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AMONG the emigrants to
the Scotch settlements on the Cape Fear, was Flora McDonald, a name held
in the highest reverence in the traditions of North Carolina and the
Highlands of Scotland, though English history has given her neither a
name nor a place in her pages, crowded with the events and personages of
that day, that no human art can save from the oblivion they deserve.
With or without history, the descendants of the Highlanders in North
Carolina will love the name of Flora McDonald, while female excellence
can he found among their sisters and daughters.
In those heart-stirring
events that succeeded the rising in favor of the Pretender, and led to
the emigration of the Scotch settlement on the Cape Fear river, Flora
McDonald first makes her appearance, a young and blooming girl; in the
troubles and distresses-that affected the honest yet divided Scotch in
Carolina, at the commencement of the American Revolution, she is the
dignified matron; before the disasters and radical principles of the
French Revolution troubled her country and employed her children, she
was carried to the cemetery of Kilmuir.
The most romantic escape
of the Pretender, Prince Charles Edward, in his five months' wanderings
in the Highlands of Scotland, hunted from mountain to dell, from crag to
cavern, by day and by night, by the soldiers of the Duke of Cumberland,
and a price set upon his head as a fugitive felon, was planned and
executed by the McDonalds, the most powerful of whom had opposed the
attempt to place the Prince upon the throne, as a hopeless rebellion,
and many of whom were bearing alms for the house of Hanover; and some
even then leading forces in search of time Royal fugitive, into the
wilds and fastnesses of the Highlands and the Western Isles.
Roderick Mackenzie aided
the flight of the Prince by his chivalrous death; Flora McDonald by her
romantic spirit and womanly contrivance. "This young man," says one,
"sought concealment in the mountains of Ross-shire after the battle of
Culloden, and was surprised by a party of soldiers sent in pursuit of
Charles Edward. His age, his figure, his air, deceiving the military
completely, they were going to secure him, believing they had got hold
of the true prince. Mackenzie perceiving their mistake, with great
fortitude and presence of mind instantly resolves to render it useful to
his master. He drew his sword, and the courage with which he defended
himself, satisfied these soldiers that he could be no other than the
Pretender. One of them fired at him; Mackenzie fell, and with his last
breath exclaimed—'You have killed your Prince.' This generous sacrifice
suspended for the time all pursuit, and afforded an opportunity for the
unfortunate Charles to escape from the hands of his enemies."
The escape by the aid of
Flora was less bloody and more romantic. With great difficulty he had
made his way across the Highlands to the western shore, and setting sail
in an eight-oared boat from the farm of Arasag, after encountering a
most furious storm, such as are frequent on that northern sea, when, in
the language of Ossian, "The thunder of the skies, as a rock, penetrated
the heavens, and a fiery pillar issued from the black cloud," he landed
on one of the western islands, South Uist, and found a shelter for a
time at Ormaclet, with Laird McDonald, of Clan Ronald. The keen scent of
his pursuers at length traced him to this place, and three thousand
soldiers, red coats as they were called, were sent to search the island,
through every dell, and rock, and crag, and cottage; and armed vessels
were stationed all around to intercept every ship or boat that might
attempt to leave the shore and convey away the royal fugitive. Many
projects for his escape were proposed by his anxious friends, and laid
aside in rapid succession. At length Lady McDonald suggested a romantic
plan,—that, arrayed in female clothes, he should accompany a lady as
her waiting woman, or servant maid. Two difficulties were to be
encountered; what lady would engage in the dangerous, though romantic
enterprise? and how should they obtain a passport from the hostile
officers for such a company to leave the island? Two young ladies in the
house of McDonald were appealed to, but their courage was less than
their tenderness.
At this critical time,
who should come to the house of Laird McDonald but the kind and
beautiful Flora, from Mil1burg, in the same island, to visit her
relations, on her return from Edinburgh, having just completed her
education in that metropolis. The father of this accomplished young lady
had been some time dead, and her mother was united in marriage with
Captain Hugh McDonald, the one eyed; the son of Samuel, the son of great
James, the son of young Blue Donald, of Armadale, in the Isle of Skye.
her step-father, Capt. Hugh McDonald, was then in Uist, in command of a
company of the clan McDonald, in the service of King George, searching
for the Prince.
The peculiar feelings of
the Scotch towards the Royal family of their nation is beautifully
exhibited in the occurrences connected with that young lady's visit.
While these McDonalds could not take arms to place the prince upon the
throne, esteeming the effort madness, and were defending the reigning
house of Hanover, and even then in arms in search of Charles, hemmed in
among the crags of Uist, they could not find it in their heart to seize
him, now in their power, though some of them were so pressed with debt
that the large reward offered might have been a temptation, and the
fines and confiscations that would follow suspicion of their favor for
the Pretender, might have been a sufficient reason to hold them back
from any effort for his escape. "Will you," says the lady of Laird
McDonald to Flora, after making her acquainted with the presence and
hiding-place of the Prince on the island, and the plan she was
meditating for his escape, "will you expose yourself to this danger to
aid the escape of the Prince from his enemies that have him here
enclosed?" The maiden answered, "Since I am to die, and can die but
once, I am perfectly willing to put my life in jeopardy to save his
Royal Highness from the danger which now besets him." Delighted with
this response, the lady opened time matter to an officer named O'Neill,
who expressed the same romantic desire to aid the escape of the very man
for the apprehension of whom he was then in arms. He accompanied Flora
to Carradale, a rocky, craggy; wild, sequestered place, where the Prince
lay concealed, in a cave, that they might concert with him the details
of the plan of his escape. On entering the cave they found the Prince
alone, broiling a small fresh fish upon the coals for his lonely repast.
Startled at their approach, and supposing his retreat had been
discovered by the soldiers, and escape to be hopeless, he put himself on
the defence to sell his life as dearly as his dignity required. The
gallant young officer and the beautiful lady do him reverence as a
prince. At their kind salutations his alarm gives place to astonishment;
and the unfolding of the plan for his escape from his desperate
condition, filled his heart with unmeasured delight. After a short
interview, Flora left him, and calling on her brother at Millburg, finds
a youth, Neill McDonald, the son of Hector, as noble, generous, and
romantic as herself, who entered with devotion into the plan for the
escape of the Prince, in whose company she returns to Ormaclet., to
complete the preparations for the departure from the island.
The most important step
was to procure a passport from the island, that might protect them from
the search of officers, and detention by the vessels on the coast. Flora
at length obtained one from her step-father, Captain Hugh McDonald, for
herself, her youthful companion Neill McDonald, and three others, to
constitute a boat's crew, and also for her serving maid, BETSEY BURKE, a
stout Irishwoman, whom Flora pretended she had engaged for the special
purpose of becoming her mother's spinster, at Armadale, in Skye. As the
Captain gave the passport, and wrote by Flora a letter recommendatory of
Betsey Burke as a spinster, it is conjectured, not without reason, that
he was not altogether unaware of the designs of his fair step-daughter,
though he wisely kept himself in ignorance.
While the arrangements
were in progress for this visit of Flora to her mother, in Skye, Allan
McDonald, of the, hill, arrived at Ormaclet with a company of soldiers
in search for the Prince, without any particular suspicions that the
fugitive was near, or any thought that his fair kinswoman was concerting
a plan of escape which his presence might particularly discommode. There
was now no time to be lost. Flora, hastening to his hiding-place,
clothes the Prince in the attire of an Irish serving woman, and on the
afternoon of Saturday, the 28th of June, 1746, the party embark from
Uist for the isle of Skye. Soon after they launch forth, there comes
upon them a furious storm of wind. Tossed to and fro, and driven about
all night, the courage of the maiden never forsakes tier; anxious for
her charge, rather than for herself, she encourages the men not to turn
back. Inspirited by the exhortations of the maiden, the oarsmen exert
their utmost strength, and surmounting all the dangers of the tempest,
at dawn of day they approach Point Vatermish in the Isle of Skye. As
they draw near, however, the sight of a band of soldiers drawn up upon
the shore to receive the boat, turns them back to the ocean; and the
volleys discharged at them by the soldiers hasten their flight, while
the balls are whistling by and rebounding from the waves. Turning
eastwardly they pursue their course, and about noon, on Sabbath, land at
Kilbride, in the parish of Kilmuir, near the Magastathouse, the
residence of Sir Alexander McDonald, the Laird of Sleite, to repose like
the dove after her flight over the waters, for a little space, in the
ark.
Concealing the Prince in
a hollow rock on the beach, Flora repaired to the chieftain's mansion,
and met a most cordial reception from Lady McDonald, in the absence of
the Laird. The hall was full of officers, whose sole business was to
search for the royal fugitive; and the Laird himself was known to be
hostile to his pretensions. The maiden, more self-possessed from the
danger, with confiding enthusiasm makes known to the lady the
hiding-place of the Prince, and the circumstances of his escape from
Uist. The lady's heart answers to the maiden's confidence, and she
espouses her cause, and sends by Alexander McDonald, the Laird of
Kingsburg, Baillie to Sir Alexander, her husband, who happened to be in
the house, refreshments of wine and other comforts suited to the
necessities of the fatigued and distressed wanderer. By advice of Lady
McDonald, who feared discovery from the numerous officers and soldiers
then on the estate, Flora and Betsey Burke set out immediately for
Kingsburg, about twelve miles distant, accompanied by the Baillie as
their guide. On their way they met many of the country people returning
from church, whose curiosity was much excited by the coarse, negligent,
clumsy-looking, long-legged female figure that accompanied the Laird and
the maiden. Without any indignity or suspicion they reached the place of
their destination about sunset, wearied from the storm and perils of the
preceding night, and the escapes and journeys of time day. The next
morning Flora accompanied the Prince to Portaree, and there bid him
adieu. On parting he kissed her, and said, ''Gentle, faithful maiden, I
entertain the hope that we shall yet meet in the Palace Royal." They
never met again; the hopes of the Prince were as unsubstantial and
evanescent as the shadows of the clouds, and the fogs that rest upon the
hills. His escape was the work not of his chivalry or courage, but of
woman's tenderness, and the loyal feelings of Scottish Hearts.
From Portaree, the Prince
took passage to Raarsay; and from that island he went to Straith
McKinnon, having for his guide a poor man, Malcolm McLeod, whose pack he
carried as a paid servant, to escape observation. From thence, he took
passage by water to Arasag, and then wandered through Arasag and Moodart
and the roughest of the Highlands, enduring incredible hardships, till
about the middle of autumn he found vessels to convey him and a few
friends to France, leaving Scotland as unattended as he entered,
hopeless of his crown, multitudes of his friends butchered, and others
beggared or in exile, his resources all exhausted, himself the scorn of
France and pity of the world. With him sailed to France Neill McDonald,
who assisted in his flight from Uist, and had shared his fortunes during
his wanderings. The enthusiasm of his fair kinswoman dwelt in his bosom,
and spread itself through the youth of the Highlands, and rendered the
capture of the Prince more hopeless; after the exploit of the maiden
arid the two ladies McDonald, who would hesitate to give him succor and
conceal his retreat ? Neill McDonald remained in France; and his son
became famous in the wars of the French Revolution, being made marshal
by Buonaparte, and for his success created Duke of Tarentum. Had the
unfortunate Charles Edward possessed a spirit to command, equal to the
courage and daring of his friends, the house of Stuart might now occupy
the throne of England.
After the escape of the
Prince to France, the troubles of Flora McDonald commenced. Incensed at
the loss of their victim, and not satisfied with the possession of the
kingdom, and the executions that the plea of necessity may have
justified, the officers of the crown seized on those who were known to
have aided the Prince in his flight, and conveyed them to London as
state prisoners, for sending from the island the cause of the late
disturbance, routed, broken down and discouraged, and at once delivering
the crown from farther cause of uneasiness, and the country from
agitation. Flora was arrested, and together with Malcolm McLeod, whose
pack the prince had carried, McKinnon of the Straith, who received him
from McLeod, and McDonald of Kingsburg, who aided Flora on the 29th of
June, were taken to London and confined in the Tower as prisoners of
state, to be tried for their life, as aiding and abetting attempts
against the life and crown of King George. The example of the young lady
in rousing up her countrymen, however friendly to the house of Hanover,
to promote the escape of one whom they could not, and perhaps on account
of his religion, would not make king, turned the indignation of those
who had lost the splendid reward offered for the Pretender dead or
alive, upon herself and her friends. During their confinement, the
nobility of England became deeply interested in the beautiful and high
spirited Flora, especially as she was not a partisan of the Pretender,
nor of his religious faith. Her devotion to royalty, so romantically
expressed, won the favor of Prince Frederick the heir apparent, great
grandfather of Victoria, the present queen of England; visiting her in
prison, he became enlisted in leer favor most strongly; she awakened in
his bosom the chivalric gallantry she had called forth in her
countrymen; and by his strenuous exertions he procured her release,
greatly to his own honor and the prosperity of the kingdom, and the
popularity of the king.
After being set at
liberty, her residence, while she remained in London, was surrounded by
the carriages of the nobility and gentry, who paid their respects
personally, congratulating her on her enterprise, her courage, her
loyalty, and her release. Lady Primrose, a favorer of the Pretender, a
lady of wealth and distinction, introduced her to the court society, and
by her example and influence, obtained large presents to make her forget
her captivity, and to meet the expenses of her detention and her return
to her own country. The tradition in Carolina, where she afterwards
lived, is, that "she received golden ornaments and coin enough to fill a
half bushel." She was introduced to the king, George II. and to his
somewhat ungallant inquiry—"How could you dare to succor the enemy of my
crown and kingdom?" site replied with great simplicity—"It was no more
than I would have done for your majesty, had you been in like
situation." A chaise and four were fitted up for her return to Scotland;
for her escort she chose a fellow prisoner, Malcolm McLeod, who used
afterwards to boast, "that he went to London to be hanged—but rode back
in a chaise and four with Flora McDonald."
Four years after her
return to Scotland she was married to Allan McDonald, son of the Laird
of Kingsburg, who, at the death of his father, succeeded to the estate
and title; and thus she became mistress of the very mansion in which the
Prince passed his first night in the Isle of Skye, June 29th, 1746,
after the romantic escape from Uist. Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell, in
their tour to the Hebrides in 1773, were hospitably entertained by Allan
and Flora McDonald, and were greatly gratified by being put to sleep in
the same bed in which the unfortunate Charles Edward had slept the night
he passed upon the island. Flora, though then more than twenty years a
wife, and the mother of numerous children, still retained her blooming
countenance and genteel form, and was full of the enthusiasm of her
youth. On account of the pecuniary embarrassments of her husband, they
were then, the doctor tells us, in his journal, contemplating a removal
to North Carolina, to join their countrymen and friends on the Cape Fear
river, sent thither immediately after the rebellion of 1745. From that
period the sandy country of the Carolinas had been the refuge of the
Highlanders, whether they fled from poverty or oppression, or were drawn
by the desire of being independent landholders and wealthy men. In the
year 1775, just as the troubles in the American colonies were turning
into rebellion against the tyranny of England, and the assertion of
independence of all foreign control, Allan and Flora, with their family
and some friends, landed in North Carolina and took their abode for a
short time at Cross Creek, now Fayetteville. The place of her residence
was destroyed by the great fire that swept off a large part of the town
one Sabbath in the summer of 182—. The ruins of this dwelling are still
to be seen as you pass from the market-house to the court-house, on your
right hand, just before you cross the creek, not far from the office
built out over the stream. After a short stay in this place, they
removed to Cameron's Hill, in the Barbacue congregation, about twenty
miles above Fayetteville, in Cumberland county. While residing at this
place, Mrs. Smith, now living in Robeson county, from whom much of the
information respecting Flora was derived, remembers seeing her, at the
Barbacue church, a dignified and handsome woman, to whom all paid great
respect. They afterwards removed farther up the country into Anson
county. While residing there, Donald McDonald, a relation of Flora's,
who had been an officer in the Pretender's army in 1745, and had taken
the oath of allegiance and emigrated to save his life, was commissioned
by Governor Martin as general in the service of his Majesty George III.
On the 1st of February, 1776, he issued his proclamation calling on all
loyal and true highlanders to join his standard at Cross Creek. Some
fifteen hundred men soon assembled in arms; some of whom were sincerely
attached to the house of Hanover, and others were under oaths of
allegiance to which they owed their life, and, as some believed, their
property. With these were assembled Kings-burg McDonald, the husband of
Flora, with their kindred and neighbors, animated by the spirit of this
matron, who now, on her former principles, defended George III. as
readily as she had aided the unfortunate Charles Edward about thirty
years before. Tradition says she accompanied her husband and neighbors
to Cross-wicks, and communicated her own enthusiasm to the assembled
Scotch. From this fact it has been supposed by sonic, that she followed
the army in its march to join Governor Martin at the mouth of Cape Fear.
Mrs. Smith, however, expressly asserts that she did not follow the army;
but returned to her residence in Anson, when the army first moved tip
Rockfish, as it did in a short time, in preparation to march down time
river.
On their march down the
river the forces of General McDonald were met by Colonels Lillington and
Caswell, near the month of Moore's Creek, in New Hanover, and after a
severe engagement, on the 27th, were entirely routed and dispersed,
taken prisoners or killed. Among the prisoners was the husband of Flora,
who served as captain.
After the release of her
husband from Halifax jail, the place of confinement for the officers
taken in the battle, having suffered much in their estate from the
plunderings and confiscations to which the Royalists were exposed, they
with their family embarked in a sloop of war for their native land. On
the voyage home, the sloop was attacked by a French vessel of war; and
as the engagement grew warm the courage of the sailors deserted them,
and capture seemed inevitable. Ascending the quarter deck, she animated
the men to renew the conflict with activity and courage, nothing daunted
by a wound she received in her hand. The sight of the courageous and
wounded woman aroused the spirit of the crew to the highest pitch.
Having beaten off the enemy, they landed Flora and the family safe on
their native soil, from which she never again departed. She used
sometimes to remark pleasantly on the peculiarity of her condition, "I
have hazarded my life both for the house of Stuart and the house of
Hanover; and I do not see that I am a great gainer by it."
To the close of her life
she was of a gentle, affable demeanor, and greatly beloved; her modesty
and self-respect were blended with kindness and benevolence. There were
none of those masculine passions and habits, or tempers, so commonly
connected in our thoughts with acts of bravery performed by females. She
was always womanly in her course, and always lovely. The mother of a
numerous family, five sons and two daughters, she inspired them all with
her spirit of loyalty and adventure; the sons all became military
officers, and were faithful to their king and country the daughters were
married to military men, and maintained their loyalty and their honor,
as true descendants of such a mother. Loyalty in these ladies had no
servility in it; it was a sense of the necessity of a firm and
established government to execute laws for the peace of the community,
and a conviction that a restricted monarchy was the best form of
government, and that a hereditary was better than an elective crown. The
most desolating wars in the history of their country had been waged by
disputants for the crown.
The eventful life of this
amiable lady was closed March 5th, 1790. We have no record of the mental
and religious exercises of her last moments. She was educated, lived,
and died in the Presbyterian faith, the faith of the Church of Scotland; and never sympathized in the religious creed of the Pretender, whose
life she saved. It was not so much admiration of the Prince, as a
character or a man, as the workings of her own kind heart and noble soul
in looking upon her hereditary Prince in distress, that moved her to the
romantic and hazardous enterprise of his escape from Uist. An immense
concourse of people were assembled at her funeral; not less than three
thousand persons followed the corpse to the brave in the cemetery of
Kilrnuir, in the Isle of Skye. According to a request long previously
expressed, her shroud was made of the identical sheets in which the
Prince reposed the night he slept at Kingsburg,—thus carrying to her
grave the romantic spirit of her youth.
A writer who visited the
cemetery in September, 1841, says "There is not so much as one of that
family in the land of the living. At the end of two years the body of
her husband was deposited in a grave by her side,—where, alas, all her
offspring now silently slumber. Thus is Flora McDonald, she who once was
beautiful as the flower of the morning, now reposing beneath a green
Hillock; and no monument, as yet, has been erected to perpetuate the
memory of her faithfulness or her achievements
Thus the beauty of the world shall pass away!"
Though no monument be
erected in England or in Scotland to her memory; though no page of
English history shall inscribe her worth, because displayed in an
unpopular cause; though from the time of that ill-planned and ill-fated
rebellion, the whole policy of England towards her native country has
been to annihilate the habits, and the very language and dress of the
Highlands, and of her youth, her memory will live in North Carolina
while nobleness has admirers, and romantic self-devotion to the welfare
of the distressed can charm the heart. And will not that be for ever?
Will not posterity admire her more than Prince Charles who led his
followers to slaughter? or George II., who envied the popularity of leis
own son? and draw more instruction from her romance and affection, and
boldness, and devotion, and womanly graces, and feminine loveliness,
than from all the court of England that fill the histories of that
by-gone period?
Massachusetts has her
Lady Arabella; Virginia her Pocahontas and North Carolina her Flora
McDonald. |
