PRINCE Edward Island is not
without visible and treasured links with the days of Prince Charlie. At a
recent ex,hibition of old and historic articles held by the Abegweit
Chapter, I. 0. D E. of Surnmerside, a place of honour was given to a
lovely miniature on ivory of the Prince encircled by the green garter and
buckle he wore at Prestonpans, which was painted in Edinburgh during his
brief hey-day at Holyrood in "The Forty-Five". A copy of this portrait was
also engraved on each of the all-too-ample tumblers presented to him on
this occasion by the glass-blowers’ guild of Edinburgh. This miniature was
purchased by John Mackinlay of Borrowstoness in 1838 from the collection
of Dr. McCleish of Edinburgh, and brought by him to the Island. It is now
owned by his granddaughter, Miss Hunt of St. Eleanors. There were also the
antlers of a deer shot by the Prince, in the possession of the Stewarts of
Strathgartney. And in the glass case of weapons, ranging from Erromangan
war-clubs that had belonged to the martyred Gordons of P. E. Island, to
swords and muskets that had done service at Waterloo, there might be seen
a hefty broad-sword that had been wielded at Culloden by the
great-great-grandfather of Rev. J. A. McDonald, parish priest of Grand
River and Commissioner of the Indian population of the Island. This sword
is a link with the Glenaladale settlers, for it came on the Alexander
one hundred and sixty years ago, when a band of Hebridean exiles
landed at what is still called Scotchfort.
They brought their
place-names also, as well as their sad and tender memories of the exiled
Prince; and although Surveyor Holland might label the bays and rivers and
capes of St. John’s Island with titles of lordly Sassenachs, the ancestral
names given by these Highianders to their forest homes—Glenfinnan,
Glenaladale, and Castletirrim; Kinloch, Keppock, and Kingsburgh— recall
even to this day the harried wanderings of the "young Ascanius of the
yellow locks" and his faithful followers, who in their want scorned the
reward of perfidy and added another shining chapter to Scotland’s story.
On the iron coast of
Moidart, where the restless swell of the Atlantic piles the treasures of
brown and crimson sea-tangle at the
foot of a precipitous cliff, there stands the ancient fortress-eyrie of
the Clanranalds—Castle Tirrim or
Tioram, "the dry castle." It was built six hundred years ago by a
woman—Amy, daughter and heiress of Roderick Macdonald, a doughty warrior
in the cause of the Bruce, who rewarded him for his sacrifices with a
grant of the land of Garrnoran, including what is now Moidart, Morar,
Arisaig, Ardnamurchan, Gairloch, Knoydart and Ardgour—words like the
strokes of a mighty bell. Amy married John of Islay, bringing him this
great dower, and in due time he became the first
Lord of the Isles,
and was called "Good John" because of his
munificent gifts to the Church. But added power brought added ambition,
and he repudiated Amy to wed the Lady Margaret, daughter of Robert the
High Steward, going with a royal retinue to fetch his bride, "proceeding
to the mouth of the river of Glascu, and had three score long-ships with
him."
Margaret’s
father ascended the Scottish throne as
Robert II. The various branches of the great Macdonald clan are descended
chiefly from the sons of Amy and Margaret. The age-old dispute as to the
holder of the coveted title Lord of the Isles
dates from this time, and was settled
only in rather non-committal fashion in
1911.
Castle
Tirrim is now uninhabited, for it was burned
after the rising of the ‘15. Its massive walls rise sheer from the edges
of the great circular rock where the waters of "dark Loch Sheil" enter the
sea, and in its centre is the never-failing well that in past centuries
enabled it to withstand many a siege. At one time three chiefs—Macintosh,
Mackenzie and MacLean —were prisoners together in its dungeons; for the
Clanranald of that time had 2000 men to put into the field, and many
galleys. This is the Gaelic "Dawn-song" of his rowers, literal
translation:— Fragrant maiden of the sea,
Thou art full of the Graces;
And the Great White King is with thee.
Blessed art thou, blessed art thou,
Blessed art thou among women.
Thy breath steering my prayer,
It will reach the Haven White.
Let me beseech thy gentle Son
To whom thou gayest knee and suck
To be with us,
To be on watch, To be awake,
To spread over us his Sacred Cowl
From ray-light to ray-light,
To the new-born white ray of dawn,
And through the dark and dangerous
night,
To succour us, To guide us, To shine on us.
With the guidance and glory of the nine rays of the sun.
Through seas and straits and narrows
Until we come to Moidart, And the good Clanranald.
Truly it required a flight of Celtic
imagination to see a "Castle-tirrim" on the quiet headwaters of the
Hillsborough on little Prince Edward Island.
The mansion-house of Glenaladale, a
branch of the Clanranald clan, rises on a level strath on the western
shore of Loch Sheil. In it are preserved the bagpipes played by the family
piper at Culloden, and many other relics of the "Forty-five", its owner
carries also the title of Glenfinnan for here is the narrow pass of this
name, spanned by a graceful viaduct, and the river and island where St.
Finnan lit the torch of Christianity among the ancient Celts of these
glens. (Glenfinnan on Prince Edward Island has its little Island also—the
"Isle aux Chevres" of Franquet’s plan in 1751). Alexander Macdonald of
Glenaladale and his kinsman, young Clanranald, were among the first to
greet the young Chevalier when he arrived in Scotland, accompanied by "the
seven men of Moidart". From among their followers they furnished a
bodyguard for his protection, and on the night of August 18th he slept at
Glenaladale House, crossing the Loch to Glenfinnan the next morning. Here,
on the spot where the monument now stands, the Royal Standard of red silk
with white spot in centre was unfurled by the aged Marquis of
Tullibardine, on 19th August, 1745— "Bleadhna Tharlaich" (Charlie’s Year).
When disaster overtook the ill-fated Prince and condemned him to long
months of wandering in caves and corries, Glenaladale was able, in spite
of wounds received at Falkirk and Culloden, to lead him to places of
safety which all the vigilance of the Hanoverian soldiers could not
discover. At one time the prize was supposed to be in the pursuer’s grasp.
Information had been received that the Prince was hiding in the Clanranald
country, and at once the net was drawn tightly round him. Men-of-war
patrolled the western waters from Ardnamurchan Point to Loch Hourn, and
from there a cordon of soldiers reached to Glenfinnan, while the Argyll
militia broke all the boats on Loch Sheil, and bands of soldiers searched
every house and cave. But, led by Glenaladale, the Prince passed between
two sentinels and escaped.
Catherine, of the house of
Glenaladale, lived beside the "Stone of Manners" in Gaultergill, Skye. her
husband was the famous Donald MacLeod, "The Prince’s Pilot", who for sixty
days, through constant peril, held the life and fortunes of the royal
fugitive within his keeping; and for his loyalty spent eight months with
the elder Clanranald and others, in the fever-stricken hold of a rotting
hulk off Tilbury, on a daily ration of one-half pound of raw oatmeal which
they mixed with water in a bottle. Most of them died there, but Donald in
spite of his threescore-and-ten lived to see once more the hills of Skye.
The great bard of the ‘45, "Alasdair
Mac-Mhaigster Alasdair," whose songs drew many Highlanders to the
standard, was the son of an Episcopalian minister of Isle Finnan. He was
an officer in the Prince’s army, and, after Culloden, was plundered of
everything even to the cat, while he and his wife fled to the mountain
caves, where a daughter was born to them. Alasdair is in the front rank of
Celtic poets, and his poem "Clanranald’s Galley" is considered one of the
finest sea-songs in any language. He has many descendants on P. E. Island,
and one of them, "Father Dan", sang delightfully his Gaelic lyrics.
Culloden sounded the knell not only
of the Stuart dynasty, but of the clan system as well; for that was the
last time the clans went to battle under the command of their own chiefs,
with their distinctive tartans, and practising their old methods of
warfare. The English Government had become alarmed over the threat of the
rising, and drastic laws were enacted, which blotted out the military side
of clan life. "Oasting, hunting, and convening" were made illegal, weapons
were forbidden, and even the wearing of Highland garb. But no Act of
Parliament could destroy the attachment of the people to their hereditary
chiefs, and many of the clansmen paid double rents- •- once to the new
owners of forfeited estates, and again to their own chief in exile. The
severity of these laws was finally relaxed, and some of the confiscated
estates were returned. Clanranald recovered his lands in 1770.
In this year a great change took
place in the Highlands. Before this time a kind of patriarchal system had
prevailed on the farms, by which tacksmen paid their servants no wages,
but looked on them as members of the family, and supported them whether
there was work for them or not. But in 1770 a rapid increase in rents took
place, and although this was accompanied by a corresponding increase in
the price of farm prxlucts, so that the new rents would be no more
burdensome than the old, yet the tacksmen refused to pay the higher sum,
and began to emigrate. This exodus continued for fifty years, until few of
the old tenants were left, and as the new w occupants were bound by no
ties of blood or sentiment, farming became entirely commercialized. The
tacks-men on Lord Macdonald’s estate in Skye formed a company, purchased
100,000 acres in North Carolina, and emigrated in a body, taking others
with them. It was to this colony that their illustrious kinswoman, Flora
Macdonald sailed with her husband and sons in 1774.
But the motive of the Glenaladale settlement of Prince
Edward Island was not so much an economic, as a religious one. Colin
Macdonald, laird of Boisdale in South Uist, was an ultra-zealous
Protestant, who in the year 1770 undertook the conversion of his tenants
en masse, and to this end he stationed himself at the fork of the
road, and tried to drive them all to the Presbyterian church which he
himself attended. We even know the colour of the club he used, for this
peculiar style of evangelism was ever afterwards referred to as "Credimh a
bhata bhui",—The Religion of the Yellow Staff. Not succeeding in this
effort, he turned his attention to the children, and established schools
for them, but the parents, finding that the little ones were likely to be
turned from the faith of their fathers, would not permit them to attend.
Angry at being thus thwarted, the domineering landlord summoned all the
tenants to a meeting, where he placed before them a Gaelic document
containing a renunciation of their faith, and a promise to have no further
dealings with their priests; which they were asked to sign, with the
alternative of being driven from their homes. With one voice the people,
of course, refused to sign. The aged Bishop Hay, Vicar Apostolic of the
Western Highlands. sent an account of the situation to Dr. Challoner,
Prelate of London, who sent it to Cardinal Castelli, and on the advice of
Dr. Grant, the Scottish agent in Rome, the tenants were advised to
emigrate at once to some American colony. But through all the years on
their little crofts in this rocky isle they had been able to make only a
bare living, and the expense of the long journey seemed to them an
insuperable obstacle. At this juncture a deliverer arose who took them to
Prince Edward Island—"Fear a-Ghlinne", The Laird of the Glen.
He was John Macdonald, son and heir
of the above-mentioned Alexander of Glenaladale, who, though only a little
lad in "Charlie’s Year carried a memory of the shrilling of the pipes as
the bands of kilted men gathered to the raising of the Standard, on a day
of rain, with the creamy brown torrents rushing down the wooded slopes of
Glenfinnan. At twelve years of age he was sent to Gatisbon in Germany to
receive his education, and it is asserted that he could read, write, and
speak seven languages. He lived on his estate and also acted as factor for
Clanranald until the age of 30. His attention was drawn to P. E. Island
from letters received from its earliest Scottish settlers, a party of
disbanded Fraser Highlanders who had settled here after the fall of
Quebec, and in these letters to the homeland they strongly urged their
compatriots to follow. He therefore threw in his lot with the Uist people
and became their leader. Bishop Hay writes at this time; "Worthy
Glenaladale, the chief promoter, affirms that he will sell all that he has
to that end, and will himself go along with them. His conduct upon this
occasion is extremely edifying." And in a letter dated November 27th,
1770, the same prelate writes to Dr. Grant:—
Macdonald of Glenaladale is here in
order to treat of a large tract of land in the Island of St. John in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. most excellent soil and fine climate, and who though
a man so much of the government is most willing to give them all
encouragement & their being Roman Catholics is far from being an objection
with him. There are, he says, about fifty families of the old French
inhabitants upon the Island; of whom his Lordship has rec’d a most
favorable account; & he is glad to think that this proposal mey be the
means of getting a Catholic clergyman for their benefit. Indeed, a friend
of mine, a Presbyterian minister who went out there last summer as teacher
and factor & who is himself very well disposed towards us, wrote me this
harvest a most affecting letter about the poor French Catholics there,
representing their case in the most moving terms and begging that I would
see to get a clergyman sent among them.
Glenaladale purchased in 1771 a
large tract of land in the Tracadie district of the Island (Micmac
"Tracadie" The Camping Place), mortgaging his estate for this purpose to
his cousin John of Borrodale who had amassed a fortune in the West Indies,
and as it was never redeemed the title finally passed to the Borrodale
branch. Writing from Greenock, March 8th, 1772, he mentioned that he had
chartered the "Alexander", and in the month of May this staunch vessel
sailed north to Arisaig and Loch Boisdale, and then out to the Atlantic
with 210 emigrants, 100 from Uist and 110 from the mainland. In the
meantime Glenaladale had gone to Edinburgh to take over £500 of a
"Memorial Fund" collected by Bishop Challoner of London to help in
defraying expense, for the passage-money amounted to £1,500 and this,
together with the cost of a year’s provisions, bore heavily upon the
resources of their leader. (A recent aiticle in the Edinburgh Scotsman
stated that the "Alexander" was the first emigrant ship to come to the
province, but the "Annabella" had landed a party of Kintyre settlers at
Malpeque two years earlier).
Most of the passengers on the
"Alexander" were Macdonalds, but there were also MacEacherns, MacKenzies,
MacPhees, Campbells, Beatons, Gillises, MacRaes, Macintoshes, and
MacKinnons. Among them was the first medical doctor of the Island—
Roderick Macdonald, a native of Morar, and a graduate of Edinburgh
University. There was also the first British-born priest, Rev. James
Macdonald, cousin of Glenaladale, a graduate of the Scots College at Rome,
who had served in the ministry at Drummond for seven years, and was at
this time thirty-six years of age. The emigrants were favoured with a
smooth passage, and the voyage was uneventful, a contrast to that of the
famous Flora two years later, when their ship was attacked by a French
frigat In and the heroine, refusing to go below, had her arm broken in the
struggle.
In the latter part of June, Captain
Alasdair brought the "Alexander" into Hillsborough Bay,—rounding Point
Prim(e), where the large clearances of the exiled French were plainly
visible; past Governor’s Island (Micmac "place where goods are landed"),
and St. Peter’s Island (haunt of the sea-cow); past the Acadian capital of
Port la Joie, burned by New Englanders a quarter of a century before; and
dropped anchor at the new capital, Charlottetown, then a little village,
laid out carefully two years before with wide streets and squares. But the
stay was brief, for the settlers were anxious to reach their journey’s
end, and the captain protestingly threaded his way up the narrow, crooked
channel of the East River to the Glenaladale land in Lot 36. The name of
"Scotchfort", given by the settlers to the spot where they landed, was
suggested by the ruins of "Frenchfort" passed on the way up the river.
Workmen had been sent out the previous year by their leader under the
charge of his brother Donald, so that a number of rude log cabins were
awaiting them, and in one of these the first English Mass on the Island
was celebrated by Father James. When all their goods were landed on the
bank, they wondered how they had been stowed in the vessel. But in spite
of the beauty spread all about them in this leafy month of June, it is
recorded that their mood on landing was one of profound discouragement.
Somewhat different it was from that of another band of Moidart people who
came a little later. A descendant tells of them:
They came out on the "Big Ship".
There were two ships, but the smaller turned back, and the Big Ship
landed at Canso. When the immigrants came on shore, they all formed up
and danced a Scotch reel in which my grandaunt led off. Bishop Fraser
was there, and after listening to my uncle Ronald Macdonald the piper,
he remarked "That man has the best little finger on the chanter I have
ever known."
It is possible that the "Alexander"
people, though favoured with the presence of a priest and a doctor, yet
lacked the necessary piper.
During the first winter, Father
James spent much of his time ministering to the Acadians, fifty in number,
who were congregated at Malpeque; and in visiting Quebec the following
summer he was warmly welcomed by Father Dosqué, exiled from Malpeque
fifteen years before, and now anxious to hear of his former parishioners.
Father James took a stove from Quebec which helped to make his second
winter more endurable. From Malpeque he wrote to Bishop Hay a favorable
account of the Acadians, and also carried on a correspondence with the
wife of Chief Justice Stewart whom he had known while doing missionary
work in Scotland. She was Sarah Hamilton, who as a child was with her
mother on the continent when her father, Captain Hamilton, was killed at
Fontenoy, and she was placed in the care of nuns there to be educated.
When her husband received the appointment of Chief Justice to the Island,
she wrote from Scotland to Father James, asking his advice, and he
strongly urged them not to come and face the hardships of St. John’s
Island. Nevertheless they did come; but when Stewart looked about him at
the dense forest and the few settlers, his first remark was that he did
not know whom he was expected to judge, unless it were the trees.
While Father James was in Malpeque,
the Scotchfort people, following his instructions, had built a log church
30 x 20, with a roof thatched with straw, after the Highland fashion. This
was very near the site of the church of St. Louis, built by the Acadians
in 1751, at Franquet’s suggestion, on the slope above the lovely spring
they called Bel air, whose sparkling waters still flow, cold and pure,
from the yellow sand. The Scotchfort log church, dedicated to St. John the
Evangelist, was used for over thirty years. In Benjamin Chappell’s Diary,
written at Elizabethtown in 1774, there is an entry, "This day seven of
our men went by boat to hear Mass at Trakida."
Glenaladale himself did not come to
the Island until the year after the emigration, and it was not until he
called at Boston on the way out that he discovered that a shipload of
supplies sent by him to the colonists the preceding autumn had never
arrived, but had been either lost at sea or taken by privateers. Hurriedly
he chartered, and loaded with provisions and farm implements at Boston,
another vessel which reached Charlottetown shortly before his own arrival.
In the meantime his brother had gone to Quebec in another ship after
supplies, and thus did relief come not only to his own party but to some
distressed Acadians and other British settlers. But the conditions he
found on his arrival were not to his liking. A number were planning to
leave, for not only had provisions been scanty, but the crops of the
previous year had failed, and, most serious of all, there was great
dissatisfaction among the settlers over the matter of rent and land
tenure. They had looked forward to the possession of free lands in
America, and to be quit for ever of the landlord system which recalled so
many memories of galling tyranny, and when their leader offered nine
hundred and ninety-nine year leases on what he considered generous terms,
some of them flatly refused. As for those willing to remain and work under
his direction, he promised to support them until they could raise enough
for themselves, and also to import for them cattle, horses, sheep and
swine. "But if they refuse to work he would supply them until spring, and
then land them in a settled country to shift for themselves."
Of the malcontents, a number left
for Cape Breton, where they hoped to deal directly with the Government,
while others moved further east along the north shore of the Island.
MacEacherns went to Savage Harbor; MacKenzie, McRae and Gillis families to
St. Peter’s and Lot 37; MacIntoshes to Naufrage; MacKinnons to Pisquid
River; Tearlach McRaild to Orwell.
Macdonald retained for himself 500
acres at the head of Tracadie Bay where he built a large house, and it is
recorded of him that he was one of the few proprietors who really tried to
fulfil the terms on which the original grants were given. He displayed
foresight in not allowing the spruces to be felled along the north shore
of his land nor the grass cut on the sandhills, rightly considering these
as natural barriers against the encroaching sand. He was appointed Fort
Major of Charlottetown, his commission bearing the signature of George
III. On the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he began recruiting a force
among his compatriots of the Island, which, in conjunction with a similar
body of Nova Scotia High-landers raised by Captain John Small, formerly of
the Black Watch and then of the 21st, became the 2nd Battalion of the
Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment. Small was appointed major-commandant,
and Macdonald captain, the latter being known thereafter as "Captain
John." The first battalion was commanded by Colonel Alan Maclean of
Torloisk who had distinguished himself with the Scotch Brigade in Holland.
Each battalion consisted of 750 men. The Commissions were dated June 14th,
1775. In the meantime Flora Macdonald. had been recruiting for the same
regiment in North Carolina, and addressed the troops at Cross Creek, after
reviewing them, mounted on a white charger. Flora’s husband, Allan
Macdonald, and her brother-in-law, Alexander Macdonald of Cuidreach were
Majors, and five of her sons were in the army. On their way to Canada they
met the enemy at Moore’s bridge which was covered by cannon, and the
Highlanders were routed with a loss of seventy and 850 prisoners. Flora’s
husband and brother-in-law were kept in prison for several years, and
after the confiscation of their estate Flora set sail for Skye in the
British ship "Baliol" from Charleston. The first battalion under Maclean
successfully withstood the assault of Montgomery and Arnold, and also the
siege of Quebec in 1776. Of ten companies which composed the 2nd
battalion, five remained in Nova Scotia and surrounding districts during
the war, and the other five joined the armies of Cornwallis and Clinton.
At Eutaw Springs they "drove all before them" as stated in despatches of
Col. Alex. Stewart.
An American warship came to the Nova
Scotia coast near a port where Captain John and a party of his men were
posted. A part of the crew landed for the purpose of plundering the
people, but Macdonald with a handful of men boarded the ship, overcame the
crew, and sailed her in triumph into Halifax harbour. He then returned
with a reinforcement and took the remainder of the crew, Americans and
French, all prisoners. In 1778 the name of the Highland Emigrant Regt. was
changed to the "84th" with Sir Henry Clinton as Colonel-in-Chief, and the
number in a battalion was increased to a thousand. The uniform was full
Highland garb with purse of Racoon’s skin. The officers wore broadsword
and dirk, and the privates a half-basket sword. At the peace, grants of
land were given, varying from 5,000 acres to a field-officer down to 100
acres to a private. Many of the 2nd Battalion settled in Nova Scotia at
"Douglastown", but most of the men from St. John’s Island returned to
their homes.
Commandant Small reported to the
British Government:— "The activity and zeal of Captain John Macdonald of
Glenaladale in bringing an excellent company into the field is his least
recommendation; being acknowledged by all who knew him to be one of the
most accomplished men and best officers of his rank in His Majesty’s
service." He was offered the Governorship of the Island, but refused, from
conscientious scruples as to the nature of the oath required before taking
office.
After having been eight years absent
from the Island on military duty, he returned only to find that his
property had been sold in 1781 by the provincial Government for quit
rents. In a document in which the circumstances are set out with great
clarity, he memorialized the king for the remission of the quit rents, and
he ultimately recovered the lands. His brother Donald a few years
later got a Commission in the English service and fell in a naval battle
with the French. Of his brother Hugh, "Maighstir Uisdean" the
Scotochronicon says "Rev. Hugh Macdonald entered Scots College, Rome,
1757, aged 13 years. Became priest of Moidart 1769. Was of great piety and
zeal. Went to Prince Edward Island and died soon after." His death was
caused by the unskilful blood-letting of the time, and poisoning set in.
He was a highly cultured man, taking great delight in his violin, and when
the children at their catechism would answer well, he used to reward them
by playing lively tunes, and liked to see them dancing on the green. The
much-loved Father James lived to be only fifty-nine, worn out by many
labours at home and on the mainland, and lies in an unknown grave at
Scotchfort. Doctor Roderick was drowned while crossing the ice of Tracadie
Bay in the spring, on one of his errands of mercy. His family removed to
Vernon River, and his descendants are still spoken of as the "Doctor’s
People". A favorite family name among these Macdonalds was "Clemmie",
after Clementina Sobieski.
Before leaving Scotland, Captain
John had been married to Isabella Gordon, daughter of Gordon of Wardhouse,
in Aberdeenshire, but she lived only a short time. After his return from
the war, he married Catherine, daughter of Ranald Macdonald of Gerinish,
another place-name brought from the Highlands. This woman was called the
"Queen of Tracadie". Their oldest son was the Hon. Donald Macdonald,
educated at Stonyhurst, England, who took a very prominent part in the
public affairs of the colony. He married a granddaughter of Colonel
Robertson, a P. E. Island loyalist, and they were the parents of Sir
William Macdonald of Montreal, who did more than any other man for the
cause of education in Canada. The second son, William, was drowned on the
coast of Ireland on his way to be educated in England. The third son,
John, was educated in Paris for the Church and was priest in Glasgow for
five years. Then he organized party of Irish Catholic emigrants, whom he
settled at a place he called Fort Augustus, on the family lands on the
south side of the Hillsborough. Through the earlier years of this new
settlement he lived with his mother at Tracadie, but on his removal to St.
Margarets in Kings County, he became involved in the quarrel between the
people and the proprietors. At one stage this developed into a riot, and
when a number of redcoats were sent to arrest the tenants, Father John
harboured the soldiers for some days. As a result the tenants refused to
attend his church, and after his removal by the bishop he returned to
England. The remaining son, Roderick, was educated in Paris. lie published
a pamphlet, now very rare, entitled "Sketches
of Highlanders, with an account of their
early arrival in North America, etc., by R. C. McDonald, Lieut.-Col. of
the Castle Tioram Regt. of Highlanders, Prince Edward Island, Chief of the
Highland Society of Nova Scotia, and Paymaster of the 30th Regt., St.
John. Printed by Henry Chubb and Co. Market Square, 1843."
He was chiefly interested in the
Highlanders of the Lower Provinces and in the education of their children.
He found from ten to twelve thousand children on P. E. Island, chiefly of
Scottish parents, with no means of learning to read or write, and more
than double that number in the other provinces. While in London in 1838,
he visited the Colonial Office, accompanied by lIon. Samuel Cunard, for
the purpose of recommending a uniform system of education for the North
American colonies, and Cunard stated his readiness to subscribe liberally
to the building of schoolhouses and to make a free gift of 100 acres to
each school established in any part of his estates. Macdonald appealed to
the Roman Catholic bishops of Edinburgh and Glasgow to send out teachers,
but at that time the necessary funds were not available. He also presented
the case to the heads of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland—Rev.
Principal McFarlane and Rev. Dr. McLeod of Glasgow— and they got a piomise
from the Educational Society to send twelve qualified teachers to the
Lower Provinces, furnishing their passage-money, enough clothing for three
years, and books and stationery to establish ten schools of fifty students
each, their salary to be guaranteed by szne public body like the Highland
Society.
Macdonald himself had organized five
Highland Societies in the provinces, i including the Caledonian Society of
the Island, and at his personal request the Duke of Gordon, "Cock o’ the
North", became their patron. He had also been commissioned to select a
tartan for their use, and the choice of it was left to Miss Macdonald,
granddaughter of Flora, who decided upon a plaid of the mingled colours of
Gordon and Macdonald clans. This was also the regimental plaid of the
Castle Tirrim regiment of the Island.
While on the continent, he visited Marshal Macdonald,
Duke of Tarentum, one of Napoleon’s most famous generals, who was much
interested to hear of the Caledonian Society of P. E. Island, sent a
donation, and was enrolled as Honorary Member. Tarentum, on the Island, is
named after him. He was the son of Neil MacEachan, the companion of Flora
and "Betty Burke" in their exciting flight. In 1825 the Marshal visited
the Highlands, and at Benbecula took a box of earth from the floor of the
cottage where his father was born, to be placed in his own grave in
France.
Roderick C. Macdonald was an officer in the British
army, served in New Brunswick, Bermuda, in the lonian Islands, and died in
Greece.
The only two chiefs or heads of clan to come to the
Lower Provinces were Glenaladale and Alexander of Keppoch, who gave his P.
E. Island property the same name. He died here in 1808, and the line
became extinct. His wife’s father, a major in the Prince’s army, was
executed at Carlisle.
Some of the Borrodale branch, to whom Captain John sold
his estate, settled in Bedeque, being known as the Rhutland Macdonalds,
after the name of the estate of "Old Rhue," son of Angus of Borrodale.
Angus was the first man in Scotland to receive a Commission from the
Prince. He lived in a bothy when his home was burned after Culloden, and
he wrote in Gaelic "The Journal and Memoirs of the Expedition of the
Prince to Scotland", printed in the Lockhart papers. His grandson
Alexander erected the monument at Glenfinnan. Captain Allan of this family
purchased from Sir Alexander Campbell, of P. E. Island, 10,000 acres, the
half of Lot 25. It was his intention to buy the remaining half and bring
out his tenants, but he was drowned in a squall while crossing from Skye
to the mainland, and his son Alexander, with power of attorney, was sent
out to dispose of the property. He sold 6,500 acres to Loyalist Willaim
Schurman, and 500 acres to John Campbell, Island Treasurer, where was
built "Bedeque House," one of the historic houses of the province. He
brought with him an uncle, Ronald, and two aunts, Isabella and Margaret,
and gave 1,000 acres to each. Ronald moved to East Point., but the sisters
remained and their descendants have been prominent in Prince County.
"Sandy" Rhutland himself bought a large tract in Judique, Cape Breton,
where his descendants still live.
The "Mclans of Ardnamurchan" have their descendants in
the extreme east of the province. Andrew Macdonald, born in 1745, was a
merchant in Arisaig, and his wife was Isabel of the Isle of Canna Such
favorable accounts were being received from Captain John’s settlers of the
richness of the soil, that Andrew determined to close up his business and
follow, but he first sent his brother, known afterwards as "Big John of
West River." In 1805 he purchased 10,000 acres around Three Rivers and
brought out his family and a number of others, choosing for his own place
of residence the beautiful wooded Island of Panmure, at the entrance of
Georgetown Harbour. He embarked in a large mercantile business, building
ships and exporting timber to Britain, establishing also a branch in Mira
michi, which proved very profitable until everything was lost in the
"Mirarnichi Fire". While on a voyage to England in 1812, with one of his
younger sons, the ship was captured by an American privateer, and the
passengers imprisoned in Charleston, undergoing very harsh treatment for a
long time. In 1817 the family resitlence at Panmure was burned with all
its contents, but, immediately after, Andrew went to Britain and brought
out a shipload of bricks with which he erected a new house and stables—the
first brick buildings on the Island. Of his twelve Sons Hugh was most
prominent, being High Sheriff of the province. He married Catherine of the
Rhutland family, and they were the parents of Hon. A. A. Macdonald,
one-time Lieut.-Governor and Senator, but best remembered as one of the
delegates to the historic Conference at Charlottetown, and, with the
exception of Sir Charles Tupper, the last surviving member of the Fathers
of Confederation.
Of all these early settlers none exerted such an
influence as Rev. Angus Bernard (afterwards Bishop) MacEachern. Educated
for the priesthood in Vallodolid in Spain, he spent nearly half a century
journeying through the pathless forests of the Island and mainland to the
scattered settlements, and there is still pre served in St. Joseph’s
Convent, Charlottetown, the combined boat-and-sled built by his own hands
for crossing rivers in the spring. At the same time the Gaelic-speaking
Dr. MacGregor, first Presbyterian missionary to the Island, was engaged in
the same task and the two were firm friends. It is an interesting fact,
the two R. C. Bishops at the extreme ends of Canada—Right Rev. James
Morrison of Antigonish, and Right Rev. Alexander Macdonald of Victoria, B.
C. (recently retired)—are descendants of the same fore fathers of this
party.
On the spot where stood the little log church at
Scotchfort, there now rises a noble Celtic cross of Scotch granite,
erected in 1922 by the widely-scattered descendants of these pioneers, in
honoured memory of the forefathers who bore so worthy a part in the
upbuilding of church and society in the province. |