Part 23

Donald went again to Edinburgh about the end of August, 1725. On the 2d of September, George Lockhart of Carnwath, writing from that city to the Chevalier St George, states, amongst other information regarding his party in Scotland, that Daniel Murchison (as he calls him) "is come to Edinburgh, on his way to France" - doubtless charged with a sum of rents for Seaforth. "He's been in quest of me, and I of him," says Lockhart, "these two days, and missed each other; but in a day or two he's to be at my country house, where I'll get time to talk fully with him. In the meantime, I know from one that saw him that he has taken up and secured all the arms of value on Seaforth's estate, which he thought better than to trust them to the care and prudence of the several owners; and the other chieftains, I hear, have done the same."

The Commissioners on the forfeited estates concluded their final report in 1725, by stating that they had not sold the estate of William, Earl of Seaforth, "not having been able to obtain possession and consequently to give the same to a purchaser." [In a Whig poem on the Highland Roads, written in 1737, Donald is characteristically spoken of as a sort of cateran, while, in reality, as every generous person can now well understand, he was a high-minded gentleman. The verses, nevertheless, as well as the appended note, are curious -

Keppoch, Rob Roy, and Daniel Murchison, Cadets are servants to some chief of clan, From theft and robberies scarce did ever cease, Yet 'scaped the halter each, and died in peace. This last his exiled master's rents collected, Nor unto king or law would be subjected. Though veteran troops upon the confines lay, Sufficient to make lord and tribe a prey, Yet passes strong through which no roads were cut, Safe-guarded Seaforth's clan, each in his hu', Thus in strongholds the rogue securely lay, Neither could they by force be driven away, Till his attainted lord and chief of late By ways and means repurchased his estate.

"Donald Murchison, a kinsman and servant to the Earl of Seaforth, bred a writer, a man of small stature, but full of spirit and resolution, fought at Dunblane against the Government, anno 1715, but continued thereafter to collect Seaforth's rents for his lord's use, and had some bickerings with the King's forces on that account, till, about five years ago, the Government was so tender as to allow Seaforth to repurchase his estate, when the said Murchison had a principal band in striking the bargain for his master. How he fell under Seaforth's displeasure, and died thereafter, is not to the purpose here to mention."]

The end of Donald's career can scarcely now be passed over in a slighting manner. The story is most painful. The Seaforth of that day - very unlike some of his successors - proved unworthy of the devotion which this heroic man had shown to him. When his lordship took possession of the estates which Donald had in a manner preserved for him, he discountenanced and neglected him. Murchison's noble spirit pined away under this treatment, and he died in the very prime of his days of a broken heart. He lies in a remote little church-yard in the parish of Urray, where his worthy relative, the late Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, raised a suitable monument over his grave. The traditional account of Donald Murchison, communicated to Chambers by the late Finlay Macdonald, Druidaig, states that the heroic commissioner had been promised a handsome reward for his services; but Seaforth proved ungrateful. "He was offered only a small farm called Bun-Da-Loch, which pays at this day to Mr Matheson, the proprietor, no more than L60 a year; or another place opposite to Inverinate House, of about the same value. It is no wonder he refused these paltry offers. He shortly afterwards left this country, and died in the prime of life near Conon. On his death-bed, Seaforth went to see him, and asked how he was, when he said, 'Just as you will be in a short time,' and then turned his back. They never met again."

The death of George I. in 1726, suggested to the Chevalier a favourable opportunity for attempting a second Rising, and of again stirring up his adherents in Scotland, whither he was actually on his way, until strongly remonstrated with on the folly and hoplessness of such an undertaking. It was pointed out to him that it could only end in the ruin of his family pretentions, and in that of many of his friends who might be tempted to enter on the rash scheme more through personal attachment to himself than from any reasonable prospect they might see of success. He therefore retraced his steps to Boulogne; and the Earl of Seaforth having been pardoned in the same year, [By letters dated 12th July, 1726, King George I. was pleased to discharge him from imprisonment or the execution of his person on his attainder, and King George II. made him a grant of the arrears of feu-duties due to the Crown out of his forfeited estate. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1733, to enable William Mackenzie, late Earl of Seaforth, to sue or maintain any action or suit notwithstanding his attainder, and to remove any disability in him, by reason of his said attainder, to take or inherit any real or personal estate that may or shall hereafter descend to him. - "Wood's Douglas' Peerage."] felt free once more to return to his native land, where, according to Captain Matheson, he spent the remainder of his life in retirement, and "with few objects to occupy him or to interest us beyond the due regard of his personal friends and the uninterrupted loyalty of his old vassals." He must, however, have been in tightened circumstances, for, on the 27th of June, 1728, he writes a letter to the Lord Advocate, in which he refers to a request he had made to Sir Robert Walpole, who advised him to put his claim in writing that it might be submitted to the King. This was done, but "the King would neither allow anything of the kind or give orders to be granted what his Royal father had granted before. On hearing this, I could not forbear making appear how ill I was used. The Government in possession of the estate, and I in the interim allowed to starve, though they were conscious of my complying with whatever I promised to see put in execution." He makes a strong appeal to his friend to contribute to an arrangement that would tend to the mutual satisfaction of all concerned, "for the way I am now in is most disagreeable, consequently, if not rectified, will choose rather to seek my bread elsewhere than continue longer in so unworthy a situation." ["Culloden Papers," pp. 103-4] Notwithstanding the personal remission granted in his favour for the part he had taken in the Rising of 1715, the title of Earl of Seaforth, under which alone he was proscribed, passed under attainder, while the older and original dignity of Kintail, which only became subordinate by a future elevation, remained unnoticed, and, consequently unvitiated in the male descent of Kenneth, first Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, granted by patent on the 19th of November, 1609, and it has accordingly been claimed. [This Act (of Attainder) omits all mention of the subordinate though older title of "Lord Kintail," which he and all the collateral branches descended of George, the second Earl, had taken up and assumed in all their deeds and transactions, though there was no occasion to use it in Parliament, as they appeared there as "Earls of Seaforth." It is questionable therefore, if the Act of Attainder of "William, Earl of Seaforth," by that designation only could affect the "barony of Kintail;" and as the designation to the patentee of it, "Suisque heredibus maxulis," seems to render the grant an entailed fee agreeable to the 7th of Queen Anne, c. 21, and the protecting clause of 26th Henry VIII. c. 13, the claimant George Falconer Mackenzie, is entitled to the benefit of such remainder, and in fact such remainder was given effect to by the succession of Earl George to his brother Colin's titles as his heir male collateral. - "Allangrange Service."]

Earl William married in early life, Mary, the only daughter and co-heir of Nicholas Kenet of Coxhow, Northumberland, with issue, three sons -

I. Kenneth, who succeeded his father.

II. Ronald, who died unmarried.

III. Nicholas, who was drowned at Douay, without issue.

IV. Frances, who married the Hon. John Gordon of Kenmure, whose father was beheaded in 1715.

He died in 1740 in the Island of Lewis, was buried there in the Chapel of Ui, and was succeeded by his eldest son,

XVIII. KENNETH, LORD FORTROSE,

Which courtesy title he continued to bear as the subordinate title of his father; and under this designation he is named as a freeholder of Ross in 1741. In the same year be was elected as member of Parliament for the Burgh of Inverness, for his own County of Ross in 1747, and again in 1754. In 1741, the year after Earl William's death, the Crown sold the Seaforth estates, including the lands of Kintail, the barony of Ellandonnan, and others, for L25,109 8s 31/2d, under burden of an annuity of L1000 to Frances, Countess Dowager of Seaforth. The purchase was for the benefit of Kenneth, Lord Fortrose. [Fraser's "Earls of Cromartie."] He does not appear to have passed much of his time in the Highlands, but about a year after his succession, he seems, from a warrant issued by his authority to have been in the North. It is signed by Colin Mackenzie, Baillie," and addressed to Roderick Mackenzie, officer of Locks, commanding him to summon and warn Donald Mackenzie, tacksman of Lainbest, and others, to compear before "Kenneth, Lord Fortrose, heritable proprietor of the Estate of Seaforth, at Braan Castle, or before his Lordship's Baron Baillies, or other judges appointed by him there, upon the 10th day of October next, to come to answer several unwarrantable and illegal things to be laid to their charge:" Dated at "Stornoway, 29th September, 1741." There is no doubt that in early life Lord Fortrose, during the exile of his father, held communications with the representative of the Stuarts. It is a common tradition in Kintail to this day that he and Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat were school companions of the Prince in France, and were among those who first imbued his mind with the idea of attempting to regain possession of his ancient Kingdom of Scotland, promising him that they would use their influence with the other northern chiefs to rise in his favour, although when the time for action came neither of them joined him.

The unfortunate position in which Kenneth found himself by the Jacobite proclivities of his ancestors, and especially those of his father, appears to have made a deep impression upon his mind, and to have induced him to be more cautious in supporting a cause which seemed certain to land him in final and utter ruin. But though he personally held aloof, several of the clan joined the Prince, mostly under George, third Earl of Cromarty, and a few under John Mackenzie, III. of Torridon. Several young and powerful Macraes, who strongly sympathised with the Prince, though unaccompanied by any of their natural leaders, left Kintail never again to return and, it is said, that several others had to be bound with ropes by their friends, to keep them at home. The influence of Lord President Forbes weighed strongly with Mackenzie in deciding him to support the Government, and, in return for his loyalty, the honours of the house of Seaforth were, in part, afterwards restored to his son.

In 1744 an exciting incident occurred in Inverness in which his Lordship played a conspicuous part, and which exemplifies the impetuous character of the Highland chiefs of the day. A court of the Freeholders of the county was being held there at Michaelmas to elect a collector of the land tax, at which were present, among others, Lord President Forbes, Norman Macleod of Macleod, Lord Fortrose, Lord Lovat, and many leading members of the Clan Fraser. A warm debate upon some burning business arose between Lords Lovat and Fortrose, when the former gave the latter the lie direct. To this Mackenzie replied by giving Lovat a smart blow in the face. Mutual friends at once intervened between the fiery antagonists. But the Fraser blood was up, and Fraser of Foyers, who was present, interfered in the interest of the chief of his clan, but more, however, it is said, in that capacity than from any personal esteem in which he held him. He felt that in his chief's person the whole clan had been insulted as if it had actually been a personal blow to every man of the name, and he instantly sprung down from the gallery and presented a loaded and cocked pistol at Mackenzie's head, to whom it would undoubtedly have proved fatal had not one of the gentlemen present, with great presence of mind, thrown his plaid over the muzzle, and thus arrested and diverted its contents. In another moment swords and dirks were drawn on both sides, but the Lord President and Macleod laid hold of Mackenzie and hurried him from the Court. Yet he no sooner gained the outside than one of the Frasers levelled him to the ground with a blow from a heavy bludgeon, notwithstanding the efforts of his friends to protect him. The matter was, however, afterwards, with great difficulty, arranged by mutual friends, between the great clans and their respective chiefs, otherwise the social jealousies and personal irritations which then prevailed throughout the whole Highlands, fanned by this incident, would have produced a lasting and bloody feud between the Frasers and the Mackenzies.

In the following year, shortly after the Lord President arrived at Culloden from the south, he wrote a letter to Mackenzie dated the 11th of October 1745, in which he tells him that the Earl of Loudon had come the day before to Cromarty, and brought some "credit" with him, which "will enable us to put the Independent Companies together for the service of the Government and for our mutual protection." He requested Fortrose to give immediate orders to pick out those who are first to form one of the companies, that they might receive their commissions and arms. Alexander Mackenzie of Fairburn was to command. There was, the President said, a report that Barrisdale had gone to Assynt to raise the men of that country, to be joined to those of Coigeach, who were said to have orders to be in readiness to join Macdonald, and with instructions to march through Mackenzie's territories in order to find out how many of his Lordship's vassals could be persuaded, by fair means or foul, to join the standard of the Prince. "I hope this is not true," writes the President; "if it is, it is of the greatest consequence to prevent it. I wish Fairburn were at home; your Lordship will let me know when he arrives, as the Lord Cromarty has refused the company I intended for his son. Your Lordship will deliberate to whom you would have it given." ["Culloden Papers," pp. 421-2.]

Exasperated at this time by the exertions made by President Forbes to obstruct the designs of the disaffected, a plan was formed to seize him by some of the Frasers, a party of whom, amounting to about 200, attacked Culloden House during the night of the 15th of October, but the President being on his guard they were repulsed. [Fraser's "Earls of Cromartie."]

On the 13th of October Mackenzie had written to Forbes that he surmised some young fellows of his name attempted to raise men for the Prince, but that he sent expresses to the suspected parts, with orders to the tenants not to stir under pain of death without his leave, though their respective masters should be imprudent enough to desire them to do so. The messengers returned with the people's blessings for his protection, and with assurances that they would do nothing without his orders, "so that henceforward your Lordship need not be concerned about any idle report from benorth Kessock." In a letter dated "Brahan Castle, 19th October 1745," Lord Fortrose refers to the attempt on the President's house, which, he says, surprised him extremely, and "is as dirty an action as I ever heard of," and he did not think any gentleman would be capable of doing such a thing. He adds, "as I understand your cattle are taken away, I beg you will order your steward to write to Colin, or anybody else here, for provisions, as I can be supplied from the Highlands. I am preparing to act upon the defensive, and I suppose will soon be provoked to act on the offensive. I have sent for a strong party to protect my house and overawe the country. None of my Kintail men will be down till Tuesday, but as the river is high, and I have parties at all boats, nothing can be attempted. Besides, I shall have reinforcements every day. I have ordered my servants to get, at Inverness, twelve or twenty pounds of powder with a proportionable quantity of shot. If that cannot be bought at Inverness, I must beg you will write a line to Governor Grant to give my servant the powder, as I can do without the shot ... Barrisdale has come down from Assynt, and was collared by one of the Maclauchlans there for offering to force the people to rise, and he has met with no success there. I had a message from the Mackenzies in Argyllshire to know what they should do. Thirty are gone from Lochiel; the rest, being about sixty, are at home. I advised them to stay at home and mind their own business."

On the 28th of the same month his Lordship writes to inform the President that the Earl of Cromarty and his son, Macculloch of Glastullich, and Ardloch's brother, came to Brahan Castle on the previous Friday; that it was the most unexpected visit he had received for some time, that he did not like to turn them out, that Cromarty was pensive and dull; but that if he had known what he knew at the date of writing he would have made them prisoners, for Lord Macleod went since to Lochbroom and Assynt to raise men. He enclosed for the President's use the names of the officers appointed to the two Mackenzie companies, and intimated that he offered the commission to both Coul and Redcastle, but that both refused it. It was from Coul's house, he says, that Lord Macleod started for the North, and that vexed him. On the same day Forbes acknowledges receipt of this letter, and requests that the officers in the two companies should be appointed according to Mackenzie's recommedations, "without any further consideration than that you judge it right," and he desires to see Sir Alexander of Fairburn for an hour next day to carry a proposal to his Lordship for future operations. "I think," he adds, "it would be right to assemble still more men about Brahan than you now have; the expense shall be made good and it will tend to make Caberfey respectable, and to discourage folly among your neighbours." In a letter of 6th November the President says, "I supposed that your Lordship was to have marched Hilton's company into town (Inverness) on Monday or Tuesday; but I dare say there is a good reason why it has not been done."

On the 8th of November Mackenzie informs the Lord President that the Earl of Cromarty had crossed the river at Contin, with about a hundred men on his way to Beauly, "owing to the neglect of my spies, as there's rogues of all professions." Lord Macleod, Cromarty's son came from Assynt and Lochbroom the same day, and followed his father to the rendezvous, but after traversing the whole of that northern district he did not get a single volunteer. "Not a man started from Ross-shire, except William, Kilcoy's brother, with seven men, and a tenant of Redcastle with a few more and if Lentran and Torridon did go off last night, they did not carry between them a score of men. I took a ride yesterday to the westward with two hundred men, but find the bounds so rugged that it's impossible to keep a single man from going by if he has a mind. However, I threatened to burn their cornyards if anybody was from home this day, and I turned one house into the river for not finding its master at home. It's hard the Government gives nobody in the North power to keep people in order. I don't choose to send a company to Inverness until I hear what they are determined to do at Lord Lovat's."

The Earl of Loudon writes to Marshal Wade, then Commander-in-Chief in the North, under date of 16th November, saying that 150 or 160 Mackenzies, seduced by the Earl of Cromarty, marched in the beginning of that week up the north side of Loch-Ness, expecting to be followed by 500 or 600 Frasers, under command of the Master of Lovat, but the Mackenzies had not on that date passed the mountains. On the 16th of December Fortrose writes asking for L400 expended by him during two months on his men going to and coming from the Highlands, for which he would not trouble him only that he bad a very "melancholy appearance" of getting his Martinmas rent, as the people would be glad of any excuse for non-payment, and the last severe winter, and their having to leave home, would afford them a very good one. He was told by the President in reply, that his letter had been submitted to Lord Loudon, that both of them agreed that his Lordship's expenses must have been far greater than what he claimed, "but as cash is very low with us at present, all we can possibly do is to let your Lordship have the pay of the two companies from the date of the letter signifying that they were ordered to remain at Brahan for the service of the Government. The further expense, which we are both satisfied it must have cost your Lordship, shall be made good as soon as any money to be applied to contingencies, which we expect, shall come to hand, and if it should not come so soon as we wish, the account shall be made up and solicited, in the same manner with what we lay out of our own purses, which is no inconsiderable sums." This correspondence will show the confidence which then existed between the Government and Lord Fortrose.

On the 9th of December the two Mackenzie companies were marched into Inverness. Next day, accompanied by a detachment from Fort-Augustus, they proceeded to Castle Dounie for the purpose of bringing Lord Lovat to account. The crafty old Simon agreed to come in to Inverness and to deliver up his arms on the 14th of the month, but instead of doing so he of course made good his escape.

After the battle of Prestonpans, the Government, on the recommendation of the Earl of Stair, forwarded twenty blank commissions to President Forbes, with orders to raise as many companies of 100 men each, among the Highlanders. Eighteen of the twenty were sent to the Earls of Sutherland and Cromarty, Lords Fortrose and Reay, the Lairds of Grant and Macleod, and Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat, with instructions to raise the Highland companies in their respective districts. The Earl of Cromarty, while pretending to comply with the instructions of the Lord President, offered the command of one of the companies to a neighbouring gentleman, whom he well knew to be a strong Jacobite, and at the same time made some plausible excuse for his son's refusal of another of the commissions.

When Lord John Drummond landed with a body of Irish and Scotch troops, in the service of the French, to aid Prince Charles, he wrote to Mackenzie announcing his arrival and earnestly requesting him to declare at once for the Stuart cause, as the only means by which he could "now expect to retrieve his character." All the means at Drummond's disposal proved futile, and the Mackenzies were thus kept out of the Rising of 1745.

That Prince Charles fully appreciated the importance of having the Mackenzies led by their natural chief, for or against him, will be seen from Lord Macleod's Narrative of the Rebellion. [Printed at length in Fraser's "Earls of Cromartie."] "We set out," his Lordship says, "from Dunblain on the 12th of January, and arrived the same evening at Glasgow. I immediately went to pay my respects to the Prince, and found that he was already set down to supper. Dr Cameron told Lord George Murray, who sat by the Prince, who I was, on which the Lord Murray introduced me to the Prince, whose hand I had the honour to kiss, after which the Prince ordered me to take my place at the table. After supper I followed the Prince to his apartment to give him an account of his affairs in the North, and of what had passed in these parts during the time of his expedition to England. I found that nothing surprised the Prince so much as to hear that the Earl of Seaforth had declared against him, for he heard without emotion the names of the other people who had joined the Earl of Loudon at Inverness; but when I told him that Seaforth had likewise sent two hundred men to Inverness for the service of the Government, and that he had likewise hindered many gentlemen of his clan from joining my father (the Earl of Cromarty) for the service of the Stuarts, he turned to the French Minister and said to him, with some warmth, "Hc! mon Dieu! et Seaforth est aussi contre moi!""

At this stage a hero named Mackenzie, who had done good service to the Prince in his wanderings through the Highlands after the battle of Culloden, may be mentioned. Such a small tribute is due to the gallant Roderick Mackenzie, whose intrepidity and presence of mind in the last agonies of death, saved his Prince from pursuit at the time, and was consequently the means of his ultimate escape in safety to France. Charles had been pursued with the most persevering assiduity, but Roderick's ruse proved so successful on this occasion that further search was for a time considered unnecessary. Mackenzie was a young man, of respectable family, who joined the Prince at Edinburgh, and served as one of his life-guards. Being about the same age as his Royal Highness, and, like him, tall, somewhat slender, and with features in some degree resembling his, he might, by ordinary observers not accustomed to see the two together, have passed for the Prince himself. As Roderick could not venture with safety to return to Edinburgh, where still lived his two maiden sisters, he after the battle of Culloden fled to the Highlands and lurked among the hills of Glenmoriston, where, about the middle of July, he was surprised by a party of Government soldiers. Mackenzie endeavoured to escape, but, being overtaken, he turned on his pursuers, and, drawing his sword, bravely defended himself. He was ultimately shot by one of the red-coats, but as he fell, mortally wounded, he exclaimed, "You have killed your Prince! You have killed your Prince!" whereupon he immediately expired. The soldiers, overjoyed at their supposed good fortune, cut off his head, and hurried off to Fort-Augustus with their prize. The Duke of Cumberland, quite convinced that he had now obtained the head of his Royal relative, packed it up carefully, ordered a post-chaise, and at once went off to London, taking the head along with him. After his arrival the deception was discovered, but meanwhile it proved of great assistance to Prince Charles in his ultimately successful efforts to escape.

Shortly after the battle of Culloden a fleet of ships appeared off the coast of Lochbroom, under the command of Captain Fergusson. They dropped anchor at Loch-Ceannard, when a large party went ashore and proceeded up the Strath to the residence of Mr Mackenzie of Langwell, connected by marriage with the Earl of Cromarty. Langwell having supported the Prince, fled out of the hated Fergusson's way; but his lady was obliged to remain at home to attend to a large family of young children, who were at the time laid up with smallpox. The house was ransacked. A large chest containing the family and other valuable papers, including a wadset of Langwell and Inchvannie from her relative, George, Earl of Cromarty, was burnt before her eyes; and about fifty head of fine Highland cattle were mangled by the swords and driven to the ships of the spoilers. Nor did this satisfy them. They committed similar depredations, without any discrimination between friend or foe, for eight days during which they remained in the neighbourhood. ["New Statistical Account of Lochbroom."]