London
Printed for M. Cooper in Pater-Noster-Row, 1743
Price Six-pence.
The
Behaviour and Character
of the
Three Highlanders,
Who were Shot, on July 18th, 1743.
The many inconsistent and scandalous Reports that are spread about Town, both in Print and Conversation, concerning the Characters and Behaviour of the three unhappy young Men who suffer’d in the Tower of London on Monday the 18th of July, make it necessary as well for Information of the Public, as out of Charity to their Memories, to publish the following Sheets.
The Author of this Tract thinks it necessary to premise, that he means not in the Relation he intends to make of this Affair, either to justify the Crime for which these Men suffer’d; or, in the least, to arraign the Justice of the Court-Martial in their Proceedings; or tax the Sentence with Severity; but, from a Motive of Christian Charity and Love for Truth, means to remove from the Character of the Deceased, such false Aspersions as are cast upon them, either by the Malice or Ignorance of some, who think it not only necessary for the Vindication of public Justice, to represent these unhappy Men as Mutineers and Deserters, but must paint them as Men void of every other Virtue, and addicted to the grossest Vices.
In order to give the Reader a just Idea of this Corps of Men, it will not be improper to go back as far as their original Institution, by which we shall be the better enabled to form a just Notion of their Character.
Few that are in the least acquainted with the History or Constitution of Scotland but know, that anciently all the Lands in that Kingdom were held of the Crown by Military Tenures, or Knights Service; and that the Vassals of these great Men held their Lands of them by the same kind of Tenures.
By this Means, the Nobility of that Kingdom had always a Number of Men ready to bring into the Field, either in defence of their Sovereign, or to decide their own private Quarrels with one another, at which the Crown always conniv’d (for political Reasons) until both Parties were reduced to an equal and moderate Share of Power.
This Practice of Subjects deciding their private Quarrels by the Sword, obtained anciently all over Britain and most other Countries, until Civil Polity and more wholesome Laws prevailed: and still remained in the South parts, and towards the Borders of Scotland, till near the Time of the Union of the Crowns in the Person of King James the First, when the chief Men in those Parts were diverted from their private Animosities, by their necessary Attendance on the Court, now removed at a greater Distance from them.
However, this Spirit of Family Feuds still prevailed in the Highlands, and more remote Parts of Scotland, who, by their Distance from the Court, were unacquainted with the Manners of the civiliz’d Part of the Nation.
The inferior Chieftains in these Parts still determined their mutual Quarrels as usual: and in revenge of any Affront, made Incursions and Depredations into the Estates of one another, or connived at their Followers doing so, to the great Discouragement of Industry, and Disturbance of the public Peace.