In 1898 the late Mr. Andrew Lang edited and published a manuscript
from the King’s Library in the British Museum, which he entitled _The
Highlands of Scotland in 1750_. Mr. Lang was unable to discover the
author, but conjectured that it was written by Mr. Bruce, a Government
agent employed to survey the Highland forfeited estates after the
’Forty-five. A close scrutiny of Mr. Lang’s volume along with the
_Memorial_ here printed has convinced me that they are the work of the
same hand. Whoever wrote the manuscript in the King’s Library, the
information contained therein came from the author of this ‘Memorial.’
The manuscript in the British Museum contains a good deal more than
this _Memorial_, but the views advanced are generally the same, the
sentiments are similar, and occasionally the phraseology is identical.
The manuscript from which the ‘Memorial Concerning the Highlands’
is printed is holograph of the Rev. Alexander Macbean, minister of
Inverness at the time of the ’Forty-five. Macbean was well qualified
to write on this subject. I have been unable to discover the place of
his birth, but it may be conjectured that, if not actually born in
the Macbean country, his family came from there, _i.e._ that part of
Inverness-shire lying to the east of Loch Ness, of which The Mackintosh
was feudal superior. The earliest information that can be gleaned from
ecclesiastical records is that he received his degree of Master of Arts
from the University of St. Andrews in 1702, and that he was employed
as schoolmaster at Fort William from 1701 to 1709. That his salary was
slender may well be believed, but its tenuity was aggravated by the
fact that it was not paid regularly. We find that as late as 1717 the
Commission of the General Assembly applied to the Treasury for arrears
due to Macbean, and was bluntly refused on the ground that the Treasury
was not responsible for debts incurred before the Union of 1707.
Alexander Macbean went from the Western Highlands to Roxburghshire,
where he became chaplain to Douglas of Cavers, and was licensed as a
probationer by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1711. In the following
year the right of presentation to the parish of Avoch in the Black
Isle, Ross-shire, having fallen to the Presbytery of Chanonry, _jure
devoluto_, Macbean was selected to fill the vacancy, and was ordained
minister of the parish in June 1712. His appointment met with fierce
opposition. His predecessor had been one of the pre-Revolution
episcopal ministers who had retained his living, and the parishioners,
for the most part episcopalians, resented his intrusion and fretted
him with litigation. He became so unhappy that he obtained permission
to resign his charge. In 1714 he was presented to the rural parish of
Douglas in Lanarkshire, and there he remained for six years. In 1720
he was back in the Highlands as minister of the ‘third charge’ of
Inverness; and in 1727 he was transferred to the ‘first charge’ of that
important town, and there he remained until his death in 1762.
In Inverness he made his individuality strongly felt as champion for
the Government. He was ‘the John Knox of the North,’ and one who
exerted himself to suppress the spirit of rebellion in and about
Inverness in the years 1745 and 1746.
On one occasion he nearly fell a victim to his interest in the
struggle. Having gone with many others to the Muir of Culloden to
witness the battle, one of the flying Highlanders attempted to cut him
down with his broadsword, but the blow was warded off by a bystander.
Alexander Macbean was the father of a very distinguished son,
Lieut.-General Forbes Macbean (1725-1800) of the Royal Artillery.
This officer was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, was
present at Fontenoy in 1745, and at Minden in 1759. At Minden he so
distinguished himself that he was presented with a gratuity of five
hundred crowns and a letter of thanks from the Commander-in-Chief,
Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, written with his own hand. Forbes
Macbean subsequently became Inspector-General of Portuguese Artillery,
1765-69; served in Canada 1769-73 and 1778-80; but his principal claim
to the gratitude of posterity is a collection of manuscript notes
recording the early history of the Royal Artillery.
Of Alexander Macbean’s ‘Memorial’ it is perhaps enough to say that it
is, considering the times, fairly impartial, and corresponds on the
whole with authentic information gleaned from other sources. I have
taken the opportunity of supplementing, perhaps overloading, his text
with notes detailing, so far as I have been able to discover them from
various sources, the names of the principal Highland gentlemen who were
concerned in the Rising of the ’Forty-five.