[252] A battle fought at Altimarlach three miles west of Wick, in 1680, between George Sinclair of Keiss, afterwards 7th Earl of Caithness and Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy, afterwards 1st Earl of Breadalbane. Sinclair’s kinsman the 6th earl, falling into debt and having no children, had disponed his titles, property and heritable jurisdictions to Sir John Campbell, the principal creditor, who married the earl’s widow in 1678, having managed the previous year to secure a patent from Charles II. as Earl of Caithness. Sinclair of Keiss resisted his claims by force, and Campbell marched an army of his own men and some royal troops to Caithness. The first advantage was with the Sinclairs, who celebrated the event with drunken revelry aggravated by finding a whisky-laden ship strategically stranded by the Campbells in Wick harbour. Next day the Sinclairs were defeated. It was on this occasion that the air ‘The Campbells are coming’ was composed by Finlay Macivor the celebrated piper of Breadalbane. (Calder, Hist. of Caithness, p. 162.) The courts found later that Keiss (grandson of the 5th earl) was entitled to the Caithness earldom; Sir John Campbell was compensated by being created Earl of Breadalbane in 1681, but with the precedency of the Caithness grant 1677.
[253] This Mr. Gilchrist is scathingly treated in The Lyon (iii. 36). He went ‘to Edinburgh and thence to London to misrepresent and asperse the bulk of the Caithness gentry as enemies to the present establishment.’ He is further said to have collected 250 guineas for himself and to have made his friends ‘believe that he could not continue in Caithness for the wicked Jacobites who had threatened to take away his life and destroy his family.’ The writer, a non-juring minister, who had been a prisoner in London, adds sententiously ‘Honest Whigry that never thinks shame of lying for worldly interest!’
[254] George Sinclair of Geese, afterwards captured at Dunrobin, was the only Caithness Sinclair of position who joined the Jacobite army. Lord Macleod marched through Caithness in March 1746, but though the proprietors professed Jacobite sympathies, very few joined his standard. (Fraser, The Earls of Cromartie, ii. 398.)
[255] Sir James Stewart of Burray, Orkney, took no active part in the Rising, but he was apprehended on suspicion in May 1746, and taken prisoner to London, where he died of fever in the New Gaol, Southwark, the following August.
[256] George (Mackay), 3rd Lord Reay, b. 1678; suc. his grandfather c. 1680; supported government in 1715; was largely instrumental in establishing the presbytery of Tongue 1725; d. 1748.
[257] William (Gordon-Sutherland), 16th earl; b. 1708; suc. his grandfather 1720; d. 1750. His wife was Lady Elizabeth Wemyss, aunt of Lord Elcho of the ’45. His father acted vigorously against the Jacobites in ’15 and ’19.
[258] Assynt in ancient times was the territory of the MacNicols (or MacRyculs or Nicolsons), but in the time of David II. Torquil Macleod IV., of Lewis, married the heiress and obtained the lands. The MacNicols emigrated to Skye, where they have been for centuries. Macleod’s second son inherited Assynt, and there were twelve Macleod lairds. The last of these was Neil Macleod who was tried in 1666, and again in 1674, for betraying the great Marquis of Montrose and other crimes. He was acquitted, but, probably owing to the expense of the trials, he fell into debt, and was driven from his lands which were acquired by the Mackenzies. Cf. p. 107, n. 1.
[259] See post, p. 96.
[260] The writer is wrong here. It was the first earl’s grandfather, Sir Roderick Mackenzie (1579-1626), the terrible Tutor of Kintail who married Margaret heiress of Torquil Macleod of Lewis and Cogeach. George (Mackenzie), 1st Earl of Cromarty (1630-1714), was the antiquary. He was an original member of the Royal Society (London), founded 1662.
[261] See post, p. 104.