were collected, without the slightest difficulty, for the benefit
of the exiled Earl, and regularly transmitted to him. At one
time a large sum was sent to him in Spain. The chief agent in the
business was Donald Murchison, descendant of a line of faithful
adherents of the "High Chief of Kintail." Some of the later
generations of the family had been entrusted with the keeping of
Ellandonnan Castle, a stronghold dear to the modern artist as a
picturesque ruin, but formerly of serious importance as commanding a
central point from which radiate Loch Alsh and Loch Duich, in the
midst of the best part of the Mackenzie country. Donald was a man
worthy of a more prominent place in his country's annals than he
has yet attained; he acted under a sense of right which, though
unfortunately defiant of Acts of Parliament, was still a very pure
sense of right; and in the remarkable actions which he performed he
looked solely to the good of those towards whom he had a feeling of
duty. A more disinterested hero - and he was one - neverlived.
When Lord Seaforth brought his clan to fight for King James in
1715, Donald Murchison and an elder brother, John, accompanied him
as field officers of the regiment - Donald as Lieutenant-Colonel,
and John as Major. The late Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the
distinguished Geologist, great-grandson of John, possessed a large
ivory and silver "mill," which once contained the commission sent
from France to Donald, as Colonel, bearing the inscription: "James
Rex: forward and spare not." John fell at Sheriffmuir, in the
prime of life; Donald returning with the remains of the clan, was
entrusted by the banished Earl with the management or estates no
longer legally but still virtually his. And for this task Donald
was in various respects well qualified, for, strange to say, the
son or the castellan of Ellandonnan - the Sheriffmuir Colonel - had
been "bred a writer" in Edinburgh, and was as expert at the business
of a factor or estate-agent as in wielding the claymore. [For a
short time before the insurrection, he had acted as factor to Sir
John Preston of Preston Hall, in Mid-Lothian, then also a forfeited
estate, but of minor value.]
In bold and avowed insubordination to the Government of George the
First, Mackenzie's tenants continued for ten years to pay their
rents to Donald Murchison, setting at nought all fear of ever
being compelled to repeat the payment to the commissioners.
In 1720 his Majesty's representatives made a movement for asserting
their claims upon the property. In William Ross of Easterfearn
and Robert Ross, a bailie of Tain, they found two men bold enough to
undertake the duty of stewardship in their behalf over the Seaforth
property, the estates of Grant or Glenmoriston, and or Chisholm of
Strathglass. Little, however, was done that year beyond sending
out notices to the tenants, and preparing for more strenuous
measures for next year. The stir they made only produced excitement,
not dismay. Some of the duine-uasals from about Lochcarron, coming
down with their cattle to the south-country fairs, were heard to
declare that the two factors would never get anything but leaden
coin from the Seaforth tenantry. Donald went over the whole country
showing a letter he had got from the Earl, encouraging the people
to stand out at the same time telling them that the old Countess
was about to come north with a factory for the estate, when she
would allow as paid for any rents which they might hand to him.
The very first use to be made of this money was to bring both the
old and the young Countesses home immediately to Brahan Castle,
where they were to live as they used to do. Part of the funds
thus acquired, Murchison used in keeping on foot a party of
some sixty armed Highlanders, who, in virtue of his commission as
colonel, he proposed to employ in resisting any troops of George
the First which might be sent to Kintail. Nor did he wait to
be attacked, but in June, 1720, hearing of a party of excisemen
passing near Dingwall with a large quantity of aqua vitae, he fell
upon them and rescued their prize. The collector of the district
reported this transaction to the Board of Excise, but no notice
was taken of it.
In February, 1721, the two factors sent officers of their own
into the western districts, to assure the tenants of good usage,
if they would make a peaceable submission but the men were seized,
robbed of their papers, money, and arms, and quietly sent across
the Frith of Attadale, though only after giving their solemn
assurance that they would never attempt to renew their mission.
Resenting this procedure the two factors caused a constable to take
a military party from Bernera Barracks, Glenelg, into Lochalsh,
and, if possible, capture those who had been guilty. They made a
stealthy night-march, and took two men; but the alarm was given,
the two men escaped, and began to fire down upon their captors
from a hillside; then they set fire to the bothy as a signal, and
such a coronach went over all Kintail and Lochalsh as made the
soldiers glad to beat a quick retreat.
After some further proceedings, all ineffectual, the two factors
were enabled, on the 13th day of September, to set forth from
Inverness with a party of thirty soldiers and some armed servants
of their own, with the design of enforcing submission to their
claims. Let it be remembered that in those days there were no
roads in the Highlands, nothing but a few horse-tracks along the
principal lines in the country, where not the slightest effort
had ever been made to smooth away the natural difficulties of the
ground. In two days the factors reached Invermoriston; but here
they were stopped for three days, waiting for their heavy luggage,
which was storm-stayed in Castle Urquhart, and there nearly taken
in a night attack by a partisan warrior bearing the name of Evan
Roy Macgillivray. The tenantry of Glenmoriston at first fled with
their cattle, but afterwards a number of them came in and made
the appearance of submission. The party then moved on towards
Strathglass, while Evan Roy respectfully followed, to pick up any
man or piece of baggage that might be left behind. At Erchless
Castle, and at Invercannich, seats of the Chisholm, they held
courts, and received the submission of a number of the tenants,
whom, however, they subsequently found to be "very deceitful."
There were now forty or fifty miles of the wildest Highland
country before them, where they had reason to believe they should
meet groups of murderous Camerons and Glengarry Macdonalds, and
also encounter the redoubtable Donald Murchison himself, with
his guard of Mackenzies, unless their military force should be
sufficiently strong to render all such opposition hopeless. An
arrangement having been made that they should receive an addition
of fifty soldiers from Bernera, with whom to pass through the
most difficult part of their journey, it seemed likely that they
would appear too strong for resistance and, indeed, intelligence
was already coming to them, that "the people of Kintail, being a
judicious opulent people, would not expose themselves to the
punishments of law," and that the Camerons were absolutely determined
to give no further provocation to the Government. Thus assured,
they set out in cheerful mood along the valley of Strathglass, and,
soon after passing a place called Knockfin, they were reinforced
by Lieutenant Brymer with the expected fifty men from Bernera.
There were now about a hundred well armed men in the invading
body. They spent the next day (Sunday) together in rest, to
gather strength for the ensuing day's march of about thirty arduous
miles, by which they hoped to reach Kintail.
At four in the morning of Monday, the 2d of October, the party
went forward, the Bernera men first, and the factors in the rear.
They were as yet far from the height of the country, and from its
more difficult passes; but they soon found that all the flattering
tales of non-resistance were groundless, and that the Kintail men
had come a good way out from that district in order to defend
it. The truth was, that Donald Murchison had assembled not only
his stated band of Mackenzies, but a levy of the Lewis men under
Seaforth's cousin, Mackenzie of Kildun; also an auxiliary corps of
Camerons, Glengarry and Glenmoriston men, and some of those very
Strathglass men who had been making appearances of submission.
Altogether he had, if the factors were rightly informed, three
hundred and fifty men with long Spanish firelocks, under his command,
and all posted in the way most likely to give them an advantage
over the invading force.
The rear-guard, with the factors, had scarcely gone a mile when
they received a platoon of seven shots from a rising ground near
them to the right, which, however, had only the effect of piercing
a soldier's hat. The Bernera company left the party at eight
o'clock, as they were passing Lochanachlee, and from this time is
heard of no more; how it made its way out of the country does not
appear. The remainder still advancing, Easterfearn, as he rode
a little before his men, had eight shots levelled at him from a
rude breast-work near by, and was wounded in two places, but was
able to appear as if he had not been touched. Then calling out
some Highlanders in his service, he desired them to go before the
soldiers and do their best, according to their own mode of warfare,
to clear the ground of such lurking parties, so that the troops
might advance in safety. They performed this service pretty
effectually, skirmishing as they went on, and the main body
advanced safely about six miles. They were here arrived at a
place called Ath-na-Mullach, where the waters, descending from the
Cralich and the lofty mountains of Kintail, issue eastwards through
a narrow gorge into Loch Affric. It was a place remarkably well
adapted for the purpose of a resisting party. A rocky boss, called
Torr-a-Bheathaich, then densely covered with birch, closes up the
glen as with a gate. The black mountain stream, "spear-deep,"
sweeps round it. A narrow path wound up the rock, admitting of
passengers in single file. Here lay Murchison with the best of his
people, while inferior adherents were ready to make demonstrations
at a little distance. As the invading party approached, they
received a platoon from a wood on the left, but nevertheless went
on. When, however, they were all engaged in toiling up the pass,
forty men concealed in the heather close by fired with deadly
effect, inflicting a mortal wound on Walter Ross, Easterfearn's son
while Bailie Ross's son was wounded by a bullet which swept across
his breast. The Bailie called to his son to retire, and the order
was obeyed; but the two wounded youths and Bailie Ross's servant
were taken prisoners, and carried up the hill, where they were
quickly divested of clothes, arms, money, and papers.
Easterfearn's son died next morning. The troops faced the
ambuscade manfully and are said to have given their fire thrice,
and to have beaten the Highlanders from the bushes near them; but,
observing at this juncture several parties of the enemy on the
neighbouring heights, and being informed of a party of sixty in
their rear, Easterfearn deemed it best to temporise.
He thereupon sent forward a messenger to ask who they were that
opposed the King's troops, and what they wanted. The answer was
that, in the first place, they required to have Ross of Easterfearn
delivered up to them. This was pointedly refused; but it was at
length arranged that Easterfearn should go forward and converse
with the leader of the opposing party. The meeting took place
at Beul-ath-na-Mullach, and Easterfearn found himself confronted
with Donald Murchison. It ended with Easterfearn giving up his
papers, and covenanting, under a penalty of five hundred pounds,
not to officiate in his factory any more; after which he gladly
departed homewards with his associates, under favour of a guard
of Donald's men to conduct them safely past the sixty men who were
lurking in the rear. It was alleged afterwards that the commander
was much blamed by his own people for letting the factors off
with their lives and baggage, particularly by the Camerons, who
had been five days at their post with hardly anything to eat;
and Murchison only pacified them by sending them a good supply of
meat and drink. He had in reality given a very effective check
to the two gentlemen-factors, to one of whom he imparted in
conversation that any scheme of Government stewartship in Kintail
was hopeless, for he and sixteen others had sworn that, if any
person calling himself a factor came there, they would take his
life, whether at kirk or at market, and deem it a meritorious
action, though they should be cut to pieces for it the next minute.
A bloody grave for young Easterfearn in Beauly Cathedral concluded
this abortive attempt to take the Seaforth estates within the scope
of a law sanctioned by statesmen, but against which the natural
feelings of nearly a whole people revolted.
A second attempt was then made to obtain possession of the forfeited
Seaforth estates for the Government. It was calculated that what
the two factors and their attendants with a small military force
had failed to accomplish in the preceding October, when they were
beaten back with fatal loss at Ath-na-Mullach, might now be effected
by a military party alone, if they should make their approach
through a less critical passage. A hundred and sixty of Colonel
Kirk's regiment left Inverness under Captain M'Neill, who had at one
time been Commander of the Highland Watch. They proceeded by
Dingwall, Strathgarve, and Loch Carron, an easier, though a longer
way. Donald Murchison, nothing daunted, got together his followers,
and advanced to the top of Mam Attadale, by a high pass from Loch
Carron to the bead of Loch Long, separating Lochalsh from Kintail.
Here a gallant relative, Kenneth Murchison, and a few others,
volunteered to go forward and plant themselves in ambush in the
defiles of the Coille Bhan (White Wood), while the bulk of the party
should remain where they were. It would appear that this ambush
party consisted of thirteen men, all peculiarly well armed.
On approaching this dangerous place the Captain of the invading
party went forward with a sergeant and eighteen men to clear the
wood, while the main body came on slowly in the rear. At a place
called Altanbadubh, in the Coille Bhan, he encountered Kenneth
and his associates, whose fire wounded himself severely, killed
one of his grenadiers, and wounded several others of the party.
He persisted in advancing, and attacking the handful of natives
with sufficient resolution they slowly withdrew, as unable to
resist; but the Captain now obtained intelligence that a large
body of Mackenzies was posted in the mountain pass of Attadale.
It seemed to him as if there was a design to draw him into a fatal
ambuscade. His own wounded condition probably warned him that a
better opportunity might occur afterwards. He turned his forces
about, and made the best of his way back to Inverness. Kenneth
Murchison quickly rejoined Colonel Donald on Mam Attadale, with the
cheering intelligence that one salvo of thirteen guns had repelled
the hundred and sixty red-coats. After this we hear of no more
attempts to comprise the Seaforth property.
Strange as it may seem, Donald Murchison, two years after this a
second time resisting the Government troops, came down to Edinburgh
with eight hundred pounds of the Earl's rents, that he might get
the money sent abroad for Seaforth's use. He remained a fortnight
in the city unmolested. He on this occasion appeared in the garb
of a Lowland gentleman; he mingled with old acquaintances, "doers"
and writers; and appeared at the Cross amongst the crowd of
gentlemen who assembled there every day at noon. Scores knew all
about his doings at Ath-na-Mullach and the Coille Bhan; but thousands
might have known without the chance of one of them betraying him
to the Government.
General Wade, in his report to the King in 1725, stated that
the Seaforth tenants, formerly reputed the richest of any in the
Highlands, were now become poor, by neglecting their business,
and applying themselves to the use of arms. "The rents" he says,
"continue to be collected by one Donald Murchison, a servant of
the late Earl's, who annually remits or carries the same to his
master in France. The tenants, when in a condition, are said to
have sent him free gifts in proportion to their circumstances,
but are now a year and a-half in arrear of rent. The receipts he
gives to the tenants are as deputy-factor to the Commissioners of the
Forfeited Estates, which pretended power he extorted from the factor
(appointed by the said Commissioners to collect those rents for the
use of the public), whom he attacked with above four hundred armed
men, as he was going to enter upon the said estate, having with him a
party of thirty of your Majesty's troops. The last year this
Murchison marched in a public manner to Edinburgh, to remit eight
hundred pounds to France for his master's use, and remained fourteen
days there unmolested. I cannot omit observing to your Majesty that
this national tenderness the subjects of North Britain have one for
the other is a great encouragement for rebels and attainted persons
to return home from their banishment."
Donald went again to Edinburgh about the end of August, 1725. On the
2d of September, George Lockhart of Carnwath, writing from that city
to the Chevalier St George, states, amongst other information
regarding his party in Scotland, that Daniel Murchison (as he
calls him) "is come to Edinburgh, on his way to France" - doubtless
charged with a sum of rents for Seaforth. "He's been in quest of
me, and I of him," says Lockhart, "these two days, and missed each
other; but in a day or two he's to be at my country house, where
I'll get time to talk fully with him. In the meantime, I know
from one that saw him that he has taken up and secured all the
arms of value on Seaforth's estate, which he thought better than
to trust them to the care and prudence of the several owners; and
the other chieftains, I hear, have done the same."
The Commissioners on the forfeited estates concluded their final
report in 1725, by stating that they had not sold the estate
of William, Earl of Seaforth, "not having been able to obtain
possession and consequently to give the same to a purchaser."
[In a Whig poem on the Highland Roads, written in 1737, Donald
is characteristically spoken of as a sort of cateran, while, in
reality, as every generous person can now well understand, he was
a high-minded gentleman. The verses, nevertheless, as well as the
appended note, are curious -
Keppoch, Rob Roy, and Daniel Murchison,
Cadets are servants to some chief of clan,
From theft and robberies scarce did ever cease,
Yet 'scaped the halter each, and died in peace.
This last his exiled master's rents collected,
Nor unto king or law would be subjected.
Though veteran troops upon the confines lay,
Sufficient to make lord and tribe a prey,
Yet passes strong through which no roads were cut,
Safe-guarded Seaforth's clan, each in his hu',
Thus in strongholds the rogue securely lay,
Neither could they by force be driven away,
Till his attainted lord and chief of late
By ways and means repurchased his estate.
"Donald Murchison, a kinsman and servant to the Earl of Seaforth,
bred a writer, a man of small stature, but full of spirit and
resolution, fought at Dunblane against the Government, anno 1715,
but continued thereafter to collect Seaforth's rents for his
lord's use, and had some bickerings with the King's forces on that
account, till, about five years ago, the Government was so tender
as to allow Seaforth to repurchase his estate, when the said Murchison
had a principal band in striking the bargain for his master. How
he fell under Seaforth's displeasure, and died thereafter, is not
to the purpose here to mention."]
The end of Donald's career can scarcely now be passed over in
a slighting manner. The story is most painful. The Seaforth of
that day - very unlike some of his successors - proved unworthy of the
devotion which this heroic man had shown to him. When his lordship
took possession of the estates which Donald had in a manner preserved
for him, he discountenanced and neglected him. Murchison's noble
spirit pined away under this treatment, and he died in the very
prime of his days of a broken heart. He lies in a remote little
church-yard in the parish of Urray, where his worthy relative,
the late Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, raised a suitable monument
over his grave. The traditional account of Donald Murchison,
communicated to Chambers by the late Finlay Macdonald, Druidaig,
states that the heroic commissioner had been promised a handsome
reward for his services; but Seaforth proved ungrateful. "He was
offered only a small farm called Bun-Da-Loch, which pays at this
day to Mr Matheson, the proprietor, no more than L60 a year;
or another place opposite to Inverinate House, of about the same
value. It is no wonder he refused these paltry offers. He shortly
afterwards left this country, and died in the prime of life near
Conon. On his death-bed, Seaforth went to see him, and asked how
he was, when he said, 'Just as you will be in a short time,' and
then turned his back. They never met again."