[191] He was 'Younger of Terpersie' in Aberdeenshire, and had engaged as a volunteer. His father, James Gordon, was an officer in the Prince's army. In the List of Persons concerned in the Rebellion, etc. (Scot. Hist. Soc., vol. viii.), he is said to have been made prisoner at Carlisle. But a story is told of his having been captured at his own house, when, after lurking long among the neighbouring hills, he ventured to pass a night there. His captors, not being sure of his identity, carried him before the minister of the parish, but not getting satisfaction from him, they took him to a farmhouse where his wife and children resided. On his approach his children ran out and greeted him with cries of 'Daddy! Daddy!' and so unwittingly sealed their father's fate. He was tried at Carlisle and executed there on 15th November 1746. As the prisoners taken at Carlisle were sent to London, and those taken in Scotland to Carlisle, the story may be authentic.
[192] This letter is printed in the Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 523-536.
[193] See ff. 157, 659.
[194] So the copy had it, but I think it should be Culraick.—Robert Forbes, A.M.
[195] Scored through and 'Culraick' substituted.—[Ed.]
[196] See ff. 158, 661, 1270.
[197] See ff. 128, 1275.
[198] I am afraid this is not fact, for disputes and canglings arose even in the Abbey at Edinburgh, and I have heard some affirm, who had an opportunity of knowing, that these were owing to the haughty, restless, unaccountable temper of Lord George Murray, some of whose blood-relations fail not to lay blame upon him. Witness likewise the contest betwixt Keppoch and Lochiel about the right hand before they went out to fight Cope, a particular account of which dispute I had from Major MacDonald in the Castle of Edinburgh.
Robert Forbes, A.M.
[199] No wonder that councils of war were out of request, when the Prince was always thwarted in them, and hardly got his will in anything he proposed, though his opinion of things in the event turned out to be the most eligible. Lord George Murray was at the head of the opposition, having got the ascendant of the greater part of the chiftains, and having insinuated himself into the good graces of all the clans who were ever ready to embrace his schemes. Besides, it was most unlucky that great jealousies and misunderstandings had arisen betwixt Lord George Murray and the French officers. These things are too notour to admit of any denial.—Robert Forbes, A.M.