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MEMOIRS
OF
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,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1845.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
PREFACE.
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 certainly
not expedient, to proffer any information concerning the objects of
royal indignation, except that which the newspapers afforded: nor was it
perfectly 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 memories were thus, in some measure, consigned to oblivion, except
in the hearts of their descendants; much which deserved to be explained
in their motives; much which claimed to be upheld in their
self-sacrifices, the following pages will show. Whatever leaning the
Author may have had to the unfortunate cause of the Stuarts, it has not,
however, been her intention only to pourtray the bright ornaments 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 vacillating.
As far as human weakness and prejudice can permit, 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 acknowledge 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 several 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 others dictated by him, is interwoven with
the biography 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 continued 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 friendship and mediation of the Honourable Lord Cockburn, 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 gratitude to the Viscount
Strathallan, for his Lordship's communication to her respecting the
House of Drummond. To the Honourable Mrs. Bellamy, the descendant of
Viscount Kenmure, she has also to offer similar acknowledgments, for
information respecting her unfortunate ancestor; and for an original
letter of his Lordship; and she must also beg to express her obligations
to William Constable Maxwell, Esq., and to Mrs. Constable Maxwell, of
Terregles, the descendants of the Earl of Nithisdale, for their
courteous and prompt assistance. To James Craik, Esq., of Arbigland,
Dumfriesshire, she is indebted 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 interesting particulars of the burning of Achnacarry,
the seat of her ancestors.
In some of these instances the information derived 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 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 Register Office, Edinburgh, to whom she is
indebted for several original letters; and of Robert Chambers, 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, Edinburgh, the Author
offers, with the most lively pleasure, her sincere acknowledgments for a
ready and persevering assistance in aid of her undertaking. Again, she
begs to repeat her sense of deep obligation 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 Gordon, 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,[1] "waited for events, in hopes and in fears,
from the Old Government 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 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
instrumental 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 resembled 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 great posts upon moderate men; to employ
alternately 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 Rochester, to consider every opposition to the
Sovereign'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;[2] and it is remarkable that,
during her life, great favour was shown at Court to the Highland
partisans of James the Second; distinctions were as much avoided as it
was possible; and the personal prepossessions of the Queen were supposed
to be on the side of the High Church Tories.
During the reign of Anne, notwithstanding the coalition 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 prevalent 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 succession to her
nephew would be matured, and the Act of Succession, which was chiefly
the offspring of Whig policy, should be set aside. There was,
doubtless, 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 succession 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 Insurrection of
1715, to receive his education in England under his kingly care; to be
bred up a Protestant; 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
education which that Monarch had planned for the young Duke of
Gloucester shows how enlarged and practical 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
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 ancestors 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 protection
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
exchanged the hope of an earthly for that of a heavenly 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
assigned--for maintaining in the friends of her consort, 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 tribute of pity
and admiration--to her disregard of low and unworthy instruments to
advance her means, as in the case of Lovat, even the warmest partisans
of the Revolution were forced to do justice. The disinterested 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 understanding
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 indulgence shown to
those who openly spoke and preached against the Revolution, were certain
indications 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 conscientious mind. That such was
the fact, the declaration or manifesto of the Chevalier, dated from
Plombières, 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 disposition 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 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 Freeholders of
Great Britain," supposed to be written by Bishop Atterbury, was
extensively circulated throughout 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
language, 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 nothing was so likely to injure as a disputed
succession. The country gentlemen were, more or less, under 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 Highlands 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 obstinate 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 staunch
supporters of that mode of faith which they conscientiously adopt. In
private society James had the power of attaching his dependents; and
perhaps from a deeper source than that which gave attraction to the
conversation of his good-natured, dissolute 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
readiness and delicacy which are qualities peculiarly appropriate 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 sensibility, 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 Holyrood, accompanied by
Anne Hyde, when Duchess of York, James became extremely popular in
Edinburgh; 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
nobleman 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 infeudation, by buying up the superiorities,--a plan, the
completion of which was attempted by William the Third, but defeated by
the avarice and dishonesty of those who managed the transaction. The
chieftains, however, never forgot the obligation which they owed to
James:[3] they refused all offers of emolument or promotion from his
successor; and they adhered to the exiled King with a loyalty which was
never shaken, and which broke forth conspicuously in the Insurrection of
1715. "The Highlanders," says Dalrymple, "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 allegiance; without commenting upon the
partly patriarchal nature of the clan system, and the firm compact 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 of history, to break forth unexpectedly, was
long in being organized. From Anne's first Session of Parliament 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 necessary to be sent from
France. A full account of affairs was compiled, and was signed by
fifteen noblemen 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, according 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 prepared to receive the
royal adventurer; the regular army was wholly unfit, either in numbers
or ammunition, 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 Edinburgh; and a Dutch
fleet had recently run aground 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. England 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 adverse to the claims of James Stuart.[4]
How far these expectations might have been realised, it is difficult to
say. The French newspapers had proclaimed the preparations for invasion,
and Louis the Fourteenth had taken leave of James, wishing 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 disembarked. 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
enterprise. Scarcely had the accession of George the 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 Highlands, many of the Jacobites took up
arms; but this hasty demonstration of good will to their cause was
instantly suppressed. The Chevalier was, nevertheless, proclaimed King
in the night time, and three noblemen, 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 persons 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, Commander-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 country. This was the first positive
indication of the combination, which already comprised most of the
ancient and respected names in Scotland. This confederacy, 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 motives who was rarely satisfied, "did adhere firmly to
their principles and engagements, acting the part of honest countrymen
and dutiful subjects."[5]
About the month of May, the report of James Stuart's intended invasion
of Scotland, and particulars of the preparations made for it in England,
Scotland, and France, became public. Measures 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, under 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
Whig Association was framed among persons of rank and influence; and in
Edinburgh a body of volunteers 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.[6] 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 different 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, prevailed; 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 exceptions, were soon
under the control of the insurgents. 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 concerted.
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 deficient 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 following 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 preserved us from inroads on our constitution, and
oppression 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 subject 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 episode 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._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dalrymple.
[2] Rapin. Dissertation on the Origin and Government of England, vol.
xiv. p. 423.
[3] See Introduction to the Memoirs of Cameron of Lochiel, p. 22.
[4] Lockhart, vol. i. p. 239.
[5] Lockhart, vol. i. p. 324.
[6] Reay, p. 187.
CONTENTS
TO
THE FIRST VOLUME.
PAGE
JOHN ERSKINE, EARL OF MAR (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 antiquity 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 contention, fraud, and
violence.
Isabel, Countess of Mar and Garioch, the last of the De Mar family, was
won in marriage by a singular and determined species of courtship,
formerly common in Scotland; the influence of terror. The heiress of the
castle of Kildrummie, 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 process. One morning, during the month of September 1404, he
presented himself at the Castle gate of Kildrummie, 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 declaring 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 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 estates 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 rapacious
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
Alexander 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 assume that of Moray, which had
also been bestowed upon him by the Queen: and in 1565 Mary repaired 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
plus_, 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:[7] 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 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."[8]
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 experience, 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 left it without loss
of reputation."[9]
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 increased, interrupted indeed by some vicissitudes of
fortune, but by no serious reverses, until that period which, during the
commotions of the Great Rebellion, reduced many of our proudest nobility
to comparative 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 Sovereigns. 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 sequestrated. 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 of the measures of James the Second, he had prepared
to go abroad when the Prince of Orange landed in England. He appears
afterwards to have pursued somewhat 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 importance 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 Lieutenant-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 mother, 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 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.[10] 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 portrait 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
dissipation, by Neville Payne: and the young nobleman is characterized
as "the scandal of his name."[11] Although 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 hopes. His
father had indeed, to use the words of Lockhart of Carnwath, "embarked
with the Revolution;" 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
partisans 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
invasion 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 æra 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."[12] The hopes of the Cavaliers were thus wholly
extinguished: and to these circumstances were the first observations of
the youthful Earl of Mar doubtless directed.
His guardians, seemingly desirous of retrieving the affairs of the
family, had endeavoured to imbue his mind with Revolution
principles;[13] 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 correspond with the Court of St. Germains, was
tranquillized, although not eradicated by the great policy and
forbearance of William.[14] 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,"[15] 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 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
distinction upon petty intrigues, rather than to look upon probity and
exertion as the true basis of greatness. 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."[16]
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 Roll. 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
sufficient 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 continued constant to the
side to which he had declared himself to belong. His pecuniary
embarrassments, acting upon a restless, ambitious temper, rendered it
difficult 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 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 William his fortune
was rather improved than deteriorated, 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
Revolution; and one of their greatest supporters, the Duke of
Queensbury, was appointed High Commissioner of the Scottish Parliament,
notwithstanding the representations of some of the most powerful
nobility in Scotland.