Fratrum Illustriss, Jac. et Joan. Ducum de Perth,
Antiquiss. Nobiliss. Familiæ de Drummond apud Scotos,
Principum.
Jacobus, ad studia humaniora proclivior,
Literis excultus,
Artium bonarum et liberalium fautor eximius;
In commune consulens,
Semper in otio civis dignissimus.
Mirâ morum suavitate, et animi fortitudine ornatus,
Intaminatâ fide splendebat humani generis amicus.
In pace clarus, in bello clarior;
Appulso enim Carolo P. in Scotiam,
Gladio in causâ gentis Stuartorum rearrepto,
Veterorum curâ posthabitâ,
Gloriæ et virtuti unice prospiciens,
Alacri vultu labores belli spectabat;
Pericula omnia minima ducebat:
In prælio strenuus, in victoriâ clemens, heros egregius.
Copiis Caroli tandem dissipatis,
Patriâ, amicis, re domi amplissimâ,
Cunctis præter mentem recti consciam, fortiter desertis,
In Galliam tendens, solum natale fugit.
Verum assiduis laboribus et patriæ malis gravibus oppressus,
In mari magno,
Die natale revertente, ob. 13 Maii, 1746; æt. 33.
Et reliquiæ, ventis adversis, terrâ sacratâ interclusæ,
In undis sepultæ.
Joannes, ingenio felici martiali imbutus,
A primâ adolescentiâ, militiæ artibus operam dedit.
Fortis, intrepidus, propositi tenax,
Mansuetudine generosâ, et facilitate morum, militis asperitate lenitâ.
Legioni Scoticæ regali, ab ipsomet conscriptæ,
A Rege Christianiss. Lud. XV. præpositus.
Flagrante bello civili in Britanniâ,
Auxilis Gallorum duxit;
Et post conflictum infaustum Cullodinensem,
In eadem navi cum fratre profugus.
In Flandriâ, sub Imperatore Com. de Saxe, multùm meruit:
Subjectis semper præsidium,
Belli calamitatum (agnoscite Britanni!) insigne levamen.
Ad summos Martis dignitates gradatim assurgens,
Gloriæ nobilis metæ appetens,
In medio cursu, improvisa lethi vi raptus,
28 Septemb. A.D. 1747, Æt. 33.
In Angl. monach. Sacello Antwerpiæ jacet.
The preceding narrative is given to the reader without any further
comment, except upon the general improbability of the story. It might
not appear impossible that the Duke may have taken refuge in the then
wild county of Durham for a time, but that two credible historians,
Maxwell of Kirkconnel, and Lord Elcho, assert positively that he sailed
for Nantes in a vessel which went by the north-west coast of Ireland;
Lord Elcho and Maxwell being themselves on board, seems decisive of the
entire failure of the case before quoted. It seems also wholly
incredible, that the Duke of Perth, whose rank was still acknowledged in
France, and whose early education in that country must have familiarised
him with its habits, should have remained contentedly during the whole
of his life, associating with persons of the lowest grade, in an obscure
village in Durham.
At the time of the Duke of Perth's death in 1747, one brother, Lord John
Drummond, was living. This brave man, whose virtues and whose fate are
recorded in the epitaph, survived his amiable and accomplished brother
only one year, and died suddenly of a fever, after serving under Marshal
Saxe at the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. His services in the insurrection of
1745 were considerable; like his brother, he escaped to France after the
contest was concluded. He died unmarried; and two sisters, the Lady
Mary, and the Lady Henrietta Drummond, died also unmarried. The mother
of James Duke of Perth long survived him, living until 1773. It is said
in the case of Thomas Drummond, that she never forgave her son for what
she considered his lukewarmness in the cause of the Stuarts, and refused
to have any intercourse with him after the failure of the rebellion; but
those who thus write, must have formed a very erroneous conception of
the Duke's conduct: if he might not escape such a charge, who could
deserve the praise of zeal, sincerity, and disinterestedness?
The duchess was one of the most strenuous supporters of the Stuarts, and
suffered for her loyalty to them by an imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle.
She was committed to prison on the eleventh of February, 1746, and
liberated on bail on the seventeenth.
On the forfeiture of the Drummond estates she retired to Stobhall, where
she remained until her death, at the advanced age of ninety. She was
considered a woman of great spirit, energy, and ability, and is supposed
to have influenced her son in his political opinions and actions.
Some idea may be formed of the painful circumstances which follow the
forfeiture of estates from the following passage, extracted from the
introduction to the letters of James Earl of Perth, Chancellor of
Scotland in the time of James the Second, and lately printed for the
Camden Society.[272]
"When a considerable portion of the Drummond estates were restored to
the heir (no poor boon, though dilapidated, lopped, and impoverished,)
he found upon them four settlements of cottages, in which the soldiery
had been located after the battle of Culloden, to keep down the
_rebels_. There were thirty near Drummond Castle, another division at
Cullander, a third at Balibeg, and a fourth at Stobhall. Demolition
might satisfy the abhorrence of the latter three, but what could
reconcile him to the outrage under his very eyes, as he looked from his
chamber or castle terrace? It was intolerable, and that every trace
might be obliterated, he caused an embankment to be made, and carried a
lake-like sheet of water over the very chimney tops of the military
dwellings. There is now the beautiful lake, gleaming with fish, and
haunted by the wild birds of the Highlands; and we believe the deepest
diver of them all, could not observe one stone upon another of the
cabins which held the ruthless military oppressors left by the Duke of
Cumberland a century ago."
The usual accounts of the Duke's movements after the battle of Culloden,
state, however, that about a month subsequent to that event, when the
fugitive Charles Stuart, in the commencement of his wanderings, landed
by accident upon the little isle of Errifort, on the east side of Lewis,
he saw, from the summit of a hill which he had climbed, two frigates
sailing northwards. The Chevalier in vain endeavoured to persuade the
boatmen who had brought him from Lewis, to go out and reconnoitre these
ships. His companions judged these vessels to be English; the Prince
alone guessed them to be French. He was right. They were two frigates
from Nantes, which had been sent with money, arms, and ammunition to
succour Charles, and were now returning to France. On board one of them
was the Duke of Perth, Lord Elcho, Lord John Drummond, old Lochiel, Sir
Thomas Sheridan and his nephew Mr. Hay, Maxwell of Kirkconnel, and Mr.
Lockhart of Carnwath, and several Low-country gentlemen, who had been
wandering about in these remote parts when the frigates were setting out
on their return,[273] and finding that the Prince was gone, and that
nothing was to be done for his service, had determined to escape. On the
tenth of June these frigates reached Nantes: Lord Elcho affirms that
"all arrived safe at Nantes;" one only is said never to have gained that
shore. Worn out by fatigues too severe, and, perhaps, the progress of
disease being aided by sorrow, the Duke of Perth is generally stated to
have died on ship-board on his passage. His malady is understood to have
been consumption.
Another celebrated member of this distinguished family, Lord
Strathallan, was not spared to witness the total ruin of all his hopes.
He fell at the battle of Culloden. The impression among his descendants
is, that, seeing the defeat certain, he rushed into the thick of the
battle, determined to perish. In 1746 Lord Strathallan's name was
included in the Bill of Attainder then passed; but, in 1824, one of the
most graceful acts of George the Fourth, whose sentiments of compassion
for the Stuarts and their adherents do credit to his memory, was the
restoration of the present Viscount Strathallan to the peerage by the
title of the sixth Viscount.
It is with regret that we take leave, amid the discordant scenes of an
historical narrative, of one whose high purposes and blameless career
are the best tribute to virtue, the noblest ornament of the party which
he espoused. Modest, yet courageous; moderate, though in the ardour of
youth; devout, without bigotry; and capable of every self-sacrifice for
the good of others, on the memory of the young Duke of Perth not a
shadow rests to attract the attention of the harsh to defects of
intention, unjustly attributed to the leader of the Jacobite
insurrection.