Rebel's Redeemers

Mary McGrigor

Description

Most people know of the Jacobite rising of 1745, but few are aware of the efforts made by two men, one of them General Campbell, later the 4th Duke of Argyll, and the other, Duncan Forbes of Culloden. Lord president of the Court of Session, to mitigate the suffering of Prince Charles' supporters following the defeat of his army. This book is a comprehensive study of the lives of two men remarkable for their humanity in their day.

Sujets

• Histoire
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 31 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528964050
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Rebel’s Redeemers
The Life and Times of General John Campbell, Later 4th Duke of Argyll and of Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Lord President of the Session.
Mary McGrigor
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-07-31
The Rebel’s Redeemers About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgment Preface Chapter 1 Restoration of Clan Campbell Chapter 2 The War of the Spanish Succession Chapter 3 A Conflict of Generals Chapter 4 Drawn Swords of Civil War Chapter 5 Retribution Chapter 6 ‘Smiling Mary, Soft and Fair as Dawn’ Chapter 7 Connivance and Corruption on a Grand Scale Chapter 8 Glasgow Set Aflame Chapter 9 Problems of the Prince’s Court Chapter 10 Violence in Scotland’s Capital Chapter 11 Pursuer of Smugglers and Reformer of Feudal Law Chapter 12 A Gentleman-in-Waiting at the Court of King George II Chapter 13 Return to Active Service a Palliative for Grief Chapter 14 Return of Heroes Chapter 15 ‘Follow Me Gentlemen’ The War in Scotland Begins Chapter 16 Raiders in the Night Chapter 17 The General Takes Command Chapter 18 Militiamen and Spies Chapter 19 The Battle of Falkirk Chapter 20 A Poor Plunder’d Country Chapter 21 The Fall of Inverness and the Atholl Raid Chapter 22 Conflict Without Mercy Chapter 23 The Chase Begins Chapter 24 Men Living like Foxes in Caves Chapter 25 The Irish Spinning Maid Chapter 26 ‘A Very Pretty Young Rebel’ Chapter 27 Return to Inveraray Chapter 28 The Winter Wind of Man’s Ingratitude Chapter 29 Retirement – Tragedy and Triumph Chapter 30 The New Road to Inveraray Chapter 31 ‘I Think I Have Some Credit with the General’ Chapter 32 A Dukedom and a Beautiful Daughter-in-Law Chapter 33 Family Fortunes and a Feud Chapter 34 The Year of Sorrow – 1769 Chapter 35 The Dream Completed ENDNOTES Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35
About the Author
Mary McGrigor grew up in a medieval Scottish castle which resulted in her great love of history. Married to a soldier at age twenty, until her husband, Sir Charles McGrigor, left the army to buy a sheep farm in Argyll where she has lived for over sixty years. Beginning with local histories, she then branched out into historical biographies. Much involved in farming, she also bred and broke in Highland ponies and rode over the hills above Loch Awe. With a family of four children, she now has twelve grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.
Dedication
To my wonderful family.
Copyright Information ©
Mary McGrigor (2020)
The right of Mary McGrigor to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Austin Macauley is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In this spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528923156 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528964050 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgment
My deepest thanks to my granddaughter Aretha Campbell for all her help with this book.
Preface
On Tuesday 1 July 1685, the High Street of Edinburgh was crammed with spectators. Men, women and children jostled each other, fighting for a clear view of the Earl of Argyll being led to his place of execution. All eyes were fixed on the door of the Council House, where the Earl, taken from his place of imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle, awaited what was known to be his inevitable fate.
Couriers had ridden hard from London, stopping only to change horses and for snatches of food and rest, carrying the specific written orders of King James VII of Scotland and II of England that Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, must die.
The charge was one of treachery, surprisingly not for the part that he had so recently played in collaboration with the Duke of Monmouth, a natural son of Charles II, to overthrow the latter’s Roman Catholic brother King James, but for refusing to comply with the Test Act of 1681.
This was the stature imposed in the reign of Charles II when the King had sent his brother, then Duke of York, as Royal Commissioner to Scotland. York, who, aware of the aversion of a strongly Presbyterian country to a Roman Catholic King, had engineered the statute to ensure his own succession. Argyll had refused to accept it, except on his own specific terms, declaring that he took it ‘as far as it is consistent with itself and the Protestant religion’. 1
Imprisoned for words construed as treason, he had managed to escape from Edinburgh Castle disguised as the page of his stepdaughter, Lady Sophia Lindsay. Reaching Holland, where he had a small estate, he had planned with Monmouth to invade Scotland while the latter was to land on the south coast of England. The attempt had ended disastrously. Both leaders had been arrested and inevitably condemned to death. Argyll was to die by the ‘maiden’, an early form of guillotine, then used in Scotland.
Almost as he left the Council House to walk to his place of death, he made an impassioned plea to the authorities to show mercy to his son, John. This second son, while accompanying him on his sea-borne invasion from Holland, had done so merely as a spectator. ‘Some weakness in his hands making him incapable of using a weapon’. 2
Shortly after this, at about two o’clock in the afternoon, Argyll walked to the place of execution. Heads were craned to see him. A small man, dwarfed by the Dean of Edinburgh and the Episcopalian minister on either side, he nonetheless held himself erect. Privileged as a peer to wear a hat, his hands remained untied. From the scaffold he addressed the multitude, his voice ringing loud and clear. “I pray God may provide for the security of the Church, and that Antichrist, nor the gates of hell may ever prevail against it.” Then led to the place where the executioner stood ready, he took hold of the instrument of death, calling it ‘the sweetest maiden ever I kissed’. Asking the executioner to wait until he gave a sign he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive me into thy glory.” He raised his hand. The knife descended. And Argyll was dead.
Chapter 1

Restoration of Clan Campbell
Despite the cruelty and injustice of Argyll’s death, the year 1685 proved to be of portent both to his family and to the cause for which he gave his life. Almost as the ‘maiden’ crashed down on the scaffold his grandson, a little red-haired boy of five years old, called John (eldest son of Argyll’s heir, Lord Lorne then an exile in Holland) fell out of a third floor window of his aunt, the Countess of Moray’s house at Donibristle in Fife, and survived unhurt. Those who rushed to rescue him considered this miraculous, a sign, that the house of Argyll would soon be somehow restored.
Later, in the same year, an event of equal significance, although unrecognised at the time, occurred when, on 10 November, at Bunchrew, three miles northwest of Inverness, Duncan, younger son of Duncan Forbes the 3rd Laird of Culloden and his wife, the former Mary Innes, was born.
Little is known of the early life of young Duncan other than that he was an exceptionally brilliant pupil at Inverness Grammar School where he made particular prowess in Latin and that afterwards he studied in Marischal College at Aberdeen University. Subsequently, as a younger son, without future inheritance of land, he went abroad to the University of Leyden to qualify in his chosen profession of the law.
Archibald, 9th Earl of Argyll left behind a family in dire financial straits. His estates were forfeited leaving his widow and children so poor that the Earl of Lothian married his daughter Jean out of pity to save her from starving.
Argyll’s sons, John and Charles, were both sentenced to death. Charles was spared execution; it is said at the instigation of some ladies of the court who, believing him to be already married to his stepsister Lady Sophia Lindsay, who later in fact became his wife, pled his cause on her behalf. The Earl’s second son John, together with his first cousin Charles, son of Lord Neil Campbell of Ardmaddy, his late father’s brother, took a gamble. The two of them, disguised in woman’s clothes, surrendered themselves to Lord Dumbarton, commander of the government forces in Scotland, stationed in his castle on the Clyde. Both, as they expected, were sentenced to death. Then, perhaps in John’s case because of obvious deformity, the verdict for both of them was reduced to banishment and the forfeiture of all their rights and property.
The disability of John of Mamore has not been fully described; the probability that he suffered from infantile arthritis being merely a wild guess. Penniless and without employment he seems to have managed somehow to return to Holland, where his family had a small estate. His whereabouts are unrecorded until, four years later. In 1689, his banishment ended as the King himself fled the country when his eldest Protestant daughter, Princess Mary and her husband the Stadtholder of the Netherlands, more commonly known as William of Orange, arrived triumphantly, in London.
John’s older brother, Archibald