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THE story of Colonel
Anne, as given in Chapter VT., was current from about the time of the
Rebellion. Scott accepted her military exploits and “ Amazonian
propensities ” as true, and incorporated them in the Tales of a
Grandfather. It is right, however, to state that the Higher Criticism
has recently been at work on the legend, and has shown that a loyal,
resolute, and high-spirited young girl has been grossly caricatured.
Barring the loss of the picturesque anecdote of her husband’s surrender,
the real facts concerning her are an improvement on the fiction. They
may be given in the words of Mr. A. M. Mackintosh, who records his
investigation into the matter in his History of the Mackintoshes:—“The
romantic circumstances attending the raising of the Mackintosh regiment
are well known; but the part played by the heroic wife of the Chief is
usually misrepresented This was Anne, daughter of John Farquharson of
Invercauld In 1745, she was only twenty years of age. Her father was now
a friend of the Government, but most of her name in and about Braemar
were devoted Jacobites, and it was probably through them that she became
imbued with the notions which she so conscientiously and nobly followed
out Sir AEneas Mackintosh’s MS. throws considerable light on the events
in which she was concerned, and may no doubt be taken as trustworthy,
the writer, who was her husband’s nephew, being much with her in after
years. ‘Pitying the Prince for his misfortunes which he had not brought
upon himself,’ she took steps soon after the commencement of the
Rising for embodying her husband’s clan. Her summons was quickly
answered; a strong, well-armed battalion was formed, and placed under
the command of Alexander Macgillivray of Dunmaglass, whom the lady had
called to her aid. Sir Walter Scott says: ‘She rode with a man’s bonnet
on her head, a tartan riding-habit richly laced, and pistols at her
saddle-bow.’ Another writer speaks of her as figuring largely in the
battle of Falkirk, and describes her as riding at the head of her men
there in the costume mentioned by Scott. It is only just to the memory
of one of the noblest and gentlest of her sex to state that she was
guilty of none of these proceedings. The coarse, lying History of the
late Rebellion by James Ray, a volunteer in Cumberland’s army, is
perhaps the authority for some of these statements. She saw the
Mackintosh regiment but once after it was raised, and was at Moy the
whole time from its departure to the south till after the battle of
Culloden. . . . Her portrait by Allan Ramsay, taken a few years after
this period, and still in excellent condition, shows her to have been a
somewhat delicate-looking girl, with a retiring, modest look, elegant
figure, and rather high forehead.”
As regards “the rout of Moy,” her share in it consisted in having the
perspicacity or good fortune to select an able and determined man as
commander of the little party which engineered, or at least executed,
the exploit Mr. Mackintosh tells that die gallant smith, known locally
as Captein nan Coig—captain of the five—was made an officer in the
regiment, and that his sword is still preserved in the district, “as is
his memory.” His anvil, with a suitable Gaelic inscription, is to be
seen at Moy Hall.
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