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 removed,
"for it was certainly," says Mr. Hogg, "carried 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. It is, 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 forgotten: 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 become, in character, in
intellect, his early fate has prevented 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 Brussels in August,
1723.[225] The descendants of the Earl are now extinct, a son and
daughter who survived him having both died. His Lordship's brother
married a Scottish peeress, and is the ancestor of the present Earl of
Newburgh, the rightful representative of the Earl of Derwentwater.
"The domains of the Derwentwater family in Cumberland are," says Lord
Mahon, "among the very few forfeitures of the Jacobites which have never
been restored 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 preserved 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 appearing 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 Derwentwater 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 arms, and under that pretence broke open the walls, and found the
deeds, from the concealment of which Greenwich Hospital had been put to
some difficulties."
Such was the fate of the last memorial of the unfortunate 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
unaccountable injustice in that oblivion, whilst most of the Scottish
forfeited titles have been restored.
FOOTNOTES:
[173] I write it Radcliffe, because the most careful historians and
genealogists have given the preference to that mode of spelling the
name.
[174] The fact has been rather surmised than proved.
[175] Hutchinson's View of Northumberland, vol. i. p. 171.
[176] Lysons' Magna Britannia, vol. ii. p. 85.
[177] Burke's Extinct Peerage, art. _Radcliffe_; also Wood's Peerage,
309. It has been erroneously stated, that Francis Radclyffe himself, who
married Mary Tudor, was first ennobled. It was his father, Sir Francis
Radclyffe.
[178] Life of Charles Radcliffe. "By a gentleman of the family, to
prevent the public being imposed upon by any erroneous or partial
accounts to the prejudice of this unfortunate gentleman." London, 1746.
[179] Macpherson Papers, vol. ii.
[180] Patten's Hist. Rebellion, p. 47.
[181] In personal appearance the Earl is declared to have been
distinguished 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."
[182] Kimber's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 517.
[183] Encyclopædia Metropolitana.
[184] Id. Annals of George I.
[185] Patten, p. 3.
[186] 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
Newburgh, the descendant of Charles Radcliffe. I am indebted to the
courtesy of the Earl of Newburgh for permission to copy this document,
and also 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, Constables, 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."
[187] His pension was raised for his services from fifty to eighty
pounds per annum.--See Caledonian Mercury, 1722.
[188] Patten, p. 19.
[189] Hutchinson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. p. 131.
[190] State Papers. Domestic, No. 4, 1716.
[191] Life of Charles Radcliffe, p. 15.
[192] Patten, p. 31.
[193] Patten. Smollett.
[194] Parliamentary History, 2 Geo. I. vol. vii. p. 269.
[195] Patten, p. 47.
[196] Id. p. 65.
[197] 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.
[198] Lord Mahon, vol. i. p. 248.
[199] Patten, p. 79.
[200] Letter from a Scots Prisoner.--See Weekly Journal, or British
Gazette, for 1716.
[201] Weekly Journal, p. 354.
[202] Parliamentary History, p. 269.
[203] Life of Charles Radcliffe, p. 23.
[204] Patten.
[205] Patten, p. 96.
[206] Patten, p. 103.
[207] Weekly Journal.
[208] Patten.
[209] Patten.
[210] Caledonian Mercury for 1716.
[211] Earls of Derwentwater, Nithisdale, Carnwath, and Wintoun; Viscount
Kenmure, and Lords Widdrington and Nairn.
[212] State Trials, vol. xv. p. 762.
[213] Parliamentary History, vol. vii. p. 269.
[214] State Trials.
[215] Caledonian Mercury for 1716.
[216] Beatson's Political Index.
[217] Douglas's Peerage of Scotland.
[218] State Trials, vol. xv. p. 802.
[219] Lord Mahon's History, vol. i. p. 291.
[220] Id.
[221] State Papers, 1716, No. 4; now, for the first time, printed.
[222] 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.
[223] From a tradition current in the descendants of this family.
[224] Hogg's Jacobite Relics, vol. i. p. 31.
[225] See Caledonian Mercury, 1723.
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 ancient 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 dignity of Prince of Orkney; but this distinction was
lost by an improvident member of the house of Sinclair, 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, therefore, 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-Lieutenant in Preston's regiment under the
great Marlborough. At the battle of Wynendale, fought on the
twenty-eighth of September, 1708, the events which stamped the future
character of the Master of Sinclair'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 commissions 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 occurs, and which seems to
stamp certain races with misfortune, the Schaws had already been nearly
exterminated in feudal times by the violence of a neighbouring 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 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?" Young Schaw, struck by the argument, 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, without 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 "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, however, 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 concerned,
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 challenge; 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."
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 gentleman than to
pursue you when your sword is broken." But the young soldier Schaw had
at this time received 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 vindictive 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 Sinclair 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 approach of the hated Sinclair. Captain Schaw turned, and
inquired of the Master what he wanted. Sinclair 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," returned 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 far 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 employed 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
Marlborough 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, regarded 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 Ronsales 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, however, recommended to the mercy of the Duke of Marlborough, 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 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 functionaries 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 appealing to his Sovereign against the extraordinary
recommendation 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 Marlborough 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 murthers 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 indispensable 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 letters, 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.[226]
"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 Sollicitor General upon the proceedings of the
court-martiall, with the copie of the petition you had presented 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_)
"MARLBOROUGH."
"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 intercession employed for
him. What was afterwards his astonishment 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 following passage from the Master of
Sinclair's narrative:
"I was obliged to quit [the army] for two misfortunes which happened in
a very short time, one after the other, notwithstanding of the
court-marshall's recommending me to the General, his Grace the Duke of
Marlborough's mercy, which was always looked on as equal to a pardon,
and which I can aver was never refused 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 promising brothers, sent to an untimely grave by
brutal revenge. The following letter from Sir John Schaw is beautifully
and touchingly expressed.[227] What effect it produced upon the great
but not faultless man to whom it was addressed, can only be known by the
impunity with which Sinclair, his hands being imbued in the blood of his
countrymen, continued in the Prussian army, and afterwards returned to
Scotland.