April 10th, 1749.
‘His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cumberland, sent a protection
by Sir Alexr. Macdonald to Barisdale, upon delivering to him
of which, he told him, in Consequence of the Favours the Duke
intended for him, he should cause all such as he would have any
Influence with, surrender their arms directly, which Barisdale
did at the Barracks of Glenelg immediately thereafter; by
which the Concert of those that imagined to make any further
resistance was broke, and he gave all the Assurances Sir Alexr.
desired of him, to be a good faithful subject, yt would give
all obedience to the Government, which Since he has perform’d.
_But from that time the Jacobite party design’d to ruine
Barisdale_, and endeavoured, with all Calumny’s, to make him
odious to all partys and all Persons. The Pretender’s Son
having returned from the Isles to the Continent (mainland), Sir
Alexr. Macdonald wrote to Barisdale, desiring to inform him
of some particulars, which he did very distinctly, and soon
after his R. Highness [Cumberland] left Fort Augustus, my Lord
Albemarle, then Commander in Chief, desired Sir Aler. McDonald
to send for Barisdale to Fort Augustus. Sir Alexr. Macdonald
wrote to him, and accordingly Barisdale waited of my Lord
Albemarle at Fort Augustus, at Sir Alex. McDonald’s Lodgings,
where before Sir Alex. McDonald, his Lordship told Barisdale,
as the Pretender’s Son was now returned from the Isles to
the Continent (mainland), if he hop’d for the Continuance of
his R. Highness’s Favours, he must lay himself out in giving
Assistance to have the Person of ye Pretender’s Son sez’d.
‘Barisdale answered, in Sir Alexander’s Presence, that Sir
Alexr. never made any such Proposal to him from his R. Highness
(Cumberland); and if he was a Man supposed formerly in the
Jacobite Interest, and _upon getting a better Light_, to
forsake them it would be very inconsistent wth. Honour, for a
Man so supposed, to go such Lengths. But for his share, were
he to do his utmost to comply with his Lordship’s desire, he
could expect little success in it, since all the Jacobite Party
were upon their Guard, even the meanest Highlander, to give no
Intelligence to any he had Influence with.
‘His Lordship and he parted that Day: my Lord Loudoun, Sir
Alexr. McDonald, and Barisdale, being at a Bottle that night,
resumed all that past at that Communing—Loudoun said, “I own
what his Lordship desires of you, may not be easy for you to
perform, but such Information as you can best receive, you can
transmit to his Lordship and you can make an Observe upon each,
according to the Credite you give yourself to the Information.”
‘My Lord Albemarle, the next day, at Sir Alexander’s Lodgings,
insisted as the Day before; and Barisdale agreed, such
Informations as he could learn, he would transmit them, wt.
Remarks upon them of the Credite he thought they deserved—My
Lord Albemarle gave a Continuance upon the Protection for ten
Days more, which was a short time for Barisdale to go to his
country, and find Informations and then transmit them to Fort
Augustus.
‘However he sent two different Informations wt. Remarks upon
them: is not certain which of the two, my Lord Albemarle or
my Lord Loudoun’s Hands they came to, as the Bearer of them
brought back no Answer in writing: But at the End of the Ten
Days of my Lord Albemarle’s Protection, B. was rather more
distrest than any who were not before protected.
‘Some few days thereafter, being at Sir Alexr. McDonald at
Slaite, hearing two French ships coming to Ariseg, Sir Ar.
McDonald desired Barisdale to go to these Ships, in order to
learn some things he wanted to be inform’d of, and Barisdale
coming to the shore before the Ships, under Pretension of
great Friendship was invited aboard, there being at the Ships
severals he was acquainted with; But soon after he was aboard,
found his Mistake, would not be allow’d afterwards to come
ashore, was carried to St. Malos, seated upon the River La
Luare where he was prisoned about 2 years and four months. The
7th. of February last, with a Sentence of Banishment to leave
France in a few Days, was liberated: which Sentence is now in
the hands of the Governor of Fort Augustus.
‘The Accusations laid against him by the Pretender’s son and
likewise laid before the Court of France were sent to Barisdale
enclosed in a Letter, wrote and signed by George Kelly, the
Pretender’s Son’s Secretary, of which there is a Copy herewith.’
He now offers services unconditionally[65]—‘but is sorry to
be prevented in his Design of going to London as he entended
to throw himself in his R. Highness the Duke of Cumberland’s
Hands, hoping, as he still does, for his Highness’ Protection
and Friendship, as promised to him by Sir Alexander MacDonald
in his R.H’s. Name at their first Conference, when he delivered
to him the protection, in the obtaining of which Barisdale
will be capable, as he is most willing, of doing essential
Services to his R. Highness and the Government in the North of
Scotland:—and says ‘it may appear most reasonable, however,
for the Family he is descended from, or the Clan he is of,
have been attach’d to the Pretender’s Family, that his cruel,
uncommon, and severe usage from that Family will not only
make him most faithfull to the Government, but as stiff an
Enemy as that Family have upon Earth. For it is well known the
Pretender’s Son exprest at Paris to some of the Scots, who
were sorry for Barisdale’s treatment, that while it was in his
power, Barisdale woud never recover his Liberty, at least while
he was in France, for that he was well assured, if ever he
return’d to Scotland, being well assured B. being both resolute
and Revengefull, he woud prove a very destructible Instrument
to his Interest.’
Here are the Jacobite charges against Barisdale:—
_Copy of George Kelly, the P.’son’s Secretary’s Letter_
‘Paris, May 3rd, 1747.
‘... Did you not own publickly, that upon his R.H’s. Approach
to Inverness, you advertised the Lord President and the Lord
Loudoun of the same, and advised them for their further Safety
to retire from thence?... Did you not, without asking their
Advice or Approbation, Surrender yourself to the Enemy, and
enter into certain Articles with them?...
‘Whether, after receiving a Protection from the Enemy, you did
not engage and promise to apprehend the Person of H.R.H. and
deliver him up to them within a limited time?...
‘Whether or not you did not impose on several Gentlemen of
Glengary’s Family, by asserting that he had promised to
deliver them up to the Enemy, and that he was to receive
30_l._ sterling Premium for Each Gentleman he should put into
their Hands? Did these gentlemen sign an information against
Glengary? And were his letters ordering them to take up arms
delivered up to Lord Albemarle, upon which your Cousine,
Glengary, was apprehended?’
And now the whole truth is out, as concerns Col, third of Barisdale.
His cruelties, his thefts, his swaggerings, have ended in deliberate
treachery, and this worthy chieftain is found endeavouring to do what
the humblest peasant disdained even to contemplate, to deliver up the
fugitive Prince.
Barisdale took no profit by his iniquity. The Ross people, whom he had
harried, burned his famous stocks, and his house, with its ‘eighteen
fire-rooms, and many others without fires, beautifully covered’ (roofed)
‘with blue slates.’
He himself died in 1750, in Edinburgh Castle; six soldiers, with no
mourners, carried his bulky and corpulent carcase to a grave ‘at the foot
of the _talus_ of the Castle.’
So says the Impartial Hand. Of Barisdale’s classical lore, and of his
courtesy to a fair captive, we have seen proof. For the rest, a more
worthless miscreant has seldom stained the page of history. It was time
that such a career as his should be made impossible.
Young Barisdale skulked for years in the Highlands, a kind of Hereward,
pursued by the English troops. He was usually accompanied by five or six
of his Clan, armed, and in the prohibited Highland dress. He supported
life in his father’s fashion, mainly by robbing the herring fishers of a
fifth of their takes, under some pretence of a legal claim. His tenants,
spoiled by the English troops, probably could contribute little to his
maintenance. He is often mentioned in the Cumberland Papers, and, after
he had been the guest of young Glengarry’s uncle, Dr. Macdonnell, that
physician talked indiscreetly as follows.
On Sept. 30, 1751, Captain Izard, of the Fusiliers, writes: ‘Dr.
Macdonald, brother of Glengarry, living at Cailles on Loch Nevis, told
that young Barisdale lay at his house the Monday before, and took boat
thence to carry his sister home, and he proposed going to the Isle of
Skey’ (Skye).[66]
He was taken at last on July 18, 1753, in a wood near Lochourn in Morar,
and was tried in Edinburgh on a charge of High Treason, on March 11,
1754. With him was Macdonald of Morar, five or six other Macdonalds, and
Mackinnons, a MacEachan, and others. He disputed the indictment, which
described him as ‘of Barisdale,’ on the score that his grandfather had
only been ‘a moveable tenant of Glengarry’s, without any right in writing
whatsoever.’ This plea was disregarded, and he was condemned to be hanged
on May 22, bearing his sentence ‘with great composure and decency.’ Being
respited, he lay in the Castle till 1762, when he took the oaths, and was
released.
By a curious freak of fortune, young Barisdale’s son Col, in 1788, ‘held
a Commission to regulate the Fisheries. This, in the height of the
fishing season, was no easy task, and required a firm hand. Not only
were there disputes among the fishermen themselves, but, apparently,
thieves made it a regular trade to attend, and pick up what they
could.... The poor fishermen now suffer from piracy in another form.
If there were officials like Barisdale armed with sufficient powers,
trawling within the limits would soon be extirpated,’ writes Mr. Fraser
Mackintosh.[67] The fishermen have never been fortunate. Before trawling
came in they had to do with the portentous Col of Barisdale. Perhaps, of
the two, they may prefer the trawlers.
Thus, in a generation, the son of Archibald and grandson of Col, the
former a brigand and thief alike of cattle and herrings, became a
peaceful subject, and protector of the very class of fishermen whom his
grandsire had plundered. We may drop a tear over old romance, but reality
has its alleviating features. There is absolutely no kind of villainy of
which Col of Barisdale was not eminently guilty. Oppression, cruelty,
cowardice, theft, and treachery were all among his qualities, were all
notorious, yet, till after Culloden, Col could laugh at the law, and was
not shunned by society.
We have seen that Col accuses Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat of
corrupting his honour, and advising him to sell himself. This may, or
may not, be true. The sympathies of Sir Alexander had been Jacobite,
before 1745, but Murray of Broughton states that in 1741 he was very
angry when Balhaldie put his name on a list of adherents presented to the
French Court. ‘He declared he had never given him any authority to do
so.’ A statement to the contrary effect will be found in Mr. Mackenzie’s
‘History of the Macdonalds,’ page 234. In 1744, Murray represents him as
ready to rise if French troops were landed. Murray repeats, in justice,
that Sir Alexander’s promises were purely contingent; they depended on
the existence of a ‘well-concerted scheme,’ and there was none. But
Sir Alexander not only did not come out, he was won over by Forbes of
Culloden to the Hanoverian Cause. ‘I should be sorry,’ says Murray,
‘to have so bad an opinion of mankind as to think any of them cappable
of attempting an apologie for him.’ Murray, in his examination, lied
in Sir Alexander’s interests, saying ‘he always absolutely refused to
have anything to do with the Pretender.’ But, after Preston Pans, Sir
Alexander, moved by that victory, said, in the hearing of Malcolm Macleod
of Raasay, that he would now raise 900 of his clan and march south
to fight for King James. Next morning, however, he received a letter
from Forbes of Culloden, and instantly ‘was quite upon the grave and
thoughtful, and dropt the declared resolution of his own mind.’[68] In
fact, he turned Hanoverian.
Later, in the crisis of the Prince’s wanderings, Sir Alexander was not
at home when his wife, Lady Margaret, connived with Flora Macdonald
to secure Charles’s escape from Skye. Lady Margaret wrote to Forbes
of Culloden that Flora was ‘a foolish girl,’ and thanked God that
_she_ knew nothing of the Prince’s being in hiding near her house. Sir
Alexander, on the other hand, confessed to Forbes that Flora put his
wife ‘in the utmost distress by telling her of the cargo she had brought
from Uist.’[69] It was fortunate for everybody, himself included, that
Sir Alexander was away from home. He wrote the following letter to
Cumberland, confessing nothing:—
_From Sir Alexander McDonald to H.R.H. giving
intelligence of Pretender’s movements_
‘Sconsar, Isle of Sky, 1746.
‘Sir,—This morning Capt. Hodgson remitted to your R. Highness
all the intelligence I had then got; in rideing a few miles I
was informed of the Pretender’s whole progress since he landed
in this island. By the letter remitted to your R.H. he was left
at Portree, 14 miles from my house near which he landed; at
Portree he met one Donald McDonald, who was in the Rebellion,
and who put him into a boat belonging to the Isle of Rasay,
which feryd him into that island; after staying there 2 nights
he returned in the same small boat to the neighbourhood of
Portree, attended by one Malcolm McLeod. That night he and his
companion lay in a byre; next day (the Pretender in shabby
man’s apparel since he left Portree) they found their way
into a part of MacKinnon’s estate, and having found MacKinnon,
though disguised and lurking himself, he found a boat which
next day convey’d the Pretender, MacKinnon, and one John
MacKinnon, into Moror. They sail’d from this island on Saturday
last. MacKinnon was taken in Moror by a party from Sky, and
John McK. was this day seized ... they are both on board the
Furnace and confirm to a trifle the above relation.
‘ALEX. MACDONALD.’[70]
The Baronet tells as little as may be; he does not implicate Flora, and,
of course, shields his wife. His own position was awkward.
Sir Alexander died in November 1746, when about to visit Cumberland in
England. It is to his credit that he did his best to protect the loyal
Kingsburgh. But his vacillations were extreme, and if he really helped to
corrupt Barisdale, his behaviour is without excuse. ‘Were I to enumerate
the villains and villainies this country abounds in I should never have
done,’ wrote Cumberland to the Duke of Newcastle. ‘Some allowance must be
made for Sir Alexander’s behaviour in the Forty Five,’ says Mr. Fraser
Mackintosh. It was not precisely handsome. The epigram on his death,
which has variants, ran thus:
If Heaven be glad when sinners cease to sin,
If Hell be glad when traitors enter in,
If Earth be glad when ridded of a knave,
Then all rejoice! Macdonald’s in his grave.
VI
CLUNY’S TREASURE
The bayonets of Cumberland scarcely dealt a deadlier blow at Jacobitism
than the spades which, in gentle and unaccustomed hands, buried the
treasure of French gold at Loch Arkaig. About this fatal hoard, which set
clan against clan, and, literally, brother against brother, something
has been elsewhere said. But the unpublished reports given by spies and
informers in the Cumberland Papers and the Record Office throw a great
deal of unexpected light on the subject.
Our purpose is, first to offer what may be called official statements as
to the original amount and hiding places of the treasure. Next we shall
examine the stories as to the disposition and diffusion of the money.
These will indicate that the charges of ‘embezzlement’ and ‘villainy’
brought by Young Glengarry against men so noted for their loyalty as
Dr. Cameron and Cluny Macpherson are false. In our evidence will occur
the testimony of informers, whose names, as they were persons of no
historical importance, it seems needless to reveal. But their revelations
were employed by Government in securing the condemnation and banishment
of Lochiel’s brother, Cameron of Fassifern.
On the whole subject of the hoard we have several statements by Murray of
Broughton. The least copious is contained in a tract which professes to
be written by a friend of Murray; really it is from his own pen.[71]
Murray, who had been in very bad health since the Prince was in Elgin
before Culloden, found himself skulking with Lochiel in a wood near Loch
Arkaig. He heard at the same moment of Charles’s flight to the isles,
which he condemned, and of the arrival of French ships with money. Most
of the party resolved to scatter, but Lochiel declared ‘that to desert
his Clan was inconsistent with his honour and their interest,’ and, by
his desire, Murray remained with him, ‘unable to refuse the desire of
a person for whom he had such a regard, and with whom he had lived so
many years in the strictest intimacy.’ Major Kennedy, too, though, like
other officers in French service, he might have surrendered safely, most
generously clave to Lochiel. In later years Kennedy recovered for the
Prince a remnant of the French _louis d’or_.
Murray was next carried to the bay opposite Keppoch, where the French
ships were lying. They had been attacked by British vessels of war, but
had previously landed 35,000 _louis d’or_ in six (seven?) casks. One
cask, however, was already missing. The five casks were conveyed to
Murray, and of the stolen cask all but one bag of gold was recovered.
Next day the Duke of Perth, who was dying, with his brother, Lord John
Drummond, Elcho, old Sir Thomas Sheridan, the Prince’s tutor, the younger
Lockhart of Carnwath, and others sailed for France in the ships. Murray
paid Clanranald, Barisdale, and others their arrears, with allowances
for widows and wounded men, out of the French gold. He then sent off the
remainder of the hoard under Archy Cameron’s care, and returned to Loch
Arkaig. Fifteen thousand louis were buried ‘in three several parcels in
the wood,’ and the empty casks were filled with stones, and carried about
with Murray, ‘so as to give no Jelousy to the other Clans of his having
more confidence in the Camerons’ than in them. Near the foot of Loch
Arkaig, Murray caused Dr. Cameron to bury 12,000 louis, reserving about
5,000 for expenses.
Murray travelled south and was captured in Tweeddale. On August 27,
1746, when in the Tower, he wrote to an English official, ‘last time
I had the honour to see you, I offered to lay my hand upon the 15,000
_louis d’or_, and am still certain I can do so, but as the season is now
advancing, and the parties will probably soon be called in, it is not in
that event impossible but the money may be raised.’ (It was ‘raised’ by
Dr. Cameron.) In his Examination (August 13, 1746) Murray had already
betrayed the secret of the casks of gold. But the English could never
discover the treasure.
Elsewhere, in a paper of accounts, Murray tells, in defence of his
pecuniary honesty, all about the disposition of the _louis d’or_.
He accounts for various sums, including 40_l._ to Lochiel, who, like
the gallant gentleman he was, had given every penny in his possession
‘to his own people about.’ Mr. Murray ‘chided him for being too easy to
give money to whoever asked it.’ A sum of 3,868_l._ was buried in the
garden of Mrs. Menzies of Culdairs. This, we presume, was the bulk of the
5,000 louis reserved. Murray corroborates (as in his tract) an anonymous
informant’s story, presently to be given, about the stealing of a cask
of money, and restitution made after confession to Father Harrison. The
penitent however, an Irishman, kept 700_l._, as stated in the anonymous
information. Murray reckons at 15,000_l._ a sum buried near Loch Arkaig,
by Dr. Archibald Cameron, Young Macleod of Neuck, Sir Stewart Threipland,
and Major Kennedy. There were fifteen bags containing 1,000_l._ each;
one parcel was put under a rock, in a burn, and two in holes, near at
hand, dug by the four gentlemen. Another sum of 12,000_l._, in two
parcels, was carried by Dr. Cameron and Mr. Macleod, from Lochiel’s
house of Achnacarry, and buried near the _lower_ end of Loch Arkaig.
Lochiel received 1,520_l._ for the Prince’s immediate needs, and the rest
is scrupulously accounted for the unhappy Secretary. His stories are
consistent throughout.[72]
Another description of the arrival and burial of the gold has never been
published. It is from the Cumberland Papers, and must have been written
about 1749-1750. This is proved by the writer’s mention of Barisdale
as still alive, and in prison. Now young Barisdale (Archibald) is not
meant, for he was not taken till 1753.[73] His father, Coll Macdonnell
of Barisdale, on the other hand, was taken in March 1749, and died in
Edinburgh Castle on June 1, 1750.[74]
We now offer this anonymous intelligence of 1749-1750, as to the arrival,
burial, and later fortunes of the French gold.
‘_Intelligence sent to Col. Napier from Scotland about Seven
Casks of Money for the Rebels_
Cumberland Papers. Memoir for Col. Napier.
‘Soon after the Battle of Culloden a french privateer anchored
in Loch Nonha in Arisaig, where Doctor Cameron, Brother to
Lochiel, Cameron of Dungallen, prisoner in Edr. Castle, and
many other Rebels were then sculking. One of his Majesties’
20 gun Ships and 2 Sloops were cruising on the West Coast,
immediately got intelligence of the privateers, and came up
and attacked them, but before the action began they had landed
7 Casks of money and committed it to the Charge of Doctor
Cameron, who was upon the shore wth. a great many others of the
Camerons and Mc.Donalds, who flocked from all Corners to see
the engadgement, and among others Mc.Donald of Barrisdale, now
prisoner, was also present and Alexd. Mc.Lachlan in Lidderdale
and Aide-de-Camp to The Pretender.
‘When the action was over, The Commander of the Privateers,
having heard of the Battle of Culloden, insisted to have
the money put on board again. _But the Rebells beg’d to be
excused_, and Doctor Cameron conveyed away six of the Casks
to Loch Morrer, 3 miles from Loch Nonha: (The 7th Cask
being stole) and there he got a boat and went wth. it to
the head of ye Loch and from thence got in to Loch arkick;
And having dismissed all the Country people, He wth. Major
Kennedy, a french Officer, and Alexd. McLeod son to Mr. John
McLeod advocate, took the money out of the Casks, and put it
underground in the head of Locharkick, in the midle of a Wood.
‘There was £6 or 7,000 st. in each Cask, All put up in separate
Bags, £1,000 in Each bag. They afterwards carried away the
empty Casks themselves (none being present but the 3 persons
above named) and when at a considerable distance from the place
where the Money was hid, They caused the Country people put
them under ground in a different place in order to deceive.
‘After this was over, All persons were employed to enquire
after the Cask that was stole during the engadgement. And by
the Assistance and authority of a priest (Father Harrison)
who is great in that country (all Roman Catholics) the money
was recovered except £700, and That is still amissing, ... It
is not well known what became of this broken Cask afterwards
But Dr. Cameron had the Manadgement of it and all the rest,
and it is imagined That The money divided at the meeting with
Lovat, at the head of Loch arkick, was part of it, and £3,000
was given to one Donald Cameron at Strontian to Conceal, wch
he again delivered to The Doctor, but got not one shilling
for himself. [Is this the money hidden at Culdares?] Severals
of the Country people got each a Louis d’or and some of their
gentlemen got each 2 or 3 and that was all the Distribution
made among the Camerons.