Stewart--Stewart of Lorn--Appin--Balquhidder--“Donald of the
hammer”--Stewarts of Athole--Grandtully--Balcaskie--Drumin
--Ardvoirlich--Steuart of Dalguise--Ballechin--Fraser--Fraser
of Philorth--Lovat--Ballyfurth and Ford--Beaufort--Castle
Fraser--American Frasers--Menzies--Castle Menzies--Pitfoddels
--Chisholm--Cromlix or Cromleck--Murray--Athole--Tullibardine
--Ochtertyre--Drummond--Bellyclone--Græme or Graham--Kincardine
--Earl of Montrose--Gordon--Earl of Huntly--Duke of Gordon--“The
Cock of the North”--Cumming--Ogilvy--Ferguson.
It now only remains for us to notice shortly several of those
families, which, though generally admitted not to be of Celtic
origin, yet have a claim, for various important reasons, to be
classed among the Highland clans. Most of them have been so long
established in the Highlands, they have risen to such power and
played such an important part in Highland history, their followers
are so numerous and so essentially Gaelic in their blood and manners,
that any notice of the Highland clans would be incomplete without an
account of these. We refer to the names of Stewart, Fraser, Menzies,
Chisholm, and several others. To the uninitiated the three last have
as genuine a Gaelic ring about them as any patronymic rejoicing in
the unmistakable prefix “Mac.”
STEWART.
It is not our intention here by any means to enter into the general
history of the Stewarts--which would be quite beyond our province,
even if we had space--but simply to give a short account of those
branches of the family which were located in the Highlands, and to a
certain extent were regarded as Highland clans. With regard to the
origin of the Stewarts generally, we shall content ourselves with
making use of Mr Fraser’s excellent summary in the introduction to
his “_Red Book of Grandtully_.”
Walter, the son of Alan or Fitz-Alan, the founder of the royal family
of the Stewarts, being the first of that family who established
himself in Scotland, came from Shropshire, in England. Walter’s
elder brother, William, was progenitor of the family of Fitz-Alan,
Earls of Arundel. Their father, a Norman, married, soon after the
Norman Conquest, the daughter of Warine, sheriff of Shropshire. He
acquired the manor of Ostvestrie or Oswestry in Shropshire, on the
Welsh border. On the death of Henry I. of England, in 1135, Walter
and William strenuously supported the claims of the Empress Maud,
thus raising themselves high in the favour of her uncle, David I.,
king of the Scots. When that king, in 1141, was obliged to retire
to Scotland, Walter probably then accompanied him, encouraged, on
the part of the Scottish monarch, by the most liberal promises,
which were faithfully fulfilled; whilst his brother William remained
in England, and was rewarded by Maud’s son, Henry II. of England.
From the munificence of King David I. Walter obtained large grants
of land in Renfrewshire and in other places, together with the
hereditary office _Senescallus Scociæ_, lord high-steward of
Scotland, an office from which his grandson, Walter, took the name
of Stewart, which the family ever afterwards retained. King Malcolm
IV., continuing, after the example of his grandfather, King David,
to extend the royal favour towards this English emigrant, confirmed
and ratified to Walter and his heirs the hereditary office of high
steward of Scotland, and the numerous lands which King David I. had
granted. In the annals of the period, Walter is celebrated as the
founder, probably about 1163, of the monastery of Paisley, in the
barony of Renfrew. At or after the time of his establishing himself
in Scotland, Walter was followed to that kingdom by many English
families from Shropshire, who, settling in Renfrewshire, obtained
lands there as vassals of the Stewarts. Walter married Eschina de
Londonia, Lady of Moll, in Roxburghshire, by whom he had a son, Alan;
and dying in 1177, he was succeeded in his estates and office as
hereditary steward of Scotland by that son.
Having thus pointed out the true origin of the family of the
Stewarts, our subject does not require us to trace the subsequent
history of the main line.
Walter’s son and successor, Alan, died in 1204, leaving a son,
Walter, who was appointed by Alexander II. justiciary of Scotland, in
addition to his hereditary office of high-steward. He died in 1246,
leaving four sons and three daughters. Walter, the third son, was
Earl of Menteith. The eldest son, Alexander, married Jean, daughter
and heiress of James, lord of Bute, and, in her right, he seized both
the Isle of Bute and that of Arran.
Alexander had two sons--James, his successor, and John, known as
Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, who fell at the battle of Falkirk in
1298. Sir John Stewart had seven sons. 1. Sir Alexander, ancestor of
the Stewarts, Earls of Angus; 2. Sir Alan of Dreghorn, of the Earls
and Dukes of Lennox, of the name of Stewart; 3. Sir Walter, of the
Earls of Galloway; 4. Sir James, of the Earls of Athole, Buchan, and
Traquair, and the Lords of Lorn and Innermeath; 5. Sir John, killed
at Halidonhill in 1333; 6. Sir Hugh, who fought in Ireland under
Edward Bruce; 7. Sir Robert of Daldowie.
James, the elder son of Alexander, succeeded as fifth high-steward in
1283. On the death of Alexander III. in 1286, he was one of the six
magnates of Scotland chosen to act as regents of the kingdom. He died
in the service of Bruce, in 1309.
His son, Walter, the sixth high-steward, when only twenty-one years
of age, commanded with Douglas the left wing of the Scots army at
the battle of Bannockburn. King Robert bestowed his daughter, the
Princess Marjory, in marriage upon him, and from them the royal house
of Stuart and the present dynasty of Great Britain are descended.
His son, Robert, seventh lord-high-steward, had been declared heir
presumptive to the throne in 1318, but the birth of a son to Bruce
in 1326 interrupted his prospects for a time. From his grandfather
he received large possessions of land in Kintyre. During the long
and disastrous reign of David II. the steward acted a patriotic part
in the defence of the kingdom. On the death of David, without issue,
February 22d, 1371, the steward, who was at that time fifty five
years of age, succeeded to the crown as Robert II., being the first
of the family of Stewart who ascended the throne of Scotland.
The direct male line of the elder branch of the Stewarts terminated
with James V., and at the accession of James VI., whose descent on
his father’s side was through the Earl of Lennox, the head of the
second branch, there did not exist a male offset of the family
which had sprung from an individual later than Robert II. Widely as
some branches of the Stewarts have spread, and numerous as are the
families of this name, there is not a lineal male representative
of any of the crowned heads of the race, Henry, Cardinal Duke of
York,[244] who died in 1807, having been the last. The crown which
came into the Stewart family through a female seems destined ever to
be transmitted through a female.
The male representation or chiefship of the family is claimed by the
Earl of Galloway; also, by the Stewarts of Castlemilk as descended
from a junior branch of Darnley and Lennox.
The first and principal seat of the Stewarts was in Renfrewshire,
but branches of them penetrated into the Western Highlands and
Perthshire, and acquiring territories there, became founders of
distinct families of the name. Of these the principal were the
Stewarts of
LORN
[Illustration: BADGE--Oak or Thistle.]
LORN, the Stewarts of ATHOLE, and the Stewarts of BALQUHIDDER,
from one or other of which all the rest have been derived. How the
Stewarts of Lorn acquired that district is told in our account of
clan Macdougall. The Stewarts of Lorn were descended from a natural
son of John Stewart, the last Lord of Lorn, who, with the assistance
of the MacLarens, retained forcible possession of part of his
father’s estates. From this family sprang the Stewarts of Appin, in
Argyleshire, who, with the Athole branches, were considered in the
Highlands as forming the clan Stewart. The badge of the original
Stewarts was the oak, and of the royal Stuarts, the thistle.
In the end of the fifteenth century, the Stewarts of Appin were
vassals of the Earl of Argyll in his lordship of Lorn. In 1493 the
name of the chief was Dougal Stewart. He was the natural son of John
Stewart, the last Lord of Lorn, and Isabella, eldest daughter of
the first Earl of Argyll. The assassination of Campbell of Calder,
guardian of the young Earl of Argyll, in February 1592, caused a
feud between the Stewarts of Appin and the Campbells, the effects of
which were long felt. During the civil wars, the Stewarts of Appin
ranged themselves under the banners of Montrose, and at the battle of
Inverlochy, 2d February 1645, rendered that chivalrous nobleman good
service. They and the cause which they upheld were opposed by the
Campbells, who possessed the north side of the same parish, a small
rivulet, called _Con Ruagh_, or red bog, from the rough swamp through
which it ran, being the dividing line of their lands.
The Stewarts of Appin under their chief, Robert Stewart, engaged in
the rebellion of 1715, when they brought 400 men into the field.
They were also “out” in 1745, under Stewart of Ardshiel, 300 strong.
Some lands in Appin were forfeited on the latter occasion, but
were afterwards restored. The principal family is extinct, and
their estate has passed to others, chiefly to a family of the name
of Downie. There are still, however, many branches of this tribe
remaining in Appin. The chief cadets are the families of Ardshiel,
Invernahyle, Auchnacrone, Fasnacloich, and Balachulish.
Between the Stewarts of Invernahyle and the Campbells of Dunstaffnage
there existed a bitter feud, and about the beginning of the sixteenth
century, the former family were all cut off but one child, the infant
son of Stewart of Invernahyle, by the chief of Dunstaffnage, called
_Cailein Uaine_, “Green Colin.” The boy’s nurse fled with him to
Ardnamurchan, where her husband, the blacksmith of the district,
resided. The latter brought him up to his own trade, and at sixteen
years of age he could wield two forehammers at once, one in each
hand, on the anvil, which acquired for him the name of _Domhnull nan
ord_, “Donald of the hammers.” Having made a two-edged sword for
him, his foster-father, on presenting it, told him of his birth and
lineage, and of the event which was the cause of his being brought
to Ardnamurchan. Burning with a desire for vengeance, Donald set
off with twelve of his companions, for each of whom, at a smithy at
Corpach in Lochaber, he forged a two-edged sword. He then proceeded
direct to Dunstaffnage, where he slew Green Colin and fifteen of his
retainers. Having recovered his inheritance, he ever after proved
himself “the unconquered foe of the Campbell.” The chief of the
Stewarts of Appin being, at the time, a minor, Donald of the hammers
was appointed tutor of the clan. He commanded the Stewarts of Appin
at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, and on their return homewards from
that disastrous field, in a famishing condition, they found in a
house at the church of Port of Menteith, some fowls roasting for a
marriage party. These they took from the spit, and greedily devoured.
They then proceeded on their way. The Earl of Menteith, one of the
marriage guests, on being apprised of the circumstance, pursued them,
and came up with them at a place called Tobernareal. To a taunt from
one of the earl’s attendants, one of the Stewarts replied by an arrow
through the heart. In the conflict that ensued, the earl fell by the
ponderous arm of Donald of the hammers, and nearly all his followers
were killed.[245]
The Stewarts of ATHOLE consist almost entirely of the descendants,
by his five illegitimate sons, of Sir Alexander Stewart, Earl of
Buchan, called, from his ferocity, “The wolf of Badenoch,” the fourth
son of Robert II., by his first wife, Elizabeth More. One of his
natural sons, Duncan Stewart, whose disposition was as ferocious
as his father’s, at the head of a vast number of wild Catherans,
armed only with the sword and target, descended from the range of
hills which divides the counties of Aberdeen and Forfar, and began
to devastate the country and murder the inhabitants. Sir Walter
Ogilvy, sheriff of Angus, Sir Patrick Gray, and Sir David Lindsay of
Glenesk, immediately collected a force to repel them, and a desperate
conflict took place at Gasklune, near the water of Isla, in which
the former were overpowered, and most of them slain.
James Stewart, another of the Wolf of Badenoch’s natural sons, was
the ancestor of the family of Stewart of Garth, from which proceed
almost all the other Athole Stewarts. The Garth family became extinct
in the direct line, by the death of General David Stewart, author of
“Sketches of the Highlanders.” The possessions of the Athole Stewarts
lay mainly on the north side of Loch Tay.
The Balquhidder Stewarts derive their origin from illegitimate
branches of the Albany family.
The Stewarts or Steuarts[246] of GRANDTULLY, Perthshire, are
descended from James Stewart of Pierston and Warwickhill, Ayrshire,
who fell at Halidon Hill in 1333, fourth son of Sir John Stewart of
Bonkill, son of Alexander, fourth lord-high-steward of Scotland, who
died in 1283.
James Stewart’s son was Sir Robert Stewart of Shambothy and
Innermeath, whose son, Sir John Stewart, was the first of the
Stewarts of Lorn. The fourth son of the latter, Alexander Stewart,
was ancestor of the Stewarts of Grandtully. “On the resignation of
his father, Sir John (apparently the first Stewart of Grandtully),
he received a charter from Archibald, Earl of Douglas, of the lands
of Grandtully, Kyltilich, and Aberfeldy, 30th March 1414. He married
Margaret, sister of John Hay (?) of Tulliebodie.”[247]
Of this family was Thomas Stewart of BALCASKIE, Fifeshire, a lord
of session, created a baronet of Nova Scotia, June 2, 1683. He
was cousin, through his father, of John Stewart, thirteenth of
Grandtully, who died without issue in 1720, and was succeeded by Sir
Thomas’s son, Sir George Stewart, who also died without issue. He
was succeeded by his brother, Sir John Stewart, third baronet, an
officer of rank in the army, who married, 1st, Elizabeth, daughter
and heiress of Sir James Mackenzie of Royston, and had by her an only
surviving son, Sir John, fourth baronet; 2dly, Lady Jane Douglas,
only daughter of James, Marquis of Douglas, and his son, by her,
Archibald Stewart, after a protracted litigation, succeeded to the
immense estates of his uncle, the last Duke of Douglas, and assuming
that name, was created a peer of the United Kingdom, by the title of
Baron Douglas. Sir John Stewart married, 3dly, Helen, a daughter of
the fourth Lord Elibank, without issue. He died in 1764.
His son, Sir John, fourth baronet, died in 1797.
Sir John’s eldest son, Sir George, fifth baronet, married Catherine,
eldest daughter of John Drummond, Esq. of Logie Almond, and died in
1827, leaving five sons and two daughters.
The eldest son, Sir John, sixth baronet, died without issue, May 20,
1838.
His brother, Sir William Drummond Steuart, born December 26, 1795,
succeeded as seventh baronet. He married in 1830, and had a son
William George, captain 93d Highlanders, born in February 1831, and
died October 1868. Sir William died April 28, 1871, and was succeeded
by his youngest brother Archibald Douglas, born August 29, 1807.
The Stewarts of DRUMIN, Banffshire, now Belladrum, Inverness-shire,
trace their descent from Sir Walter Stewart of Strathaven, knighted
for his services at the battle of Harlaw in 1411, one of the
illegitimate sons of the Wolf of Badenoch, and consequently of royal
blood.
The Stewarts of ARDVOIRLICH, Perthshire, are descended from James
Stewart, called James the Gross, fourth and only surviving son of
Murdoch, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, beheaded in 1425. On the
ruin of his family he fled to Ireland, where, by a lady of the name
of Macdonald, he had seven sons and one daughter. James II. created
Andrew, the eldest son, Lord Avandale.
James, the third son, ancestor of the Stewarts of Ardvoirlich,
married Annabel, daughter of Buchanan of that ilk.
His son, William Stewart, who succeeded him, married Mariota,
daughter of Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, and had several
children. From one of his younger sons, John, the family of Stewart
of Glenbuckie, and from another, that of Stewart of Gartnaferaran,
both in Perthshire, were descended.
His eldest son, Walter Stewart, succeeded his father, and married
Euphemia, daughter of James Reddoch of Cultobraggan, comptroller of
the household of James IV.
His son, Alexander Stewart of Ardvoirlich, married Margaret, daughter
of Drummond of Drummond Erinoch, and had two sons, James, his
successor, and John, ancestor of the Perthshire families of Stewart
of Annat, Stewart of Ballachallan, and Stewart of Craigtoun.
The family of Steuart of DALGUISE, Perthshire, are descended from Sir
John Stewart of Arntullie and Cardneys, also designed of Dowallie,
the youngest natural son of King Robert II. of Scotland, by Marion or
Mariota de Cardney, daughter of John de Cardney of that ilk, sister
of Robert Cardney, bishop of Dunkeld from 1396 to 1436.
The Steuarts of BALLECHIN, in the same county, are descended from
Sir John Stewart, an illegitimate son of King James II. of Scotland.
Having purchased the lands of Sticks in Glenquaich from Patrick
Cardney of that ilk, he got a charter of those lands from King James
III., dated in December 1486. The family afterwards acquired the
lands of Ballechin.
There are many other Stewart families throughout Scotland, but as we
are concerned only with these which can be considered Highland, it
would be beyond our province to notice any more. The spelling of this
name seems very capricious: the royal spelling is Stuart, while most
families spell it Stewart, and a few Steuart and Steuard. We have
endeavoured always to give the spelling adhered to by the various
families whom we have noticed.
FRASER.
The first of the surname of FRASER in Scotland was undoubtedly of
Norman origin, and, it is not improbable, came over with William
the Conqueror. The Chronicles of the Fraser family ascribe its
origin to one Pierre Fraser, seigneur de Troile, who in the reign of
Charlemagne, came to Scotland with the ambassadors from France to
form a league with King Achaius; but this is, of course, fabulous.
Their account of the creation of their arms is equally incredible.
According to their statement, in the reign of Charles the Simple of
France, Julius de Berry, a nobleman of Bourbon, entertaining that
monarch with a dish of fine strawberries was, for the same, knighted,
the strawberry flowers, _fraises_, given him for his arms, and his
name changed from de Berry to Fraiseur or Frizelle. They claim
affinity with the family of the Duke de la Frezeliere, in France. The
first of the name in Scotland is understood to have settled there in
the reign of Malcolm Canmore, when surnames first began to be used,
and although the Frasers afterwards became a powerful and numerous
clan in Inverness-shire, their earliest settlements were in East
Lothian and Tweeddale.
FRASER.
[Illustration: BADGE--Yew.]
In the reign of David I., Sir Simon Fraser possessed half of the
territory of Keith in East Lothian (from him called Keith Simon), and
to the monks of Kelso he granted the church of Keith.
A member of the same family, Gilbert de Fraser, obtained the lands
of North Hailes, also in East Lothian, as a vassal of the Earl of
March and Dunbar, and is said to have been witness to a charter of
Cospatrick to the monks of Coldstream, during the reign of Alexander
I. He also possessed large estates in Tweeddale.
In the reign of Alexander II., the chief of the family was Bernard
de Fraser, supposed to have been the grandson of the above-named
Gilbert, by a third son, whose name is conjectured to have been
Simon. Bernard was a frequent witness to the charters of Alexander
II., and in 1234 was made sheriff of Stirling, an honour long
hereditary in his family. By his talents he raised himself from being
the vassal of a subject to be a tenant in chief to the king. He
acquired the ancient territory of Oliver Castle, which he transmitted
to his posterity. He was succeeded by his son Sir Gilbert Fraser, who
was sheriff or vicecomes of Traquair during the reigns of Alexander
II. and his successor. He had three sons: Simon, his heir; Andrew,
sheriff of Stirling in 1291 and 1293; and William, chancellor of
Scotland from 1274 to 1280, and bishop of St. Andrews from 1279 to
his death in 1297.
[Illustration: Bishop Fraser’s Seal. From Anderson’s _Diplomata
Scotiæ_.]
Sir Simon Fraser, the eldest son, was a man of great influence and
power. He possessed the lands of Oliver Castle, Neidpath Castle,
and other lands in Tweeddale; and accompanied King Alexander II. in
a pilgrimage to Iona, a short time previous to the death of that
monarch. He was knighted by Alexander III., who, in the beginning
of his reign, conferred on him the office of high sheriff of
Tweeddale, which he held from 1263 to 1266. He died in 1291. He had
an only son, Sir Simon Fraser, the renowned patriot, with whom may
be said (in 1306) to have expired the direct male line of the south
country Frasers, after having been the most considerable family in
Peeblesshire during the Scoto-Saxon period of our history, from 1097
to 1306.
The male representation of the principal family of Fraser devolved,
on the death of the great Sir Simon, on the next collateral heir;
his uncle, Sir Andrew, second son of Sir Gilbert Fraser, above
mentioned. He is supposed to have died about 1308, surviving his
renowned nephew, Sir Simon, only two years. He was, says the
historian of the family,[248] “the first of the name of Fraser who
established an interest for himself and his descendants in the
northern parts of Scotland, and more especially in Inverness-shire,
where they have ever since figured with such renown and distinction.”
He married a wealthy heiress in the county of Caithness, then and
for many centuries thereafter comprehended within the sheriffdom of
Inverness, and in right of his wife he acquired a very large estate
in the north of Scotland. He had four sons, namely--Simon, the
immediate male ancestor of the Lords Lovat, and whose descendants and
dependants (the clan Fraser), after the manner of the Celts, took the
name of MacShimi, or sons of Simon; Sir Alexander, who obtained the
estate of Touch, as the appanage of a younger son; and Andrew and
James, slain with their brother, Simon, at the disastrous battle of
Halidonhill, 22d July 1333.
[Illustration: Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth, from Pinkerton’s
_Scotish Gallery_.]
The ancient family of the Frasers of PHILORTH in Aberdeenshire, who
have enjoyed since 1669 the title of Lord Saltoun, is immediately
descended from William, son of an Alexander Fraser, who flourished
during the early part of the fourteenth century, and inherited from
his father the estates of Cowie and Durris in Kincardineshire.
The proper Highland clan Fraser was that headed by the Lovat branch
in Inverness-shire, as mentioned above.
Unlike the Aberdeenshire or Salton Frasers, the LOVAT branch, the
only branch of the Frasers that became Celtic, founded a tribe or
clan, and all the natives of the purely Gaelic districts of the Aird
and Stratherrick came to be called by their name. The Simpsons,
“sons of Simon,” are also considered to be descended from them, and
the Tweedies of Tweeddale are supposed, on very plausible grounds,
to have been originally Frasers. Logan’s conjecture that the name
of Fraser is a corruption of the Gaelic _Friosal_, from _frith_, a
forest, and _siol_, a race, the th being silent (that is, the race
of the forest), however pleasing to the clan as proving them an
indigenous Gaelic tribe, may only be mentioned here as a mere fancy
of his own.
Simon Fraser, the first of the Frasers of Lovat, fell at the battle
of Halidon Hill, 19th July 1333. His son, Hugh Fraser of Lovat, had
four sons; Alexander, who died unmarried; Hugh, created a lord of
Parliament, under the title of Lord Fraser of Lovat; John, ancestor
of the Frasers of Knock in Ayrshire; and another son, ancestor of the
Frasers of Foyers.
Hugh, first Lord Lovat, was one of the hostages for James I., on
his return to Scotland in 1424, and in 1431 he was appointed high
sheriff of the county of Inverness. His son, also named Hugh, second
Lord Lovat, was father of Thomas, third lord; Alexander, ancestor
of the Frasers of Fanaline, the Frasers of Leadclune, baronets, and
other families of the name; and James, ancestor of the Frasers of
BALLYFURTH and FORD, of whom Major-General Simon Fraser, late of
Ford, is the lineal male descendant and representative.
Thomas, third lord, held the office of justiciary of the north in
the reign of James IV., and died 21st October 1524. He had four
sons: Thomas, master of Lovat, killed at Flodden, 9th September
1513, unmarried; Hugh, fourth Lord Lovat; Alexander, fifth lord; and
William Fraser of Struy, ancestor of several families of the name in
Inverness-shire.
Hugh, fourth lord, the queen’s justiciary in the north, resigned
his whole estates into the hands of King James V., and obtained
from his majesty a new charter, dated 26th March 1539, uniting and
incorporating them into the barony of Lovat, to him and the heirs
male of his body, failing whom to his nearest lawful heirs male,
bearing the name and arms of Fraser, and failing them to his heirs
whatsoever. With his eldest son Hugh, Master of Lovat, he was killed
in an engagement with the Macdonalds of Clanranald at Lochlochy,
Inverness-shire, 2d June 1544.[249] His brother, Alexander, fifth
Lord Lovat, died in 1558. With one daughter, the latter had three
sons: Hugh, sixth lord; Thomas, ancestor of the Frasers of Strichen,
from whom Lord Lovat of Lovat is descended; and James of Ardochie.
Hugh, sixth Lord Lovat, had a son, Simon, seventh lord, who was twice
married, and died 3d April 1633. By his first wife, Margaret, eldest
daughter of Sir Colin Mackenzie of Kintail, he had two sons,--Simon,
Master of Lovat, who predeceased him, without issue, and Hugh, eighth
Lord Lovat, who died 16th February 1646. By a second wife, Jean
Stewart, daughter of Lord Doune, he had Sir Simon Fraser, ancestor
of the Frasers of Innerallochy; Sir James Fraser of Brae, and one
daughter. Hugh, eighth lord, had, with three daughters, three sons,
namely,--Simon, Master of Lovat, and Hugh, who both predeceased their
father, the one in 1640 and the other in 1643, and Thomas Fraser of
Beaufort, eleventh Lord Lovat. The second son, Hugh, styled after his
elder brother’s death, Master of Lovat, left a son Hugh, ninth lord,
who succeeded his grandfather in February 1646, and married in July
1659, when a boy of sixteen years of age at college, Anne, second
daughter of Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbet, baronet, sister of the
first Earl of Cromarty, and by her had a son, Hugh, tenth lord, and
three daughters.
Hugh, tenth lord, succeeded his father in 1672, and died in 1696,
when Thomas Fraser of Beaufort, third son of the eighth lord,
became eleventh Lord Lovat, but did not take the title. The tenth
lord married Lady Amelia Murray, only daughter of the first Marquis
of Athole, and had four daughters. His eldest daughter, Amelia,
assumed the title of Baroness Lovat, and married in 1702, Alexander
Mackenzie, younger of Prestonhall, who assumed the name of Fraser of
Fraserdale. His son, Hugh Fraser, on the death of his mother, adopted
the title of Lord Lovat, which, however, by decree of the Court of
Session, 3d July 1730, was declared to belong to Simon, Lord Fraser
of Lovat, as eldest lawful son of Thomas, Lord Fraser of Lovat,
grand-uncle of the tenth lord. This judgment proceeded on the charter
of 1539, and though pronounced by an incompetent court, was held to
be right. To prevent an appeal, a compromise was made, by which Hugh
Mackenzie ceded to Simon, Lord Lovat, for a valuable consideration,
his pretensions to the honours, and his right to the estates, after
his father’s death.
Thomas Fraser of BEAUFORT, by right eleventh Lord Lovat, died at
Dunvegan in Skye in May 1699. By his first wife, Sibylla, fourth
daughter of John Macleod of Macleod, he had fourteen children, ten of
whom died young. Simon, the eldest surviving son, was the celebrated
Lord Lovat, beheaded in April 1747.
The clan Fraser formed part of the army of the Earl of Seaforth,
when, in the beginning of 1645, that nobleman advanced to oppose the
great Montrose, who designed to seize Inverness, previous to the
battle of Inverlochy, in which the latter defeated the Campbells
under the Marquis of Argyll in February of that year. After the
arrival of King Charles II. in Scotland in 1650, the Frasers, to
the amount of eight hundred men, joined the troops raised to oppose
Cromwell, their chief’s son, the Master of Lovat, being appointed one
of the colonels of foot for Inverness and Ross. In the rebellion of
1715, under their last famous chief, Simon, Lord Lovat, they did good
service to the government by taking possession of Inverness, which
was then in the hands of the Jacobites. In 1719 also, at the affair
of Glenshiel, in which the Spaniards were defeated on the west coast
of Inverness-shire, the Frasers fought resolutely on the side of
government, and took possession of the castle of Brahan, the seat of
the Earl of Seaforth. On the breaking out of the rebellion of 1745,
they did not at first take any part in the struggle, but after the
battle of Prestonpans, on the 21st September, Lord Lovat “mustered
his clan,” and their first demonstration in favour of the Pretender
was to make a midnight attack on the Castle of Culloden, but found it
garrisoned and prepared for their reception. On the morning of the
battle of Culloden, six hundred of the Frasers, under the command
of the Master of Lovat, a fine young man of nineteen, effected a
junction with the rebel army, and behaved during the action with
characteristic valour.
Lord Lovat’s eldest son, Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, afterwards
entered the service of government, and rose to the rank of
lieutenant-general in the army.
General Fraser was succeeded by his half-brother, Colonel Archibald
Campbell Fraser of Lovat, appointed consul-general at Algiers in
1766, and chosen M.P. for Inverness-shire on the general’s death in
1782. By his wife, Jane, sister of William Fraser, Esq. of Leadclune,
F.R.S., created a baronet, 27th November 1806, he had five sons,
all of whom he survived. On his death, in December 1815, the male
descendants of Hugh, ninth Lord Lovat, became extinct, and the male
representation of the family, as well as the right to its extensive
entailed estates, devolved on the junior descendant of Alexander,
fifth lord, Thomas Alexander Fraser, of Lovat and Strichen, who
claimed the title of Lord Lovat in the peerage of Scotland, and in
1837 was created a peer of the United Kingdom, by that of Baron Lovat
of Lovat.
The family of Fraser, of CASTLE FRASER, in Ross-shire, are descended,
on the female side, from the Hon. Sir Simon Fraser, of Inverallochy,
second son of Simon, eighth Lord Lovat, but on the male side their
name is Mackenzie.
AMERICAN FRASERS.
We cannot close our account of the Frasers without briefly referring
to the numerous members of the clan who inhabit British North
America. Concerning these we have been obligingly furnished with
many details by the Honourable John Fraser de Berry, of St Mark de
Cournoyer, Chambly River, Vercheres Cy., District of Montreal, Member
of the Legislative Council for Rougemont. The information furnished
by this gentleman is very interesting, and we are sorry that the
nature of this work, and the space at our disposal, permits us to
give only the briefest summary.
It would seem that in the Dominion of Canada the ancient spirit of
clanship is far from dead; indeed, it appears to be more intensely
full of life there than it is on its native Highland mountains.
From statistics furnished to us by our obliging informant, it would
appear that in British North America there are bearing the old name
of Fraser 12,000 persons, men, women, and children, some speaking
English and some French, many Protestants and many Roman Catholics,
but all, we believe, unflinchingly loyal to the British throne.
Not one of these, according to the Honourable J. Fraser de Berry’s
report, is a day labourer, “earning daily wages,” but all more or
less well-to-do in the world, and filling respectable, and many of
them responsible positions. Many are descendants of the officers and
soldiers of the “Fraser Highlanders,” who settled in British North
America after the American war. “They are all strong well built men,
hardy, industrious, and sober, having fine comfortable houses, where
quietness reigns and plenty abounds.”
Some years ago a movement was formed among these enthusiastic and
loyal Frasers to organise themselves into a branch clan, to be called
the “New Clan Fraser,” partly for the purpose of reviving and keeping
alive the old clan feeling, and partly for purposes of benevolence.
At a meeting held in February 1868, at Quebec, this movement took
definite shape, and “resolutions were unanimously passed defining the
constitution of the clan, pointing out its object, appointing its
dignitaries, determining their duties, and the time and manner of
their election.”
As “Chief of the Frasers of the whole of British North America,” was
elected the Honourable James Fraser de Ferraline, Member of the
Legislative Council for the Province of Nova Scotia, “a wealthy and
influential merchant, born in 1802, on the Drummond estate in the
braes of Stratherrick, Inverness-shire, Scotland; descended by his
father from the Ferraline family of the Frasers, and by his mother
from the Gorthlic Frasers. The true Fraser blood,” we are assured,
“runs very pure through the veins of the worthy chief.”
The great and undoubted success of this laudable movement is, we
believe, mainly owing to the exertions of the Honourable J. Fraser
de Berry, whose enthusiasm and loyalty to his descent and ancient
kinship are worthy of the palmiest days of clanship in the olden time
on its native Highland soil. Besides the “chief” above mentioned,
111 subordinate chieftains[250] of provinces and districts have been
appointed, and we are sorry that, for the reasons already mentioned,
it is impossible to give a full list of them. We can only say that
the gentleman just mentioned was elected Chieftain of the Province
of Quebec, and also acts as “Secretary to the New Clan Fraser.” As
a specimen of the unflinching thoroughness with which Mr Fraser de
Berry performs his duties, and of the intense enthusiasm with which
he is animated, we may state that he, founding on documents in his
possession, has been able to trace his genealogy, and, therefore, the
genealogy of the whole clan, as far back as the year 216 A.D.!
Altogether, we cannot but commend the main object of this
organisation of the American Frasers, and think that members of
other clans residing in our colonies would do well to follow their
example. We believe that no member of the Fraser clan in British
North America, who is really anxious to do well, need be in want
of the means of success, for if he only make his position known to
the authorities of the “New Clan,” all needful assistance will be
afforded him. Moreover, we understand, that any one of the name of
Fraser, or allied to the clan, emigrating to the dominion from the
old country, by applying to any member of the Colonial clan, will be
put in the way of obtaining all assistance and information necessary
to his comfortable settlement and success in his new home.
Indeed, this movement of the Frasers has so much to commend it, that
their example has been followed by persons of other names, in the
United States as well as in Canada, and similar clan confederations
are in the way of being formed under names that are certainly not
Highland.
MENZIES.
[Illustration: BADGE--Heath (a species named the Menzies heath).]
From the armorial bearings of the Menzieses it has been conjectured
that the first who settled in Scotland of this surname was a branch
of the Anglo-Norman family of Meyners, by corruption Manners. But
this supposition does not seem to be well-founded.
The family of Menzies obtained a footing in Athole at a very early
period, as appears from a charter granted by Robert de Meyners
in the reign of Alexander II. This Robert de Meyners, knight, on
the accession of Alexander III. (1249) was appointed lord high
chamberlain of Scotland. His son, Alexander de Meyners, possessed
the lands of Weem and Aberfeldy in Athole, and Glendochart in
Breadalbane, besides his original seat of Durrisdeer in Nithsdale,
and was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert, in the estates of Weem,
Aberfeldy, and Durrisdeer, whilst his second son, Thomas, obtained
the lands of Fortingal.
From the former of these is descended the family of Menzies of CASTLE
MENZIES, but that of Menzies of Fortingal terminated in an heiress,
by whose marriage with James Stewart, a natural son of the Wolf of
Badenoch, the property was transferred to the Stewarts.
[Illustration: MENZIES. (Tartan)]
In 1487, Sir Robert de Mengues, knight, obtained from the crown, in
consequence of the destruction of his mansion-house by fire, a grant
of the whole lands and estates erected into a free barony, under
the title of the barony of Menzies. From this Sir Robert lineally
descended Sir Alexander Menzies of Castle Menzies, who was created a
baronet of Nova Scotia, 2d September 1665.
Sir Robert Menzies, the seventh baronet, who succeeded his father,
20th August 1844, is the 27th of the family in regular descent. The
ancient designation of the family was Menzies of Weem, their common
style in old writings. In 1423 “David Menzies of Weem (de Wimo)”
was appointed governor of Orkney and Shetland, “under the most
clement lord and lady, Eric and Philippa, king and queen of Denmark,
Swedland, and Norway.”
The Gaelic appellation of the clan is _Meinnarich_, a term, by way
of distinction, also applied to the chief. Of the eighteen clans who
fought under Robert Bruce at Bannockburn, the Menzies was one.
The “Menyesses” of Athole and Appin Dull are named in the
parliamentary rolls of 1587, as among “the clans that have captains,
chiefs, and chieftains.” Castle Menzies, the principal modern seat
of the chief, stands to the east of Loch Tay, in the parish and near
to the church of Weem, in Perthshire. Weem Castle, the old mansion,
is picturesquely situated under a rock, called Craig Uamh, hence
its name. In 1502, it was burnt by Niel Stewart of Fortingal, in
consequence of a dispute respecting the lands of Rannoch.
In 1644, when the Marquis of Montrose appeared in arms for Charles
I., and had commenced his march from Athole towards Strathern, he
sent forward a trumpeter, with a friendly notice to the Menzieses,
that it was his intention to pass through their country. His
messenger, unhappily, was maltreated, and, as some writers say,
slain by them. They also harassed the rear of his army, which so
exasperated Montrose, that he ordered his men to plunder and lay
waste their lands and burn their houses.
During the rebellion of 1715, several gentlemen of the clan Menzies
were taken prisoners at the battle of Dunblane. One of them, Menzies
of Culdares, having been pardoned for his share in the rebellion,
felt himself bound not to join in that of 1745. He sent, however, a
valuable horse as a present to Prince Charles, but his servant who
had it in charge, was seized and executed, nobly refusing to divulge
his master’s name, though offered his life if he would do so. In the
latter rebellion, Menzies of Shian took out the clan, and held the
rank of colonel, though the chief remained at home. The effective
force of the clan in 1745 was 300.
The family of Menzies of PITFODDELS in Aberdeenshire, is now extinct.
Gilbert Menzies of this family, carrying the royal standard at the
last battle of Montrose, in 1650, repeatedly refused quarter, and
fell rather than give up his charge. The last laird, John Menzies of
Pitfoddels, never married, and devoted the greater part of his large
estate to the endowment of a Roman Catholic College. He died in 1843.
CHISHOLM.
[Illustration: BADGE--Fern.]
The modern clan CHISHOLM or Siosal, in Inverness-shire, though
claiming to be of Celtic origin, are, it is probable, descended from
one of the northern collaterals of the original family of Chisholme
of Chisholme in Roxburghshire, which possessed lands there as early
as the reign of Alexander III.
Few families have asserted their right to be considered as a Gaelic
clan with greater vehemence than the Chisholms, notwithstanding that
there are perhaps few whose Lowland origin is less doubtful. Their
early charters suffice to establish the real origin of the family
with great clearness. The Highland possessions of the family consist
of Comer, Strathglass, &c., in which is situated their castle of
Erchless, and the manner in which they acquired these lands is proved
by the fact, that there exists a confirmation of an indenture betwixt
William de Fenton of Baky on the one part, and “_Margaret de la Ard
domina de Erchless and Thomas de Chishelme her son and heir_” on
the other part, dividing between them the lands of which they were
heirs portioners, and among these lands is the barony of the Ard in
Inverness-shire. This deed is dated at Kinrossy, 25th of April, 1403.
[Illustration: Erchless Castle.]
In all probability, therefore, the husband of Margaret must have been
Alexander de Chishelme, who is mentioned in 1368 as comportioner of
the barony of Ard along with Lord Fenton.
The Chisholms came into prominence in the reign of David II., when
Sir Robert de Chisholm married the daughter of Sir Robert Lauder
of Quarrelwood, and ultimately succeeded him in the government of
Urquhart Castle. In 1376 he occupied the important position of
justiciar north of the Forth.
Wiland de Chesholm obtained a charter of the lands of Comer dated 9th
April 1513. In 1587, the chiefs on whose lands resided “broken men,”
were called upon to give security for their peaceable behaviour,
among whom appears “Cheisholme of Cummer.” After the battle of
Killiecrankie in 1689, Erchless castle, the seat of the chief, was
garrisoned for King James, and General Livingstone, the commander
of the government forces, had considerable difficulty in dislodging
the Highlanders. In 1715, Ruari, or Roderick MacIan, the chief,
signed the address of a hundred and two chiefs and heads of houses
to George the First, expressive of their attachment and loyalty, but
no notice being taken of it, he engaged very actively in the rising
under the Earl of Mar; and at the battle of Dunblane, the clan was
headed by Chisholm of Crocfin, an aged veteran, for which the estates
of the chief were forfeited and sold. In 1727, he procured, with
several other chiefs, a pardon under the privy seal, and the lands
were subsequently conveyed, by the then proprietor, to Roderick’s
eldest son, who entailed them on his heirs male. In 1745, this chief
joined the standard of the Pretender with his clan, and Colin, his
youngest son, was appointed colonel of the clan battalion. Lord
President Forbes thus states the strength of the Chisholms at that
period. “Chisholms--Their chief is Chisholm of Strathglass, in Gaelic
called Chisallich. His lands are held crown, and he can bring out two
hundred of the men.”
Alexander Chisholm, chief of the clan, who succeeded in 1785, left an
only child, Mary, married to James Gooden, Esq., London, and dying
in 1793, the chiefship and estates, agreeably to the deed of entail,
devolved on his youngest brother, William, who married Elizabeth,
eldest daughter of Duncan MacDonnell, Esq. of Glengarry, and left
two sons and one daughter. On his death in 1817 he was succeeded
by the elder son, Alexander William, once member of parliament for
Inverness-shire, who died, prematurely, in September 1838. He was
succeeded by his brother, Duncan MacDonnell Chisholm, who died in
London 14th September 1858, aged 47, when the estate devolved on
James Sutherland Chisholm, the present Chisholm, son of Roderich,
son of Archibald, eldest son of the above Alexander, who resides at
Erchless Castle, Inverness-shire.
The common designation of the chief of the house is THE CHISHOLM,
and, whatever be its antiquity, it is a title which is very generally
accorded to him, and, like the designation of “The O’Connor Don,”
has ever been sanctioned by use in the senate. An old chief of the
clan Chisholm once not very modestly said that there were but three
persons in the world entitled to it--‘the Pope, the King, and the
Chisholm.’
One of the chiefs of this clan having carried off a daughter of Lord
Lovat, placed her on an islet in Loch Bruirach, where she was soon
discovered by the Frazers, who had mustered for the rescue. A severe
conflict ensued, during which the young lady was accidentally slain
by her own brother. A plaintive Gaelic song records the sad calamity,
and numerous tumuli mark the graves of those who fell.
The once great family of Chisholme of CROMLIX, sometimes written
CROMLECK, in Perthshire, which for above a century held the
hereditary bailie and justiciary-ship of the ecclesiastical lordship
of Dunblane, and furnished three bishops to that see, but which is
now extinct, was also descended from the border Chisholmes; the first
of that family, Edmund Chisholme of Cromlix, early in the fifteenth
century, being the son of Chisholme of Chisholme in Roxburghshire.
* * * * *
Into the history of other families--for they can scarcely be called
clans--living on the Highland borders, and who have at one time
played an important part in Highland history, and some of whom at the
present day are regarded as genuine Highland families, it would be
out of place for us to enter here. We refer to such families as the
Murrays, Drummonds, Grahams, Gordons, Cumings, &c. We shall conclude
this account of the Highland clans by referring briefly to the origin
of these houses.
MURRAY (ATHOLE).
[Illustration: BADGE--Broom (butcher’s).]
The acknowledged chieftainship of the great family of Murray, or
Moray (originally Murreff) is vested in Moray-Stirling of Abercairney
and Ardoch, both in Perthshire. The Murrays are generally supposed to
have descended from Freskine, a Fleming, who settled in Scotland in
the reign of David I. (1122-1153), and acquired from that monarch the
lands of Strathbroch in Linlithgowshire, and of Duffus in Moray.
The Athole Murrays are descended from Sir William de Moravia, who
acquired the lands of TULLIBARDINE, an estate in the lower part of
Perthshire, with his wife Adda, daughter of Malise, seneschal of
Strathern, as appears by charters dated in 1282 and 1284.
His descendant, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, succeeded to the
estates of his family in 1446. He was sheriff of Perthshire, and in
1458, one of the lords named for the administration of justice, who
were of the king’s daily council. He married Margaret, daughter of
Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, great chamberlain of Scotland, by whom
he had a numerous issue. According to tradition they had seventeen
sons, from whom a great many families of the name of Murray are
descended. In a curious document entitled “The Declaration of George
Halley, in Ochterarder, concerning the Laird of Tullibardine’s
seventeen sons--1710,” it is stated that they “lived all to be men,
and that they waited all one day upon their father at Stirling, to
attend the king, with each of them one servant and their father two.
This happening shortly after an act was made by King James Fifth,
discharging any person to travel with great numbers of attendants
besides their own family, and having challenged the laird of
Tullibardine for breaking the said act, he answered he brought only
his own sons, with their necessary attendants: with which the king
was so well pleased that he gave them small lands in heritage.”
The eldest of Tullibardine’s seventeen sons, Sir William Murray
of Tullibardine, had, with other issue, William, his successor,
and Sir Andrew Murray, ancestor of the Viscounts Stormont. His
great-grandson, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, was a zealous
promoter of the Reformation in Scotland. George Halley, in the
curious document already quoted says that “Sir William Murray of
Tullibardine having broke Argyll’s face with the hilt of his sword,
in King James the Sixth’s presence, was obliged to leave the kingdom.
Afterwards, the king’s mails and slaughter cows were not paid,
neither could any subject to the realm be able to compel those who
were bound to pay them; upon which the king cried out--‘O, if I had
Will. Murray again, he would soon get my mails and slaughter cows;’
to which one standing by replied--‘That if his majesty would not
take Sir William Murray’s life, he might return shortly.’ The king
answered, ‘He would be loath to take his life, for he had not another
subject like him!’ Upon which promise Sir William Murray returned and
got a commission from the king to go to the north, and lift up the
mails and the cows, which he speedily did, to the great satisfaction
of the king, so that immediately after he was made lord comptroller.”
This office he obtained in 1565.
His eldest son, Sir John Murray, the twelfth feudal baron of
Tullibardine, was brought up with King James, who, in 1592,
constituted him his master of the household. On 10th July 1606 he
was created Earl of Tullibardine. His lordship married Catherine,
fourth daughter of David, second Lord Drummond, and died in 1609.
His eldest son, William, second Earl of Tullibardine, married Lady
Dorothea Stewart, daughter of the fifth Earl of Athole of the Stewart
family, who died in 1595, and on the death in 1625 of James, second
Earl of Athole, son of John, sixth Lord Innermeath, created Earl of
Athole by James VI., he petitioned King Charles the First for the
earldom of Athole, as his countess was the eldest daughter and heir
of line of Earl John, of the family of Innermeath, which had become
extinct in the male line. The king received the petition graciously,
and gave his royal word that it should be done. The earl accordingly
surrendered the title of Earl of Tullibardine into the king’s hands,
1st April 1626, to be conferred on his brother Sir Patrick Murray,
as a separate dignity, but before the patents could be issued,
his lordship died the same year. His son John, however, obtained
in February 1629 the title of Earl of Athole, and thus became the
first earl of the Murray branch, and the earldom of Tullibardine
was at the same time granted to Sir Patrick. This Earl of Athole
was a zealous royalist, and joined the association formed by the
Earl of Montrose for the king at Cumbernauld, in January 1641. He
died in June 1642. His eldest son John, second Earl of Athole of the
Murray family, also faithfully adhered to Charles the First, and was
excepted by Cromwell out of his act of grace and indemnity, 12th
April 1654, when he was only about nineteen years of age. At the
restoration, he was sworn a privy councillor, obtained a charter of
the hereditary office of sheriff of Fife, and in 1663 was appointed
justice-general of Scotland. In 1670 he was constituted captain of
the king’s guards, in 1672 keeper of the privy seal, and 14th January
1673, an extraordinary lord of session. In 1670 he succeeded to the
earldom of Tullibardine on the death of James, fourth earl of the new
creation, and was created Marquis of Athole in 1676. He increased the
power of his family by his marriage with Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley,
third daughter of the seventh Earl of Derby, beheaded for his loyalty
15th October 1651. Through her mother, Charlotte de la Tremouille,
daughter of Claude de la Tremouille, Duke of Thouars and Prince of
Palmont, she was related in blood to the Emperor of Germany, the
kings of France and Spain, the Prince of Orange, the Duke of Savoy,
and most of the principal families of Europe; and by her the family
of Athole acquired the seignory of the Isle of Man, and also large
property in that island.
John, the second Marquis, and first Duke, of Athole, designated
Lord John Murray, was one of the commissioners for inquiring into
the massacre of Glencoe in 1693. He was created a peer in his
father’s lifetime, by the title of Earl of Tullibardine, Viscount
of Glenalmond, and Lord Murray, for life, by patent dated 27th July
1696, and in April 1703 he was appointed lord privy seal. On the
30th July of that year, immediately after his father’s death, he was
created Duke of Athole, by Queen Anne, and invested with the order of
the Thistle. His grace died 14th November 1724. He was twice married;
first to Catherine, daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, by whom he had
six sons and a daughter, and secondly to Mary, daughter of William
Lord Ross, by whom he had three sons and a daughter. His eldest
son John, Marquis of Tullibardine, died in 1709. His second son
William, who succeeded his brother, was the Marquis of Tullibardine
who acted the prominent part in both the Scottish rebellions of last
century, which is recorded in the former part of this work. In 1745
he accompanied Prince Charles Edward to Scotland, and landed with him
at Borodale 25th July. He was styled Duke of Athole by the Jacobites.
After the battle of Culloden he fled to the westward, intending to
embark for the isle of Mull, but being unable, from the bad state of
his health, to bear the fatigue of travelling under concealment, he
surrendered, on the 27th April 1746, to Mr Buchanan of Drummakill, a
Stirlingshire gentleman. Being conveyed to London he was committed to
the Tower, where he died on the 9th July following.
James, the second Duke of Athole, was the third son of the first
duke. He succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his father in
November 1724, in the lifetime of his elder brother William,
attainted by parliament. Being maternal great-grandson of James,
seventh Earl of Derby, upon the death of the tenth earl of that line,
he claimed and was allowed the English barony of Strange, which had
been conferred on Lord Derby by writ of summons, in 1628. His grace
was married, first to Jean, sister of Sir John Frederick, Bart.,
by whom he had a son and two daughters; secondly to Jane, daughter
of John Drummond of Megginch, who had no issue. The latter was the
heroine of Dr Austen’s song of ‘For lack of gold she’s left me,
O!’ She was betrothed to that gentleman, a physician in Edinburgh,
when the Duke of Athole saw her, and falling in love with her, made
proposals of marriage, which were accepted; and, as Burns says, she
jilted the doctor. Having survived her first husband, she married a
second time, Lord Adam Gordon.
The son and the eldest daughter of the second Duke of Athole
died young. Charlotte, his youngest daughter, succeeded on his
death, which took place in 1764, to the barony of Strange and the
sovereignty of the Isle of Man. She married her cousin John Murray,
Esq., eldest son of Lord George Murray, fifth son of the first duke,
and the celebrated generalissimo of the forces of the Pretender in
1745. Though Lord George was attainted by parliament for his share
in the rebellion, his son was allowed to succeed his uncle and
father-in-law as third duke, and in 1765 he and his duchess disposed
of their sovereignty of the Isle of Man to the British government,
for seventy thousand pounds, reserving, however, their landed
interest in the island, with the patronage of the bishopric and other
ecclesiastical benefices, on payment of the annual sum of one hundred
and one pounds fifteen shillings and eleven pence, and rendering two
falcons to the kings and queens of England upon the days of their
coronation. His grace, who had five sons and two daughters, died 5th
November 1774, and was succeeded by his eldest son John, fourth duke,
who in 1786 was created Earl Strange and Baron Murray of Stanley,
in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He died in 1830. The fourth
duke was succeeded by his eldest son John, who was for many years
a recluse, and died single 14th September 1846. His next brother
James, a major-general in the army, was created a peer of the United
Kingdom, as baron Glenlyon of Glenlyon, in the county of Perth, 9th
July 1821. He married in May 1810, Emily Frances, second daughter
of the Duke of Northumberland, and by her he had two sons and two
daughters. He died in 1837. His eldest son, George Augustus Frederick
John, Lord Glenlyon, became, on the death of his uncle in 1846, sixth
Duke of Athole. He died in 1864, and was succeeded by his only son,
John James Hugh Henry, seventh Duke of Athole. The family residence
of the Duke of Athole is Blair Castle, Perthshire, a view of which,
as restored in 1872, is here given.
[Illustration: Blair Castle.]
The first baronet of the OCHTERTYRE family was William Moray of
Ochtertyre, who was created a baron of Nova Scotia, with remainder to
his heirs male, 7th June 1673. He was descended from Patrick Moray,
the first styled of Ochtertyre, who died in 1476, a son of Sir David
Moray of Tullibardine. The family continued to spell their name Moray
till 1739, when the present orthography, Murray, was adopted by Sir
William, third baronet.
DRUMMOND.
The name of DRUMMOND may be derived originally from the parish of
Drymen, in what is now the western district of Stirlingshire. The
Gaelic name is _Druiman_, signifying a ridge, or high ground.
An ancestor of the noble family of Perth thus fancifully interprets
the origin of the name: _Drum_ in Gaelic signifies a height, and
_onde_ a wave, the name being given to Maurice the Hungarian, to
express how gallantly he had conducted through the swelling waves
the ship in which prince Edgar and his two sisters had embarked for
Hungary, when they were driven out of their course, on the Scottish
coast. There are other conjectural derivations of the name, but
the territorial definition above-mentioned appears to be the most
probable one.
The chief of the family at the epoch of their first appearing in
written records was Malcolm Beg (or the little), chamberlain on the
estate of Levenax, and the fifth from the Hungarian Maurice, who
married Ada, daughter of Malduin, third Earl of Lennox, by Beatrix,
daughter of Walter, lord high steward of Scotland, and died before
1260.
Two of his grandsons are recorded as having sworn fealty to Edward
the First.
The name of one of them, Gilbert de Dromund, “del County de
Dunbretan,” appears in Prvnne’s copy of the Ragman Roll. He was
Drummond of Balquapple in Perthshire, and had a son, Malcolm de
Drummond, who also swore fealty to Edward in 1296, and was father of
Bryce Drummond, killed in 1330 by the Monteiths.
DRUMMOND.
[Illustration: BADGE--Thyme (or mother of thyme).]
The other, the elder brother of Gilbert, named Sir John de Dromund,
married his relation, a daughter of Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith,
and countess in her own right.
His eldest son, Sir Malcolm de Drummond, attached himself firmly to
the cause of Bruce. King Robert, after the battle of Bannockburn,
bestowed upon him certain lands in Perthshire. He married a daughter
of Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, elder brother of Sir John
Graham, and ancestor of the family of Montrose. He had a son, Sir
Malcolm Drummond, who died about 1346. The latter had three sons,
John, Maurice, and Walter. The two former married heiresses.
Maurice’s lady was sole heiress of Concraig and of the stewardship of
Strathearn, to both of which he succeeded.
The wife of John, the eldest son, was Mary, eldest daughter and
co-heiress of Sir William de Montefex, with whom he got the lands
of Auchterarder, Kincardine in Monteith, Cargill, and Stobhall in
Perthshire. He had four sons, Sir Malcolm, Sir John, William, and
Dougal; and three daughters--Annabella, married, in 1357, John, Earl
of Carrick, high steward of Scotland, afterwards King Robert the
Third, and thus became Queen of Scotland, and the mother of David,
Duke of Rothesay, starved to death in the palace of Falkland,
in 1402, and of James the First, as well as of three daughters;
Margaret, married to Sir Colin Campbell of Lochow, Jean, to Stewart
of Donally, and Mary, to Macdonald of the Isles.
About 1360, in consequence of a feud which had long subsisted between
the Drummonds and the Menteiths of Rusky, the residence of the family
seems to have been transferred from Drymen, in Stirlingshire, where
they had chiefly lived for about two hundred years, to Stobhall, in
Perthshire, which had some years before come into their possession by
marriage.
Sir Malcolm Drummond, the eldest son, succeeded to the earldom of Mar
in right of his wife, Lady Isabel Douglas, only daughter of William,
first Earl of Douglas. His death was a violent one, having been
seized by a band of ruffians and imprisoned till he died “of his hard
captivity.” This happened before 27th May 1403. Not long after his
death, Alexander Stewart, a natural son of “the Wolf of Badenoch,” a
bandit and robber by profession, having cast his eyes on the lands of
the earldom, stormed the countess’ castle of Kildrummie; and, either
by violence or persuasion, obtained her in marriage. As Sir Malcolm
Drummond had died without issue, his brother, John, succeeded him.
John’s eldest son, Sir Walter Drummond, was knighted by King James
the Second, and died in 1455. He had three sons: Sir Malcolm his
successor; John, dean of Dunblane; and Walter of Ledcrieff, ancestor
of the Drummonds of BLAIR-DRUMMOND (now the HOME DRUMMONDS, Henry
Home, the celebrated Lord Kames, having married Agatha, daughter of
James Drummond of Blair-Drummond, and successor in the estate to her
nephew in 1766); of Cairdrum; of Newton, and other families of the
name.
The eldest son of the main stem, that is, the CARGILL and STOBHALL
family, Sir Malcolm by name, had great possessions in the counties of
Dumbarton, Perth, and Stirling, and died in 1470. By his wife Marion,
daughter of Murray of Tullibardine, he had six sons. His eldest son,
Sir John, was first Lord Drummond.
Sir John, the eldest son, was a personage of considerable importance
in the reigns of James the Third and Fourth, having been concerned in
most of the public transactions of that period. He died in 1519.
By his wife, Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of David, Duke of
Montrose, the first Lord Drummond, had three sons, and six daughters,
the eldest of whom, Margaret, was mistress to James the Fourth.
Malcolm, the eldest son, predeceased his father. William, the second
son, styled master of Drummond, suffered on the scaffold.
William had two sons, Walter and Andrew, ancestor of the Drummonds
of BELLYCLONE. Walter died in 1518, before his grandfather. By
Lady Elizabeth Graham, daughter of the first Earl of Montrose, he
had a son, David, second Lord Drummond, who was served heir to his
great-grandfather, John, first lord, 17th February 1520. Of his
two sons, Patrick, the elder, was third Lord Drummond; James, the
younger, created, 31st January 1609, Lord Maderty, was ancestor of
the viscounts of Strathallan.
Patrick, third Lord Drummond, embraced the reformed religion,
and spent some time in France. He died before 1600. He was twice
married, and by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of David Lindsay
of Edzell, eventually Earl of Crawford, he had two sons and five
daughters.
The elder son, James, fourth Lord Drummond, passed a considerable
portion of his youth in France, and after James the Sixth’s accession
to the English throne he attended the Earl of Nottingham on an
embassy to the Spanish court. On his return he was created Earl of
Perth, 4th March 1605. John, the younger son, succeeded his brother
in 1611, as second Earl of Perth.
The Hon. John Drummond, second son of James, third Earl of Perth,
was created in 1685 Viscount, and in 1686 Earl of Melfort; and his
representative Captain George Drummond, duc de Melfort, and Count de
Lussan in France, whose claim to the earldom of Perth in the Scottish
peerage was established by the House of Lords, June 1853, is the
chief of the clan Drummond, which, more than any other, signalised
itself by its fidelity to the lost cause of the Stuarts.
GRAHAM.
[Illustration: BADGE--Laurel spurge.]
The surname GRÆME, or GRAHAM, is said to be derived from the Gaelic
word _grumach_, applied to a person of a stern countenance and
manner. It may possibly, however, be connected with the British word
_grym_, signifying strength, seen in _grime’s dyke_, erroneously
called Graham’s dyke, the name popularly given to the wall of
Antoninus, from an absurd fable of Fordun and Boece, that one
_Greme_, traditionally said to have governed Scotland during the
minority of the fabulous Eugene the Second, broke through the mighty
rampart erected by the Romans between the rivers Forth and Clyde. It
is unfortunate for this fiction that the first authenticated person
who bore the name in North Britain was Sir William de Græme (the
undoubted ancestor of the Dukes of Montrose and all “the gallant
Grahams” in this country), who came to Scotland in the reign of David
the First, from whom he received the lands of Abercorn and Dalkeith,
and witnessed the charter of that monarch to the monks of the abbey
of Holyrood in 1128. In Gaelic _grim_ means war, battle. Anciently,
the word Grimesdike was applied to trenches, roads, and boundaries,
and was not confined to Scotland.
This Anglo-Norman knight, Sir William de Graham, had two sons, Peter
and John, in whom the direct line was carried on. The elder, Peter
de Graham, styled of Dalkeith and Abercorn, had also two sons, Henry
and William. Henry the elder, witnessed some of the charters of King
William the Lion. He was succeeded by his son Henry, whose son,
also named Henry, by marrying the daughter of Roger Avenel (who died
in 1243), acquired the extensive estates of Avenel, in Eskdale. His
grandson, Sir John de Graham of Dalkeith, had a son, John de Graham,
who dying without issue, was the last of the elder line of the
original stock of the Grahams.
The male line of the family was carried on by the younger son of Sir
William de Graham first above mentioned, John de Graham, whose son,
David de Graham, obtained from his cousin, Henry, the son of Peter
de Graham, the lands of Clifton and Clifton Hall in Mid-Lothian,
and from King William the Lion those of Charlton and Barrowfield,
as well as the lordship of Kinnaber, all in Forfarshire. This was
the first connection of the family with the district near Montrose,
whence they subsequently derived their ducal title. His eldest son,
also named Sir David de Graham, had, from Patrick, Earl of Dunbar,
in the reign of King Alexander the Second, with other lands, those
of Dundaff, in Stirlingshire. The son of Sir David de Graham last
mentioned, also named Sir David de Graham, who appears to have
held the office of sheriff of the county of Berwick, acquired from
Malise, Earl of Strathearn, the lands of Kincardine, in Perthshire,
which became one of the chief designations of the family. He died
about 1270. By his wife, Annabella, daughter of Robert, Earl of
Strathearn, he had three sons, namely, Sir Patrick, who succeeded
him; the celebrated Sir John the Graham, the companion of Wallace;
and Sir David, one of the nominees, his eldest brother being another,
of Baliol, in his competition for the crown of Scotland, 1292. His
eldest son, Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, fell in battle against
the English at Dunbar, 28th April 1296. Another son, Sir David de
Graham, a favourite name among the early Grahams, was also designed
of Kincardine. From Robert the First, in consideration of his good
and faithful services, he had several grants, and exchanged with that
monarch his property of Cardross in Dumbartonshire for the lands of
“Old Montrose” in Forfarshire. He died in 1327.
Sir William Graham of KINCARDINE, his great-grandson, was frequently
employed in negociations with the English relative to the liberation
of King James the First. He was twice married. By his first wife he
had two sons, Alexander,--who predeceased him, leaving two sons,--and
John. His second wife was the princess Mary Stewart, second daughter
of King Robert the Second, widow of the Earl of Angus and of Sir
James Kennedy of Dunure; after Sir William Graham’s death she took
for her fourth husband Sir William Edmonstone of Duntreath. By this
lady he had five sons, namely, 1. Sir Robert Graham of Strathcarron,
ancestor of the Grahams of Fintry, of Claverhouse, and of Duntrune.
2. Patrick Graham, consecrated bishop of Brechin, in 1463, and
three years after translated to the see of St. Andrews. 3. William,
ancestor of the Grahams of Garvoch in Perthshire, from a younger
son of whom came the Grahams of Balgowan, the most celebrated of
which family was the gallant Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, the
hero of Barossa. 4. Henry, of whom nothing is known. 5. Walter, of
Wallacetown, Dumbartonshire, ancestor of the Grahams of Knockdolian
in Carrick, and their cadets.
Patrick Graham, of Kincardine, the son of Alexander, the eldest son,
succeeded his grandfather, and was created a peer of parliament in
1451, under the title of Lord Graham. He died in 1465. His only
son, William, second Lord Graham, married lady Anne Douglas, eldest
daughter of the fourth Earl of Angus, and had two sons, William,
third Lord Graham, and George, ancestor of the Grahams of Calendar.
William, third Lord Graham, sat in the first parliament of King
James the Fourth, 1488; and on 3d March, 1504-5, he was created Earl
of Montrose, a charter being granted to him of that date, of his
hereditary lands of “Auld Montrose,” which were then erected into
a free barony and earldom to be called the barony and earldom of
Montrose. It is from these lands, therefore, and not from the town of
Montrose, that the family take their titles of earl and duke. He fell
at the battle of Flodden, 9th September 1513. He was thrice married.
By his first wife, Annabella, daughter of Lord Drummond, he had a
son, second Earl of Montrose; by his second wife, Janet, a daughter
of Sir Archibald Edmonstone of Duntreath, he had three daughters;
and by his third wife, Christian Wavance of Segy, daughter of Thomas
Wavance of Stevenston, and widow of the ninth Lord Halyburton of
Dirleton, two sons, Patrick, ancestor of the Græmes of Inchbrakie,
Perthshire; and Andrew, consecrated bishop of Dunblane in 1575, and
the first protestant bishop of that see.
From the third son of the second Earl of Montrose came the Grahams
of ORCHIL, and from the fourth son the Grahams of KILLEARN. From the
second son of the third earl descended the Grahams of BRACO, who once
possessed a baronetcy of Nova Scotia, conferred on the first of the
family, 28th September 1625. From the third son of the same earl, the
Grahams of SCOTTISTOUN derived their descent.
The Grahams of the borders are descended from Sir John Graham of
KILBRYDE, called, from his bravery, Sir John “with the bright sword,”
second son of Malise, Earl first of Strathearn, and afterwards of
Menteith, by his wife, the Lady Ann Vere, daughter of Henry, Earl of
Oxford.
Sir John “with the bright sword” was also ancestor of the Grahams of
Gartmore in Perthshire. Sir William Graham of Gartmore, created a
baronet of Nova Scotia in 1665, married Elizabeth, second daughter of
John Graham, Lord Kilpont (son of the Earl of Airth), who was slain
by one of his own vassals, James Stewart of Ardvoirlich, in the camp
of the Marquis of Montrose, in 1644; and had a son, Sir John Graham,
second baronet of Gartmore, declared insane in 1696. On his death,
12th July 1708, without issue, the baronetcy became extinct, and the
representation of the family devolved upon his sister Mary, wife of
James Hodge, Esq. of Gladsmuir, advocate. Their only daughter, Mary
Hodge, married, in 1701, William, son of John Graham of Callingod,
and had a son, William Graham, who assumed the title of Earl of
Menteith.
The castle of Kilbryde, near Dunblane, built by Sir John “with
the bright sword,” in 1460, was possessed by his representatives,
the Earls of Menteith, till 1640, when it was sold. The Menteith
Grahams were called the Grahams “of the hens,” from the following
circumstances. An armed party of the Stewarts of Appin, headed by
Donald Nan Ord,[251] called Donald of the Hammer, in their retreat
from the disastrous field of Pinkie in 1547, in passing the lake of
Menteith, stopped at a house of the Earl of Menteith, where a large
feast, consisting principally of poultry, was prepared for a marriage
party, and ate up all the provisions; but, being immediately pursued,
they were overtaken in the gorge of a pass, near a rock called
Craig-Vad, or the Wolf’s cliff, where a bloody encounter took place.
The earl and nearly the whole of his followers were killed, and
Donald of the Hammer escaped, amidst the darkness of the night, with
only a single attendant. From the cause of the fight the Highlanders
gave the name of _Gramoch na Geric_, or “Grahams of the hens,” to the
Menteith branch ever after.
The clan Graham were principally confined to Menteith and Strathearn.
GORDON.
[Illustration: BADGE--Rock ivy.]
The GORDONS are an ancient and distinguished family, originally
from Normandy, where their ancestors are said to have had large
possessions. From the great antiquity of the race, many fabulous
accounts have been given of the descent of the Gordons. Some derive
them from a city of Macedonia, called Gordonia, whence they went
to Gaul; others find their origin in Spain, Flanders, &c. Some
writers suppose Bertrand de Gourdon who, in 1199, wounded Richard
the Lion-heart mortally with an arrow before the castle of Chalus
in the Limoges, to have been the great ancestor of the Gordons, but
there does not seem to be any other foundation for such a conjecture
than that there was a manor in Normandy called Gourdon. It is
probable that the first persons of the name in this island came over
with William the Conqueror in 1066. According to Chalmers,[252] the
founder of this great family came from England in the reign of David
the First (1124-53), and obtained from that prince the lands of
Gordon (anciently _Gordun_, or _Gordyn_, from, as Chalmers supposes,
the Gaelic _Gordin_, “on the hill”). He left two sons, Richard, and
Adam, who, though the younger son, had a portion of the territory of
Gordon, with the lands of Fanys on the southern side of it.
The elder son, Richard de Gordon, granted, between 1150 and 1160,
certain lands to the monks of Kelso, and died in 1200. His son, Sir
Thomas de Gordon, confirmed by charter these donations, and _his_
son and successor, also named Thomas, made additional grants to the
same monks, as well as to the religious of Coldstream. He died in
1285, without male issue, and his only daughter, Alicia, marrying her
cousin Adam de Gordon, the son of Adam, younger brother of Richard
above mentioned, the two branches of the family thus became united.
His grandson, Sir Adam de Gordon, Lord of Gordon, one of the most
eminent men of his time, was the progenitor of most of the great
families of the name in Scotland. In reward of his faithful services,
Bruce granted to him and his heirs the noble lordship of Strathbolgie
(now Strathbogie), in Aberdeenshire, then in the Crown, by the
forfeiture of David de Strathbogie, Earl of Athole, which grant was
afterwards confirmed to his family by several charters under the
great seal. Sir Adam fixed his residence there, and gave these lands
and lordship the name of Huntly, from a village of that name in the
western extremity of Gordon parish, in the Merse, the site of which
is now said to be marked only by a solitary tree. From their northern
domain, the family afterwards acquired the titles of Lord, Earl,
and Marquis of Huntly, and the latter is now their chief title.
Sir Adam was slain, fighting bravely in the vanguard of the Scotch
army at the battle of Halidonhill, July 12, 1333. By Annabella, his
wife, supposed to have been a daughter of David de Strathbolgie above
mentioned, he had four sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Sir
Alexander, succeeded him. The second son, William, was ancestor of
the Viscounts of Kenmure.
Sir John Gordon, his great-grandson, got a new charter from King
Robert the Second of the lands of Strathbogie, dated 13th June 1376.
He was slain at the battle of Otterbourne in 1388. His son, Sir
Adam, lord of Gordon, fell at the battle of Homildon, 14th September
1402. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Keith, great
mareschal of Scotland, he had an only child, Elizabeth Gordon, who
succeeded to the whole family estates, and having married Alexander
Seton, second son of Sir William Seton of Seton, ancestor of the
Earls of Winton, that gentleman was styled lord of Gordon and Huntly.
He left two sons, the younger of whom became ancestor of the Setons
of Meldrum.
Alexander, the elder, was, in 1449, created Earl of Huntly, with
limitation to his heirs male, by Elizabeth Crichton, his third wife,
they being obliged to bear the name and arms of Gordon. George, the
sixth earl, was created Marquis of Huntly, by King James, in 1599.
George, the fourth marquis, was made Duke of Gordon in 1684. George,
fifth duke, died without issue on 28th May 1836. At his death the
title of Duke of Gordon became extinct, as well as that of Earl
of Norwich in the British peerage, and the Marquisate of Huntly
devolved on George Earl of Aboyne, descended from Charles, fourth
son of George, second Marquis of Huntly, while the Duke of Richmond
and Lennox, son of his eldest sister, succeeded to Gordon castle,
Banffshire, and other estates in Aberdeenshire and Inverness-shire.
The clan GORDON was at one period one of the most powerful and
numerous in the north. Although the chiefs were not originally of
Celtic origin, as already shown, they yet gave their name to the
clan, the distinctive badge of which was the rock ivy. The clan feuds
and battles were frequent, especially with the Mackintoshes, the
Camerons, the Murrays, and the Forbeses. Their principal exploits
have been noticed in the first volume.
[Illustration: Gordon Castle. From Nattes’ _Scotia Depicta_.]
The Duke of Gordon, who was the chief of the clan, was usually styled
“The Cock of the North,” His most ancient title was the “Gude-man
of the Bog,” from the Bog-of-Gight, a morass in the parish of
Bellie, Banffshire, in the centre of which the former stronghold of
this family was placed, and which forms the site of Gordon castle,
considered the most magnificent edifice in the north of Scotland. The
Marquis of Huntly is now the chief of the clan Gordon. Of the name of
Gordon, there are many ancient families belonging to Aberdeenshire,
Banffshire, and the north of Scotland.
CUMMING.
[Illustration: BADGE--Cumin plant.]
The family of CUMYN, COMYN, CUMIN, CUMMIN, or CUMMING, merit notice
among the septs of the north of Scotland, from the prominent figure
which they made there in early times. But almost all authors agree
in representing them as having come from England, and having been
of either Norman or Saxon descent originally. The time when they
migrated northwards is also well marked in history. The event
occurred in the reign of David I. That prince still claimed a large
part of the north of England, and, besides, had engaged deeply in
the contests betwixt King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, which
agitated South Britain in the twelfth century. He was thus brought
into frequent contact with the barons of Northumberland and the
adjoining districts, some of whom were properly his vassals, and many
of whose younger sons followed him permanently into Scotland. In
this way were founded various northern families in the time of King
David, and among others, seemingly, the Cumyns. William Cumyn is the
first of the name authentically mentioned in the Scottish annals.
He had been trained clerically by Gaufred, bishop of Durham, some
time chancellor to Henry I.; and his abilities and experience appear
to have recommended Cumyn to David of Scotland for the same high
office in the north. He was nominated chancellor of Scotland in 1133;
though we find him seizing on the bishopric of Durham in 1142, under
countenance of a grant from the Empress Maude. But he soon after
resigned it to the proper incumbent, reserving only certain of the
episcopal estates for behoof of his nephew and heir, Richard.
Richard Cumyn, properly the founder of the line of the Scottish
Cumyn, rose high in the service of William the Lion, and long acted
as chief minister and justiciary of Scotland. During his life he held
the lands of Northallerton and others, secured to him by his uncle
in England; and he also obtained estates in Roxburghshire, the first
property of the family in Scotland. That the Cumyns must have been of
high importance in England is proved by, and in part explains, their
sudden elevation in the north. Richard Cumyn even intermarried with
the royal family of Scotland, wedding Hexilda, great-granddaughter of
the “gracious” King Duncan of “Macbeth.”[253]
In the reign of Alexander III., as stated by Fordun, there were of
the name in Scotland three Earls--Buchan, Menteith, and Athole,
and one great feudal baron, Cumyn lord of Strathbogie, with thirty
knights all possessing lands. The chief of the clan was lord
of Badenoch and Lochaber, and other extensive districts in the
Highlands. Upwards of sixty belted knights were bound to follow his
banner with all their vassals, and he made treaties with princes as a
prince himself. One such compact with Lewellyn of Wales is preserved
in Rymer’s Fœdera.
The Cummings, as the name is now spelled, are numerous in the
counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray; but a considerable number,
in consequence of being prevented, for some reason, from burying
their relatives in the family burial-place, changed their names
to Farquharson, as being descended from Ferquhard, second son of
Alexander the fourth designed of Altyre, who lived in the middle
of the fifteenth century. It is from them that the Farquharsons of
Balthog, Haughton, and others in the county of Aberdeen derive their
descent.
From Sir Robert Comyn, younger son of John lord of Badenoch, who died
about 1274, are descended the Cummings of Altyre, Logie, Auchry (one
of whom in 1760 founded the village of Cuminestown in Aberdeenshire),
Relugas, &c.
OGILVY.
[Illustration: BADGE--Alkanet.]
OGILVY is a surname derived from a barony in the parish of Glammis,
Forfarshire, which, about 1163, was bestowed by William the Lion on
Gilbert, ancestor of the noble family of Airlie, and, in consequence,
he assumed the name of Ogilvy. He is said to have been the third son
of Gillibrede, or Gilchrist, maormor of Angus. In the charters of
the second and third Alexanders there are witnesses of the name of
Ogilvy. Sir Patrick de Ogilvy adhered steadily to Robert the Bruce,
who bestowed upon him the lands of Kettins in Forfarshire. The barony
of Cortachy was acquired by the family in 1369-70. The “gracious gude
Lord Ogilvy,” as he is styled in the old ballad of the battle of
Harlaw, in which battle the principal barons of Forfarshire fought on
the side of the Earl of Mar, who commanded the royal army, was the
son of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Auchterhouse, slain in a clan battle with
the Robertsons in 1394.
“Of the best amang them was
The gracious gude Lord Ogilvy,
The sheriff-principal of Angus,
Renownit for truth and equity--
For faith and magnanimity
He had few fellows in the field,
Yet fell by fatal destiny,
For he nae ways wad grant to yield.”
His eldest son, George Ogilvy, was also slain.
Lord OGILVY, the first title of Airlie family, was conferred by James
IV., in 1491, on Sir John Ogilvy of Lintrathen.
James, seventh Lord Ogilvy, was created Earl of Airlie, in 1639.
The title of Lord Ogilvy of Deskford was conferred, 4th October 1616,
on Sir Walter Ogilvy of Deskford and Findlater, whose son, James,
second Lord Deskford, was created Earl of Findlater, 20th February
1638. He was descended from Sir Walter Ogilvy of Auchleven, second
son of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Lintrathen, high treasurer of Scotland.
The clan Ogilvy are called “the _Siol Gilchrist_,” the race or
posterity of Gilchrist. In 1526, the Mackintoshes invaded the country
of the Ogilvies, and massacred no fewer than 24 gentlemen of the
name. A feud between the Campbells and the Ogilvies subsisted for
several centuries. In Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials we find James Ogilvy
complaining, on 21st October, 1591, that a body of Argyll’s men had
attacked him when residing peaceably in Glenisla, in Forfarshire,
which anciently belonged to the Ogilvies, killed several of his
people, ravaged the country, and compelled him and his lady to flee
for their lives.
The Ogilvies had their revenge in 1645, for the burning of “the
bonnie house of Airlie,” and the other strongholds of the Ogilvies,
when Castle Campbell, near Dollar, or the Castle of Gloom, its
original name, was destroyed by them and the Macleans, and the
territory of the Marquis of Argyll was overrun by the fierce and
ruthless clan that followed Montrose, and carried fire and sword
throughout the whole estates of the clan Campbell.
FERGUSON.
BADGE--Little Sunflower.
Ferguson, or Fergusson, is the surname (son of Fergus) of a Highland
sept (whose arms we have been unable to obtain), which had its seat
on the borders of the counties of Perth and Forfar, immediately to
the north of Dunkeld, and the distinctive badge of which was the
little sunflower. In the Roll of 1587, they are named as among the
septs of Mar and Athole, where their proper seat as a clan originally
lay, having chiefs and captains of their own. In Galloway, the
Craigdarroch Fergussons have flourished from an early date, and
in Fife the Fergusons of Raith have long held a high position as
landholders.
FOOTNOTES:
[244] For portrait of Henry, Cardinal Duke of York, v. vol. i. p. 745.
[245] The History of Donald of the Hammers, written by Sir Walter
Scott, will be found in the fifth edition of Captain Burt’s Letters.
[246] The late Sir William Steuart spelled his name with the _u_,
though we are not aware that any of his ancestors did.
[247] Fraser’s _Red Book of Grandtully_.
[248] Anderson’s _History of the Fraser Family_.
[249] For an account of this fight, called _Blair-nan-leine_, or
“Field of Shirts,” so disastrous to the Frasers, see the former part
of this work.
[250] By mistake, these are in our report called “chiefs;”
subordinate chiefs are correctly called “chieftains.”
[251] See our Account of the Stewarts.
[252] _Caledonia_, vol. ii. p. 387.
[253] See Smibert’s _Clans_.
PART THIRD.
HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND REGIMENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
Military character of the Highlands.
Hitherto the account of the military exploits of the Highlanders has
been limited to their own clan feuds and to the exertions which,
for a century, they made in behalf of the unfortunate Stuarts. We
are now to notice their operations on a more extended field of
action, by giving a condensed sketch of their services in the cause
of the country; services which have acquired for them a reputation
as deserved as it has been unsurpassed. From moral as well as from
physical causes, the Highlanders were well fitted to attain this
pre-eminence.
“In forming his military character, the Highlander was not more
favoured by nature than by the social system under which he lived.
Nursed in poverty, he acquired a hardihood which enabled him to
sustain severe privations. As the simplicity of his life gave vigour
to his body, so it fortified his mind. Possessing a frame and
constitution thus hardened, he was taught to consider courage as the
most honourable virtue, cowardice the most disgraceful failing; to
venerate and obey his chief, and to devote himself for his native
country and clan; and thus prepared to be a soldier, he was ready to
follow wherever honour and duty called him. With such principles, and
regarding any disgrace he might bring on his clan and district as the
most cruel misfortune, the Highland private soldier had a peculiar
motive to exertion. The common soldier of many other countries has
scarcely any other stimulus to the performance of his duty than
the fear of chastisement, or the habit of mechanical obedience to
command, produced by the discipline in which he has been trained.
With a Highland soldier it is otherwise. When in a national or
district corps, he is surrounded by the companions of his youth
and the rivals of his early achievements; he feels the impulse of
emulation strengthened by the consciousness that every proof which
he displays, either of bravery or cowardice, will find its way to
his native home. He thus learns to appreciate the value of a good
name; and it is thus, that in a Highland regiment, consisting of men
from the same country, whose kindred and connexions are mutually
known, every individual feels that his conduct is the subject of
observation, and that, independently of his duty as a member of
a systematic whole, he has to sustain a separate and individual
reputation, which will be reflected on his family, and district
or glen. Hence he requires no artificial excitements. He acts
from motives within himself; his point is fixed, and his aim must
terminate either in victory or death. The German soldier considers
himself as a part of the military machine, and duly marked out in
the orders of the day. He moves onward to his destination with a
well-trained pace, and with as phlegmatic indifference to the result
as a labourer who works for his daily hire. The courage of the French
soldier is supported in the hour of trial by his high notions of the
point of honour; but this display of spirit is not always steady. A
Highland soldier faces his enemy, whether in front, rear, or flank;
and if he has confidence in his commander, it may be predicted with
certainty that he will be victorious or die on the ground which
he maintains. He goes into the field resolved not to disgrace his
name. A striking characteristic of the Highlander is, that all his
actions seem to flow from sentiment. His endurance of privation and
fatigue,--his resistance of hostile opposition,--his solicitude for
the good opinion of his superiors,--all originate in this source,
whence also proceeds his obedience, which is always most _conspicuous
when exhibited under kind treatment_. Hence arises the difference
observable between the conduct of one regiment of Highlanders
and that of another, and frequently even of the same regiment at
different times, and under different management. A Highland regiment,
to be orderly and well disciplined, ought to be commanded by men who
are capable of appreciating their character, directing their passions
and prejudices, and acquiring their entire confidence and affection.
The officer to whom the command of Highlanders is intrusted must
endeavour to acquire their confidence and good opinion. With this
view, he must watch over the propriety of his own conduct. He must
observe the strictest justice and fidelity in his promises to his
men, conciliate them by an attention to their dispositions and
prejudices, and, at the same time, by preserving a firm and steady
authority, without which he will not be respected.
“Officers who are accustomed to command Highland soldiers find
it easy to guide and control them when their full confidence has
been obtained; but when distrust prevails severity ensues, with a
consequent neglect of duty, and by a continuance of this unhappy
misunderstanding, the men become stubborn, disobedient, and in
the end mutinous. The spirit of a Highland soldier revolts at any
unnecessary severity; though he may be led to the mouth of a cannon
if properly directed, will rather die than be unfaithful to his
trust. But if, instead of leading, his officers attempt to drive him,
he may fail in the discharge of the most common duties.”[254]
A learned and ingenious author,[255] who, though himself a Lowlander,
had ample opportunity, while serving in many campaigns with Highland
regiments, of becoming intimately acquainted with their character,
thus writes of them:--
“The limbs of the Highlander are strong and sinewy, the frame hardy,
and of great physical power, in proportion to size. He endures
cold, hunger, and fatigue with patience; in other words, he has an
elasticity or pride of mind which does not feel, or which refuses
to complain of hardship. The air of the gentleman is ordinarily
majestic; the air and gait of the gilly is not graceful. He walks
with a bended knee, and does not walk with grace, but his movement
has energy; and between walking and trotting, and by an interchange
of pace, he performs long journeys with facility, particularly on
broken and irregular ground, such as he has been accustomed to
traverse in his native country.
“The Highlanders of Scotland, born and reared under the circumstances
stated, marshalled for action by clans, according to ancient usage,
led into action by chiefs who possess confidence from an opinion of
knowledge, and love from the influence of blood, may be calculated
upon as returning victorious, or dying in the grasp of the enemy.
“Scotch Highlanders have a courage devoted to honour; but they have
an impetuosity which, if not well understood, and skilfully directed,
is liable to error. The Scotch fight individually as if the cause
were their own, not as if it were the cause of a commander only,--and
they fight impassioned. Whether training and discipline may bring
them in time to the apathy of German soldiers, further experience
will determine; but the Highlanders are even now impetuous; and, if
they fail to accomplish their object, they cannot be withdrawn from
it like those who fight a battle by the job. The object stands in
their own view; the eye is fixed upon it; they rush towards it, seize
it, and proclaim victory with exultation.
“The Highlander, upon the whole, is a soldier of the first quality;
but, as already said, he requires to see his object fully, and to
come into contact with it in all its extent. He then feels the
impression of his duty through a channel which he understands, and
he acts consistently in consequence of the impression, that is, in
consequence of the impulse of his own internal sentiment, rather
than the external impulse of the command of another; for it is often
verified in experience that, where the enemy is before the Highlander
and nearly in contact with him, the authority of the officer is in a
measure null; the duty is notwithstanding done, and well done, by the
impulses of natural instinct.
“Their conduct in the year 1745 proves very distinctly that they are
neither a ferocious nor a cruel people. No troops ever, perhaps,
traversed a country which might be deemed hostile leaving so few
traces of outrage behind them as were left by the Highlanders in the
year 1745. They are better known at the present time than they were
then, and they are known to be eminent for honesty and fidelity,
where confidence is given them. They possess exalted notions of
honour, warm friendships, and much national pride.”
Of the disinclination from peaceful employment, and propensity for
war here spoken of, Dr Jackson elsewhere affords us a striking
illustration. While passing through the Isle of Skye[256] in the
autumn of 1783, he met a man of great age whose shoulder had, through
a recent fall, been dislocated. This condition was speedily rectified
by our traveller. “As there seemed to be something rather uncommon
about the old man, I asked if he had lived all his life in the
Highlands? No:--he said he made one of the FORTY-SECOND when they
were first raised; then had gone with them to Germany; but when he
had heard that his Prince was landed in the North, he purchased, or
had made such interest that he procured his discharge; came home, and
enlisted under his banner. He fought at Culloden, and was wounded.
After everything was settled, he returned to his old regiment, and
served with it till he received another wound that rendered him unfit
for service. He now, he said, lived the best way he could, on his
pension.”
Dr Jackson also strongly advocates the desirability of forming
national and district regiments, and of keeping them free from any
foreign intermixture. Such a policy seems to be getting more and more
into favour among modern military authorities; and we believe that
at the present time it is seldom, and only with reluctance, that any
but Scotchmen are admitted into Scotch, and especially into Highland
regiments, at least this is the case with regard to privates. Indeed,
it is well known that in our own country there is even now an attempt
among those who manage such matters, to connect particular regiments
with certain districts. Not only does such a plan tend to keep up
the _morale_ respectability and _esprit de corps_ of each regiment,
but is well calculated to keep up the numbers, by establishing a
connection between the various regiments and the militia of the
districts with which they are connected. Originally each Highland
regiment was connected and raised from a well defined district, and
military men who are conversant in such matters think that it would
be advisable to restore these regiments to their old footing in this
respect. On this subject, we again quote the shrewd remarks of Dr
Jackson:--
“If military materials be thrown together promiscuously--that is,
arranged by no other rule except that of size or quantity of matter,
as it is admitted that the individual parts possess different
propensities and different powers of action, it is plain that the
instrument composed of these different and independent parts has a
tendency to act differently; the parts are constrained to act on one
object by stimulation or coercion only.
“Military excellence consists, as often hinted, in every part of the
instrument acting with full force--acting from one principle and
for one purpose; and hence it is evident that in a mixed fabric,
composed of parts of unequal power and different temper, disunion is
a consequence, if all act to the full extent of their power; or if
disunion be not a consequence, the combined act must necessarily be
shackled, and, as such, inferior, the strong being restrained from
exertion for the sake of preserving union with the weak.
“The imperfection now stated necessarily attaches to regiments
composed of different nations mixed promiscuously. It even attaches,
in some degree, to regiments which are formed indiscriminately from
the population of all the districts or counties of an extensive
kingdom. This assumption, anticipated by reasoning, is confirmed
by experience in the military history of semi-barbarous tribes,
which are often observed, without the aid of tactic, as taught in
modern schools, to stick together in danger and to achieve acts of
heroism beyond the comprehension of those who have no knowledge of
man but as part of a mechanical instrument of war. The fact has
numerous proofs in the history of nations; but it has not a more
decisive one than that which occurred in the late SEVENTY-FIRST
REGIMENT in the revolutionary war of America. In the summer of the
year 1779, a party of the Seventy-first Regiment, consisting of
fifty-six men and five officers, was detached from a redoubt at
Stoneferry, in South Carolina, for the purpose of reconnoitring the
enemy, which was supposed to be advancing in force to attack the
post. The instructions given to the officer who commanded went no
further than to reconnoitre and retire upon the redoubt. The troops
were new troops,--ardent as Highlanders usually are. They fell in
with a strong column of the enemy (upwards of two thousand) within
a short distance of the post; and, instead of retiring according
to instruction, they thought proper to attack, with an instinctive
view, it was supposed, to retard progress, and thereby to give time
to those who were in the redoubt to make better preparations for
defence. This they did; but they were themselves nearly destroyed.
All the officers and non-commissioned officers were killed or
wounded, and seven of the privates only remained on their legs at
the end of the combat. The commanding officer fell, and, in falling,
desired the few who still resisted to make the best of their way to
the redoubt. They did not obey. The national sympathies were warm.
National honour did not permit them to leave their officers in the
field; and they actually persisted in covering their fallen comrades
until a reinforcement arriving from head quarters, which was at some
distance, induced the enemy to retire.”
In the narratives which follow, we have confined ourselves strictly
to those regiments which are at the present day officially recognised
as Highland. Many existing regiments were originally raised in
Highland districts, and formerly wore the Highland dress, which, as
our readers will see, had ultimately to be changed into ordinary
line regiments, from the difficulty of finding Highlanders willing
to enlist; the history of such regiments we have followed only so
long as they were recognised as Highland. In this way the existing
strictly Highland regiments are reduced to eight--The Black Watch or
42d, the 71st, 72d, 74th, 78th, 79th, 92d, 93d.
FOOTNOTES:
[254] Stewart’s _Sketches_.
[255] Jackson’s _View of the Formation, &c., of Armies_, 1824.
[256] “The Isle of Skye has, within the last forty years,
furnished for the public service, twenty-one lieutenant-generals
and major-generals; forty-five lieutenant-colonels; six hundred
majors, captains, lieutenants, and subalterns; ten thousand
foot soldiers; one hundred and twenty pipers; four governors of
British colonies; one governor-general; one adjutant-general; one
chief-baron of England; and one judge of the Supreme Court of
Scotland. The generals may be classed thus:--eight Macdonalds,
six Macleods, two Macallisters, two Macaskills, one Mackinnon,
one Elder, and one Macqueen. The Isle of Skye is forty-five miles
long, and about fifteen in mean breadth. Truly the inhabitants are
a wonderous people. It may be mentioned that this island is the
birth-place of Cuthullin, the celebrated hero mentioned in Ossian’s
Poems.”--_Inverness Journal._
42d ROYAL HIGHLAND REGIMENT.
AM FREICEADAN DUBH--
“THE BLACK WATCH.”
I.
1726-1775.
Embodying the Black Watch--March for England--Mutiny--Fontenoy
--Embarks for the French coast--Flanders--Battle of Lafeldt
--Return of the regiment to Ireland--Number changed from the 43d
to the 42d--Embarks for New York--Louisbourg--Ticonderoga--The
West Indies--Ticonderoga and Crown Point--Surrender of Montreal
--Martinique--Havannah--Bushy Run--Fort Pitt--Ireland--Return of
the 42d to Scotland.
[Illustration: NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT.
VICTORIES.
EGYPT.
(With the Sphinx.)
CORUNNA.
FUENTES D’ONOR.
PYRENEES.
NIVELLE.
NIVE.
ORTHES.
TOULOUSE.
PENINSULA.
WATERLOO.
ALMA.
SEVASTOPOL.
LUCKNOW.]
The design of rendering such a valuable class of subjects available
to the state by forming regular military corps out of it, seems not
to have entered into the views of the government till about the
year 1729, when six companies of Highlanders were raised, which,
from forming distinct corps unconnected with each other, received
the appellation of independent companies. Three of these companies
consisted of 100 men each, and were therefore called large companies;
Lord Lovat, Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochnell, and Colonel Grant of
Ballindalloch, were appointed captains over them. The three smaller
companies, which consisted of 75 each, were commanded by Colonel
Alexander Campbell of Finab, John Campbell of Carrick, and George
Munro of Culcairn, under the commission of captain-lieutenants. To
each of the six companies were attached two lieutenants and one
ensign. To distinguish them from the regular troops, who, from
having coats, waistcoats, and breeches of scarlet cloth, were called
_Saighdearan Dearg_, or Red soldiers; the independent companies, who
were attired in tartan consisting mostly of black, green, and blue,
were designated _Am Freiceadan Dubh_, or Black Watch,--from the
sombre appearance of their dress.
As the services of these companies were not required beyond their own
territory, and as the intrants were not subjected to the humiliating
provisions of the disarming act, no difficulty was found in forming
them; and when completed, they presented the singular spectacle of
a number of young men of respectable families serving as privates
in the ranks. “Many of the men who composed these companies were
of a higher station in society than that from which soldiers in
general are raised; cadets of gentlemen’s families, sons of gentlemen
farmers, and tacksmen, either immediately or distantly descended
from gentlemen’s families,--men who felt themselves responsible
for their conduct to high-minded and honourable families, as well
as to a country for which they cherished a devoted affection. In
addition to the advantages derived from their superior rank in life,
they possessed, in an eminent degree, that of a commanding external
deportment, special care being taken in selecting men of full height,
well proportioned, and of handsome appearance.”[257]
[Illustration: COLONELS OF THE 42^{nd} ROYAL HIGHLANDERS.
JOHN, EARL OF CRAWFORD.
25^{th} Oct. 1739--1740.
_First Colonel._
SIR GEORGE MURRAY, G.C.B. G.C.H.
6^{th} Sept. 1823--29^{th} Dec. 1843.
_Also Col. of 72^{nd} Highl^{rs} 24^{th} Feb. 1817--6^{th}
Sept. 1823._
SIR JOHN MACDONALD, K.C.B.
15^{th} Jan. 1844, died Col. of the Reg^t. 28^{th} March 1850.
SIR DUNCAN A. CAMERON, K.C.B.
9^{th} Sept. 1863--
A. Fullerton & C^o London & Edinburgh.]
The duties assigned to these companies were to enforce the disarming
act, to overawe the disaffected, and watch their motions, and to
check depredations. For this purpose they were stationed in small
detachments in different parts of the country, and generally
throughout the district in which they were raised. Thus Fort Augustus
and the neighbouring parts of Inverness-shire were occupied by
the Frasers under Lord Lovat; Ballindalloch and the Grants were
stationed in Strathspey and Badenoch; the Munros under Culcairn,
in Ross and Sutherland; Lochnell’s and Carrick’s companies were
stationed in Athole and Breadalbane, and Finab’s in Lochaber, and the
northern parts of Argyleshire among the disaffected Camerons, and
Stewarts of Appin. All Highlanders of whatever clan were admitted
indiscriminately into these companies as soldiers; but the officers
were taken, almost exclusively, from the whig clans.
The independent companies continued to exist as such until the year
1739, when government resolved to raise four additional companies,
and to form the whole into a regiment of the line. For this purpose,
letters of service, dated 25th October 1739, were addressed to the
Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, who was appointed to the command of
the regiment about to be formed, which was to consist of 1000 men.
Although the commissions were dated as above, the regiment was not
embodied till the month of May 1740, when it assembled on a field
between Taybridge and Aberfeldy,[258] in the county of Perth, under
the number of the 43d regiment, although they still retained the
country name of the Black Watch. “The uniform was a scarlet jacket
and waistcoat, with buff facings and white lace,--tartan[259] plaid
of twelve yards plaited round the middle of the body, the upper
part being fixed on the left shoulder ready to be thrown loose, and
wrapped over both shoulders and firelock in rainy weather. At night
the plaid served the purpose of a blanket, and was a sufficient
covering for the Highlander. These were called belted plaids from
being kept tight to the body by a belt, and were worn on guards,
reviews, and on all occasions when the men were in full dress. On
this belt hung the pistols and dirk when worn. In the barracks, and
when not on duty, the little kilt or philibeg was worn, a blue bonnet
with a border of white, red and green, arranged in small squares to
resemble, as is said, the _fess cheque_ in the arms of the different
branches of the Stewart family, and a tuft of feathers, or sometimes,
from economy or necessity, a small piece of black bear-skin. The arms
were a musket, a bayonet, and a large basket-hilted broadsword. These
were furnished by government. Such of the men as chose to supply
themselves with pistols and dirks were allowed to carry them, and
some had targets after the fashion of their country. The sword-belt
was of black leather, and the cartouch-box was carried in front,
supported by a narrow belt round the middle.”[260]
The officers appointed to this regiment were:--
_Colonel_--John, Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, died in 1748.
_Lieutenant-Colonel_--Sir Robert Munro of Foulis, Bart.,
killed at Falkirk, 1746.
_Major_--George Grant, brother of the Laird of Grant, removed
from the service by sentence of a court-martial, for allowing
the rebels to get possession of the castle of Inverness in 1746.
_Captains._
George Munro of Culcairn, brother of Sir Robert Munro, killed
in 1746.[261]
Dugal Campbell of Craignish, retired in 1745.
John Campbell of Carrick, killed at Fontenoy.
Colin Campbell, junior, of Monzie, retired in 1743.
Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Bart., retired in 1748.
Colin Campbell of Ballimore, retired.
John Munro, promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonel in 1743, retired
in 1749.
Captain-Lieutenant Duncan Macfarlane, retired in 1744.
_Lieutenants._
Paul Macpherson.
Lewis Grant of Auchterblair.
{ Both removed from the
John Maclean of Kingarloch. { regiment in consequence
John Mackenzie. { of having
{ fought a duel in 1744.
Alexander Macdonald.
Malcolm Fraser, son of Culduthel, killed at Bergen-op-Zoom in 1747.
George Ramsay.
Francis Grant, son of the Laird of Grant, died Lieutenant-General
in 1782.
John Macneil.
_Ensigns._
Dugal Campbell, killed at Fontenoy.
Dugal Stewart.
John Menzies of Comrie.
Edward Carrick.
Gilbert Stewart of Kincraigie.
Gordon Graham of Draines.
Archd. Macnab, son of the Laird of Macnab, died Lieutenant-General,
1790.
Colin Campbell.
Dugal Stewart.
James Campbell of Glenfalloch, died of wounds at Fontenoy.
_Chaplain_--Hon. Gideon Murray.
_Surgeon_--James Munro, brother of Sir Robert Munro.[262]
_Adjutant_--Gilbert Stewart.
_Quarter-Master_--John Forbes.
In 1740 the Earl of Crawford was removed to the Life Guards,
and Brigadier-General Lord Sempill was appointed Colonel of the
Highlanders.
After remaining nearly eighteen months in quarters near
Taybridge,[263] the regiment was marched northward, in the winter
of 1741-2 and the men remained in the stations assigned them till
the spring of 1743, when they were ordered to repair to Perth.
Having assembled there in March of that year, they were surprised on
being informed that orders had been received to march the regiment
for England, a step which they considered contrary to an alleged
understanding when regimented, that the sphere of their services
was not to extend beyond their native country. When the intention
of employing them in foreign service came to be known, many of the
warmest supporters of the government highly disapproved of the
design, among whom was Lord President Forbes. In a letter to General
Clayton, the successor of Marshal Wade, the chief commander in
Scotland, his lordship thus expresses himself:--“When I first heard
of the orders given to the Highland regiment to march southwards,
it gave me no sort of concern, because I supposed the intention was
only to see them; but as I have lately been assured that they are
destined for foreign service, I cannot dissemble my uneasiness at a
resolution, that may, in my apprehension, be attended with very bad
consequences; nor can I prevail with myself not to communicate to
you my thoughts on the subject, however late they may come; because
if what I am to suggest has not been already under consideration,
it’s possible the resolution may be departed from.” After noticing
the consequences which might result from leaving the Highlands
unprotected from the designs of the disaffected in the event of a
war with France, he thus proceeds:--“Having thus stated to you the
danger I dread, I must, in the next place, put you in mind, that the
present system for securing the peace of the Highlands, which is the
best I ever heard of, is by regular troops stationed from Inverness
to Fort William, alongst the chain of lakes which in a manner divides
the Highlands, to command the obedience of the inhabitants of both
sides, and by a body of disciplined Highlanders wearing the dress
and speaking the language of the country, to execute such orders as
require expedition, and for which neither the dress nor the manner of
the other troops are proper. The Highlanders, now regimented, were
at first independent companies; and though their dress, language,
and manners, qualified them for securing the low country against
depredations; yet that was not the sole use of them: the same
qualities fitted them for every expedition that required secrecy and
despatch; they served for all purposes of hussars or light horse,
in a country where mountains and bogs render cavalry useless, and
if properly disposed over the Highlands, nothing that was commonly
reported and believed by the Highlanders could be a secret to their
commanders, because of their intimacy with the people and the
sameness of the language.”[264] Notwithstanding this remonstrance,
the government persisted in its determination to send the regiment
abroad; and to deceive the men, from whom their real destination
was concealed, they were told that the object of their march to
England was merely to gratify the curiosity of the king,[265] who
was desirous of seeing a Highland regiment. Satisfied with this
explanation, they proceeded on their march. The English people, who
had been led to consider the Highlanders as savages, were struck with
the warlike appearance of the regiment and the orderly deportment of
the men, who received in the country and towns through which they
passed the mostly friendly attentions.
Having reached the vicinity of London on the 29th and 30th of April,
in two divisions, the regiment was reviewed on the 14th of May, on
Finchley Common, by Marshal Wade. The arrival of the corps in the
neighbourhood of the metropolis had attracted vast crowds of people
to their quarters, anxious to behold men of whom they had heard
the most extraordinary relations; but, mingled with these, were
persons who frequented the quarters of the Highlanders from a very
different motive. Their object was to sow the seeds of distrust
and disaffection among the men, by circulating misrepresentations
and falsehoods respecting the intentions of the government. These
incendiaries gave out that a gross deception had been practised upon
the regiment, in regard to the object of their journey, in proof of
which they adduced the fact of his majesty’s departure for Hanover,
on the very day of the arrival of the last division, and that the
real design of the government was to get rid of them altogether,
as disaffected persons, and, with that view, that the regiment
was to be transported for life to the American plantations. These
insidious falsehoods had their intended effect upon the minds of the
Highlanders, who took care, however, to conceal the indignation they
felt at their supposed betrayers. All their thoughts were bent upon
a return to their own country, and they concerted their measures
for its accomplishment with a secrecy which escaped the observation
of their officers, of whose integrity in the affair they do not,
however, appear to have entertained any suspicion.
The mutiny which followed created a great sensation, and the
circumstances which led to it formed, both in public and in private,
the ordinary topic of discussion. The writer of a pamphlet, which
was published immediately after the mutiny, and which contains the
best view of the subject, and an intimate knowledge of the facts,
thus describes the affair:--