This manuscript bears neither signature nor date, and gives no
indication of authorship. There can, however, be little doubt that
the author of the narrative was a minister belonging to Aberdeen
or Banffshire, and that it was written at the same time as the two
previous papers, about the end of 1746 or the beginning of 1747.
The story of the events of the Rising in the north-eastern counties
is recounted with much fulness of detail, and with a minute knowledge
of the country and the people. It is told, moreover, with marked
fairness. Although the writer is a Whig, he speaks kindly of the
Jacobite leaders, and he does not conceal the cruelties committed by
the Government troops.
He tells the story of the skirmish of Inverurie in greater detail than
is found elsewhere, and he gives picturesque touches in places that add
to the interest of his narrative. Specially graphic is his account of
Macleod’s famous piper, MacCrimmon, who was captured in that action.
The condition of parties in the north-eastern counties was not what it
had been in the ’Fifteen. At that time the great lords of the counties
had been Jacobite, whereas in 1745 most of the Aberdeenshire peers were
supporters of the Government. None of them, however, took a prominent
lead in the struggle. It is interesting to read the reasons given by
the author of these Memoirs for the reticence of the Whig peers. The
Duke of Gordon was prevented by indisposition. Lord Findlater’s sickly
condition quite disabled him, and Lord Kintore’s incumbrances on his
fortune were a drawback. Lord Forbes again had by no means an estate
suited to his ability, while Lord Saltoun had no weight in the county.
As for Lord Braco (afterwards Earl Fife), the newness of his family
would have marred any project of his forming. The author considers,
however, that something might have been expected of the Earl of
Aberdeen.[63]
These explanations carry no conviction, and there can be little doubt
that, in the beginning, these Aberdeenshire lords were more or less
sitting on the fence. Nor is this to be wondered at; family tradition
and family connection would make them very chary of taking any
prominent steps against the Jacobites. The Duke of Gordon, whose mother
was a daughter of the Earl of Peterborough, had been brought up a
Protestant and a Whig in defiance of the Catholic religion and Jacobite
principles of his predecessors. Yet he must have had some sympathy
with the family tradition. Early in September his father’s old factor,
Gordon of Glenbucket, carried off horses and arms from Gordon Castle
while the Duke was there, apparently with his connivance. Moreover,
Sir Harry Innes of Innes in writing of this to his brother-in-law,
Ludovick Grant, adds: ‘I am sory to tell yow that the Duke is quite
wronge.’[64] By the end of November, however, he had pronounced for the
Government. Lord Findlater was a Jacobite in the ’Fifteen, and had then
been imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. Lord Kintore’s father had fought
at Sheriffmuir, and been deprived of his office of Knight-Marischal as
a punishment. Lord Braco’s family was deeply concerned on the Jacobite
side; his son-in-law, Sir William Gordon of Park, his brother-in-law,
William Baird of Auchmedden, his nephew, a son of Duff of Hatton, were
all ‘out,’ and his eldest son was only kept by force from joining the
Jacobites.[65] Lord Aberdeen had only in March succeeded his father,
who, it is known, had intended to join the Stuart cause.[66]
Lord Forbes, whose traditions were Whig, and whose father was
Lord-Lieutenant of the county in 1715, might have acted, but his family
connections were nearly all Jacobite. He was the brother-in-law of Lord
Pitsligo and Gordon of Park, while his three daughters were married to
prominent Jacobites.[67]
Nor on the Jacobite side were there any noted personages. The two
most prominent Jacobite leaders were Gordon of Glenbucket, a tenant
farmer, and Lord Pitsligo. Though of small estate, Lord Pitsligo was
universally respected for his high character and his personal piety. He
knew his own mind and never faltered. He had been out in the ’Fifteen,
and was sixty-seven years of age. In a letter to a friend, he confesses
that what really troubled him was the fear of ridicule that a man of
his age should take part in the adventure; but he thought, and weighed,
and weighed again. His enthusiasm was of the coldest kind, but duty
called him and he obeyed. His example influenced many Aberdeen and
Banffshire lairds, and he gathered a considerable contingent of horse
and foot. It is related that when he was ready to start to join the
Prince, and had put himself at the head of his troop, he turned his
face upwards and prayed aloud, ‘O Lord, Thou knowest that our cause is
just,’ and then quietly gave the order to march.[68]
To understand these Memoirs fully, it is necessary to place them in
their historical setting, and to give a brief outline of the military
operations during the campaign.
On August 31st the corporation of Aberdeen, thoroughly alarmed at the
news of the advance of Prince Charles, determined to put the city into
a position of defence. Lists were made of all available citizens,
who were embodied into a force of twelve companies of infantry and a
detachment of artillery, while arms and ammunition were collected for
their equipment. Sir John Cope, who had left Inverness on September
4th, reached Aberdeen on the 11th. Finding guns placed to defend the
harbour and citizens fully armed, he commandeered both cannon and
small arms, and carried them off, alleging that otherwise they might
fall into the enemy’s hands. Cope left Aberdeen by sea for the Firth of
Forth on September 15th, the city being left without any defence.
Meantime the Jacobites were not idle. Gordon of Glenbucket, now
aged seventy-two, had been bed-ridden for three years, but he no
sooner heard of the Prince’s arrival than he experienced ‘a kind of
new life.’[69] Although bent nearly double on horseback, he hurried
off to the West Highlands, and met Prince Charles at Kinlochmoidart
on August 18th. He was back in Banffshire raising men by September
5th.[70] John Hamilton, the Duke of Gordon’s factor in Strathbogie,
also quickly raised a contingent, and ten days after Cope’s departure,
on September 25th, he marched into Aberdeen, where he proclaimed King
James at the Cross, and perpetrated the somewhat ludicrous outrage on
the provost and magistrates narrated on page 119. From that time until
the last week in February, Aberdeen was under Jacobite government.
Men were hurriedly collected; and on October 4th Glenbucket joined
Prince Charles at Edinburgh with 400 men from Strathavon and Glenlivet,
Hamilton also arrived in the city with 480 from Strathbogie and the
Enzie. On the 9th Lord Pitsligo followed with 132 horse and 248 foot.
In the last week of October Lord Lewis Gordon, brother of the Duke of
Gordon, a young naval officer who had joined the Prince in Edinburgh,
was sent north as Lord-Lieutenant of the counties of Aberdeen and
Banff. He found his task harder than he expected, being grossly
thwarted by ‘the vile and malicious behaviour of the Prysbiterian
ministers.’[71] Towards the end of November, to his intense surprise,
his brother, the Duke, instructed his vassals to disregard Lord Lewis’s
orders.[72] In spite of discouragement, Lord Lewis worked on. Moir
of Lonmay was appointed deputy-governor of Aberdeenshire and Baird of
Auchmedden of Banffshire. Three new regiments were raised under Moir of
Stonywood (Lonmay’s brother), Gordon of Avochy (Glenbucket’s nephew),
and Farquharson of Monaltrie, a cadet of Invercauld; rates and taxes
were imposed and collected; and a good deal of hardship was inflicted
on the lieges.
After the battle of Prestonpans (September 21st) Lord Loudoun, who
there acted as Cope’s adjutant-general, had gone to London, where he
received a commission to return to Inverness to command an army of
Highlanders friendly to the Government, then being organised by Duncan
Forbes of Culloden.
By December Loudoun was able to send an expedition under Munro of
Culcairn and Macleod of Macleod to relieve Aberdeen. Lord Lewis Gordon,
reinforced by some of the French troops of Lord John Drummond, which
had landed in November at Stonehaven, Peterhead, and Montrose, met the
invaders at Inverurie on December 23rd. He defeated Macleod completely,
and forced him to retire across the Spey, thus freeing Aberdeen and
Banff from all enemy troops.
Lord Lewis now collected all his available forces and marched to
Stirling to join Prince Charles, who had returned from his English
expedition; and by the first week in January 1746 Aberdeen was left
without Jacobite troops. The battle of Falkirk was fought on January
17th, and on February 1st the army of Prince Charles began its retreat
to the north. One column under Lord George Murray, taking the coast
road, marched through Aberdeen and on to Elgin; another proceeded by
Glenshee and Braemar, occupying for a time the northern districts of
the county; the main body of the Highlanders went by Blair Atholl
and Badenoch to Inverness. Two small French contingents landed at
Aberdeenshire ports on February 21st and 22nd, but on the 23rd the last
of the Jacobite army had left the town of Aberdeen.
Meantime, Cumberland’s army was in full pursuit. It left Perth on
February 20th, and the van reached Aberdeen on the 25th, the Duke
himself following two days later. The Earl of Albemarle and General
Bland, along with Brigadier Mordaunt, occupied Strathbogie, the
Jacobites retiring before them. Lord John Drummond was entrusted with
the defence of the passage of the Spey, but some troops were left under
John Roy Stewart and Major Glascoe to carry on a guerrilla warfare.
Glascoe, on March 20th, surprised a detachment of Campbell’s and
Kingston’s horse at Keith, and captured nearly the whole garrison.
Hitherto the loyal inhabitants of Aberdeen had murmured at the excesses
of the Jacobite troops, but their complaints were more bitter at
the excesses of those of the Government.[73] Houses were plundered
and burned, the chapels and meeting-houses of Roman Catholics and
Episcopalian non-jurors were destroyed, and the inhabitants were
more or less terrorised. In the General Order Book of the Duke of
Cumberland, an instance is given of the kind of punishment that was
meted out. There was a certain loyal schoolmaster in the parish of
Glass, who, having learned that John Roy Stewart intended to spring
a surprise similar to that at Keith, warned Lord Albemarle of the
intention. This warning had the effect of keeping the Government
troops on the watch for several nights. No attack was made on them,
however, and the General, believing that the intelligence had been
given for the purpose of harassing the troops by depriving them of
sleep (although in reality he had been saved by the vigilance he had
exercised as the result of the schoolmaster’s information), sent the
unfortunate informer to headquarters at Aberdeen. The punishment was
very severe. In the Order Book, it is stated ‘that Peter Maconachy of
Glass, convicted of spreading false intelligence in order to allarm our
defence post, to be tied to a cart and whipped and drum’d through the
cantoonments of Aberdeen, Old Meldrum, and Strathbogey, with a labell
on his breast mentioning his crime. From Strathbogey he is to be turn’d
out towards the rebells with orders never to come near where the army
may be on pain of being hanged. The woman suspected of inveigling men
to list in the French service is to be carried in the same cart.’[74]
On April 8th, the Duke of Cumberland left Aberdeen, concentrated his
army on Cullen, and crossed the Spey on the 12th, when Lord John
Drummond retired before him. Four days later the battle of Culloden was
fought.