Origins of the 'Forty-five

by Unknown

MEMOIRS OF THE REBELLION IN THE COUNTIES OF ABERDEEN AND BANFF

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.