life was concerned, but the forfeiture of his estates was not taken off,
nor certain other incapacities reversed. He then returned to the family
estate of Dysart in Fife, of which he was, by his father's disposition
of affairs, the actual proprietor; and although the rents of the
property were levied in his brother's name, they were applied and
received by the Master. General James Sinclair, the second brother of
the Master, was then the nominal owner only of the estates. But although
thus returning to his patrimonial inheritance, the Master never
recovered the good will of his former friends, nor the blessings of
security, and of a calm and honoured old age. He seldom visited
Edinburgh, living in seclusion and never going from home without being
well guarded and attended for fear of the Jacobites, or of his enemies
the Schaws. Under these circumstances it seems to have been a relief to
his bitter and mortified spirit to have vented itself, in like manner
with Lord Lovat, in composing memoirs of his own life. "These memoirs,"
says Sir Walter Scott, who long had a copy of them in his possession,
"are written[244] with talent, and peculiar satirical energy: so much
so indeed, that they have been hitherto deemed unfit for publication.
The circumstances attending the slaughter of the Schaws argue a fierce
and vindictive temper, and the frame of mind which Sinclair displays as
an author exhibits the same character. They are, however, very curious,
and it is to be hoped will one day be made public, as a valuable
addition to the catalogue of royal and noble authors. It is singular
that the author seems to have written himself into a tolerably good
style, for the language of the Memoirs, which at first is scarcely
grammatical, becomes as he advances disengaged, correct, and
spirited."[245]
On the whole, it must be acknowledged that qualities more repulsive and
a career more culpable, have darkened no narrative connected with the
Jacobites so unpleasantly as the biography of the Master of Sinclair. A
disgrace to every party, he appears to have joined the adherents of the
Stuarts, only in order to disturb their councils, and to vilify their
memory with personal invective. He has extorted no compassion for the
errors and crimes of his earlier years by the courage and magnanimity of
a later period: his character stands forth, unredeemed by a single trait
of heroism, in all the darkness of violence and revenge.
The Barony of Sinclair, lost to the family in consequence of the
attainder of the Master of Sinclair, was not assumed either by him,
after his pardon in 1726, nor by his brother General James Sinclair. At
the death of General Sinclair in 1762, the title reverted to Charles
Sinclair, Esq., of Herdmanstown, a cousin, and after him to his son
Andrew, who also allowed his claim to the Barony to lie dormant. It was,
however, revived at his death in 1776, by his only son Charles, who is
the present Lord Sinclair.[246]
FOOTNOTES:
[226] See Proceedings of the Court Martial held upon John, Master of
Sinclair, with Correspondence, p. 27. 1828. Printed by Ballantyne and
Company. Presented to the Roxburgh Club by Sir Walter Scott.
[227] It is printed in the interesting little collection before referred
to, p. 35.
[228] Life of the Master of Sinclair, p. ix.
[229] His name is not among those who were assembled on the
hunting-field of Braemar.
[230] Reay, p. 234.
[231] See Lord Mar's Life and Letters.
[232] Life of the Master of Sinclair, page v.
[233] See Lord Mar's Life, from the Mar Papers.
[234] Mar Papers.
[235] Reay's History of the Rebellion, p. 218.
[236] Reay, p. 387.
[237] See the certificate of the Justices of Forfar, in the State Paper
Office, respecting the case of James Carnegie. Dated, Montrose, the
first of October, 1716.
[238] See Papers in the State Paper Office for 1715 and 1716.
[239] Reay, p. 372.
[240] The title has remained in abeyance ever since. A mystery hangs
over the fate of this family.
[241] See Letter.
[242] The letter from Lord Garlies, in which Lady Southesk is mentioned,
is to be seen in the Murray MS. in the Advocate's Library at Edinburgh.
It is addressed to the eccentric and imprudent Sir Alexander Murray of
Stanhope. These papers were found on a floor of a room in Herriot's
Hospital, and were rescued from destruction by Dr. Irvine of the
Advocate's Library. After some remarks of no moment, Lord Garlies,
afterwards the Earl of Galloway, observes--
"But now I hope that yours and all honest men's misfortunes are to
have a turn, and since my cheif has had the good fortune to gett a
young prince, I pray God his and all honest men's misfortunes may be
at an end; and I hope before my young cheif dies, he shall have the
name of Charles the Third. I beg of you to let me hear from you, and
when I may expect to have the happinesse of seeing you in this
countrey, which is what I both long mightily for, and expect as soon
as you can conveniently. Besides, it will be a mighty obligation
added to the many you have already done me, who am, dear Sandy,
"yours entirely whylst
"GARLIES."
"May 12, 1730."
"Sister Southesque and my spouse make their compliments to you."
[243] Life of Master of Sinclair, page viii.
[244] The manuscript from which the life of the Master of Sinclair was
taken, was found by Sir Walter Scott among the papers of his mother, who
was distantly related to the family of Greenock. The proceedings of the
court-martial were attested by the subscription of John Cunningham,
probably a clerk of the court.
[245] The MS. Memoirs of the Master of Sinclair are at present in the
possession of the Countess of Rosslyn.
[246] Burke's Peerage.
CAMERON OF LOCHIEL.[247]
The clan Cameron, from whom were descended the chieftains who took an
active part in the Jacobite cause, had its seat in Lochaber, of which
one of their ancestors had originally received a grant from Robert
Bruce. They sprang, according to some accounts, from the same source as
that of the clan Chattan: they became, nevertheless, in the course of
the fourteenth century, an independent state. In a manuscript history of
the clan Cameron, they have been traced so far back as to the year 404;
and their origin in Scotland ascribed to the arrival of a younger son of
the royal family of Denmark, their progenitors acquiring the name of
Cameron from his crooked nose.
The clan consisted of three septs; but the family of Lochiel were
acknowledged as the chief, and, according to the singular system of
clanship, the Camerons freely gave up their wills to that of their
head. The history of this family, whilst it shows by what decision of
character and intrepidity of conduct this superiority was maintained,
presents little else than a tissue of successive feuds between the clan
and its neighbours, until, during the seventeenth century, the events of
history brought forth qualities of still greater importance to
distinguish the house of Lochiel. From henceforth the disputes with the
clan Chattan, and the long-standing feuds with the Mackintoshes, merged
into obscurity compared with the more stirring interests into which the
chieftains were now, fatally for their prosperity, intermingled.
The celebrated Sir Ewan Dhu of Lochiel, one of the finest specimens of
the Highland chieftains on record, had passed a long life in the service
of the Stuart family, for whom, even as a boy, he had manifested a sort
of intuitive affection. This cherished sentiment had repelled the
efforts of his kinsman, the Marquis of Argyle, to mould his youthful
mind to the precepts of the Puritans and Covenanters. Sir Ewan Dhu
combined a commanding personal appearance with a suitable majesty of
deportment, and with a shrewd, dauntless, honourable, generous mind. His
very sirname had an influence upon the good will of his superstitious
and devoted followers. It denoted that he was dark, both in hair and
complexion; and so many brave achievements had been performed by
chieftains of the clan Cameron, who were of this complexion, that it had
been foretold by gifted seers, that never should a fair Lochiel prove
fortunate. Endowed with this singular hold upon the confidence of his
people, Ewan Dhu eclipsed all his predecessors in the virtues of his
heart and the strength of his understanding. His vigilance, his energy,
and firmness were the qualities which had distinguished him as a
military leader when, in the close of his days, the hopes and designs of
the modern Jacobites began to engage the attention of the Highland
chiefs.
The career of Ewan Dhu Cameron had been one of singular prosperity. At
the age of eighteen, he had broken loose from the trammels of Argyle's
control, and joined the standard of the Marquis of Montrose. He had
contrived to keep his estate clear, even after the event of that
unsuccessful cause, from Cromwell's troops. He next repaired to the
royal standard raised in the Highlands by the Earl of Glencairne, and
won the applause of Charles the Second, then in exile at Chantilly, for
his courage and success. The middle period of his life was consumed in
efforts, not only to abet the cause of Charles the Second, but to
restore peace to his impoverished and harassed country. Yet he long
resisted persuasions to submit and swear allegiance to Cromwell, and at
length boldly avowed, that rather than take the oath for an usurper, he
would live as an outlaw. His generous and humane conduct to the English
prisoners whom he had captured during the various skirmishes had,
however, procured him friends in the English army. "No oath," wrote
General Monk, "shall be required of Lochiel to Cromwell, but his word to
live in peace." His word was given, and, until after the restoration,
Lochiel and his followers, bearing their arms as before, remained in
repose.
At Killicrankie, however, the warrior appeared again on the field,
fighting, under the unfortunate Viscount Dundee, for James the Second.
As the battle began, the enemy in General Mackay's regiment raised a
shout. "Gentlemen," cried the shrewd Lochiel, addressing the
Highlanders, "the day is our own. I am the oldest commander in the army,
and I have always observed that so dull and heavy a noise as that which
you have heard is an evil omen." The words ran throughout the
Highlanders; elated by the prediction, they rushed on the foe, fighting
like furies, and in half an hour the battle was ended.
Although Sir Ewan Dhu was thus engaged on the side of James, his second
son was a captain in the Scottish fusileers, and served under Mackay in
the ranks of Government. As General Mackay observed the Highland army
drawn up on the face of a hill, west of the Pass, he turned to young
Cameron and said, "There is your father and his wild savages; how would
you like to be with him?" "It signifies little," replied the Cameron,
"what I would like; but I would have you be prepared, or perhaps my
father and his wild savages may be nearer to you before night than you
may dream of." Upon the death of Dundee, Sir Ewan Dhu, disgusted by the
deficiencies of the commander who succeeded him, retired to Lochaber,
and left the command of his clansmen to his eldest son, John Cameron,
who, with his son Donald, form the subjects of this memoir.
Sir Ewan Dhu lived until the year 1719, enjoying the security which his
exploits had procured for him; and maintaining, by his own dignified
deportment, the credit of a family long upheld by a previous succession
of able and honourable chieftains. The state and liberality of the
Camerons were not supported, nevertheless, by a lavish expenditure;
their means were limited: "Yet," says Mrs. Grant of Laggan in her MS.
account of the clan, "perhaps even our own frugal country did not afford
an instance of a family, who lived in so respectable a manner, and
showed such liberal and dignified hospitality upon so small an income,"
as that of Lochiel.
The part which Sir Ewan Dhu had taken in the action at Killicrankie
would, it was naturally supposed, draw down upon him the vengeance of
those who visited with massacre the neighbouring valley of Glencoe. The
forbearance of Government can only be accounted for by the supposition
that King William, with his usual penetration, decreed it safer to
conciliate, than to attempt to crush a clan which was connected by
marriage with the most powerful of the Highland chieftains.
No arts could, however, win the allegiance of the Camerons from those
whom they considered as their rightful sovereigns. Towards the end of
William's reign, the young chieftain John was sent privately to France,
where his early notions of loyalty were confirmed, and his attachment
to the court of James enhanced, by the influence of the Duke of Berwick,
who formed with him a sincere and durable friendship.
The character of the chieftain was softened in the young Lochiel. He was
intelligent, frank, and conciliating in his manners, and had associated
more generally with the world than was usually the case with the
chieftains of those days. Among the circles with whom the young Lochiel
mingled, Barclay Urie, the well known apologist of the Quakers, was also
accustomed to appear. An attachment was thenceforth formed between John
Cameron and the daughter of Barclay, and a matrimonial alliance was soon
afterwards decided upon between the daughter of that gentleman and the
young chieftain.
The choice was considered a singular one on the part of the young man.
It was the customary plan to intermarry with some of the neighbouring
clans; nor was it permitted for the chieftain to make a choice without
having first ascertained how far the clan were agreeable to his wishes.
This usage proceeded, in part, from the notion of consanguinity between
every member of a clan, even of the lowest degree, to his chieftain, and
the affability and courtesy with which the head was in the habit of
treating those over whom he ruled. The clans were even known to carry
their interference with the affairs of their chief so far as to
disapprove of the choice of their abodes, or to select a site for a new
residence.[248]
The sway which Sir Ewan Dhu had acquired over his followers was such
that he dispensed with the ordinary practice, and, without the consent
of the clans, agreed to receive the young Quakeress as his daughter. The
marriage was completed, and eventually received the full approbation of
the whole clan Cameron.
Meantime, great efforts had been made on the part of the English
Government to detach Sir Ewan Dhu from his faith to James the Second.
But the monarch who could attempt so hopeless a task as the endeavour to
cause a Highlander to break his oath of fidelity, very faintly
comprehended the national character, then existing in all its strength
and all its weakness,--in its horror of petty crimes and its
co-operation of great outrages,--in its small meannesses and lofty
generous traits,--in its abhorrence of a broken vow or of treachery to a
leader. The temptation offered was indeed considerable. Sir Ewan Dhu was
to have a pension of three hundred a-year, to be perpetuated to his son,
whom the Government were particularly anxious to entice back to
Scotland. The old chieftain was also to be appointed Governor of Fort
William.[249] But the emissaries of William the Third could not have
chosen a worse period than that in which to treat with the brave and
wary Cameron. The massacre of Glencoe was fresh in the remembrance of
the people, and the stratagem, the fiendish snares which had been
prepared to betray the unsuspecting Macdonalds to their destruction,
were also recalled with the deep curses of a wronged and slaughtered
people. The game of cards, the night before the massacre, between the
villain Campbell, and the two sons of Glencoe,--the proffered and
accepted hospitality of the chieftain, whose hand was grasped in seeming
friendliness by the man who had resolved to exterminate him and his
family, were cherished recollections--cherished by the determined spirit
of hate and revenge which contemplated future retribution.
Sir Ewan Dhu therefore rejected these dazzling offers; he neither
recalled his son from France, nor accepted the command offered to him,
but busied himself in schemes which eventually swayed the destinies of
the Camerons.
Not many miles from Achnacarry, the seat of Lochiel, rose, on the border
of Loch Oich, the castle of Alaster Dhu, or Dusk Alexander, of
Glengarry. The territories of this chieftain were contiguous to those of
Lochiel; and his character, which was of acknowledged valour, wisdom,
and magnanimity, formed a still stronger bond of union than their
relative position. Glengarry was the head of a very powerful clan,
called Macdonnells, in contradistinction to the Macdonalds of the Isles,
whose claim to superiority they always resisted; declaring, by the voice
of their bards and family historians, that the house of Antrim, from
whom the Macdonalds of the Isles were descended, owed its origin to the
Macdonnells of Glengarry.
The clan Glengarry was now at its height of power under the heroic
Alaster Dhu, its chieftain, whose immediate predecessor had risen to be
a Lord of Session, at a time when that office brought no little power
and influence to its possessors: he had gained both wealth and credit in
his high seat; and, upon retiring, had visited Italy, had brought back a
taste for architecture to his native country, and the castle of
Invergarrie, part of the walls of which remain undemolished, rose as a
memento of his architectural taste.
The Lord of Session had cherished sentiments of loyalty for the exiled
family; these were transmitted to Alaster Dhu. The gallant Lochiel and
the chief of Glengarry were therefore disposed to smother in their
feelings of loyalty the feuds which too often raged between clans nearly
approximate. They therefore formed a compact to promote, in every way,
the interest of the royal exiles; and in this vain attempt at
restoration which ensued, the fate of their clansmen was sealed.[250]
That of the Camerons is yet to be told; a slight digression respecting
their gallant allies may here be excused.
When the feudal system which subsisted between the Highland chieftains
and their clansmen was dissolved, it became the plan of many of the
landholders to rid themselves of their poor tenantry, and to substitute
in their place labourers and farmers from the south of Scotland. The
helpless population of the glens and hill-sides were thus sent to
wander, poor and ignorant of anything but their own homes, and speaking
no language but their mother tongue, and wholly unskilled in any
practical wisdom. Some emigrated, but many were pressed into service on
board the emigrant ships, although the commanders of those vessels could
not, in some instances, prevail upon themselves to tear the Highlanders
away from their wives and families.
To remedy this melancholy state of affairs, and to employ the banished
mountaineers, it was proposed about the year 1794, to embody some of the
sufferers, the Macdonnells of Glengarry in particular, into a Catholic
corps, under their young chieftain, Alexander Macdonnell, and employ
them in the service of the English Government. This scheme, after many
difficulties, was accomplished. At first, it worked well for the relief
of the destitute clan; but, in 1802, in spite of their acknowledged good
conduct, the Glengarry regiment was disbanded.
The friend of the unfortunate, who had originally proposed the
consolidation of the corps, was Dr. Macdonald, who had been afterwards
appointed chaplain to the regiment. He now projected another scheme for
the maintenance of the clan Glengarry; and, after some opposition, his
plan was effected. It was to convey the whole of the Macdonnells, with
their wives and families, to a district in Upper Canada, where the clan,
at this moment, is permanently established. The place in which they live
bears the name of their native glen, and the farms they possess are
called by the loved appellations of their former tenements: and, when
the American war tried the fidelity of the emigrants, the clan gave a
proof of their loyalty by enrolling themselves into a corps, under the
old name of the Glengarry Fencibles.[251]
In the battle of Killicrankie, Glengarry had led his forces to fight for
James the Second; and after that engagement, in which Glengarry had had
a brother killed, he had become very obnoxious to the Government, and
had found it necessary to retire for some time, whilst his more favoured
friend Lochiel tranquilly occupied his own house of Achnacarrie, a place
wholly undefended. The retreat in which Glengarry hid himself was a
small wooded island in Lochacaig; and in this seclusion a manoeuvre
was planned, highly characteristic of the subtlety, and yet daring of
the Highland chieftains who were engaged in it. It shows, also, the
state of the national feeling towards the English Government, at a time
when comparative quiet appeared to be established in the Highlands.
Attached to certain regiments which were then lying at Fort William,
there were a number of young volunteers, men of good family, who had a
soldier's pay, if they wished it, and were considered as pupils in the
art of war, "at liberty to retire if they chose, and eligible, being
often persons of family, to fill the vacancies which war or disease
occasioned among the subalterns."[252] This regiment was now about to
occupy the garrisons, and on their way to the Tyendrum or Black Mount,
the officers engaged in conversation, little dreading an assault in a
country inhabited only by a few herdsmen, and considered by them as
wholly subdued. But they were deceived in their sense of safety. Among
the heath and bushes in a narrow pass, circumscribed, on the one side,
by a steep mountain, and on the other by a small lake, which skirted the
path, for road there was not, lay in ambush two hundred well-armed and
light-footed Highlanders. The youths, or volunteers, were in the rear of
the regiment; as they marched fearlessly through the deep solitude of
this wild district, the Highlanders sprang forwards from their
ambuscade; and before the young soldiers could recover their surprise or
have recourse to their arms, eight or ten young men of family were
seized on and hurried away. With these were mingled others, among these
volunteers of less importance, who were carried away in the confusion by
mistake. A few shots were fired by the soldiery, but without any effect,
for the Highlanders had disappeared. This sudden attack excited the
utmost consternation among the officers of the regiment, nor could they
discover the object of this aggression; nor did they know either how to
pursue the assailants, or in what terms to report to Government so
ignominious a loss. They marched, therefore, silently to Dumbarton
without attempting to pursue an enemy whose aim it might be to lure
them into some fastness, there to encounter a foe too powerful, from the
nature of the country, to be resisted. On arriving at Dumbarton the
mystery was explained. There the commander of the corps found a letter,
stating that "certain chiefs of clans had no objection to King William's
ruling in England, considering that nation as at liberty to choose its
own rulers; but that they never could, consistently with what they had
sworn on their arms, take an oath to any other sovereign while the
family of St. Germains remained in existence. They were," the writers
continued, "unwilling either to perjure themselves, or to hold their
lands in daily fear, and subject to the petty instruments of power. They
were willing to live peaceably under the present rule, but were resolved
neither to violate the dictates of conscience, nor to have their
possessions disturbed. In the meantime, to prevent encroachments upon
their lands, and to prevent the necessity of rushing into hostilities
with the Government, they had taken hostages to ensure their safety, and
with these they would never part until Sir Ewan Dhu and Alaster Dhu had
obtained assurances that they should never be disturbed for their
principles whilst they lived peaceably on their estates."