OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                271

CHAPTER XV.

1746.

The Battle of Falkirk.—The Duke of Cumberland in Scotland.—
Prince Charles at Inverness.—Cumberland Crosses the Spey.
—The Men of Urquhart and Glenmoriston Summoned to
Join the Prince.—Culloden.—Incidents of the Battle and
Flight. — Alexander Grant’s Exploits. — Heroic Wives.—
Ludovick Grant and his Eight Hundred in Urquhart.—
Rebel-Hunting. — Protections Promised, and the Men of
Urquhart and Glenmoriston Surrender.—Fears and Fore­
bodings. — Treachery. — Despair and Maledictions.—Ludo-
vick’s Intercession and its Result.—Shewglie and his Son and
the Minister in Tilbury Fort.—Shewglie’s Death.—Release
of his Son and the Minister.—Banishment to Barbadoes.—
The Fate of the Exiles.—Notices of some who Returned.—
Donald Mackay. — William Grant. — Donald Macmillan.—
Alexander Grant.—Donald Grant.—Alexander Ferguson.—
Donald Ferguson.

The defeat of the Hanoverians at Falkirk caused
great consternation in London. Dissatisfied with
General Hawley, the Government offered the
chief command to William, Duke of Cumberland,
the King’s son—a young man of twenty-five, who
had already had considerable experience as a
soldier, and had acquired some knowledge of
the Highlanders’ mode of warfare at Fontenoy,
where they fought under him. The Duke promptly
accepted, and with ten thousand men set out from
Edinburgh on 30th January, 1746, to measure

272              URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

swords with Prince Charles, who crossed the Forth
on 1st February, and, taking the Highland Road by
Drumuachdar, arrived in Inverness on the 18th.
Lord Loudon and his Whig Highlanders abandoned
the town on his approach, and, crossing Kessock
Ferry, made their way into Ross-shire. Fort
George, as the Castle of Inverness was then called,
made some show of resistance, but after a two days’
siege its commander—Major George Grant of the
Black Watch, Ludovick Grant’s uncle—surrendered
to the Prince’s Highlanders, by whom the Castle
was immediately destroyed. Some of the Grants
who formed part of the garrison joined the army of
the Prince.

While Charles lay at Inverness — whence he
sent out detachments to take Fort-Augustus and
Fort-William, and other companies into Ross,
Sutherland, and Athole—the Duke slowly made
his way northward along the eastern seaboard.
At Aberdeen he remained for weeks, punishing
Jacobites, and waiting for reinforcements and the
spring. On 8th April he began his march to Inver­
ness, and crossed the Spey on the 12th. Tidings
of his approach reached Charles on the 14th, and
messengers were immediately despatched to call
back his Highlanders, who had for a time returned
to their homes. Among these were the men of
Urquhart and Glenmoriston. The summons reached
the Glenmoriston men too late for the coming con­
flict ; but eighty men of Urquhart,¹ accompanied by

¹ Documents at Castle Grant.

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                273

Shewglie and his sons Patrick and Alexander, and
by Corrimony and Achmonie, and the latter’s young
brother, Donald Mackay, set out on the 15th, and
arrived at the Prince’s camp at Culloden that even­
ing. They found the army preparing to march to
Nairn, with the object of surprising the Duke
before daybreak. Tired though they were after
their day’s journey, they readily joined in the
adventure—all but Shewglie, who, on account of
his great age, returned to Inverness. The High­
landers started as soon as daylight had disappeared ;
but the way was rough, the night was darkness
itself, a fierce north-east wind, laden with blinding
sleet, blew in their teeth, and their progress was so
slow that the dawn of a new day was near ere they
reached Kilravock, some three miles from where the
Duke lay. The Prince’s bold plan had miscarried,
and, notwithstanding his eagerness to press forward,
Lord George Murray ordered a retreat—the best
order, probably, that could in the circumstances
have been given.

After this trying and fruitless march, the High­
landers, footsore and famished, found themselves
once more on the bleak moor of Culloden. Many of
them—among whom were the Urquhart men, who
had marched thirty or forty miles without rest or
food—stretched their weary limbs on the wet heath,
and were soon asleep. Others who were not so
fatigued, but whose only food for the last twenty-
four hours had been a morsel of coarse bread doled
out the previous day, wandered to Inverness and

18

274              URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

the neighbouring farm-houses in search of some­
thing to eat. Before the sleepers awoke and the
wanderers returned, Cumberland's host of ten
thousand men, fresh from the rest and festivities
which had marked the previous day as his birthday,
appeared in the east, marching with steady tread
upon the Highland camp. It was in vain that the
Prince’s officers urged him not to risk all on a field
which was but too well adapted for the movements
of the English horse and artillery, and pointed to
the hills on the other side of the river Nairn as
ground on which the enemy would be at a disad­
vantage, and his Highlanders could effectively bring
their peculiar mode of warfare into play. Deter­
mined that Cumberland should not pass on to
Inverness, and blindly confident in the prowess of
his mountaineers, he insisted on giving battle where
he stood. A desperate attempt was therefore made
to get his followers together. Those whom the call
reached responded with alacrity, and when the hour
of battle arrived Charles was at the head of five
thousand men—hungry and fatigued, it is true, but,
yet, full of ardour and devotion, and eager, in their
own words, to “give Cumberland another Fontenoy”
—an allusion to the Duke’s recent defeat by the
French. About one o’clock the Highlanders began
the fray by firing their miserable cannon. The
English artillery answered with deadly effect. For
half-an-hour the firing continued, and ghastly lanes
appeared in the ranks of the Highlanders. Then
they were allowed to charge in their own old style.

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.               275

Pulling their bonnets down over their foreheads
with a fierceness that Lowland spectators beheld
with dismay, they rushed forward and flung them­
selves with indescribable fury on the bayonet-
shielded front line of the enemy—the Macdonalds,
however, standing sullenly inactive, because they
had been deprived of their customary place of
honour in the right wing. The line fell back
before the shock, but there was another and
another behind, and as the Highlanders bounded
forward they were met with a terrific fire which
almost annihilated them. The survivors turned
and fled, and the cause of the Stewarts was lost
for ever.

The Prince, forced off the field by his attendants,
escaped in the direction of Strathnairn and Strath-
errick. The greater portion of his army crossed the
Nairn, and found refuge in the mountains. The
remainder, including the Frasers, Chisholms, and
the men of Urquhart, fled towards Inverness, pur­
sued by the Duke of Kingston’s Light Horse,
slaughtering as they went—among the slain which
lined the road being many of the townspeople who
had come out to see the battle.

Of the Urquhart men thirty fell on the field or
in the flight.¹ A few of the incidents of the day
still related in Glen-Urquhart may be recorded.
James Grant, that cousin whom Shewglie sent to
Charles with his message of welcome, and who had
followed the Prince into England, made his way,

¹ Memorial at Castle Grant.

276                URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

terribly wounded, to his aunt’s house at Cradlehall,
where he died in a few hours. His dust lies in
Cradlehall garden. His brother, Alexander, not­
withstanding a wound in the head, made good use in
the flight of that skill which had already won for
him the name of The Swordsman. He saved
Somerled Dubh Macdonald by severing a trooper’s
arm which was raised to strike him. Wishing to
avoid the streets of Inverness, he and his com­
panions passed by the town, and forded the Ness
above the Islands. William Macmillan, from the
Braes, was being hard pressed in mid­stream by
a trooper, when Grant stole behind, and with a
stroke of his sword brought horse and rider
into the water. His next stroke cleft the English-
man’s head in two. At the same place a trooper
shot Donald Macmillan from Shewglie in the thigh,
and was himself shot dead by a Lochaberman, who,
mounting his horse, and placing Macmillan before
him, galloped off to Glen-Urquhart, carrying with
him the first tidings of the disaster. Donald Fraser,
Drumbuie, saved himself by slaying a horseman who
pressed hard on him in the flight.¹ Corrimony,
suffering from two severe wounds, was carried off
the field by John Garbh Cameron, Carnoch.
James Breac Chisholm, Upper Balmacaan, lay
wounded on the field for two days, and wit­
nessed the savage butchery of the Highlanders
after the battle. His own life was saved by an

¹ Fraser related this incident to the late John Mackenzie, Achtemarag,
who communicated it and other Culloden traditions to the Author.

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                 277

English officer, who was moved to pity by his
sufferings. Among those who joined the Prince
on the 15th were Alexander Macfie, tenant
of Kerrowgair, and his brother Ewen. Next
morning their young wives started for the camp
with food for them. As they passed through
Inverness the distant roll of artillery told but
too plainly that the expected conflict had
already begun. In the hope of being able in some
way to succour their husbands they still hastened
on. At Inshes they met the Highlanders in full
flight, and witnessed their slaughter by the troopers.
One of the latter, probably in wanton jest, stopped
and pointed his carbine at Alexander’s wife, who,
believing that her hour had come, closed her eyes in
silent prayer. The soldier, however, did not fire,
and the two women, forgetting their own safety in
their concern for their husbands, pushed on to the
scene of the battle. There they found Ewen Macfie
among the slain. Alexander had escaped, and
returned in safety to his home. At Caiplich he and
his companions met the men of Glenmoriston, who
were on their way to Culloden. and who at once
returned to their own Glen.¹

Cruel though the disasters of Culloden were,
greater trials awaited the inhabitants of Urquhart
and Glenmoriston. “ It is the living parting,” says
the Gaelic proverb, “ that makes the sore wound.”
The people of our Parish were made to feel

¹ Tradition communicated to the Author’s father by the latter’s grand
mother, Mary, daughter of Alexander Macfie and his heroic wife,

278                URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

the bitter truth of the saying. Ludovick
Grant went to Aberdeen about the beginning of
March to pay his respects to Cumberland, who, after
a few days, ordered him to return to Strathspey,
and to meet him again at Speymouth with six
hundred men. Ludovick returned to his own country,
but failed to meet the Duke, his excuse being that
the Grants refused to leave their homes while the
Jacobites were near. The events of Culloden
changed all. No longer deeming it necessary to
act on the advice of Alasdair Mor Og—“ Let those
fight who have nothing to lose”—the young chief
leapt with amazing agility off the fence on which
he had so long sat, and in less than two days had
eight hundred men at the service of Duke William.¹
Employed in rebel-hunting, he captured Lord Bal-
merino and other Jacobites in Strathdearn, and,
in obedience to the Duke’s commands, destroyed the
ploughs and implements of the people of that dis­
trict.² Immediately after the battle John Grant,
factor of Urquhart, waited upon Cumberland at
Inverness, and was ordered to bring in the Urquhart
men who were loyal and disposed to follow Ludovick
as their chief.³ None came in, and before the end of
April Ludovick and his eight hundred marched into
the Parish.

¹  Letter, Sir Archibald Grant to Sir James Grant, dated Inverness, 8th
May, 1746. The documents referred to in this chapter are at Castle Grant,
except where otherwise indicated. Some of them are printed in “ The Chiefs
of Grant.”

² Ibid.

³ Letter, Earl of Findlater to Ludovick Grant, dated Inverness, 19th
April 1746,

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                   279

“ I shall conclude my letter,” wrote he to the
factor at an early stage of the troubles, “ with
desiring you make my compliments to the gentlemen
of Urquhart, and let them know that I desire you
and them to spirite up the tennents and inhabitants
of Urquhart to remain peaceable at home, and to
assure them of all encouragement from me, nay, of
favours, if they are obedient ; whereas, be they who
they will that will act otherways than I desire, they
may expect the treatment that they will justly
merite from me.” The gentlemen and tenants and
inhabitants of Urquhart did otherwise than as he
desired, and he now came to fulfil his promise.
With a vigour and devotion which contrast strangely
with his inactivity before Culloden, he scoured the
country from Tullich to Temple—the Dan and
Beersheba of Urquhart—for the men who had been
“out” and were now fugitives in the woods and
among the mountains. Corrimony found safe shelter
within the cave of Morall, where the remains of the
timber of his rough bed were seen by persons who
still live ; but Ludovick carried away his own and
his tenants’ cattle.¹ Achmonie was equally safe in
the crevice in Achmonie Craig, which still bears his

¹ The following document is preserved at Castle Grant :—“ Whereas
Ludovic Grant of Grant had seized upon the lands of Corrymonie in Urquhart
cattle belonging to tenants of mine, and the said Grant hath, upon the repre­
sentations of me, Alexander Chisholm of Chisholm, younger, delivered back
17 cows, small and great, seven piece of horse, eleven sheep, and nineteen
goats, belonging to those tenants, T oblige myself that these persons, so far as
I know, have been in no ways concerned in the Rebellion, and that the said
cattle shall be forth-serving to his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland’s
orders whenever called upon : In witness whereof, I have subscribed these
presents at Balmacaan this 30th day of April, 1746 years.—Alexr. Chisholm.”

280               URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

name.¹ Patrick Grant, Shewglie’s son, found refuge
in the woods of Lochletter : his brother Alexander
never returned from Culloden, and years after­
wards appeared in India as an officer under
Clive. James Breac Chisholm was among the rocks
of Craigmonie, where his food was brought to him
by a faithful dog. The retreats of the fugitives were
known to many of the people, but nothing would
make them give information, and although Ludovick
continued the search for several days, his only
captives were John Bain, Donald Bain, and Alexander
Bain, all of Corrimony—“ honest men,” all of them,
certified the Reverend John Grant, minister of the
Parish, who did what he could to screen the fugitives,
and kept their little money for them.² The captives
and the cattle were sent under escort to Cumberland ;
but they were a poor result of the Expedition of the
Eight Hundred, and Ludovick strongly urged the
people to get their fugitive friends to surrender and
cast themselves on the Royal clemency. He sent a
similar advice to the men of Glenmoriston. His
counsel was unfortunately taken. On the 4th of
May sixty-eight Glenmoriston men appeared at
Balmacaan, and surrendered themselves and their
arms. Their example was followed by sixteen of the
men of Urquhart.³ Ludovick was satisfied, and next
day he proceeded to Inverness with them, and with

¹  Uamh Fhir Achamhonaidh—Achmonie’s Cave.

²  Letter, Ludovick Grant to the Duke of Newcastle.—Chiefs of Grant,
ii., 267.

³  See Appendix H for lists of those who surrendered, and of the arms
given up by them.

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                281

the minister, old Shewglie and his son James, and
Donald Mackay, Achmonie’s brother, and delivered
them all into the hands of Duke William.

The surrender was not made without doubts and
forebodings. James Breac Chisholm was on his way
to Balmacaan to give himself up, when the idea
of treachery forced itself so strongly upon his mind
that he returned to his retreat in the Bed of the
King’s Daughter. Glenmoriston and Corrimony
both started to meet Ludovick, but took warning
and turned back. John Macmillan, Borlum, kept
to the woods on the advice of his wife, who quoted
the proverb, “’S fhearr sith fo phreas na sith fo
ghlais “—“ better peace under a bush than peace in
fetters.” Ewen Macdonald left his home at Livisie
with the other Glenmoriston men, followed by his
wife, who implored him to return. Her tears had
no effect, until, as the party was about to cross the
Urquhart march beyond Achnaconeran, she threw
the child which she carried at her breast in the
heather, and bidding her husband take it or let it
die, sped back as if her senses had forsaken her.
Ewen had but one choice ; and he raised the child
and returned with it to his house, where he
remained. When Shewglie got into his saddle to
accompany Ludovick to Inverness, his mare turned
three times tuaitheal—that is, against the sun. His
old hen-wife, Stianach Bhuidh nan Cearc—Yellow
Stianach of the Hens—marked the evil omen,
and entreated him not to go. He went, and
never returned. On his advice, however, The

282 URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

Swordsman returned home until it was seen how
it fared with those who did not equal him in guilti­
ness against the Guelphs, and he was spared. The
women, who formed the bulk of the great crowd
which gathered at Balmacaan to witness the
departure of the surrendered, filled the air with
cries of grief, and one old female stepped forward and
addressed the doomed men in words of prophecy—

“ Urchadainn Mo Chrostain,

Cha bu rosadach thu riamh gus an diugh—

An taobh ris am beil sibh cuir bhur sail,

Gu brath cha chuir sibh clar na h-aoduinn ! ”^l

The manner in which the surrender was brought
about has been recorded by Ludovick. “Mr
Grant,” he says, referring to himself, “in prosecution
of his own letters and manifestos, during the time
of the Rebellion, and in prosecution of His Royal
Highness’ orders, firmly determined to bring in as
many of the rebels in Urquhart and Glenmoriston
as he could, to be used as His Royal Highness
should judge fit. Accordingly, his men catched
some and sent them prisoners immediately on his
going to Urquhart, and for several days hunted the
others in that wild mountainous country ; but on
their keeping out of his way he thought fit to
declare and publish that he could grant them no
sort of terms, but that if they did not quickly come
in and deliver up themselves and their arms, he
would never desist from ferreting them out, and

¹ O Urquhart of St Drostan, never wert thou unhappy until to­day—to
the place to which you [the surrendered] now turn your heels you will not
turn your faces till the Day of Doom j

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                283

that although the estate was his own he would burn
the houses and leave it as a forest rather than that
it should be inhabited by rebels ; but that, by sub­
mitting, they would have the best chance (as many
of them pretended to have been forced) of saving
their houses and effects, and their wives and
children, and that even some of themselves might
have a chance for mercy on consideration of their
different cases, but that he could not pretend to
foretell what their fate might be ; and he both sent
messengers and wrote an ostensible letter to a
peaceable honest man, one Grant of Duldreggan,
much to the same purpose—which letter, as he
hears, is in the hands of Sir Everard Faulkner [the
Duke’s secretary]. The event was that besides the
above mentioned sixteen Urquhart men, Duldreggan
brought him sixty-eight Glenmoriston people, and
that Mr Grant caused acquaint His Royal Highness
that these persons, in consequence of the above
hunting and threats, had surrendered to him with­
out the promise of any terms, and that His Royal
Highness might dispose of them as he should think
fit.”¹

There is reason to believe that, in his eagerness
to show results to Cumberland, Ludovick held out
greater hopes to the unfortunate people than he here
admits. “ The fact is,” he states in the same paper,
“ that none of the Urquhart people did surrender,
save only sixteen, when he was threatening murder

¹ Draft (at Castle Grant) of Memorial by Ludovick to Government in
answer to Petitions by the Shewglies and the Rev, John Grant,

284              URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

and burning, after having hunted and chased them
for several days.” The threat of murder—murder
of the innocent people who had not left their homes
and could be got at—was one which the fugitives
were not likely to take seriously ; their turf houses
and little effects did not weigh much against their
lives and liberty ; their secret haunts were not known
to Ludovick and his Strathspeymen ; and having
eluded their pursuers for several days, it is difficult
to believe that they left their fastnesses without an
assurance of safety. The tradition is that they were
promised “protections”—letters from the authorities
securing them against further molestation—and
the breach of the promise gave rise to a saying
which was at one time common in the Parish
as indicative of treachery and danger—“ Cho
sabhailt ri protection !”—“As safe as a protection !
The tradition is fully corroborated by writings
of the period. The two Shewglies and the parish
minister state in a petition which they sent
from their English prison to the Duke of New­
castle, Secretary of State, that the men surrendered
on Ludovick’s “ assurance that he would intercede
with His Royal Highness on their behalf, and that
after such surrender they should be permitted to
return to their respective places of abode :”¹ the
Reverend James Hay of Inverness, writing in
1749, asserts that “ the men of Glenmoriston and
Urquhart were advised to go to Inverness, and
deliver up their arms, upon solemn promises that

¹ Copy petition at Castle Grant.

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                285

they should return safe, with protections ; which
encouraged also those who were not engaged, to go :”¹
Andrew Henderson, a Whig “ Impartial Hand,”
who accompanied Cumberland’s army, and after­
wards wrote a “ History of the Rebellion,” records
that “ the people in the Rebellion, on submitting to
mercy, were dismissed to their own habitations ;
only the Grants of Glenmoriston were led into a
snare through a mistake of their chieftain, who
assured them of pardon if they would but come in :”²
and the author of an old MS. history of the Grants
states that the fugitives were “ prevailed upon to
come and surrender themselves in expectation that
they would have got protections, and been allowed
to return to their country.”

The unfortunate men were doomed to cruel dis­
appointment. Ludovick, as he himself has recorded,
delivered them up to Cumberland, “ that His Royal
Highness might dispose of them as he should think
fit.” Not one word did he utter by way of inter­
cession. On the contrary, he effectually destroyed
whatever feeling of mercy lurked in the Duke’s
breast by delivering to him the letter addressed by
Prince Charles to the gentlemen of Urquhart, and
which had found its way into the hands of the
factor. The result was that all who had surrendered,
including the aged Shewglie and his son, and the
minister and Donald Mackay, were confined in one
of the churches of Inverness for some days, and then

¹ Chambers’ Jacobite Memoirs, 256.
² “ Impartial Hand’s ” History of the Rebellion, 337.

286                URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

transferred to Government ships which sailed with
them on the 22nd for the Thames.¹

The news of their betrayal struck terror into the
hearts of their relations and friends in Urquhart and
Glenmoriston. Men and women gave way to grief
and despair, and cursed Ludovick in language which
can hardly be uttered.² For a time he and his friends
failed to realise the enormity of the offence which
had been committed against honour and humanity.
Writing from Inverness on 8th May to the old Laird
of Grant, who was in London ignorant of the deeds
which were done in his name, Sir Archibald Grant
of Monymusk, after giving an account of the sur­
render, excuses Ludovick for not having “ catched
many more ;” and two days later the young Laird
himself writes his father with evident satisfaction :—
“ I had the honour yesterday of having His Royal
Highness’ approbation of the part I have acted since
I came here. I intended to have set out for London
this day, but as the Major’s trial comes on to­morrow
I must wait it.³ I shall, when we meet, satisfy you,
I hope, and all the world, with my conduct since the
beginning of this villanous rebellion. ... I
think old Shewglie is now in a way of repenting all

¹ Jacobite Memoirs, 256 ; “Impartial Hand’s” History of the Rebellion,
338.

² One example of the maledictions may be given :—

A Thighearn’ og Ghrannda,
Gum a h­ard theid droch dhiol ort—
Gaoir na cloinne gun athair
Ga d’ sgaradh o Flaitheanas Chriosda !
(0 young Laird of Grant, great be thy evil reward—may the cry of the
fatherless children drive thee from the Heaven of Christ !)

³ Major Grant, Ludovick’s uncle, who was tried for surrendering Inverness
Castle.

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                287

his villanous rebellious schemes, since he was a man
in the 1715 and ever since. His cunning will not
save him. I have done all I could to get hold of
Corrimonie and Achmonie, but have not yet suc­
ceeded.” When he reached London he found that
the “ world,” far from being satisfied, condemned the
dishonourable capture with a unanimity that made
him wince, and that called forth long vindications
of his conduct from Monymusk, and Lachlan Grant,
a devoted clansman who practised law in Edin­
burgh.¹ Shewglie and his son and the Reverend
John Grant, from their cell in Tilbury Fort, laid
their version of the sad tale before the Government
in a petition to the Duke of Newcastle. A copy of
the document was sent to Ludovick, and he was
constrained to reply. He addressed a long letter to
Newcastle, in which, after denying the accuracy of
the statements made by the petitioners, and animad­
verting severely on their conduct, he made an appeal
on behalf of their humbler associates. “ ] must beg
leave,” said he, “to inform your Grace that there
are 68 of the men of Glenmoriston, and 16 of the
men of Urquhart sent here [i.e., London] prisoners.
These unhappy men surrendered themselves to me,
May 4th, without any promise of pardon, but threw
themselves upon His Majesty’s mercy, and sur­
rendered their arms, which were delivered to his
Royal Highness’ order. As none of these people
were at the battle of Culloden ”—a humane untruth
which may be pardoned—“ and were the first who
surrendered, without attempting to make terms,

¹ Both papers are at Castle Grant.

288                  URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

and, as since that time many of the rebels who have
surrendered have been allowed to live in their own
countries, I cannot help feeling some compassion for
those who surrendered to me. I must therefore
humbly beg they may be used no worse than others.
I have information many of them deserted from the
rebels, and returned home, and showed no inclination
to continue in rebellion. And as I told their friends
before they surrendered that they would find it
would tend more for their own safety, and that of
their wives and children, to follow that measure,
which I was convinced would preserve their effects,
whereas, if they continued in arms, I was certain
their whole country would be turned into a forest,
and their effects carried off, and they themselves in
a short time could not miss to be apprehended, I
know if they are not treated with the same mercy
as others are, I must meet with reflection as being
the person who advised their surrendering without
waiting to see the fate of others.”

Ludovick’s tardy compassion and intercession
were of no avail. Government responded to the
petition of the Shewglies and the minister, of whom
he wrote in terms of condemnation, by releasing
them from prison and permitting them to live in
London under the surveillance of an officer of the
law. But old Shewglie’s days were numbered, and
he was in his grave before 29th July.¹ His son and
the minister were in the end permitted to return to

¹ It appears from papers at Castle Grant that he died a natural death
but it was believed in Glen-Urquhart that he was burnt to death in a barrel
of tar.

OLDEN TIMES IN THE PARISH.                289

their homes. Ludovick’s appeal on behalf of the
remaining prisoners was disregarded, and, without
trial or enquiry, they were shipped off to Barbadoes.
Many of them succumbed to their evil treatment
during the voyage. Of the rest only eighteen were
alive in 1749 ;¹ and of these seven or eight only saw
their own country again. Donald Mackay was but a
short time in the island when he escaped as a
stowaway to Jamaica, where, assuming the name of
Macdonald, he adopted a planter’s life. Many years
afterwards he returned to Glen-Urquhart, became
tacksman of Kerrowgair—now the factor’s farm of
Drambuie—and married Mary, daughter of Alex­
ander Macfie, the old tenant, and of that devoted
wife at whom the trooper pointed his carbine on the
road to Culloden. His great-grandson is now
writing these pages.² William Grant returned and
became tenant of Breakry-riach ; and his grandsons,
the late John and Ewen Mackenzie of Achintemarag,
furnished some of the incidents related in this
chapter. Donald Macmillan also found his way
home, and was well known in after life as the Grey
Smith of Inchvalgar. Of the Glenmoriston men,

¹  Lyon in Mourning—MS. in Advocates’ Library.

² Donald’s grandson (the late William Mackay, the Author’s father,
who in early life dropped the name Macdonald) visited, as late as 1886, the
battlefield of Culloden, where Donald fought in 1746. Donald and his wife
are buried in the old Achmonie burial-place at Kilmore. Their tombstone,
which was erected in 1822, bears the following inscription :—“ Here lie the
Remains of Donald Mackay Macdonald, Esq., late Planter in Jamaica, and
Representative of the Ancient Family of Achmonie, who died in August,
1791 : also the Remains of his Spouse, Mary, who died January, 1822. This
tribute of respect is erected to their memory by their son, John Mackay
Macdonald, Esq.”

19

290                URQUHART AND GLENMORISTON.

Alexander Grant returned in 1748, and Donald
Grant in August, 1750. “ Their wives and children
were overjoyed by the unexpected sight of them.”¹
Alexander and Donald Ferguson or Farquharson
also came back, but the former, finding that his wife
had been faithless during his absence, emigrated to
America. Donald was more fortunate. Before
starting on the ill-fated journey to Balmacaan, he
divided a ring in two, and, giving one half of it to
his betrothed, bade her keep it till they again met.
The other half he retained. Returning after many
years he crossed from Fort-Augustus to Innse-
Mhor, near Aonach, where the woman resided. On
approaching the house he learned that she had lost
all hope of his return, and that the feast for her
marriage with another man was being prepared.
Giving expression to his feelings in rhyme,² he
entered and asked her for a drink. Stranger though
he apparently was, the occasion demanded that she
should offer him a dram. Secretly dropping his half
of the ring into the cup, he begged her to drink
first. She did so, and to her astonishment and joy
found the counterpart of the token which she had
so long treasured. The man for whom the marriage
feast was being prepared had to give way, and his
place was taken by the long-lost Donald Ferguson.

¹ Lyon in Mourning.
² Tha smuid mhor dhe Tigh-na-h-Innse—
Thoir leam fhein gur smuid bainns’ i.
Tha mo dhuil an Righ na Firinn
Gur h-ann domhs’ tha brith na bainnse !
(Great is the smoke from the House of Innse—a wedding smoke it
appears to me. My confidence is in the King of Truth that the marriage
preparations are for me !).

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