History of the Mackenzies Part 15

The war declared against Spain in December, 1718, again revived the hopes of the Jacobites, who, in accordance with a stipulation between the British Government and the Duke of Orleans, then Regent of France, had previously, with the Chevalier and the Duke of Ormont at their head, been ordered out of France. They repaired to Madrid, where they held conferences with Cardinal Alberoni, and concerted an invasion of Great Britain. On the 10th of March, 1719, a fleet, consisting of ten men-of-war and twenty-one transports, having on board five thousand men, a large quant.i.ty of ammunition, and thirty thousand muskets, sailed from Cadiz under the command of the Duke of Ormond, with instructions to join the rest of the expedition at Corunna, and to make a descent at once upon England, Scotland, and Ireland. The sorry fate of this expedition is well known. Only two frigates reached their destination, the rest having been dispersed and disabled off Cape Finisterre by a violent storm which lasted about twelve days. The two s.h.i.+ps which survived the storm and reached Scotland had on board the Earl of Seaforth and Earl Marischal, the Marquis of Tullibardine, some field officers, three hundred Spaniards, and arms and ammunition for two thousand men. They entered Lochalsh about the middle of May; effected a landing in Kintail and were there joined by a body of Seaforth's va.s.sals, and a party of Macgregors under command of the famous Rob Roy; but the other Jacobite chiefs, remembering their previous disappointments and misfortunes, stood aloof until the whole of Ormond's forces should arrive. General Wightman, who was stationed at Inverness, hearing of their arrival, marched to meet them with 2000 Dutch troops and a detachment of the garrison at Inverness.

Seaforth's forces and their allies took possession of the pa.s.s of Glens.h.i.+el, but on the approach of the Government forces they retired to the pa.s.s of Strach.e.l.l, which they decided to defend at all hazards. They were there engaged by General Wightman, who, after a smart skirmish of about three hours duration, and after inflicting some loss upon the Jacobites, drove them from one eminence to another, till night came on, when the Highlanders, their chief having been seriously wounded, and giving up all hopes of a successful resistance, retired during the night to the mountains, carrying Seaforth along with them and the Spaniards next morning surrendered themselves prisoners of war. [The Spaniards kept their powder magazine and ball behind the manse, but after the battle of Glens.h.i.+el they set fire to it lest it should fall into the hands of the King's troops. These b.a.l.l.s are still gathered up by sportsmen, and are found in great abundance upon the glebe. - "Old Statistical Account of Kintail."] Seaforth, Marischal, and Tullibardine, with the other princ.i.p.al officers, managed to effect their escape to the Western Isles, from which they afterwards found their way to the Continent.

Rob Roy was placed in ambush with the view of attacking the Royal troops in the rear and it is said of him that having more zeal than prudence he attacked the rear of the enemy's column before they had become engaged in front his small party was routed, and the intention of placing the King's troops between two fires was thus defeated. [" New Statistical Account of Glens.h.i.+el," by the Rev. John Macrae, who gives a minute description of the scenes of the battle, and informs us that in constructing the parliamentary road which runs through the Glen a few years before he wrote, several bullets and pieces of musket barrels were found and the green mounds which covered the graves of the slain, and the ruins of a rude breast-work which the Highlanders constructed on the crest of the hill to cover their position still marked the scene of the conflict.] General Wightman sent a detachment to Ellandonnan Castle, which he ordered to be blown up and demolished.

General Wightman advanced from the Highland Capital by Loch-Ness and a recent writer pertinently asks, "Why he was allowed to pa.s.s by such a route without opposition? It is alleged that Marischal and Tullibardine had interrupted the movements of the invaders by ill timed altercations about command, but we are provoked to observe that some extraordinary interposition seems evident to frustrate every scheme towards forwarding the cause of the ill-fated house of Stuart. Had the Chevalier St George arrived earlier, as he might have done; had William Earl of Seaforth joined the Earl of Mar some time before, as he ought to have done; and strengthened as Mar would then have been, had he boldly advanced on Stirling, as it appears he would have done, Argyll's force would have been annihilated, and James VIII. proclaimed at the Cross of Edinburgh.

Well did the brave Highlanders indignantly demand, 'What did you call us to arms for? Was it to run away? What did our own King come for? Was it to see us butchered by hangmen?' There was a fatuity that accompanied all their undertakings which neutralised intrepidity, devotedness, and bravery which the annals of no other people can exhibit, and paltry jealousies which stultified exertions, which, independently of political results, astonished Europe at large." [Bennetsfield MS.]

An Act of Parliament for disarming the Highlanders was pa.s.sed in 1716, but in some cases to very little purpose for some of the most disaffected clans were better armed than ever, although by the Act the collectors of taxes were allowed to pay for the arms given in, in no case were any delivered except those which were broken, old, and unfit for use, and these were valued at prices far above what they were really worth. Not only so, but a lively trade in old arms was carried on with Holland and other Continental countries, and these arms were sold to the commissioners as Highland weapons, at exorbitant prices. General Wade afterwards found in the possession of the Highlanders a large quant.i.ty of arms which they obtained from the Spaniards who took part in the battle of Glens.h.i.+el, and he computed that the Highlanders opposed to the Government possessed at this time no less than five or six thousand arms of various kinds.

Wade arrived in Inverness on the 10th of August, 1723, and in virtue of another Act pa.s.sed the same year, he was empowered to proceed to the Highlands and to summon the clans to deliver up their arms, and to carry several other recommendations of his own into effect.

On his arrival he immediately proceeded to business, went to Brahan Castle, and called on the Mackenzies to deliver up their weapons.

He took those presented to him on the word of Murchison, factor on the estate and by the representation of Sir John Mackenzie Lord Tarbat, Sir Kenneth Mackenzie of Cromarty, and Sir Colin Mackenzie of Coul, at the head of a large deputation of the clan, he compromised his more rigid instructions and accepted a selection of worn-out and worthless arms, and at the same time promised that if the clan exhibited a willing disposition to comply with the orders of the Government he would use his influence in the next Parliament to procure a remission for their chief and his followers; and we find, that "through his means, and the action of other minions of Court (Tarbat was then in power), Seaforth received a simple pardon by letters patent in 1726, for himself and his clan, whose submission was recognised in the sham form of delivering their arms, a matter of the less consequence as few of that generation were to have an opportunity of wielding them again in the same cause."

General Wade made a report to the Government, from which we take the following extract: "The Laird of the Mackenzies, and other chiefs of the clans and tribes, tenants to the late Earl of Seaforth, came to me in a body, to the number of about fifty, and a.s.sured me that both they and their followers were ready to pay a dutiful obedience to your Majesty's commands, by a peaceable surrender of their arms; and if your Majesty would be graciously pleased to procure them an indemnity for the rents that had been misplaced for the time past, they would for the future become faithful subjects to your Majesty, and pay them to your Majesty's receiver for the use of the public. I a.s.sured them of your Majesty's gracious intentions towards them, and that they might rely on your Majesty's bounty and clemency, provided they would merit it by their future good conduct and peaceable behaviour; that I had your Majesty's commands to send the first summons to the country they inhabited; which would soon give them an opportunity of showing the sincerity of their promises, and of having the merit to set the example to the rest of the Highlands, who in their turns were to be summoned to deliver up their arms, pursuant to the Disarming Act; that they might choose the place they themselves thought most convenient to surrender their arms; and that I would answer that neither their persons nor their property should be molested by your Majesty's troops. They desired they might be permitted to deliver up their arms at the Castle of Brahan, the princ.i.p.al seat of their late superior. who, they said, had promoted and encouraged them to this their submission; but begged that none of the Highland companies might be present; for, as they had always been reputed the bravest, as well as the most numerous of the northern clans, they thought it more consistent with their honour to resign their arms to your Majesty's veteran troops; to which I readily consented. Summonses were accordingly sent to the several clans and tribes, the inhabitants of 18 parishes, who were va.s.sals or tenants of the late Earl of Seaforth, to bring or send in all their arms and warlike weapons to the Castle of Brahan, on or before the 28th of August. On the 25th of August I went to the Castle of Brahan with a detachment of 200 of the regular troops, and was met there by the chiefs of the several clans and tribes, who a.s.sured me they had used their utmost diligence in collecting all the arms they were possessed of, which should be brought thither on the Sat.u.r.day following, pursuant to the summons they had received; and telling me they were apprehensive of insults or depredations from the neighbouring clans of the Camerons and others, who still continued in possession of their arms. Parties of the Highland companies were ordered to guard the pa.s.ses leading to their country; which parties continued there for their protection, till the clans in that neighbourhood were summoned and had surrendered their arms. On the day appointed the several clans and tribes a.s.sembled in the adjacent villages, and marched in good order through the great avenue that leads to the Castle; and one after the other laid down their arms in the court-yard in great quiet and decency, amounting to 784 of the several species mentioned in the Act of Parliament. The solemnity with which this was performed had undoubtedly a great influence over the rest of the Highland clans; and disposed them to pay that obedience to your Majesty's commands, by a peaceable surrender of their arms, which they had never done to any of your Royal predecessors, or in compliance with any law either before or since the Union."

The following account of Donald Murchison's proceedings and of Seaforth's va.s.sals during his exile in France is abridged from an interesting and valuable work. [Chambers's "Domestic Annals of Scotland."] It brings out in a prominent light the state of the Highlands and the futility of the power of the Government during that period in the North. As regards several of the forfeited estates which lay in inaccessible situations in the Highlands, the commissioners had up to this time been entirely baffled, never having been able even to get them surveyed. This was so in a very special manner in the case of the immense territory of the Earl of Seaforth, extending from Brahan Castle, near Dingwall in the east, across to Kintail in the west, as well as in the large island of the Lewis.

The districts of Lochalsh and Kintail, on the west coast, the scene of the Spanish invasion of 1719, were peculiarly difficult of access, there being no approach from the south, east, or north, except by narrow and difficult paths, while the western access was only a.s.sailable by a naval force. To all appearance this tract of ground, the seat of many comparatively opulent tacksmen and cattle farmers, was as much beyond the control of the six commissioners a.s.sembled at their office in Edinburgh, as if it had been amongst the mountains of Tibet or upon the sh.o.r.es of Madagascar.

For several years after the insurrection, the rents of this district were collected, without the slightest difficulty, for the benefit of the exiled Earl, and regularly transmitted to him. At one time a large sum was sent to him in Spain. The chief agent in the business was Donald Murchison, descendant of a line of faithful adherents of the "High Chief of Kintail." Some of the later generations of the family had been entrusted with the keeping of Ellandonnan Castle, a stronghold dear to the modern artist as a picturesque ruin, but formerly of serious importance as commanding a central point from which radiate Loch Alsh and Loch Duich, in the midst of the best part of the Mackenzie country. Donald was a man worthy of a more prominent place in his country's annals than he has yet attained; he acted under a sense of right which, though unfortunately defiant of Acts of Parliament, was still a very pure sense of right; and in the remarkable actions which he performed he looked solely to the good of those towards whom he had a feeling of duty. A more disinterested hero - and he was one - neverlived.

When Lord Seaforth brought his clan to fight for King James in 1715, Donald Murchison and an elder brother, John, accompanied him as field officers of the regiment - Donald as Lieutenant-Colonel, and John as Major. The late Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the distinguished Geologist, great-grandson of John, possessed a large ivory and silver "mill," which once contained the commission sent from France to Donald, as Colonel, bearing the inscription: "James Rex: forward and spare not." John fell at Sheriffmuir, in the prime of life; Donald returning with the remains of the clan, was entrusted by the banished Earl with the management or estates no longer legally but still virtually his. And for this task Donald was in various respects well qualified, for, strange to say, the son or the castellan of Ellandonnan - the Sheriffmuir Colonel - had been "bred a writer" in Edinburgh, and was as expert at the business of a factor or estate-agent as in wielding the claymore. [For a short time before the insurrection, he had acted as factor to Sir John Preston of Preston Hall, in Mid-Lothian, then also a forfeited estate, but of minor value.]

In bold and avowed insubordination to the Government of George the First, Mackenzie's tenants continued for ten years to pay their rents to Donald Murchison, setting at nought all fear of ever being compelled to repeat the payment to the commissioners.

In 1720 his Majesty's representatives made a movement for a.s.serting their claims upon the property. In William Ross of Easterfearn and Robert Ross, a bailie of Tain, they found two men bold enough to undertake the duty of stewards.h.i.+p in their behalf over the Seaforth property, the estates of Grant or Glenmoriston, and or Chisholm of Strathgla.s.s. Little, however, was done that year beyond sending out notices to the tenants, and preparing for more strenuous measures for next year. The stir they made only produced excitement, not dismay. Some of the duine-uasals from about Lochcarron, coming down with their cattle to the south-country fairs, were heard to declare that the two factors would never get anything but leaden coin from the Seaforth tenantry. Donald went over the whole country showing a letter he had got from the Earl, encouraging the people to stand out at the same time telling them that the old Countess was about to come north with a factory for the estate, when she would allow as paid for any rents which they might hand to him.

The very first use to be made of this money was to bring both the old and the young Countesses home immediately to Brahan Castle, where they were to live as they used to do. Part of the funds thus acquired, Murchison used in keeping on foot a party of some sixty armed Highlanders, who, in virtue of his commission as colonel, he proposed to employ in resisting any troops of George the First which might be sent to Kintail. Nor did he wait to be attacked, but in June, 1720, hearing of a party of excis.e.m.e.n pa.s.sing near Dingwall with a large quant.i.ty of aqua vitae, he fell upon them and rescued their prize. The collector of the district reported this transaction to the Board of Excise, but no notice was taken of it.

In February, 1721, the two factors sent officers of their own into the western districts, to a.s.sure the tenants of good usage, if they would make a peaceable submission but the men were seized, robbed of their papers, money, and arms, and quietly sent across the Frith of Attadale, though only after giving their solemn a.s.surance that they would never attempt to renew their mission.

Resenting this procedure the two factors caused a constable to take a military party from Bernera Barracks, Glenelg, into Lochalsh, and, if possible, capture those who had been guilty. They made a stealthy night-march, and took two men; but the alarm was given, the two men escaped, and began to fire down upon their captors from a hillside; then they set fire to the bothy as a signal, and such a coronach went over all Kintail and Lochalsh as made the soldiers glad to beat a quick retreat.

After some further proceedings, all ineffectual, the two factors were enabled, on the 13th day of September, to set forth from Inverness with a party of thirty soldiers and some armed servants of their own, with the design of enforcing submission to their claims. Let it be remembered that in those days there were no roads in the Highlands, nothing but a few horse-tracks along the princ.i.p.al lines in the country, where not the slightest effort had ever been made to smooth away the natural difficulties of the ground. In two days the factors reached Invermoriston; but here they were stopped for three days, waiting for their heavy luggage, which was storm-stayed in Castle Urquhart, and there nearly taken in a night attack by a partisan warrior bearing the name of Evan Roy Macgillivray. The tenantry of Glenmoriston at first fled with their cattle, but afterwards a number of them came in and made the appearance of submission. The party then moved on towards Strathgla.s.s, while Evan Roy respectfully followed, to pick up any man or piece of baggage that might be left behind. At Erchless Castle, and at Invercannich, seats of the Chisholm, they held courts, and received the submission of a number of the tenants, whom, however, they subsequently found to be "very deceitful."

There were now forty or fifty miles of the wildest Highland country before them, where they had reason to believe they should meet groups of murderous Camerons and Glengarry Macdonalds, and also encounter the redoubtable Donald Murchison himself, with his guard of Mackenzies, unless their military force should be sufficiently strong to render all such opposition hopeless. An arrangement having been made that they should receive an addition of fifty soldiers from Bernera, with whom to pa.s.s through the most difficult part of their journey, it seemed likely that they would appear too strong for resistance and, indeed, intelligence was already coming to them, that "the people of Kintail, being a judicious opulent people, would not expose themselves to the punishments of law," and that the Camerons were absolutely determined to give no further provocation to the Government. Thus a.s.sured, they set out in cheerful mood along the valley of Strathgla.s.s, and, soon after pa.s.sing a place called Knockfin, they were reinforced by Lieutenant Brymer with the expected fifty men from Bernera.

There were now about a hundred well armed men in the invading body. They spent the next day (Sunday) together in rest, to gather strength for the ensuing day's march of about thirty arduous miles, by which they hoped to reach Kintail.

At four in the morning of Monday, the 2d of October, the party went forward, the Bernera men first, and the factors in the rear.

They were as yet far from the height of the country, and from its more difficult pa.s.ses; but they soon found that all the flattering tales of non-resistance were groundless, and that the Kintail men had come a good way out from that district in order to defend it. The truth was, that Donald Murchison had a.s.sembled not only his stated band of Mackenzies, but a levy of the Lewis men under Seaforth's cousin, Mackenzie of Kildun; also an auxiliary corps of Camerons, Glengarry and Glenmoriston men, and some of those very Strathgla.s.s men who had been making appearances of submission.

Altogether he had, if the factors were rightly informed, three hundred and fifty men with long Spanish firelocks, under his command, and all posted in the way most likely to give them an advantage over the invading force.

The rear-guard, with the factors, had scarcely gone a mile when they received a platoon of seven shots from a rising ground near them to the right, which, however, had only the effect of piercing a soldier's hat. The Bernera company left the party at eight o'clock, as they were pa.s.sing Lochanachlee, and from this time is heard of no more; how it made its way out of the country does not appear. The remainder still advancing, Easterfearn, as he rode a little before his men, had eight shots levelled at him from a rude breast-work near by, and was wounded in two places, but was able to appear as if he had not been touched. Then calling out some Highlanders in his service, he desired them to go before the soldiers and do their best, according to their own mode of warfare, to clear the ground of such lurking parties, so that the troops might advance in safety. They performed this service pretty effectually, skirmis.h.i.+ng as they went on, and the main body advanced safely about six miles. They were here arrived at a place called Ath-na-Mullach, where the waters, descending from the Cralich and the lofty mountains of Kintail, issue eastwards through a narrow gorge into Loch Affric. It was a place remarkably well adapted for the purpose of a resisting party. A rocky boss, called Torr-a-Bheathaich, then densely covered with birch, closes up the glen as with a gate. The black mountain stream, "spear-deep,"

sweeps round it. A narrow path wound up the rock, admitting of pa.s.sengers in single file. Here lay Murchison with the best of his people, while inferior adherents were ready to make demonstrations at a little distance. As the invading party approached, they received a platoon from a wood on the left, but nevertheless went on. When, however, they were all engaged in toiling up the pa.s.s, forty men concealed in the heather close by fired with deadly effect, inflicting a mortal wound on Walter Ross, Easterfearn's son while Bailie Ross's son was wounded by a bullet which swept across his breast. The Bailie called to his son to retire, and the order was obeyed; but the two wounded youths and Bailie Ross's servant were taken prisoners, and carried up the hill, where they were quickly divested of clothes, arms, money, and papers.

Easterfearn's son died next morning. The troops faced the ambuscade manfully and are said to have given their fire thrice, and to have beaten the Highlanders from the bushes near them; but, observing at this juncture several parties of the enemy on the neighbouring heights, and being informed of a party of sixty in their rear, Easterfearn deemed it best to temporise.

He thereupon sent forward a messenger to ask who they were that opposed the King's troops, and what they wanted. The answer was that, in the first place, they required to have Ross of Easterfearn delivered up to them. This was pointedly refused; but it was at length arranged that Easterfearn should go forward and converse with the leader of the opposing party. The meeting took place at Beul-ath-na-Mullach, and Easterfearn found himself confronted with Donald Murchison. It ended with Easterfearn giving up his papers, and covenanting, under a penalty of five hundred pounds, not to officiate in his factory any more; after which he gladly departed homewards with his a.s.sociates, under favour of a guard of Donald's men to conduct them safely past the sixty men who were lurking in the rear. It was alleged afterwards that the commander was much blamed by his own people for letting the factors off with their lives and baggage, particularly by the Camerons, who had been five days at their post with hardly anything to eat; and Murchison only pacified them by sending them a good supply of meat and drink. He had in reality given a very effective check to the two gentlemen-factors, to one of whom he imparted in conversation that any scheme of Government stewarts.h.i.+p in Kintail was hopeless, for he and sixteen others had sworn that, if any person calling himself a factor came there, they would take his life, whether at kirk or at market, and deem it a meritorious action, though they should be cut to pieces for it the next minute.

A b.l.o.o.d.y grave for young Easterfearn in Beauly Cathedral concluded this abortive attempt to take the Seaforth estates within the scope of a law sanctioned by statesmen, but against which the natural feelings of nearly a whole people revolted.

A second attempt was then made to obtain possession of the forfeited Seaforth estates for the Government. It was calculated that what the two factors and their attendants with a small military force had failed to accomplish in the preceding October, when they were beaten back with fatal loss at Ath-na-Mullach, might now be effected by a military party alone, if they should make their approach through a less critical pa.s.sage. A hundred and sixty of Colonel Kirk's regiment left Inverness under Captain M'Neill, who had at one time been Commander of the Highland Watch. They proceeded by Dingwall, Strathgarve, and Loch Carron, an easier, though a longer way. Donald Murchison, nothing daunted, got together his followers, and advanced to the top of Mam Attadale, by a high pa.s.s from Loch Carron to the bead of Loch Long, separating Lochalsh from Kintail.

Here a gallant relative, Kenneth Murchison, and a few others, volunteered to go forward and plant themselves in ambush in the defiles of the Coille Bhan (White Wood), while the bulk of the party should remain where they were. It would appear that this ambush party consisted of thirteen men, all peculiarly well armed.

On approaching this dangerous place the Captain of the invading party went forward with a sergeant and eighteen men to clear the wood, while the main body came on slowly in the rear. At a place called Altanbadubh, in the Coille Bhan, he encountered Kenneth and his a.s.sociates, whose fire wounded himself severely, killed one of his grenadiers, and wounded several others of the party.

He persisted in advancing, and attacking the handful of natives with sufficient resolution they slowly withdrew, as unable to resist; but the Captain now obtained intelligence that a large body of Mackenzies was posted in the mountain pa.s.s of Attadale.

It seemed to him as if there was a design to draw him into a fatal ambuscade. His own wounded condition probably warned him that a better opportunity might occur afterwards. He turned his forces about, and made the best of his way back to Inverness. Kenneth Murchison quickly rejoined Colonel Donald on Mam Attadale, with the cheering intelligence that one salvo of thirteen guns had repelled the hundred and sixty red-coats. After this we hear of no more attempts to comprise the Seaforth property.

Strange as it may seem, Donald Murchison, two years after this a second time resisting the Government troops, came down to Edinburgh with eight hundred pounds of the Earl's rents, that he might get the money sent abroad for Seaforth's use. He remained a fortnight in the city unmolested. He on this occasion appeared in the garb of a Lowland gentleman; he mingled with old acquaintances, "doers"

and writers; and appeared at the Cross amongst the crowd of gentlemen who a.s.sembled there every day at noon. Scores knew all about his doings at Ath-na-Mullach and the Coille Bhan; but thousands might have known without the chance of one of them betraying him to the Government.

General Wade, in his report to the King in 1725, stated that the Seaforth tenants, formerly reputed the richest of any in the Highlands, were now become poor, by neglecting their business, and applying themselves to the use of arms. "The rents" he says, "continue to be collected by one Donald Murchison, a servant of the late Earl's, who annually remits or carries the same to his master in France. The tenants, when in a condition, are said to have sent him free gifts in proportion to their circ.u.mstances, but are now a year and a-half in arrear of rent. The receipts he gives to the tenants are as deputy-factor to the Commissioners of the Forfeited Estates, which pretended power he extorted from the factor (appointed by the said Commissioners to collect those rents for the use of the public), whom he attacked with above four hundred armed men, as he was going to enter upon the said estate, having with him a party of thirty of your Majesty's troops. The last year this Murchison marched in a public manner to Edinburgh, to remit eight hundred pounds to France for his master's use, and remained fourteen days there unmolested. I cannot omit observing to your Majesty that this national tenderness the subjects of North Britain have one for the other is a great encouragement for rebels and attainted persons to return home from their banishment."

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 pa.s.ses 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 princ.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sed 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 lords.h.i.+p took possession of the estates which Donald had in a manner preserved for him, he discountenanced and neglected him. Murchison's n.o.ble 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 pa.s.sed 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 va.s.sals." He must, however, have been in tightened circ.u.mstances, 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 t.i.tle of Earl of Seaforth, under which alone he was proscribed, pa.s.sed 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 t.i.tle of "Lord Kintail," which he and all the collateral branches descended of George, the second Earl, had taken up and a.s.sumed 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 ent.i.tled 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 t.i.tles as his heir male collateral. - "Allangrange Service."]

Earl William married in early life, Mary, the only daughter and co-heir of Nicholas Kenet of c.o.xhow, 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 t.i.tle he continued to bear as the subordinate t.i.tle 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 pa.s.sed 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 Lords.h.i.+p'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 Lords.h.i.+p 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 c.o.c.ked 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 b.l.o.o.d.y feud between the Frasers and the Mackenzies.