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In the course of this same year (1612) a tragical
disaster befell a body of Caithness men and their leader, Colonel George
Sinclair, in Norway. Sinclair was a natural son of David Sinclair of
Stirkoke, and nephew of the Earl of Caithness. Like many other Scotchmen
of the period, he was a soldier of fortune, and had entered the service
of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who was then at war with Denmark
and Norway. Having raised a regiment in his native county, amounting, it
is said, to some 900 men, Sinclair embarked for Norway, and after a
favourable passage of four days, landed on the coast of Romsdal. As a
considerable part of the Swedish coast—all, indeed, from Nyborg to
Calmar—was in temporary possession of the Danes, and as Stockholm was at
the time invested by a large Danish fleet, he could not get to that city
by way of the Baltic, and he was therefore obliged to land in Norway.
His intention was to march across the country—in doing which he would
have to pass the great chain of the Norwegian Alps—a difficult and
perilous enterprise under the most favourable circumstances, but
particularly so when the natives were his enemies. He was encouraged to
make the attempt, however, from finding that Colonel Munckhoven, with an
army of 2300 Scotchmen, had not long before landed at Trondheim, and
succeeded in forcing his way over into Sweden. Sinclair accordingly
pursued his route along the valley of the Lessoe, and, if Norwegian
accounts can be credited, laid waste the country, and inflicted much
unnecessary cruelty on the inhabitants. The King's troops were at the
seat of war, and there was no home militia to protect them. The
peasantry, naturally brave, were roused to vengeance. Signal fires were
lighted on every commanding height, and the budstick
["The Norwegian budstick, or message stick,"
says Laing, "answered the same purpose as the
fiery cross in Scotland. It is of the size and shape of our constable's
baton, is painted, and stamped with the royal arms, and made hollow with
a head to screw upon one end, and an iron spoke on the other. The
official notice to meet, the time, place, and object, are written on a
piece of paper, which is rolled up and placed in the hollow. This is
delivered from the public office or court-house of the district to the
nearest householder, who is bound, by law, to transmit it to the
nearest, and so on. The householder to whom it comes last brings it back
to the office."] was sent round to warn young and old to a general
muster. A body of about 500 peasants assembled, armed with rifles, and
axes, and under the leadership of one of their own number, named Berdon
Seilstad of Ringe-boe, resolved, as they had no chance of overcoming
Sinclair in open fight, to endeavour to cut him off by stratagem. The
mountainous nature of the country, to which the Scots were strangers,
was regarded as particularly favourable for an at-tempt of this kind.
Sinclair's movements, therefore, were narrowly watched by spies
appointed for the purpose, and unceasing strategy was practised to lead
him into an ambuscade. The part of the country through which he was now
conducting his men, bordered on the Dovre Field, and in the course of
the march he arrived at a tremendous mountain gorge, called the Pass of
Kringelen, which he must either go through, or make a circuit of several
miles. The road, which was little else than a mere footpath, was
exceedingly narrow, and overhung the precipitous banks of a deep and
rapid stream that flowed underneath. While Sinclair paused, uncertain
whether to make the attempt or not, a young man, in the garb of a
peasant, came up, and voluntarily offered to be his guide. His seemingly
simple and unembarrassed manner was calculated to lull suspicion. After
some hesitation, Sinclair unfortunately trusted himself to his guidance.
The Caithness corps now proceeded leisurely along the difficult and
dangerous defile, the stranger youth leading the way.
When they had nearly reached
the middle of the pass, the treacherous guide fired a rifle which he had
concealed about his person, and immediately disappeared among the rocks.
This was the preconcerted signal between him and the natives. In a
moment after the discharge of the rifle, the Boors, who lay concealed in
the rocks above, started up like Roderick Dhu's men from their ambush,
and poured down a murderous volley on the unfortunate Caithness men.
Others of the natives, who were not provided with fire-arms, hurled down
large stones and trunks of trees, which literally crushed them to
pieces. The slaughter was dreadful. Colonel Sinclair himself was among
the first that fell. Many of the bodies of the killed tumbled into the
river below, which was dyed with their blood. About sixty were taken
prisoners. They were at first distributed among the neighbouring
hamlets; but the savage Boors getting at length tired of supporting
them, marched them off to a meadow, and cruelly murdered them in cold
blood. (The particulars of this horrible tragedy were furnished to the
author by a gentleman, a native of Caithness, who had some time resided
in Norway, and had visited the scene of the catastrophe.) Of the entire
nine hundred, only one or two escaped and got home to Caithness. Among
these, tradition says, was Colonel Sinclair's lady, whose adventure on
this occasion imparts a strong air of romance to the melancholy story.
She was a young and beautiful woman, and being unwilling to part with
her husband, to whom she had been but recently united, she accompanied
the expedition, at first disguised in male attire, and did not reveal
herself until the corps had landed in Norway. Strange to say, she was
with them in the Pass of Kringelen, and escaped the fearful massacre.
The tradition respecting our Caithness heroine seems to be well founded.
Laing, an accurate and trustworthy writer, says, "A youth, who meant to
join the peasants in the attack, was prevented by a young lady to whom
he was to be married next day. She, on learning that there was one of
her own sex among the Scottish troops, sent her lover to her protection:
Mrs Sinclair, not understanding his purpose, shot him dead." The bodies
of the unfortunate Caithness men, it is said, were barbarously left
unburied, to become a prey to the wolf and the vulture. But some respect
was paid to their leader's remains, which were decently interred. The
Norwegians are proud of pointing out to strangers the spot in which he
is buried. It lies in a remote solitude near the fatal pass, and over
the grave is a wooden cross, with a tablet, on which is the following
inscription, in the Norse language:— "Here lies Colonel George Sinclair,
who, with 900 Scotsmen, were dashed to pieces, like so many earthen
pots, by the peasants of Lessoe, Vaage, and Froen, Berdon Seilstad of
Ringeboe was their leader." Robert Chambers, who, in his tour through
Norway, visited the place, says:—"In a peasant's house near by were
shown to me, in 1849, a few relics of the poor Caithness men, a
matchlock or two, a broadsword, a couple of powder-flasks, and the
wooden part of a drum."The author of a recent work,
entitled "The Oxonian in Norway," gives a somewhat different version of
this tragical story. The following, slightly abbreviated, is his account
of it:— "Colonel Sinclair landed, with 900 Scottish soldiers, at
Vibel-ungsnaest, in Romsdal, and determined upon the hazardous
experiment of marching across the country. As soon as the news of this
invasion reached Lars Hage, the Lehnsman of the Dovre, he hurried to the
parish church, where service was being held. Striding into the building,
he struck thrice upon the floor, and cried 'Listen! the foeman is in the
land.' The congregation upon this immediately broke up, and it was
finally agreed to lay an ambush at Kringelen, which, from the
precipitous nature of the ground overhanging the road, was well adapted
for the purpose. A vast quantity of rocks were loosened, and so placed
on the verge of the precipice as to admit of being easily hurled down at
a moment's notice. On the opposite side of the river rode a peasant on a
white horse, whose orders were to keep alongside of the advancing enemy.
A peasant girl was stationed on a hill over the water, with her
cow-horn, who was to give a signal, by blowing her instrument, as soon
as the Scots had fallen into the snare. These precautions were
necessary, as, from their ambuscade, the peasants could not get a sight
of what was passing below. Onwards marched the Scots, guided by one
Peder Klunkenes, whom they had violently pressed into their service.
Presently the strange and melancholy tones of an Alpine horn resounded
from a distant height. At the same instant down thundered a mass of
stones and trunks of trees upon the devoted Scots. (A similar tragedy,
on a larger scale, took place at the Potlatzer, in the valley of the
Inn, in the year 1809. A whole division of the French and Bavarian army
were there crushed under an avalanche of rocks, which tumbled down upon
their heads at the Tyrolese signal—"In the name of the Holy Trinity cut
all loose!") Berdon Seilstad, who had bitten one of his silver buttons
into the shape of a bullet, so as to be sure of his man, who was
supposed to bear a charmed life, took aim at Sinclair, and hit him over
the left eye, killing him on the spot. The peasants were some 400 in
number, of whom six only were slain. All the Scots are said to have been
butchered but eighteen. But accounts differ."
There is a pretty long Norwegian ballad on the
subject, entitled "Herr Sinclair's vise af Storm," that is, literally,
Lord Sinclair's song by Storm, in which the prowess of the peasants is
highly extolled. It is sung everywhere throughout Norway, and
constitutes one of her great national airs. In it the number of
Sinclair's men is said to have been 1400; but this is evidently a poetic
licence, as, from the best accounts, as well as from the inscription on
the monumental tablet, the real number was only 900. (The historian of
the house of Sutherland says that Colonel Sinclair had only 150 men. As
Caithness was then thinly peopled, it is quite possible that this was
all the number of men which he had with him belonging to the county, and
that the remainder of the force consisted of recruits from other
counties. Yon Buch, in his "Travels," however, and all other writers who
notice the event, with the exception of Laing, who reduces the number to
600, agree that Sinclair had a body of 900 men under his charge when he
met with this sad catastrophe in Norway.) The following is a free
translation of the song from the original Norse, which, it may be
remarked, has no allusion to the hurling down of the stones, as if the
poet thought this was too savage a piece of butchery for the muse:—
THE MASSACRE OP KRINGELEN
To Norway Sinclair steered his course
Across the salt sea wave,
But in Kringelen's mountain pass
He found an early grave.
To fight for Swedish gold he sailed,
He and his hireling band:
Help, God! and nerve the peasant's arm
To wield the patriot brand.
'Neath the pale moon the billowy surge
Around the tall ship broke,
"When from the deep the mermaid rose,
And thus to Sinclair spoke:—
"Speed back, speed back, thou Scottish youth,
My warning do not spurn;
For, if thou touchest Norway's strand,
Thou never shalt return."
"Vile wretch!" the angry chief replied,
"Thou ever bodest ill;
If I but had thee in my power,
Thy heart's blood I would spill."
Three days he sailed the stormy sea;
The fourth day saw him land
With twice seven hundred stalwart men,
Equipp'd with spear and brand.
He flung his banner to the breeze,
Laid many a hamlet low,
And mark'd his route with blood and spoil—
The mercenary foe.
The warriors of the land are far,
They and their kingly lord;
But shall her peasant sons not rise
And draw the avenging sword?
On rock and hill the beacons blazed,
"Up, Northmen!" was the cry;
And at the summons mustering strong,
They met to "do or die."
In ambush close, 'mong Gulbrand's cliffs,
Five hundred rifles lay;
The vulture smelt the game afar,
And hastened to his prey.
The fated band are in the pass;
Up rose the peasants round,
And poured on them a storm of fire,
When Sinclair bit the ground.
Woe to his hapless followers now!
By hundreds dropping fast,—
They fell as thick as autumn leaves
Before the polar blast.
In slaughtered heaps their bodies lay
By Lange's darksome flood,
While the ravens from a thousand hills
Gorged in the feast of blood.
They lay unburied where they fell—
A sad and ghastly show,
Until the storm-king pity took,
And shrouded them in snow.
O! many a maid and mother wept,
And father's cheek grew pale,
When from the few survivors' lips
Was heard the startling tale.
A monument yet marks the spot,
Which points to Sinclair's bier,
And tells how fourteen hundred men
Sunk in that pass of fear.
Before embarking for Norway, Sinclair was engaged in
a piece of business which, we suspect, will not be regarded as having a
tendency to exalt his character. The circumstances of the case are
briefly these. John, Lord Maxwell of Niths-dale, having, it is said,
treacherously slain Sir James Johnstone, a neighbouring Border chief,
first fled to France, and afterwards to Caithness, where he lurked for
some time. Having, at length, got a hint that his place of concealment
was known, and that a price was set on his head, he attempted to make
his escape out of the county, but was apprehended near its southern
boundary by Colonel Sinclair, sent to Edinburgh, and executed. Before
committing the crime for which he suffered, Lord Maxwell had quarrelled
with the Government about the Morton peerage and estates, which he
claimed in right of his mother, Lady Beatrice Douglas, daughter of the
celebrated Regent Morton. This no doubt in the eyes of Royalty
aggravated his guilt. His "Good Night," a pathetic ballad, in which he
takes leave of his lady and friends, is printed in the Border
Minstrelsy.
1614.—This year, the Earl of Caithness was employed
by Government to quell a species of rebellion which had taken place in
Orkney. The notorious Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, had been guilty
of many grievous acts of oppression and violence both in that county and
in Shetland, for which his memory is execrated to this day. He fearfully
harassed the poor natives; and in an age remarkable for feudal tyranny,
he was one of the worst and most despotic of tyrants. A serious
misunderstanding had arisen between him and James Law, Bishop of Orkney.
The bishop, at length, urged on by his own grievances, and the crying
complaints of the people, transmitted to the King a long list of the
many crimes and misdemeanors committed by the Earl, who was in
consequence imprisoned, and divested of his titles and estates; and
collectors were appointed by the Council to levy the rents for the
Crown. Patrick, from his prison, sent special instructions to his
natural son Robert to uplift the rents as usual, and pay no attention to
the orders of Council. Robert did so, and forcibly expelled the
collectors; while at the same time he took possession of the palace of
Birsa, the castle of Kirkwall, the palace of the Yards, and the tower of
the Cathedral, which he fortified as strongly as he could.
The Earl of Caithness, who happened to be in
Edinburgh at the time, offered to proceed to Orkney and vindicate the
authority of the law, provided he were furnished with sufficient troops
for the purpose. Government agreed to give him the requisite force;
and the Earl, in the month of August, set sail from Leith with a
body of soldiers, and some cannon from the castle of Edinburgh. On
arriving on the Caithness coast, the vessel brought up in Sinclair's
Bay; and having procured some additional men from his own property, the
Earl, accompanied by his natural brother, Henry Sinclair, sailed
directly for Orkney, and disembarked his troops in the neighbourhood of
Kirkwall. He then opened the campaign in true military style. He
besieged and took in succession the different posts occupied by the
insurgents. The last was the castle of Kirkwall, which Robert Stewart,
with only sixteen men, bravely defended for the space of three weeks.
The King's cannon made little impression on the iron walls of the
fortress; and it was taken at last only through the treachery of
a Patrick Halcro, one of the besieged. The prisoners were all brought
south and executed, with the exception of Halcro; and very soon after,
Earl Patrick Stewart himself was beheaded for high treason at the Market
Cross of Edinburgh.
Before leaving Orkney, the Earl of Caithness
delivered up the castle of Kirkwall to Sir James Stewart of Kilsyth,
afterwards Lord Ochiltree, on whom, in the capacity of farmer-general,
the King had conferred a new grant of the county. A few months after the
siege, the Government ordered the castle of Kirkwall to be demolished.
The work of destruction was set about, and it was converted into a
melancholy ruin, the more conspicuous and striking from its being
situated on the west side of the main street, nearly fronting the
Cathedral. This ancient fortress—the walls of which were of immense
thickness, and so strongly cemented as to be almost impenetrable—was
built in the fourteenth century by Henry Sinclair, the first of that
name who was Earl of Orkney. It was called the King's Castle, from its
being the ordinary residence of the royal governors or chamberlains of
the islands subsequent to their annexation to the Crown of Scotland. It
was to this castle that Bothwell fled for refuge after parting with the
Queen at Carberry Hill. But Balfour, the governor, refused to admit him;
and in revenge he plundered the town of Kirkwall. This was his first act
of piracy.
Among the writers who have related the story of the
unhappy Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, there is a considerable
difference of opinion regarding his criminality. Peterkin, in his "Notes
of Orkney," while he allows that he was guilty of oppression, contends
that he was illegally deprived of his estates, that he got no justice in
his trial, and that his punishment was a "judicial murder." He
represents Law, the bishop, who collected the grounds of complaint, as a
selfish and pliant ecclesiastic, who coveted the episcopal revenues
which the Earl had obtained from the Crown, and who fed the insatiable
vanity of the King by the most abject and ludicrous flattery. The
archbishopric of Glasgow, he adds, was the reward of his services.
Sentiments pretty nearly similar are expressed by Malcolm Laing the
historian. "It is probable," says that ingenious writer, "that Earl
Patrick's oppression was exaggerated in the complaints of the islanders,
or aggravated by the acrimonious report of their bishop. The episcopal
revenues which he had obtained from the Crown were solicited by the
prelates; and the king descended to the mean and unjust expedient of
purchasing a large mortgage with which his estates were attached. As he
refused to resign his right to the redemption of his property, his
estates were seized. He was driven at length to the most desperate
extremes. His son surrendered on the pious condition that no torture
should be employed to extort a confession of his father's guilt; and yet
the father was convicted on the son's confession." Dr Barry, on the
other hand, leans to the unfavourable view of his character; and Mr
Worsaae, the Danish writer, has the following strong remarks on the
subject:—"Among those vassals (Crown vassals) none has left behind him a
more despised or hated name than Earl Patrick Stewart, who from 1595 to
1608, or about thirteen years, oppressed the islands in the most
shameful manner. He violently deprived holders of allodial farms of
their right of possession, and converted almost all the freeholders into
leaseholders. He arbitrarily changed the weights and measures, (Mr
Balfour of Trenaby in, his recent interesting work, entitled "Qdal
Wrights and Feudal Wrongs," says that the two Earls, Robert, and his son
Patrick, made an increase of 250 per cent. upon every denomination of
weight and measure used at the time in Orkney and Shetland.) so that the
taxes and imposts were intolerable. Law and justice were not to be
procured, for the Earl's creatures everywhere occupied the
judgment-seats. To appeal to Scotland was no easy matter, as Lord
Patrick's soldiers guarded all the ferries. In the Orkneys the Earl
compelled the people to build him a strong fortress at Kirkwall, and in
Shetland another at Scalloway, from which places armed men ranged over
the country to punish and overawe the malcontents. The ruins of these
castles form a still existing memorial of the wicked Earl Patrick, who
for his tyranny was recalled to Scotland, accused of high treason, and
beheaded."
(Earl Patrick maintained great state in his
household, both in Orkney and Shetland. He never went from any of his
castles to church, nor anywhere abroad through the islands, without a
guard of fifty musketteers. Three trumpeters always sounded as he sat at
dinner and supper. On his palace at Birsa he had inscribed the following
motto:— "Robertus Stuartus, filius Jacobi Quinti, Rex Scotorum,
hoc edificium instruxit. Sic fuit, est et erit." This motto gave great
offence at Court; and it has been alleged that the Earl suffered the
punishment of death more on account of it than for his so-called
rebellion, and the tyranny and cruelty which he exercised towards the
natives of Orkney and Shetland. "It is probable," says Sir Walter Scott,
"that the only meaning of the inscription was to intimate that Earl
Robert was the son of James V., King of
Scotland, which was an undeniable truth; but putting Rex in the
nominative, instead of Regis in the genitive, as the construction
required, Earl Patrick seemed to state that his father had been the King
of Scotland, and was gravely charged with high treason for asserting
such a proposition.")
Sir Robert Gordon afforded at this time (1615) a
strong proof of the jealous and bitter feeling which he cherished
against the Earl of Caithness. Early in the month of January this
season, the latter went to London to receive some reward from the King
for his services in Orkney. His Majesty happened to be then at
Newmarket. As soon as Sir Robert, who was at Salisbury with the Dean,
his father-in-law, heard of the arrival of the Earl of Caithness at
Court, he hastened thither, in order to prevent his Majesty, with whom
he had great influence, from yielding anything to the Earl that he
considered would be prejudicial to himself or to the house of
Sutherland. In particular, he was most anxious that he should not obtain
from James a promise of redress for the slaughter at Thurso of his
nephew, John Sinclair of Stirkoke. In spite, however, of all that the
malice of the baronet could urge against his lordship, the King granted
him a full remission of all by-past offences, with an annuity for his
services in Orkney. He also appointed him one of his Scottish Privy
Council. But all these royal favours and honours the Earl subsequently
forfeited by his imprudent and violent conduct.
Not long after, the very serious charge of
incendiarism was brought against the Earl of Caithness. As the case is a
curious one, a brief detail of the circumstances may not be
uninteresting. George Sinclair of Dunbeath, as well as his grandfather,
William Sinclair, whom he succeeded, had suffered, it is said, much
injury and annoyance at the hands of the Earl of Caithness. George was
married to a sister of Lord Forbes; and there being no likelihood of his
having any family by his wife, he conveyed the whole of his property,
comprehending the lands of Dunbeath, Downreay, and Sandside, to his
brother-in-law. Soon after the execution of the deed, he was seized with
a fatal illness and died, when Forbes took possession of the estate. He
appointed a William Innes, a native of Morayshire, as his chamberlain or
factor over the property, who took up his residence at Sandside. Earl
George felt highly indignant that his cousin's lands should go to a
stranger in preference to himself, although from his conduct towards him
he could have expected nothing else; and under pretence of discharging
his duty as sheriff, he took every method of annoying the factor and
distressing the tenants. Finding that all the mischief he could do in
this way was not sufficient to gratify his spleen, he negotiated with
two brothers, John and Alexander Gunn, and a cousin of theirs, named
Alexander Gunn, and promised them an ample reward if they would
undertake to burn the stack-yard at Sandside. It is alleged that he
first made the proposal in private to Alexander Gunn, the cousin; but
that Gunn indignantly spurned the idea, and told his lordship that to
gratify him he would undertake to assassinate William Innes, the factor,
but that he would not burn the corn, a piece of work which he considered
unworthy of a gentleman! After some hesitation, Alexander, brother of
John Gunn, agreed to do the business, and going to Sandside in the dead
of night, with two accomplices, set fire to the stacks of corn, and
burnt the whole. A report was industriously circulated that some of
Mackay's tenants in Strathnaver had caused the conflagration, which
induced that chieftain to use every effort to find out the guilty
persons. Strong suspicion rested on the three Gunns, who, a few clays
before the deed was committed, were seen going to Castle Sinclair. At
length Alexander Gunn, the cousin, in a private interview with Mackay
and Sir Robert Gordon, on condition of being leniently dealt with,
revealed to them all that he knew of the matter. The three Gunns were
cited to appear before the Lords of Justiciary at Edinburgh. John Gunn
and his cousin, Alexander, obeyed the summons, but the other Gunn, the
real perpetrator of the crime, did not make his appearance. Both the
Gunns, when examined by the Lords of the Council, declared that the Earl
of Caithness had bribed Alexander Gunn to burn Lord Forbes' corn, and
that the affair had been proposed and discussed in their presence. In
the meantime his lordship stoutly denied the charge, and accused Sir
Robert Gordon and Mackay of a design to bring him within reach of the
law of treason, and to injure the honour of his house. After a great
deal of legal proceedings, the matter was finally compromised between
the parties; and a contract was drawn up, in which, among other things,
the Earl agreed to pay Lord Forbes and Mackay the sum of twenty thousand
merks Scots, which may be held as tantamount to a confession that he was
guilty of the crime laid to his charge. He also received a full
remission from the King, but not without two galling and stringent
conditions, the one, that he should renounce his offices of justiciary
and sheriff; the other, that he should give up and resign, in per-petuum
to the Bishop of Caithness, the house of Scrabster, with as many of the
feu lands of that bishopric as should amount to the yearly value of two
thousand merks Scots, for an augmentation to the prelate's income. These
were hard terms; but he found himself under the necessity of submitting
to them.
On a review of the whole matter, it is hardly
possible to avoid coming to the conclusion that the Earl was guilty of
the crime imputed to him; and yet there are circumstances in the case
which admit of a doubt, and which a skilful pleader would turn to good
account. For instance, the Earl had in 1586 hanged the father of John
and Alexander Gunn; and as the spirit of revenge was at the time deeply
cherished to the third and fourth generation, one would naturally think
that his two sons would be the very last persons in the world that his
lordship would take in his confidence, and engage to per-petrate a crime
of such a highly penal nature. Further, it appears that the three Gunns
were tenants of Mackay, and that he gave John Gunn (a rather
suspicious-looking grant) a liferent lease of the lands of Strathy for
his evidence against Earl George at Edinburgh.
During all this time the peasantry of the county were
in a most wretched condition. Among other evils, Caithness was overrun
with thieves. In 1617 a regularly organised band of these vagabonds
infested the borders of Sutherland and Caithness, where they waylaid and
robbed travellers, and violated every unprotected female that had the
misfortune to fall into their hands. Their principal haunt was the Ord
of Caithness, a spot peculiarly adapted for their purpose. Scarce a week
passed without the commission of some murder, rape, or robbery, in that
quarter. Such, indeed, was the alarming state of matters, that people
were afraid to cross the Ord, and all communication between the two
counties was in a great measure suspended. The authorities on both sides
were at length roused to a sense of the magnitude of the evil, and
resolved to put it down. With this view, a strong posse of armed men
were sent out to watch the movements of the gang, and to apprehend them.
In a few days nearly the whole of the miscreants were seized and
imprisoned, and after a summary trial sentenced to the gallows. A gibbet
was erected on the highest part of the Ord, where, without benefit of
clergy, they were all hanged as a terror to evil-doers. "By this
exemplary punishment," says the historian of the House of Sutherland,
"the country was rendered peaceable for a while after."
The restless and unhappy disposition of the Earl of
Caithness was constantly involving him in trouble; and he was no sooner
out of one scrape than he was in another. Another serious charge (1621)
was now preferred against him, namely, that of being accessory to the
slaughter of Thomas Lyndsay, half-brother of Robert Munro, commissary of
Caithness. It has been mentioned that the Earl had been compelled to
give up to the Bishop of Caithness a part of the Church lands which he
held in feu. This forced resignation was a measure which deeply vexed
and mortified him. Munro the commissary acted as chamberlain to the
bishop. One of the first steps which he took, on being appointed factor,
was to remove Sinclair of Durren, who was one of his lordship's tenants,
from the lands which he occupied, and to grant a lease of them to his
brother, Thomas Lyndsay. Sinclair adopted the Irish mode of revenge, and
meeting soon after with Lyndsay in Thurso, he ran him through with his
sword, and killed him on the spot. It was generally believed that he did
this at the instigation of the Earl of Caithness. Sinclair immediately
left the county, and hurried off to London to meet his kinsman, Sir
Andrew Sinclair, envoy for the King of Denmark, who interceded with the
King for a pardon to him; but his Majesty refused to grant it,
whereupon, for better security, Sinclair fled to Denmark. In the
meantime Munro the commissary raised a criminal action against the Earl
of Caithness and Sinclair of Durren for the slaughter of his brother.
The parties were summoned to stand their trial before the Court of
Justiciary at Edinburgh; but as neither of them appeared, they were both
outlawed, and denounced rebels. Lord Caithness wrote the Privy Council,
strongly asserting that he had no participation in the slaughter of
Lyndsay, and that his reason for not answering their summons was fear of
his creditors, who, if they found him in Edinburgh, would incarcerate
him. His lordship was at this time far from being in an enviable
situation. Troubles began to multiply around him from every quarter. He
had disputed with his son, Lord Berriedale, who had lain five years in
the jail of Edinburgh, in consequence of engagements he had come under
for his debts; and the Earl's nearest relations, and the principal
gentlemen of Caithness, feeling disgusted with his conduct, which had
done so much injury to the young nobleman, and kept the county so long
in disturbance, warmly sympathised and sided with Berriedale. His
creditors, too, were clamorous for payment; and their repeated
complaints to the King respecting the breach of his engagements so
incensed his Majesty, that he ordered a commission to be granted to Sir
Robert Gordon and others to apprehend the Earl as a denounced rebel, and
to take possession of his castles and fortresses for his Majesty's use.
Proclamations were at the same time issued, interdicting all and sundry
from having any communication with the Earl; and a ship of war was
ordered to proceed to Sinclair's Bay to prevent his escape by sea, and
to batter down his castles, in case he should attempt to withstand a
siege. The Earl at first resolved to resist the royal commission, and
with this view he set about fortifying his castles, especially the
strong tower of Ackergill; but on sober reflection, becoming
apprehensive of the consequences should he be unsuccessful in his
opposition, he despatched a messenger with a letter to Sir Robert
Gordon, earnestly soliciting an amicable arrangement. In this document
he begged to remind Sir Robert that he was a nobleman and a peer of the
realm, who had once been a commissioner himself in his Majesty's service
(alluding to his military services in Orkney); that no crime could be
justly laid to his charge; that he was the first nobleman ever pursued
as a traitor merely for falling into debt, and that all actions of a
criminal nature brought against him were fabrications invented by his
enemies, none of which were ever judicially proved. On these grounds he
begged, if Sir Robert refused to negotiate with him, that he would at
least give him time to represent his case to the Council before he
adopted the extreme measure of invading the county. Sir Robert returned
a long answer, expressing much affected regret for the unhappy situation
in which his lordship had placed himself by his rebellious obstinacy and
repeated breaking of his engagements, and concluded with saying, that
his lordship's sole object in proposing a negotiation was to waste time,
and that if he did not at once submit himself unconditionally to the
King's mercy, he would immediately proceed to execute the commission.
The Earl, although he had still a good many friends and adherents in the
county, when he saw such a heavy storm gathering round him, went on
board a small fishing-boat in the night season, and made his escape to
Orkney.
In the meantime Sir Robert Gordon, his most active
enemy, assembled a large body of Highlanders, and, accompanied by his
brother, Alexander Gordon of Navidale, and the principal gentlemen of
Sutherland, crossed the Ord (1623), and proceeded in full military array
on his expedition. At Ausdale, near the Border, he was joined by Lord
Berriedale and James Sinclair, younger of Murkle, one of the
commissioners, with about 300 Caithness men, consisting chiefly of the
Calders and others who were favourable to Berriedale. At Latheron he was
met by Sir James Sinclair of Murkle, Sir William Sinclair of Mey, the
Laird of Rattar, Sutherland of Forse, and several other gentlemen of the
county, who tendered their submission and obedience to his Majesty's
commission, and offered their services to accomplish the object of the
expedition. Sir Robert, with the Caithness men some half a mile in
advance, continued his march to Wick. From Wick he proceeded to Castle
Sinclair, thence to Ackergill Tower, and lastly to the Castle of Keiss,
all of which on the first summons delivered up their keys to him in the
name of his Majesty. At Keiss he had an interview with Lady Caithness,
his cousin, who entreated him with great earnestness to use his interest
to get her husband restored to royal favour, which he promised to do,
provided the Earl would follow his advice. The keys of all the castles
were delivered to Lord Berriedale, to be kept by him until the further
pleasure of his Majesty should be known. A set of instructions was also
drawn up at Wick by the commissioners for his future guidance in the
government of the county; and the result of the expedition was, that an
annuity was settled on the Earl, and Berriedale got the entire
management of the property. When the storm had blown over, his lordship
returned from Orkney, and finding that it was useless to contend any
longer with the powers that be, he settled down into a peaceable
subject.
The politic Sir Robert, who liked to have his hands
full of business, was now entrusted by Government with the duty of
putting the law in execution against poachers. It is supposed by some
that the laws for preserving game are the growth of modern legislation.
It would appear, however, that stringent enactments on this point were
in force in Scotland (In England the game or forest laws reach as far
back as the time of the Saxon heptarchy. "William the Conqueror," says
Hume, " enacted new laws, by which he prohibited all his subjects from
hunting in any of his forests, and rendered the penalties more severe
than ever had been inflicted for such offences. The killing of a deer or
boar, or even a hare, was punished with the loss of the delinquent's
eyes, and that at a time when the killing of a man could be atoned for
by paying a moderate fine or composition.") more than two hundred years
ago; and in the north, persons guilty of poaching were more severely
punished than at present. "In the year 1623," says Sir Robert Gordon,
"divers of the inhabitants of Southerland and Catteynes were called to
appear at Edinburgh befor the Lords of the Privie Councell for wearing
of pistolls, and for shooting of deer and wyld fowl with guns, contrair
to the Act of Parliament made thereanent." To obviate the necessity of
attending at Edinburgh, a commission was granted to Sir Robert to summon
all transgressors in this way within the diocese of Caithness to Dornoch,
where they were severely fined and punished, and security taken for
their not killing any game in time to come. "The inhabitants of
Catteynes," says Sir Robert, "did much repyn that they should have been
urged to give their appeirance and abyd their tryall in Southerland,
considering that within the memories of some of them (during the
minority of Earl Alexander) the inhabitants of Southerland did usuallie
resort into Catteynes for decyding of their actions and controversies
befor George, then Earl of Catteynes. This did they think a great
alteration; so changeable and variable is the estate of all human
affairs. Blessed are they," adds the worthy baronet, "that fear the
Lord, and remit their vengeance to God."
1634.—At this time great distress, occasioned by a
famine, prevailed in Orkney and Caithness. Owing to tempestuous weather,
the corn of the preceding year had not sufficiently filled, and much of
it was cut down green. There was, in consequence, a great scarcity of
meal; and from the want of seed, nearly a half of the arable land in
both counties remained unsown. To add to the prevailing dearth, the fish
usually found in such abundance along the northern shores seemed to have
wholly deserted them. Many of the poorer sort of the people were reduced
to such extremity, that to satisfy the gnawings of hunger they killed
their very dogs and ate them, and greedily devoured sea ware, or
whatever would support life. Multitudes died in the open fields; while
some, from sheer desperation, it is said, ran into the sea and drowned
themselves. To mitigate the dreadful calamity, the Bishops of Orkney and
Caithness supplicated Government for food to the starving inhabitants.
The Lords of the Privy Council at first recommended their case to the
charity of their countrymen generally, but they afterwards sent them
supplies of victual, "but not in time or quantity to save a deplorable
mortality." (Chambers's Dom. Annals, vol. ii. p. 73.) When Charles I.
attempted to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland, the spirit of
opposition which broke out against this rash and unconstitutional
measure extended to Caithness,, John, Master of Berriedale, son of
William, Lord Berriedale, warmly espoused the popular cause. After the
meeting of the famous General Assembly at Glasgow (1638), he took the
National Covenant, and persuaded many of his friends in the county to do
the same. His father and his grandfather, George, the old Earl, who was
still living, leaned to the King's side. Among others who embraced the
Covenant, was his relative, Sir James Sinclair of Murkle, who raised a
company of Caithness men, and joined the Covenanters in Moray, where
about 4,000 of them were assembled under the Earl of Seaforth. This body
of troops formed what was called the army of Covenanters north the Spey,
and were intended to keep in check the Royalists under the Marquis of
Huntly, and his son, the Viscount Aboyne. The Master of Berriedale, who
took such an active part in the cause of the Covenanters, died at
Edinburgh in the autumn of 1639. The death of this young nobleman, who
would appear to have been an ardent friend o civil and religious
liberty, was much regretted by the people of Caithness. He had married a
daughter of Colin, Earl of Seaforth, and by this lady he had two sons,
one of whom succeeded to the earldom. His relict afterwards married Sir
Alexander Sutherland of Duffus, who in 1651 was created Lord Duffus.
(Kenneth Sutherland, third Lord Duffus, forfeited, in the Rebellion of
1715, his title and estates. Having fled to the Continent, he afterwards
entered the Swedish navy as a flag officer, and married Charlotte,
daughter of Eric de Seeblade, governor of Gottenburgh. The title was
restored, in 1826, by Act of Parliament, to Captain James Sutherland,
son of Eric Sutherland, son of the attainted Kenneth. On his death, in
1827, Sir Benjamin Dunbar of Hempriggs, second cousin of the restored
Lord, assumed the title.)
Very few of the Caithness gentry embraced the cause
of the King in the unhappy quarrel which ensued between him and his
Scottish subjects. This was mainly owing to the zealous exertions of the
late Master of Berriedale, who, being a great favourite with all classes
in the county, was eminently successful in impressing upon them his own
political and religious views. One Caithness proprietor, however, Mowat
of Freswick, in Canisbay, or as he was styled, Mowat of Bucholie, stood
staunch to the King. When Montrose forsook the Covenanters, and raised
the royal standard, he joined him; and at the battle of Alford, in 1645,
his name is mentioned as one of the officers that were killed on the
side of the Royalists. The family of Mowat came originally from the
south, but in what year is not exactly known. In 1410 William Mowat (In
the papers of the Spalding Club, Patrick Mowat of Bucholie is mentioned
as being witness to a testamentary deed by Andrew Earl of Errol, at
Slains Castle, 3d of October, 1585.) of Loscragy, by a charter from
James the First, made over to his son, John, a wadset of the lands of
Freswick and Aukin-gill, in the parish of Canisbay. This John, nine
years afterwards, was killed in the chapel of St Duffus, in Tain, to
which he had fled for refuge as a sanctuary, by Thomas Mackay of
Strathnaver. For this murder, and next burning the chapel, Mackay was,
by order of the King, apprehended and hanged at Inverness. The Mowat
family, of whom none now hold any landed property in Caithness, are of
considerable antiquity. In the year 1316, during the reign of Robert the
Bruce, the name of William Mowat appears in the list of the Scottish
chiefs and nobles who sent a missive to the Pope, firmly maintaining the
civil and political independence of Scotland.
The Latinised name in ancient charters, is "De monte
alto" and sometimes "De monte fixo." On acquiring the property of
Freswick, the Mowats repaired and inhabited Sweyn—the pirate's old
stronghold—which was then called Bucholie Castle. The patronage of the
church of Canisbay belonged to them, and in 1610 it is particularly
mentioned that an incumbent, who entered on the cure, was presented by
Mowat of Bucholie.
1643.—George, Earl of Caithness, distinguished by the
not very flattering title of the "Wicked Earl George," died in the month
of February this year, aged 79. His son, William, Lord Berriedale, died
a few years before him. Earl George by his tyrannical conduct, had
procured himself many enemies; and it is quite possible that his faults
may have been thereby much exaggerated. Some of the crimes, at least,
with which he was charged, were never fully proved against him; and it
is clear, from the whole course of his history, that he had a very
bitter enemy in Sir Robert Gordon. "The quietness and moderation," says
Mackay, "with which he appears to have conducted himself, during the
last twenty years of his life, plead strongly in his favour."
1649.—In the course of this year the following affair
took place in Thurso. A noted freebooter, of Irish descent, from
Strathnaver, named Donald Macalister, accompanied by some eighteen or
twenty followers, entered the town with the intention of plundering it,
and revenging some offence which he had received from the inhabitants.
The day chosen for this was a Sunday, when the greater part of the
people were at church. (The church here mentioned, of which only a part
of the walls is now standing, is supposed to have been founded by the
celebrated Bishop, Gilbert Murray. It was dedicated to St Peter; and the
Bishop occasionally ministered in it when he resided in his castle of
Burnside, in the immediate neighbourhood of the town. Its appearance was
cruciform, and in the pointed style of architecture, with a large window
in the eastern end. In 1726 (Origines Parochiales Scotiae.) the vestry
was, by permission of the kirk-session, used by the magistrates as a
court-house, and a vault connected with the building was made to serve
the purpose of a lock-up or prison. Prom this it would appear that the
good town, at the period in question, was pretty "hard up" for
accommodation in the way of public buildings.) The savage resolved to
set fire to the building, and burn all that were in it; and on some one
remonstrating with him for contemplating such a wicked design on the
Sabbath-day, he is reported to have said—"In spite of God and the
Sabbath both, Donald will spill blood!" Notice of his presence in the
town being communicated to the congregation, they instantly rushed out
of the church, and providing themselves with such weapons as came first
to hand, attacked the party, headed by Sir James Sinclair of Murkle,
who—such was the unsettled state of the county at the time—was in the
habit of coming to the church armed. Sir James made a thrust at
Macalister with his sword, but without any apparent effect, on which his
servant, superstitiously believing that the vagabond was proof against
steel, cut a silver button, of a triangular shape, from Sir James's
coat, and with that shot him through the ear. The bandit staggered, and
fell down mortally wounded, exclaiming, in Gaelic—"My curse upon the
creature; he has deafened me!" After a hard contest, the gang were
finally overpowered by the town's people, and the whole of them, it is
said, were killed. Neil Mackay, the chief of the Clan Abrach, who
happened to be in Thurso at the time, and who would seem to have sided
with the Highlanders, was also killed in the fray. He was interred in
the burying-ground of Thurso, opposite the Murkle aisle of the church;
and a stone, with his arms cut on it, was erected over his grave. |
