_The Lyon in Mourning_ is a collection of Journals, Narratives, and
Memoranda relating to the life of Prince Charles Edward Stuart at and
subsequent to the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. The formation of this
collection was to a great extent the life-work of the Rev. Robert
Forbes, M.A., Bishop of Ross and Caithness.
He was the son of Charles Forbes, a schoolmaster in the parish of
Rayne, Aberdeenshire, and of Marjory Wright, and was born there in
1708, his baptism being recorded in the parochial register as having
taken place on 4th May of that year. He must have been a studious
youth, as he was sent to Marischal College, Aberdeen, in or about
1722, at the early age of fourteen, and graduated there as Master of
Arts in 1726. He then proceeded to qualify himself for orders in the
Scottish Episcopal Church, and coming to Edinburgh in June 1735, he
was there ordained priest by Bishop Freebairn. In December of that
year he became assistant to the Rev. William Law at Leith, and soon
afterwards, at the request of the congregation, was appointed his
colleague. At Leith, it may be said, he lived and laboured for the
remainder of his life.
Like most of the Episcopalians of that day, he was an ardent
Jacobite, indeed one of the most ardent, and but for a timely
interposition of the 'hated Hanoverian' government would not
improbably have shared the fate of some of his brethren whose end he
chronicles. In that case there would have been no _Lyon in Mourning_,
and it is but fair to say that though _The Lyon_ can never be
considered, and does not pretend to be, an impartial relation of the
events with which it deals, our literature of the Rebellion of 1745
would have been greatly the poorer by its absence. Nay, it may even
be said that, but for the continuous energy and single-eyed purpose
of Bishop Forbes in this work, much of what is now known on this
subject would never have come to light.
On hearing of the advent of Prince Charles Edward in the West
Highlands, Mr. Forbes, with two Episcopalian clergymen and some other
gentlemen, started off with the intention of sharing his fortunes,
but all were arrested on suspicion at St. Ninians, near Stirling,
and imprisoned. He notes the fact in the Baptismal Register of
his congregation, as follows: 'A great interruption has happened
by my misfortune of being taken prisoner at St. Ninian's, in
company with the Rev. Messrs. Thomas Drummond and John Willox, Mr.
Stewart Carmichael and Mr. Robert Clark, and James Mackay and James
Carmichael, servants, upon Saturday, the seventh day of September
1745, and confined in Stirling Castle till February 4th, 1746, and in
Edinburgh Castle till May 29th of said year. We were seven in number,
taken upon the seventh day of the week, the seventh day of the
month, and the seventh month of the year, reckoning from March.'[1]
An incident of the roping of these prisoners at their removal from
Stirling to Edinburgh is narrated by the author.[2]
[1] _Journals, etc., of Bishop Forbes_, by the Rev. J. B. Craven,
1886, p. 12. This register is still extant, and one of its
counterparts, the register of marriages performed by the Bishop, is
printed in the _Scottish Antiquary_, vol. viii. pp. 125-129. See
also p. 169. One of the baptisms was that of John Skinner, author of
'Tullochgorum,' who on 8th June 1740 went to Mr. Forbes in his room,
and was re-baptized, declaring that 'he was not satisfied with the
sprinkling of a layman, a Presbyterian teacher, he had received in
his infancy.'
[2] See ff. 916, 987.
After his release from imprisonment Mr. Forbes appears to have been
invited to reside in the house of one of the most wealthy members of
his congregation, Dame Magdalene Scott, Lady Bruce of Kinross, the
widow of Sir William Bruce of Kinross. She resided in the Citadel
of Leith, and was a strong Jacobite; Mr. Forbes tells how her house
was on more than one occasion the special object of the Government's
concern, as the Prince himself was supposed to be concealed there.[3]
For this lady Mr. Forbes cherished the highest esteem, speaking of
her as 'the worthy person, the protection of whose roof I enjoy.'[4]
She died in June 1752, aged 82; but before that event took place he
had left her house, on the occasion of his marriage to his first
wife, Agnes Gairey. This was in 1749,[5] and the lady died on 4th
April of the following year.[6] He afterwards married, as his second
wife, Rachel, second daughter of Ludovick Houston of Johnstone, in
Renfrewshire, of whom he makes frequent mention in _The Lyon_. She
was in fullest sympathy with her husband's Jacobite proclivities, and
occasionally sent presents to the Prince abroad.
[3] See ff. 940, _et seq._
[4] See f. 325.
[5] See f. 1749.
[6] Craven's _Journals, etc._, p. 11.
In 1762 Mr. Forbes was chosen and appointed Bishop of Ross and
Caithness, and in 1767 he was elected Bishop of Aberdeen by a
majority of the local clergy, but the College of Bishops disallowed
the election in his case, and another was appointed. How keenly
Mr. Forbes felt this action will be seen from his conversation and
correspondence with Bishop Gordon of London. He twice visited his
diocese in the north, and kept full journals of his progresses.[7]
They are similar to a diary of his visit to Moffat, which is inserted
in _The Lyon_,[8] and which was doubtless so inserted because of its
concern with certain Jacobite matters; but it is also of interest on
other accounts.
[7] These have been printed, along with a sketch of his life and a
history of the Episcopal Church in Ross, in the work by the Rev. J.
B. Craven, pp. 139-327.
[8] See ff. 1915, _et seq._
In later life, when, from having less to chronicle, he was not so
taken up with this work, Bishop Forbes was an occasional contributor
to the _Edinburgh Magazine_, in which he published a number of
topographical and antiquarian articles. Several of these, relating to
Roslin Chapel, were collected and printed in 1774, under the _nom de
plume_ of _Philo-Roskelynsis_. He died at Leith on 18th November 1775
and was buried in the Maltman's Aisle in South Leith parish church.
He does not appear to have had any children.
The origin of this collection, _The Lyon in Mourning_, probably
dates from the author's imprisonment in Stirling Castle or Edinburgh
Castle. In the latter place he was brought into contact with some of
those who had taken an active share in the cause of Prince Charles,
and it was, doubtless, while listening to their narratives that he
was inspired with the idea of committing them to writing. Why he
called his collection by the name it bears, he nowhere explains. It
has been suggested that it was 'in allusion to the woe of Scotland
for her exiled race of princes;' the Lyon being the heraldic
representative of the nation. Bishop Forbes, in his own mind, no
doubt, identified the Scottish nation with the comparatively few
Jacobites within the country.
But whatever may be said about the title, the Bishop's purpose was,
as he declared, to make up 'a Collection of Journals and other
papers relative to the important and extraordinary occurrences of
life that happened within a certain period of time,' and which, he
adds, 'will serve to fix a distinguishing mark upon that period as
a most memorable æra to all posterity.... I have,' he proceeds to
say, 'a great anxiety to make the Collection as compleat and exact
as possible for the instruction of future ages in a piece of history
the most remarkable and interesting that ever happened in any age or
country.' Nor was it only what particularly concerned that 'certain
YOUNG GENTLEMAN' (as they were wont to style the Prince) that Bishop
Forbes set himself to gather information, but also whatever could be
gleaned about those who followed his fortunes. He was even desirous
that every act of kindness performed by the victorious Hanoverians
towards their vanquished enemies, should be cherished with the names
of the doers, that they with the others 'may be carefully recorded
and transmitted to posterity, according to truth and justice.'
And thus, though it be a purely Jacobite Collection, it is evident
throughout that the author was most scrupulous with regard to the
truth of the facts he relates. Hence, in seeking for narratives of
the different episodes in the rebellion, his endeavour was to get
them at first-hand from participators therein. 'I never chuse,' he
says, 'to take matters of fact at second-hand if I can by any means
have them from those who were immediately interested in them.'[9]
Where this could not be obtained, he instructed his correspondents
to 'have a particular attention to dates, and to names of persons
and places;' for, he adds,'I love a precise nicety in all narratives
of facts, as indeed one cannot observe too much exactness in these
things.... I love truth, let who will be either justified or
condemned by it.... I would not wish to advance a falsehood upon
any subject,' not even on Cumberland himself, for any consideration
whatsoever.
[9] f. 1231.
His assiduity in the work is likewise noteworthy. Assuming that he
began collecting in the end of 1746, by September 1747 he records
that he has covered between twenty-four and thirty sheets, which by
19th April following had increased to about forty, by 4th July 1748,
to sixty sheets, and by the following month about seventy, which he
had bound up in several octavo volumes. These (from the point at
which he mentions this[10]) would be at this time four in number,
for by 'sheets,' Bishop Forbes means a sheet of paper which, when
folded, yields sixteen pages, and the number of pages in these first
four volumes amount in the aggregate to 868 pages. He was now well
advanced with another, the fifth, which ends with page 1112. The
sixth volume is also dated on its title-page '1748,' volume seventh,
1749, and volume eighth, 1750. This eighth volume, however, could
only have been begun in that year, as there is reference in it,
near the end, to an event which happened in 1761. But as the seven
volumes contain 1598 pages, or, as the author would have put it,
ninety sheets, we have a pretty fair estimate of his diligence in
the collecting, sometimes drafting, and in all cases transcribing
his materials. Naturally, as the main facts of the Rebellion receded
from public view by the progress of time and other events, interest
would abate, and materials fall off, and this is evident enough from
the compilation of volume eighth taking ten or eleven years, while
the previous seven were accomplished in three or four. Volume ninth,
again, gave the collector employment for at least fourteen years,
for though it is dated in 1761, it contains correspondence down to
April 1775. This volume, while it yields a few papers respecting
the Rebellion of 1745, is chiefly occupied with a correspondence
maintained by Bishop Forbes with other Jacobites, in which a most
lively interest is taken in the daily life and affairs of Prince
Charles on the Continent of Europe, and schemes suggested and devised
for the realisation, some time or other, of Jacobite hopes. This
correspondence is continued in the tenth and last volume, which,
however, is only partly filled up, the rest of the volume consisting
of blank pages. It was commenced in 1775, and goes on to October of
that year, the death of Bishop Forbes occurring in the following
month. Here, however, there is no lack of interest in the persons
to whom we are introduced as engaged in the Cause along with Bishop
Forbes. They are almost all Episcopalians. Indeed, the members of
the Scottish Episcopal body were practically identified with the
Stuart Cause from the Revolution onwards, until in despair, they, by
a formal declaration, professedly severed themselves from it in or
about 1780. Bishop Forbes did not live to see this, but even some
time before his death evil tidings had frequently arrived and given
rise to sad forebodings of shattered hopes, and the wrecking of
long-cherished expectations.
[10] f. 1052, 1067.
To publish his Collection, Bishop Forbes could never be induced. He
rightly judged it imprudent to print what could only be construed
as a censure of the Government of the day, and which, accordingly,
was likely to draw resentment not only upon himself, but upon any of
the surviving actors whose names it was his desire to immortalise
in story. Urged to it by one of his correspondents (Dr. John Burton
of York, who, being himself a sufferer on the Prince's account,
published a pamphlet narrative of the Prince's adventures and escape,
and also of his own sufferings), Bishop Forbes always replied
that he 'waited a seasonable opportunity.' His mind, as to this,
further appears from the way in which he expresses himself to a
brother in office in reference to Dr. Burton's publication. It has
made its appearance, he says, 'contrary to my earnest and repeated
remonstrances. I have resisted many solicitations, and I am well
aware that this is far from being a proper time for the publication
of truths of so much delicacy and danger, and therefore, for my part,
I am resolved to wait for a more seasonable opportunity;' and when
that would occur he could not imagine. This was in 1749, and, as the
result shows, the opportunity never came for him. He did print a
short account of the Prince's adventures at a later date, copies of
which he sent to the Prince and others abroad; but this was only a
trifle in comparison with what he had collected.
Naturally, _The Lyon in Mourning_ was one of his most valued
possessions, and he guarded it with the most jealous care. Only on
one occasion would he allow it out of his own hands. He would show
his friends the external bulk of it, but they were not permitted
to pry within. One young relative, who did not apparently stand
very high in the author's favour, had the temerity to ask that the
'black-edged volumes' might be sent to him in London for completing
a narrative which he and another were preparing for publication, and
in reply got the rebuff, that there was much room for doubting his
competency for the task he had undertaken, while as for the loan of
the Manuscript, he had asked what the author would not have granted
to his own father. However, Bishop Forbes judged it expedient to
part with them for a time when his residence was threatened with a
search. He had this to plead as an excuse to Dr. Burton, who begged
the Bishop to furnish from his collection some materials to make his
own proposed publication more perfect. 'I was obliged,' he replies,
'to secret my collection, having been threatened with a search for
papers. I have therefore put my collection out of my own custody into
the keeping of a friend, where I cannot have access to it without
some difficulty, and I resolve to keep it so, that so I may defy the
Devil and the Dutch.' Indeed, this was his usual way with it, for he
writes to another, 'I keep my collection in a concealment always, so
that I am not afraid of its being seized by enemies; and it is not
every friend I allow to see only the bulk and outside of my favourite
papers.'[11]
[11] f. 1426.
The volumes are bound in sombre black leather, and have their edges
blackened, while around each title-page is a deep black border.
Some relics, which are, or have been, attached to the volumes for
preservation, call for some notice. They are most numerous on
the insides of the boards of the third volume. First, there is a
piece of the Prince's garters, which, says Bishop Forbes, 'were
French, of blue velvet, covered upon one side with white silk, and
fastened with buckles.'[12] Next there is a piece of the gown worn
by the Prince as Betty Burke, which was sent to Bishop Forbes by
Mrs. MacDonald of Kingsburgh. It was a print dress, and from this
or other pieces sent the pattern was obtained, and a considerable
quantity of print similar to it made by Mr. Stewart Carmichael,
already mentioned. Dresses made from this print were largely worn by
Jacobite ladies, both in Scotland and England, for a time. Thirdly,
there is a piece of tape, once part of the string of the apron
which the Prince wore as part of his female attire. Bishop Forbes
secured this relic from the hands of Flora MacDonald herself, who
brought the veritable apron to Edinburgh, and gave the Bishop the
pleasure of girding it on him. To keep company with these, another
relic has been added to this board by the late Dr. Robert Chambers,
and which, consequently, Bishop Forbes never saw. It is a piece of
red velvet, which once formed part of the ornaments of the Prince's
sword-hilt, and was obtained, as that gentleman narrates, in the
following way. On his march to England, the Prince rested on a
bank at Faladam, near Blackshiels, where the sisters of one of his
adherents, Robert Anderson of Whitburgh, served him and his followers
with refreshments. Before he departed, one of the young ladies begged
the Prince to give them some keepsake, whereupon he took out his
knife, and cut off a piece of velvet and buff leather from the hilt
of his sword. Up till 1836 at least, this was preciously treasured
at Whitburgh; and it was from Miss Anderson of Whitburgh, of a later
generation of course, that Mr. Chambers at that time obtained the
scrap which he placed with the Bishop's relics. On the inside of the
back board of this volume are pieces of tartan, parts, respectively,
of the cloth and lining of the waistcoat which the Prince received
from MacDonald of Kingsburgh, when he relinquished his female garb.
This he afterwards exchanged with Malcolm MacLeod for a coarser one,
as it was too fine for the rôle of a servant, which he was then
acting. Malcolm MacLeod hid the waistcoat in the cleft of a rock
until the troubles should be over; but when he went to recover it, as
it had lain there for a year, he found it all rotted, save a small
piece, which, with two buttons, he forwarded to Bishop Forbes.
[12] f. 197.
On the inside of the back board of the fourth volume the Bishop has
had two small pieces of wood, one of which has now disappeared. The
remaining piece is about one inch long, less than half an inch broad,
and about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. These, says the author,
are pieces of that identical eight-oared boat, on board of which
Donald MacLeod, etc., set out with the Prince from Boradale, after
the battle of Culloden, for Benbecula, in the Long Isle. The bits
of wood were obtained and sent by MacDonald of Glenaladale. Then,
finally, there are pieces of one of the lugs of the brogues or shoes
which the Prince wore as Betty Burke, stuck on the inside of the back
board of volume fifth. But the Bishop seems to have had the brogues
themselves, and he and his Jacobite friends were wont to use them
as drinking vessels on special occasions. This was reported to the
Prince, who heartily enjoyed the idea, and remarked concerning Bishop
Forbes, 'Oh, he is an honest man indeed, and I hope soon to give him
proofs how much I love and esteem him.'
After the death of Bishop Forbes _The Lyon in Mourning_ remained a
possession treasured by his widow for fully thirty years, she alone
knowing of what value it had been in the eyes of her husband. With
advancing years, however, she fell into poverty, and was obliged
in 1806 to part with the Collection, a suitable purchaser having
been found in Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton, who had set himself
the task of preparing 'An Historical Review of the different
attempts made to restore the Stewart family to the throne from the
Revolution in 1688 to the suppression of the Rebellion in 1745.'
Ill-health frustrated his design, and _The Lyon in Mourning_ lay
past unknown and unheeded at Allanton until it was unearthed by Dr.
Robert Chambers. He purchased it from Sir Henry Steuart, and in 1834
published a number of the papers and narratives contained in it in
his work entitled _Jacobite Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745_. On an
average computation it may be said that Dr. Chambers printed about
a third part of what is contained in _The Lyon_, sometimes weaving
one narrative with another, in order to present in fuller form, so
far as possible, the entire history of the Prince in his adventures.
But what Dr. Chambers there gave in the personal narratives of the
contributors to _The Lyon in Mourning_, and what he has written in
his admirable popular _History of the Rebellion_, on information
derived chiefly from the same source, have but increased the desire
of the historical student to have before him the complete text of
_The Lyon in Mourning_ as it stands in the original manuscript.
This desire the present publication will gratify. The Council of
the Scottish History Society originally proposed merely to print
what Dr. Chambers had left unprinted. But consideration of the fact
just stated, and the undesirability of the reader being required to
compare two works in order to ascertain the real contents of the
_Lyon_, led to the resolution to print the full text of the Bishop's
manuscript, especially also as the _Jacobite Memoirs_ is now a
somewhat scarce book.
Dr. Chambers bequeathed this Manuscript Collection of Bishop Forbes
to the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, in whose library it now
remains. He had previously attached to the first volume the following
writing, to declare the genuineness and history of the work:--
'EDINBURGH, _May 5, 1847_.
'I hereby certify that the accompanying manuscript, in ten
volumes, entitled _The Lyon in Mourning_, was purchased by me
in 1833 or 1834 from the late Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton,
Baronet, by whom I was informed that he had bought it about
thirty years before from the widow of Bishop Forbes of the
Scottish Episcopal Church, the compiler, who had died in 1775.
'The volume contains, in a chronological progress, many
documents and anecdotes respecting the civil war of 1745, and
the individuals concerned in it. On this account I desired to
possess it, as I designed to make use of its contents for the
improvement of a history of the insurrection which I had written.
(Signed) 'ROBERT CHAMBERS.'
By a 'chronological progress' the reader is not to understand that
the events of the Prince's life, or of the Rebellion, will be found
related in order of time in the following pages. It can only mean
that Bishop Forbes proceeded in a chronological progress from 1746
or 1747 till his death, in building up his Collection, telling us
from time to time the dates of his receiving his information, which
he enrols as he receives it, without any other regard to chronology
than its coming to him. But to enable the reader to follow the
chronological sequence of events, a brief chronological digest
of the narratives contained in the Collection will be given as an
Appendix in the third volume. In that volume also will be found an
Index to the whole work. Into the plots and scheming prior to the
actual outbreak of the insurrection, Bishop Forbes's materials do
not lead us. It is, however, satisfactory to learn that the Scottish
History Society has in hand the publication of the Journal of the
Prince's Secretary, John Murray of Broughton, which promises to
throw light upon much that was taking place anterior to the actual
outbreak, as well as in other respects to supply the deficiencies of
_The Lyon in Mourning_.
It only remains to acknowledge the kindness of the Faculty of
Advocates in placing _The Lyon in Mourning_ at the disposal of the
Society for publication, and the uniform courtesy of Mr. Clark and
his assistants in the Advocates' Library in facilitating the progress
of this work. Our acknowledgments are also due to the indefatigable
Secretary of the Society, Mr. T. G. Law, and to his ever-willing
assistants in the Signet Library, for their ready furtherance in the
labours of reference and research.
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