Marquis of Tullibardine was forced, a second time, to seek a place of
refuge. He threw himself, unhappily, upon the mercy of one who little
deserved the confidence which was reposed in his honour, or merited the
privilege of succouring the unfortunate. The following are the
particulars of his fate:--
About three weeks after the battle of Culloden the Marquis of
Tullibardine traversed the moors and mountains through Strathane in
search of a place of safety and repose: he had become a very infirm old
man, and so unfit for travelling on horseback, that he had a saddle made
on purpose, somewhat like a chair, in which he rode in the manner ladies
usually do.
On arriving in the vicinity of Loch Lomond he was quite worn out, and
recollecting that a daughter of the family of Polmain (who were
connected with his own) was married to Buchanan of Drumakiln, who lived
in a detached peninsula, running out into the lake, the fainting
fugitive thought, on these accounts, that the place might be suitable
for a temporary refuge. The Marquis was attended by a French secretary,
two servants of that nation, and two or three Highlanders, who had
guided him through the solitary passes of the mountains. Against the
judgment of these faithful attendants, he bent his course to the Ross,
for so the house of Drumakiln is called, where the Laird of Drumakiln
was living with his son. The Marquis, after alighting, begged to have a
private interview with his cousin, the wife of Drumakiln; he told this
lady he was come to put his life into her hands, and what, in some
sense, he valued more than life, a small casket,[63] which he delivered
to her, intreating her, whatever became of him, that she would keep that
carefully till demanded in his name, as it contained papers of
consequence to the honour and safety of many other persons. Whilst he
was thus talking, the younger Drumakiln rudely broke in upon him, and
snatching away the casket, he said he would secure it in a safe place,
and went out. Meantime the French secretary and the servants were
watchful and alarmed at seeing the father and son walking in earnest
consultation, and observing horses saddled and dispatched with an air
of mystery, whilst every one appeared to regard them with compassion.
All this time the Marquis was treated with seeming kindness; but his
attendants suspected some snare. They burst into loud lamentations, and
were described by some children, who observed them, to be 'greeting and
roaring like women.' This incident the lady of Drumakiln (who was a
person of some capacity) afterwards told her neighbours as a strange
instance of effeminacy in these faithful adherents.
At night the secretary went secretly to his master's bedside, and
assured him there was treachery. The Marquis answered he could believe
no gentleman capable of such baseness, and at any rate he was incapable
of escaping through such defiles as they had passed; he told him in that
case it could only aggravate his sorrow to see him also betrayed; and
advised him to go off immediately, which he did. Early in the morning a
party from Dumbarton, summoned for that purpose, arrived to carry the
Marquis away prisoner. He bore his fate with calm magnanimity. The fine
horses which he brought with him were detained, and he and one attendant
who remained were mounted on some horses belonging to Drumakiln. Such
was the general sentiment of disgust with Drumakiln, that the officer
who commanded the party taunted that gentleman in the bitterest manner,
and the commander of Dumbarton Castle, who treated his noble prisoner
with the utmost respect and compassion, regarded Drumakiln with the
coldest disdain. The following anecdotes of the odium which Drumakiln
incurred, are related by Mrs. Grant.[64]
"Very soon after the Marquis had departed, young Drumakiln mounted the
Marquis's horse, (the servant riding another which had belonged to that
nobleman,) and set out to a visit to his father-in-law Polmaise.
"When he alighted, he gave his horse to a groom who, knowing the Marquis
well, recognised him--'Come in poor beast (said he); times are changed
with you since you carried a noble Marquis, but you shall always be
treated well here for his sake.' Drumakiln ran in to his father-in-law,
complaining that his servant insulted him. Polmaise made no answer, but
turning on his heel, rang the bell for the servant, saying, 'That
gentleman's horses.'
"After this and several other rebuffs the father and son began to shrink
from the infamy attached to this proceeding. There was at that time only
one newspaper published at Edinburgh, conducted by the well-known
Ruddiman; to this person the elder Drumakiln addressed a letter or
paragraph to be inserted in his paper, bearing that on such a day the
Marquis surrendered to him at his house. This was regularly dated at
Ross: very soon after the father and son went together to Edinburgh, and
waiting on the person appointed to make payments for affairs of this
nature, demanded their reward. It should have been before observed,
that the Government were at this time not at all desirous to apprehend
the Marquis, though his name was the first inserted in the proclamation.
This capture indeed greatly embarrassed them, as it would be cruel to
punish, and partial to pardon him. The special officer desired Drumakiln
to return the next day for the money. Meanwhile he sent privately to
Ruddiman and examined him about the paragraph already mentioned. They
found it on his file, in the old Laird's handwriting, and delivered it
to the commissioner. The commissioner delivered the paragraph, in his
own handwriting, up to the elder, saying, '_There_ is an order to the
Treasury, which ought to satisfy you,' and turned away from him with
marked contempt."
"Soon after the younger laird was found dead in his bed, to which he had
retired in usual health. Of five children which he left, it would shock
humanity to relate the wretched lives, and singular, and untimely
deaths, of whom, indeed, it might be said,
"On all the line a sudden vengeance waits,
And frequent hearses shall besiege their gates."
And they were literally considered by all the neighbourhood as caitiffs,
"Whose breasts the furies steel'd
And curst with hearts unknowing how to yield."--POPE.
The blasting influence of more than dramatic justice, or of corroding
infamy, seemed to reach every branch of this devoted family. After the
extinction of the direct male heirs, a brother, who was a captain in
the army, came home to take possession of the property. He was a person
well-respected in life, and possessed some talent, and much amenity of
manners. The country gentlemen, however, shunned and disliked him, on
account of the existing prejudice. This person, thus shunned and
slighted, seemed to grow desperate, and plunged into the lowest and most
abandoned profligacy. It is needless to enter into a detail of crimes
which are hastening to desired oblivion. It is enough to observe that
the signal miseries of this family have done more to impress the people
of that district with a horror of treachery, and a sense of retributive
justice, than volumes of the most eloquent instruction could effect. On
the dark question relative to temporal judgments it becomes us not to
decide. Yet it is of some consequence, in a moral view, to remark how
much all generous emulation, all hope of future excellence, is quenched
in the human mind by the dreadful blot of imputed infamy."[65]
This account of the retributive justice of public opinion which was
visited upon Drumakiln, is confirmed by other authority.[66] It is
consolatory to reflect that the Marquis of Tullibardine, after a life
spent in an honest devotion to the cause which he believed to be just,
was spared, by a merciful release, from the horrors of a public trial,
and of a condemnation to the scaffold, which age and ill-health were not
sufficient pleas to avert. After remaining some weeks in confinement at
Dumbarton, he was carried to Edinburgh, where he remained until the
thirteenth of May, 1746. He was then put on board the Eltham man-of-war,
lying in the Leith Roads, bound for London. His health all this time was
declining, yet he had the inconvenience of a long sea voyage to sustain,
for the Eltham went north for other prisoners before it sailed for
London. But at length the Marquis reached his last home, the Tower,
where he arrived on the twenty-first of June. He survived only until the
ninth of July.
Little is known of this unfortunate nobleman, except what is honourable,
consistent, and amiable. He had almost ceased to be Scotch, except in
his attachments, and could scarcely write his own language. He seems to
have been generally respected; and he bore his reverses of fortune with
calmness and fortitude. In his last moments he is said to have declared,
that although he had been as much attached to the cause of James Stuart
as any of his adherents, if he might now advise his countrymen, it
should be never more to enter into rebellious measures, for, having
failed in the last attempt, every future one would be hopeless.[68]
The Marquis died in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in
the chapel in the Tower, which has received few more honest men, or
public characters more true to the principles which they have professed.
The following letter, written in March, 1746, during the siege of Blair
Castle, when it was commanded by a garrison under Sir Andrew Agnew, and
addressed to Lord George Murray, shows the strong sense which the
Marquis entertained of what was due to his country and his cause.
"Brother George,
"Since, contrary to the rules of right reason, you was pleased to
tell me a sham story about the expedition to Blair, without further
ceremony for me, you may now do what the gentlemen of the country
think fit with the castle: I am in no concern about it. Our
great-great-grandfather, grandfather, and father's pictures will be
an irreparable loss on blowing up the house; but there is no
comparison to be made with these faint images of our forefathers and
the more necessary publick service, which requires we should
sacrifice everything that can valuably contribute towards the
country's safety, as well as materially advancing the royal cause.
Pray give my kind service to all valuable friends, to which I can
add nothing but that, in all events, you may be assured I shall ever
be found with just regard, dear brother, your most affectionate
brother and humble servant."
"Inverness,
"March 26, 1746."
"PS. At the upper end of the door of the old stable, there was
formerly a gate which had a portcullis into the castle; it is half
built up and boarded over on the stable side, large enough to hold a
horse at hack and manger. People that don't know the place imagine
it may be much easier dug through than any other part of the wall,
so as to make a convenient passage into the vaulted room, which is
called the servants' hall."
Of the fate of this princely territory, and upon the fortunes of the
family of which the Marquis of Tullibardine was so respectable a member,
much remains to be related; but it appertains more properly to the life
of the warlike and ambitious brother of the Marquis, the celebrated Lord
George Murray.
FOOTNOTES:
[44] Lord Lovat's Memoirs, p. 39.
[45] Wood's Peerage.
[46] Reay, p. 78.
[47] Wood's Peerage.
[48] See Brown's History of the Highlands. But Home, in his History of
the Rebellion, speaks of Lords Tullibardine and Seaforth as coming from
a different quarter. "Most of these persons," he says, "came privately
from France."
[49] Athol Correspondence. Printed for the Abbotsford Club. App. 229.
[50] Home's History of the Rebellion, p. 19.
[51] Home, pp. 22, 23.
[52] Jacobite Memoirs.
[53] Glenfinnin is in the shire of Inverness, and the parish of Glenelg.
It is situated at the head of Loch Shiel.
[54] Jacobite Memoirs, p. 23.
[55] Introductory Notice, Athol Correspondence, p. ix.
[56] Pennant's Scotland, vol. i. p. 118.
[57] It has lately been proved, beyond doubt, that the parr is a young
salmon, not a distinct fish.
[58] Pennant, p. 119.
[59] Jacobite Memoirs, pp. 26, 27.
[60] Henry Benedict, afterwards Cardinal York.
[61] Jacobite Memoirs, p. 31.
[62] See Forbes's Jacobite Memoirs, p. 51.
[63] This casket was never more seen. It was supposed to contain family
jewels.
[64] Mrs. Grant's MS. For which I am indebted for the whole of this
account.
[65] Mrs. Grant's MS.
[66] Note in Forbes's Jacobite Memoirs, p. 3.
[67] Wood's Peerage.
[68] Athole Correspondence. Introductory Notice.
SIR JOHN MACLEAN.
The name Maclean, abbreviated from Mac Gillean, is derived from the
founder of the clan, "Gillean n'a Tuaidh," Gillean of the Battle-axe, so
called from his carrying with him as his ordinary weapon, a battle-axe.
From this hero are descended the three principal families who compose
the clan Maclean, who was also designated Gillean of Duart.
It is related of Gillean that, being one day engaged in a stag-hunt on
the mountain of Bein't Sheala, and having wandered away from the rest of
his party, the mountain became suddenly enveloped in a deep mist, and
that he lost his track. For three days he wandered about; and, at length
exhausted, threw himself under the shelter of a cranberry bush,
previously fixing the handle of his battle-axe in the earth. He was
discovered by his party, who had been vainly endeavouring to find him,
insensible on the ground, with his arm round the handle of the
battle-axe, whilst the head of the weapon rose above the bush. Hence,
probably, the origin of the crest used by the clan Maclean, the
battle-axe surrounded by a laurel-branch.[69]
To Gillean of the Battle-axe various origins have been ascribed; truly
is it observed, that "there is little wisdom in attempting to thread the
mazes of fanciful and traditionary genealogies."[70] Like other families
of importance, in feudal times, the Macleans had their seneachie, or
historian; and, by the last of these, Dr. John Beaton, the descent, in
regular order, from Aonaglius Turmi Teanebrach, a powerful monarch of
Ireland, to Fergus the First, of Scotland, is traced.
A tradition had indeed prevailed, that the founder, of the house of
Maclean was a son of Fitzgerald, an Earl of Kildare,--a supposition
which is contemptuously rejected by the historian of this ancient race.
"In fact," he remarks, "from various sources, Gillean can be proved to
have been in his grave, long before such a title as Earl of Kildare was
known, and nearly two hundred years before the name of Fitzgerald
existed."[71] It appears, indeed, undoubted, from ancient records and
well-authenticated sources, that the origin of Gillean was derived from
the source which has been stated.
When the lordship of the Isles was forfeited, the clan Maclean was
divided into four branches, each of which held of the Lords of the
Isles; these branches were the Macleans of Duart, the Macleans of
Lochbuy, the Macleans of Coll, and the Macleans of Ardgour. Of these,
the most important branch was the family of Duart, founded by Lachlan
Maclean, surnamed Lubanich. This powerful chief obtained such an
ascendant at the court of the Lord of the Isles, as to provoke the
enmity of the Chief of Mackinnon, who, on the occasion of a stag-hunt,
formed a plot to cut off Lachlan and his brother, Hector Maclean. But
the conspiracy was discovered by its objects; Mackinnon suffered death
at the hands of the two brothers for his design; and the Lord of the
Isles, sailing in his galley towards his Castle of Ardtorinsh in Morven,
was captured, and carried to Icolumb-kill, where he was obliged, sitting
on the famous black rock of Iona, held sacred in those days, to swear
that he would bestow in marriage upon Lachlan Lubanich his daughter
Margaret, granddaughter, by her mother's side, of Robert the Second,
King of Scotland: and with her, as a dowry, to give to the Lord of
Duart, Eriska, with all its isles. The dowry demanded consisted of a
towering rock, commanding an extensive view of the islands by which it
is surrounded, and occupying a central situation among those
tributaries.[72] From the bold and aspiring chief was Sir John Maclean
of Duart descended. The marriage of Lachlan Lubanich with Margaret of
the Isles took place in the year 1366.[73]
Between the time of Lachlan Lubanich and the birth of Sir John Maclean,
the house of Duart encountered various reverses of fortune. It has been
shown how the chief added the rock of Eriska to his possessions; in the
course of the following century, a great part of the Isles of Mull and
Tirey, with detached lands in Isla, Jura, Scarba, and in the districts
of Morven, Lochaber, and Knapdale, were included in the estates of the
chiefs of Duart, who rose, in the time of James the Sixth, to be among
the most powerful of the families of the Hebrides. The principal seats
of the chiefs of the Macleans were Duart and Aros Castles in Mull,
Castle Gillean in Kerrara, on the coast of Lorn, and Ardtornish Castle
in Morven. In 1632, on occasion of the visit of one of the chiefs,
Lachlan, to the Court of Charles the First, he was created a Baronet of
Nova Scotia, by the title of Sir Lachlan Maclean of Morven. But various
circumstances, and more especially the enmity of the Argyle family, and
the adherence of Maclean to the Stuarts, had contributed to the decline
of their pre-eminence before the young chief, whose destiny it was to
make his name known and feared at the court of England, had seen the
light.
The family of Maclean in all its numerous and complicated branches, had
been distinguished for loyalty and independence during the intervening
centuries between the career of Gillean and the birth of that chieftain
whose devotion to the Jacobite cause proved eventually the ruin of the
house of Duart. Throughout the period of the Great Rebellion, and of the
Protectorate, the chief of the Macleans had made immense sacrifices to
support the interests of the King, and to bring his clan into the field.
In the disgraceful transactions, by which it was agreed that Scotland
should withdraw her troops from England upon the payment of four hundred
thousand pounds, in full of all demands, the faithful Highland clans of
the north and west, the Grahams, Macleans, Camerons, and many others,
had no participation. One main actor in that bargain, by which a monarch
was bought and sold, was the Marquis of Argyle, the enemy and terror of
his Highland neighbours, the Macleans of Duart. Upon the suppression of
the royal authority, domestic feuds were ripened into hostilities during
the general anarchy; and few of the oppressed and harassed clans
suffered more severely, or more permanently than the Macleans of Duart.
Archibald, the first Marquis of Argyle, fixed an indelible stain upon
his memory by acts of unbridled licence and aggression, in relation to
his Highland neighbours; the unfortunate Macleans of Duart especially
experienced the effects of his wrath, and suffered from his
manoeuvres.[74]
In the time of Cromwell, Argyle having procured from the Lords of the
Treasury, a grant of the tithes of Argyleshire, with a commission to
collect several arrears of the feu-duty, cesses, taxation, and supply,
and some new contributions laid on the subject by Parliament, under the
names of ammunition and contribution money, the power which such an
authority bestowed, in days when the standard of right was measured by
the amount of force, may readily be conceived. On the part of Argyle,
long-cherished views on the territories of his neighbour, Maclean of
Duart, were now brought into co-operation with the most remorseless
abuse of authority.
Sir Lachlan Maclean of Duart, the great-grandfather of Sir John Maclean,
was then chief of the clan. The Marquis of Argyle directed that
application should be made to this unfortunate man for his quota of
these arrears, and also for some small sums for which he had himself
been security for the chief. Sir Lachlan was in no condition to comply
with this demand; for he had suffered more deeply in the royal cause
than any of his predecessors. During the rule of Argyle and Leslie in
Scotland, a rule which might aptly be denominated a reign of terror, the
possessions of the chief in Mull had been ravaged by the parliamentary
troops, without any resistance from the harmless inhabitants, who had
been instructed by their lord to offer no retaliation that could furnish
a plea for future oppression. The castle of Duart had been besieged, and
surrendered to Argyle and Leslie, upon condition that the defenceless
garrison, and eight Irish gentlemen, inmates of the hospitable
Highlander's home, should be spared. Still more, the infant son of Sir
Lachlan had been kidnapped from his school at Dumbarton by Argyle, and
was paraded by the side of the Marquis to intimidate the chief, who was
made to understand that any resistance from him would be fatal to his
child,--"an instrument," observes the seneachie, "which the coward well
knew might be used with greater effect upon the noble father of his
captive, than all the Campbell swords the craven lord could muster."
Under these circumstances, Sir Lachlan Maclean was neither in the temper
nor the condition to comply with the exactions of those whom he also
regarded as having usurped the sovereign authority. He refused; and his
refusal was exactly what his enemy desired.
The next step which Argyle took was to claim the amount due to him from
the chief, which, by buying up all the debts, public and private, of
Maclean, he swelled to thirty thousand pounds, before a court of law.
Such was the state of Scottish judicial proceedings in those days, that
the process was ended before Sir Lachlan had even heard of its
commencement. He hastened, when informed of it, to Edinburgh, in order
to make known his case before the "Committee of Estates," then acting
with sovereign authority in Scotland. But he was intercepted at
Inverary, cast into prison upon a writ of attachment, issued and signed
by Argyle himself, and immured in Argyle's castle of Carrick, for a debt
due to Archibald, Marquis of Argyle. It was there required of him that
he should grant a bond for fourteen thousand pounds Scots, and sign a
doqueted account for sixteen thousand pounds more, bearing interest.
For a time the unhappy chief refused to sign the bond thus demanded; for
a year he resisted the oppression of his enemy, and bore his
imprisonment, with the aggravation of declining health. At last his
friends, alarmed at his sinking condition, entreated him, as the only
means of release, to comply with the demand of Argyle. Sir Lachlan
signed the document, was set free, and returned to Duart, where he
expired in April, 1649. To his family he bequeathed a legacy of
contention and misfortune.
His successor, Sir Hector Maclean, the young hostage who had been
kidnapped from Dumbarton, was a youth of a warlike and determined
spirit, who resisted the depredations of the plundering clan of
Campbells in Lorn and Ardnamuchan, and, on one occasion, hung up two of
the invaders at his castle of Dunnin Morvern. Such, in spite of this
summary mode of proceeding, were Sir Hector's ideas of honour, that,
notwithstanding his doubts of the validity of the bond obtained from his
father, he conceived that the superscription of his father's name to it
rendered it his duty to comply with its conditions as he could. He is
declared by one authority to have paid ten thousand pounds of the
demand; by another that fact is doubted, since, when Sir John Maclean's
guardians investigated it, no receipts for sums alleged to have been
paid on account were to be found.[75] But this is again accounted for by
the seneachie or family historian.