Little as one can approve of Mar's conduct, it is
manifest that, by a deeply-laid intrigue, it was re-
solved for ever to uproot him from the confidence
of James.
But the public career of Lord Mar had now drawn
to its ignoble close. That he had his partisans, who
repelled the charges against him by counter allega-
tions, Lord Inverness soon found; and he began to
think that " the less noise that was made about Mar,"
the better.*
* Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 198.
220 JOHN ERSKINE,
During the year 1725, James further evinced his
distrust of Lord Mar, by dismissing Mr. Sheldon,
his supposed spy, and placing Mr. James Murray, a
Protestant, as preceptor to the young Prince.
The retirement of the Princess Clementina into a
convent, followed this last step. The correspond-
ence of the royal couple, their recriminations, fur-
nished, for some months, conversation for the con-
tinental courts, and even for St. James's, until the
dismissal of Colonel Hay and his wife appeased the
resolute daughter of the Sobieski, and produced an
apparent reconciliation.
From the close of this altercation, and after the
disgrace of Colonel Hay, the name of Lord Mar oc-
curs no more in the history of the period. He re-
sided at Paris until 1729, when, falling into ill health,
he repaired to Aix la Chapelle, where he died in May
1732.
His wife survived him twenty-nine years, only to
be the victim of mental disease, and, as it has
been said, of cruelty and neglect. She became in-
sane, and was placed under the charge of her sister,
Lady Mary W. Montague, who, it has been reported,
from avarice, stinted her unfortunate sister of even
the common necessaries of life, and appropriated the
allowance to herself. But this statement has been
disproved.*
* Mr. C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe was good enough to inform me that he
had seen some letters on this subject, which exculpated Lady Mary W.
Montague. The correspondence was destroyed, but it conveyed to the
mind of that accomplished and erudite gentleman, who saw it, the im-
pression that the charge against Lady Mary Wortley was groundless.
EARL OF MAR. 221
The latter years of Lord Mar were passed neither
in idleness, nor wholly in the intrigues of the Court
at Albano. His amusement was to draw plans and
designs for the improvement of Scotland, which he
had loved " not wisely," but to which his warmest
affections are said to have ever recurred. In 1728
he composed a paper, in which he suggested building
bridges on the north and south sides of the city of
Edinburgh : he planned, also, the formation of a na-
vigable canal between the Forth and the Clyde. His
beloved Alloa was sold by the Commissioners of the
w
forfeited estates to his brother, Lord Grange, who,
in 1739, conveyed it to Lord Erskine, his nephew.
Lord Mar's children were enriched by the gratitude
of Gibbs, the architect, who bequeathed to the off-
spring of his early patron the greatest part of his
fortune.
The Earl of Mar was succeeded by his son, Thomas
Lord Erskine, who was deprived of the famed title of
Mar by his father's attainder. Lord Erskine was
appointed by Government, Commissary of Stores at
Gibraltar. His marriage with Lady Charlotte Hope
being without issue, the title was restored to the de-
scendant of Lord Grange, and consequently to the
children of the unfortunate Lady Grange, whose
sufferings, from the effects of party spirit, seem to be-
long more properly to the page of romance, than to
the graver details of history.
The conduct of John Erskine, Earl of Mar, has
afforded a subject of comment to two men of very
222 JOHN ERSKINE,
different character, John Lockhart of Carnwath, and
the Master of Sinclair. Neither of the portraits
drawn by these master-hands are favourable; and
they were, in both instances, written under the in-
fluence of strong, yet transient impressions of dis-
appointment and suspicion. The mind naturally
seeks for some safer steersman to guide opinion than
the intemperate though honest Jacobite, Lockhart,
or the sarcastic and slippery friend, Sinclair. The
worst peculiarity in the career of Mar was, that no
one trusted him; towards the latter portion of his
life he had even lost the power of deceiving : it had
become impossible to him to act without mingling
the poison of deception with intentions which might
have been honest, and even benevolent. The habits
of a long life of intrigue had warped his very nature.
When we behold him fleeing from the coasts of Scot-
land, leaving behind him the trusting hearts that
would have bled for him, we fancy that no moral
degradation can be more complete. We view him
soliciting to be a pensioner of England, and we ac-
knowledge that it was even possible to sink still
more deeply into infamy.
With principles ,of action utterly unsound, it is
surprising how much influence Lord Mar acquired
over all with whom he came into collision. He was
sanguine in disposition, and, if we may judge by
his letters, buoyant in his spirits; his disposition
was conciliatory, his manners were apparently con-
fiding. At the bottom of that gay courtesy there
EARL OF MAR. 223
doubtless was a heart warped by policy, but not inhe-
rently unkind. He attached to him the lowly. Lock-
hart speaks of the love of two of his kinsmen to him :
his tenantry, during his exile, contributed to sup-
ply his wants, by a subscription. These are the few
redeeming characteristics of one made up of incon-
sistencies. He conferred, it must be allowed, but
little credit on a party which could number among
its adherents the brave Earl Marischal, the benevolent
and honourable Derwentwater, and the disinterested
Nithisdale. When we contrast the petty and selfish
policy of the Earl of Mar with the integrity and fide-
lity of those who fought in the same cause, and over
whom he was commander, his character sinks low in
the estimate, and acts like a foil to the purity and
brightness of his fellow sufferers in the strife.
224
JAMES, EARL OF DERWENTWATER.
IN the vale of Hexham, on the summit of a steep
hill, clothed with wood, and washed at its base by a
rivulet, called the Devil's Water, stand the ruins of
Dilstone Castle. A bridge of a single arch forms the
approach to 'the castle or mansion; the stream, then
mingling its rapid waters with those of the Tyne,
rushes over rocks into a [deep dell embowered with
trees, above a hundred feet in height, and casting a
deep gloom over the sounding waters beneath their
branches.
Through the arch of the bridge, a mill, an object
ever associated with peace and plenty, is seen ; and,
beyond it, the eye rests upon the bare, dilapidated
walls of the castle. Its halls, its stairs, its painted
chambers, may still be traced; its broken towers
command a view of romantic beauty; but all around
it is desolate and ruined, like the once proud and
honoured family who dwelt beneath its roof.
This was once the favourite abode of the Ratcliffes,
or Radcliffes, supposed to be a branch of the Rad-
cliffes in Lancashire,* from whom were, it is said,
* I write it Radcliffe, because the most careful historians and genealo-
gists have given the preference to that mode of spelling the name.
London, Publislied Tjy Richard Be. 1 :'
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 225
descended the Earls of Sussex,* who became the
owners of Dilstone in the days of Queen Elizabeth.
During several generations after the Conquest, a
family of the name of Devilstone was in possession of
Dilstone, until the time of Henry the Third. The
estates then passed to many different owners; the
Tynedales, the Grafters, the Claxtons, were succes-
sively the masters of the castle; and it was not, ac-
cording to some accounts, f until the tenth year of
Queen Elizabeth's reign, that it first owned for its
lord one of that unfortunate race to whom it finally
belonged, until escheated to the Crown. But certain
historians have asserted that, so early as the reign of
Henry the Sixth, Dilstone was the seat of Sir Nicholas
Radcliffe.J At this period, too, other estates were
added to those already enjoyed by the Radcliffes. Sir
Nicholas married the heiress of Sir John De Derwent-
water, to whom had belonged, for several centuries,
the manors of Castlerigg and Keswick, and who, since
the time of Edward the First, had enjoyed great con-
sideration in the county of Cumberland. This al-
liance with the Derwentwater family, although it
brought to the Radcliffe the possession of a territory,
which, for its beauty and value, monarchs might envy,
did not for many years, entice them to a removal to
the mansion of Castlerigg. That old dwelling-place, a
gloomy fortress, among " storm-shaken mountains and
* The fact has been rather surmised than proved.
f Hutchinson's View of Northumberland, vol. i. p. 171.
J Lysons' Magna Britannia, vol. ii. p. 85.
VOL. I. Q
226 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
howling wildernesses," was far less commodious than
the castle at Dilstone, then in great fame from the
flourishing monastery which reared its head in the
Vale of Hexham. Castlerigg, being, eventually, aban-
doned by the Kadcliffes, went utterly to decay; the
materials of the old manor-house are supposed to have
been employed in forming a new residence on Lord's
Island, in Keswick Lake ; and the estate was divided
into tenancies, which, in process of time, were in-
franchised. The ancient demesne of the De Derwent-
waters has now passed into the hands of the Trustees
of Greenwich Hospital, and the oaks of the park which
skirts the lake have of late years supplied much va-
luable timber.
The family of Radcliffe continued, during several
centuries after the intermarriage with the De Der-
wentwaters, to increase in wealth and importance. It
was not, however, ennobled until the reign of James
the Second, in 1688, when, in consequence of the
eldest son of Sir Francis Kadclifle having married
during his father's life time the Lady Mary Tudor, a
natural daughter of Charles the Second, by Mistress
Mary Davis, Sir Francis was created Earl of Der-
wentwater, Baron Dilstone, and Viscount Langley.*
" This alliance to the royal blood," says the bio-
grapher of Charles Radclifle, " gave them a title to
match with the noblest families in the kingdom,
and was likewise the occasion of that strict attach-
* Burke's Extinct Peerage, art. Kadcllffe ; also Wood's Peerage, 309.
It has been erroneously stated, that Francis Radclyffe himself, who mar-
ried Mary Tudor, was first ennobled. It was his father, Sir Francis
Radclyffe.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 227
ment which the several branches of the Der went water
family have inviolably preserved for the line of Stuarts
ever since. "* There was also another reason for this
act of royal favour on the one hand, and for this de-
votion on the other : Sir George Radcliffe, we find by
the Macpherson papers, was Governor of James the
Second when he was Duke of York, and during the
troubles of the Great .Rebellion; and, under his care,
the young prince remained some time in the city of
Oxford, f
Whatsoever may be thought of the effect of this
connection with royalty, in ennobling an ancient and
loyal race, the marriage produced a lasting influence
on the fortunes of the family. That they were proud
of the alliance appears from the circumstance that
the children of that marriage used to wear the
prince's feather, that plume which has, since the
days of Edward the Black Prince, distinguished the
heir apparent to royalty. But the consanguinity in
blood to the Stuarts produced another, and a far more
serious result. The sons of the Lady Mary Tudor
and of Francis, second Earl of Derwentwater, were
educated, like brothers, with the son of the abdicated
monarch. James Radcliffe, who was born about the
year 1692, and who afterwards became Earl of Der-
wentwater, passed his childhood at St. Germains with
his royal namesake, James Stuart. The brother of
* Life of Charles Radcliffe. " By a gentleman of the family, to pre-
vent the public being imposed upon by any erroneous or partial accounts
to the prejudice of this unfortunate gentleman." London, 1746.
t Macpherson Papers, vol. ii.
228 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
the Earl, Charles, was also brought up in France;
both of these youths, whose fate was afterwards so
tragical, were reared in the faith of the Church of
Rome, and under the tuition of the Roman Catholic
clergy. They thus grew up, without perhaps hear-
ing, certainly without entertaining, a doubt of those
rights which they died to assert. " The late Earl
of Der went water," writes the biographer of Charles
Radclyffe, " and his brother Charles were so strongly
attached to the Pretender's party, that their advice
or consent was not so much as asked in those con-
sultations that were held among the disaffected pre-
vious to the Rebellion; neither did the party think
it necessary, because they were always sure of them
whenever they should come to action."
In 1705, Francis, Earl of Derwentwater, died; and
during a season of domestic tranquillity, whilst as yet
the Jacobites were full of hopes that the succession
would be restored to the Stuart line, his son James
succeeded to the Earldom, and to the vast estates
which had accumulated to give dignity and influence
to rank. Besides the castle of Dilstone and Castle-
rigg, which Leland, who visited Cumberland in 1539,
describes as still being the " head place of the Rad-
cliffes," many other valuable properties, had been gra-
dually added to the patrimonial possessions.
It was the disposition of Lord Derwentwater to
employ the advantages of wealth and birth to the
benefit of others. He returned to England, English
in heart, and became the true model of an English
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 229
nobleman. " He was a man," said a contemporary
writer, " formed by nature to be beloved ; for he
was of so universal a beneficence, that he seemed
to live for others." * Kesiding among his own
people, among them he spent his estate, and passed
his days in deeds of kindness, and in acts of charity,
which regarding no differences of faith as obstacles
to the course of that heavenly virtue, were extended
alike by this unfortunate nobleman to Protestant and
to Koman Catholic. In his days, Dilstone was the
scene of an open-hearted hospitality, " which," ob-
serves the renegade Jacobite who has chronicled the
events of the period, " few in that country do, and
none can, come up to." That castle-hall, now ruined
and for ever deserted, was thronged by the distressed,
who. whether the poor denizens of the place or the
wanderer by the way side, found there relief, and
went away consoled. The owner of the castle gave
bread to thousands, who long remembered his vir-
tues, and mourned his fate. He conciliated the good
will of his equals, and disarmed the animosity of
those who differed from him in opinion. Beloved,
trusted, almost reverenced in the prime of youth,
James Earl of Derwentwater held, at the period of
the first Rebellion, the enviable position of one whose
station was remembered only in conjunction with
the higher dignity of virtue. To the solid qualities
of integrity, he added a sweetness and courtesy of
manner which must have lent to even homely fea-
* Patten's Hist. Rebellion, p. 47.
230 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
tures their usual charm.* Blessing and blest, he
thus dwelt amid the romantic scenery of the Vale of
Hexham.
Lord Derwentwater married Anna Maria, one of
the five daughters of Sir John Webb, Baronet of Od-
stock in Wiltshire. An ancestor of Sir John Webb
had first acquired the title in the reign of Charles the
First for " his family having both shed their blood in
the King's cause, and contributed, as far as they were
able, with their purses, in his defence," as is ex-
pressed in their patent, f
During the reign of Queen Anne, Lord Derwent-
water took no part in the various intrigues which
were carried on by the Jacobite party. He lived
peaceably at Dilstone, where his name was long
honoured after the tragical events which hurried him
into an early grave had occurred. But this tran-
quil demeanour does not argue, as it has been sup-
posed, that the early playmate of James had be-
come indifferent to the cause of the Stuarts. The
friends of the exiled family founded their hopes of
its restoration on the well-known partiality of Queen
Anne for her brother, and on the circumstance of
her having seen the last of her children consigned to
the tomb. There seems no reason to doubt but that,
had Anne lived longer, she would have taken mea-
* In personal appearance the Earl is declared to have been distin-
guished for grace and comeliness. Neither the prints of this nobleman,
nor an original picture in the possession of the Earl of Newburgh, at
Hassop in Derbyshire, give the impression that the Earl was handsome.
Yet he obtained the appellation of " handsome Derwentwater."
t Kimber's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 517.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 231
sures, in unison with the wishes of the bulk of the
nobility, and in conjunction with her confidential
ministers, to have placed the Chevalier St. George
the next in succession. In this hope, the wishes of
the most respectable portion of the Jacobite nobility
were tranquillized. %
The sudden decease of Queen Anne disconcerted
the hopes of those who had been thus waiting for
the course of events; and the immediate change of
ministry depriving those who were favourable to the
house of Stuart of power, the succession of George the
First was secured, under the aspect, for a few weeks,
of the most perfect national repose. It has been well
explained, that, unless some circumstances connected
with the birth and education of the Chevalier had
favoured the interests of Hanover, a very different
result would have appeared. The notion so diligently
spread abroad, of a supposititious birth the foreign
education of the young Prince above all, the pains
which had been taken to inculcate in his heart a
devotion to the faith of both his parents, were consi-
derations which strongly favoured the accession of the
Elector of Hanover, f
A year passed away, and that tranquillity was
succeeded by an ill-concerted, immature enterprise,
headed by a man of every talent except the right
sort ; and chilled, rather than aided, by the presence
of that melancholy exile who presented himself for
the first and last time, to sadden by the gloom of his
* Encyclopaedia Metropolitan, f Id. Annals of George I.
232 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
aspect, and the inertness of his measures, the hearts
that yearned to welcome him back to Britain.
It was towards the latter end of August, in 1715,
in the shire of Perth, that the people first began to
assemble themselves in a body, until they marched
to a small market town, named Kirk Michael, where
the Chevalier was first proclaimed, and his standard
set up.* Meantime several noblemen and gentle-
men, both in England and in Scotland, influenced by
the Earl of Mar, began to collect their servants and
dependants from different places, and under various
pretexts, for their proceedings. There were also
measures concerted in London by the Chevalier's
friends ; and among the more active of the partisans,
was a certain Captain Robert Talbot, an Irish officer,
who, upon being acquainted with the projected insur-
rection, took shipping and sailed for Newcastle-upon-
Tyne. By this agent, the resolutions which had
been adopted by the Jacobites in London were con-
veyed to their friends in the north of England. This
was part of the scheme of the Jacobites ; London was
the centre of all their conferences, and from the me-
tropolis intelligence was secretly conveyed in various
directions : measures were concerted ; the parties who
were to engage were furnished with means to act,
and brought together ; letters were carried by private
hands to various confederates, and debates and cor-
respondence were carried on some months before the
Rebellion actually broke out.
* Patten, p., 3.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER 233
The plot was managed with care and address. The
common conveyance of letters was dangerous, and the
office of delivering them was undertaken by gentlemen
of Jacobite principles, who rode from place to place
as travellers, pretending merely that they were view-
ing the country, and making inquiries to gratify
curiosity : these travellers were all Irish and Papists.
Another class of agents, consisting of Mr. Clifton,
a brother of Sir Gervase Clifton, and of Mr. Beau-
mont, both gentlemen of Nottinghamshire, and at-
tended by Mr. Buxton, a clergyman of Derbyshire,
rode like gentlemen, with servants, but were armed
with swords and pistols. These emissaries also con-
tinued moving from place to place, and kept up a
constant intercourse between the disaffected parties,
until all things were ready for action.
Under these circumstances, Government took a de-
cided step, which, as it turned out, brought the whole
concerted plot into action sooner than the confederates
had originally intended. Means were taken for the
apprehension of several suspected Jacobites. Towards
the end of September, Lord Derwentwater, among
others, received notice that there was a warrant issued
by the Secretary of State to apprehend him, and that
messengers were actually arrived at Durham in order
to seize his person.*
* The following is a copy of the warrant, and affords a specimen,
which may be novel to some readers, of the form in which such affairs
are couched. The original is still preserved by the present Earl of New-
burgh, the descendant of Charles Radcliffe. I am indebted to the courtesy
of the Earl of Newburgh for permission to copy this document, and also
234 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
On receiving this information, Lord Derwentwater,
who had at that time taken no ostensible part in the
consultations of the Jacobites, and who, as it was
thought by many who knew him intimately, was un-
decided whether to join the insurgents or not, adopted
the line of conduct most suitable to innocence. He
repaired to the house of a neighbouring justice of the
peace, whose name has not been given at length, and
boldly placed himself in his hands. He demanded
what were the grounds of his accusation. Unhappily
the magistrate's loyalty was not unimpeachable. Had
this gentleman been zealously affected to the Govern-
ment, or had he been a true friend to Lord Derwent-
water, he would either have persuaded that nobleman
to surrender to the messengers of Government, or he
for several particulars concerning the family of Radcliffe, which I have
interwoven with this biography :
" James Stanhope, Esq., one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy
Council, and Principal Secretary of State.
" These are in his Majesty's name, to authorise and require you,
taking a constable to your assistance, forthwith to make strict and
diligent search in such places as you shall have notice, for the Right
Honourable James, Earl of Derwentwater ; and him having found, you
are to seize and apprehend for suspicion of Treason, and to bring him,
together with his papers, before me to be examined concerning the
Premisses, and to be further dealt with according to law : for the due
execution whereof, all Mayors, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, Con-
stables, and all his Majesty's officers, Civil and Military, and loving
subjects whom it may concern, are to be aiding and assisting to you as
there shall be occasion. And for so doing, this shall be your warrant.
" Given at Whitehall the two-and-twentieth day of September, 1715.
" JAMES STANHOPE."
*' To Richard Shorman, John Hutching, and John
Turner, three of his Majesty's Messengers
in Ordinary."
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 285
would have detained him, and thus prevented the
rash outbreak which afterwards ensued. Such is the
opinion of one who knew all the parties concerned in
the insurrection well. Such is the statement of Mr.
Robert Patten, himself a Jacobite, and chaplain to
Mr. Forster. He afterwards turned King's evidence,
and received for that treachery, or, as he is pleased to
call it, penitence, a suitable remuneration.*
Lord Derwentwater unfortunately adopted a course
which could but have one termination. He con-
cealed himself from those who were employed to ap-
prehend him. Clear from any direct imputation,
had he then given himself up, he would have been
released; and he might have been deterred from a
participation in the disastrous scenes which ensued.
He had now two children, a son and a daughter.
He had many valuable considerations to forfeit for
the one abstract principle of indefeasible right to
the throne. Few men had more to venture. Many
of the Jacobites went into the field with tarnished
characters, and with ruined fortunes: they might
gain, they could not lose by the perilous under-
taking. Amid the bands of high-born and highly
principled men who co-operated in both the Rebel-
lions, adventurers would appear, whose previous lives
shed dishonour upon any cause; but the irreproach-
able, the prosperous, the beloved, could desire little
more for themselves than what they already pos-
* His pension was raised for his services from fifty to eighty pounds
per annum. See Caledonian Mercury, 1722.
233 JAMES RADCLTFFE,
sessed: they ventured their rich and glorious barks
upon the current ; and let those who sully every
motive with suspicion, say that there was no virtue,
no patriotism, in the Jacobite party.
By his own descendant, Lord Derwentwater is be-
lieved to have hesitated upon the verge of his fate,
but to have been urged into it by his brother Charles.
Young and ardent, courageous even to rashness, the
first to offer himself where an enterprise was the
most hazardous, seeming to set no value upon his life
where glory was to be obtained, the darling of his
party, and, to sum up the whole, only twenty-two
years of age, Mr. Radcliffe rashly drew his brother
into a confederacy, so agreeable to his own ambitious
and fearless spirit. But there was another indivi-
dual on whom the responsibility of that luckless
movement in the North must chiefly rest. This was
Mr. Thomas Forster the younger, of Etherston in the
county of Northumberland, and member for the
county. During the first thirty years of his life, this
gentleman had scarcely been known beyond the pre-
cincts of his paternal estate. He became a member
of Parliament, and was drawn into the vortex of
party without talents to adorn or judgment to guide
his conduct. Although a Protestant, Mr. Forster
soon made his house the place of rendezvous for
all the non-jurors and disaffected people of the county
in which he lived; and he became involved in the
dangers of their schemes, almost before he was aware
of the perils which he was about to encounter. The
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 237
party of the Jacobites was composed of very dis-
similar materials. Whilst some adopted its projects
to retrieve character, or to attain, as they vainly
hoped, fortune, whilst others were actuated by ge-
nuine motives, there were many who mingled in the
mazes of the intricate politics of that day from
vanity, and the love of being at the head of faction :
such was Forster; and his career was unsatisfactory
and inglorious as his character was weak.
A warrant for Mr. Forster's apprehension having
been sent forth, he was, like Lord Derwentwater,
obliged to fly from place to place, until he arrived at
the house of Mr. Fenwick, at Bywell. Lord Der-
wentwater, meantime, had been secreted under the
roof of a man named Lambert, in a cottage, where
he had remained in safety. His horses had been
seized by one of the neighbouring magistrates, and
had been detained in custody for several weeks, pur-
suant to an order in council ; yet, when he had need
of them they were returned. " I afterwards asked
that lord," Mr. Patten relates, " how he came so
quietly by his horses from the justice's possession,
whom the believing neighbourhood esteemed a most
rigid Whig. I was answered thus, by that lord's
repeating a saying of Oliver Cromwell's, ' that he
could gain his ends with an ass- load of gold,' and
left me to make the application."*
Mr. Fenwick, of Bywell, was a secret, though not
an avowed Jacobite ; and it was soon agreed that at
* Patten, p. 19.
238 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
his house should be collected all those who were
favourable to the cause. A meeting of the party
was accordingly held: it was decided that finding
there was now no longer any safety in shifting from
place to place, and that since, in a few days, they
might all be hurried up to London, and secured in
prisons, where they might be separately examined,
and induced to betray each other; it was now
time to appear boldly in arms, and to show the
loyalty of the confederates to King James.
In pursuance of this resolution, the place and hour
of meeting were appointed the very next morning;
the sixth of October was named, and all were to
assemble at Greenrig. Here those who rode from
Bywell were met by Mr. Forster, with a party of
twenty gentlemen. The meeting might have re-
called the days of the Cavaliers : the winding of the
river Tyne in the valley ; the rural village of Bywell ;
on the rising ground to the right a ruin, once the
fortress of the vale, and held in former times by
the Baliols, presented a scene of tranquil beauty,
which some who met that day were destined never
to look upon again.
The low situation of Greenrig was deemed incon-
venient for the purpose of the insurgents, and the
party ascended a hill called the Waterfalls, from
which they could see the distant country. This
spot is thus described: "As you look upon Bywell
from the most pleasing point of view, the landskip
lies in the following order: from the road near
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 239
the front of the river, the ruined piers of a bridge
become the front objects; behind which, in a regular
cascade, the whole river falls over a wear, extended
from bank to bank, in height above eight feet per-
pendicular; a mill on the right hand, a salmon lock
on the left: the tower and the two churches stretch
along the banks of the upper basin of the river,
with a fine curvature; the solemn ruins of the an-
cient castle .of the Baliols lift their towers above the
trees on the right, and make an agreeable contrast
with the adjoining mansion-house. The whole back-
ground appears covered with wood.""""
On this height Mr..Forster and his party paused;
but they had not been long there before they saw the
Earl of Derwentwater, who came that morning from
Dilstone, advancing. He was attended by several
friends and by all his servants, some mounted on his
coach-horses, and all well armed. As they marched
through Corbridge, this gallant troop drew their
swords. They were reinforced by several other gen-
tlemen at the house of Mr. Errington, where they
stopped ; and they then advanced to the spot where
their friends awaited their approach. They now
mustered sixty horse, mostly composed of gentlemen
and their attendants. After a short council it was
decided that they should proceed towards the river
Coquet, to Plainfield : here they were joined by se-
veral stragglers : they marched that evening to Roth-
bury, a small market-town, where they remained all
* Hutchinson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. p. 131.
240 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
night, and continued their march on the following
morning, the seventh of October, to Warkworth
Castle.
In thus assembling his friends and his tenantry,
Lord Derwentwater was not blameless of undue in-
fluence and oppression. The instances, indeed, of
threats and absolute compulsion being used to aug-
ment the forces of the Jacobites, and to draw un-
willing dependants into participation, are very nu-
merous ; they may be collected from various pe-
titions, borne out by evidence, among the State
Papers for 1715 and 1716. It is true that such
excuses were certain to be alleged by many per-
sons unjustly; but, where the charges were substan-
tiated, we must with pain confess that the virtues
of the Earl of Derwentwater, as well as those of
other Jacobites, are sullied by a violent exercise of
power over their tenantry. One man, named George
Gibson, afterwards, in memorialising Lord Towns-
hend from Newgate, affirms that upon his refusal to
carry a message from Lord Derwentwater to Mr.
Forster, two days before the insurrection, and re-
turning to his own house instead, he was one night-
dragged out of bed by seven or eight men, and
hurried off to serve in the said insurrection with-
out a single servant of his own attending him. It
was proved also, by King's evidence, that the un-
fortunate man did all in his power to escape from
Kelso, and really made the attempt; but it was
defeated, for he was ever an object of suspicion
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 241
to the Earl of Derwentwater and Mr. Forster, whose
watchfulness kept him among the rebel troops.*
Party may do much to blunt the feelings; yet there
was too much of what was good in the character of
Lord Derwentwater for him, in the solitude of his
own prison, not to remember in after days the heavy
responsibilities which even by one act of this nature
he had incurred, in compelling a man to act against
his will and conscience.
Warkworth was probably chosen as a resting-place
for the insurgents, on account of its strength. Si-
tuated only three-quarters of a mile from the sea, on
the river Coquet, over which is' thrown a bridge,
guarded by a lofty tower, the Castle of Warkworth,
which guards the town, commands a view both
varied with objects of interest and importance.
From a lofty turret of the castle a great extent
of land and ocean is to be seen. The great Tower
of the Percys, from which this turret rises, is de-
corated with the lion of Brabant, and is seated on
the brink of a cliff above the town. From this
lofty structure the eye, stretching along the coast,
may discern the castles of Dunstanbrough and Barn-
borough: the Fern Islands, dotted upon the face
of the waters, the Port of Alemouth, and, at a
little distance, the mouth of the river Coquet, with
its island and ruined monastery. To the north, a
richly cultivated country extends as far as Alnwick;
to the south lies a plain, interspersed with villages
* State Papers. Domestic, No. 4, 1716.
VOL. I. R
242 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
and woods; the shore, to which it inclines, is in-
dented with many ports and creeks ; the smoke rising
from many scattered hamlets, and the spires of
churches enliven the smiling prospect.
In this secure station the rebels remained for two
days; and here Mr. Forster assumed the rank of
General of the Forces in the North, a title which had
been bestowed on him by the Earl of Mar. On the
day after his arrival at Warkworth, Mr. Forster sent
Mr. Buxton, who was chaplain to the troops, to
desire Mr. Ton, the parish clergyman, to pray for the
Chevalier as King ; and, in the Litany, for Mary, the
Queen Mother, and to omit the petition for King
George, the Prince and Princess of Wales, &c. Mr.
Ton declining to make this alteration, Mr. Buxton
took possession of the reading-desk, and performed
the service, whilst the deposed clergyman took flight,
and, hastening to Newcastle, gave notice there of
what had occurred. This was the first place where
the Chevalier was prayed for in England; and Mr.
Buxton's sermon, observes our historian, " gave
mighty encouragement to his hearers, being full of
exhortations, flourishing arguments, and cunning in-
sinuations to be hearty in the cause." These in-
centives were aided by a " comely personage," and
considerable eloquence and erudition.
On the following day, after proclaiming James
King of England with all due formality and with
the sound of trumpet, Mr. Forster attending the
ceremony in disguise, the troops marched to Morpeth,
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 243
their numbers increasing as they went. At
Felton Bridge, they were joined by seventy horse,
composed of gentlemen from the borders ; and by the
time they reached Morpeth, their number had aug-
mented to three hundred : these were all horse-sol-
diers : Mr. Forster refused the foot as auxiliaries,
otherwise the increase would have been considerable.
The reason assigned for this rejection was the im-
possibility of supplying the men with arms ; but the
fairest assurances were given to the friends of the
cause that arms and ammunition would soon be pro-
cured, and regiments listed forthwith.
The spirits of the Jacobite army were now high;
their hopes were raised by the daily increase of their
party. Newcastle was their next object, and thither
they prepared to march, having first proclaimed the
Chevalier, Mr. Buxton taking upon himself the office
of herald. Newcastle was, however, on her defence :
the city gates were closed against the troops, and
they turned towards Hexham, and thence marched to
a moor near Dilstone Castle, and here they halted
for some days. This was a feint, as they intended,
it is thought, to have surprised the town of New-
castle. But the news they received from that place
were far from encouraging. The gentry in the
neighbourhood had rallied for its defence; and Lord
Scarborough, the lord-lieutenant of the county, had
entered the town with a body of men. Still there
was a powerful High Church party, who, as the Jaco-
bites hoped, would declare for the Chevalier. It was
R 2
244 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
from Newcastle that Lord Derwentwater had been
apprised, in the first instance, that there were mes-
sengers- sent to apprehend him. The insurgents,
therefore, continued near Hexham, where they seized
on all the horses and arms they could, read prayers
in the churches for King James, and proclaimed him
in the market-place.
The Earl of Derwentwater had appointed his bro-
ther to the command of his troop, whilst Captain
Shaftoe was under Mr. Radcliffe. This, in some
respects, was an unfortunate step: the young and
brave commander had never even seen an army
before : he was inexperienced, and ignorant of all
military discipline: what he wanted in knowledge,
he is said, however, to have made up for by the in-
fluence he acquired over his men, and by the power
he had of inciting them to great exploits/""
Whilst the rebel forces lay at Hexham, they re-
ceived the intelligence that Lord Kenmure, the Earls
of Nithisdale, of Carnwath, and Wintoun, had risen
in Nithisdale, and had marched thence to England
to join the troops in Northumberland, and had even
advanced as far as Rothbury. On the nineteenth
of October, Mr. Forster joined the Scottish army at
Rothbury, and afterwards marched with an increas-
ing force to Kelso. Here prayers were read in the
great kirk by Mr. Buxton ; " and I," relates Mr.
Patten, " preached on these words, Deut. xxi. 17,
the latter part of the verse : ' The right of the first-
* Life of Charles Radcliffe, p. 15.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 245
born is his.' " The service of the Church of England
was then read for the first time on that side of the
Tweed.*
William Gordon, Viscount Kenmure, had the com-
mand of the Jacobite army until they had crossed the
IVeed. Like the Earl of Derwentwater, this unfortu-
nate nobleman is declared to have shewn reluctance to
take up arms. On having been solicited? by the Earl
of Mar to command the forces, and assured that he
would join him, he at first refused the offer, but had
finally acceded, and had set up the standard of the
Chevalier at Moffat, in Annandale. The standard
was made, for this .occasion, by Lady Kenmure, the
sister of Robert, sixth Earl of Carnwath. It was very
handsome ; one side being blue, with the arms of Scot-
land wrought in gold; on the other side a thistle,
the words so often uttered during the Rebellion, and
re-echoed in many a Scottish heart, " No Union,"
were wrought underneath the thistle. Above it
were the words NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT ; white
pendants were attached to the standard, on which
were inscribed " For our Wronged King and Op-
pressed Country !" " For our Lives and Liberties ! "
But the nobleman who had taken this prominent
part in the Rebellion of 1715, although possessed
of extraordinary knowledge in politics and civil
affairs, was an utter stranger to all military busi-
ness. His mild temper and his unoffending cha-
racter inspired compassion for his subsequent fate,
* Patten, p. 31.
246 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
but unfitted him for the office of command: his
gentler qualities were united, nevertheless, to a reso-
lute and lofty mind. The fate of this nobleman,
like that of his most distinguished friends, was a
brief tragedy.
Lord Kenmure had a troop of gentlemen with him,
the command of which he gave to the Hon. Bazil
Hamilton of Beldoun, and a nephew of the Duke
of Hamilton.
Among other characters who were conspicuous on
this occasion, was the celebrated Brigadier Mackin-
tosh. The sixth regiment, named after the Brigadier
as chief of the clan, was commanded by a kinsman.
The Brigadier had served in Germany, and had there
gained his military rank. Descended from the an-
cient house of Fife, the chieftain had increased his
influence by marrying, while a minor, the heiress of
Clanchattan, in right of whom he became chieftain "of
that clan, comprising many others. His motto,
" Touch not the cat without a glove," and the coat-
of-arms supported by two wild cats, with a cat for
the crest, were not inappropriate. No suspicion had
been entertained of Mackintosh's adherence to the
Chevalier, with whom he became acquainted abroad,
until he actually joined the party.
The Earl of Carnwath, Lord Nairn, Lord Charles
Murray, and the Earl of Wintoun, commanded the
other Scottish regiments, which were generally better
armed than those of the English. The Earl of Der-
wentwater, and the Lords Widdrington had the two
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 247
principal English regiments, of which there were
four."""
On the twenty-fifth of October, the united army
of Scots and English left Kelso, and marched to Jed-
burgh. On their march, some of the Scots, taking
umbrage, left the army under the guidance of the
Earl of Wintoun ; and although that nobleman after-
wards returned with his troop, above four hundred
Highlanders deserted, and returned to their country.
During the progress of the insurgent forces, there is
little reason to conclude that Lord Derwentwater took
a very active or important part in the various consul-
tations which were held, always with great disunion,
and with a melancholy want of judgment, between the
General, Mr. Forster, and his military council. The
amiable nobleman appears to have assigned to his
less discreet brother the entire guidance of his troop.
" His temper and disposition," as he expresses it in
his defence, " disposed him to peace. He was totally
inexperienced in martial affairs ; that he entered
upon the undertaking without any previous concert
with its chief promoters, without any preparation
of men, horses, and arms, or other warlike accoutre-
ments," was at once an instance of his imprudence
and a mitigation of his error, f There was, indeed,
no doubt but that Lord Derwentwater might have
brought many hundreds of his followers to the field,
even from one portion of his estate only; for he pos-
* Patten. Smollett.
f Parliamentary History, 2 Geo. I. vol. vii. p. 269.
248 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
sessed the extensive lead mines on Alstone Moor,
where a large body of men were daily employed, and
received from him their sole means of support.*
But whether or not this unfortunate nobleman
failed in energy or in zeal ; whether he entered with
his whole heart into the cause of James Stuart; or
whether, with the conscientious scruples of a gentle
nature, he shrank from involving in the risk of
this insurrection the majority of his humble de-
pendants, he acted throughout the whole of this
brief campaign with the consideration for others
so characteristic of his mind. He truly affirmed on
his trial, that no one could charge him with any
cruel, severe, or harsh action during his con-
tinuance in arms : and his conduct in the last
extremity corresponded to his previous forbearance.
Such dispositions appear to have been cherished,
indeed, by the rest of the Jacobite party. The mer-
ciful temper of the Chevalier, and his known aversion
to destructive measures, may have had its influence
over those who asserted his claims. There was some-
thing like the spirit of the cavalier of the Great Rebel-
lion in Mr. Forster's reply to some of his officers, who
wished to put down or burn a Presbyterian meeting-
house at Penrith : "It is by clemency, and not by
cruelty, that we are to prevail."f
After the insurgent troops had marched from place
to place for some time, it was decided that the Eng-
lish regiments should recross the border; and after
* Patten, p. 47. t Id. p. 65.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 249
many disputes and much loss of time, they resolved
upon a march into Lancashire, a country abounding
at that time in Roman Catholic gentry, and strongly
Jacobite.* This decision, like most of the other
military movements of the unfortunate Jacobites,
was the work of a strong party in the camp, and
was founded upon the alleged authority of private
letters, which gave the assurance of a general
insurrection taking place on the appearance of the
insurgent force. The unlucky change of plans
superseded a meditated attack upon the town of
Dumfries. " Nothing," observes Mr. Patten, " could
be a greater token of a complete infatuation, that
Heaven confounded all their devices, and that their
destruction was to be of their own working, than
their omitting such an opportunity." After a rapid
march from Langholm in the west of Scotland, across
the borders, and through Penrith, Appleby, and Ken-
dal, to Kirby Lonsdale, the combined force entered
the county of Lancaster ; and having entered Lancas-
ter without opposition, they resolved to proceed to
Preston. It is now that the last disastrous events of
Lord Derwentwater's brief career brought to light his
excellent qualities, his pure and amiable motives of
action. It is not possible to read the account of the
battle of Preston, in which he was engaged, without a
* An instance of this spirit is related by Lord Sunderland in the case
of a Mr. Crisp, a Lancashire gentleman, who acted with such zeal for the
Government during the Rebellion, that he was never able to live in his
native country afterwards. Lord Mahon's History of England since the
Peace of Utrecht, vol. i. p. 253.
250 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
deep regret for the personal misfortunes of one so
young, so well intentioned, and so esteemed, as this
ill-fated nobleman.
The forces of the Jacobites amounted, after being
joined by a party of volunteers under the Lords
Rothes and Torpichen, and since their separation from
the Highlanders, to about two thousand men. The
foot was commanded by Brigadier Mackintosh; and
six hundred Northumbrian and Dumfriesshire horse-
men, by Lord Kenmure and Mr. Forster.*
On the ninth instant the march to Preston was
commenced; the cavalry troops reached that town on
the same evening ; but the day proving rainy, and the
roads heavy, the foot regiments were left at a small
market-town called Garstang, half-way between Man-
chester and Preston. Two troops of Stanhope's dra-
goons, formerly quartered at Preston, having retired
as the rebels approached, the spirits of the Jacobite
officers and the ardour of their men were greatly
encouraged. On the following day, Thursday the
tenth of November, the Chevalier was proclaimed at
Preston, and here the rebels were joined by many
country gentlemen, their tenants and servants: this
was the first accession to the party since their entrance
into Lancashire. The new allies were chiefly Roman
Catholics, a circumstance which aroused the instinc-
tive dread of the Scottish volunteers to persons of
that persuasion. The High Church party hung back
from joining the cause. The Roman Catholics began,
* Lord Mahon, vol. i. p. 248.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 251
according to the historian of the Rebellion of 1715,
" to show their blind side," being never right hearty
for their cause until they are " mellow," as they call
it, " over a bottle or two."*
The town of Preston seated on the river Kibble,
was a place from which an enemy might, in the year
1715, have been easily repulsed. About a mile and
a half from the town, a bridge over the river offered
an admirable stand for a besieged garrison ; it might
have been so easily barricadoed, that it would have
been impracticable to pass that way if the commonest
precautions had been adopted. The river in this
part was not fordable for a considerable distance on
either side of the bridge, and it could have been easily
rendered impassable. From the Kibble bridge to the
town, the road ran between two steep banks ; and this
way, or lane, was then so narrow, that in several
places two men could not ride abreast. It was here
that Oliver Cromwell had met with a famous re-
sistance from the King's forces in 1648, large mill-
stones having been rolled down upon him from the
rising grounds, so that the republican general was
in considerable danger, and he only escaped with life
by making his horse plunge into a quicksand.
This lane formed a curious natural outwork ; and
might easily have been barricadoed, but the defi-
ciencies of Mr. Forster's generalship were fatal to so
simple and obvious a plan of defence. He confined
his exertions to the town, barricadoed the streets, and
" Patten, p. 79.
252 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
posted men in the bye-lanes and houses. The Jaco-
bite troops formed four main barriers: one in the
churchyard, commanded by Brigadier Mackintosh.
This barrier was to be supported by four noblemen,
who, at the head of the volunteer horse, (as in
many instances in the army of Charles the First,)
composed of gentlemen solely, was planted in the
churchyard of Old St. Wilfred, as the parish-
church of Preston was then called : their leaders
were the Earl of Derwentwater, Lord Kenmure, the
Earl of Nithisdale, and the Earl of Wintoun, a
truehearted band as ever braved the terrors of an
encounter with their countrymen. At a little dis-
tance from the churchyard and at the extremity of
a lane leading into the fields, Lord Charles Murray
defended another post. The third was at a wind-
mill, and that Colonel Mackintosh was appointed to
command. The fourth was in the town.
Lord Derwentwater and his brothers were the ob-
jects, even before the action began, of universal appro-
bation. Whatever may have been the real or sup-
posed reluctance of the former to engage in the cause,
it vanished as he came into action. There he stood,
having stripped off his clothes to his waistcoat, encou-
raging the men, giving them money to induce them
to cast up the trenches, and animating them to a
vigorous defence. His brother addressed the soldiers
also, and displayed all the ardour of his fearless spirit.
" No man of distinction," wrote a Scottish prisoner in
the Marshalsea to his friend in the North, " behaved
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 253
himself better than the Earl of Derwentwater. He
kept himself most with the Scots, abundantly expos-
ing himself."* But all this was in vain, if we dare to
call any manifestations of heroic devotion in vain.
With singular incapacity, Mr. Forster had failed
in procuring the necessary intelligence of the move-
ments of the enemy. He had been assured by the
Lancashire gentlemen, that General Wills, who headed
the King's forces, could not come within forty miles
of Preston without their knowledge. On Saturday,
the twelfth of November, after he had ordered the
forces to march toward Manchester, the intelligence
reached him that General Wills had advanced as far
as Wigan to attack the rebels. Even at this crisis
affairs might have been retrieved: a body of the
Jacobites was, indeed, sent forward to defend the
Kibble bridge, whilst Mr. Forster went on with a
party of horse to reconnoitre. He soon saw the
enemy's dragoons ; but instead of disputing the
bridge, or allowing Colonel Farquharson, belonging to
Mackintosh's battalion, to keep the pass, he ordered
a retreat to the town. Then all was confusion,
slaughter, disgrace. General Wills advanced; he re-
membered the disaster of Oliver Cromwell ; he looked
carefully around him, and caused the hedges and
fields to be viewed; but no enemy appeared to dis-
pute his progress. The dragoons advanced towards
the town ; at first, their General conjectured that it
* Letter from a Scots Prisoner. See Weekly Journal, or British Ga-
zette, for 1716.
254 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
must have been abandoned. When he discovered his
mistake, he ordered his troops to pass through a gate
which leads into the fields at the back of the town,
and immediately disposed his forces so as to prevent
either a sally or a retreat.
The insurgents, meantime, were prepared to receive
him. The ancient church of St. Wilfred, which has
since 1814 been replaced by a modern structure, and
endowed with another name, that of St. John,
must have been shaken to its foundations with the
explosion of the cannon, as it was discharged beneath
its ancient walls. The besieged formed four main
barriers; one a little below the church, commanded
by Brigadier Mackintosh : the Earl of Derwentwater
and his gallant volunteers were commanded to sup-
port that barrier in particular, and here the first
attack was made; but it met with so fierce a re-
ception, and such a fire upon the assailants, that the
dragoons were obliged to retreat to the entrance of
the town. Of this repulse Lord Derwentwater and
his youthful brother gained the chief credit. The
scene that followed is a detail of fruitless gallantry,
and of an agonised but ill-concerted resistance.
The fatality which attended the Stuart cause, and
which rendered the bloodshed of its t gallant cham-
pions unavailing to promote it, was here conspicu-
ous. That fatality was doubtless resolvable into
a want of common sense, in entrusting the command
of the forces into incompetent hands. All night,
indeed, the Jacobite forces met their opponents with
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 255
a determined resistance, that made up, in some mea-
sure, for inequality of numbers : the besieged were in
many instances sheltered from the enemy's shot, and
they had also the advantage on their side of cannon,
with which General Wills was not supplied. In the
course of that night of horrors, whilst the brave were
carried away, mangled or dying, Lord Charles Mur-
ray, who was attacked late in the evening, wanted
a reinforcement of men. He sent Mr. Patten to the
Earl of Derwentwater to ask for aid ; it was granted ;
Mr. Patten passing in safety on account of his black
coat, upon which neither party would fire, conducted
a troop of fifty volunteers to Lord Charles, who
maintained his post, and obliged the enemy to retire
with loss. Had it not been for another of Mr.
Forster's fatal blunders, the insurgents would still
have remained in possession of the town of Preston,
which has always, from its commanding situation,
been deemed, in all the civil commotions of the
kingdom, as a military post of great importance.
All Saturday night, the platoons of the King's forces
were incessantly playing upon the insurgents from
two principal houses which the besiegers had taken,
but few persons of importance were killed. Several
houses were set on fire by both parties, but the wind
was still, otherwise the inhabitants and the Jacobite
troops must have perished in the flames. Towards
morning the information arrived in the town through
some of the King's soldiers who had been made pri-
soners, that General Carpenter, with three regiments
256 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
of dragoons was marching towards Preston, and that
he had arrived at Clithero. This intelligence spread
great consternation among the Jacobites; and a ca-
pitulation began to be mentioned among them ; yet it
is probable they would still have held out, had not
one of the avenues into Preston, by an inexcusable
oversight of the Jacobite General, been left unguarded.
It was discovered by some of the King's men, that
the street leading to Wigan had not been barri-
cadoed. This weak point was thereupon attacked by
Lord Forrester, at the head of that brave and old
regiment, called Preston's regiment. The assailants
marched into a straight passage behind the houses :
then Lord Forrester came into the open street, and
faced Mackintosh's barrier; there were many shots
fired at him, and he was wounded ; yet he went back,
and lead his men fearlessly into the street, where
many of that regiment fell a sacrifice to this daunt-
less assault. It prevailed; and from that time the
fate of the heroes of the churchyard of Preston, of
Derwentwater and his noble comrades was deter-
mined. But, during that appalling conflict, whilst
the blood of the valiant was tinging the streets of
Preston, where was the General, who should have
shared the dangers with his ofiicers? " I had almost
forgot to tell you," writes the plain-spoken Scottish
soldier above referred to, " that in the hottest time
of our little action, which was about eleven on
Saturday night, Lord Charles Murray's men falling
short of ammunition, Robertson of Guy, and another
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 257
gentleman, were sent to the General, Mr. Forster, for
a recruit. When they got access, they found him
lying in his naked bed, with a sack-posset, and some
confections by him; which I humbly judge was not a
very becoming posture at that time for a General.
He took all along particular care of himself."*
Towards morning Mr. Forster in conjunction with
Lord Widdrington and Colonel Oxburgh, proposed a
capitulation. It was considered, that by submission,
terms of mercy might be procured by the insurgent
troops. Those who thus argued had had no experience
of the temper of those to whom they trusted, or they
would have willingly died sword in hand rather than
have confided in such slender hopes of clemency. The
Earl of Derwentwater was among those who counselled
the surrender. From his general character, the
reasons which he assigned afterwards in his defence,
for such advice, have ever been credited. When the
fury of the action was over, the amiable nobleman
perceived that it was his duty to coincide in a step
by which the lives of his countrymen might be
spared : he trusted to the mediation of Colonel Ox-
burgh, who offered to go to the King's forces, and to
request a cessation of arms; and who also promised,
by his personal influence, to obtain fair terms of
capitulation. As a guarante'e for the suspension of
hostilities, Lord Derwentwater volunteered to become
one of the hostages until the morning, should General
Wills require it. It appears that his offer was
* Weekly Journal, p. 354.
VOL. 1. S
258 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
accepted, and that while the Earl was in the camp
of General Wills, he received assurances of King
George's being a prince of known clemency, a
virtue which was said to form a distinguishing mark
in his character.* But Mr. Radcliffe, young and
ardent, opposed the capitulation with the vehemence
natural to his character. During the whole of the
action, he had been in the midst of the fire, and
had displayed the utmost intrepidity; and now, he
declared, that " he would rather die with his sword
in his hand, like a man of honour, than be dragged
like a felon to the gallows, there to be hanged like a
dog." He was, of course, obliged to submit to the
majority. f The common soldiers joined in his de-
clamations. " Never," writes the Scottish soldier,
" was a handful of men more ready to fight" than
those at Preston." It was with difficulty that the
gallant Highlanders could be restrained from sally-
ing forth, with their claymores, at all hazards, upon
the enemy. They chafed under the disappointment
and humiliation of that day ; but all was to little
purpose. Perhaps no power of words could express
the bitter feelings of that hour better than the
homely phrases of an eye-witness of the scene.
" On Sunday, to our surprise, about three in the
afternoon," writes the Highlander from his prison,
we saw a drum of the enemy beating a chamade
in the street. In an instant we were all called from
* Parliamentary History, p. 269.
t Life of Charles Radcliffe, p. 23.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 259
our posts to the Market-place: the horsemen were
ordered to mount. This made us believe the parley
had been proposed by General Wills, and that we
were to break out and attack them sword in hand, at
least, break through them at that end of the town;
but we soon found it was proposed by Mr. Forster,
and that there was a cessation till nine next morning,
and a capitulation to be made. This was very choak-
ing to us all, but there was no helping of it ; for no
sooner had we left our posts, than they made them-
selves master of them, and of our cannon." *
Whilst the chamade was beating, Colonel Cotton,
sent by General Wills, rode up the street, and
alighted at the sign of the Mitre : the firing mean-
time had not ceased from several of the houses : the
common soldiers were ignorant of the real state of
the case, and believed that General Wills had sent
to offer honourable terms, not knowing that the offer
of a capitulation had proceeded from their own
party.
Still there were obstacles to the capitulation raised
by the Scottish party, who were represented by Bri-
gadier Mackintosh. " He could not," he replied,
when urged for his consent, " answer for the Scotch,
for they were people of desperate fortunes, and he
had been a soldier himself, and knew what it was to
be a prisoner at discretion." When this demur was
stated to General Wills, " Go back to your people
again," was his answer to those who stated it : "I
* Patten.
s 2
260 JAMES RADCLTFFE,
will attack the town, and I will not spare a man
of you." At the subsequent trial of the rebels, Ge-
neral Wills was able, with truth, to deny the charge
of having given his unhappy prisoners any hopes,
to induce them to sign the capitulation. " All the
terms he offered them," such was his assertion,
" was, that he would save their lives from the sol-
diers till further orders, if they surrendered at dis-
cretion : (the meaning of which was, that by the
rules of war it was in his power to cut them all to
pieces, but he would give them their lives till further
orders;) and if they did not comply, he would renew
the attack, and not spare a man."'*
No sooner had the news of the capitulation been
bruited about the streets, than it was received with
a sorrow and indignation almost past description.
Had the unlucky and pusillanimous Mr. Forster ap-
peared at that moment, he " would certainly," as
Mr. Patten relates, " have been cut to pieces." Even
in his chamber, the General was attacked by his
own Secretary, Mr. Murray, and a pistol which was
aimed at him only averted by Mr. Patten's hand.
The truth is, even Forster's fidelity has been doubted ;
and subsequently, the mild treatment which he re-
ceived during his imprisonment, and his escape from
prison, have been construed, with what justice
it is difficult to say, into a confirmation of this
charge.
On the morning after the surrender, the rebels
* Patten, p. 96.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 261
were all made prisoners and disarmed, soon after
daybreak. That day, so fatal to the Jacobites of
1715, witnessed also the battle of Sherriff Muir
under Lord Mar, and the retaking of the town of
Inverness by Lovat. It must have aggravated the
regrets of those who then laid down their arms, to
see the townspeople of Preston plundered, in despite of
every hope to the contrary, by the King's forces, as
they dislodged the dejected Jacobites from their
quarters. But these irregularities were soon checked.
At last the sound of trumpets and the beating of
drums were heard: the two Generals were entering
the town in form. . They rode into the Market-place,
around which the Highlanders were drawn up with
their arms. The lords and gentlemen among the
rebels were first secured, and placed severally under
guard in separate rooms at the inn. Then the poor
Highlanders laid down their arms where they stood,
and were marched off to the church, under a sufficient
guard. Here the thrifty Scots amused themselves
by making garments of the linings of the pews, which
they ripped off from the seats.
Seven noblemen, besides one thousand four hundred
and ninety others, including gentlemen and officers,
were taken at Preston.* Generally speaking, they
were treated well by the military: " The dragoons
were civil to us," writes the Highlander, " their
officers choosing rather to want beds themselves than
we should."f At Wigan the prisoners were allowed
* Patten, p. 103. t Weekly Journal.
262 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
to commune together, under the inspection of sen-
tinels; and a warm altercation occurred between
Lord Widdrington and Brigadier Mackintosh, in the
presence of Lord Derwentwater, who took little
notice of the Brigadier, but turning to another gen-
tleman, said : " You see what we have brought our-
selves to by giving credit to our highborn Tories,
to such men as Fenwick, Tate, Green, and Allgood.
If you outlive misfortune, and return to live in the
North, I desire you never to be seen in converse with
such rogues in disguise, who promised to join us, and
animated us to rise with them." The gentleman
promised that he would observe his Lordship's coun-
sels. " Ah!" said Lord Derwentwater, " I know
you to be of an easy temper."*
The prisoners were now carried on towards Lon-
don by easy marches, Mr. Patten accompanying his
patron, Mr. Forster. As they went, the undaunted
Highlanders called out to the country people who
came to gaze at them, " Where are all your high-
church Tories ? If they would not fight with us, let
them come and rescue us." This indiscretion re-
doubled the vigilance of the watch put upon the
rebels. From Daventry to London, Mr. Forster and
Mr. Patten were greeted by the common people with
encomiums upon a warming-pan, in allusion to the
supposed birth of the Pretender. When the prisoners
arrived at Barnet, messengers came to meet them,
and to pinion their arms with cords, " More for dis-
* Patten.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 263
tinction," adds the subservient Mr. Patten, " than
for any pain that attended." Yet the indignity must
have been cruelly galling to the highborn and gallant
men who were thus mercilessly paraded to their
doom amid the cries of the populace.
At Highgate a strong detachment of horse-soldiers
and dragoons received the prisoners from Lumley's
Horse, which had hitherto guarded them; and now
they were separated into pairs, a foot-soldier holding
the bridle of each horse; and in this manner the
Jacobite peers, Lord Derwentwater among the rest,
were conducted to London through " a hedge of a
mob," as the Highland soldier declares, hired, as he
hints, at Lord Pelham's charge, to muster that day.
Cries of "Long live King George!" and "Down
with the Pretender ! " greeted the ear as they passed
on to their several destinations. A Quaker, fixing
his eyes on Mr. Patten, and seeing his black dress,
remarked, " Friend, thou hast been the trumpeter
of rebellion to those men, thou must answer for
them." The moralizer was touched by a grenadier
with the butt end of his musket, so that the " spirit
fell into the ditch." But the Quaker was not re-
buffed. " Friend," he said to the soldier, " thou art,
I fear, no true friend to King George."
Even at the last, Mr. Forster had hopes, it is said,
of being released by a Tory mob. The Jacobite noble-
men had been, indeed, all along misled, or ignorant
of the real inclinations of the mass of the people.
The dread of what they term "popery" is a deep
264 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
and engrossing passion in the hearts of the lower and
even of the middle classes, and it formed an ef-
fectual barrier against the restoration of the Stuarts.
The cause of those unfortunate Princes was never,
in this country, as it was in Scotland, the cause of
the people. The personal attachment of the High-
landers to the ancient race of Stuart, and their
devotion to their clan, superseded their religious
scruples ;* but that was not the case in the South.
The Earl of Derwentwater and his brother were
consigned to different prisons, the former to the
Tower, the latter to Newgate ; a very strict guard
was set upon the Earl, and no one was allowed to see
him or speak to him.f
On the seventh of January, 1716, the case of the
seven rebel lords J was brought before the House of
Commons ; and Mr. Lechmere moved that they should
not be left to the ordinary method of prosecutions,
but should be proceeded against by way of impeach-
ment^ In a long and, as far as the report enables
a reader to judge, able speech, he referred to the
declaration of the Pretender, given under his sign
manual and privy seal at Commercy, on the twenty-
fifth of October, 1715. "This paper," Mr. Lech-
mere observed, "which he held in his hand, was suf-
ficient to fire the thoughts of every gentleman there ;
and the House could do no more than to resent this
* Patten. f Caledonian Mercury for 1716.
| Earls of Derwentwater, Nithisclale, Carnwath, and Wintoun ; Vis-
count Kenmure, and Lords Widdrington and Nairn.
State Trials, vol. xv. p. 762.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 265
so far as to make themselves the prosecutors of those
who avowed the cause of the Pretender, and set them-
selves at the head of armies, in the heart of his Ma-
jesty's dominions." In conclusion, " he impeached
James, Earl of Der went water, of high treason, which
impeachment he undertook to make good."
Six other members then severally impeached the
other six Jacobite lords; and an impeachment was
carried up to the Bar of the House of Lords, with an
assurance " that articles to make good the charge
against the Earl of Derwentwater and the other noble-
men would shortly be exhibited."
A committee of the House of Commons, with Mr.
Lechmere as their chairman, was therefore formed;
and the articles were framed, and read before the Bar
of the House of Lords. On the tenth of January the
Jacobite lords were summoned to hear the articles of
impeachment: a few days were allowed to them to
prepare their replies. On the following Saturday, the
Earl of Derwentwater was brought by the Gentleman
Usher of the Black Rod before the Bar, where he
knelt, until told by the Lord Chancellor to rise.
He then delivered his answer.
Those who, in perusing the annals of these times,
look for strength of character in the state prisoners
who were now brought before the tribunal of the
House of Lords, or for consistency in those prin-
ciples which had led them into the field, will be
painfully disappointed. In two instances alone was
there displayed an undaunted demeanour, and a re-
266 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
solute adherence to the cause which they had avowed ;
and these were shewn in the subsequent rebellion,
by the brave and admirable Lord Balmerino, and
by the unfortunate Charles Radcliffe.
The Earl of Derwentwater expressed, in his reply,
the tl deepest concern and affliction to a charge of so
high and heinous a nature as that brought against
him. He acknowledged with sorrow that he had been
in arms, and did march through and invade several
parts of the kingdom ; and that he was thereby guilty
of the offence whereof he was charged in the articles.
" But," he continued, " if any one offence of that
kind was ever attended with circumstances which
might move compassion, the said Earl hopes he may
be entitled to it." He then referred to his peaceable
disposition, and pleaded his youth and inexperience ;
the absence of all malice, of all concerted conspiracy ;
his having made no warlike preparations. He pleaded
also, that he could not be justly reproached with any
cruel or harsh conduct while he bore arms : he speci-
fied his advice to those with him to submit at Preston,
and to trust to the King's mercy. He adduced his
anxiety to save the lives of his Majesty's subjects by
avoiding further bloodshed, and brought in proof a
letter which he had written to those of his own party,
conjuring them to capitulate. Under such circum-
stances, the Earl implored the mediation both of their
Lordships and of the Commons for mercy on his behalf,
" which will lay him," so he declared in conclusion,
" under the highest obligations of duty and affec-
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 267
tion to his Majesty, and perpetual gratitude to both
Houses."
The answer not appearing to the Lords to be suf-
ficiently " express and clear," the Earl was then
asked by the Chancellor, whether he meant to plead
guilty to the articles of the impeachment. The Earl
replied that he did, and that he submitted to the
King's mercy. His answer and plea were entered
accordingly, and the Earl then withdrew.*
On Thursday, February the ninth, the Lords came
from their own House into the hall erected in West-
minster Hall, to pass sentence upon James, Earl of
Derwentwater, and upon the five other noblemen who
had pleaded guilty with him; the Earl of Wintoun,
who had pleaded not guilty, being reserved for trial.
The Lord High Steward who presided on this oc-,
casion was William Earl Cowper, Lord Chancellor,
who, for the time of trial, was called " your Grace,"
and had the privilege of walking uncovered, his train
borne, except whilst the commission was read by the
Clerk of the Crown.
The usual proclamation rang through the Court,
and the Sergeant-at-Arms, saying u Oyez ! Oyez !
Oyez!" enforced silence. Then another proclama-
tion was made, commanding the Lieutenant of the
Tower to bring forth his prisoners to the Bar, and ac-
cordingly the six rebel lords were brought to the Bar
by the Deputy-Governor of the Tower, having the axe
carried before them by the Gentleman Jailer, who
* Parliamentary History, vol. vii. p. 269.
268 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
stood with it on the left hand of the prisoners, with
the edge turned from him. The prisoners, after
kneeling before the Bar, bowed to his Grace the High
Steward, and also to the Peers, whose sad privilege it
is to try those of the same rank in the scale of society
as themselves, and often, from extensive intermar-
riages, connected by ties of blood. The articles of
impeachment against James Earl of Derwentwater
were read, and the prisoner's reply.
He was then asked if he pleaded guilty to the high
treason in the said articles of impeachment. His
Lordship replied, " I do." He was ordered to with-
draw; but was called before the Bar the same day to
receive judgment. Upon being asked by the Lord
High Steward " Why judgment should not be passed
upon him according to law ?" the Earl repeated a few
circumstances mentioned in his answer to the articles.
His voice was scarcely articulate as he proceeded to
say, " But the terrors of your Lordship's just sen-
tence, which at once deprive me of my life and estate,
and complete the misfortunes of my wife and innocent
children, are so heavy upon my mind, I am scarcely
able to allege what may extenuate my offence, if any
thing may do it." He then again besought of their
Lordships the mediation in his behalf.
After the Lords Widdrington, Kenmure, Nithisdale,
and Carnwath had been severally addressed, and had
replied to the Court, proclamation for silence was
again made, and judgment was given. It was pre-
faced by a long and elaborate address ; which, however
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 269
elegant, however explanatory, however just, it may be
considered, was strongly tinctured by the adulatory
spirit of the day, and was calculated to wound and to
harden the offending prisoners, rather than to unfold
with dignity the reasons for condemnation. In con-
clusion, since nothing could, in the narrowing view of
party, be too dictatorial for the unfortunate Jacobites,
they were exhorted not to rely any longer on the usual
directors of their consciences, but to be assisted by
some of the pious and learned divines of the Church of
England. This was addressed to men who were, with
two exceptions, of the Church of Rome, and whose
chief reliance must naturally be upon those of their
own persuasion.
The terrible sentence of the law was then recorded.
It was that usually given against the meanest of-
fenders in like kind, the most ignominious and
painful parts being remitted by the grace of the
Crown to persons of quality. Judgment was, how-
ever, pronounced, according to the usual form for
high treason. *
The prisoners were then reconducted to the Tower ;
the Lord High Steward, standing up uncovered, broke
the staff of office, and declared the present commission
to be ended. The Peers returned to the House of
Lords.
Little is known of the dreary and solemn hours
which intervened between the judgment and the exe-
cution of the sentence. But one brief expression, in
" State Trials.
270 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
an old newspaper, relative to the young and unhappy
Earl of Derwentwater, speaks volumes : " The Earl of
Derwentwater is so desponding, that two warders are
obliged to sit up with him during the night."* He
was visited in his prison by Thomas Townshend,
Viscount Sydney, then Under Secretary of State for
George the First ;f one of the most amiable men, as
well as refined and elegant scholars of the day, and a
nobleman whose sensibility and delicacy of feeling,
which prevented his taking a share in the more
active parts of public business, must have caused
an interview with the Earl of Derwentwater to have
been deeply touching. The Duke of Roxburgh also
visited the condemned nobleman; but no record is
left of these communications. The Duke was at that
time Keeper of the Privy Seal for Scotland, and
Lord-Lieutenant of the counties of Roxburgh and
Selkirk. He had recently distinguished himself at
Sherriff Muir: he was at this time a young man of
twenty-five years of age, and one whom all parties
have commended. " Learned, without pedantry, he
was, perhaps," says Lockhart of Carnwath, " the
best accomplished young man of Europe." To these
acquirements were added a singular charm of man-
ner.;}; One can hardly suppose the visits of two such
men not to have had their source from some motive of
kindness.
To the credit of the House of Lords, an address was
* Caledonian Mercury for 1716. t Beatson's Political Index.
^ Douglas's Peerage of Scotland.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 271
voted to the King, petitioning that his Majesty would
reprieve such of the rebel lords as deserved his
mercy. The royal answer was couched in these
terms: that "the King on this, and all occasions,
would do what he thought consistent with the dignity
of the Crown and the safety of his people."* It was
unfortunate that, both at this time and in the Rebel-
lion of 1745, there was no Queen Consort. A wo-
man's heart would, one may trust, have pleaded for
the young, gallant, and beloved Derwentwater. The
English Court was, at that time, insulted by the au-
dacious intrigues of foreign mistresses. These women
had no interest in the King's real fame, nor in the
national credit. Such was the case in the first Re-
bellion, f In 1745 Queen Caroline, the wife of
George the Second, was dead.
Accompanied by two courageous ladies, the young
Countess of Derwentwater threw herself at the feet
of the King, and implored mercy on her husband.J
In the House of Commons, the First Lord of the
Treasury declared, that he had been offered a bribe
of sixty thousand pounds to save Lord Derwentwater.
Sir Richard Steele spoke loudly in favour of the con-
demned lords, but the declaration of Walpole sup-
pressed all hopes of mercy. " He was moved with
indignation," he said, " to see that there should be
such unworthy members of this great body as to
open their mouths, without blushing, in favour of
* State Trials, vol. xv. p. 802.
t Lord Mahon's History, vol. i. p. 291. t Id.
272 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
rebels and parricides." He adjourned the House
until the first of March, it being understood that
the peers would be executed in the mean time. It
is some consolation to reflect that the Minister had,
on this occasion, only a majority of seven.
At this juncture, when all hope seemed lost, Mary,
Dowager Countess of Derwentwater, proffered the
following petition in behalf of her sons. One can
hardly suppose how it could have been disregarded ;
but the Monarch had few sympathies with his people
of England.
" The humble Petition of Mary Countess of Der-
wentwater, 1716, to the King's most excellent Ma-
jesty, sheweth,
" That the Earl of Derwentwater and Charles Rad-
cliffe (your petitioner's two and only sons) having
been unfortunately engaged and surprised into a
horrid and open Rebellion against your most sacred
Majesty, have surrendered themselves at Preston,
and submitted to your Majesty's great clemency and
mercy.
" Their crimes are so enormous, that your petitioner
can scarce hope for a pardon; yet the greatness of
their offence doth not make your petitioner lay aside
all hopes of mercy, when your petitioner and they,
who are both very young, throw themselves, abso-
lute and entirely, at your Majesty's feet for it ; and as
they have a just abhorrence and a sincere and true
repentance for what is past, so they will give un-
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 273
doubted security and proof of their most dutiful be-
haviour to your Majesty's Government for the fu-
ture.
" Wherefore your petitioner most humbly prays
that your Majesty will, out of your royal clemency
and boundless mercy and compassion, spare the lives
of your petitioner's sons, and grant them your most
gracious pardon.
" And your petitioner shall ever, as in duty bound,
&c." *
The petition was unavailing, and the unfortunate
young nobleman prepared to meet his doom.
On the twentyrfourth of February, at ten o'clock,
the Earl of Derwentwater, with Lord Kenmure, was
carried in a hackney-coach from the Tower to the
Transport Office in Tower Hill, where there was a
room prepared for their reception, hung with black,
and a passage or gallery railed in, which led to the
place of execution. The scaffold was surrounded
with the Guards. Lord Derwentwater suffered first.
He was observed to turn very pale as he proceeded
through the gallery and ascended the steps; but
there was a modest composure observable in his de-
meanour. He held a book in his hand, from which
he read prayers for some time ; then, requesting leave
of the Sheriffs to read a paper to the people, he went
to the rails of the scaffold, and there delivered the
following touching and beautiful address, which, how
* State Papers, 1716, No. 4 ; now, for the first time, printed.
VOL, I. T
274 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
different soever may be the sentiments and opinions
with which it is perused, can hardly fail to impress
the reader as coming from a conscientious mind :
" Being in a few minutes to appear before the
Tribunal of God, where, though most unworthy, I
hope for mercy, which I have not found from men
now in power, I have endeavoured to make my peace
with His Divine Majesty, by most humbly begging
pardon for all the sins of my life ; and I doubt not
of a merciful forgiveness, through the merits of the
passion of my Saviour Jesus Christ ; for which
end I earnestly desire the prayers of all good Chris-
tians.
" After this, I am to ask pardon of those whom I
might have scandalized by pleading guilty at my
trial. Such as were permitted to come to me, told
me that, having been undeniably in arms, pleading
guilty was but the consequence of having submitted
to mercy, and many arguments were used to prove
there was nothing of moment in so doing, among
others, the universal practice of signing leases, where-
of the preambles ran in the name of the persons in
possession.
" But I am sensible that in this I have made bold
with my loyalty, having never owned any other but
King James the Third for my lawful King: him I
had an inclination to serve from my infancy, and
was moved thereto by a natural love I had to his
person, knowing him to be capable of making his
people happy; and though he had been born of a
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 275
different religion to mine, I should have done for him
all that lay in my power, as ray ancestors have done
for his predecessors, being thereto bound by the laws
of God and man.
" Wherefore, if in this affair I have acted rashly,
it ought not to affect the innocent; I intended to
wrong nobody, but to serve my King and my coun-
try, and that without self-interest, hoping, by the
example I gave, to have induced others to their
duty; and God, who sees the secrets of my heart,
knows I speak the truth. Some means have been
proposed to me for saving my life, which I looked
upon as inconsistent with honour and innocence, and
therefore I rejected them; for, with God's assistance,
I shall prefer any death to the doing a base un-
worthy action. I only wish now, that the laying
down my life might contribute to the service of my
King and country, and the re-establishment of the
ancient and fundamental constitution of these king-
doms ; without which, no lasting peace or true hap-
piness can attend them. Then I should, indeed,
part with my life even with pleasure ; as it is, I can
only pray, that these blessings may be bestowed
upon my dear country ; and since I can do no more,
I beseech God to accept of my life as a small sacrifice
to it.
" I die a Roman Catholic : I am in perfect charity
with all the world (I thank God for it), even with
those of the present Government, who are most in-
strumental in my death. I freely forgive all such
T 2
276 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
as ungenerously reported false things of me; and
I hope to be forgiven the trespasses of my youth by
the Father of Mercies, into whose hands I commend
my soul. J. DERWENTWATER."
P.S. " If that Prince who now governs had given
me my life, I should have thought myself obliged
never more to have taken up arms against him."
After delivering this address, the unfortunate
nobleman thus spoke to the executioner : " You will
find something for you in my pocket [this was two
half- guineas], and I have given that gentleman
[pointing to a person who held his hat and wig]
somewhat more for you. Let me lie down once, to
see how the block fits me." This he did. Then,
kneeling down again, and uttering a short prayer
with the executioner, he arose, and undressed himself
for execution, the headsman assisting him. After
which, the Earl desired the executioner to take no-
tice, that " when he heard the words ' sweet Jesus!'
then he should do his ofiice so soon as he pleased."
After which, his Lordship laid himself down on the
block, and said, " I forgive my enemies, and hope
that God will forgive me;" and then, turning his
head up towards the executioner, he exclaimed,
"After the third time I cry ' sweet Jesus!' strike
then, and do what is most convenient to you."
A solemn and appalling scene then ensued.
The voice of Lord Derwentwater was heard to ex-
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 277
claim, and the watchful ear of the executioner caught
these words : " Sweet Jesus, receive my spirit ; sweet
Jesus, be merciful unto me; sweet Jesus" he seemed
to be going on, when the sentence was broken and
the voice for ever hushed, the executioner severing
his Lordship's head from his body, which he did at
one stroke. Then the executioner took up the head,
and at the several quarters of the scaffold elevated
it with both his hands, crying with a loud voice,
" Behold the head of a traitor ! God save King
George ! " When he had done so, the friends of the
Earl not being provided with hearse or coffin, Sir
John Fryer, the Sheriff, ordered the body to be
wrapped in black baize, to be conveyed to a hack-
ney coach, and delivered to his friends, one of whom
had wrapped up his head in a handkerchief.*"
On the day of the execution, Mary, Countess of
Derwentwater, accompanied by another female, dressed
herself as a fishwoman, and in a cart drove under
Temple Bar, having previously bribed some people
to throw the head of her lord into her lap, as she
passed under the pinnacle on which it was placed.f
Various accounts have been given of the interment
of the Earl of Derwentwater. He is generally be-
lieved to have been buried in the church of St. Giles-
in-the-Fields, near the altar. But a popular tradition
has found credence, that he was buried at Dilstone.
* Or rather, a piece of red cloth, which is still preserved at Hassop,
the seat of the Earl of Newburgh, the marks of blood being still visible,
t From a tradition current in the descendants of this family.
2?8 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
This has arisen from the Jacobite ditty, called " Der-
wentwater's Good Night," or has probably given
origin to that lay, in which the Earl is made to
say:
" Albeit that here in London town
It is my fate to die,
O carry me to Northumberland,
In my father's grave to lie :
There chaunt my solemn requiem,
In Hexham's holy towers,
And let six maids of fair Tynedale,
Scatter my grave with flowers."*
This is said to have been his last request, but to
have been refused, for fear of any popular tumult in
the North. Either a pretended burial in the church
of St. Giles took place, or the Earl's body was re-
moved, " for it was certainly," says Mr. Hogg, u car-
ried secretly to Dilstone, where it was deposited by
the side of the Earl's father, in his chapel." " A little
porch before the farm-house of Whitesmocks," adds
the same authority, " is pointed out as the exact spot
where the Earl's remains rested, avoiding Durham."
The coffin is said to have been opened during the
present century, and the body of the Earl recognized,
both by his appearance of youth, his features, and the
suture round his neck. It is seldom satisfactory to
state what has no other source than common report.
In the North, the aurora borealis is still said to be
called " Lord Derwentwater's lights," because, on the
night of his execution, it appeared remarkably vivid.
* Hogg's Jacobite Relics, vol. i. p. 31.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 279
It is, at any rate, pleasant to reflect, that one who
" gave bread to thousands" is remembered by this
beautiful appearance in the county which he loved?
and where his virtues are remembered and his errors
forgotten.
His fate was hard. Let us not, contrary to nature,
call up motives of state policy to vindicate the death
of this brave and honourable man. The Earl of
Derwentwater was one upon whom clemency might
safely have been shown. Generous, liberal, sincere, a
prince might have relied upon his assurance that, had
mercy been shown to him, it would never have been
repaid by treachery. His youth and inexperience,
his wife, his children, should not have been forgot-
ten: nor should it have been forgotten, that the
principles of loyalty for which his life was forfeited,
have dictated some of the most important services
which have been rendered to the state, and have
secured the existence of an hereditary government.
Of what the Earl of Derwentwater might have be-
come, in character, in intellect, his early fate has pre-
vented our judging. In person he was noble and
elegant; his portraits do not give the impression of
that beauty of feature which has been ascribed to him.
In character he was irreproachable. He was, in one
sense, one of those noblemen of whom it were well for
this country to have more: he lived among those
from whom he drew his fortunes their benefactor
%
and their friend.
The widowed Countess of Derwentwater died at
280 JAMES RADCLIFFE,
Brussels in August, 1723.* The descendants of the
Earl are now extinct, a son and daughter who sur-
vived him having both died. His Lordship's brother
married a Scottish peeress, and is the ancestor of
the present Earl of Newburgh, the rightful represen-
tative of the Earl of Derwentwater.
" The domains of the Derwentwater family in Cum-
berland are," says Lord Mahon, " among the very few
forfeitures of the Jacobites which have never been re-
stored by the clemency of the House of Hanover." In
1788, a clear rent of two thousand five hundred
pounds was, however, granted out of these estates to
the Newburgh family. " They were first," says the
same authority, " settled on Greenwich Hospital, but
have since been sold to Mr. Marshall, of Leeds."
The deeds of the Derwentwater estates were pre-
served in the following manner: " On the night
when Preston surrendered, Lord Derwentwater found
means," as Mr. Hogg relates, " to send messengers
to Capheaton, to prevent the family there from appear-
ing in arms. By his orders, the family papers were
removed to Capheaton, and they were laid between
two walls and a chimney. A slater employed about
the house discovered several chests with the Der-
wentwater arms engraved on the lids. Being a
rigid Presbyterian, he informed old Sir Ambrose
Middleton, of Belsay, who being Deputy-Lieutenant
for the Duke of Somerset, searched Capheaton for
armls, and under that pretence broke open the walls,
* See Caledonian Mercury, 1723.
EARL OF DERWENTWATER. 281
and found the deeds, from the concealment of which
Greenwich Hospital had been put to some diffi-
culties."
, Such was the fate of the last memorial of the un-
fortunate Earl of Derwentwater. It is impossible to
help regretting that a name once so honoured should
have become extinct ; and there appears to be an un-
accountable injustice in that oblivion, whilst most
of the Scottish forfeited titles have been restored.
282
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
JOHN SINCLAIR, called, in compliance with the custom
of Scotland in regard to the eldest sons of Barons,
the Master of Sinclair, was descended from the an-
cient family of Saint Clare, in France, on whom lands
were bestowed by Alexander the Third of Scotland.
In early times, the titles of Earls of Orkney and
Caithness had been given to the first settlers of the
Saint Clares ; and the possession of the islands of
Orkney and Shetland had been added to certain royal
donations, by a marriage with an heiress of the sirname
of Speire. One of the Sinclairs had even borne the dig-
nity of Prince of Orkney ; but this distinction was
lost by an improvident member of the house of Sin-
clair, called William the Waster ; and the prosperity of
his descendants was due only to the favour of James
the Sixth, who created Henry Sinclair, of Dysart in
Fife, a Baron.
The family continued in honour and estimation*
until the subject of this memoir, John, brought upon
it disgrace, and incurred to himself lasting self-
reproach.
The Master of Sinclair was the eldest son of Henry,
seventh Lord Sinclair, and the representative, there-
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 283
fore, of an honourable family. But it was his fate to
forfeit his birthright, not so much by his adherence to
an ill-fated cause, as by the violence and brutality of
his own temper and conduct.
He was, at an early age, engaged in the military
profession, and bore the commission of Captain-Lieu-
tenant in Preston's regiment under the great Marl-
borough. At the battle of Wynendale, fought on the
twenty-eighth of September, 1708, the events which
stamped the future character of the Master of Sin-
clair's destiny occurred.
Two brothers of the name of Schaw, Scotchmen, of
an ancient race, and ancestors, collaterally, of the
present family of Shaw-Stewart of Renfrew, had com-
missions also in Preston's regiment. These unfortunate
young men were of the chief family of the Schaws, or
Sauchie, who had flourished since the reign of Robert
the Second.
By that singular coincidence which sometimes oc-
curs, and which seems to stamp certain races with
misfortune, the Schaws had already been nearly ex-
terminated in feudal times by the violence of a neigh-
bouring clan, the Montgomeries of Skellmorlie ; and
had been preserved from total destruction by what
seemed to human comprehension to be the merest
chance. By one of the Montgomeries, the Tower of
Greenock was invaded and taken, and the Laird of
Schaw and four or five of his sons were put to death.
One child, then in his cradle, alone escaped, and
grew up to manhood, with the resolution to avenge
284 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
his father and his brothers rankling at his heart.
Accordingly, he collected his friends and dependants,
and invested, during a period of repose and security,
the house of his enemy. Montgomery, finding his
castle attacked, stood forth on the battlements, and,
after demanding a parley with the besieger, "Are
you not," he cried out, " an ungrateful man to come
hither with bow and brand to take the life of the
man who made you young laird and auld laird in
the same day 1" Young Schaw, struck by the ar-
gument, drew off his forces, and left the castle of
Skellmorlie standing, and its inmates uninjured.
The family of Schaw were zealous Whigs, the father
of the two young officers in Preston's regiment having
raised a regiment at the time of the Revolution, with-
out any other expense to the Government than that of
sergeants and drummers.
The eldest brother, Sir John Schaw, had been an
active promoter of the Union ; and, upon a threatened
invasion of the French, and a consequent alarm of the
Jacobites, Sir John had offered to join the army with
five or six hundred of his followers. This decided
political bias may, perhaps, in some measure, account
for the disposition to affront on the side of Sinclair,
and the quickness to resent on the other hand,
which was shown between the parties.
During the battle of Wynendale, in the midst of the
fire, it appeared, in evidence afterwards taken, that
Ensign Hugh Schaw, the first of the victims to the
Master of Sinclair's wrath, was heard to call out to
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 285
the Master " to stand upright ;" it was afterwards
publicly stated by Ensign Hugh Schaw, that he had
done so upon seeing Sinclair bow himself down to
the ground for a considerable time. This alleged act
of cowardice on the part of Sinclair appears, how-
ever, not to have really taken place ; but it was
made the groundwork of a calumnious imputation.
It must, however, be acknowledged, that there was
nothing in the subsequent conduct of the Master of
Sinclair, as far as the battle of Sherriff Muir was con-
cerned, to raise his character as a man of personal
bravery.
Upon hearing of this injurious report, Sinclair sent
a challenge to Ensign Schaw. It was dispatched
through the medium of a brother officer, to whom the
Ensign replied, at first, that he had just heard of
his brother George's being wounded before Lisle, and
that it was of far greater importance that he should
go to him than accept the Master of Sinclair's chal-
lenge ; besides, the young man added, that since his
last misfortune, probably a fatal duel, he had pledged
himself neither to receive nor to give a challenge.
Should a rencontre happen, he would defend himself as
he could ; that, after all, he had said nothing but what
he could prove. Upon these words being repeated to
the Master of Sinclair, he fell into a violent passion,
and swore that he would not give Schaw fair play ;
that his honour was concerned. The second whom he
had employed then threatened to take the challenge
to Colonel Preston ; upon which the Master told him
" he was a rascal if he did it."
286 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
On the following day, the Master met Ensign Schaw,
and taking a stick from underneath his coat, struck the
Ensign two blows over the head with it. They both
drew, and fought with such fury that the Master's
sword was broken, and that of the Ensign bent ; upon
which Sinclair retired behind a sentinel, desiring
him " to keep off the Ensign, as his sword was broken."
Schaw then said, " You know I am more of a gentle-
man than to pursue you when your sword is broken."
But the young soldier Schaw had at this time re-
ceived a mortal wound, of which he died ; but not
until after the verdict of the court-martial ultimately
held on Sinclair.
In the course of three days a second fatal rencontre
succeeded this deadly contest ; and another brother,
Captain Alexander Schaw, fell a victim to the vin-
dictive and brutal notions at that period considered in
the army to constitute a code of honour.
Captain Schaw was naturally indignant at the death
of his brother ; he expressed his anger openly, and
said, that the Master of Sinclair had " paper in his
breast," against which his brother's sword was bent ;
and that he had received the fatal wound after his
sword had thus become useless. The Master of Sin-
clair having heard of these assertions, resolved to
avenge himself for these imputations cast upon him.
On the thirteenth of September, as Captain Schaw was
riding at the head of Major How's regiment, the sound
of his own name, repeated twice, announced the ap-
proach of the hated Sinclair. Captain Schaw turned,
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 287
and inquired of the Master what he wanted. Sin-
clair replied, by asking him to go to the front, as he
wanted to speak to him ; to which Captain Schaw
rejoined, that he might speak to him there. " Yes,"
returned Sinclair, "but if I fire at you here, I may
shoot some other body." Captain Schaw answered,
that he might fire at him if he pleased, he bore him
no ill-will. " If you will not go to the front/' re-
turned Sinclair, " beg my pardon/' This was refused,
some words of further aggravation ensued ; then the
Master of Sinclair drew his pistol and fired at Schaw.
The Captain was also preparing to fire ; his hand was
in the act of drawing his pistol when it was for ever
checked, whether employed for good or evil ; the aim
of Sinclair was certain, and Schaw fell dead from
his horse. Sinclair, without waiting to inquire how
fat mortal might be the wound he had inflicted, rode
away.
Thus perished two young officers, described by their
brother, Sir John Schaw, as " very gallant gentlemen."
To complete the tragedy, a third, wounded at Lisle,
was brought to the camp at Wynendale, and expired
in the same room with his brother, Ensign Schaw,
partly of his wounds, partly of grief for his brother's
death ; so that the offender, as the surviving brother
remarked, " was not wholly innocent even of his blood :"
yet both these rencontres, to adopt the mild term em-
ployed by Sir Walter Scott, were viewed in a very
lenient manner by the officers of the court-martial
which afterwards sat upon the case, and even by Marl-
288 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
borough himself. The Master of Sinclair speaks of
them in his narrative in terms which imply that
one, whose hands were so deeply dyed in crime, re-
garded himself as an injured man ; there can scarcely
be a better exemplification of the deceitfulness of the
heart than such a representation.
On the seventeenth of October, 1708, a court-
martial upon the Master of Sinclair was held at Ron-
sales by the command of the Duke of Marlborough.
Upon the first charge, that of challenging Ensign
Hugh Schaw (in breach of the twenty-eighth article
of war), Sinclair was acquitted, the court being of
opinion that the challenge was not proved.
Of the second accusation, that of killing Captain
Alexander Schaw, the Master of Sinclair was found
guilty, and sentenced to suffer death. He was, how-
ever, recommended to the mercy of the Duke of Marl-
borough, in consideration of the provocation which he
had received, the prisoner having declared that, not
only on that occasion, but upon several, and in different
regiments, Captain Schaw had defamed him ; that he
was forced to do what he did, and that he had done it
with reluctance.
The case was, however, afterwards referred to the
Attorney General and the Solicitor General, who gave it
their opinion that Sinclair was guilty of murder ; for
had the trial taken place in England before a common
jury, the judge must have directed the jury to find
him guilty of murder, no provocation whatever being
sufficient to excuse malice, or to make the offence of
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 289
killing less than murder, when it is committed with
premeditation. How far the provocation was to be
considered as a ground of mercy, these legal func-
tionaries declined to judge.
Upon the publication of this sentence, Sir John
Schaw addressed a petition to Queen Anne, praying
for justice on the murderer of his brothers, and ap-
pealing to his Sovereign against the extraordinary re-
commendation of the court to mercy. He also wrote
urgent letters to the Earl of Stair and the Duke of
Argyle, praying for their intercession with the Duke of
Marlborough that the murderer of his brothers might
be punished. He next wrote to the Duke of Marl-
borough himself. The following letters show the
earnestness of the pleader, and prove the caution and
subtlety of the General. Some deep political motive
lay beneath the mercy shown to Sinclair, otherwise it
seems impossible to account for the conduct of so
great a disciplinarian as Marlborough in this affair.
SIR JOHN SCHAW TO THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.
" MAY IT PLEAS YOUR GRACE,
" Amongst the misfortunes that attend the mur-
thers of my two brothers, I thinck it's one to be
constrain'd to appear importunate with your Grace.
The case, by the depositions of the witnesses, being
in the opinion of the learn'd lawyers of the most
atrocius nature, and not pardonable by the law of the
country whereof we are subjects, and such as indis-
VOL. i. u
290 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
pensable requires my utmost applications for redress,
I cannot forbear the repeating of my submissive
prayers to your Grace for speedy justice. The blood
of my brothers, the tyes of nature, and the sentiments
of friendship, would render the least negligence on my
part inexcusable with the world and with my own
conscience.
"I should deliver my petition personally, rather
than venture to give your Grace the trouble of let-
ters, were I not sufficiently assured of your Grace's
justice, and at the same time willing to gratifie my
wellwisshers desires in staying here. Hoping your
Grace wil, with a condescending compassion to my
present circumstances, favourably admit the bearer,
Capt. James Stuart, in Coll. M'Carty's regiment, who is
my faithfull friend and near relation, to deliver this
letter, and represent my case, that the whole matter
may be sett in a true light for a finall decision, in the
meantime, I remain, with a profound respect, my
Lord, Your Grace's most humble, etc."
" To the Duke of Marlborough, London, the
29th November, 1708."
THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH TO SIR JOHN SCHAW.*
"SIR,
" Captain Stewart has delivered me your letter of
the twenty-first of November ; I had before, . from the
Secretary at Warr, the opinion of the Attorney and
* See Proceedings of the Court Martial held upon John, Master of
Sinclair, with Correspondence, p. 27. 1828. Printed by Ballantyne
and Company. Presented to the Roxburgh Club by Sir Walter Scott.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 291
Sollicitor General upon the proceedings of the court-
martiall, with the copie of the petition you had pre-
sented to the Queen, but no positive directions from hir
Majesty, which I should have been very glad to have
received, being without it under very great uneasiness,
as Captain Steward will tell you ; however, you may
be sure I shall have all the regard you can desire for
your just resentment against Mr. Sinclair, being truly,
Sir, " Your most humble servant,
(Sic subscribitur) " MARYBOROUGH."
" Copie letter Duke of Marlborrough to Sir
John Schaw, dated at the Camp at
Melle, the 16th December, 1708."
After this correspondence, the unhappy brother of the
two young officers had every reason to conclude that
the delinquent would very soon be brought to justice.
He wrote to Mr. Cardonnel, secretary to the Duke of
Marlborough, in grateful terms for the kind interces-
sion employed for him. What was afterwards his as-
tonishment to find that Sinclair was allowed to serve in
the British army in the sieges of Lisle and Ghent, and
eventually received in the Prussian service ! The
evident favour of the Duke is fully shown in the fol-
lowing passage from the Master of Sinclair's narrative :
" I was obliged to quit [the army] for two misfor-
tunes which happened in a very short time, one after
the other, notwithstanding of the court-marshall's re-
commending me to the General, his Grace the Duke of
Maryborough's mercy, which was always looked on as
u 2
292 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
equal to a pardon, and which I can aver was never re-
fused to any one but myself. Nor was his allowing me
to serve at the sieges of Lisle and Ghent precedented
on my giving my word of honour to return to arrest
after these sieges were over, which I did and continued
(prisoner) till his Grace the Duke of Marlborough
sent his repeated orders to make my escape, which I
disobeyed twice ; but at last being encouraged by his
promise to recommend me to any prince that I pleased,
for these were his words, I went off, and procured his
recommendation to the King of Prussia, from whose
service, which I may say is of the strictest, I came back
to serve in the Low Countries, where I continued until
the end of the war, at which time her Majesty Queen
Anne having, as it is said, turned Tory, vouchsafed me
her pardon/'
These marks of indulgence to Sinclair fell heavily
upon the heart of him who still mourned two pro-
mising brothers, sent to an untimely grave by brutal
revenge. The following letter from Sir John Schaw is
beautifully and touchingly expressed.* What effect it
produced upon the great but not faultless man to
whom it was addressed, can only be known by the im-
punity with which Sinclair, his hands being imbued in
the blood of his countrymen, continued in the Prussian
army, and afterwards returned to Scotland.
" It is with very great regrate that I give your Grace
any further trouble on account of the melancholy story
* It is printed in the interesting little collection before referred to, p. 35.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 293
of my two brothers, who had the misfortune to be mur-
thered in the space of three dayes by Lieutenant Sin-
clair, then in the regiment of Prestoun, in the year
1708. Your Grace was at the paines to be informed
of the whole case, and the murtherer, being a man of
quality, had many to intercede for him ; your jus-
tice did overcome all other considerations and indeed
nothing could be more worthie of the great character
your Grace has, and the glorious name you must leave
to posterity, than the punishment of so cruel and
bloodie a fact ; but the criminal escaped, and the sen-
tence of death pronounced by the court-martial, and
confirmed by your Grace, was not executed ; and I,
having done all I could to bring the murtherer of my
unfortunate brothers to condign punishment, was satis-
fied to pursue him no further, tho' the atrocity of the
crime committed against the law of nations would have
affoarded me ground to have prosecuted him in any
country where he could have been found. But to my
surprize and sorrow, I have of late been informed that
Lieutenant Sinclair has added to the repeated murthers
the impudence of returning, an officer in a Prussian
regiment, to the army, where he was condemn'd,
as it were to affront justice, and glory in what he has
done. I am wel persuaded, that if his guilt had been
known to the King of Prussia or his Generals, his Ma-
jesty would not have suffered so odious ane offender to
be entertained in his service. Nor can the Generals or
Ministers of Prussia have anything to plead, why a sen-
tence pronounced by a British court-martial against
294 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
one of hir Majesty's subjects, and confirmed by your ex-
cellency her Generall, should not now be executed. I
am confident your Grace will not sufferr publick justice
to be insulted in that affair, and I doe in the most
humble and earnest manner begg that your Grace
would cause apprehend the murtherer, that justice may
be done upon him for his barbarous and bloodie crimes.
I had about two years ago four brothers, of whom I
may without vanity say, they were very gallant gentle-
men ; two were murthered by Lieutenant Sinclair ;
the third died in the roome with one of these, partly
of his wounds received before Lille, and pairtly out of
griefe for his brothers' misfortunes, so that the offender
is not innocent even of his blood; the fourth was killed
at the battle of Mons. The blood of these that were
barbarously slain, call for vengeance ; the law of God
and nature requires it. They had, and I in their name
have a claime, in a particular manner, to your Grace's
justice, they having been all four under your Grace's
command ; forgive it to my natural affection, if I use
arguments with your Grace to do an act of justice when
the whole world, and I in particular, have such proofs
of the greatness of your minde and virtue, I shall only
add my most sincere and humble acknowledgement of
your Grace's justice and dispatch in the melancholic
affair, of which I shall ever retain the most gratefull
sense ; and remain under the strictest tyes of dutie,
with the most profound respect, my Lord, your Grace's
most humble, most obedient, obliged, and faithful
servant," &c.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 295
With this letter, and some memorials of Sir John
Schaw's public service, end all known appeals for justice
on the murderer. But conscience avenged the crime.
Many years afterwards, when living in opulence upon
his patrimonial estate at Dysart in Fife, the Master re-
ceived from an humble individual a bitter, though in-
voluntary reproach. When preparing to cross the Frith,
he stopped at an inn in order to engage a running foot-
man to attend him. Detested by his neighbours, and
ever in dread of the Schaws, Sinclair preserved a
sort of incognito. A youth was presented for his ap-
proval. The Master inquired of the young candidate
what proof he could give of his activity, on which this
remarkable reply was given : " Sir, I ran beside the
Master of Sinclair's horse when he rode post from the
English camp to escape the death for which he was
condemned for the murder of the two brothers." " The
Master," adds Sir Walter Scott, " much shocked, was
nearly taken ill on the spot/' *
During the insurrection of 1715, the Master of
Sinclair took at first an active part, and became the
commander of a company of Jacobite gentlemen of Fife.
He joined the Earl of Mar at Perth,f and was em-
ployed in an expedition which gained some credit to
the Jacobites. Some arms having been brought out of
Edinburgh for the use of the Earl of Sutherland, and
being put on board a ship at Leith, the Earl of Mar
resolved to intercept these supplies. The wind being
* Life of the Master of Sinclair, p. ix.
t His name is not among those who were assembled on the hunting-
field of Braemar.
296 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
contrary, the master of the vessel thus loaded had
dropped into Brunt Island, and had gone into the town
on that island to see his family. A party of four
hundred horse and as many foot was meantime de-
tached on the second of October, 1715, and arrived at
the island about midnight. They pressed all the boats
in the harbour, and boarded the vessel, carrying off
three hundred and six complete stand of arms, together
with a considerable number which they found in the
town. This expedition was skilfully contrived and
managed, the horse surrounding the town whilst the
foot ransacked it ; and the invasion was made so
silently that the Duke of Argyle gained no tidings of
it*
After this exploit the Master of Sinclair returned
to the camp at Perth, there to promote, if not ac-
tually to originate, divisions which were fatal to the
cause which he had espoused. Lord Mar, in his
letters, charges him, indeed, distinctly with being the
very source of the dissensions which soon sprang up
among the Jacobite chiefs, f The temper of Sinclair
could ill brook submission to the Earl of Mar,
whom, as a General, he soon ceased to respect ; and
for whose difficult situation he had no relenting feel-
ings. " The Master," writes Sir Walter Scott, " who
was a man of strong sense, acute observation, and
some military experience, besides being of a haughty
and passionate temper, averse to deference and sub-
ordination, soon placed himself in opposition to the
* Reay, p. 234. t See Lord Mar's Life and Letters.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 297
general, whom he seems to have at once detested and
despised." *
The unfortunate result of the siege of Preston, soon
brought to light the discontents which the Master had
nourished among the followers of Mar. Parties had,
indeed, for some time agitated the camp. When the
disasters in England gave them a fresh impulse, and
Lord Mar feelingly, and perhaps not too severely,
described the influence of Sinclair when he bitterly
describes him as " a devil in the camp, known in his
true colours when calamity had befallen those with
whom he was in conjunction." It was henceforth in
vain that Mar, to use his own expression, " endeavoured
to keep people from breaking among themselves until
the long-expected arrival of the Chevalier should, it
was hoped, check the growing jealousies in the camp ; "
a party arose, headed by Lord Huntley, Lord Seaforth,
and the Master of Sinclair, who soon obtained the name
of the Grumbler's Club, and who rendered themselves
odious to the sincere and zealous Jacobites.
Lord Huntley appears from Lord Mar's represen-
tations, " to have been completely under the in-
fluence of the Master." " Lord Huntley," writes Lord
Mar, " is still very much out of humour, and nothing
can make him yet believe that the King is coming.
He intends to go north, under the pretext of reducing
Lord Sutherland, and his leaving us at this time, I
think, might have very bad effects, which makes me do
all I can to keep him. The Master of Sinclair is a
* Life of the Master of Sinclair, page v.
298 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
very bad instrument about him, and has been most to
blame for all the differences amongst us. I am plagued
out of my life with them, but must do the best I
can."
Lord Huntley, however, continued to manifest the
greatest disgust and suspicion of Lord Mar, often
refusing to see him, and, though still lingering at
Perth, threatening continually to leave the camp and
go northward.
Lord Sinclair, meantime, having heard of these
factions, and being sincerely affected to the cause of
the Stuarts, wrote to his son " a sharp letter about
his behaviour," and a visit of explanation from the
Master instantly followed. During his absence there
was a revulsion of feeling among the Grumblers, and
some contrition was expressed by them for the part
that they had acted ; but the fiend returned, and the
malcontents quietly relapsed.f
The news of James's certain arrival silenced, for
a time, all complaints ; but again they revived. Lord
Mar seems to have had some misgiving of this, when
he wrote, " Those that made a pretext of the King's
not being landed, are now left inexcusable, and if
those kind of folks now sit still and look any more
on, they ought to be worse treated than our worse
enemies." Yet it appears by a subsequent letter,
that the grievances of which the General complained
so bitterly, were not cured even by the presence of
* See Lord Mar's Life, from the Mar Papers,
t 'Mar Papers.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 299
the Chevalier ; that those who had made a pretext
of his absence to complain and despond, desponded
still, and that, in fact, the malady was so deep-seated
as to be incurable.
It may be urged, in vindication of the Master, who
so obviously aggravated the spirit of the Grumblers,
that the event proved that his apprehensions were
well founded. It was, indeed, natural for an ex-
perienced officer who had served under Marlborough,
to view with dissatisfaction and suspicion the feeble
and tardy movements of Lord Mar. Yet a hearty
well-wisher to any cause would have abstained from
infusing distrust into those counsels which, whether
wise or foolish, were destined to guide the adherents
of the party. A man of honour will enter, heart and
soul, into what he undertakes, or not enter at all.
The conduct of Sinclair was that of a mean, morose
spirit ; and it is but fair to conclude that his motives
for adopting the name of Jacobite were either those
of personal advancement, or arose out of an enforced
compliance with the wishes of his father.
Whilst Sinclair was thus undermining the welfare
of the party to which he nominally belonged, his
determined enemy, Sir John Schaw, after assisting
the Duke of Argyle in defending Inverness against
the insurgent troops, was marching with Lord Isla
to rejoin the Duke of Argyle in his march towards
Perth. It so happened that Lord Isla and his friends
reached Sherriff Muir at the very moment when the
Government troops and the Jacobites were about to
300 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
join in battle. " Sir John," says Sir Walter Scott,
" though he had no command, engaged as a volun-
teer ; and we may suppose his zeal for King George
was heightened by the recollection that the slayer
of his brothers fought under the opposite banners."
He behaved himself with distinguished courage, re-
ceiving a wound on his arm, and another in his
side.* He was, at this time, the only surviving
brother out of four, his brother Thomas having been
slain at the siege of Mons a year after the death of
the others. A month before Sir John Schaw had
joined the Duke, Lady Schaw, the daughter of Sir
Hugh Dalrymple, and a woman of singular energy
and spirit, assembled the Greenock companies in arms,
and telling them that the Protestant religion, with
their laws, liberties, and lives, and all that was dear
to them as men and Christians, were in hazard by
that unnatural rebellion, exhorted them to conduct
themselves suitably to the occasion.
The conduct of Sinclair at the battle of Sherriff
Muir was not inconsistent with his former life. He
remained, in that engagement, stationary, with the
Marquis of Huntley, at the head of the cavalry of
Fife and Aberdeen ; hence the lines in the old song
on Sherriff Muir.
" Huntly and Sinclair
They baith play'd the Tinkler,
With consciences black as a craw, man.
* Reay's History of the Rebellion, p. 218.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 301
Upon the return of the Jacobite army to Perth,
where they waited, as Scott remarks in a tone of
mournful reprobation of Mar, " until their own forces
should disperse, those of their enemy advance, and
the wintry storm so far subside as to permit the Duke
of Argyle to advance against them," Sinclair was the
chief promoter of a scheme formed by the Grumblers
for a timely submission to Government. Instigated
by their wishes, an attempt was made by Lord Mar
to procure, through the Duke of Argyle's mediation,
some terms with Government ; but it failed, and those
who had embarked in the cause were obliged to pro-
vide, as they best might, individually for their safety.
The whole tenour of Sinclair's conduct was such as to
draw down upon him the severest invectives of his party.
In one of the poems of the day he is thus described :
" The master with the bully's face,
And with the coward heart,
Who never fail'd, to his disgrace,
To act a coward's part,
Did join Dunbogue, the greatest rogue,
In all the shire of Fife,
Who was the first the cause to leave,
By counsel from his wife."
The Master quitted the insurgent party at Perth,
and joined the Marquis of Huntley at Strathbogie ;
thence he proceeded as a fugitive through Caithness
and Orkney, with a few friends, who, like himself,
were hopeless of pardon. After wandering in these
remote districts for some time, the Master and his
friends seized upon a small vessel and fled to the
302 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
Continent. The Marquis of Huntley, more fortunate
than his political ally, obtained his full pardon, in
consideration of his having left the rebels in time.*
The Master of Sinclair married, afterwards, the
widowed Countess of Southesk, whom he probably
met when on the Continent, since it appears that
the Countess, for some time subsequent to the death
of her husband, lived at Brussels. In referring to
this union, it may not be improper to give some
account of the family into connection with which it
brought the Master of Sinclair.
James Carnegie, Earl of Southesk, the first hus-
band of the lady whom the Master of Sinclair mar-
ried, was descended from David Carnegie, an eminent
lawyer, who in 1616 was raised to the dignity of
Lord Carnegie of Kinnaird, and in 1623 was created, by
Charles the First, Earl of Southesk. Like most of those
families who had been elevated by the Stuarts to the
peerage, the house of Carnegie retained a strong sense
of their duty of allegiance to the Crown ; and the first
Earl of Southesk suffered for his principles by im-
prisonment and the extortion of a fine of three thou-
sand pounds from his estates in the time of Cromwell.
James, the fifth Earl of Southesk, although nearly
allied by his mother's side to the Maitlands, Earls
of Lauderdale, had retained as great an affection for
the Stuarts as his ancestors had manifested. Of the
personal qualities of this nobleman little is generally
known, except that he has been designated, "Brave,
* Reay, p. 387.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 303
generous Southesk ! " of his fate, and of the subse-
quent fortunes of his family, still less is to be ascer-
tained. Some few particulars which are to be derived
from the State Papers are discreditable to the memory
of this nobleman. Like several other Jacobite noble-
men, who have been mentioned elsewhere, Lord South-
esk did not hesitate to summon his tenants to follow
him to the field in the most peremptory terms. His
commands fell heavily, in one instance, upon a poor
man who lived on the Earl's estate, and bore also
the name of James Carnegie. This unlucky man was
a natural son of Charles, the late Earl of Southesk,
and was therefore a brother of the present Earl James.
Like all dependants in those days, he seems to have
entertained a deep sense of his obligation to serve
and to obey the head of the family ; and his obedience
was probably ensured by the tie of blood, however
unacknowledged as constituting a claim between him
and the Earl of Southesk. James Carnegie exercised
the profession of a surgeon in the neighbourhood of
Kinnaird, then the territory of Lord Southesk, and
was employed by the Earl, who appears to have
entertained considerable opinion of his skill. When
the Insurrection of 1715 broke out, it would have
been consistent with the character of a " brave and
generous man" to have left this humble practitioner
free to follow his own wishes, and not to have em-
broiled him in the dangers of that disastrous under-
taking. A further claim upon the Earl's forbearance
was the personal defect of the poor surgeon, who was
304 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
lame, and short in stature. He was nevertheless or-
dered to meet Lord Southesk, at a certain place of
rendezvous, on a certain day. A compliance was
expected as a matter of course, for James Carnegie
was a yearly pensioner of his noble and powerful
brother, and refusal was ruin.* Nevertheless, the
surgeon ventured on this occasion to judge for him-
self. He had, it appears, from his subsequent de-
claration, been ever well affected to the reigning
Government and attached to the Revolution interest,
and, by his disapprobation of the Insurrection of
1715, had given umbrage to his nearest relations.
Upon the command of Lord Southesk being issued
to follow him to the camp at Perth, Carnegie would
have fled and hidden himself but for the illness of
his wife ; he afterwards took refuge in the house
of Lord Northesk, but his seclusion was of no avail.
The following letter from Lord Southesk, the ori-
ginal of which is in the State Paper Office, affords a
curious insight into the despotism exercised by the
little kings of the Highlands over their subjects :
" JAMES,
" After what I both wrote and spoke to you,
I did not think you would have made any furder
difficultys of going to Perth with me. I know very
well your wife's circumstances are to be pityd ; how-
ever, since you have a pension from me, and served me
* See the certificate of the Justices of Forfar, in the State Paper
Office, respecting the case of James Carnegie. Dated. Montrose, the
first of October, 1716.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 305
since you have had any business, there is nobody
of your employment in this country that I can put
any confidence in, whatever may happen to me. There-
fore, I desire you may make no furder excuses ; and
if you can't be ready to wait upon me from Kin-
naird upon Monday, I desire you may follow me upon
Teusday ; if you do not, you will for ever disoblige
" SOUTHESQUE."
" Kinnaird, Sept. 17, 1715."
" I desire you may come and speak with me this
night, or to-morrow, at furdest."
" The Case of James Carnegie," also in the State
Paper Office, furnishes a supplement to this peremp-
tory summons.
"The Case of James Carnegie showeth, that though
he lived in a country and amongst men the most
notoriously disaffected of any in Scotland, he had, ever
since his appearance in the world, espoused the Revo-
lution interest, and given proofs of his affection to
it, as would appear more fully in a declaration from
the Presbytery of Brichen, in whose bounds he re-
sided, and from another from Mr. John Anderson, his
parish minister. That upon the first suspision of the
treasonable designs of the rebells, Mr. James Carnegy
would have set off and gone south, had not his wife's
dangerous state (thought to be dying) obliged him
to remain. That after the rebellion broke out, he
firmly withstood all solicitations to join it, his neigh-
bours and friends there threatening to burn house
VOL. i. x
306 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
and land. He being disappointed of going south,
attempted to retire to Ethie, Lord Northesk's house,
in Forfarshire. He could not remain concealed, the
rebells being possessed of all the passes in the -coun-
try. Finding himself blocked up amongst his ene-
mies, to avoid the execution of the threatenings
against him, he was induced, to his shame and re-
gret, to go to Perth, but permitted none of his de-
pendants or tennents to accompany him, and went
with no arms but what gentlemen were in the habit
of wearing. In order to give no support to those
traiterous designs, he feigned illness at Coupar of
Angus, but they forced him to go."
The issue of this affair was mournful. At the battle
of Sherriff Muir where the Earl of Southesk appeared
with three hundred men, the unfortunate nobleman
was supposed to be slain. His faithful, though reluc-
tant attendant, James Carnegie, was taken prisoner as
he was looking over the field of battle in order to fird
the body of his lord. He was carried into prison at
Carlisle, whence considerable exertions were made for
his release, not only by his own representations, but
by the mediation of Sir James Stewart, the governor
of the castle. What was the result, whether the
blameless victim of the will of others was released, or
whether he sank among the many who could not sus-
tain the hardships of their fate, does not appear.*
The Earl of Southesk, although it was reported he
had been killed, rallied his men, and retreated with
* See Papers in the State Paper Office for 1715 and 1716.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 307
the Marquis of Tullibardine, the Earl Marischal and
several heads of clans to the mountains, to shelter
themselves from the pursuit of the Government troops.
Some of these chieftains afterwards made their escape
to Skye, Lewis, and other of the north-western islands,
till ships came to their relief and carried them abroad.*
What was the fate of the Earl of Southesk afterwards
is not known : neither what became of his descend-
ant.! He had married the Lady Margaret Stewart,
daughter of the Earl of Galloway, and by her, accord-
ing to some accounts, he had two sons ; according to
a contemporary Scottish peerage, he had one child only.
His widow also went on the Continent, and the men-
tion of her name by her brother, the Earl of Galloway,
in a letter written at Clery in France,! without that
of her husband, in May 1 730, appears to indicate that
she was then a widow, and not married again.
* Reay, p. 372.
f The title has remained in abeyance ever since. A mystery hangs
over the fate of this family.
J See Letter.
The letter from Lord Garlics, in which Lady Southesk is mentioned,
is to be seen in the Murray MS. in the Advocate's Library at Edin-
burgh. It is addressed to the eccentric and imprudent Sir Alexander
Murray of Stanhope. These papers were found on a floor of a room in
Herriot's Hospital, and were rescued from destruction by Dr. Irvine
of the Advocate's Library. After some remarks of no moment, Lord
Garlics, afterwards the Earl of Galloway, observes
" But now I hope that yours and all honest men's misfortunes are to
have a turn, and since my cheif has had the good fortune to gett a young
prince, I pray God his and all honest men's misfortunes may be at an
end ; and I hope before my young cheif dies, he shall have the name of
Charles the Third. I beg of you to let me hear from you, and when I
may expect to have the happinesse of seeing you in this countrey, which
is what I both long mightily for, and expect as soon as you can con-
308 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
How long Lady Southesk lived, the wife of the
Master of Sinclair, is dubious. He survived her, and
married afterwards, Emilia the daughter of Lord
George Murray, brother of the Duke of Atholl. This
intimate connection with one of the principal leaders
of the Rebellion of 1745, did not, however, induce the
Master to enter a second time into a course towards
which he had, perhaps in truth, no sincere good will.
Upon his flight to the Continent, the Master of Sin-
clair was outlawed, and attainted in blood for his
share in the Insurrection of 1715. His father being
still alive, and not having taken an active part, his es-
tates escaped forfeiture, and Lord Sinclair endeavoured
so to dispose of them as to prevent their becoming
the property of the Crown. It was necessary, on this
account, that Lord Sinclair should disinherit his eldest
son; and " as it would," says Sir Walter Scott, " have
been highly impolitic to have alleged his forfeiture
for treason as a cause of the deed, the slaughter
of the Schaws was given as a reason for his exhe-
redation." The following is a clause of the deed by
which the end was to be accomplished :
" This new diposition of the family estate is ex-
plained and qualified by the second deed, being a back
bond running in the names of the said James and
veniently. Besides, it will be a mighty obligation added to the many
you have already done me, who am, dear Sandy, " yours entirely whylst
" GARLIES."
" May 12, 1730."
" Sister Southesque and my spouse make their compliments to you.'
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 309
William Siuclairs, which set forth that their father
had been induced to grant a disposition of his estate in
their favour, and to pass over their elder brother, to
prevent all inconvenience and hazard whatsoever
which the rents of the said Lord Sinclair, his heritable
estate, or his moveables, might be liable to, if they
were settled in the said Master's person, ' on accompt of
the said Master of Sinclair his present circumstances,
by means of an unfortunate quarrel that some years
ago fell out between the said Master and two sons of the
deceased Sir John Schaw of Greenock ; therefore," the
deed proceeds to state, " it was reasonable that they,
James and William Sinclair, should grant a back bond
of settlement, binding themselves to manage the pro-
perty, when they should respectively succeed to it by
advice of friends, overseers, and managers, viz. Sir
John Erskine of Alva, Bart., Sir William Baird of
New Baith, Bart., Mr. John Paterson, eldest lawful son
to the deceased Archbishop of Glasgow, their brother-
in-law Sir John Cockburn of that Ilk, Bart., and Mr.
Mathew Sinclair of Hermiston, their uncles." The
said James and William Sinclair, as they should
respectively succeed to the estate, were obliged to
make certain necessary expenditure to the family for
behoof of the Master ; and the said James and Wil-
liam Sinclair became also bound, in case the Master,
their brother, should become free of his present
inconveniences, or should have a family of lawful chil-
dren, then, and in that case to convey the estate to
310 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
the said Master, or to his said children, at the sight of
his trustees."*
In the year 1 726, the Master of Sinclair received
pardon, as far as his life was concerned, but the for-
feiture of his estates was not taken off, nor certain
other incapacities reversed. He then returned to the
family estate of Dysart in Fife, of which he was, by
his father's disposition of affairs, the actual proprietor ;
and although the rents of the property were levied in
his brother's name, they were applied and received by
the Master. General James Sinclair, the second
brother of the Master, was then the nominal owner
only of the estates. But although thus returning to
his patrimonial inheritance, the Master never recovered
the good will of his former friends, nor the blessings of
security, and of a calm and honoured old age. He
seldom visited Edinburgh, living in seclusion and never
going from home without being well guarded and at-
tended for fear of the Jacobites, or of his enemies the
Schaws. Under these circumstances it seems to have
been a relief to his bitter and mortified spirit to have
vented itself, in like manner with Lord Lovat, in com-
posing memoirs of his own life. " These memoirs,"
says Sir Walter Scott, who long had a copy of them in
his possession, are written f with talent, and peculiar
* Life of Master of Sinclair, page viii.
t The manuscript from which the life of the Master of Sinclair was
taken, was found by Sir Walter Scott among the papers of his mother,
who was distantly related to the family of Grcenock. The proceedings
of the court-martial were attested by the subscription of John Cunning-
ham, probably a clerk of the court.
THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR. 311
satirical energy : so much so indeed, that they have been
hitherto deemed unfit for publication. The circum-
stances attending the slaughter of the Schaws argue
a fierce and vindictive temper, and the frame of mind
which Sinclair displays as an author exhibits the same
character. They are, however, very curious, and it is
to be hoped will one day be made public, as a valuable
addition to the catalogue of royal and noble authors.
It is singular that the author seems to have written
himself into a tolerably good style, for the language
of the Memoirs, which at first is scarcely grammatical,
becomes as he advances disengaged, correct, and
spirited." *
On the whole, it must be acknowledged that quali-
ties more repulsive and a career more culpable, have
darkened no narrative connected with the Jacobites so
unpleasantly as the biography of the Master of Sinclair.
A disgrace to every party, he appears to have joined
the adherents of the Stuarts, only in order to disturb
their councils, and to vilify their memory with per-
sonal invective. He has extorted no compassion for
the errors and crimes of his earlier years by the courage
and magnanimity of a later period: his character stands
forth, unredeemed by a single trait of heroism, in all
the darkness of violence and revenge.
The Barony of Sinclair, lost to the family in conse-
quence of the attainder of the Master of Sinclair, was
not assumed either by him, after his pardon in 1726,
* The MS. Memoirs of the Master of Sinclair are at present in the
possession of the Countess of Rosslyn.
312 THE MASTER OF SINCLAIR.
nor by his brother General James Sinclair. At the
death of General Sinclair in 1762, the title reverted to
Charles Sinclair, Esq., of Herdmanstown, a cousin, and
after him to his son Andrew, who also allowed his claim
to the Barony to lie dormant. It was, however, revived
at his death in 1776, by his only son Charles, who is
the present Lord Sinclair. *
* Burke's Peerage.
313
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.*
THE clan Cameron, from whom were descended the
chieftains who took an active part in the Jacobite
cause, had its seat in Lochaber, of which one of their
ancestors had originally received a grant from Robert
Bruce. They sprang, according to some accounts, from
the same source as that of the clan Chattan r they be-
came, nevertheless, in the course of the fourteenth
century, an independent state. In a manuscript
history of the clan Cameron, they have been traced
so far back as to the year 404 ; and their origin in
Scotland ascribed to the arrival of a younger son of
the royal family of Denmark, their progenitors acquir-
ing the name of Cameron from his crooked nose.
The clan consisted of three septs; but the family
of Lochiel were acknowledged as the chief, and,
according to the singular system of clanship, the
Camerons freely gave up their wills to that of their
* I am indebted to a MS. account of Cameron of Lochiel for the most
interesting facts in the following memoir. It was communicated to me
by R. Chambers, Esq., and was written by Mrs. Grant of Laggan. In
her letters unpublished, she declares the source of her information to
have been some papers in the possession of a Scotch clergyman, " which,"
says Mrs. Grant, " it appears he did not give to John Home, who would
scarcely have asked the favour, keeping very shy of his old brethren."
314 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
head. The history of this family, whilst it shows by
what decision of character and intrepidity of conduct
this superiority was maintained, presents little else
than a tissue of successive feuds between the clan
and its neighbours, until, during the seventeenth cen-
tury, the events of history brought forth qualities of
still greater importance to distinguish the house of
Lochiel. From henceforth the disputes with the
clan Chattan, and the long-standing feuds with the
Mackintoshes, merged into obscurity compared with
the more stirring interests into which the chieftains
were now, fatally for their prosperity, intermingled.
The celebrated Sir Ewan Dhu of Lochiel, one of
the finest specimens of the Highland chieftains on
record, had passed a long life in the service of the
Stuart family, for whom, even as a boy, he had mani-
fested a sort of intuitive affection. This cherished
sentiment had repelled the efforts of his kinsman, the
Marquis of Argyle, to mould his youthful mind to the
precepts of the Puritans and Covenanters. Sir Ewan
Dhu combined a commanding personal appearance with
a suitable majesty of deportment, and with a shrewd,
dauntless, honourable, generous mind. His very sir-
name had an influence upon the good will of his su-
perstitious and devoted followers. It denoted that he
was dark, both in hair and complexion ; and so many
brave achievements had been performed by chieftains
of the clan Cameron, who were of this complexion,
that it had been foretold by gifted seers, that never
should a fair Lochiel prove fortunate. Endowed with
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 315
this singular hold upon the confidence of his people,
Ewan Dhu eclipsed all his predecessors in the virtues
of his heart and the strength of his understanding.
His vigilance, his energy, and firmness were the qua-
lities which had distinguished him as a military
leader when, in the close of his days, the hopes and
designs of the modern Jacobites began to engage the
attention of the Highland chiefs.
The Career of Ewan Dhu Cameron had been one of
singular prosperity. At the age of eighteen, he had
broken loose from the trammels of Argyle's control,
and joined the standard of the Marquis of Montrose.
He had contrived to keep his estate clear, even after
the event of that unsuccessful cause, from Cromwell's
troops. He next repaired to the royal standard
raised in the Highlands by the Earl of Glencairne,
and won the applause of Charles the Second, then in
exile at Chantilly, for his courage and success. The
middle period of his life was consumed in efforts, not
only to abet the cause of Charles the Second, but to
restore peace to his impoverished and harassed coun-
try. Yet he long resisted persuasions to submit and
swear allegiance to Cromwell, and at length boldly
avowed, that rather than take the oath for an
usurper, he would live as an outlaw. His generous
and humane conduct to the English prisoners whom
he had captured during the various skirmishes had,
however, procured him friends in the English army.
" No oath," wrote General Monk, " shall be required
of Lochiel to Cromwell, but his word to live in
316 CAMKRON OF LOCHIEL.
peace." His word was given, and, until after the
restoration, Lochiel and his followers, bearing their
arms as before, remained in repose.
At Killicrankie, however, the warrior appeared
again on the field, fighting, under the unfortunate
Viscount Dundee, for James the Second. As the
battle began, the enemy in General Mackay's regi-
ment raised a shout. " Gentlemen," cried the shrewd
Lochiel, addressing the Highlanders, " the day is our
own. I am the oldest commander in the army, and I
have always observed that so dull and heavy a noise
as that which you have heard is an evil omen." The
words ran throughout the Highlanders ; elated by
the prediction, they rushed on the foe, fighting like
furies, and in half an hour the battle was ended.
Although Sir Ewan Dhu was thus engaged on the
side of James, his second son was a captain in the
Scottish fusileers, and served under Mackay in the
ranks of Government. As General Mackay observed
the Highland army drawn up on the face of a hill,
west of the Pass, he turned to young Cameron and
said, " There is your father and his wild savages ; how
would you like to be with him?" "It signifies little,"
replied the Cameron, " what I would like ; but I would
have you be prepared, or perhaps my father and his
wild savages may be nearer to you before night than
you may dream of." Upon the death of Dundee,
Sir Ewan Dhu, disgusted by the deficiencies of the
commander who succeeded him, retired to Lochaber,
and left the command of his clansmen to his eldest
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 317
son, John Cameron, who, with his son Donald, form
the subjects of this memoir.
Sir Ewan Dhu lived until the year 1719, enjoying
the security which his exploits had procured for him ;
and maintaining, by his own dignified deportment,
the credit of a family long upheld by a previous suc-
cession of able and honourable chieftains. The state
and liberality of the Camerons were not supported,
nevertheless, by a lavish expenditure; their means
were limited : " Yet," says Mrs. Grant of Laggan in
her MS. account of the clan, " perhaps even our own
frugal country did not afford an instance of a family,
who lived in so respectable a manner, and showed
such liberal and dignified hospitality upon so small an
income," as that of Lochiel.
The part which Sir Ewan Dhu had taken in the
action at Killicrankie would, it was naturally sup-
posed, draw down upon him the vengeance of those
who visited with massacre the neighbouring valley of
Glencoe. The forbearance of Government can only
be accounted for by the supposition that King Wil-
liam, with his usual penetration, decreed it safer to
conciliate, than to attempt to crush a clan which was
connected by marriage with the most powerful of the
Highland chieftains.
No arts could, however, win the allegiance of the
Camerons from those whom they considered as their
rightful sovereigns. Towards the end of William's
reign, the young chieftain John was sent privately
to France, where his early notions of loyalty were
318 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
confirmed, and his attachment to the court of James
enhanced, by the influence of the Duke of Berwick,
who formed with him a sincere and durable friendship.
The character of the chieftain was softened in the
young Lochiel. He was intelligent, frank, and con-
ciliating in his manners, and had associated more
generally with the world than was usually the case
with the chieftains of those days. Among the circles
with whom the young Lochiel mingled, Barclay
Urie, the well known apologist of the Quakers, was
also accustomed to appear. An attachment was
thenceforth formed between John Cameron and the
daughter of Barclay, and a matrimonial alliance was
soon afterwards decided upon between the daughter
of that gentleman and the young chieftain.
The choice was considered a singular one on the
part of the young man. It was the customary plan to
intermarry with some of the neighbouring clans ; nor
was it permitted for the chieftain to make a choice
without having first ascertained how far the clan were
agreeable to his wishes. This usage proceeded, in
part, from the notion of consanguinity between every
member of a clan, even of the lowest degree, to his
chieftain, and the affability and courtesy with which
the head was in the habit of treating those over whom
he ruled. The clans were even known to carry their
interference with the affairs of their chief so far as to
disapprove of the choice of their abodes, or to select
a site for a new residence. *
* Brown's History of the Highlands, part ii. p. 141.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 319
The sway which Sir Ewan Dim had acquired over
his followers was such that he dispensed with the
ordinary practice, and, without the consent of the
clans, agreed to receive the young Quakeress as his
daughter. The marriage was completed, and event-
ually received the full approbation of the whole clan
Cameron.
Meantime, great efforts had been made on the part
of the English Government to detach Sir Ewan Dhu
from his faith to James the Second. But the mon-
arch who could attempt so hopeless a task as the
endeavour to cause a Highlander to break his oath of
fidelity, very faintly comprehended the national charac-
ter, then existing in all its strength and all its weak-
ness, in its horror of petty crimes and its co-operation
of great outrages, in its small meannesses and lofty
generous traits, in its abhorrence of a broken vow
or of treachery to a leader. The temptation offered
was indeed considerable. Sir Ewan Dhu was to have
a pension of three hundred a-year, to be perpetuated
to his son, whom the Government were particularly
anxious to entice back to Scotland. The old chieftain
was also to be appointed Governor of Fort William.*
But the emissaries of William the Third could not
have chosen a worse period than that in which to
treat with the brave and wary Cameron. The mas-
sacre of Glencoe was fresh in the remembrance of the
people, and the stratagem, the fiendish snares which
had been prepared to betray the unsuspecting Mac-
Mrs. Grant's MS.
320 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
donalds to their destruction, were also recalled with
the deep curses of a wronged and slaughtered people.
The game of cards, the night before the massacre,
between the villain Campbell, and the two sons of
Glencoe, the proffered and accepted hospitality of the
chieftain, whose hand was grasped in seeming friend-
liness by the man who had resolved to exterminate
him and his family, were cherished recollections
cherished by the determined spirit of hate and revenge,
which contemplated future retribution.
Sir Ewan Dhu therefore rejected these dazzling
offers; he neither recalled his son from France, nor
accepted the command offered to him, but busied
himself in schemes which eventually swayed the des-
tinies of the Camerons.
Not many miles from Achnacarry, the seat of
Lochiel, rose, on the border of Loch Oich, the castle
of Alaster Dhu, or Dusk Alexander, of Glengarry.
The territories of this chieftain were contiguous to
those of Lochiel; and his character, which was of ac-
knowledged valour, wisdom, and magnanimity, formed
a still stronger bond of union than their relative po-
sition. Glengarry was the head of a very powerful
clan, called Macdonnells, in contradistinction to the
Macdonalds of the Isles, whose claim to superiority
they always resisted ; declaring, by the voice of their
bards and family historians, that the house of Antrim,
from whom the Macdonalds of the Isles were de-
scended, owed its origin to the Macdonnells of Glen-
garry.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 321
The clan Glengarry was now at its height of
power under the heroic Alaster Dhu, its chieftain,
whose immediate predecessor had risen to be a Lord
of Session, at a time when that office brought no
little power and influence to its possessors: he had
gained both wealth and credit in his high seat ; and,
upon retiring, had visited Italy, had brought back a
taste for architecture to his native country, and the
castle of Invergarrie, part of the walls of which re-
main undemolished, rose as a memento of his archi-
tectural taste.
The Lord of Session had cherished sentiments of
loyalty for the exiled family ; these were transmitted
to Alaster Dhu. The gallant Lochiel and the chief
of Glengarry were therefore disposed to smother in
their feelings of loyalty the feuds which too often
raged between clans nearly approximate. They
therefore formed a compact to promote, in every way,
the interest of the royal exiles; and in this vain at-
tempt at restoration which ensued, the fate of their
clansmen was sealed/"" That of the Camerons is yet
to be told ; a slight digression respecting their gallant
allies may here be excused.
When the feudal system which subsisted between
the Highland chieftains and their clansmen was dis-
solved, it became the plan of many of the landholders
to rid themselves of their poor tenantry, and to sub-
stitute in their place labourers and fanners from the
south of Scotland. The helpless population of the
" Mrs. Grant's MS.
VOL. I. Y
322 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
glens and hill-sides were thus sent to wander, poor
and ignorant of anything but their own homes, and
speaking no language but their mother tongue, and
wholly unskilled in any practical wisdom. Some emi-
grated, but many were pressed into service on board
the emigrant ships, although the commanders of
those vessels could not, in some instances, prevail
upon themselves to tear the Highlanders away from
their wives and families.
To remedy this melancholy state of affairs, and to
employ the banished mountaineers, it was proposed,
about the year 1794, to embody some of the sufferers,
the Macdonnells of Glengarry in particular, into a
Catholic corps, under their young chieftain, Alexander
Macdonnell, and employ them in the service of the
English Government. This scheme, after many diffi-
culties, was accomplished. At first, it worked well
for the relief of the destitute clan; but, in 1802, in
spite of their acknowledged good conduct, the Glen-
garry regiment was disbanded.
The friend of the unfortunate, who had originally
proposed the consolidation of the corps, was Dr. Mac-
donald, who had been afterwards appointed chaplain
to the regiment. He now projected another scheme
for the maintenance of the clan Glengarry ; and, after
some opposition, his plan was effected. It was to
convey the whole of the Macdonnells, with their wives
and families, to a district in Upper Canada, where the
clan, at this moment, is permanently established.
The place in which they live bears the name of their
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 323
native glen, and the farms they possess are called by
the loved appellations of their former tenements : and,
when the American war tried the fidelity of the emi-
grants, the clan gave a proof of their loyalty by en-
rolling themselves into a corps, under the old name of
the Glengarry Fencibles.*
In the battle of Killicrankie, Glengarry had led
his forces to fight for James the Second; and after
that engagement, in which Glengarry had had a
brother killed, he had become very obnoxious to the
Government, and had found it necessary to retire for
some time, whilst his more favoured friend Lochiel
tranquilly occupied his own house of Achnacarrie, a
place wholly undefended. The retreat in which Glen-
garry hid himself was a small wooded island in Loch-
acaig; and in this seclusion a mancEuvre was planned,
highly characteristic of the subtlety, and yet daring
of the Highland chieftains who were engaged in it.
It shows, also, the state of the national feeling to-
wards the English Government, at a time when com-
parative quiet appeared to be established in the
Highlands.
Attached to certain regiments which were then
lying at Fort William, there were a number of young
volunteers, men of good family, who had a soldier's
pay, if they wished it, and were considered as pupils
in the art of war, " at liberty to retire if they chose,
and eligible, being often persons of family, to fill the
vacancies which war or disease occasioned among the
* Brown's Highlands.
Y 2
324 CAMERON OF LOCIIIEL.
subalterns."* This regiment was now about to oc-
cupy the garrisons, and on their way to the Tyendrum
or Black Mount, the officers engaged in conversation,
little dreading an assault in a country inhabited only
by a few herdsmen, and considered by them as wholly
subdued. But they were deceived in their sense of
safety. Among the heath and bushes in a narrow
pass, circumscribed, on the one side, by a steep moun-
tain, and on the other by a small lake, which skirted
the path, for road there was not, lay in ambush two
hundred well-armed and light-footed Highlanders.
The youths, or volunteers, were in the rear of the
regiment; as they marched fearlessly through the
deep solitude of this wild district, the Highlanders
sprang forwards from their ambuscade ; and before the
young soldiers could recover their surprise or have
recourse to their arms, eight or ten young men of
family were seized on and hurried away. With these
were mingled others, among these volunteers of less
importance, who were carried away in the confusion
by mistake. A few shots were fired by the soldiery,
but without any effect, for the Highlanders had
disappeared. This sudden attack excited the utmost
consternation among the officers of the regiment, nor
could they discover the object of this aggression; nor
did they know either how to pursue the assailants,
or in what terms to report to Government so igno-
minious a loss. They marched, therefore, silently to
Dumbarton without attempting to pursue an enemy
* Mrs. Grant's MS.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 325
whose aim it might be to lure them into some fast-
ness, there to encounter a foe too powerful, from the
nature of the country, to be resisted. On arriving at
Dumbarton the mystery was explained. There the
commander of the corps found a letter, stating that
" certain chiefs of clans had no objection to King
William's ruling in England, considering that nation
as at liberty to choose its own rulers ; but that they
never could, consistently with what they had sworn
on their arms, take an oath to any other sovereign
while the family of St. Germains remained in exist-
ence. They were," the writers continued, " unwilling
either to perjure themselves, or to hold their lands in
daily fear, and subject to the petty instruments of
power. They were willing to live peaceably under
the present rule, but were resolved neither to violate
the dictates of conscience, nor to have their posses-
sions disturbed. In the meantime, to prevent en-
croachments upon their lands, and to prevent the
necessity of rushing into hostilities with the Govern-
ment, they had taken hostages to ensure their safety,
and with these they would never part until Sir Ewan
Dhu and Alaster Dhu had obtained assurances that
they should never be disturbed for their principles
whilst they lived peaceably on their estates."
This declaration was accompanied by a powerful
remonstrance upon the folly and danger of exasperat-
ing clans powerful from their union, and from the
inaccessibility of the country which they inhabited.
The tenderness of conscience, the fidelity to an exiled
326 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
monarch, were made, the writers urged, a plea for
every species of oppression and petty tyranny. The
late massacre of Glencoe justified, they said, the
measures of precaution they were taking ; and, finally,
they threatened, should their petition be refused, to
take refuge in France, carrying with them their
young hostages, there to proclaim the impolicy and
injustice of the English Government. This address
was dispatched, not to the Privy Council, but to the
relations and friends of the young prisoners, who
were interested in procuring a favourable reception
for its negotiation; and the chiefs who subscribed to
this address reasonably expected that the fear of
their power, exaggerated in the sister kingdom, where
a total ignorance of the manners and character of the
Scottish mountaineers existed, would prevail to lend
force to their arguments. This negotiation was never
made public ; it proved, however, effectual, as far as
the comfort of some of the parties engaged in it were
concerned.
By the influence of the rising party, who, espous-
ing the interests of the Princess Anne, were gaining
ground in the country during the decline of William,
Sir Ewan Dhu and Glengarry, who were jointly con-
sidered as the promoters of this affair, remained un-
punished for a mano3uvre on which public opinion in
England was not inclined to pass a very severe judg-
ment, after the recent massacre of Glencoe.* Some
" The credit of this feat," writes Mrs. Grant, " rests merely on the
country tradition : and the silence concerning it, in the publications and
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 327
secret negotiations placed everything on a secure
footing; and, during the reign of Queen Anne; the
two chieftains lived in tranquillity, their mutual
regard continuing undiminished during their lives,
and becoming the subject, after their deaths, of the
lays composed in their honour by their native bards.
During his latter days, Sir Ewan Dhu had the con-
solation of seeing his son happy in the choice of a
wife. Beautiful and good, the young Quakeress soon
established herself in the good opinions of all those
who were acquainted with her ; and there seems every
reason to conclude that she inherited the virtues,
without the peculiarities of her father, Robert Bar-
clay of Urey. That eminent man was descended
from a Norman family which traced its ancestry to
Thomas de Berkley, whose descendants established
themselves in Scotland. By his mother's side, Bar-
clay was allied to the house of Huntley ; and by his
connection with the heiress of the mother's family, a
considerable estate in Aberdeenshire was added to
the honours of antiquity. Unhappily for the lovers
of the old Norman appellations, the name of de Berk-
ley was changed, in the fifteenth century, into that of
Barclay. One of Robert Barclay's sons, who became
a mercer in Cheapside, had the rare fortune of enter-
taining three successive monarchs when they visited
the City on the Lord Mayor's Day, George the First,
records of those times, is accounted for, first, by the shame which the com-
manders of the party felt at being thus surprised and outwitted by an
inferior number of those whom they had been accustomed to style barba-
rians and to treat as such." MS.
3 fc 28 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
George the Second, and George the Third; whose
heart, as it is well known, was touched by the beauty
of one of the fair descendants of Robert Barclay.
Previously to the marriage between Lochiel and
the young Quakeress, the family into which he entered
had been impoverished, and the estate of Mathers,
from which the Barclays derived their name, sold to
defray debt.
The career of Robert Barclay was singular. He
was first converted to Popery during his residence in
Paris, when he was fifteen; and he changed that
faith for the simple persuasion of the Quakers when
he had attained his nineteenth year. He adopted
the tenets of the Friends at a period when it required
much courage to adhere to a sect who were vilified
and ridiculed, not only in England but in Scotland.
It was to refute these attacks against the Quakers
that Barclay wrote the book entitled, " Truth cleared
of Calumnies." His ability and sincerity have never
been doubted ; but some distrust of his reason may be
forgiven, when we find the Quaker, a grave and hap-
pily-married man, walking through the streets of
Aberdeen, clothed in sackcloth and ashes, under the
notion that he was commanded by the Lord to call the
people unto repentance; he appealed to witnesses to
prove the " agony of his spirit," and how he " had
besought the Lord with tears, that this cup might
pass away from him."
This singular act of humiliation was contrasted by
frequent visits to the Court of Charles the Second,
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 329
and to Elizabeth of Bohemia. To the house of Stuart,
Barclay was ever fondly attached. His father had
suffered in the civil wars; and the doctrines of non-
resistance and passive obedience, avowed by the
Quakers, were favourable to the Stuart dynasty.
The last visit which Barclay paid to London was
rendered memorable by the abdication of James the
Second. As he was standing beside that monarch,
near a window, the King looked out, and remarked
that " the wind was fair for the Prince of Orange to
come over." " It is hard," replied Barclay, " that
no expedient can be found to satisfy the people."
James answered, that " he would do anything be-
coming a gentleman, except parting with liberty of
conscience, which he would never do while he lived."
Barclay only survived that eventful period two
years. His children, singular as it may seem, were
all living fifty years after their father's death.
To the daughter of this inflexible and courageous
man was Cameron of Lochiel united. During the
first years of their marriage, even before the death
of Sir Ewan Dhu, they lived peacefully in the home
of their ancestors; and whilst Anne reigned, that
happy tranquillity was undisturbed. The name of
Anne was long cherished in the Highlands on account
of the rare intervals of peace and plenty which her
rule, and as it was thought, her pious prayers,
afforded to a ravaged and oppressed country. Seven
years' famine, during the reign of William, were
charged upon the monarch's head: plenteous crops
330 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
and peaceful abundance were ascribed to the merits
of Queen Anne.* Meantime, the gentle and happy
Lady of Lochiel won all hearts : she was distin-
guished, as tradition reports, for prudence, activity,
and affability. " One great defect," adds Mrs Grant,
" she had, however, which was more felt as such in the
Highlands than it would have been in any other place.
She did not, as a certain resolute countrywoman of
hers was advised to do, l bring forth men-children
only ;' on the contrary, daughters in succession, a thing
scarce pardonable in one who was looked up to and
valued in a great measure as being the supposed mo-
ther of a future chief. In old times women could only
exist while they were defended by the warriour and
supported by the hunter. When this dire necessity
in some measure ceas'd, the mode of thinking to
which it gave rise continued. And after the period
of youth and beauty were past, woman was only con-
sider'd as having given birth to man. John
Locheil's mind was above this illiberal prejudice : he
loudly welcomed his daughters and caress'd their
mother on their appearrance as much as if every one
of them had been a young hero in embryo. His
friends and neighbours us'd on these occassions to
ask in a sneering manner, " What has the lady got?"
To which he invariably answered, " A lady indeed:"
this answer had a more pointed significance there
than with us. For in the Highlands no one is call'd
a lady but a person named to the proprietors of an
* Mrs. Grant's MS.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 331
estate. All others, however rich or high-born, are
only gentlewomen. How the prediction intentionally
included in the chief's answer was fulfill'd, will here-
after appear.
" Besides the family title, every Highland chieftain
has a patronymic deriv'd from the most eminent of
their ancestors, probably the founder of the family,
and certainly the first who confer'd distinction on it.
Thus Argyle is the son of Colin, Breadalbane the son
of Archibald, &c. ; and the chief of the Camerons
was always stil'd son of Donald Dhu, Black Donald,
whatever his name or complexion may be, as well as
the appellation deriv'd from it, because it would
appear hereditary in the family, and at length it
became a tradition or prophesy among the clan that
a fair Lochiel should never prosper."
At length, after the birth of twelve daughters, a
son and heir made his appearance. But the satisfac-
tion of the clans was dashed by hearing that the ill-
starred little laird was fair, like his sisters. The
prophecy that a fair Lochiel should never prosper,
was recalled with dismay ; and, unhappily, the fears
of superstition were too mournfully realized by fact.
The young Cameron was named Donald : his birth
was followed by the appearance of two other boys,
Archibald, afterwards the ill-fated Dr. Cameron, and
John, who was called Fassefern, from an estate.
" The proud prediction of their father," continues
Mrs. Grant, " was soon amply fulfilled with regard
to the daughters of this extraordinary family."
332 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
" Their history," she adds, " unites the extrava-
gance of romance with the sober reality of truth."
The twelve daughters of Lochiel were admirably
educated, and the fame of their modest virtues soon
extended through the Highlands. The great point
in matrimonial alliances in those rude regions was to
obtain a wife well born, and well allied; and little
fortune was ever expected with the daughter of a
chief. Ancestry was the great point with a High-
lander, for he believed that defects of mind, as well
as of person, were hereditary. All, therefore, sought
the daughters of Lochiel, as coming of an untainted
race. The elder ones were married early, and
seemed, as Mrs. Grant expresses it, by the solicitude
to obtain them, as ever to increase, like the Sibyl's
leaves, in value, as they lessened in number. Of the
daughters, one, the youngest and the fairest, was
actually married to Cameron of Glendinning, in the
twelfth year of her age. She became a widow, and
afterwards married Maclean of Kingasleet, so that
she was successively the wife of two heads of
houses. Another, Jean Cameron, who was the least
comely of her family, but possessed of a commanding
figure and powerful understanding, was married to
Clunie, the Chief of the Clan Macpherson. She is
said to have been celebrated in the pathetic poem,
entitled " Lochaber no More," the poet, who laments
his departure from Lochaber, and his farewell to his
Jean, having been an officer in one of the regiments
stationed at Fort William.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 333
By the marriage of his twelve daughters with the
heads of houses, the political importance of Lochiel
was considerably enhanced, and a confederacy, con-
taining many noted families who were bound to-
gether by opinion and kindred, formed a strong
opposition to the reigning Government. The sons-
in-law of Lochiel were the following chiefs : Cameron
of Dungallan, Barclay of Urie, Grant of Glenmoriston,
Macpherson of Clunie, Campbell of Barcaldine,
Campbell of Auchalader, Campbell of Auchlyne,
Maclean of Lochbuy, Macgregor of Bohowdie, Wright
of Loss, Maclean of Ardgour, and Cameron of Glen-
dinning. All the daughters became the mothers of
families; " and these numerous descendants, still,"
observes Mrs. Grant, " cherish the bonds of affinity,
now so widely diffused, and still boast their descent
from these female worthies."*
Among most of the influential chieftains who
espoused the daughters of Lochiel, was the celebrated
Macpherson of Clunie, who afterwards took a very
important part in the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745.
The career of Clunie affords a melancholy, but rare,
instance of indecision, if not of double dealing, in the
Jacobites. Before the battle of Culloden, anxious to
retrieve his affairs and to ensure his safety, he took
the oaths to the English Government, and was ap-
pointed to a company in Lord Loudon's Highlanders.
His clan, nevertheless, were eager to join Charles Ed-
ward, and urged him to lead them to his standard.
* Mrs. Grant's MS.
334 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
Clunie hesitated between the obligation to his oath,
and his secret devotion to the Stuarts. His defection
irritated the British Government: he became one of
those whose life was forfeited to the laws. After the
battle of Culloden he secreted himself, and lived for
nine years in a cave, at a short distance from the
site of his own house, which had been burned by the
King's troops. The cave was in front of a woody
precipice, the trees, &c., completely concealing the
entrance. It was dug out by his own people, who
worked at night, or when time had slackened the
rigour of the search. Upwards of one hundred per-
sons knew of this retreat, and one thousand pounds
were offered as a reward to any who would dis-
cover it. Eighty men were stationed there to in-
timidate the tenantry into a disclosure, but it was
all in vain ; none could be found so base as to betray
their chief.*
For two years Sir Hector Monro in vain remained
in Badenoch, for the purpose of discovering Clunie's
retreat. The Macphersons remained true to their
chieftain. At times he emerged from his dark recess,
to mingle for awhile in the hours of night with his
friends, when he was protected by the vigilance and
affection of his clansmen, unwearied in their work of
duty. At last, broken-spirited, and despairing of
that mercy which was accorded by the English Go-
vernment to so few of the insurgents, Clunie escaped
to France, and there died, ten years after the fatal
" Sketches of the Highlands, vol. i.'pp. 60, 61.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 335
events of 1745. * The estate of this unfortunate
chieftain was restored to his family, who claim to be
the ancient representatives of the clan Chattan; with
what justice it would be dangerous to declare, since
no risk could be more rashly encountered than that
which is incurred in discussing Highland prerogative.
Surrounded by his powerful relatives and fair
daughters, Lochiel hailed with no very sanguine
spirit the coming troubles which quickly followed the
accession of the house of Hanover. Already was the
Jacobite association busily at work in the south of
Scotland; and it was impossible, from the temper of
the populace in both nations, not to augur, in a short
time, some serious popular outbreak. In the minds
of the Highland chieftains a hatred of English domi-
nion, and a desire of independence, constituted even a
more potent source of adherence of the Stuarts than
any personal feeling towards that line. Most of these
chiefs languished to see a king of their own nation
reign over them. To such a ruler they would, as
they considered, be viewed not as a secondary object.
Their interests had been neglected in the Treaty of
Darien, a settlement which had inspired the land-
holders of the Low Country with aversion to Wil-
liam.
Expectations had also been raised, tending to the
belief that Anne, secretly well affected to her brother,
had made such provisions in her will as would ensure
the descent of the Crown in the direct line ; and no-
* Brown's Highlands.
336 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
thing could exceed the disgust and amazement of the
Highlanders when they beheld a foreigner seated on a
throne, from which, they well knew, it would be im-
possible to dispossess him. " To restore," as Mrs.
Grant observes, " their ancient race of monarchs to
the separate Crown of Scotland, was their fondest
wish. This visionary project was never adopted by
the Jacobites at large, who were too well informed to
suppose it either practicable or eligible. But it
serv.'d as an engine to excite the zeal of bards and
sennachies, who were still numerous in the High-
lands, and in whose poetry strong traces of this airy
project may still be found."
Soon after the accession of George the First, cer-
tain of the Highland chieftains dispatched a letter to
the Earl of Mar, desiring that nobleman to assure the
Government of their loyalty and submission. Among
the names subscribed are those of Lochiel, of his
friend Glengarry, and of Clunie. The address is said
to have been a stratagem of Mar's to gain time, and
to give him an opportunity of ripening his schemes.*
But it appears more probable that there was, at first,
a spirit of moderation and a desire for peace in the
chieftains, until they were afterwards stimulated by
the intrigues of the disappointed and baffled Earl of
Mar. Lochiel, as well as many others, had little to
gain, but much to lose, in any change of dynasty or
convulsion in the state. Prosperous, beloved, secure,
his fidelity to that which he believed to be the right
Reay, p. 88.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 337
cause was honourable to the highest degree to his
character. That he was not sanguine in his hopes, is
more than probable. Before he went to the battle of
Sherriff Muir, he arranged his affairs so as to be pre-
pared for the worst result that might befal his family.
The frequent occurrence of feuds and civil wars in
Scotland had taught the higher classes the use of
stratagem and manosuvre in these domestic disturb-
ances. It was not unusual for a son and a father
often to affect to take opposite sides, in order that the
estate, happen what might, should be preserved to the
family ; and this was considered as consulting the ge-
neral good of the clan. Lochiel, although he did not
pursue this plan, yet left his affairs so arranged that,
in the most fatal results of the Rebellion of 1715, his
estate might be protected. His sons-in-law, powerful
and devoted to the same cause, were well qualified to
aid and to protect those members of the family who
were entrusted to their friendly guidance. John Came-
ron was still styled "Cameron the younger, of Lochiel,''
for the renowned Sir Ewan Dhu was living when Mar
summoned the chieftains to the hunting-field of Brae-
mar. The aged chieftain had, at this time, attained
his eighty-seventh year; it had been his glory, in
early life, to defend a pass near Braemar against
Cromwell's troops, until the royal army had retired ;
and, in fact, to be the instrument of saving Glen-
cairn's troops, keeping himself clear of those cabals
which at that time fatally harassed the disorganized
Royalists. It was now his fate to send forth, under
VOL. I. z
338 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
the guidance of his son, his gallant Camerons, to the
number of eight hundred, to espouse the cause of the
Stuarts.* No jealousies disturbed the confidence re-
posed on the one side, nor alienated affection on the
other. The affection of the Highlanders for their
children was one of the softened features in the na-
tional character. It was usually repaid with a degree
of reverence, of filial piety, which, however other qua-
lities may have declined and died away in the High-
land character, have remained, like verdant plants,
amid autumnal decay. The appalling spectacle of a
parent forsaken, or even neglected, by a child, is a
sight never known in the Highlands : nor is the sense
of duty lessened by absence from the mountains
where first the sentiment was felt. The Highland
soldier, far from his country, is accompanied by this
holy love, this inexhaustible stimulus to exertion,
which induces him to save with what may be unjustly
called a niggard hand his earnings, to support, in
their old age, those who have given him birth. " I
have been," says General Stewart, " a frequent wit-
ness of these offerings of filial bounty, and the channel
through which they were communicated; and I have
generally found that a threat of informing their pa-
rents of misconduct, has operated as a sufficient check
on young soldiers, who always received the intimation
with a sort of horror."f
Blessed, doubtless, with the approval of his father,
Sir Ewan Dhu, Lochiel quitted his home. He left a
See Culloden Papers. t Stewart's Sketches, vol. i. p. 86.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 339
wife whom he loved, a parent whom he reverenced,
and whose span of life could not be long extended ; he
left a numerous and prosperous family, upon a sense
of duty, a principle of loyalty, an adherence, so fixed
and so sure among the Highlanders, to his engage-
ments. The name of Cameron does not appear
among the chieftains who were assembled at Braemar ;
but it appears probable that he attended the Earl of
Mar's summons, since he was cited, by the authority
of an act passed on the thirtieth of August, to appear
at Edinburgh, as well as a number of other disaffected
chieftains and noblemen, to give bail for his allegi-
ance to the Government. The summons was not an-
swered by a single individual, and the preparations for
the fatal insurrection continued in unabated activity.
The details of the hopeless struggle contain no
especial mention of John Cameron of Lochiel; but,
from manuscript sources, we learn that, after the
battle of Sherriff Muir, he continued with the Jacobite
army, conducted by General Gordon, to whom James
Stuart had entrusted the command of that remnant of
his gallant and deserted adherents. The Jacobite
army having marched to Aberdeen, were there in-
formed by General Gordon of the flight of the Cheva-
lier, of that of Lord Mar, and of the other principal
leaders. A letter was then read to them from James,
declaring that the disappointments which he had met
with, especially from abroad, had obliged him to leave
the country. He thanked his subjects for their ser-
vices, and desired them to advise with General Gordon,
z2
340 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
and to consult their own safety, either by keeping in a
body, or separating, and encouraged them to hear from
him again in a very short time. A singular scene
ensued. General Gordon and the chief officers of the
army, are said to have pretended surprise at this
disclosure, although they were previously in the
secret ; but the indignation of the soldiers was
extreme.
" We are basely betrayed," they cried out; " we
are all undone; we have neither King nor General
left!"
Shortly after this crisis, the Jacobite army dis-
persed; two hundred of them, amongst whom were
many chieftains, went towards Peterhead, intending to
embark, in vessels which they knew were waiting for
them, for France; but the main body of the army
marched westward, to Strathspey and Strath-dore
to the Hills of Badenoch, where they separated. The
foot-soldiers dispersed into the mountains, near Lochy,
and the horse went to Lochaber, agreeing to re-
assemble, such was their undaunted fidelity and
courage, on receiving notice from the Chevalier.*
But such a summons never came, to arouse those
brave men from the repose of their glens and for-
tresses.
Lochiel had entrusted the guidance of his clan
to his son, afterwards well known by the name of
" gentle Lochiel," and the faithful promoter of Charles
Edward's ill-starred enterprise. Persuaded that the
" Reay, p. 271.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 341
safety and honour of his house were safe in the
hands of this promising young man, who had been
purposely kept in ignorance of the projected rising,
and had taken no part in it, Lochiel resolved to
consult his own safety, and to follow his royal master
to France. After wandering for some time near
Braemar, and in Badenoch, he escaped by means of
one of the French frigates which were cruising near
the coast of Scotland.*
In 1719 Sir Ewan Dhu expired, having witnessed
the rise and fall of that attempt to restore the Stuarts,
which was only succeeded by a more desperate and
melancholy undertaking. He lived to see his son an
exile, but he had the consolation of reflecting that
the honour of his clan, the great desideratum with a
chieftain, was yet unstained either by cowardice or
disloyalty.
The Camerons do not appear to have had any
participation in the abortive attempt in 1718 to
revive the Stuart claim. Considered by the Eng-
lish Government as a proscribed rebel, and deemed
of too much importance to be forgiven, Lochiel
passed henceforth most of his days in the melan-
choly court of St. Germains, where he soon per-
ceived how little faith there was to be placed in
the energy and determination of James Stuart.
At times his weary exile was relieved by secret
visits to his own home at Achnacarry, where he
found his son, dutiful and amiable, holding his
* Mrs. Grant's MS.
342 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
possessions as in trust for his father. Lochiel was
enabled by the power and alliance of his sons-in-law
to remain in safety, as long as he pleased, during
these visits; yet he professed to renounce Scotland
until a change of Government should facilitate his
return as a chieftain to his clansmen. In every dis-
trict he found kindred ready to protect him, and
he derived much importance from the influence he
possessed through his children. His sons-in-law were
mostly the heads of clans, and they all looked up to
Lochiel with affectionate reverence. Had Lochiel
been a remorseless partisan of James, instead of a
true lover of his country, he might easily have
stimulated his kindred, and set into motion the
whole of that powerful connection of which he was
the centre. But he perceived too plainly the risk
of such a proceeding, and wisely declined involving
the peaceful and the prosperous in the dangers of
another contest. His moderate sentiments were con-
firmed by the early wisdom of his son, one of those
bright patterns of human excellence, gifted with
every charm which attends a noble and gallant
chieftain.
During the early part of the Rebellion of 1745,
John of Lochiel remained in France; but, when the
battles of Falkirk and of Preston Pans raised the
hopes of his party, he came over to Scotland, and
landed on the coasts of Lochaber, a short time be-
fore the fatal blow to the Stuart cause was given
at Culloden. After taking a last look at his house,
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 343
and visiting, with what feelings can well be con-
ceived, the scenes of his childhood, the haunts of his
ancestry, the house of Achnacarry, which was soon,
as he well might conjecture, to be the object of
vengeance to a foe more ruthless and brutal than
ever party spirit had infuriated in this country be-
fore, Lochiel, embarking in the vessel which had
brought him to Scotland, elate with hope, returned
to France. His exile was cheered by the friendship
of the Duke of Berwick, but his heart seems ever to
have been in Scotland. A few years afterwards he
came over again privately to Edinburgh, and there
his eventful life was closed.* His estates were in-
cluded, after the year 1745, in the numerous for-
feitures which followed the Kebellion ; but they were
eventually restored, and they have remained in pos-
session of the family. Intrepid and amiable as
John of Lochiel appears to have been, and perilous
as was his career, his character bears no com-
parison in interest with that of one who was one of
the brightest ornaments of his party his gallant
unfortunate son.
Donald Cameron of Lochiel, had long exercised the
authority of a chieftain, before the Rebellion of 1745
entailed upon him a participation in occupations still
more arduous. He had, in short, arrived at middle
age when he was called upon to support the claims
of Charles Edward.
To the virtues and intentions of this chieftain,
* Mrs. Grant's MS.
344 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
even his enemies have borne tribute. He was accom-
plished, refined, and courteous; yet brave, firm, and
daring. The warlike tribes around him, unaccus-
tomed to such a combination of qualities, idolized
the gallant and the good Lochiel. His father, re-
posing on his honour and prudence, relied with
security upon his son's management of the family
estates, and this confidence was never disturbed by
presumption on the one hand, nor by suspicion on the
other.
Donald Cameron had imbibed the principles of his
father; and there is little doubt but that, during
the furtive visits of John Lochiel to Scotland, a
tacit understanding had been formed between them
to support the " good old cause," as they termed it,
whenever circumstances should permit. But Donald
Cameron, although " he loved his King well, loved
his country better;" nor could he be persuaded to
endanger the peace of that country by a rash enter-
prise, which could never, as he justly thought, pros-
per without foreign aid, and the hearty co-operation
of the English Jacobites. His own clansmen were,
he well knew, prepared for the contest, come when
it might; for the conversation of the small gentry
and of the retainers consisted, to borrow a descrip-
tion from a contemporary writer, entirely of disqui-
sitions upon " martiall achievements, deer huntings,
and even valuing themselves upon their wicked ex-
peditions and incursions upon their innocent low-
country neighbours. They have gott," adds the
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 345
same author,* " a notion and inviollable maxim
handed down to them from their forefathers, that
they, being the only ancient Scotsmen, that whole
nation belongs to them in property, and look on all
the low-country-men as a mixture of Danes, Saxons,
Normans, and English, who have by violence robbed
them of the best part of their country, while they
themselves are penned up in the most mountainous
and barren parts thereof to starve; therefore think
it no injustice to commit dayly depredations upon
them, making thereby conscience to interrupt their
illegal possession (as they call it) in case it should
prescribe into a right." f
It would not have been difficult to have blown
such combustible materials into a flame; but Do-
nald Cameron adopted a different policy, and endea-
voured to allay the angry passions of the tribe over
which he ruled: nevertheless, his own conduct was
perfectly consistent with his principles ; and such
was the notion entertained of his integrity and mo-
deration, that though he never took the oaths to the
reigning family, he was indulged in that tenderness
of conscience and permitted to remain in peace, even
though residing in the immediate neighbourhood of a
great military station. J
Donald Cameron had indeed a more valuable stake
in the country than houses or lands. He was mar-
" Conjectured to be Lord Lovat.
t Appendix to the Memoirs of Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel, p. 177.
t Mrs. Grant's MS.
346 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
ried in the year 1723 to the daughter of Sir James
Campbell of Auchinbreck, a lady of whom it is high
praise to say, that she was worthy of being the com-
panion of such a man.
Thus situated, the nominal holder of an estate
which, though long maintained in the family, is said
never to have exceeded in value five hundred pounds
a-year, and less prejudiced against the English and
the ruling powers than his predecessors, Donald
Cameron felt, it is asserted, little desire to promote a
second invasion of the country by the Chevalier.
The slightest intimation of his father's wish to revive
that cause would have been sufficient to set the
whole family confederacy into motion ; but the wis-
dom of the younger Lochiel had been ripened by the
cautious and critical part which he had had to per-
form in life; and that prudent disposition, enforced
by his father's circumspection, prevented any preci-
pitate measures.
'Of the favour and confidence of the Chevalier,
Donald Cameron was well assured. In 1729, the
following letter was addressed to him, under the
name of Mr. Johnstone, by James.*
" I am glad of this occasion to let you know how
well plessed I am to hear of the care you take to fol-
low your father's and uncle's example in their loyalty
to me; and I doubt not of your endeavours to main-
tain the true spirit in the clan. Allan is now with
* Appendix to Home's History of the Rebellion, No. II.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 347
me, and I am always glad to have some of my brave
Highlanders about me, whom I value as they deserve.
You will deliver the enclosed to its address, and
doubt not of my particular regard for you, which I
am persuaded you will always deserve.
(Signed) " JAMES B."
" April 11, 1727."
In addition to these instructions, Donald Cameron
received a letter from his uncle, Allan Cameron, (in
1729,) who attended the Chevalier during his resi-
dence at Albano; from which it appears that a full
commission had been sent to Lochiel to treat with
"such of the King's friends in Scotland," as he
thought were safe to be trusted concerning his affairs.
It was also intimated that James had conceived a
high opinion of the good sense and prudence of
Lochiel, from his letters; and encouragement was
given to any future exertions. The uncle then in-
structed his nephew how to answer the King's letter
in the following explicit manner. These directions
are tolerably minute :*
" I think it proper you should write to the King
by the first post after you receive his letter. I need
not advise you what to say in answer to such a
gracious letter from your King, only let it not be
very long. Declare your duty and readiness to
execute his Majesty's commands on all occasions, and
* See Appendix, No. II.
348 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
your sense of the honour he has been pleased to do
you in giving you such a commission. I am not to
chuse words for you, because I am sure you can ex-
press yourself in a dutiful and discreet manner with-
out any help. You are to write, Sir, on a large
margin, and to end, Your most faithful and obedient
subject and servant; and to address to the King
and no more; which inclose to me sealed. I pray
send me a copy of it on a paper inclosed, with any
other thing that you do not think fit or needful the
King should see in your letter to me, because I will
shew your answer to this, wherein you may say that
you will be mindful of all I wrote to you, and what
else you think fit."
To these instructions assurances were added, that
the elder Lochiel, who had, it seems, been in neces-
sitous circumstances after his attainder, and during
his exile, should be relieved at the Chevalier's ex-
pense; "so that," adds the uncle, " your mind may
be pretty easy upon that point." Donald had, it
appears, expressed some discontent at the compara-
tive comfort in which some of the exiled Jacobites
lived, and the poverty of his father's circumstances,
which he had observed when in Paris a few years
previous to this correspondence. Allan Cameron
further advised his nephew to keep on good terms
with Glengarry and all other neighbours; to let " by-
ganes, be byganes," as long as such neighbours con-
tinue firm to the " King's interests;" to avoid private
animosities, and yet to keep a watch over their
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 349
fidelity to the cause. " As to Lovat," adds the
uncle, " be on your guard, but not so as to lose him ;
on the contrary, you may say that the King trusts a
great deal to the resolution he has taken to serve
him, and expects he will continue in that resolution.
But, dear nephew, you know very well that he must
give true and real proof of his sincerity by perform-
ance, before he can be entirely reckoned on, after the
part he has acted. This I say to yourself, and there-
fore you must deal with him very dexterously ; and I
must leave it to your own judgment what lengths to
go with him, since you know he has always been a
man whose chief view was his own interest. It is
true, he wishes our family well; and I doubt not he
would wish the King restored, which is his interest,
if he has the grace to have a hand in it, after what
he has done. So, upon the whole, I know not what
advice to give you, as to letting him know that the
King wrote you such a letter as you have; but in
general, you are to make the best of him you can,
but still be on your guard ; for it is not good to put
too much in his power before .the time of executing a
good design. The King knows very well how useful
he can be if sincere, which I have represented as fully
as was necessary.
" This letter is of such bulk, that I have inclosed
the King's letter under cover with another letter
addressed for your father, as I will not take leave of
you till next post. I add only, that I am entirely
yours, (Signed) " A. CAMERON."
350 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
Eight years afterwards (in 1736), when inquiries
were made by the Chevalier concerning the temper of
the people, and the state of the clans, it was stated
that the most leading men among the clans were
Cameron of Lochiel and Sir Alexander Macdonald.
The Cameronians were, it was stated, well armed,
and regularly regimented among themselves, but " so
giddy and inconstant" that they could not be de-
pended on; only that they were strongly enraged
against the Government. " The leading men among
the loyalists were reported much diminished ; nor was
it easy, from the necessity of concealing their senti-
ments, since the last rising, to make any estimate of
the amount of those who would enter into any second
scheme."* Considering Cameron of Lochiel as thus
empowered to give information of the first movements
of James, the Jacobites in the Highlands were in
continual communication with Cameron ; yet, perhaps
considering that those who engaged in the last in-
surrection, being nearly superannuated, would rather
wish well to the cause than engage again, he still
kept the fervent spirits of that political party whom
he thus regarded in an equable state, ready to act,
yet willing to wait for a favourable occasion. In
1740 Donald Cameron signed, nevertheless, the as-
sociation of seven carried by Drummond of Bochaldy
to Rome; but when the Court of France, after the
disaster at Dunkirk, withdrew its aid, he was one
* Home. Appendix. From the papers of Cameron of Fassefern,
Lochiel's nephew.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 351
of those who sent over Murray to dissuade Charles
from coming to Scotland, unless accompanied by a
body of foreign troops : so true were his professions
of fidelity, and so finely was that fidelity tempered
with prudence. Holding these opinions, which were
amply verified by the result of the Kebellion of 1745,
when Donald Cameron received a letter from Prince
Charles, written at Borodale, and desiring to see him
immediately, it was in sorrow and perplexity that he
received the summons. He sent his brother, the
unfortunate Dr. Archibald Cameron, to urge the
Prince to return, and to assure him that he should
not join in the undertaking. But the Prince per-
sisted in the resolution he had formed of persevering
in his attempt, and gave to Dr. Cameron the same
reply that he had already given to others, and then,
addressing himself to Macdonald of Scothouse, who
had gone to the coast to pay his respects to the
Prince, he asked him if he could go to Lochiel and
endeavour to persuade him to do his duty. Young
Scothouse replied, he would comply with the Prince's
wishes, and immediately set out for Achnacarry.
Such a message from such a quarter could not be
resisted, and Lochiel prepared to accompany young
Scothouse to Borodale. Lochiel's reluctance to as-
sent was not, however, overcome : his mind misgave
him. He knew well the state of his country, and he
took this first step with an ominous foreboding of
the issue. He left his home, determined not to take
arms. On his way to Borodale he called at the house
352 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
of his brother, John Cameron of Fassefern, who came
out and inquired what had brought him from home at
that early hour? Lochiel replied that the Prince had
arrived from France, and had sent to see him. Fas-
sefern inquired what troops the Prince had brought?
what money ? what arms ? Lochiel answered that the
Prince had brought neither money, nor arms, nor
troops, and that he was therefore resolved not to be
concerned in any attempt, and to dissuade Charles
from an insurrection. Fassefern approved of his
brother's decision, but recommended him not to pro-
ceed to Borodale, but to communicate his resolution by
letter. "No," rejoined Lochiel ; "it is my duty to go
to the Prince, and unfold to him my reasons, which
admit of no reply." " Brother," returned Fassefern,
" I know you better than you know yourself; if the
Prince once sets his eyes upon you, he will make you
do whatever he pleases."*
Lochiel, nevertheless, proceeded to Borodale.
The gallant chief found the Prince surrounded by
those who, like himself, had consented, unwillingly, to
join in the ill-starred enterprise. The personal courage
of Charles Edward has been doubted; but his deter-
mination and fearlessness at this critical moment,
afford an ample contradiction of the charge. Whilst
on board the ship which brought him to Scotland, it
was represented to him that he must keep himself
very retired, as the garrison at Inverlochie was not
* In the year 1781, Fassefern repeated this conversation to Mr.
Home. History of the Rebellion, p. 7.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 353
far off, and as the Campbells in the neighbourhood
would be ready to take him. " I have no fear about
that at all," was his reply. " If I could get six stout
trusty fellows to join me," he said, on another oc-
casion, " I would rather skulk about the mountains of
Scotland than return to France."*
The Prince was in this temper of mind when
Lochiel reached him. Upon his arrival at Borodale,
the Prince and he immediately retired to a long and
private conference.
The conversation began, upon the part of Charles,
by complaints of the treatment which he had received
from the Ministers of France, " who had long," he
said, " amused him with vain hopes, and deceived
him with promises :" " their coldness in his cause," he
added, " but ill agreed with the confidence which he
had in his own claims, and with the enthusiasm
which the loyalty of his father's brave and faithful
subjects had inspired in him." Lochiel acknowledged
the engagements of the chiefs, but remarked that they
were not binding, since his Highness had come with-
out the stipulated aid; and, therefore, since there was
not the least prospect of success, he advised the
Prince to return to France, and reserve himself and
his faithful friends to some more favourable oppor-
tunity.f
This counsel was extremely distasteful to Charles
Edward; already had the young and gallant Prince
declared to one of the Macdonalds, who had urged the
* Forbes, p. 19. t Home, p 5.
VOL. I. A A
354 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
same opinion, that he did not choose to owe the resto-
ration of his father's throne to foreigners, but to his
own friends, to whom he was now come to put it in
their power to have the glory of that event.* He
therefore refused to follow Lochiel's advice, asserting
that there could not be a more favourable moment
than the present, when all the British troops were
abroad, and kept at bay by Marshal Saxe. In Scot-
land, he added, there were only a few regiments,
newly raised, and unused to service. These could
never stand before the brave Highlanders; and the
first advantage gained would encourage his father's
friends to declare themselves, and would ensure
foreign aid. He only wanted " the Highlanders to
begin the war."
" Lochiel," to use the words of Mr. Home, " still
resisted, entreating Charles to be more temperate, and
consent to remain concealed where he was, till he
(Lochiel) and his other friends should meet together
and concert what was best to be done." Charles,
whose mind was wound up to the utmost pitch of
impatience, paid no regard to this proposal, but
answered, that he was determined to put all to the
hazard. " In a few days," said he, " with the few
friends that I have, I will erect the royal standard,
and proclaim to the people of Britain that Charles
Stuart is come over to claim the crown of his ances-
tors, to win it, or to perish in the attempt : Lochiel,"
continued he, "who my father has often told me
* Forbes, p. 19.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 355
was our firmest friend, may stay at home, and learn
from the newspapers the fate of his Prince; and so
shall every man over whom nature or fortune hath
given me any power." Such was the singular con-
versation on the result of which depended peace or
war ; for it is a point agreed among the Highlanders,
that if Lochiel had persisted in his refusal to take
arms, the other chiefs would not have joined the
standard without him, and the spark of rebellion
must have instantly expired. *
To the details of this interview are added others,
which somewhat reflect upon the disinterestedness of
Lochiel. They rest, however, upon hearsay evidence ;
and, since conversations repeated rarely bear exactly
their original signification, some caution must be
given before they are credited : yet, even if true, one
can scarcely condemn a man who is forced into an en-
terprise from which he shrinks, screening himself
from all the consequences of defeat, and striving to
preserve an inheritance which he might justly regard
as a trust, rather than a property. It must also be
remembered that Donald Cameron was at this time
only nominally the proprietor of the patrimonial
estates. The following is the extract from Bishop
Forbes's diary, from which the information is sup-
plied :
" Leith, Thursday, April 9, 1752.
" Alexander Macdonnell, the younger, of Glengary,
did me the honour to dine with me. In the course
* Home, p. 6.
A A 2
356 CAMERON OF LOCIIIEL.
of conversation, I told young Glengary, that I had
oftener than once, heard the Viscountess Dowager of
Strathallan tell, that Lochiel, junior, had refused to
raise a man, or to make any appearance, till the
Prince should give him security for the full value of
his estate, in the event of the attempt proving abor-
tive. To this young Glengary answered, that it was
fact, and that the Prince himself (after returning
from France) had frankly told him as much, assign-
ing this as the weighty reason why he (the Prince) had
shown so much zeal in providing young Lochiel (pre-
ferably to all others) in a regiment. * For,' said
the Prince, ' I must do the best I can, in my present
circumstances, to keep my word to Lochiel.' Young
Glengary told me, moreover, that Lochiel, junior, (the
above bargain with the Prince notwithstanding,) in-
sisted upon another condition before he would join in
the attempt, which was, that Glengary, senior, should
give it under his hand to raise his clan and join the
Prince. Accordingly Glengary, senior, when applied
to upon the subject, did actually give it under his
hand, that his clan should rise under his own second
son as colonel, and Mac Donell, of Lochgary, as
lieutenant-colonel. Then, indeed, young Lochiel was
gratified in all his demands, and did instantly raise
his clan.
" Glengary, junior, likewise assured me that
Cluny Mac Pherson, junior, made the same agreement
with the Prince, before he would join the attempt
with his followers, as young Lochiel had done, viz.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 357
to have security from the Prince for the full value of
his estate, lest the expedition should prove unsuccess-
ful ; which the Prince accordingly consented unto, and
gave security to said Cluny Mac Pherson, junior, for
the full value of his estate. Young Glengary de-
clared that he had this from the young Cluny
Mac Pherson's own mouth, as a weighty reason
why he, Cluny, would not part with the money
which the Prince had committed to his care and
keeping."
Lochiel, after these arrangements with the Prince,
returned to Achnacarry, in order to prepare for the
undertaking. A deep sadness pervaded his deport-
ment when he began thus to fulfil his promise to
the Prince; but having once embarked in the enter-
prise, he exerted himself with as much zeal and
perseverance as if he had engaged in it with the
full approbation of his judgment. We cannot wonder
at his dejection, for his assent was the assent of all
the clans. It was a point agreed among the High-
landers, that had Lochiel not proceeded to take arms,
the other chiefs would not have joined the standard
without him; and the " spark of rebellion," thus
writes Mr. Home, " must instantly have expired."
" Upon this," says an eye-witness of the Kebellion,
" depended the whole undertaking; for had Lochiel
stood out, the Prince must either have returned to
France on board the same frigate that brought him
to Scotland, or remained privately in the Highlands,
waiting for a landing of foreign troops. The event
358 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
has shown that he would have waited for a long
time."*
From henceforth the career of Lochiel was one of
activity and of exertions which it must have been
almost melancholy to witness in one whose heart was
sorrowing and foreboding. He arranged his papers
and affairs as a man does before setting out on a
journey from which he was not to return, f and he
summoned his followers to give aid to a cause which,
as Mrs. Grant remarks, " a vain waste of blood
adorned without strengthening. "J He sent mes-
sengers throughout Lochaber and the adjacent coun-
tries in which the Camerons lived, requiring his
chieftains to prepare and to accompany their chief to
Glenfinnin. Before, however, the day appointed had
arrived, a party of the Camerons and the Macdonalds
of Keppoch had begun the war by attacking Captain
John Scott, at High Bridge, eight miles from Fort
William. The chief glory of this short but important
action is due to Macdonald of Keppoch ; the affair was
over when Lochiel with a troop of Camerons arrived,
took charge of the prisoners, and carried them to his
house at Achnacarry.
On the nineteenth of August (old style), Lochiel,
followed by seven hundred men, marched to Glen-
finnin, where Charles was anxiously awaiting his ap-
proach. When the Prince landed from one of the
Maxwell of Kirkconnel's Narrative, p. 23.
t The beautiful poem of Campbell, entitled " Lochiel," is founded on
this circumstance.
Mrs. Grant's MS.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 359
lakes in the glen, Lochiel was not to be seen; and
the adventurer, entering one of the hovels, waited
there two hours, until the sound of the bagpipes
announced the approach of the Camerons. These
brave men who were thus marching to their destiny
advanced in two lines of three men deep, whilst
between the lines were the prisoners taken at High
Bridge, unarmed, trophies of the first victory of the
Jacobites. The Camerons were reputed to be as
active and strong and as well skilled in the use of
arms as any of the clans of Scotland, and as little
addicted to pilfering as any Highlanders at that time
could be ; for Lochiel had taken infinite pains to make
them honest, and had administered justice among
them with no little severity. " He thought," says a
writer of the time, " his authority sufficient to keep
his clan in subjection, and never troubled his head
whether they obeyed him out of love or from fear."*
Lochiel had not been able to prevail upon any of his
brothers-in-law to accompany him, although they
wished well to the undertaking, and, in some in-
stances, afterwards joined it. One member of his
family made, however, a conspicuous figure in the
vale of Glenfinnin.
This was the celebrated Jenny Cameron, daughter
of Cameron of Glendessery, and a kinswoman of Lo-
chiel. She is reported to have been a widow, and
upwards of forty, according to one account, to an-
* Life of Jenny Cameron. London : Printed for C. Whitefield, in
White Friars, 1746.
360 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
other, of fifty years of age. Her father, whose estate
did not exceed in value one hundred and fifty pounds
a year, had endeavoured to improve it by dealing in
cattle, a business frequently followed even by men of
good family in the Highlands. He had been some
time dead, and the estate had devolved upon his
grandson, a youth of weak intellect, to whom Miss
Cameron acted as curatrix or guardian. The young
man, although then of age, left all matters of business
entirely to his aunt ; and she came, therefore, to the
standard of Prince Charles, as the representative of
her nephew.
Her appearance, if we are to accredit contemporary
statements, must have been extremely singular.
Having collected a troop of two hundred and fifty
men, she marched at the head of it to the camp at
Glenfinnin. She was dressed in a sea-green riding-
habit, with a scarlet lappet, laced with gold ; her hair
was tied behind in loose curls, and surmounted with a
velvet cap, and a scarlet feather. She rode a bay
gelding, with green furniture, richly trimmed with
gold; in her hand she carried a naked sword instead
of a riding- whip. Her countenance is described as
being agreeable, and her figure handsome ;* her eyes
were fine, and her hair as black as jet. In conversa-
tion she was full of intelligence and vivacity. f The
Prince, it is said, rode out of the lines to receive her,
and to welcome the addition to his army, and con-
ducted her to a tent with much ceremony. It was
* Life of Jenny Cameron. t Forbes, p. 23.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 361
reported that Mrs. Cameron continued in the camp
as the commander of her troop, and accompanied the
Prince into England. But this account is contra-
dicted by Bishop Forbes. " She was so far," he says,
from accompanying the Prince's army, that she went
off with the rest of the spectators as soon as the
army marched; neither did she ever follow the camp,
nor was ever with the Prince but in public,* when he
had his Court in Edinburgh."!
The Prince remained at Glenfinnin two days, and
was observed to be in high spirits. Here he was
presented by Major Macdonell with the first good
horse that he had mounted in Scotland. Charles
Edward then marched his little army to Lochiel,
which is about five miles from Glenfinnin, resting
first at Fassefern, the seat of Lochiel's brother, and
then proceeded to a village called Moidh, belonging
to Lochiel.
From this time the fate of Lochiel was inevitably
bound up with that of the Prince. At the siege of
Edinburgh he distinguished himself at the head of
his Camerons in the following manner: When the
deputies who were appointed by the town council to
* The poem entitled '< Jeanie Cameron's Lament," is, with other
inedited Jacobite songs, likely soon to be given to the world, arranged to
true Scottish airs, and published in parts. These songs are collected by
a member of one of the most ancient Jacobite families. The accom-
plished young lady who has engaged in this undertaking is Miss Char-
lotte Maxwell, the sister of Sir William Maxwell, Bart., of Menteith,
Wigtonshire, and a descendant of the Earl of Nithisdale. The ballad of
Sherriff Muir, is among the first of the interesting collection.
t Forbes, p. 23.
362 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
request a further delay from Charles set out in a
hackney coach for Gray's Mill to prevail upon Lord
George Murray to second their application, as the
Netherbow Port was opened to let out their coach,
the Camerons, headed by Lochiel, rushed in and took
possession of the city. The brave chief afterwards
obtained from Prince Charles the guard of the city,
as he was more acquainted with Edinburgh than
the rest of the Highland chiefs; and his discipline
was so exact that the city guns, persons, and effects
were as secure under his care as in the time of peace.
There was indeed some pilfering in the country, but
not more than was to be expected in the neighbour-
hood of an army of undisciplined Highlanders.
Lochiel remained in Edinburgh while the Prince
continued there, and witnessed the brief splendour
of the young Chevalier's Court : it is thus described
by an eye-witness :* " The Prince's Court at Holy-
rood soon became very brilliant. There were every
day, from morning till night, a vast affluence of well-
dressed people. Besides the gentlemen that had
joined or come upon business, or to pay their court,
there were a great number of ladies and gentlemen
that came either out of affection or curiosity, besides
the desire of seeing the Prince. There had not been
a Court in Scotland for a long time, and people came
from all quarters to see so many novelties. One
would have thought the King was already restored,
and in peaceable possession of all the dominions of
* Maxwell of Kirkconnel, p. 46.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 363
his ancestors, and that the Prince had only made a
trip to Scotland to show himself to the people and
receive their homage. Such was the splendour of
the Court, and such the satisfaction that appeared in
everybody's countenance."
At the battle of Falkirk, Lochiel was slightly
wounded, as well as his brother Archibald.* Through-
out that engagement, as well as during the whole
of the unhappy contest of 1745-6, Lochiel dis-
tinguished himself by his clemency, gallantry, and
good faith. An incident which happened after the
battle of Falkirk, shows the respect paid to the head
of the clan.
While Charles Edward was standing at an open
window at his house in Falkirk, reading a list of
prisoners just presented by Lord Kilmarnock, a sol-
dier in the uniform of one of King George's regiments
made his appearance in the street below. He was
armed with a musket and bayonet, and wore a black
cockade in his hat, as it appeared, by way of de-
fiance. Upon perceiving this, Charles directed the
attention of Lord Kilmarnock, who was standing
near him, to the soldier. Lord Kilmarnock ran
down stairs immediately, went up to the soldier,
struck the hat off his head, and set his foot on the
black cockade. At that instant a Highlander came
running across the street, and laid hands on Lord
Kilmarnock, and pushed him back. Lord Kilmar-
nock pulled out a pistol and presented it at the
* Maxwell, p. 105.
364 CAMERON OF LOCI1IEL.
Highlander's head : the Highlander drew out his dirk,
and pointed it at Lord Kilmarnock's heart. After
remaining in this position a few seconds they were
separated : the man with the dirk took up the hat
and put it on the head of the soldier, who was
marched off in triumph by the Highlanders.
This little scene was explained to some of the by-
standers thus : The man in the King's uniform was a
Cameron, who, after the defeat of the Government
army, had joined his clan. He was received with
joy by the Camerons, who permitted him to wear
his uniform until others could be procured. The
Highlander who pointed the dirk at Lord Kilmar-
nock's breast, was the soldier's brother; the crowd
who surrounded him were his kinsmen of the clan.
No one, it was their opinion, " could take that cock-
ade out of the soldier's cap, except Lochiel him-
self."* Lochiel accompanied the Prince in his dis-
astrous expedition to Derby.
At the end of February 1746, he was sent with
General Stapleton to besiege Fort William. He left
that enterprise when summoned by Charles Edward
to assemble around his standard on the field of
Culloden. On the eventful fourteenth of April, the
day before the battle, Lochiel joined the Prince's army :
that night, the Highlanders, who never pitched a
tent, lay among the furze and trees of Culloden Wood,
whilst their young leader slept beneath the roof of
Culloden House.
i
* Home, p. 164.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 365
The following extract from the Duke of Cumber-
land's orderly-book shows how closely that able
general and detestable individual had studied the
habits of those whom it was his lot to conquer; and
mark also his contempt for the " Lowlanders and
arrant scum" who sometimes made up the lines be-
hind the Highlanders.*
" Edinburgh, 12 Jan. 1745-6. Sunday Parole, Derby,
"Field-officer for the day : to-morrow Major Willson.
The manner of the Highlander's way of fighting,
which there is nothing so easy to resist, if officers and
men are not prepossessed with the lyes and ac-
counts which are told of them. They commonly
form their front rank of what they call their best
men, or true Highlanders, the number of which being
allways but few, when they form in battallions they
commonly form four deep, and these Highlanders
form the front of the four, the rest being Lowlanders
and arrant scum; when these battallions come within
a large nmsket-shott, or three-score yards, this front
rank gives their fire and immediately throw down
their firelocks and come down in a cluster with their
swords and targets, making a noise and endeavouring
to pearce the body, or battallions before them. Becom-
ing twelve or fourteen deep by the time they come up
to the people, they attack. The sure way to demolish
* Dated, Edinburgh, 12th Jan. 1745-6. This extract, for which I am
indebted to Mr. Macdonald, who possesses the orderly-book, was con-
sidered an extremely curious passage by Sir Walter Scott.
366 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
them is at three deep to fire by ranks diagonally to the
centre where they come, the rear rank first, and even
that rank not to fire till they are within ten or twelve
paces ; but if the fire is given at a distance you pro-
bably will be broke, for you never get time to load
a second cartridge; and if you give way, you may
give your foot for dead, for they being without a fire-
lock, or any load, no man with his arms, accou-
trements, &c. can escape them, and they give no quar-
ters ; but if you will but observe the above directions,
the are the most despicable enemy that are."
On the following day when the army, being drawn
up on Drumossie Moor, waited in vain till mid-day
for the approach of the enemy, Charles addressed his
generals and chiefs, and proposed to attack the Duke
of Cumberland's camp at Nairn that evening.
His proposal was, unfortunately for his brave fol-
lowers, not seconded by the powerful voice of Lord
George Murray. Lochiel, who was not a man given
to much elocution, recommended delay, and urged that
the army would be at least fifteen hundred stronger
on the following day. The return of the army to
Culloden, fatigued and famished, between five and
six o'clock on the following morning, was the result
of that ill-advised attempt. At eight o'clock the
alarm was given at Culloden House by one of the
clan Cameron, that the Duke's army was in full
march towards them.
When the army was formed into two lines, Lo-
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 367
chiel's regiment was placed on the left, next to the
Athole Brigade. The Camerons, with the Maclaclans
and Macleans, the Mackintoshes, the Stuarts, at-
tacked sword in hand. Most of the chiefs who
commanded these five regiments were killed, and
Cameron of Lochiel, advancing at the head of his
regiment, was so near Burrel's regiment""" that he
had fired his pistol, and was drawing his sword
when he fell wounded with grape-shot in both ankles.
His two brothers, afterwards more unfortunate even
than himself, were on each side of him; they raised
him up, and bore him off the field in their arms.
The Camerons, at the field of Culloden, sustained
the greatness of their fame; nor have the imputa-
tions which were cast upon other clans, perhaps had
a just foundation of truth. No reliance can be placed
upon the opinions of the English press at the time.f
The blood of Cameron of Lochiel was sought, as
Mrs. Grant expresses it, with the " most venomous
perseverance." His own country, to which he was at
first removed, affording him no shelter, J he sheltered
himself in the Braes of Bannoch. He suffered long
from his wounds, until in June, his friend Clunie
Macpherson brought from Edinburgh a physician,
* Burrell's regiment was so broken, that not two men were left stand-
ing. Home, Appendix.
+ In a letter among the papers of Mr. Murray of Abercairney, the im-
putations upon the Highlanders are strongly and ably refuted. For ob-
vious reasons I have not given the extract, nor gone more closely into a
subject which belongs to the province of history.
t See Mrs. Grant's MS.
368 CAMERON OF LOCH IE L.
Sir Stewart Threipland, who gave him the benefit of
his aid. Meantime the spirit of Lochiel remained
undaunted; and he who had entered into the insur-
rection unwillingly, was almost the last to give
up the cause. A resolution was taken on the eighth
of May by the chieftains to raise each a body of
men, for the service of the Prince; and the ren-
dezvous was appointed at Achnacarry on the fifteenth
instant. We find a letter addressed by Lochiel on
May the twenty-fifth to the chiefs, accounting for his
not having met them according to promise, by the
risk of a surprise, and recommending them to keep
quiet until a promised succour from France. The let-
ter speaks the language of hope; but whether that
was the real feeling of the writer, or only intended to
keep up exertion, cannot be ascertained. In the post-
script Lochiel states his regret that many had given
up their arms without his knowledge. " I cannot,"
he adds, " take upon me to direct in this particular,
but to give my opinion, and let every one judge for
himself."
During May, Lochiel continued at Loch Arkeg, pre-
paring for a summer campaign, and corresponding with
Clunie Macpherson and with the treacherous Murray
of Broughton on the subject. He was, at this time,
in want of food and money. " I have scarcely a
sufficiency of meal," he writes, " to serve myself
and the gentlemen who are with me for four days,
and can get none to purchase in this country."*
* Home, Appendix, p. 373.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 369
After the breaking up of the scheme of fresh co-
operations in May, and when Lochaber was occupied
by the Government troops, Lochiel became anxious
to retire to Badenoch. This district is one of the
wildest parts of the Highlands; though destitute
of wood, it afforded shelter in its rocky dens and in
the sides of its rugged hills. Not only did Lochiel
desire repose and safety, but he longed to be
beyond the reach of those heartrending accounts
which were ever brought to him of the sufferings
of his people, and of the dwellers in Lochaber.
The severities and cruelties of the military, licensed
by the Duke of Cumberland to every atrocity, to
use the simple language of Mr. Forbes, " bore very
hard upon him." One day* when accounts were
brought to Lochiel, in Badenoch, that the poor people
in Lochaber had been so pillaged and harassed that
they had really no necessaries to keep in their lives,
Lochiel took out his purse and gave all the money
he could well spare to be distributed among such in
Lochaber. " And," said a friend who was with him,
" I remember nothing better than that Sir Stewart
Threipland at that time took out his purse and gave
five guineas, expressing himself in these words: " I
am sure that I have not so much for myself; but
then, if I be spared I know where to get more,
whereas these poor people know not where to get
the smallest assistance!"
Meantime the news reached Lochiel of the total
* See note 2 in Chambers's History of the Rebellion, p. 121.
VOL. I. B B
370 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
destruction of his house at Achnacarrie. Previously
to the demolition of the house, the family had buried
or concealed many things in the earth. The English
soldiers, encamping round the smoking ruins, are
said, on tradition, to have actually boiled their ket-
tles at the foot of each of a fine avenue of plane-
trees. The avenue remains, and fissures can still be
traced running up the stem of each tree. Not a
memorial of the House of Achnacarrie remained. For
this, and other acts of wanton barbarity, the pretext
was that the Camerons, as well as other tribes, had
promised to surrender arms at a certain time, but
had broken their word. " His Royal Highness, the
Duke of Cumberland," to borrow from a contem-
porary writer, "began with the rebels in a gentle,
paternal way, with soft admonitions, with a pro-
mise of protection to all the common people that
would bring in their arms, and submit to mercy."
Since, however, some equivocated, and others broke
their word, the Duke was obliged to lay " the rod
on more heavy." Fire and sword were therefore
carried through the country of the Camerons; the
cattle were driven away ; even the cotter's hut
escaped not: the homes of the poor were laid in
ashes: their sheep and pigs slaughtered: and the
wretched inmates of the huts, flying to the mountains,
were found there, some expiring, some actually dead of
hunger. The houses of the clergy were crowded with
the homeless and starving: whole districts were de-
populated: the Sabbath was outraged by acts of
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 371
destruction, which wounded, in the nicest point, the
feelings of the religious mountaineer; and the goods
of the rebels were publicly auctioned, without any
warrant of a civil court. During all these pro-
ceedings, the " jovial Duke," as he was called, was
making merry at Fort Augustus in a manner which,
if possible, casts more odium on his memory even
than his atrocious and unpunished cruelties.*
Achnacarrie was razed to the ground. A modern
structure, suitable in splendour to the truly noble
family who possess it, has arisen in its place; but
no erection can restore the house of Sir Ewan Dhu,
and the home of his " gentle" grandson, Donald
Cameron. As the plunderers ransacked the house,
they found a picture of Lochiel, and one which was
accounted a good likeness. This was given to the
soldiers, who were dispatched over Corryarie in
search of the wounded and unfortunate original. On
the top of that mountain the military encountered
Macpherson of TJrie, who, being of a fair and pleas-
ing aspect, was mistaken by them for Lochiel.
" Urie," writes Mrs. Grant, who had the story from
himself, "was a Jacobite, and had been out, as the
phrase was then. The soldiers seized him, and
assured him he was a d d rebel, and that his title
was Lochiel. He, in turn, assured them that he was
neither d d, nor a rebel, nor by any means Lochiel.
When he understood, however, that they were in
* See History of the Rebellion, taken from the Scots' Magazine, p.
353.
B B 2
372 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
search of Lochiel, and going in the very direction
where he lay concealed, he gave them reason finally
to suppose he was the person they sought. They
returned to Fort Augustus where the Duke of Cum-
berland then lay, in great triumph with their pri-
soners ; Urie, as he expected, from the indulgence of
some who were about the Duke, was very soon set at
liberty."
This temporary captivity of Urie had, however,
the effect of allowing Lochiel time to contrive means
of escape from the country. There was one,
however, dear to him as his own life, whose con-
tinuance in Scotland ensured that of Lochiel. This
was Prince Charles, who evinced for Lochiel a regard,
and displayed a degree of confidence in his fidelity,
which were amply merited by the tried affection of
the chieftain. For nearly three months Lochiel re-
mained ignorant of the fate of Charles, until the
joyful tidings were brought of his being safe at Loch-
Arkeg. Lochiel was at Ben Aulder, a hill of great
circumference in Badenoch, when he received this
intelligence from one of his tenants named Macpher-
son, who was sent by Cameron of Clunes to find out
Lochiel and Clunie, and to inform them that their
young master was safe.
Upon the return of Macpherson to Cameron of
Clunes, the Prince, being informed where Lochiel
was, sent Lochgarry and Dr. Archibald Cameron
with a message to them. Since it was impossible
that Lochiel could go to the Prince on account of
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 373
his wounds, it was agreed between Lochiel and these
friends, that Charles should take refuge near Ach-
nacarrie, as the safest place for him to pass some
time; and Dr. Cameron and Lochgarry returned to
Charles to impart the details of this arrangement.
The attachment of Charles to Lochiel was shown in
a very forcible manner : when he was informed that
the chief was safe and recovering, he expressed the
greatest satisfaction, and fervently returned thanks
to God. The ejaculation of praise and thanksgiving
was reiterated three or four times.
Charles now crossed Loch Arkeg, and took up his
abode in a fir-wood on the west side of the lake, to
await the arrival of Clunie, who had promised to meet
him there. The impatience of the Prince to behold
his friends Clunie and Lochiel was so great, that
he set out for Badenoch before Clunie could arrive.
Lochiel had, during the months of June and
July, remained OD Ben Aulder, under which name
is comprehended a great chase belonging to Clunie.
His dwelling was a miserable shieling at Mellamir,
which contained him and his friend Macpherson of
Breackachie, also his principal servant, Allan Came-
ron, and two servants of Clunie. Here Clunie and
Lochiel, who were cousins-german, were chiefly sup-
plied with provisions by Macpherson of Breackachie,
who was married to a sister of Clunie. The secret
of their retreat was known to many persons ; but the
fidelity of the Highlanders was such, that though the
Earl of Loudon had a military post not many miles
374 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
from Ben Aulder, be had not the slightest know-
ledge of the place of Lochiel's concealment. The
same high principle which guarded Prince Charles in
his wanderings, and resisted the temptation of a
large reward, protected Lochiel in his retirement.
In this rereat he was found by the Prince, who
had missed Clunie, and had gradually made his way
through Badenoch to the Braes of Bannoch, accom-
panied by five persons. When Lochiel from his hut
beheld a party approaching, all armed, he concluded
that a troop of militia were coming to seize him.
Lame as he was, it was in vain to think of retreat-
ing : he held a short conference with his friends, and
then resolved to receive the supposed assailants with
a general discharge of fire-arms. He had twelve
firelocks and some small pistols in the botine or hut ;
these were all made ready, the pieces levelled, and
planted ; and Lochiel and his friends trusted to get-
ting the better of the searchers, whose number did
not exceed their own. Thus Charles Edward, after
the unparalleled dangers of his recent wanderings, ran
a risk of being killed by one of his most devoted ad-
herents ! "But," observes Clunie, in relating this cir-
cumstance, " the auspicious hand of God, and his pro-
vidence, so apparent at all times in the preservation
of his Royal Highness, prevented those within from
firing at the Prince and his four attendants, for they
came at last so near that they were known by those
within."*
Cluny Macpherson's Narrative. Home, Appendix, p. 365.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 375
It was, indeed, no difficult matter to discern in the
person of Charles Edward the handsome and princely
youth who had presided over the Court at Holyrood.
He had discarded the old black kilt, philibeg, and
waistcoat which he had worn at Loch Arkeg, for a
coarse, brown, short coat: a new article of dress,
such as a pair of shoes and a new shirt, had lately
replenished his wardrobe. He had a long red beard,
and wore a pistol and dirk by his side, carrying
always a gun in his hand. Yet " the young Italian,"
as the Whigs delighted to call him, had braved the
rigours of his fate, and thriven beneath the severities
of the Scottish climate. His spirits were good; his
frame, originally slender, had become robust: he had
fared in the rudest manner, and had acquired the
faculty of sleeping soundly, even with the dread of
a surprise ever before him.
Lochiel, on the other hand, was lame, and had suf-
fered long from his close quarters, and from anxiety
and sorrow. Tradition has brought down to us the
accounts of the chief's personal beauty. Though fair,
he was not effeminate ; his countenance was regular
and expressive. But those attributes which com-
pleted the romance of Lochiel's character must have
been almost obliterated during these months of
trial, infirm health, and uncured. wounds. His spirit
was not yet subdued. Eventually that noble heart
was broken by all that it had endured, but, at that
epoch of his eventful life, it still throbbed with hope.
When Lochiel perceived that it was Charles Ed-
376 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
ward who approached, he made the best of his way,
though lame, to receive his Prince. " The joy at this
meeting," writes Clunie, " is much easier to be con-
ceived than described." Lochiel attempted to kneel.
" Oh no, my dear Lochiel !" cried the Prince ; " we do
not know who may be looking from the top of yonder
hills ; and if they see any such motions, they will con-
clude that I am here." Lochiel then shewed him into
his habitation, and gave him the best welcome that he
could: the Prince, followed by his retinue, among
whom were the two outlaws, or " broken men," who
had succoured him, and whom he had retained in his
service, entered the hut.* A repast, almost amount-
ing to a feast in the eyes of these fugitives, was
prepared for them, having been brought by young
Breackachie. It consisted of a plentiful supply of
mutton ; an t anker of whiskey, containing twenty
Scots' pints; some good beef sausages, made the
year before; with plenty of butter and cheese, be-
sides a well-cured ham. The Prince pledged his
friends in a hearty dram', and frequently (perhaps,
as the event showed, too frequently) called for the
same inspiring toast again. When some minced col-
lops were dressed with butter, in a large saucepan
always carried about with them, by Clunie and
Lochiel, Charles Edward, partaking heartily of that
incomparable dish, exclaimed, " Now, gentlemen, I
live like a prince." " Have you," he said to Lochiel,
Of one of these there is an interesting anecdote in the Tales of a
Grandfather, vol. iii. p. 296, note.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 377
" always lived so well here?" " Yes, sir," replied
the chief; " for three months, since I have been
here with my cousin Clunie, he has provided me so
well, that I have had plenty of such as you see.
I thank Heaven your Highness has been spared to
take a part ! "
On the arrival of Clunie two days afterwards,
the royal fugitive and his friend Lochiel removed
from Mellamur, and went two miles further into Ben
Aulder, until they reached a shiel called Uiskchi-
boa, where the hut was peculiarly wretched and
smoky ; " yet his Eoyal Highness," as Clunie related,
" put up with everything." Here they remained for
two or three nights, and then went to a habitation
still two miles further into Ben Aulder, for no less re-
mote retreat was thought secure. This retreat was
prepared by Clunie, and obtained the name of the
Cage. " It was," as he himself relates, " a great cu-
riosity, and can scarcely be described to perfection."
It is best to give the account of the edifice which he
had himself constructed, in Macpherson's own words.
" It was situated in the face of a very rough, high,
and rocky mountain, called Lettemilichk, still a part
of Ben Aulder, full of great stones and crevices, and
some scattered wood interspersed. The habitation
called the Cage, in the face of that mountain, was
within a small but thick wood. There were first
some rows of trees laid down, in order to level a floor
for the habitation ; and, as the place was steep, this
raised the lower side to an equal height with the
378 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
other; and these trees, in the way of joists or planks,
were levelled with earth or gravel. There were be-
twixt the trees, growing naturally on their own roots,
some stakes fixed in the earth, which, with the trees,
were interwoven with ropes, made of heath or birch-
twigs, up to the top of the Cage, it being of a round
or rather oval shape, and the whole thatched and co-
vered over with bog. This whole fabric hung, as it
were, by a large tree, which reclined from the one
end, all along the roof to the other, and which gave it
the name of the Cage; and by chance there happened
to be two stones, at a small distance from one another,
in the side next the precipice, resembling the pillars
of a chimney, where the fire was placed. The smoke
-had its vent out here, all along the face of the rock,
which was so much of the same colour that one could
discover no difference in the clearest day. The Cage
was no larger than to contain six or seven persons,
four of whom were frequently employed playing at
cards, one idle looking on, one baking, and another
fixing bread and cooking."
Charles and Lochiel remained six or seven days
in this seclusion, which was one of several to which
Clunie was in the habit of retiring, never even in-
forming his wife or his most attached friends whither
he was going. But the deliverance of the Prince and
Lochiel was now at hand. Several small vessels had
arrived from France, and touched on the west coast,
expressly to carry away the Prince, but not being able
* Home's History of the Rebellion, Appendix, p. 146.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 379
to find him out, they had returned. By the fidelity
of the Highlanders and the connection between every
member of the different clans, the Prince had been
able to keep up a continual communication with
persons on the coast, without discovery. This was
managed by some of his adherents skulking near the
shore ; and though they knew not where Charles was,
yet they conveyed the intelligence to others, who im-
parted it to persons in the interior, who again told
it to those who were acquainted with the obscure
place of his retreat. At last two French vessels,
THeureux and la Princesse de Conti, departed under
the command of Colonel Warren, from St. Malo, and
arrived at Lochnarmagh early in September. This
event was communicated to Cameron of Clunes, who,
on the other hand, learned where the Prince was
from a poor woman. A messenger was immediately
dispatched to the Cage, and he reached that place
on the thirteenth of September. Charles Edward
and Lochiel now prepared to bid Scotland a final
adieu. Notices were sent round by the Prince to
different friends who might choose to avail themselves
of this opportunity of escape; and it was intimated
to them that they might join him if they were in-
clined.
The place of embarkation was Borodale, whence
Charles had first summoned Lochiel to support his
cause. The party travelled only by night, and were
six days on their road. They were joined by Glen-
gary, John Roy Stewart, Dr. Cameron, and a number
380 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
of other adherents. On the twentieth of September
they left Lochnarmagh, and had a fair passage to
the coast of France. The Prince had intended to
sail direct for Nantes, but he altered his course in
order to escape Admiral Lestoch's squadron; and
after being chased by two men-of-war, he landed at
Morlaix, in Lower Bretagne, in a thick fog, on the
twenty-ninth of September.
Lochiel was accompanied in his flight to France by
his wife, the faithful and affectionate associate of his
exile. His eldest son was left in the charge of his
brother Cameron, of Fassefern. In Paris Lochiel
found his father, who was then eighty years of age;
and to this aged chief the Prince paid the well-
merited compliment of placing him in the same car-
riage with himself and Lord Lewis Gordon, when
he first went to the Court of Louis the Fifteenth
in state. The Prince was followed on that occasion
by a number of his friends, both in coaches and
on horseback. Lord Ogilvy, Lord Elcho, and the
Prince's secretary Kelly, preceded the royal carriage :
the younger Lochiel and several gentlemen followed
on horseback. Amid this noble train of brave men,
the Prince appeared pre-eminent in the splendour of
his dress. A coat of rose-coloured velvet, lined with
silver tissue, presented a singular contrast to the
brown short coat in which some of his adherents had
formerly seen him. His waistcoat was of gold bro-
cade with a spangled fringe, set out in scollops, and
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 381
the white cockade in his hat was studded with dia-
monds. The order of St. Andrew and the George on
his breast were adorned with the same jewels: "he
glittered," as an eye-witness observed, " all over
like the star which they tell you appeared at his
nativity." But all this display, and the feigned
kindness of his reception, were but the prelude to a
heartless abandonment of his cause on the part of
Louis the Fifteenth.
Lochiel was, eventually, provided for by the French
Monarch. He was made Colonel of a French re-
giment, and having a peculiar faculty of attaching
others to him, he soon became beloved by those un-
der his command. The Prince showed him affection-
ate respect; and, blessed in the society of his wife,
and in a daughter whom he called Donalda, Lochiel
might have passed the rest of his days in tranquil
submission to the course of events : but his heart
yearned for Scotland ; he could not give up the
hopes of another expedition, which he desired to
undertake with any force that could be collected.
Cherishing this scheme, the coldness of the Court of
France, and the rashness of the Prince, gave great
sorrow to his harassed mind. Soon after his arrival
in Paris he opened a correspondence with the Che-
valier St. George, and represented to him that the
misfortunes which had befallen the cause were not
irretrievable, and that if ten regiments only could be
landed in Scotland before the depopulating system
382 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
adopted by the English Government had taken effect,
an insurrection might again be raised with good
grounds for the hope of success.
Still hoping thus to return to his country, and
again to take arms in her service, as he deemed it,
it was long before Lochiel consented to accept the
command of the French regiment, " intending still,"
as he said, " to share the fate of his people." " I told
his Royal Highness," he wrote to the Chevalier St.
George, " that Lord Ogilvy or others might incline
to make a figure in France, but my ambition was to
save the crown and serve my country, or perish
with it. His Royal Highness said, he was doing all
he could, but persisted in his resolution to procure
me a regiment. If it is obtained, I shall accept it
out of respect to the Prince; but I hope your Ma-
jesty will approve of the resolution I have taken to
share in the fate of the people I have undone, and,
if they must be sacrificed, to fall along with them.
This is the only way I can free myself from the re-
proach of their blood, and show the disinterested zeal
with which I -have lived, and shall dye.
" Your Majesty's most humble, most obedient, and
most faithful servant."*"
When Prince Charles, disheartened at the growing
indifference of the French Court to his interests, con-
templated leaving Paris, Lochiel objected to a pro-
posal which seemed to imply an abandonment of the
* Brown's History of the Highlands, Part II. App. cvn. from the
Stuart Papers.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 383
cause which he had pledged himself to support. His
representations to the Prince were ineffectual, for a
stronger influence had arisen to baffle the endeavours
of Charles's friends ; and he was under the sway of
one who was, not inaptly, termed " his Delilah."
He left Paris and arrived at Avignon, to which
place Lochiel addressed to him a letter full of the
most cogent reasons why he should not leave Paris.
From his arguments it appears that the English Ja-
cobites had expressed their willingness to rise, had
the Prince either supplied them with arms or brought
them troops to support them.
" For Heaven's sake, sir," wrote Lochiel,* " be
pleased to consider these circumstances with the
attention that their importance deserves; and that
your honour, your essential interest, the preserva-
tion of the royal cause, and the bleeding state of
your suffering friends, require of you. Let me beg
of your Royal Highness, in the most humble and
earnest manner, to reflect that your reputation must
suffer in the opinion of all mankind, if there should
be room to suppose that you had slighted or neg-
lected any possible means of retrieving your affairs."
These remonstrances were at last so far effectual,
that Charles returned to Paris, and was only again
removed from that capital by force.
The spirit of Lochiel was meantime broken by the
mournful tidings which reached him of the death of
friends on the scaffold, the cruelties enacted in Scot-
* Brown's History of the Highlands. No. LXX.
384 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL,
land, and, more than all, of the Act which took effect
in August 1747, disarming the Highlanders and re-
straining the use of the Highland garb. By this
statute it was made penal to wear the national
costume : a first offence was punished with six
months' imprisonment; a second, with transportation
for seven years. Such were the efforts made to
break the union of a fiery but faithful people, and
such the attempt to produce a complete revolution
in the national habits !
Many were the projects which amused the exiled
Jacobites into hopes that ended in bitter disappoint-
ment, and many the fleeting visions of a restoration
of the Stuarts. During one of these brief chimeras,
Lochiel and Clunie visited Charles at a retreat on
the Upper Rhine, whither he had retired after the
perfidious imprisonment at the Castle of Vincennes.
They found the Prince sunk in the lassitude which
succeeds a long course of exciting events, and of
smothered but not subdued misery. The visit yielded
to neither party satisfaction. Charles was deaf to
the remonstrances of Lochiel, and Lochiel beheld his
Prince wholly devoted to Miss Walkinshaw and her
daughter, afterwards Countess of Albany, and com-
pletely under the influence of his mistress, who was
regarded by Lochiel and Clunie as a spy of Han-
over.
Lochiel left the Prince, and they never met again.
The health of the chief began to decline ; his malady
was a mental one, and admitted of no cure but a
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 385
return to those vassals who had been so faithful and
so much attached to him, and to friends with whose
misfortunes he seems to have blamed himself. Of
the affection of the clansmen he received frequent
proofs. " The estates of Lochiel," says Mrs. Grant,
" were forfeited like others, and paid a moderate
rate to the Crown, such as they had formerly given
to their chief. The domain formerly occupied by
the Laird was taken on his behoof by his brother.
The tenants brought each a horse, cow, colt, or
heifer, as a free-will offering, till this ample grazing-
farm was as well stocked as formerly. Not content
with this, they sent a yearly tribute of affection to
their beloved chief, independent of the rents they
paid to the commissioners for the forfeited estates.
Lochiel's lady and her daughters once or twice made
a sorrowful pilgrimage among their friends and
tenants. These last received them with a tenderness
and respect which seemed augmented by the adversity
into which they were plunged."
At last the suffering spirit was released. Lochiel
is conjectured to have died about the year 1760, and
is generally thought to have sunk under the pressure
of hopeless sorrow, or, to use the words of one who
spoke from tradition, " of a broken heart." His
daughter Donalda, who was about fourteen at the
time of his death, had attached herself so fondly
to her father, that after his decease she pined away,
and never recovered. She died soon after her father,
and the mother did not long survive her daughter.
VOL. I. c c '
386 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
Never, perhaps, did a brave and unfortunate man
sink to rest more honoured by society at large, more
admired and respected by his friends, more revered
by his vassals, than the gentle Lochiel. The beauty
of his character showed itself also in the close ties
of domestic life: and in some of these, more par-
ticularly as a brother, his warm and constant affec-
tions were destined to be severely wounded. He
felt deeply the banishment of his brother Cameron
of Fassefern; and still more severely the cruel fate
of another brother, Dr. Archibald Cameron. The
fate of that young man, who attended Charles Ed-
ward in most of his wanderings, presents, indeed,
one of the saddest episodes of this melancholy period.
Dr. Cameron, after sharing the dangers which the
Prince ran, and following him to France, returned
to Scotland in 1749. Charles Edward had left a
large sum of money in the charge of Macpherson of
Clunie, upon leaving Scotland; and Dr. Cameron
was privy to the concealment of the money. He
visited Clunie, and obtained from him six thousand
louis-d'ors, for which, however, Clunie took Dr. Ca-
meron's receipt. In 1753, Dr. Cameron made an-
other visit, which is conjectured to have had a
similar object. The money was concealed near Loch
Arkeg, to the amount of twenty-two thousand louis-
d'ors. Some degree of obscurity rests upon this
transaction, which undoubtedly throws a degree of
discredit on the memory of Dr. Cameron. Among
the Stuart papers there is a letter from Mr. Lu-
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 387
dovick Cameron to Prince Charles, alluding to the
" misfortune" of his nephew, Dr. Cameron, in taking
away a good round sum of his Highness's money,
and clearing himself from the imputation." This
proves that there was no commission, as it has
been suggested,* to Dr. Cameron, but that the trans-
action was regarded in a disgraceful light, even by
the relative of the unfortunate young man.
A severe retribution awaited the offender, who in-
tended, it is said, to enter into a mercantile concern
at Glasgow with the money thus procured. He was
taken prisoner in the house of Stewart of Glenbuckie,
by a party of soldiers from the garrison at Invers-
naid. He was carried to London, arraigned upon
the Act of Attainder in 1745, in which his name
was included, and sentenced to the death of a traitor.
His wife, who then resided at Lisle, hurried to Lon-
don to proffer fruitless petitions for mercy. What-
ever may have been Dr. Cameron's errors, his death
was worthy of the name he bore, and he sustained
his fate with calmness and resignation. Seven chil-
dren were left to deplore his loss. The Chevalier
St. George, kindly passing over his fault, wrote of
him in these terms. " I am a stranger to the mo-
tives which carried poor Archibald Cameron into
Scotland; but whatever they may have been, his fate
gives me the more concern, as I own I could not
bring myself to believe that the English Govern-
ment would carry their rigour so far." The French
* Chambers, p. 145.
388 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
Government settled a pension of one thousand five
hundred livres upon Mrs. Cameron, and an annual
allowance of two hundred livres to each of her sons,
who were in their service. The unfortunate Dr.
Cameron was buried in the Savoy in London. The
family of the man who betrayed him is said, in the
Highlands, to have been visited with a severe re-
tribution, having, ever since, had one of its mem-
bers an idiot. Such is the notion of retributive
justice in the Highlands.
The death of this brother, and still more the
stain upon the honour of Dr. Cameron, must have
added greatly to the burden of sorrow which fell
so heavily upon Lochiel. His son was, however,
spared for some years, and was cherished by the
Scots as the representative of their ancient chiefs.
He was, it is true, what they called a " landless
laird," yet the clansmen paid him all the honours due
to the eldest son of Lochiel. He received a good edu-
cation, and was prevented by his friends from taking
any part in the various schemes set on foot at certain
intervals for the return of Charles. He married at
an early age. Government was at that time engaged
in levying men for the American war ? and found it
convenient to use the influence of the clans for that
purpose; Lochiel was offered a company in General
Eraser's regiment, the seventy-first, provided he could
raise it among his clan. Poor and broken as they
were, the clansmen, true to their bond of fidelity,
mustered around their landless laird; and Lochiel
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 389
marched at the head of his company to Glasgow, in
order to embark for America.
It happened that whilst here, he was taken ill of
the measles, a disorder which prevented his march-
ing. It was therefore arranged that the first lieu-
tenant should take his place. When, on the point
of marching to Greenock in order to embark, the
clansmen discovered this, they laid down their arms,
declaring that they had not engaged with King
George, but with Lochiel ; and they refused to move.
The chief hearing of this dilemma, ill as he was,
arose, dressed himself, and went down to his people.
He harangued them, and represented that unless they
went on board, their conduct would be imputed to
disaffection, and might injure, if not ruin his in-
terests. The men immediately took up their arms,
huzzaed their chief, and began to march. The re-
sult is melancholy. Enfeebled by this effort, Lochiel
again took to his bed ; the day on which he had made
this fatal exertion was a raw November morning.
He never recovered from that exposure, but died
in a few days afterwards.
Most of the company of Camerons perished in the
contest which ensued. Thrice during the American
war was General Eraser's regiment renewed.* Such
was the devotion of this gallant race of men to their
chief; and such were the services which those whose
fathers had fought at Culloden, devoted to the cause
of the English Monarch.
" Mrs. Grant's MS.
390 CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.
Late in the eighteenth century, the estates of
Lochiel were restored to the grandson of Lochiel ; and
the descendants of that race, in which so much
honour, such disinterested exertion, such kindness
and heroism existed, are again the Lords of Ach-
nacarry.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
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