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Consisting Mainly of Letters
Addressed to John Campbell of Barcaldine, some time one of the Government
Factors on the Forfeited Estates after the ’45.
Mr Colin Campbell Mackay, the
present representative of the Bighouse family, having kindly consented to
the publication of various letters and a few other miscellaneous papers now
in his possession, an offer of copies of them is made to the Gaelic Society
of Inverness for insertion in their Transactions by instalments. The greater
portion consists of letters written to John Campbell of Barcaldine,
descended from Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, and long factor on part of
the Breadalbane estates, by various correspondents, including John, Lord
Glenorchy, afterwards third Earl of Breadalbane; different members of the
Barcaldine family, one of whom was the ill-fated Colin Campbell of Glenure;
Baron Maule, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, who for some time managed
and controlled the accounts of the forfeited estates; Mr Charles Areskine of
Alva and Tinwald, Lord Justice-Clerk; the Hon. Hugh Mackay of Bighouse; the
Hon. George Mackay of Skibo ; and Colonel John Crawford, who commanded at
Fort-William at the time of Glenure’s murder. Among the miscellaneous
letters and papers are one from John, first Earl of Breadalbane, denying all
complicity with, or knowledge of, the massacre of Glencoe until after the
event; this letter is addressed to Alexander Campbell of Barcaldine,
grandfather of John of Barcaldine, and is dated 26th May, 1692; a notarial
copy of a Decreet of the Court of Justiciary, dated Inverness, December,
1695, against John Macdonald, the eldest, and Alexander, one of the younger
sons of Maclan of Glencoe, for a raid committed on the farm of Dalshangie,
in Glen-Urquhart, in 1689; an Inventory of Writs and Evidents of the Estate
of Kilmun, delivered by Patrick Campbell of Barcaldine (father of John), for
himself and in name of his spouse, Agnes Campbell, only lawful daughter to
the deceased James Campbell of Kilmun, to Col. Alex. Campbell of Finab,
dated Edinburgh, 9th May, 1705; an anonymous letter, dated 1753, anent Allan
Breck, bearing internal evidence of being the production of James Mor
Drummond or MacGregor ; and a copy of the Oath of Allegiance to George II.,
and of abjuration of James VIII., in Gaelic, of date 1754 ; and also two
•curious communications of much later date, 1809, relative to one mermaid
seen near Thurso, and another apparently near Reay Manse. Lord Glenorchy’s
letters are of general interest, referring, as they do, to various topics of
the day between 1745 and 1757. These include public events at the
commencement of the Jacobite rising, and the appointment of the Duke of
Cumberland to the command of the Royal army; the movements of the Highland
army, their campaign in the North of England and retirement northwards; the
raising of the militia and granting of commissions; the sending of Highland
prisoners from Edinburgh to Carlisle; Lord Lo vat’s trial; the abolition of
heritable jurisdictions; the forfeited estates, and opinions as to the
education of the sons of the Jacobite lairds ; the search for the Prince
after Culloden, and speculations whether he had escaped abroad ; the success
of Ardsheal, Ludovick Cameron, and Cluny in remaining in hiding ; the trials
and executions of Jacobites, and, in particular, Tirindrish; an alleged
visit of emissaries from the Prince to Cluny in his hiding-place; the
prosecution of Gleuure’s murderers, and references to James Mor Drummond or
Macgregor, and to Admiral Byng’s trial. The letters from members of
Barcaldine’s family, several of whom were soldiers, serving in regiments of
the British army, are full of interest, relating personal incidents during
the campaign, 1745 46, in the American war, at the assault on Ticonderoga,
&c,; at the attack on Pondicherry in India; and at the capture of the French
man-of-war, the Foudroyant, by the British ship Monmouth, on board of which
the writer of the letter, a young officer in command of a small party of
General Whitmore’s regiment from Gibraltar, only thirty men, took part. Many
letters relate to the murder of Colin Campbell of Glenure, and the trial and
execution of James Stewart of Acharn; to the attempts to effect the arrest
of Allan Breck, and the suspicion attaching to Fasnacloich and others; some
letters refer to the trial and execution of Dr Archibald Cameron, and some
to the arrest of Cameron of Fassifern.
It will probably be most
convenient to give the correspondence arranged chronologically, as in many
cases letters from one person help to explain allusions in letters from
others.
I beg to draw attention to a
long and carefully prepared “Memorial” (as it is called) drawn up by Lord
Glenorchy with a view to clear John Campbell of Barcaldine and his
half-brother, Colin of Glenure, from the suspicion of having any Jacobite
tendencies while engaged as Factors on forfeited estates; it is undated, but
probably belongs to the year 1750, and contains interesting information
about his two kinsmen and protegees, whose grandfather, Alexander, had been
Chamberlain on the Breadalbane estates at the time of the Glencoe massacre.
I shall commence by giving a
short account of the Barcaldine family, as without this it is often
difficult to understand the allusions, and to know who the writer of a given
letter is: many of the writers were members of the Clan Campbell, but pretty
widely connected by marriage, e.g., with the Camerons of Lochiel, Mackays of
Bighouse, Sinclairs of Ulbster, and Sinclairs Earls of Caithness. I shall
also show briefly the connection between the Lochiel family and that of
Glenorchy and its cadet Barcaldine, aud also that of Achalader.
D. W.
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