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.
CAPTAIN DANIEL’S PROGRESS WITH PRINCE CHARLES
This narrative, written by an English officer, who served in Lord Balmerino’s regiment, is occasionally referred to by modern historians of the Jacobite period, but has never been printed. Two manuscripts are known to exist. One, which belongs to an English gentleman, was shown to me by the late Mr. Andrew Lang. It is evidently contemporary, or nearly so, but the spelling is so eccentric that it is exceedingly difficult to read. The second manuscript is preserved at Drummond Castle, and is a certificated copy of the original, but it is written with modern spelling. Both were put at my disposal, but as there was nothing to show that the older version was Daniel’s holograph—indeed the evidence was against it—I preferred to use the Drummond Castle copy. The matter in both was practically identical. Of the writer nothing is known beyond what he tells of himself. Apparently he came from the Fylde country of Lancashire, the district between the Lune and the Ribble, and he was brought up in Jacobite principles.
The narrative is particularly interesting as giving the adventures of an English Jacobite. Daniel, stimulated by the call of conscience, had determined to embrace the cause. He had the good fortune to meet the Duke of Perth when the Prince’s army was near Preston on the march to Derby. The Duke invited him to join, offering him his friendship and patronage. Daniel accepted the offer, and he continued with the army until the end, when he escaped to France in the same ship as the Duke of Perth, whose death he witnessed on the voyage from Arisaig to France in the following May.
On joining, Daniel was attached to the first troop of Life Guards, of which Lord Elcho was colonel, but on the retreat from Derby he was transferred to the second troop of the same regiment, which was commanded by the Hon. Arthur Elphinstone, who about three weeks later succeeded his brother as sixth Lord Balmerino. Daniel conceived a great affection and admiration for his colonel, yet in his laudatory account he mentions a painful characteristic of the times. A gentleman, and a scholar who could recite pages from the Classics, Lord Balmerino was of a noble personage and had the courage of a lion. Moreover he never failed in his military duties. His ‘sole and predominant passion’ was for hard drinking. But for this weakness, ‘he would have shone with the same lustre in the army as he afterwards did on the scaffold.’
In the narrative there is no affectation of impartiality. Daniel is constantly comparing the iniquities of his enemies with the virtues of his friends. There is a curious incident mentioned by him when referring to the death of Sir Robert Munro of Foulis at the battle of Falkirk. He says (page 198), ‘among the slain were ... Sir Robert Munro, who was heard much to blaspheme during the engagement, and as a punishment for which, his tongue was miraculously cut asunder by a sword that struck him directly across the mouth.’ This is rather a startling statement concerning the end of one whom Dr. Doddridge has depicted as a type of the Christian soldier.[75] There seems, however, no necessity to doubt the truth of Daniel’s statement as representing the talk of the Highland camp; for it must be remembered that Sir Robert had served for many years with the army in Flanders whose strong language was proverbial. With the Highlanders on the other hand, profanity was not a common failing, and they may have been shocked at expletives which to an old campaigner were but unmeaning commonplaces of military expression.
Doddridge gives a certain amount of confirmation to Daniel’s story. He tells that when Sir Robert’s body was found the day after the battle, his face was so cut and mangled that it was hardly recognisable.