[581] Fort Augustus surrendered to the Jacobites, March 5th.
[582] Alexander, the father, had died, a prisoner, before 29th July. He died a natural death, but in Glenurquhart it was believed that he was burned to death in a barrel of tar. (Wm. Mackay, Urquhart and Glenmoriston, p. 288.)
[583] Not dated, but must have been written before 29th July, i.e. prior to Sheugly’s death.
[584] Sir Dudley Ryder (1691-1756) was Attorney-General 1737-54; prosecuted the Jacobite prisoners of 1746; appointed Lord Chief-Justice, 1754; cr. Baron Ryder of Harrowby 1756, and died the same year.
[585] Hon. William Murray (1705-92), fourth son of David, 5th Viscount Stormont. He was Solicitor-General 1742-54, and the active prosecutor of Lord Lovat; Attorney-General 1754-56; Lord Chief-Justice 1756-88; created Baron Mansfield 1756, and Earl of Mansfield 1776. His father and eldest brother were denounced as rebels, fined and imprisoned for their conduct in 1715. His brother James (c. 1690-1770) attached himself to the court of the Chevalier de St. George; in 1718 he was plenipotentiary for negotiating the marriage of James. In 1721 he was created (Jacobite) Earl of Dunbar, and he was Secretary of State at the court in Rome, 1727 to 1747; he was dismissed in the latter year at the desire of Prince Charles, who deemed him responsible for the Duke of York’s entering the Church; he retired to Avignon, where he died s.p. in 1770.
Murray’s sisters entertained Prince Charles in the house of their brother, Lord Stormont, at Perth from the 4th to the 10th April 1745.
[586] Solicitor to the Treasury.
[587] This report is printed, post, p. 400.
[588] Alexander Grossett, a captain in Price’s Regiment (14th, now P. of W. O. West Yorkshire). An engraving, dated 14th Jan. 1747, entitled ‘Rebel Gratitude,’ depicts the death of Lord Robert Ker and Captain Grossett at Culloden. About the latter the following legend is engraved on the print: ‘Captain Grosett, Engineer and Aid de Camp to the General.’ The rebel ‘shot Captain Grosett dead with his own pistol which happened accidentally to fall from him as he was on Horseback, under pretence of restoring the same to the Captain.’ Grossett had been aide-de-camp to General Handasyde; he was serving on General Bland’s staff at Culloden, according to family tradition.
[589] Sir John Shaw of Greenock, 3rd bart.; he was a cousin of Grossett’s. I have failed to find his name in any record of officers connected with the customs or excise at this time. His father, whom he succeeded in 1702, had been ‘one of H.M. principal tacksmen for the Customs and Excise,’ a pre-Union appointment, and it is possible that the son succeeded to his father’s office or to some of its perquisites. Sir John was M.P. for Renfrewshire 1708-10; for Clackmannanshire 1722-27; and again for Renfrewshire 1727-34. He married Margaret, d. of Sir Hew Dalrymple of North Berwick 1700, and died 1752.