The Last Highlander (44 page)

Prebble, John,
Culloden
(London: Penguin, 1967)

Pringle, Walter,
Memoirs of Walter Pringle of Greenknow, written by himself
(Edinburgh: W. Hamilton, 1751)

Ramsay, John of Ochtertyre,
Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth-Century, from the Manuscript of John Ramsay of Ochtertyre
, 2 Vols (Edinburgh Blackwood, 1888)

Riddell, John,
Inquiry into the law and practise in Scottish Peerages, before and after the Union; involving the questions of jurisdiction and forfeiture; together with an exposition of our genuine, original Consistorial law
(Edinburgh, 1842)

Robertson, Honorable Alexander of Strowan,
Poems on various Subjects and Occasions
(Edinburgh, 1752)

Saint-Simon, de Rouvroy, duc de,
Duc de Saint-Simon, Memoirs: A Shortened Version
, Vol. I,
1691–1709
, edited and translated by Lucy Norton (London: Prion, 1999)

Sankey, Margaret,
Jacobite Prisoners of the 1715 Rebellion: Preventing and Punishing Insurrection in Early Hanoverian Britain
(Ashgate Publishing, 2005)

Scottish Diaries and Memoirs
, Vol. 1,
1550–1746
; Vol. 2,
1746–1843
, arranged and edited by J. G. Fyfe (Stirling: Eneas Mackay, 1942)

Seccombe, Thomas (ed.),
Lives of Twelve Bad Men: Original Studies of Eminent Scoundrels by Various Hands
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1894)

Sedgwick, Romney (ed.),
History of Parliament, The House of Commons, 1715–1754
, 2 Vols (London: History of Parliament Trust, 1970)

Selection from the Papers of the Earls of Marchmont, Illustrative of Events from 1685 to 1750
, edited by Sir G. H. Rose (London: J. Murray, 1831)

Sinnott, Patrick, J.,
Simon the Fox: Being an Account of the Activities of Simon Fraser
…
in his Early Twenties
(London, 1956)

Somers, John, Baron,
A Collection of scarce and valuable Tracts. Selected from an infinite number in print and manuscript, in the Royal, Cotton, Sion, and other Public, as well as private libraries; particularly that of the late Lord Sommers. Revised by eminent hands, especially
‘The Visions and Prophecies of the Right Honourable Simon Lord Lovat, which were revealed to his lordship when he was skulking in the Island of Morar, by the late Lord Strathallan, 13 May 1746’ (London: F. Cogan, 1748)

Steuart, Bailie John,
The Letter-Book of Bailie John Steuart of Inverness, 1715–1752
(Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1915)

Steven, Maisie,
Parish Life in Eighteenth Century Scotland: A Review of the Old Statistical Account
(Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural Press, 2002 rpt. 1st pub, 1995)

Szechi, Daniel,
1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006)

Thomson, Katherine,
Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745
, 3 Vols (London: Richard Bentley, 1845)

Tracts on English History
, ‘The Proceedings of the House of Lords, concerning the Scottish Conspiracy, and the Papers Laid before that House, by Her Majesties Command, Relating thereunto’ (London, 1704)

Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness
(Inverness, 1871–2004), Vols 1–63 (‘Unpublished Letters of Lord Lovat, 1739–43’; C. Fraser-Mackintosh,
TGSI
, Vol. 11; ‘Some Unpublished Letters of Simon Lord Lovat of the ’45 to Cameron of Lochiel’, Mr Cameron of Lochiel,
TGSI
, Vol. 12; ‘Two Letters by Simon Lord Lovat’, William Mackay, Vol. 14; ‘Minor Highland Families, No. 5 – The Frasers of Foyers’, Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, Vol. 18)

Trials of Simon, afterwards Lord Fraser of Lovat, 1698 and 1701
, edited by Sir William Augustus Fraser (London: Whittingham & Co., 1880)

Warrand, Duncan (ed.),
Culloden Papers
(London: Cadell & Davies, 1815)

——— (ed.),
More Culloden Papers
, 5 Vols (Inverness: Robert Carruthers, 1923–30)

News Letters of 1715–16
, edited by A. Francis Steuart (London & Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1910)

INTERNET

www.arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/beauly/pdfs/SURVY1.pdf (‘Placename survey of the Parishes of Kilmorack, Kiltarlity and Convinth, and Kirkhill, Inverness-shire’ by Simon Taylor, Department of Medieval History, University of St Andrews, 2002)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am greatly in debt to my predecessors. Lovat provoked wildly contradictory responses. One writer saluted him as the ‘last of the great Scoto-Celtic chiefs’, while another recorded with ill-concealed satisfaction that ‘seldom has a more horrible old man met a more deserved end’. In addition, I could never have approached his life without consulting the works of scholars of late-seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scottish and British history. Their labours mine gem after gem from archives all over Europe, and their great intelligence cuts and polishes them. Any biographer owes them huge gratitude. I should also like to acknowledge the influence of Ronald Black, Professor Donald Meek, Professor Robert Mullally and Dr Wilson MacLeod, who trained a full-time mother to produce intellectually rigorous work at the University of Edinburgh Celtic Department. My gratitude goes also to Professor William Gillies for permission to quote from his translation from
The Book of the Dean of Lismore
. The staffs of the British Library, of the National Library of Scotland, and of the Reference Room at Inverness Library; of the National Archives at Kew, and the Scottish Record Office are always helpful and generous, providing books, manuscripts and guidance on locating obscure items with incomplete and outdated citations and references. In the Highlands of Scotland, Alastair MacLeod, Chief Archivist at the Highland Archives, is a mine of information on the region’s history. Even closer to home, Sue Thompson’s work on the history of the Aird of Lovat has produced masses of information about Fraser country.

At HarperCollins, the commentary of my excellent editor Arabella Pike made me produce a sharper perspective and refine a baggy early draft into a coherent narrative. I thank Kerry Enzor for ensuring the manuscript reached the printer complete and Lucy Howkins for marketing advice. Kate Johnson not only contributed some fine editorial suggestions, but, while she empathised, kept recalling my mind to work during a very black period in mine and my husband’s lives. On that note, I want to thank the medical and therapeutic teams under Professor Anthony Rudd at St Thomas’s Stroke Unit. I want to congratulate Dr Matthew Wright of the Cardiac Unit at St Thomas’s: 1.9 seconds is fantastic. Ongoing, Jackie Albert, Jamie Clark, Liz Edwards, Sally de la Fontaine, Sally Ghibaldon, Richard Jefferson, Maia Parker and Laura Slader have been towers of strength to Kim and me.

I am blessed to have the tremendous David Godwin for an agent. I want also to thank William Dalrymple for his great generosity and encouragement when I first ran the idea past him. Closer to home, for too long Angie, Sandy, Vita and Calum had to tolerate a mother who appeared to be concentrating on their conversation while actually thinking of other things. Thank you. The biggest thanks go to my husband Kim. He has lived with this book with me, and his support and encouragement never fail. He was always ready to discuss it, read large parts, and unfailingly his comments cut straight to the point.

With regard to textual housekeeping, orthography has been modernised in the interests of narrative pace. The spelling of certain names, such as Argyle/Argyll, Athol/Atholl has been standardised. Letters in French have been silently translated.

NOTES

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

Abbreviations used in the Notes

BL
– British Library, Collection of Lovat papers

CALENDAR
– HMC Calendar of Stuart Papers belonging to His Majesty the King …, Vols 1 & 2 (London, 1902–20)

HLA SCOTS PLOT
– ‘The House of Lords Enquiry into the Scots Plot of 1704’, House of Lords Archives

NA
– The National Archives, Kew, London

NAS
– The National Archives, Scotland

NLS
– National Library of Scotland, Lovat papers

STATE TRIALS
–
Cobbett’s Complete Collection of State Trials …
, comp. by T. B. Howell Esq., Vol. 18

tgsi
–
Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness

MAJOR MS
– James Fraser,
Major Fraser’s Manuscript
, Fergusson (ed.), 2 Vols

memoirs
–
Memoirs of the Life of Simon Lord Lovat; written by himself in the French language …

WARDLAW MS
– Master James Fraser,
Chronicles of the Frasers, the Wardlaw Manuscript …

xxiii
Lord Lovat is to lose … a serpent may bite them
. See Appendix to Major MS.

7  
from his numerous family … wealthy circumstances
. BL Add MSS 31249, f1.

10  
Grizzled Duncan’s organ … knob-kerry
. See William Gillies, ‘The Gaelic poems of Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy (I)’,
Scottish Gaelic Studies
, 13/1 (Aberdeen, 1978), pp. 18–45.

11  
Sir Simon ‘the Patriot’ Fraser
. Wardlaw MS, p. 13.

13  
I passed to English ground … such another
. Graham,
Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century
, Vol. 1, (1899), p. 2.

13  
Like Cromwell
…
extra men
. Paul Hopkins,
Glencoe and the End of the Highland War
(Edinburgh: John Donald, 1998), p. 438 – a wonderful book on this period of Scottish history, and the brutal manoeuvrings of magnates and lairds to get favour and positions from the King.

15  
discourse in arguing
…
Colleges now
. Most of these quotations are from letters written when Lovat was thinking about his own children’s education and comparing it to his own. They are in various manuscript sources, the most accessible transcriptions are in volumes of the
TGSI
.

19  
of extreme ruthlessness
…
bigots and embezzlers who
. Hopkins,
Glencoe
, pp. 3, 7. For the Revd James’s commentary on this period see his
Chronicles of the Frasers
(Wardlaw MS). The modern historical commentary owes a particular debt to Hopkins’s
Glencoe
, and Bruce Lenman’s
The Jacobite Risings in Britain, 1689–1746
(Eyre Methuen, 1980).

22  
All through the winter
…
a free parliament
. See Hopkins,
Glencoe
, pp. 120–21 for the politics of this period in Scotland; James Miller,
Inverness
(Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2004); and
Inverness Burgh Records
for the reaction in the Inverness area.

24  
Amongst
…
died of his wounds
. There was a colourful rumour that Alexander survived and shortly after stabbed a piper at a ceilidh near Beauly for playing the tune
Tha Biodaig aig MacThomais
(‘Thomas’s son has a tiny blade’), in his presence. He was said to have stabbed the man’s pipe bag but reached too far, penetrating his chest and killing him. As a result, Alexander fled to Wales and raised a family. In the early nineteenth century, a man came forward claiming to be Alexander’s heir and claimed all the titles and estates of Lovat. Case dismissed.

25  
prove but spies
…
no good of it
. Wardlaw MS, p. 512.

25  
In January 1692
…
blighted King William’s rule
. This whole ghastly episode is dealt with quite brilliantly in Hopkins’s
Glencoe
, see especially p. 328ff.

30  
Simon approached the Scottish capital
. Among the accounts of life in late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century Edinburgh, Graham’s
Journey through the North
still ranks among the most lively and informative, especially when filled out by the poems, songs, engravings and diaries of some of the inhabitants. Lockhart of Carnwath (
The Lockhart Papers
) is good on the political scene, and the Presbyterian kirk session is a fund of comment on the moral conduct of the people.

32  
In public
…
a Jacobite clan
. The feelings of the Murrays are expressed in letters kept at Blair Castle. A good selection of them is published in John, 7th Duke of Atholl’s
Chronicles of the Atholl and Tullibardine Families
, 5 Vols (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1908). In addition, there are Lovat’s own recollections of the time, his
Memoirs
(1746) for the period to 1714. These are less reliable, being retrospective, nuanced by his desire to blacken the Murrays and Mackenzies, ingratiate himself with the Stuarts up to 1714, and to excuse his misdeeds. Nevertheless, there is plenty of accurate material in them. Lovat and his correspondents’ letters at times verify and at other times contradict the narrative in his
Memoirs
.

32  
if one were ever needed
. Hopkins,
Glencoe
, p. 446.

35  
The living wearied of burying the dead
. See D. N. Mackay (ed.),
Trial of Simon, Lord Lovat of the ’45
, in
Notable English Trials
(Edinburgh and Glasgow: William Hodge & Co., 1911); Hopkins,
Glencoe
, and Alan I. MacInnes,
Clanship, Commerce and the House of Stuart
(Tuckwell, 1996). Up to 15 per cent of the Scottish population died in the last five years of the seventeenth century, the result of a combination of the factors outlined – economic and political collapse, harvest failure and famine.

35  
I hear the angel
…
life of the child
. See Martin Haile,
Queen Mary of Modena, Her Life and Letters
(London, 1905), p. 320. The emerging narrative at this time, of the Jacobites as the rightful monarchs, ruling by right of intimate bond with the land, touches on the issue of absolutism and the divine right of kings, for which James II’s father was executed. It soon evolved into a discourse of a Messiah and a Second Coming, to be centred in 1745 on Bonnie Prince Charlie. This symbolism draws on Gaelic mythology in which the chief lives in a sacred union with his land. In some songs he is married to it.

35  
in an assassination
. See Lovat’s
Memoirs
, and John Macky,
A Journey through Scotland
(London, 1732, 2nd edn), p. vi. Macky the spy travelled through the country recording impressions of any public figure the government suspected of Jacobite intriguing.

37  
Come at a crown
…
home in the dark
. In
Jacobitism and the English People, 1688–1788
(Cambridge: CUP, 1989), Paul Kleber Monod writes at length of the extent of Jacobite sympathy throughout England.

39  
Lord Lovat obliged
…
the heirs male
. See
Lovat Peerage Casebook
(Edinburgh, 1729).

42  
My father
…
the estates
. Lovat in a letter to William III, making the case for the Beauforts’ inheritance of the titles and estates of Lovat, in BL Add MSS 31251.

42  
in a trustee’s name
…
legal guardian
. William Carstares, William III’s chaplain, writing to the King with his opinion of the Lovat inheritance mess, in Joseph McCormick (ed.),
State-Papers and Letters addressed to William Carstares
(Edinburgh, 1774), pp. 432–50. He was a friend of the Earl of Argyll and enemy of Tullibardine and the Atholls.

43  
Having drunk to a good pitch
…
shaking with emotion
. The account of this meeting is recorded by Lovat in his
Memoirs
. It is likely it is simplified and overlaid with wish-fulfilment. I suspect he tried to strike a bargain and compromise, but given what follows, his attempts to prevent the Lovat estates falling under Atholl–Murray control clearly maddened Tullibardine.

44  
if the Secretary of State
…
his commission
. Lovat fed Livingstone’s suspicion that Tullibardine aimed at control of Scotland through an oligarchy under an Atholl–Hamilton leadership.

44  
By favouring him so completely
… After the Restoration of Charles II, an Atholl-backed prosecution led to the beheading of Argyll’s father, so there was no love lost between the two magnate families.

44  
If Tullibardine
…
Highland affairs
. Argyll to Carstares in McCormick,
State-Papers
, pp. 432–50. These two staunch Presbyterians were political and religious allies and used this incident to force a wedge between William and Tullibardine, and undermine the latter’s influence with the King.

45  
Tullibardine did not meet
…
hot and headstrong
. See George Lockhart Esq. of Carnwath,
The Lockhart Papers
, ed. Anthony Aufrere (London, 1817). A politically active Jacobite in the last years of Scottish independence, Lockhart loathed Tullibardine, and his records on the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament in this era, and on the denizens within it, are very entertaining.

45  
Highland feuds never die
. Wardlaw MS, p. 513, and it was too true. One feud involving the MacDonalds persisted through several hundred years, and ended up with the feuding parties wasting each other’s lands to the point where they had to eat their horses, and then their cats and dogs.

45  
the Highland clans
…
he read his daughter’s letters
. Lovat’s assertions about his Highland lairds’ loyalty in his
Memoirs
(p. 50) is borne out, angrily, in the letters between the Atholl Murrays and from their officers quoted throughout this chapter.

47  
Simon and his lairds
…
swore the oath and fled
. This account is put together from Lovat’s
Memoirs
, the account by Major James Fraser of Castleleathers (Major MS), who witnessed Saltoun’s fit, and the subsequent trial of Thomas, Lord Lovat and Captain Simon Fraser of Beaufort, as they were cited to appear in the case brought against them by the Murrays.

49  
However, the Murrays
…
hesitated
. Robert A. Dodgshon (
From Chiefs to Landlords: Social and Economic Change in the Western Highlands and Islands, c.1493–1820
; Edinburgh University Press, 1998); Paul Hopkins (
Glencoe
); and Alan I. MacInnes (
Clanship
), first-class historians of the Highlands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, outline the dynamic of struggle for power at work here.

51  
Simon did not stop to think
…
towards Inverness
. This whole episode produced a flurry of letters, a trial, witness statements and memoirs. In the scene that follows I make extensive use of Sir William Fraser of Ledeclune and Morar’s
Trials of Simon, afterwards Lord Fraser of Lovat, 1698, 1701
(London: Chiswick Press, 1880); Major MS; NLS 3161; Lovat’s
Memoirs
; Atholl’s
Chronicles
; and McCormick,
State-Papers
.

56  
Her refusal to come to court …
Or might there have been another reason for her reluctance? In a letter dated 9 December, the Marquis of Atholl told Tullibardine that Tullibardine and Amelia’s mother was given such a terrible shock ‘upon a discovery concerning your sister’ when the two met that it made her sick with worry for days (
Atholl Chronicles
, Vol. I, p. 421). Atholl said no more, and it is no more than speculation, but perhaps Amelia was pregnant. She had already had eight children, and was only just into her thirties, still young enough to bear more. If she was pregnant, she miscarried.

57  
the most tempestuous weather
…
in their goods
. Quoted in Alexander Mackenzie,
History of the Frasers of Lovat
(Inverness: A. & W. MacKenzie, 1896). British Army officers tried to resist the injunctions of the Marquis of Atholl that they stop at nothing to torment the Frasers into giving up Simon. The clan would not yield. As far as Lovat’s actions go, he knew what his goal was, but not how to achieve it. He had to think on his feet and could not make considered decisions, which must make him less coolly calculating at this time than Hopkins (
Glencoe
…) concludes.

64  
William listened
…
humiliated fury.
Tullibardine’s political enemies worked hard to thwart his ambitions. His high-handedness invited opposition from too many men. See
The Lockhart Papers
.