Read Ebook: Origins of the 'Forty-five by Blaikie Walter Biggar Editor

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 1731 lines and 247070 words, and 35 pages

Balhaldy returned to Paris, made the acquaintance of Sempill, an acquaintance which subsequently ripened into a strong political, perhaps personal, friendship. The interview with Fleury was obtained, and negotiations commenced in the beginning of 1740, about three months after the war with Spain, forced upon Walpole, had broken out.

It is no part of my task to follow the intricacies of the negotiations between the French Ministry and the English Jacobites, except when they affect the affairs of the Scots, but here it is necessary to turn back for a moment to relate what took place after the English Jacobites received the Chevalier's communication of Glenbucket's message from Scotland.

Sempill, who had gone from England to Rome in the spring of 1738, was sent back in October with the Chevalier's instructions to his English adherents to arrange for concerted action with the Scots. The English Jacobites formed a council of six members to serve as a directing nucleus. This council communicated the English views on the Scottish proposal to the Chevalier as follows. Although the Government, they said, had only 29,000 regular troops in the British Isles, of which 13,000 were in England, 12,000 in Ireland, and 4000 in Scotland, yet the rising of the Scots could not take place, as the King hoped, without foreign assistance. It would be a difficult matter to provide the Scots with sufficient arms and munitions, and even if this difficulty could be surmounted, it would take two months after they had been supplied before their army could assemble and establish the royal authority in Scotland; that it would take another month before the Scots could march into England. Meantime the English leaders would be at the mercy of the professional army of the Government which their volunteer followers, entirely ignorant of discipline, could never oppose alone. The principal royalists would be arrested in detail, and their overawed followers would hold back from joining the Scots. There were 13,000 regular soldiers in England. Government would probably transfer 6000 from Ireland, and the army would be further augmented by the importation of Dutch and Hanoverian troops. Probably 8000 men would be sent to the frontier of Scotland. From this they concluded that a rising in Scotland without foreign assistance would involve possible failure and in any case a disastrous civil war, while, on the other hand, the landing of a body of regular troops would provide a rallying point for the insurgents. This force should be equal to the number of troops generally quartered about London and able to hold them, while the volunteer royalists would march straight to the capital which was ready to declare in their favour. They would then acquire the magazines and arsenals at the seat of government, and almost all the treasures of England . If at that juncture the Scots would rise, the Hanoverians would be driven to despair. No ally of the Elector, however powerful, would venture to attack Great Britain reunited under her legitimate sovereign. The requirement of the English would be 10,000 to 12,000 regular troops sent from abroad; without such a disciplined force the English Jacobites would not risk a rising.

Such was the state of Jacobite affairs at the French Court when Sempill introduced Balhaldy to Fleury. I know of no categorical statement of the requirements that Balhaldy was to lay before the Cardinal, but from a memorandum he wrote it may be inferred that the Associators had asked for 1500 men with arms, ammunition, and money. Fleury replied that his sovereign was greatly pleased with the proposals of the Scots, and that he approved of their arrangements on behalf of their legitimate king. France, however, was at peace with Great Britain, while Spain was at open war. King Louis would ask the Spanish Court to undertake an expedition in favour of King James to which he would give efficient support. Shortly afterwards, the Cardinal was obliged to tell Balhaldy that Spain declined to entertain the proposal. The Spanish Court disliked the war with England, and was quite aware that it had been forced on Walpole by the Jacobites and the Opposition. Spain was not going to embarrass the British Government by embarking on a Jacobite adventure.

Driven at last from his hope of using Spain as a catspaw, Fleury informed Balhaldy that his master the King, touched with the zeal of the Scots, would willingly send them all the Irish troops in his service, with the arms, munitions, and the ?20,000 asked for to assist the Highlanders.

Balhaldy hurried back to Scotland with this promise and met the Associators in Edinburgh. Although the Jacobite leaders were disappointed that French troops were not to be sent, they gratefully accepted Fleury's assurances, and in March 1741 they despatched the following letter to the Cardinal, which was carried back to Paris by Balhaldy.

MONSEIGNEUR,--Ayant appris de Monsieur le baron de Balhaldies l'heureux succ?s des repr?sentations que nous l'avions charg? de faire ? Votre Eminence sous le bon plaisir de notre souverain l?gitime, nous nous h?tons de renvoyer ce baron avec les t?moignages de notre vive et respectueuse reconnaissance et avec les assurances les plus solennelles, tant de notre part que de la part de ceux qui se sont engag?s avec nous ? prendre les armes pour secouer le joug de l'usurpation, que nous sommes pr?ts ? remplir fid?lement tout ce qui a ?t? avanc? dans le m?moire que my lord Sempill et ledit sieur baron de Balhaldies eurent l'honneur de remettre, sign? de leurs mains, entre celles de Votre Eminence au mois de mai dernier.

Les chefs de nos tribus des montagnes dont les noms lui ont ?t? remis en m?me temps avec le nombre d'hommes que chacun d'eux s'est oblig? de fournir, persistent inviolablement dans leurs engagements et nous osons r?pondre ? Votre Eminence qu'il y aura vingt mille hommes sur pied pour le service de notre v?ritable et unique seigneur, le Roi Jacques Huiti?me d'Ecosse aussit?t qu'il plaira ? S.M.T.C. de nous envoyer des armes et des munitions avec les troupes qui sont n?cessaires pour conserver ces armes jusqu'? ce que nous puissions nous assembler.

Ces vingt mille hommes pourront si facilement chasser ou d?truire les troupes que le gouvernement pr?sent entretient actuellement dans notre pays et m?me toutes celles qu'on y pourra faire marcher sur les premi?res alarmes que nous sommes assur?ment bien fond?s d'esp?rer qu'avec l'assistance divine et sous les auspices du Roi Tr?s Chr?tien les fid?les Ecossais seront en ?tat, non seulement de r?tablir en tr?s peu de temps l'autorit? de leur Roi L?gitime dans tout son royaume d'Ecosse et de l'y affermir contre les efforts des partisans d'Hannover, mais aussi de l'aider puissamment au recouvrement de ces autres Etats, ce qui sera d'autant plus facile que nos voisins de l'Angleterre ne sont pas moins fatigu?s que nous de la tyrannie odieuse sous laquelle nous g?missons tous ?galement et que nous savons qu'ils sont tr?s bien dispos?s ? s'unir avec nous ou avec quelque puissance que ce soit qui voudra leur donner les recours dont ils out besoin pour se remettre sous un gouvernement l?gitime et naturel. Nous prenons actuellement des mesures pour agir de concert avec eux.

Si les ministres du gouvernement ?taient moins jaloux de nos d?marches ou moins vigilants, nous engagerions volontiers tous nos biens pour fournir aux frais de cette exp?dition; mais nuls contrats n'?tant valables, suivant nos usages, sans ?tre inscrits sur les registres publics, il nous est impossible de lever une somme tant soit peu consid?rable avec le secret qui convient dans les circonstances pr?sentes. C'est uniquement cette consid?ration qui nous emp?che de faire un fond pour les d?penses n?cessaires, d'avoir recours ? la g?n?rosit? de S.M.T.C. jusqu'? ce que l'on puisse lever les droits royaux dans notre pays d'une mani?re r?guli?re.

LE DUC DE PERTH LE LORD JEAN DRUMOND DE PERTH MY LORD LOVAT MILORD LINTON CAMERON, BARON DE LOCHEIL LE CHEVALIER CAMPBELL D'ACHINBRECK M'GRIEGER BARON DE BALHALDIES.

Having learned from the Baron of Balhaldies of the happy success of the representations that we had instructed him to make to Your Eminence, with the approval of our legitimate Sovereign, we now hasten to send this Baron back with the proofs of our lively and respectful gratitude, and with the most solemn undertaking, both by ourselves and by those who are engaged along with us, to take up arms to throw off the yoke of the usurpation, that we are ready to fulfil faithfully all that was put forward in the Memorial, which my lord Sempill and the said Baron of Balhaldies signed with their own hands, and had the honour to place in the hands of Your Eminence last May.

These 20,000 men will be able so easily to defeat or to destroy the troops that the Government employs at present in our country, and even all those that it may be able to despatch upon the first alarm, so that we feel entirely justified in hoping that with divine assistance and under the auspices of the most Christian King, the loyal Scots will be in a condition, not only in a short time to re-establish the authority of their legitimate King throughout the whole Kingdom of Scotland, and to sustain him there against the efforts of the partisans of Hanover, but also to aid powerfully in the recovery of these other States, which will be all the easier since our neighbours of England are not less wearied than we are of the odious tyranny under which we all equally groan; and we know that they are thoroughly determined to unite with us, and with any power whatever that would give them the opportunity they require to place themselves once more under a legitimate and natural Government. We are at present taking measures to act along with them.

As to the assistance that is necessary for Scotland in particular, we should have preferred that His Most Christian Majesty might have been willing to grant us French troops, who would have renewed among us the lessons of heroic bravery and incorruptible fidelity, that our ancestors have so often learned in France itself, but since Your Eminence thinks fit to send subjects of our King, we will receive them with joy as coming from him, and we will endeavour to make them feel the value that we attach to their devotion to our legitimate Sovereign, and the honour that they have acquired in treading so long in the footsteps of the best subjects and of the bravest troops in the Universe.

The Baron of Balhaldies knows so perfectly our situation, the plans that we have concerted, and everything that affects us, that it will be unnecessary to enter into any detail. We implore Your Eminence to listen to him favourably, and to be assured that he will have the honour of reporting to you with the utmost accuracy.

If the ministers of the Government were only less suspicious of our actions or less watchful, we would willingly pledge all our belongings to defray the cost of this expedition, but as no contracts are binding by our customs unless they have been inscribed in the public registers, it is not possible for us to raise a sum that would be sufficient, with the necessary secrecy that present circumstances require. It is this consideration alone that prevents us from raising a fund for the necessary expense, the raising of which would bear further proof of our zeal, which we should give with pleasure, and of the confidence with which we place ourselves under the standard of our natural King; but the good of the service obliges us to restrain our wishes and to have recourse to the generosity of His Most Christian Majesty until it is possible to establish the royal rights in our country in a regular manner.

We are persuaded that it would be possible to accomplish this three months after the arrival of the Irish troops, and we do not doubt that our country, reunited under the Government of its king, so much desired, would make such efforts as would enable Your Excellency to prove to His Most Christian Majesty that the modern Scots are the true descendants of those who have had the honour of being counted during so many centuries the most faithful allies of the kings, his predecessors.

We are very sensibly touched by what Your Eminence has done, and will continue to do, to make the Catholic king understand the advantages that he would have in acting in favour of the King our master in the present juncture. We had believed that these advantages could not escape the notice of the Spanish Ministers, but whatever strange things they may have done in the conduct of this war, your Eminence is now acting in such a way as cannot fail happily to extricate them from the consequences of their mistakes, and to frustrate the unjust attitude of those nations who are ready to fall upon the treasures of the new world.

We praise God, Monseigneur, and we pray with fervour that He would preserve Your Eminence, not only for the accomplishment of the great work which we are going to undertake under your protection, but also that you may see the great and happy effects throughout Europe as well as in the three kingdoms of Britain in which your name will be not less precious in all time to come than in France itself, which has been enlarged so remarkably under your ministry; and that the glory of your name will be raised to the highest pitch by making justice flourish among your neighbours. We have the Honour to be, with profound veneration and perfect devotion, Monseigneur, Your Eminence's very humble and obedient servants.

The promises of assistance from the French Court brought by Balhaldy, and the letter of acceptance by the lords of the Concert constituted the treaty between France and the Scottish Jacobites which formed the foundation of all subsequent schemes undertaken in Scotland. Even in the end it was detachments of the Irish regiments, whose use was originally suggested by Glenbucket, together with a Scottish regiment raised later than this by Lord John Drummond, that formed the meagre support that was actually sent over from France in 1745.

Balhaldy returned to France almost immediately, and in the winter of 1740-41, he went to England where he met the Jacobite leaders, of whom he particularly mentions the Earls of Orrery and Barrymore, Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, and Sir John Hinde Cotton. With them he endeavoured to form a scheme of concert between the English and the Scottish Jacobites, but without much success.

It was not until after the signing of the letter to Fleury that Murray was taken into the confidence of the Jacobite leaders, and it was at this time that he first met Lord Lovat. This was also the occasion of his first meeting with Balhaldy; their relations at this time were quite friendly; Balhaldy handed over to Murray the negotiation of a delicate ecclesiastical matter with which he had been entrusted by the Chevalier.

Another early duty was to raise money for the Cause, but to Murray's mortification, he had to give up the scheme of a loan, because all the sympathisers to whom he applied declined to subscribe; not, they said, because they objected to giving their money, but each and all refused to be the first to compromise himself by heading the subscription list. At this time Murray was not permitted to undertake any active propaganda for a rising, as the associated leaders feared that by increasing the numbers in the secret there would be too great danger of leakage. The Associators preferred to keep such work in their own hands, and each of them had a district assigned to him.

After Balhaldy's departure the unfortunate Associators were kept in a state of agonising suspense, for nothing was heard from France until the end of 1742. In December of that year, Lord Traquair received a letter from Balhaldy couched in vague terms, assuring him that troops and all things necessary for a rising would be embarked early in the spring. The scheme, he wrote, was to make a landing near Aberdeen and another in Kintyre. The whole tone of the letter was so confident that the Associators felt that a French expedition might be expected almost immediately, and they were profoundly conscious that Scotland was not ready. So alarmed were the leaders at the possibility of a premature landing, and so uncertain were they about the promises vaguely conveyed in Balhaldy's letter, that they determined to send Murray over to Paris to find out what the actual French promises were, and how they were to be performed; and moreover to warn the Government of King Louis how matters stood in Scotland.

Murray set off in January 1743. On his way he visited the Duke of Perth, then residing at York, making what friends he could among the English Jacobites. When Murray got to London, he was informed of Cardinal Fleury's death, which somewhat staggered him, but he determined to go on to France to find out how matters stood.

On arriving in Paris, Murray met Balhaldy and Sempill. Balhaldy was surprised and not particularly glad to see him, but he treated him courteously, and discussing affairs with Murray, he patronisingly informed him that he had not been told everything. Sempill was very polite. He told Murray that a scheme had been prepared by Fleury, but that the Cardinal's illness and death had interrupted it. Sempill also told him that luckily he had persuaded the Cardinal to impart his schemes to Monsieur Amelot, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. An interview with the Minister was obtained at Versailles, and on Murray's explaining the reason of his visit, Amelot frankly told him that the King of France had full confidence in the Scots, but that nothing could be done without co-operation with the English. He further warned the Scotsmen that an enterprise such as they proposed was dangerous and precarious. The King, he said, was quite willing to send ten thousand troops to help James his master, but the Jacobites must take care not to bring ruin on the Cause by a rash attempt. Murray was startled at Amelot's answer after the assurances he had had from Sempill and Balhaldy of the minister's keenness to help; he was further distressed that some arrangements, which Sempill had confidently mentioned to him as being made, were unknown to Amelot, while the minister owned that he had not read the Memorials, but promised to look into them.

It was on this occasion that Murray first became suspicious of the behaviour of Balhaldy and Sempill, a state of mind which grew later to absolute frenzy. When arranging for the interview with Amelot, they hinted very plainly to Murray that he must exaggerate any accounts he gave of preparations in Scotland. He came to the conclusion that they were deceiving the French minister by overstating Jacobite prospects at home, and after the interview he was further persuaded that Balhaldy and Sempill were similarly deceiving the Jacobite leaders with exaggerated accounts of French promises. He was further mortified to find that the Earl Marischal, who was much respected in Scotland, and to whom the Jacobite Scotsmen looked as their leader in any rising, would have nothing to do with Sempill and Balhaldy; while, on their part, they described the earl as a wrong-headed man, continually setting himself in opposition to his master and those employed by him, and applied to him the epithet of 'honourable fool.'

Apparently about this time the preparations of the English Jacobites were languishing, and Balhaldy, proud of the Scottish Association which he looked upon as his own creation, volunteered to go over to England and arrange a similar Concert among the English leaders. He and Murray went to London together, and there Murray took the opportunity of privately seeing Cecil, the Jacobite agent for England. Cecil explained his difficulties, told him of the dissensions among the English Jacobites, and of their complaints about Sempill, who, he considered, was being imposed upon by the French Ministry. It is characteristic of Jacobite plotting to find that Murray concealed, on the one side, his interviews with Cecil from Balhaldy, and, on the other, he kept it a secret from Cecil that he had ever been in France. Disappointed with his mission both in France and England, Murray returned to Edinburgh in March or April.

Meanwhile, Balhaldy was busy getting pledges in England and making lists of Jacobite adherents avowed and secret. Though they said they were willing to rise, he found they absolutely refused to give any pledge in writing, and he suggested, through Sempill, that the French minister should send over a man he could trust to see the state of matters for himself. Amelot selected an equerry of King Louis's of the name of Butler, an Englishman by birth. Under pretence of purchasing horses, Butler visited racecourses in England, where he had the opportunity of meeting country gentlemen, and was astonished to find that at Lichfield, where he met three hundred lords and gentlemen, of whom, he said, the poorest possessed ?3000 a year, he found only one who was not opposed to the Government. On his return to France, Butler sent in a long report on the possibilities of an English rising. He told the French Government that after going through part of England, a document had been placed in his hands giving an account of the whole country, from which it appeared that three-quarters of the well-to-do were zealous adherents of their legitimate king, and that he had been enabled to verify this statement through men who could be trusted, some of whom indeed were partisans of the Government. He was amazed that the Government was able to exist at all where it was so generally hated. The secret, he said, was that all positions of authority--the army, the navy, the revenue offices--were in the hands of their mercenary partisans. The English noblesse were untrained to war, and a very small body of regular soldiers could easily crush large numbers of men unused to discipline. It would be necessary then to have a force of regular troops from abroad to make head against those of the Government.

Butler and Balhaldy returned to France in October. During their absence things had changed; the battle of Dettingen had been fought , although Great Britain and France were technically at peace. King Louis was furious, and he took the matter up personally, and gave instructions to prepare an expeditionary force for the invasion of England. The main body was to consist of sixteen battalions of infantry and one regiment of dismounted dragoons, under Marshal Saxe, and was to land in the Thames. It was further suggested that two or three battalions should be sent to Scotland. Prince Charles Edward was invited to accompany the expedition, and was secretly brought from Rome, arriving in Paris at the end of January 1744. There was no affectation of altruism for the Stuart exile in King Louis's mind, but the zeal of the Jacobites was to be exploited. He wrote his private views to his uncle, the King of Spain, communicating a project that he had formed, he said, in great secrecy, which was to destroy at one blow the foundations of the league of the enemies of the House of Bourbon. It might, perhaps, be hazardous, but from all that he could learn it was likely to be successful. He wished to act in concert with Spain. He sent a plan of campaign. Everything was ready for execution, and he proposed to begin the expedition on the 1st of January. It would be a very good thing that the British minister should see that the barrier of the sea did not entirely protect England from French enterprise. It might be that the revolution to be promoted by the expedition would not be so quick as was expected, but in any case there would be a civil war which would necessitate the recall of the English troops in the Netherlands. The Courts of Vienna and Turin would no longer receive English subsidies, and these Courts, left to their own resources, would submit to terms provided they were not too rigorous.

The story of the collapse of the proposed invasion is too well known to need description. Ten thousand troops were on board ship. Marshal Saxe and Prince Charles were ready to embark. On the night of the 6th of March a terrible storm arose which lasted some days. The protecting men-of-war were dispersed, many of the transports were sunk, a British fleet appeared in the Channel, and Saxe was ordered to tell the Prince first that the enterprise was postponed, and later that it was abandoned. Charles, nearly broken-hearted, remained on in France, living in great privacy, and hoping against hope that the French would renew their preparations. For a time he remained at Gravelines, where Lord Marischal was with him. He longed for action, and implored the earl to urge the French to renew the expedition to England, but Marischal only suggested difficulties. Charles proposed an expedition to Scotland, but his lordship said it would mean destruction. Then he desired to make a campaign with the French army, but Lord Marischal said it would only disgust the English. Charles removed to Montmartre, near Paris, but he was ordered to maintain the strictest incognito. He asked to see King Louis, but he was refused any audience. His old tutor, Sir Thomas Sheridan, was sent from Rome to be with him; also George Kelly, Atterbury's old secretary, who, since his escape from the Tower, had been living at Avignon. He took as his confessor a Cordelier friar of the name Kelly, a relative of the Protestant George Kelly, and, sad to say, a sorry drunkard, whose example did Charles no good. These Irish companions soon quarrelled with Balhaldy and Sempill, who wrote to the Chevalier complaining of their evil influence, while the Irishmen also wrote denouncing Balhaldy and Sempill.

Charles left Montmartre. His cousin, the Bishop of Soissons, son of the Marshal Duke of Berwick, kindly lent him his Ch?teau Fitzjames, a house seven posts from Paris on the Calais road, where he remained for a time. Another cousin, the Duke of Bouillon, a nephew of his mother, also was very kind, and entertained him at Navarre, a ch?teau near Evreux in Normandy. But his life was full of weary days. He could get nothing from the French, and 'our friends in England,' he wrote to his father, are 'afraid of their own shadow, and think of little else than of diverting themselves.' Things seemed very hopeless: the Scots alone remained faithful.

From the time that Murray left London in the spring of 1743, the Jacobite Associators had received no letters from Balhaldy. The suspense was very trying; indeed Lord Lovat felt for a time so hopeless that he proposed to retire with his son to France and end his days in a religious house. Lovat's spirits seem to have risen shortly after this owing to some success he had in persuading his neighbours to join the Cause, and he eventually resolved to remain in Scotland. It was only from the newspapers the Jacobite leaders knew of the French preparations, but towards the end of December a letter was received from Balhaldy, which stated that the descent was to take place in the month of January. Other letters, however, threw some doubt on Lord Marischal's part of the enterprise, which included an auxiliary landing in Scotland, and once more the Jacobite leaders were thrown into a state of suspense. They felt, however, that preparations must be made, and an active propaganda began among the Stuart adherents.

On July 25th he landed in Arisaig,--the 'Forty-five had begun.

PAPERS OF JOHN MURRAY OF BROUGHTON

It would be interesting to know who the Highlanders were who entrusted Glenbucket with the message to Rome. Murray, in his jealous, disparaging way, remarks that it could only be Glengarry and General Gordon, but either he did not know much about Glenbucket or he was prejudiced. In an account of the Highland clans preserved in the Public Record Office, and evidently prepared for the information of the Government after he had turned traitor, Murray writes: 'I have heard Gordon of Glenbucket looked upon as a man of Consequence, whereas, in fact, he is quite the reverse. He is not liked by his own name, a man of no property nor natural following, of very mean understanding, with a vast deal of vanity.' But this word-portrait does not correspond with that drawn by a writer who had better opportunities of knowing Glenbucket. The author of the Memoirs of the Rebellion in the Counties of Aberdeen and Banff particularly emphasises the affection he inspired in the Highlanders, and significantly adds:--

'It is generally believed he was very serviceable to the court of Rome, in keeping up their correspondence with the Chiefs of the Clans, and was certainly . . . of late years over at that court, when his Low Country friends believed him to be all the while in the Highlands.'

It may be that Lovat was one of those Highlanders who joined in Glenbucket's message. About this time he had been deprived of his sheriffship and of his independent company, and, furious against the Government, had almost openly avowed his Jacobitism. In 1736 he, as sheriff, had released the Jacobite agent John Roy Stewart from prison in Inverness and by him had despatched a message of devotion to the Chevalier, but of his co-operation with Glenbucket I have found no hint. The sequence of events here narrated make it plain that whoever it was for whom he spoke, it was Gordon of Glenbucket whose initiative in 1737 originated the Jacobite revival which eventually brought Prince Charles to Scotland.

The account of the interview with Cecil makes pathetic reading. Murray, the Scottish official agent, fresh from seeing Balhaldy and Sempill, the official agents in Paris, is conscious that the latter are deceiving both the French Government and their own party. Murray conceals from Balhaldy that he is going to interview Cecil; from Cecil that he has been in Paris. Cecil, on the other hand, makes only a partial disclosure of his feelings in Murray's presence. He is contemptuous of his Jacobite colleagues, the Duchess of Buckingham and her party, and he has not a good word to say of Sempill. Murray again ridicules Cecil, of whom he has a poor opinion.

How could a cause served by such agents ever prosper?

This copy of John Murray's papers and the three following documents were found among some papers relating to the 'Forty-five collected by a gentleman of Midlothian shortly after the Rising. Many years ago I was permitted to copy them, and from these transcripts the text has been printed.

MEMORIAL CONCERNING THE HIGHLANDS

In Inverness he made his individuality strongly felt as champion for the Government. He was 'the John Knox of the North,' and one who exerted himself to suppress the spirit of rebellion in and about Inverness in the years 1745 and 1746.

On one occasion he nearly fell a victim to his interest in the struggle. Having gone with many others to the Muir of Culloden to witness the battle, one of the flying Highlanders attempted to cut him down with his broadsword, but the blow was warded off by a bystander.

Alexander Macbean was the father of a very distinguished son, Lieut.-General Forbes Macbean of the Royal Artillery. This officer was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, was present at Fontenoy in 1745, and at Minden in 1759. At Minden he so distinguished himself that he was presented with a gratuity of five hundred crowns and a letter of thanks from the Commander-in-Chief, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, written with his own hand. Forbes Macbean subsequently became Inspector-General of Portuguese Artillery, 1765-69; served in Canada 1769-73 and 1778-80; but his principal claim to the gratitude of posterity is a collection of manuscript notes recording the early history of the Royal Artillery.

Of Alexander Macbean's 'Memorial' it is perhaps enough to say that it is, considering the times, fairly impartial, and corresponds on the whole with authentic information gleaned from other sources. I have taken the opportunity of supplementing, perhaps overloading, his text with notes detailing, so far as I have been able to discover them from various sources, the names of the principal Highland gentlemen who were concerned in the Rising of the 'Forty-five.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE LATE REBELLION FROM ROSS AND SUTHERLAND

This 'Account' is a very meagre one. The important fact in the history of Ross in the 'Forty-five was that the head of the house of Seaforth forsook the family tradition and took active part with the Government against the old royal family. It was a heavy blow to Prince Charles when Lord Macleod, eldest son of Lord Cromartie, who went to Glasgow to see the Prince in January 1746, informed him at supper that Seaforth had furnished two hundred men for the service of the Government. Charles turned to the French minister and gasped, 'H?, mon Dieu, et Seaforth est aussi contre moi!'

Kenneth Mackenzie, known as Lord Fortrose , would have been the sixth Earl of Seaforth but for the attainder. His wife was Lady Mary Stewart, eldest daughter of the Earl of Galloway. She held Jacobite principles and raised many of her husband's clan for the Prince, while most of Fortrose's men eventually deserted to the Jacobites.

The principal operations in Ross and Sutherland began after Inverness had been taken by the Jacobite army. Lord Loudoun then retired to the shores of the Dornoch Firth. Lord Cromartie was sent in pursuit. Loudoun had boats, and when Cromartie approached him, he crossed the Firth to Dornoch. The Jacobites had to go round by the head of the Firth, whereupon Loudoun returned in his boats to the southern shore at Tain, and went back to Sutherland when Cromartie came to Ross. Cromartie was superseded by the Duke of Perth. Land operations seeming to be useless, a flotilla of boats was secretly collected at Findhorn and taken to Tain under shelter of a dense fog. On March 20th, 1746, Perth crossed over the Meikle Ferry, and completely defeated Loudoun at the bloodless battle of Dornoch. Lord Loudoun, along with Duncan Forbes, Sir Alexander Macdonald, Macleod of Macleod, fled to the Isle of Skye, while the chief of Mackintosh was taken prisoner.

MEMOIRS OF THE REBELLION IN THE COUNTIES OF ABERDEEN AND BANFF

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet