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|Massachusetts has her Lady Arabella, Virginia her Pocahontas, North
Carolina her Flora M'Donald," says the eloquent author of the "Sketches"
of that State. The residence of this celebrated heroine on the banks of
Cape Fear River, and the part she took in the American Revolution, link
her name as inseparably with the history of North Carolina, as it is
with that of her own Scotland. *
* The reader is referred to the Sketches of North Carolina, by Rev.
William Henry Foote; see also "Memorials" of that State, by J. Seawell
Jones; and an article on Pichot's History of Charles Edward, in the
North American Review, Jan. 1847.
During those events which succeeded the rising in favor of the
Pretender, Charles Edward--the rebellion of 1745--and led to the
emigration of the colony of Highlanders who settled among the sandy
forests on the Cape Fear, Flora M'Donald first makes her appearance--a
young and blooming maiden. After the battle of Culloden, which destroyed
the power of the Highland "lairds," Prince Charles Edward sought
concealment in the mountains of Rosshire, where he escaped capture by
the generous self-sacrifice of the chivalrous Mackenzie. Landing on
the island of South Uist, he found a temporary shelter at Ormaclet
with Laird M'Donald; but being traced thither by the keen scent of his
pursuers, it seemed that a miracle alone could save him from the net so
closely drawn. After many projects for his escape had been proposed, and
laid aside, the wife of the laird suggested the plan of disguising him
in female attire, and passing him for a travelling waiting-maid; but it
was difficult to find a lady willing to undertake the enterprise. Two
who were appealed to, declined it from fear of the consequences. In
this emergency she turned to the young and beautiful Flora M'Donald, the
daughter of a petty laird in the same island, whose mother, after her
father's death, had married an adherent of the government, Captain
M'Donald, of Armadale, in the Isle of Skye. This step-father was then
in command of a company of the clan M'Donald, in the service of King
George, and searching for the Prince. Flora had come to visit her
relations, on her return from Edinburgh, where she had just completed
her education. She was a simple, kind-hearted girl, possessed of strong
natural sense, and a resolution firm to accomplish whatever she decided
to undertake. She had never seen the Prince; but to the proposition made
to her, and her kinswoman's question, "Will you expose yourself to this
danger, to aid the Prince's escape from his enemies?" she replied
at once, "I am willing to put my life in jeopardy to save his Royal
Highness from the dangers that beset him." In this heroic determination,
she was actuated not so much by attachment to the house of Stuart, as by
a generous wish to succor the distressed.
O'Neill, an officer to whom Lady M'Donald entrusted the business, and
MacEachen, accompanied Flora to Carradale, a rocky, wild, sequestered
place, where the royal fugitive had his place of concealment in a damp
and unwholesome cavern. They found him alone, broiling a small fish upon
the coals, for his solitary repast. Startled at their approach, he made
ready to defend his life; but soon discovered that the new comers were
his friends, and entered with delight into their plan for his escape.
The preparations for leaving the island being completed, the maiden
secured a passport from her step-father for herself and companions,
including a stout Irishwoman, whom she called Betsey Burke, pretending
she had engaged her as an assistant in spinning for her mother in
Armadale. On the 28th of June, 1746, the party set out from Uist in an
open boat for the Isle of Skye. A violent storm overtook them, and
they were tossed about all night; the heroic girl, anxious only for
the safety of her charge, encouraged the oarsmen to exert their utmost
strength, while the Prince sang songs he had learned round the Highland
watchfires, and recited wild legends of the olden time. At dawn they
approached the island. The sight of a band of soldiers drawn up on the
shore, turned them back; the soldiers fired after them, and while the
balls were whistling past, they pursued their course eastwardly, landing
about noon, near the residence of Sir Alexander M'Donald, the Laird of
Sleite.
Concealing the Prince in a hollow rock on the beach, Flora repaired to
the chieftain's house, the hall of which was full of officers in search
of the royal fugitive. The Laird himself, at that time absent, was known
to be hostile to his pretentions; but Flora appealed not in vain to
the generous enthusiasm of woman. Lady M'Donald's compassionate heart
responded to her confidence; she sent refreshments to the weary wanderer
by the Laird of Kingsburg, her husband's Baillie, and as it was deemed
safest to depart immediately, he accompanied them to Kingsburg. The
country people whom they met returning from church looked with much
curiosity at the coarse, clumsy, long-legged female figure with the
Laird and the maiden; but they reached unsuspected the place of their
destination, and Kingsburg conducted the Prince to his house, where he
was to pass the night. His wife came to receive him and his guests, and
it is said, was terrified on saluting the supposed Betty, at the rough
beard which encountered her cheek. The next morning Flora accompanied
the Prince to Portaree, and bade him adieu, as he was to embark for the
Isle of Raarsay. At parting, he kissed her, and said, "Gentle, faithful
maiden, I hope we shall yet meet in the Palace Royal." But the
youthful heroine never again met the Prince who owed so much to woman's
tenderness, and the loyal feelings of Scottish hearts.
After the escape of Charles Edward to France, the indignation of the
officers of the crown fell upon those who had aided his flight. Flora
was arrested with others, and imprisoned in the Tower of London, to be
tried for her life. The nobility of England became deeply interested
in the beautiful and high-spirited girl, who, without any political or
religious bias, had exhibited such romantic devotion to the cause of
royalty. Prince Frederick, the heir apparent, visited her in prison,
and by his exertions at length succeeded in obtaining her release. After
being set at liberty, she was introduced into the court society by
Lady Primrose, a partisan of Charles Edward, and a person of wealth and
distinction. It is said that Flora's dwelling in London was surrounded
by the carriages of the aristocracy, who came to pay their respects and
congratulate her on her release; and that presents were showered upon
her, more than sufficient to meet the expenses of her detention and
return. The tradition in Carolina is, that "she received gold ornaments
and coin enough to fill a half bushel." She was presented to George the
Second; and when he asked how she dared render assistance to the enemy
of his crown, she answered with modest simplicity, "It was no more than
I would have done for your Majesty, had you been in a like situation."
For her escort back to Scotland, she chose a fellow-prisoner, Malcolm
M'Leod, who used afterwards to boast, "that he came to London to be
hanged, but rode back in a chaise-and-four with Flora M'Donald."
Four years after her return she married Allen M'Donald, son of the Laird
of Kingsburg, and thus became eventually mistress of the mansion in
which the Prince had passed his first night in the Isle of Skye. Here
Doctor Johnson and Mr. Boswell were hospitably entertained in 1773; at
which time Flora, though a matron and a mother, was still blooming
and graceful, and full of the enthusiasm of her youth. She put her
distinguished guest to sleep in the same bed in which the unfortunate
Charles Edward had occupied. It is mentioned in the tour to the
Hebrides, that M'Donald then contemplated a removal to America, on
account of pecuniary embarrassments.
In 1775, with his family and some friends, he landed in North Carolina,
so long a place of refuge for the distressed Scottish families, and
settled first at Cross Creek--so called from the intersection of two
streams--the seat of the present town of Fayetteville. It was a stormy
period, and those who came to seek peace and security found disturbance
and civil war. The Colonial governor summoned the Highland emigrants to
support the royal cause; General Donald M'Donald, a kinsman of Flora's,
who was the most influential among them, erected his standard at Cross
Creek, and on the first of February, 1776, sent forth his proclamation,
calling on all his true and loyal countrymen to join him. Flora herself
espoused the cause of the English monarch with the same spirit and
enthusiasm she had shown thirty years before in the cause of the Prince
she saved. She accompanied her husband when he went to join the army,
and tradition even says she was seen among the soldiers, animating
their courage when on the eve of their march. Though this may be an
exaggeration, there is no doubt that her influence went far to inspire
her assembled clansmen and neighbors with a zeal kindred to her own.
The celebrated battle of Moore's Creek proved another Culloden to the
brave but unfortunate Highlanders. The unhappy General M'Donald, who had
been prevented by illness from commanding his troops in the encounter,
was found, when the engagement was over, sitting alone on a stump near
his tent; and as the victorious American officers advanced towards
him, he waved in the air the parchment scroll of his commission, and
surrendered it into their hands. Captain M'Donald, the husband of Flora,
was among the prisoners of that day, and was sent to Halifax: while
Flora found herself once more in the condition of a fugitive and an
outlaw.
The M'Donalds, with other Highlanders, suffered much from the
plunderings and confiscations to which the royalists were exposed. It is
said that Flora's house was pillaged and her plantation ravaged. Allen,
after his release, finding his prospects thus unpropitious, determined
to return with his family to his native land--and they embarked in a
sloop of war. On their voyage home, an incident occurred, illustrative
of the character of this remarkable woman. The sloop encountered a
French vessel of war, and an action ensued. The courage of the sailors
appearing to fail, capture seemed inevitable, when Flora ascended the
quarter-deck in the fiercest of the battle, and, nothing daunted by
a wound received, or according to one account, an arm broken in the
tumult, encouraged the men to a more desperate conflict. The enemy was
beaten off, and the heroine safely landed on her native soil. She was
accustomed afterwards to say pleasantly, that she had hazarded her life
for both the house of Stuart and the house of Hanover; but that she did
not perceive she had greatly profited by her exertions.
Notwithstanding her masculine courage, her character was thoroughly
feminine, and blended modesty and dignity with sensibility and
benevolence. Her eventful life closed March 5th, 1790. An immense
concourse assembled at her funeral, and not less than three thousand
persons followed her remains to the cemetery of Kilmuir, in the Isle of
Skye. According to a wish long previously expressed, her shroud was
made of the sheets in which the Prince had slept the night he lodged
at Kings-burg. It is said she had carried them with her through all her
migrations.
The town of Fayetteville covers the former metropolis of the Highland
clans. It was surrounded by a sandy, barren country, sprinkled with
lofty pines, and the American home of Flora M'Donald stood in the midst
of this waste. The place of her residence has been destroyed by fire;
but her memory is still cherished in that locality, and the story of her
romantic enthusiasm, intrepidity, and disinterested self-devotion, has
extended into lands where in life she was unknown.