Part 29

All doubt, but that the story of the unfortunate Duke's death was really true, appears however to be set at rest by the epitaph which some friendly or kindred hand has inscribed on a tomb in the chapel of the English Nuns at Antwerp, commemorating the virtues and the fate of the Duke, and of his brother Lord John Drummond. This monumental tribute would hardly have been inscribed without some degree of certainty that the remains of the Duke were indeed interred there.

M. S.

Fratrum Illustriss, Jac. et Joan. Ducum de Perth, Antiquiss. Nobiliss. Familiae de Drummond apud Scotos, Principum. Jacobus, ad studia humaniora proclivior, Literis excultus, Artium bonarum et liberalium fautor eximius; In commune consulens, Semper in otio civis dignissimus. Mira morum suavitate, et animi fortitudine ornatus, Intaminata fide splendebat humani generis amicus. In pace clarus, in bello clarior; Appulso enim Carolo P. in Scotiam, Gladio in causa gentis Stuartorum rearrepto, Veterorum cura posthabita, Gloriae et virtuti unice prospiciens, Alacri vultu labores belli spectabat; Pericula omnia minima ducebat: In praelio strenuus, in victoria clemens, heros egregius. Copiis Caroli tandem dissipatis, Patria, amicis, re domi amplissima, Cunctis praeter mentem recti consciam, fortiter desertis, In Galliam tendens, solum natale fugit. Verum assiduis laboribus et patriae malis gravibus oppressus, In mari magno, Die natale revertente, ob. 13 Maii, 1746; aet. 33. Et reliquiae, ventis adversis, terra sacrata interclusae, In undis sepultae. Joannes, ingenio felici martiali imbutus, A prima adolescentia, militiae artibus operam dedit. Fortis, intrepidus, propositi tenax, Mansuetudine generosa, et facilitate morum, militis asperitate lenita. Legioni Scoticae regali, ab ipsomet conscriptae, A Rege Christianiss. Lud. XV. praepositus. Flagrante bello civili in Britannia, Auxilis Gallorum duxit; Et post conflictum infaustum Cullodinensem, In eadem navi cum fratre profugus. In Flandria, sub Imperatore Com. de Saxe, multum meruit: Subjectis semper praesidium, Belli calamitatum (agnoscite Britanni!) insigne levamen. Ad summos Martis dignitates gradatim assurgens, Gloriae nobilis metae appetens, In medio cursu, improvisa lethi vi raptus, 28 Septemb. A.D. 1747, AEt. 33. In Angl. monach. Sacello Antwerpiae jacet.

The preceding narrative is given to the reader without any further comment, except upon the general improbability of the story. It might not appear impossible that the Duke may have taken refuge in the then wild county of Durham for a time, but that two credible historians, Maxwell of Kirkconnel, and Lord Elcho, assert positively that he sailed for Nantes in a vessel which went by the north-west coast of Ireland; Lord Elcho and Maxwell being themselves on board, seems decisive of the entire failure of the case before quoted. It seems also wholly incredible, that the Duke of Perth, whose rank was still acknowledged in France, and whose early education in that country must have familiarised him with its habits, should have remained contentedly during the whole of his life, associating with persons of the lowest grade, in an obscure village in Durham.

At the time of the Duke of Perth's death in 1747, one brother, Lord John Drummond, was living. This brave man, whose virtues and whose fate are recorded in the epitaph, survived his amiable and accomplished brother only one year, and died suddenly of a fever, after serving under Marshal Saxe at the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. His services in the insurrection of 1745 were considerable; like his brother, he escaped to France after the contest was concluded. He died unmarried; and two sisters, the Lady Mary, and the Lady Henrietta Drummond, died also unmarried. The mother of James Duke of Perth long survived him, living until 1773. It is said in the case of Thomas Drummond, that she never forgave her son for what she considered his lukewarmness in the cause of the Stuarts, and refused to have any intercourse with him after the failure of the rebellion; but those who thus write, must have formed a very erroneous conception of the Duke's conduct: if he might not escape such a charge, who could deserve the praise of zeal, sincerity, and disinterestedness?

The duchess was one of the most strenuous supporters of the Stuarts, and suffered for her loyalty to them by an imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle. She was committed to prison on the eleventh of February, 1746, and liberated on bail on the seventeenth.

On the forfeiture of the Drummond estates she retired to Stobhall, where she remained until her death, at the advanced age of ninety. She was considered a woman of great spirit, energy, and ability, and is supposed to have influenced her son in his political opinions and actions.

Some idea may be formed of the painful circumstances which follow the forfeiture of estates from the following passage, extracted from the introduction to the letters of James Earl of Perth, Chancellor of Scotland in the time of James the Second, and lately printed for the Camden Society.

"When a considerable portion of the Drummond estates were restored to the heir (no poor boon, though dilapidated, lopped, and impoverished,) he found upon them four settlements of cottages, in which the soldiery had been located after the battle of Culloden, to keep down the rebels. There were thirty near Drummond Castle, another division at Cullander, a third at Balibeg, and a fourth at Stobhall. Demolition might satisfy the abhorrence of the latter three, but what could reconcile him to the outrage under his very eyes, as he looked from his chamber or castle terrace? It was intolerable, and that every trace might be obliterated, he caused an embankment to be made, and carried a lake-like sheet of water over the very chimney tops of the military dwellings. There is now the beautiful lake, gleaming with fish, and haunted by the wild birds of the Highlands; and we believe the deepest diver of them all, could not observe one stone upon another of the cabins which held the ruthless military oppressors left by the Duke of Cumberland a century ago."

The usual accounts of the Duke's movements after the battle of Culloden, state, however, that about a month subsequent to that event, when the fugitive Charles Stuart, in the commencement of his wanderings, landed by accident upon the little isle of Errifort, on the east side of Lewis, he saw, from the summit of a hill which he had climbed, two frigates sailing northwards. The Chevalier in vain endeavoured to persuade the boatmen who had brought him from Lewis, to go out and reconnoitre these ships. His companions judged these vessels to be English; the Prince alone guessed them to be French. He was right. They were two frigates from Nantes, which had been sent with money, arms, and ammunition to succour Charles, and were now returning to France. On board one of them was the Duke of Perth, Lord Elcho, Lord John Drummond, old Lochiel, Sir Thomas Sheridan and his nephew Mr. Hay, Maxwell of Kirkconnel, and Mr. Lockhart of Carnwath, and several Low-country gentlemen, who had been wandering about in these remote parts when the frigates were setting out on their return, and finding that the Prince was gone, and that nothing was to be done for his service, had determined to escape. On the tenth of June these frigates reached Nantes: Lord Elcho affirms that "all arrived safe at Nantes;" one only is said never to have gained that shore. Worn out by fatigues too severe, and, perhaps, the progress of disease being aided by sorrow, the Duke of Perth is generally stated to have died on ship-board on his passage. His malady is understood to have been consumption.

Another celebrated member of this distinguished family, Lord Strathallan, was not spared to witness the total ruin of all his hopes. He fell at the battle of Culloden. The impression among his descendants is, that, seeing the defeat certain, he rushed into the thick of the battle, determined to perish. In 1746 Lord Strathallan's name was included in the Bill of Attainder then passed; but, in 1824, one of the most graceful acts of George the Fourth, whose sentiments of compassion for the Stuarts and their adherents do credit to his memory, was the restoration of the present Viscount Strathallan to the peerage by the title of the sixth Viscount.

It is with regret that we take leave, amid the discordant scenes of an historical narrative, of one whose high purposes and blameless career are the best tribute to virtue, the noblest ornament of the party which he espoused. Modest, yet courageous; moderate, though in the ardour of youth; devout, without bigotry; and capable of every self-sacrifice for the good of others, on the memory of the young Duke of Perth not a shadow rests to attract the attention of the harsh to defects of intention, unjustly attributed to the leader of the Jacobite insurrection.

FOOTNOTES:

Genealogy of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Drummond. By a Freind to Vertue and the Family.--Unpublished.

The office of Thane or Seneschal was, to be the Giusticiare or guardian of that country; to lead the men up to the war, according to the roll or list made out; and to be collector for the Athbane of the kingdom for the King's rents in that district. The Athbane was the highest officer in the kingdom--Chief Minister, Treasurer, Steward. The Thanes were next to the Athbanes, and were the first that King Malcolm advanced to the new title of Earls.--See Lord Strathallan's Genealogy of the House of Drummond.

Genealogy of the House of Drummond, 139.

Amongst his other literary efforts, Drummond of Hawthornden left a MS "Historie of the Family of Perth."

Lady Willoughby D'Eresby is heiress to the estate of Perth, and representative in the female line of the Earldom of Perth in Scotland and of the Dukedom in France. At the same time that the Dukedom of Perth was created, the last Earl's brother was created Duke de Melfort. His descendants are, therefore, the male representatives of the Earldom of Perth, and George Drummond Perth de Melfort in France is now claiming the title. (Letter from Viscount Strathallan, to whose courtesy I am indebted for this information.)

"Reducing."--Editor

Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiell.

The title of Duke was afterwards assumed by the young chief of the House of Drummond, and was given to him by the Jacobites generally; but, in consequence of his father's attainder, and the forfeiture of his title, he was, in the eye of the law, simply a commoner. Hence he is described by Home as "James Drummond, commonly called Duke of Perth, his father having been so created by James the Second at St. Germains." The right of the Duke to this dignity was at that time, and it still is, recognised in France. Without entering into the merits of the question of right, and to prevent confusion, it is therefore expedient to designate this Jacobite nobleman by the name usually assigned to him in his own time.

Forbes's Jacobite Memoirs, p. 296.

Wood's Peerage.

Curious Collection of Scottish Songs; Aberdeen, 1821.

Henderson, History of the Rebellion of '45, p. 19. 1753

Memoirs of Lochiell, p. 30.

History of the Rebellion, p. 35.

Lord Elcho's Narrative, MS.