misfortune. If the fate of Sir John Maclean be less tragical than that
of other distinguished Jacobites, it was, it must be acknowledged, one
replete with anxiety and disappointment. He may be said to have been
peculiarly "born to trouble." To our modern notions of honour and
consistency, his conduct in becoming a courtier of William the Third,
appears to betray that unsoundness and hollowness of political principle
which, more or less, was the prevalent moral disease of the period, and
which was attributable to some of the most celebrated men of the day. It
undoubtedly forms an unfavourable contrast to the stern independence of
Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel, and of other Highland chieftains, and too
greatly resembles the code of politics adopted by the Earl of Mar. But
those who knew Sir John Maclean intimately, considered him a man of
straightforward integrity; they deemed him above dissimulation, and have
placed his name among those who despised every worldly advantage for the
sake of principle, and who loved the cause which he had espoused for its
own sake. The broken towers of Duart and of Aros, the ruins of those
once proud lords of the soil, attest the sacrifices which they made, and
form a melancholy commentary upon their history.
The castle of Aros, in the Island of Mull, "is interesting," says
Macculloch,[92] "from the picturesque object which it affords to the
artist; the more so, as the country is so devoid of scenes on which his
pencil can be exerted. Still more striking, from its greater magnitude
and more elevated position, is Duart Castle, once the stronghold of the
Macleans, and till lately garrisoned by a detachment from Fort William.
It is fast falling into ruin since it was abandoned as a barrack. When a
few years shall have passed, the almost roofless tenant will surrender
his spacious apartments to the bat and the owl, and seek shelter, like
his neighbours, in the thatched hovel which rises near him. But the
walls, of formidable thickness, may long bid defiance even to the storms
of this region; remaining to mark to future times the barbarous
splendour of the ancient Highland chieftains, and, with the opposite
fortress of Ardtornish, serving to throw a gleam of historical interest
over the passage of the Sound of Mull."
Hitherto Iona had received the last remains of the Lords of Duart; but
Sir John Maclean was not carried to the resting-place of his
forefathers. He was buried in the church of Raffin in Bamffshire, in the
family vault of the Gordons of Buckie. In Iona, that former "light of
the western world," are the tombs of the brave and unfortunate Macleans.
Their bones are interred in the vaults of the cathedral, which, after
coasting the barren rocks of Mull, buffeted by the waves, the traveller
beholds rising out of the sea, "giving," as it is finely expressed, "to
this desolate region an air of civilization, and recalling the
consciousness of that human society which, presenting elsewhere no
visible traces, seems to have abandoned these rocky shores to the
cormorant and the gull." On the tombs of the Highland warriors who
repose within St. Mary's Church in Iona, are sculptured ships, swords,
armorial bearings, appropriate memorials to the island lords, or, as the
Chevalier not inaptly called them, "little kings;" and,
undistinguishable from the graves of the chiefs, are the funereal
allotments of the Kings of Scotland, Iceland, and Norway.[93]
Sir John Maclean left one son and six daughters. His son Hector was born
in France, but brought to Scotland at the age of four, and placed under
the care of his kinsman, Maclean of Coll, where he remained until he was
eighteen years of age; when he repaired to Edinburgh, and in the college
made considerable progress in the usual course of studies in that
institution. After various journeys abroad, chiefly to Paris, Sir Hector
Maclean returned in 1745 to Edinburgh, intending again to lead his
clansmen to the standard of Prince Charles; but a temporary
imprisonment, occasioned by the treachery of a man in whose house he
lodged, prevented his appearance in the field. He was detained in
confinement until released as a subject of the King of France. He died
at Rome in the year 1758, in the forty-seventh year of his age. At his
death the title of Baronet devolved upon Allan of Brolas, great-grandson
of Donald, first Maclean of Brolas, and younger brother of the first
baronet.
Although the chief was thus prevented from following Prince Charles to
the field of Culloden, many of his clan distinguished themselves there;
Charles Maclean of Drimnin appeared at the head of five hundred of the
clan, and his regiment, which was under the command of the Duke of
Perth, was among those that broke forward with drawn swords from the
lines, and routed the left wing of the Duke of Cumberland's army. The
whole of the front line of this gallant regiment was swept away as they
presented themselves before their foes. They were afterwards overpowered
by numbers, and obliged to retire. Their leader, as he retreated,
inquired for one of his sons, who was missing. "I fear," said an
attendant to whom the inquiry was addressed, "that he has fallen." The
fate of the father is well told in these few words,[94] "If he has, it
shall not be for naught," was his reply; and he rushed forward to avenge
him.
Many of the clan fell in the massacre after the battle of Culloden Muir.
Hundreds of the Highlanders who escaped the inhumanity of their
conquerors, died of their wounds or of hunger, in the hills, at twelve
or fourteen miles' distance from the field of battle. "Their misery,"
says a contemporary writer, "was inexpressible." While the cannon was
sounding, and bells were pealing in the capital cities of England and
Ireland, for the united events of the Duke of Cumberland's birth and the
battle of Culloden Moor, fires were seen blazing in Morvern, in which
numerous villages were burned by order of the victorious Cumberland. The
Macleans who came from Mull, seem generally to have escaped; they made
off in one of the long boats for their island, the night after the
engagement, and were fortunate enough to carry with them a cargo of
brandy and some money.[95]
A calmer, though less interesting career has, since 1745, been the fate
of the chiefs of the clan Maclean.[96] Sir Allan, respected and
beloved, became a colonel in the British army. He retired eventually to
the sacred Isle of Inch Kenneth, in Mull, where he exercised the
hospitality characteristic, in ancient times, of the Lords of Duart. Dr.
Johnson has handed down the memory of the venerable chief, not only in a
few descriptive pages of a Tour to the Hebrides, but in a Latin poem,
translated by Sir Daniel Sandford.[97] In the lines he refers to Sir
Allan in these terms.
"O'er glassy tides I thither flew,
The wonders of the spot to view;
In lowly cottage great Maclean
Held there his high ancestral reign."[98]
Sir Allan Maclean died in 1783: he was succeeded by his nearest male
relation, Sir Hector Maclean, of the family of Brolas. The brother of
Sir Hector, Sir Fitzroy Grafton Maclean, a distinguished officer, and
formerly Governor of the island of St. Thomas, is now chief of the clan
Maclean. Two sons continue the line. Of these, the eldest, Colonel
Charles Fitzroy Maclean, has chosen, like his father, the profession of
arms. He commands the eighty-first foot: and has, by his marriage with
a daughter of the Hon. and Rev. Dr. Marsham, an heir to the ancestral
honours of the house. The youngest son of Sir Fitzroy Maclean is Donald
Maclean, of Witton Castle, Durham, the member for Oxford, married to
Harriet, daughter of General Frederick Maitland, a descendant of the
Duke of Lauderdale, whose former injustice to the clan Maclean has been
noticed in this work. It is remarkable, that the same fidelity, the same
loyalty, that sacrificed every possession to the cause of James Stuart,
has been, since the extinction of that cause, worthily employed, with
distinguished talent and success, in the service of Government. Such
instances are not uncommon in the history of the Jacobites.
FOOTNOTES:
[69] Historical and Genealogical Account of the Clan Maclean, by a
Seneachie.
[70] Brown's Highlands.
[71] Historical Account of the Clan Maclean, p. 4.
[72] "Eriska is interesting as having been the first place where Charles
Edward landed in Scotland. It is the boundary of Ottervore toward the
north, and is separated from South Uist by a narrow rocky sound. Upon a
detached and high rock at its southern end are to be seen the remains of
a square tower, the abode of some ancient chieftain."--_Macculloch_,
vol. i. p. 87.
[73] Hist. Account.
[74] Memoirs of Lochiel, p. 193. This account is preferable to that
given by the historian of the house of Maclean, as it is of course a
more dispassionate statement, although the facts stated are nearly the
same. See Hist. and Gen. Acct. pp. 140, 141.
[75] Memoir of Lochiel, p. 194.
[76] According to the Memoirs of Lochiel, it appears that Sir Allan must
have died in 1673 or 1674; since the author speaks, in 1674, of the
"late Sir Allan."
[77] Archibald, ninth Earl, was only restored to the Earldom.
[78] Memoirs of Lochiel, p. 196.
[79] Id. p. 198.
[80] Mem. of Lochiel, p. 195. Hist. Acct. of the Clan, p. 174.
[81] Memoirs of Lochiel.
[82] Supposed to be John Drummond of Balhaldy.
[83] Dalrymple's Memorials, p. 358.
[84] Hist. Acct. p. 198.
[85] Memoirs of Lochiel, p. 326.
[86] Hist. Account of the Maclean Family, p. 198.
[87] Memoirs of Lochiel, p. 326.
[88] Dalrymple, p. 383.
[89] Dalrymple's Memorials. See Collection of Original Papers, p. 31.
Sir John Maclean's Discovery, Part II. p. 4.
[90] Mem. of Locheil, p. 352.
[91] Id. p. 204.
[92] Macculloch's Western Islands of Scotland, vol. i. p. 535.
[93] Macculloch, vol. i. p. 13.
[94] Hist. Notices of the Macleans, p. 206.
[95] Hist. of the Rebellion, p. 199. From the Scots' Magazine. Aberdeen,
1745.
[96] An accomplished descendant of the Macleans of Lochbuy, Miss Moss,
of Edinburgh, has left a beautiful tribute to the valour of her clan in
a ballad of the forty-five. The following passage occurs in Dr. Brown's
History of the Highlands, vol. iv. part II. p. 493, relative to the
Macleans of Lochbuy, Coll, and Ardgour:--"Their estates being afterwards
restored, they listened to the persuasions of Professor Forbes, and
remained quiet until the subsequent insurrection of 1745, when a general
rising of the clans would most probably have placed the crown upon the
head of the descendant of their ancient line of kings." This reproach
rests only on the three houses just mentioned, and not on the Macleans
of Brolas, nor of Mull, who were at the battle of Culloden.
For a portion of the materials of the foregoing narrative I am greatly
indebted to the Historical and Genealogical Account of the Clan Maclean,
by a Seneachie. The work is compiled chiefly from the Duart Manuscripts.
[97] Hist. Notices, p. 209.
[98] See History of Iona by Lachlan Maclean, Esq., Glasgow.
ROB ROY MACGREGOR CAMPBELL.
"The Clan Gregiour," according to an anonymous writer of the seventeenth
century, "is a race of men so utterly infamous for thieving,
depredation, and murder, that after many Acts of the Council of Scotland
against them, at length in the reign of King Charles the First, the
Parliament made a strict Act suppressing the very name." Upon the
Restoration, when, as the same writer declares, "the reins were given to
all licentiousness, and loyalty, as it was called, was thought
sufficient to compound for all wickedness, the Act was rescinded. But,
upon the late happy Revolution, when the nation began to recover her
senses, some horrid barbarities having been committed by that execrable
crew, under the leading of one Robert Roy Macgregiour, yet living, the
Parliament under King William and Queen Mary annulled the said Act
rescissory, and revived the former penal statute against them."[99]
Such is the summary account of one who is evidently adverse to the
political creed, no less than to the daring violence, of the clan
Macgregor. Little can, it is true, be offered in palliation for the
extraordinary career of spoliation and outrage which the history of
this race of Highlanders presents; and which terminated only with the
existence of the clan itself.
The clan Gregor, anciently known by the name of clan Albin, dated their
origin from the ninth century, and assumed to be the descendants of King
Alpin, who flourished in the year 787: so great is its antiquity, that
an old chronicle asserts, speaking of the clan Macarthur, "that none are
older than that clan, except the hills, the rivers, and the clan Albin."
Among the conflicts which for centuries rendered the Highlands the
theatre of perpetual strife, the clan Albin, or, as in process of time
it was called, the clan Gregor, was marked as the most turbulent members
of the state. It was never safe to dispute with them, and was deemed
idle to inquire whether the lands which they occupied were theirs by
legal titles, or by the right of the sword. Situate on the confines of
Scotland, and protected by the inaccessible mountains which surrounded
them, they could defy even their most powerful neighbours, who were
always desirous of conciliating allies so dangerous in times of peace,
so prompt in war. The boundaries which they occupied stretched along the
wilds of the Trosaëhs and Balquhidder, to the northern and western
heights of Mannach and Glenurely, comprehending portions of the counties
of Argyle, Perth, Dumbarton, and Stirling, which regions obtained the
name of the country of the Mac Gregors. A part of these domains being
held by the _coir à glaive_, or right of the sword, exposed the clan
Gregor to the enmity of their formidable neighbours, the Earls of Argyle
and Breadalbane, who, obtaining royal grants of such lands, lost no
opportunity of annoying and despoiling their neighbours, under legal
pretexts. Hence many of the contests which procured for the Macgregors a
character of ferocity, and brought upon them 'letters of fire and
sword.' A commission was granted first in the reign of Queen Mary, in
1563, to the most powerful clansmen and nobles, to pursue, and
exterminate the clan Gregor, and prohibiting, at the same time, that her
Majesty's liege subjects should receive or assist any of the clan, or
give them meat, drink, or clothes. The effect which such an edict was
likely to produce upon a bold, determined, desperate people may readily
be conceived. Hitherto the clan Gregor had been a loyal clan. From the
house of Alpin had descended the royal family of Stewart, with whom the
Macgregors claimed kindred, bearing upon their shields, in Gaelic, the
words, 'My tribe is royal.' They had been also in favour with the early
Scottish monarchs, one of whom had ennobled the Macgregors of Glenurely,
who could cope with the most elevated families in Scotland, in
possessions and importance. But, after the edict of Mary, a palpable
decline in the fortunes of the clan Gregor was manifest, until it was
for ever extinguished in modern days. Henceforth the Macgregors
exhibited a contempt for those laws which had never afforded them
protection. They became, in consequence of the cruel proclamation
against them, dependent for subsistence upon their system of predatory
warfare. They grew accustomed to bloodshed, and could easily be
'_hounded out_,' as Sir Walter Scott expresses it, to commit deeds of
violence. Hence they were incessantly engaged in desperate feuds, in
which the vengeance of an injured and persecuted people was poured out
mercilessly upon the defenceless. Hence they became objects of hatred to
the community, until the famous contest of Glenfruin, between the
Macgregors and the Colquhouns of Luss, brought once more the royal
displeasure upon them in the reign of James the Sixth.
The sequestered valley, which obtained, from the memorable and tragical
events of the combat, the name of the Glen of Sorrow, is situated about
six miles from Loch Lomond, and is watered by the river Fruin which
empties itself into that lake. In the spring of the year 1603, Alexander
of Glenstrae, chief of the Macgregors, went from the country of Lennox
to Balquhidder, for the express purpose of conciliating the feuds which
subsisted between his brother and Sir Humphrey Colquhoun of Luss. After
a conference, apparently pacific, but well understood by the Macgregors
to augur no friendly intentions, the assembled members of that clan
prepared to return to their homes. They were followed by the Laird of
Luss, who was resolved to surprise them on their route. But his
treachery was secretly known by those whom he pursued.
The right bank of Loch Lomond is so steep and woody that before the
formation of roads, the Highlanders found it impossible to pass that
way. The way to Argyleshire, therefore, ran along the vale of Fruin in a
circuitous direction to the head of Loch Long, and again turned eastward
towards Loch Lomond. In the middle of the glen the Macgregors, who were
peacefully returning home, were attacked by the Colquhouns. The
assailants were four to one; but the valour of the Macgregors prevailed,
and two hundred Colquhouns were left dead on the field. The very name of
Colquhoun was nearly annihilated. The account of the battle was
transmitted by the Laird of Luss to James the Sixth, at Edinburgh; and
the message was accompanied by two hundred and twenty shirts, stained
with blood, which were presented to the King by sixty women, widows of
those slain in the Glen of Sorrow. These ladies rode on white poneys,
and carried in their hands long poles, on which were extended the
stained garments. But the shirts, it is said, were soiled by the way,
and the widows were hireling mourners, who comforted themselves with the
loved beverages of their country on their return, and were in many
instances obliged to be carried to their homes.[100]
The indignation of James the Sixth, unmitigated by any friendly
representations on behalf of the Macgregors, burst forth fatally for
the clan. The Macgregors were formally outlawed by Act of Parliament;
they were pursued with blood-hounds, and when seized, were put to death
without trial. Their chief, the unfortunate Alexander of Glenstrae
surrendered to his enemy the Earl of Argyle, with eighteen of his
followers, on condition that he might be taken safely out of Scotland.
But the severity of Government stopped not here. The very name of Gregor
was blotted out, by an order in Council, from the names of Scotland.
Those who had hitherto borne it were commanded to change it under pain
of death, and were forbidden to retain the appellations which they had
been accustomed from their infancy to cherish. Those who had been at
Glenfruin were also deprived of their weapons, excepting a pointless
knife to cut their victuals. They were never to assemble in any number
exceeding four; and by an Act of Parliament passed in 1617, these laws
were extended to the rising generation, lest as the children of the
proscribed parents grew up, the strength of the clan should be restored.
For these severe acts, the only apology that can be offered is the
unbridled fury and cruelty of the Macgregors, when irritated; of which
it is necessary to mention one instance, as an example of the many left
on record, of which the clan were convicted.
In the battle of Glenfruin, which James had visited so rigorously upon
the Macgregors, the greater part of those who bore the name of Colquhoun
were exterminated. Yet a still more savage act was perpetrated after
the day was won.
The town of Dumbarton contained, at that time, a seminary famous for
learning, where many of the Colquhouns, as well as the sons of the
neighbouring gentry, were sent for education. Upon hearing of the
encounter at Glenfruin, eighty of these high-spirited boys set off to
join their relatives; but the Colquhouns, anxious for the safety of
their young kinsfolk, would not permit them to join in the fight, but
locked them up in a barn for safety. Here they remained, until the event
of the day left the Macgregors masters of what might well be called "the
Glen of Sorrow." The boys, growing impatient for their release, became
noisy; when the Macgregors, discovering their hiding-place, and
thirsting for vengeance, set fire to the barn, and the young inmates
were consumed. According to another account, they were all put to the
sword by one of the guard, a Macgregor, whose distinctive appellation
was Ciar Mohr, "the mouse-coloured man." When the chief of the
Macgregor's clan repaired to the barn, and, knowing that the boys were
the sons of gentlemen, was desirous of ensuring their safety, he asked
their guards where they were. When told of what had occurred, Macgregor
broke out into the exclamation, that "his clan was ruined." The sad
event was commemorated, until the year 1757, by an annual procession of
the Dumbarton youths, to a field at some distance from their school,
where they enacted the melancholy ceremonial of a mock funeral, over
which they set up a loud lamentation. The site of the farm where this
scene was enacted is still pointed out; and near it runs a rivulet, the
Gaelic name of which signifies "the burn of the young ghosts:" so deep
was the memory of this horrible deed.[101]
A fearful retribution followed the clan for years. They had no friend at
Court to plead their cause; and the most cruel hardships became the lot
of the innocent, as well as the guilty, of their clan. The country was
filled with troops ready to destroy them, so that all who were able,
were forced to fly to rocks, caverns, and to hide themselves among the
woods. Few of the Macgregors, at this period of the Scottish history,
were permitted to die a natural death.
As an inducement to the murder of these wretched people, a reward was
offered for every head of a Macgregor that was conveyed to the Privy
Council at Edinburgh. Those who died a natural death were buried in
silence and secrecy by their kinsfolk, for the graves of the persecuted
clan were not respected; the bodies of the dead being exhumed, and the
heads cut off, to be sent to the Council. Never has there been, in the
history of mankind, a more signal instance of national odium than that
which pursued this brave, though violent race. The spirit in which they
were denounced has in it little of the character of justice, and reminds
us of the vengeance of the Jewish people upon the different hostile
tribes to whom they were opposed.
In process of time, the last remnant of the lands pertaining to the
Macgregors was bestowed upon Archibald, seventh Earl of Argyle, whose
family had profited largely by the destruction of the clan: for every
Macgregor whom they had destroyed, they had received a reward. In 1611,
the Earl was commanded to root out this thievish and barbarous race; a
commission which he executed remorselessly, dragging the parents to
death, and leaving their offspring to misery and to revenge; for the
deep consciousness of their wrongs grew up with the young, and prepared
them for deeds of violence and vengeance.