It was but natural to expect that the Papists should favour the Rebellion to their utmost, but they are but inconsiderable in these Counties. Their meetings were quite barefaced, the Pretender openly prayed for, and a very great and good understanding there was betwixt the Nonjurants and them, so that Seaton, a priest, and Law, a Nonjurant minister,[347] were very commonly joined together among Lord Lewis Gordon’s council, who was made Governor of these counties by the Pretender. The Papists however generally had the cunning to be rather more tolerable in conversation with the friends of the Government than the Nonjurants were.
Lord Lewis Gordon joins the Rebels
Before the Rebels marched from Edinburgh to England they very wisely thought of means of retaining these counties under their subjection, while they should be marching south and of having reinforcements from thence ready for them against any emergence. For this purpose they wheedled over to their party Lord Lewis Gordon,[348] a younger brother to his Grace the Duke of Gordon, imagining that the very name of one so nearly connected to the Duke would have a great influence on the tenants and dependants of that family, and they well knew that His Grace’s indisposition at that time would prevent any effectual measures being taken to stop this procedure. Lord Lewis was a Lieutenant in the Fleet, and had unhappily come down at that time to visit his Mother, the Duchess Dowager, who stayed near Edinburgh.[349] There he met so many old friends and acquaintances engaged in the Rebellion, who laid all oars in the water to gain him; and this indeed was no hard matter to a forward young lad like him, especially as he was to have a Feather in his cap, and to be made Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire and Governor of the Towns of Aberdeen and Banff, with power of disposing of all places in them. Along with him is set down More of Lonmay, More of Stonnywood, Gordon of Avachy and Sheriff Petrie to assist him in his Government and Levys. There were also a number of Towns Burgesses named as a Council with them for the Town of Aberdeen and to manage under him in his absence but they all refused to accept; on which Mr. Moir of Lonmay was made Deputy Governor of Aberdeen, much indeed against his own inclination. He was a sensible man, but turned out very positive and arbitrary in his Government, which he had frequent opportunities of showing as Lord Lewis did not reside much at Aberdeen, and when he did, was always much advised by Lonmay. Mr. Bairde of Achmeden[350] was at the same time made Depute Governor of Banff. This gentleman had shown his affection to the cause so far as to wait for the Young Pretender at Edinburgh with his white cockade, but it seems was not so far militarily disposed as to think of marching with them into England, but having a considerable estate in Banffshire, they thought he might be of service to them in this sphere; but though he at first accepted of this commission, yet he seldom if ever acted in consequence of it, and very rarely made any public appearance.
Men Raised by Force
The Lord Lieutenant began with his recruiting about Strathboggy, but as the waifest kind of people had mostly gone off in the first Levys, this was not so successful as he expected. Nay, on his first coming there, his summonses to his brother’s tenants to rise were so slighted, and volunteers so backward, that he was obliged to write to Blelack[351] and some of the gentlemen of Deeside who had a number of men with them, begging of them for God’s sake to send him a command of their men that he might not be affronted. How soon he got these, then he went to work quartering on the tenants about Strathboggy till they either rose or furnished men according to the proportions he had settled. But this was tedious, as he had but a small party to quarter with, and therefore he soon took a more expeditious way, threatening to burn the houses and farmyards of such as stood out. This soon had the desired effect, for the burning a single house or farm stack in a Parish terrified the whole, so that they would quickly send in their proportion, and by this means, with the few that joined as volunteers, he raised near 300 men called the Strathboggy Battalion in the country thereabouts. The same method of military execution (a discipline till then unknown in these counties) was used in most of the high parts of the shire for forcing out men, especially on Deeside, where a great many were raised in this manner. Stonnywood however found people enough about the town of Aberdeen and places adjacent without force, to form another corps for Lord Lewis called the Aberdeen Battallion consisting of about 200 men, which with the Strathboggy Batallion formed what was properly Lord Lewis’ own Regiment; Avachy being Lieutenant of the latter; Stonnywood of the former.
Auchengaul raises a Company
About the same time Crichton of Auchengaul, a Popish gentleman of a very small estate, but representative of the Viscount Frendraught, raised a company and joined Lord Lewis. There were also several little people in Banffshire and Buchan, etc., who raised a few men each, and joined the Lord Lieutenant and all got commissions of one kind or other, which was by no means hard to be obtained. And thus the whole of this second Levy in the Counties of Aberdeen and Banff, under Lord Lewis would have amounted to near 800 men.
Comparison with 1715
As the above is a view of the whole course of the Rebels from these Counties, it may not be amiss to compare it with what it was in the 1715, from which it will be evident that for all the noise they made about their strength in these parts it was nothing now in comparison with what it was then.
In the 1715 they were supported by most of the Nobility. The Duke of Gordon (then Marquis of Huntly), the Earls of Mar, Marischall, Panmure, and Kintore, and the Lords Fraser and Pitsligo, who had all great estates, connections and dependencies in these Counties, raised their whole force and exerted themselves to the utmost in favour of the Rebellion. Whereas now Lord Pitsligo was the only nobleman that joined them unless Lord Lewis be reckoned. As to the landed gentry the difference is full as considerable. Though the most be from Banffshire and Buchan, yet even there they are not one fourth of what they were in the 1715. Not one gentleman from Fortmartine unless Mr. Smith of Menie be to be reckoned, who indeed appeared with them at Edinburgh, but left them or they entered England. Not one gentleman that resided in Garrioch,[352] though in the 1715 most of them were concerned. Only five on Deeside from the head to the foot. And though there were several gentlemen of small estates on Deeside, yet all of them put together were not equal to the Laird of Invercauld who engaged in the former Rebellion. The Commons must always bear Proportion to the interests of the Gentry engaged, and though indeed this rule failed in so far at this time as that considerable numbers were raised from the estates of the Duke of Gordon, Earl of Aboyne, and Laird of Invercauld, where the Rebels had properly no interest, yet as almost none of the gentlemen that went with Lord Pitsligo raised so much as the men on their own estates, this will in good measure balance the other. There were several merchants of note appeared from the towns in the 1715, but now none but a few smugglers, and a very few tradesmen.