[Sidenote: 25 Aug. 1747]
Tuesday's Afternoon, August 25th, 1747, in Edinburgh, I had the
favour of being introduced by Miss CAMERON (daughter of Allan
Cameron, who died at Rome) to Mrs. ROBERTSON, LADY INCHES, who
gave me the following particulars:
[Sidenote: 18 April.]
Some time before, and at the time of the battle, Lady Inches was
living with her family in Inverness, her husband being in a dying
condition, who was laid in his grave just as the cannonading began
upon Drummossie Muir. On Friday after the battle, April 18th, she
went home to her house called the Lees, within a mile or so of the
field of battle. Upon the road as she went along she saw heaps of
dead bodies stript naked and lying above ground. When she came to
the Lees she found sixteen dead bodies in the Closs and about the
house, which as soon as possible she caused bury. When she came
[Sidenote: _fol._ 376.] into the Closs some of the sogers came about
her, calling her a rebel-bitch, and swearing, that certainly she
behoved to be such, or else so many of these damned villains would
not have come to get shelter about her house. Then pulling her by
the sleeve they desired her to come along with them, and they would
shew her a rare sight, which was two dead bodies lying in the Closs
with a curtain laid over them. They took off the curtain and made
her look upon the bodies, whose faces were so cut and mangled that
they could not be discerned to be faces. They told her that the party
who had been formerly there had cut and mangled these villains, and
had left them in the house in their wounds; but when they themselves
came there they could not endure to hear their cries and groans, and
therefore they had dragged them out to the Closs and given them a
fire to their hinder-end. 'For,' said they, 'we roasted and smoked
them to death, and have cast this curtain taken down from the side
of one of your rooms over them, to keep us from seeing the nauseous
sight.' Lady Inches said she saw the ashes and remains of the
extinguished fire.
The house of the Lees was all pillaged, the doors of the [Sidenote:
_fol._ 377.] rooms and closets, the outer doors, the windows, and all
the liming being broke down to pieces. The charter-chest was broke
open, and the papers were scattered up and down the house; all her
horses and cattle were taken away, though Inches was not in the least
concerned in the affair, save only that he was a great Whig, and had
a son out with the Duke of Cumberland.
[Sidenote: April.]
When she complained to David Bruce, he told her to go through the
camp and see if she could spy out any of her furniture or goods among
the sogers; and if she did, the fellows should be seized upon, and
she should have the satisfaction of having them hanged. But seeing
she could have no reparation of damages she did not chuse to follow
Mr. Bruce's advice, and she declared she had never received one
farthing for the losses sustained.
On the day of the battle when the chace happened, one of Inches's
tenants and his son, who lived at the gate of the Lees, [Sidenote:
_fol._ 378.] stept out at the door to see what was the fray, and were
shot by the red-coats, and fell down in one another's arms, the son
dying upon the spot; but the father did not die till the Friday, the
18th, when Lady Inches went to see him, and he was then expiring.
Much about the same place they came into a house where a poor beggar
woman was spinning, and they shot her dead upon the spot. In a word,
Lady Inches said they were really mad; they were furious, and no
check was given them in the least.[166]
[166] See ff. 421, 707, 1087, 1323, 1376.
Upon the day of the battle, about nineteen wounded men (but so as
with proper care they might have been all cured) got into a barn.
Upon the Thursday (the day after the battle) orders were issued out
to put them to death. They were accordingly taken out, and set up
at a park wall as so many marks to be sported with, and were shot
dead upon the spot. In the barn there was one of the name of Shaw,
whom a Presbyterian minister was going forwards to intercede for,
because [Sidenote: _fol._ 379.] he was his particular acquaintance.
But seeing the fury and madness of the sogers, he thought fit to draw
back lest he had been set up amongst the poor wounded men as a mark
to be sported with in this scene of cruelty. Lady Inches said she
had forgot the minister's name, but she believed he was settled at
Castle Stewart; but she would not be positive about the place of his
abode, though she had got the particular story from a sister of that
minister, a married woman in Inverness.[167]
[167] See f. 1485.
To confirm this the more, it is to be remarked that when Provost
Frazer and the other magistrates of Inverness (attended by Mr.
Hossack, the late provost) went to pay their levee to Cumberland
and his generals, the generals were employed in giving orders about
slaying the foresaid men and other wounded persons. Mr. Hossack (the
Sir Robert Walpole of the place, under the direction of President
Forbes, [Sidenote: _fol._ 380.] and a man of humanity) could
not witness such a prodigy of intended wickedness without saying
something, and therefore making a low bow to General Hawley or
General Husk, he said, 'I hope your excellency will be so good as
to mingle mercy with judgment.' Upon this Hawley or Husk cried out
in a rage, 'Damn the rebel-dog. Kick him down stairs and throw him
in prison directly.'[168] The orders were literally and instantly
obeyed, and those who were most firmly attached to the Government
were put in prison at the same time.
[168] See ff. 259, 1320, 1378.
The country people durst not venture upon burying the dead, lest they
should have been made to bear them company till particular orders
should have been given for that purpose.
The meeting-house at Inverness [and all the bibles and prayer-books
in it were][169] was burnt to ashes.
[169] The passage in brackets is scored through as delete [ED.]
Lady Inches said it was really Loudon's piper that the stout
blacksmith killed, and that MacIntosh's house is seven or eight miles
from Inverness. When Lady MacIntosh was to be brought a prisoner into
Inverness, a great body of men, consisting of several regiments, were
sent upon the command, and when she was leaving her own house the
dead-beat was used by [Sidenote: _fol._ 381.] the drummers. In the
commands[170] marching from and to Inverness the horses trode many
corpses under foot, and the generous-hearted Lady MacIntosh behoved
to have the mortification of viewing this shocking scene.