No name in the Scottish Highlands bears such a charm as that of Flora Macdonald. Her praise is frequently sung, sketches of her life published, and her portrait adorns thousands of homes. While her distinction mainly rests on her efforts in behalf of the luckless prince Charles, after the disastrous battle of Culloden; yet, in reality, her character was strong, and she was a noble type of womanhood in her native isle.
Flora Macdonald.
Flora Macdonald—or "Flory," as she always wrote her name, even in her marriage contract—born in 1722, was a daughter of Ranald Macdonald, tacksman of Milton, in South Uist, an island of the Hebrides. Her father died when she was about two years old, and when six years old she was deprived of the care of her mother, who was abducted and married by Hugh Macdonald of Armadale in Skye. Flora remained in Milton with her brother Angus till her thirteenth year, when she was taken into the mansion of the Clanranalds, where she became an accomplished player on the spinet. In 1739 she went to Edinburgh to complete her studies where, until 1745, she resided in the family of Sir Alexander Macdonald of the Isles. While on a visit to the Clanranalds in Benbecula, prince Charles Edward arrived there after the battle of Culloden in 1746. She enabled the prince to escape to Skye. For this she was arrested and thrown into the Tower of London. On receiving her liberty, in 1747, she stayed for a time in the house of Lady Primrose, where she was visited by many persons of distinction. Before leaving London she was presented with £1500. On her return to Scotland she was entertained at Monkstadt in Skye, at a banquet, to which the principal families were invited. November 6, 1750, she married Allan Macdonald, younger of Kingsburgh. At first they resided at Flodigarry; but on the death of her father-in-law they went in 1772 to Kingsburgh. Here she was visited, in 1773, by the celebrated Samuel Johnson. Her husband, oppressed by debts, was caught in that great wave of emigration from the Highlands to America. In the month of August, 1774, leaving her two youngest children with friends at home, Flora, her husband and older children, sailed in the ship Baliol, from Campbelton, Kintyre, for North Carolina. Flora's fame had preceded her to that distant country, and her departure from Scotland having become known to her countrymen in Carolina, she was anxiously expected and joyfully received on her arrival. Demonstrations on a large scale were made to welcome her to America. Soon after her landing, a largely attended ball was given in her honor at Wilmington. On her arrival at Cross Creek she received a truly Highland welcome from her old neighbors and kinsfolk, who had crossed the Atlantic years before her. The strains of the Piobaireachd, and the martial airs of her native land, greeted her on her approach to the capital of the Scottish settlement. Many families of distinction pressed upon her to make their dwellings her home, but she respectfully declined, preferring a settled place of her own. As the laird of Kingsburgh intended to become a planter, he left his family in Cross Creek until he could decide upon a location. The house in which they lived during this period was built immediately on the brink of the creek, and for many years afterwards was known as "Flora Macdonald's house." Northwest of Cross Creek, a distance of twenty miles, is a hill about six hundred feet in height, now called Cameron's hill, but then named Mount Pleasant. Around and about this hill, in 1775, many members of the Clan Macdonald had settled, all of whom were of near kin to the laird and lady of Kingsburgh. Hard by are the sources of Barbeque Creek, and not many miles down that stream stood the old kirk, where the clansmen worshipped, and where Flora inscribed her name on the membership roll.
Mount Pleasant stands in the very midst of the pinery region, and from it in every direction stretches the great pine forest. Near this center Allan Macdonald of Kingsburgh purchased of Caleb Touchstone a plantation embracing five hundred and fifty acres on which were a dwelling house and outhouses which were more pretentious than was then customary among Highland settlers. The sum paid, as set forth in the deed, was four hundred and sixty pounds. Here Flora established herself, that with her family she might spend the rest of her days in peace and quiet. But the times were not propitious. There was commotion which soon ended in a long and bitter war. Even this need not have materially disturbed the family had not Kingsburgh precipitated himself into the conflict, needlessly and recklessly. With blind fatuity he took the wrong side in the controversy; and even then by the exercise of patience might have overcome the effects of his folly. Before Flora and her family were settled in America the storm gave its ominous rumble. When Governor Martin, who had deserted his post and fled to an armed cruiser in the mouth of the Cape Fear river, issued his proclamation, Allan Macdonald was among the first to respond. The war spirit of Flora was stirred within her, and she partook of the enthusiasm of her husband. According to tradition, when the Highlanders gathered around the standard Flora made them an address in their own Gaelic tongue that excited them to the highest pitch of warlike enthusiasm. With the due devotion of an affectionate wife, Flora followed her husband for several days, and encamped one night with him in a dangerous place, on the brow of Haymount, near the American forces. For a time she refused to listen to her husband's entreaties to return home, for he thought his life was enough to be in jeopardy. Finally when the army took up its march with banners flying and martial music, she deemed it time to retrace her steps, and affectionately embraced her husband, her eyes dimmed with tears as she breathed an earnest prayer to heaven for his safe and speedy return to his family and home. But alas! she never saw him again in America.
The rebellion of the Highlanders in North Carolina, which ended in a fiasco, has already been narrated. Flora was soon aroused to the fact that the battle was against them, and her husband and one son were confined in Halifax jail. It appears that even she was brought before the Committee of Safety, where she exhibited a "spirited behavior."[177] Sorrows, indeed, had accumulated rapidly upon her: a severe typhus fever attacked the younger members of the family and two of her children died, a boy and a girl aged respectively eleven and thirteen, and her daughter, Fanny, was still in precarious health, from the dregs of a recent fever. By the advice of her imprisoned husband she resolved to return to her native country. Fortunately for her she secured the favor and good offices of Captain Ingram, an American officer, who promised to assist her. He furnished her with a passport to Wilmington, and from thence she found her way to Charleston, from which port she sailed to her native land, in 1779. In this step she was partly governed by the state of health of her daughter Fanny. Crossing the Atlantic with none of her family but Fanny—her five sons and son-in-law actively engaged in the war—the Scottish heroine met with the last of her adventures. The vessel in which she sailed engaged a French privateer, and during the conflict her left arm was broken. So, in after years, she truthfully said that she had served both the House of Stuart and the House of Hanover, but had been worsted in the cause of each. For some time she resided at Milton, where her brother built her a cottage: but on the return of her husband they again settled at Kingsburgh, where she died March 5, 1790.
FOOTNOTES:
[176] Memoir General Stark, 1831, p. 252.
[177] Captain Alexander McDonald's Letter-Book, p. 387.