The unfortunate nobleman
who is the subject of this Memoir, could boast of as long line of
ancestors as most families in Europe. Among his forefathers were men
eminent fur loyalty, and distinguished for bravery, and of honour as
untainted as their blood; but when William, fourth Earl of Kilmarnock,
succeeded to his title, there was little except this high ancestry to
elate him with pride, or to raise him above dependence upon
circumstances.
The Earl of Kilmarnock
derived his title from a royal borough of the same name, in the shire of
Cunningham in Ayrshire; and, in former times when the chieftainship was
in repute in that part of Scotland, that branch of the family of Boyd,
or Boyde, from whom the Earl was descended, claimed to be chiefs.
The greatness of the Boyd
family commenced with Simon, the brother of Walter, first High Steward
of Scotland, and founder of the Monastery of Paisley, in 1160. Robert,
the son of Simon, is designated in the foundation church of that
monastery, as nephew of Walter, High Steward ; and is distinguished on
account of his fair complexion, by the word Boyt, or Boyd, from the
Celtic Boidh, signifying fair, or yellow. "He was," says Nisbet,
"doubtless, predecessor to the Lords Boyd, and Earls of Kilmarnock.
The family of Boyd
continued to flourish until, in the fifteenth century, it was ennobled
by James the Third, who owed to one of its members, Sir Alexander Boyd
of Duncow esteemed to be a mirror of chivalry, an inculcation into the
military exercises, which were deemed, in those days, essential to the
education of royalty. But the sunshine of kingly favour was not enjoyed
by the Boyds without some alloy. Robert Boyd of Kilmarnock, who was
raised to the peerage, under the title of Lord Boyd, and whose eldest
son was created Earl of Arran, experienced various vicissitudes. He died
in England, in exile; and his brother, Sir Alexander, perished in 146i9,
on a scaffold, erected on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh. The fortunes of
the family were, however, restored in the person of Thomas, Earl of
Arran, who married the eldest sister of King James the Third. The
beautiful island of Arran was given as the dower of this lady: and her
husband, who is said in the Paston Letters to have been a "light,
clever, and well-spoken, fair archer; devoutest, most perfect, and
truest to his lady, of Knights," enjoyed a short gleam of royal favour.
His vicissitudes, however, befel him whilst on an embassy in Denmark,
his enemies undermined him at home : he was driven to wander in foreign
countries, and died at Antwerp, where a magnificent monument was erected
to his memory, "by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. His title was
attainted, hut his property was restored to his son ; and in 1655, the
title of Earl of Kilmarnock was added to that of Lord Boyd, which alone
seems to have been retained by the family during the intervening
generations.
During the reign of
Charles the First, his descendants were considered to be steady
Royalists; but, notwithstanding their claiming descent from the Stuarts,
the views and principles of the family in the troublous period of the
Revolution of 1688, underwent a total change. William, the third Earl of
Kilmarnock, and the father of the unhappy adherent of Charles Edward,
took the oaths of allegiance to the reigning family, and supported the
Treaty of Union; joining at first the party entitled the Squddrone
volante; but eventually deserting them for the Whigs. When the
Iusurrection of 1715 broke out, this nobleman plainly manifested that
the notions which had actuated his ancestor to join the association at
Cumberland in favour of Charles the First, were no longer deemed valid
by him. The superiority of the Burgh of Kilmarnock having been granted .
In 1672 to his ancestors, the Earl summoned the inhabitants of the Burgh
to assemble, and to arm themselves in support of Government. At the
general meeting of the fencible corps at Cunningham, Lord Kilmarnock
appeared, followed by five hundred of his men, well armed, and so
admirably trained, that they made the best figure on that occasion among
the forces collected. In compliance with orders which he received from
the Duke of Argyll, Lord Kilmarnock marched with his volunteers to
garrison the houses of Drummakil, Cardross, and Gastartan, in order to
prevent the rebels from crossing the Forth. Unhappily for the fortunes
of his family, the Earl died two years afterwards : and in the year
1717, his son, then a boy of fourteen years of age, succeeded to his
title.
The mother of the young
nobleman still survived: she was the Lady Eupheme, daughter of William,
eleventh Earl of Ross; and one child only, the Earl of Kilmarnock, had
been the issue of her marriage.
The youth, whose fate
afterwards extorted pity from the most prejudiced spectators of his
fate, was educated in the principles of the Scottish Church. These, as
the chaplain who attended Lord Kilmarnock in the last days of his
existence observes, are far from "having the least tendency to
sedition," and a very different bias was apparent in the conduct of the
Presbyterian ministers during the whole course of the insurrections of
1745. The young nobleman appears to have imbibed, with this persuasion,
a sincere conviction of those incontrovertible, and all-important truths
of Christianity which, happily, the contentions of sect cannot nullify,
nor the passions of mankind assail. "He always believed," such is his
own declaration, "in the great truths of God's Being and Providence, and
in a future state of rewards and punishments for virtue and vice." He
had never, he declared at that solemn moment when nothing appeared to
him of consequence save truth, "been involved in the fashionable
scepticism of the times." As he grew up, a character more amiable than
energetic, and dispositions more calculated to inspire love than to
insure respect, manifested themselves in the young nobleman. He was
singularly handsome, being tall and slender, and possessing what was
termed by an eyewitness of his trial, in an extreme fine person he was
mild, and well-bred, humble, and conscientious. It is true, that in his
hours of penitence he recalled, with anguish, "a careless and dissolute
life" by which, as he affirmed, he reduced himself to great and
perplexing difficulties; he repented for his "love of vanity and
addictedness to impurity and sensual pleasure" which had "brought
pollution and guilt upon his soul, and debased his reason, and, for a
time, suspended the exercise of his social affections, which were, by
nature, strong in him, and, in particular, the love of his country."
Such was his own account of that youth, which, deprived of the guidance
of a father, with high rank and great personal attractions to endanger
it, was passed, according to his own confession, in dissipation and
folly. It appears, nevertheless, that he was greatly respected by his
neighbours and tenantry, who were not, perhaps, disposed to judge very
severely the errors of a young and popular man.
When only eleven years of
age, Lord Kilmarnock, then Lord Boyd, had appeared in arms for
Government with his father ; on which occasion he conducted himself so
gracefully as to attract the admiration of all beholders.* His early
prepossessions, granting that they may have accorded with those of his
father, were, however, soon dissipated when he allied himself with a
family who had been conspicuous . a the Jacobite cause. This was the
house of Livingstone, Earl of Linlithgow and Calendar; George, the
fourth Earl, having, in 1715, been engaged in the insurrection under
Lord Mar, had been attainted, and his estate of one thousand two hundred
and ninety-six pounds yearly forfeited to the Crown. Nor has this
forfeiture ever been reversed; and the present representative of the
family, Sir Thomas Livingstone, of "Westquarter and Bedlormie, remains,
notwithstanding an appeal in 1784 before Lord Kenyon, then
Attorney-General, a commoner.
Lady Anne Livingstone,
who was the object of the young Lord Kilmarnock's choice, is reported to
have been a woman of great beauty, and, from her exertions in her
husband's behalf, appears to have possessed a fine, determined spirit.
Although her father's title was not restored, she had sufficient
interest, in 1721, to obtain from the English Government a lease of the
forfeited estates for fifty-nine years, at the rent of eight hundred and
seventy-two pounds, twelve shillings per aunum. This was, no doubt, a
source of considerable pecuniary benefit to her, and also of assistance,
very greatly required by Lord Kilmarnock, who was in impoverished
circumstances. Honours, indeed, centered in him, but were productive of
no real benefit. By the grandmother of his wife, the Lady Margaret Hay,
sole surviving daughter of Charles the twelfth Earl of Errol, he had a
claim to that Earldom, which, coupling with its dignity that of the
hereditary High Constable of Scotland, descended in the female line, and
after the death of a brother in infancy, constituted the Lady Anne
Livingstone a Countess of Erred of her own right. Thus, Lord Kilmarnock
had, to borrow Horace Walpole's expression, "four earldoms in him,"
Kilmarnock, Errol, Linlithgow, and Calendar;" and yet he is said to have
been so poor, as ''often to have wanted a dinner." But to this mode of
expression we must not entirely trust for accuracy. With the inheritance
of the Earldoms of Errol, and of Linlithgow, and Calendar, there came a
stock of old Jacobite principles; Lord Linlithgow had, indeed, suffered
what was perhaps worse than death for his adherence to James Stuart. The
Earl of Errol, the grandfather of Lady Kilmarnock, had led a more
prudent course. Still he was a hearty Jacobite, and though, as Lockhart
declares, he did not at first make a "great outward appearance," yet he
was much trusted by the party; his family had always been favourable to
the Stuarts, and he was, also, generally considered to cherish similar
sentiments. He had, nevertheless, taken the oaths to Government in 1705;
yet on the alarm of an invasion m 1708, he was deemed so dangerous a
person that he was sent as a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle, where he
died.
The love suit of Lord
Kilmarnock was not likely, under his impoverished circumstances, to
prosper uninterruptedly. When he succeeded to his estate he had found it
much encumbered, and a considerable portion of the old inheritance
alienated. Lord Kilmarnock's disposition was not formed for economy; he
was generous even to profusion, and, as we have seen, had not escaped
the temptations incident to his age. His addresses to the Lady Anne
Livingstone are said to have been prompted by his necessities; her
fortune was deemed considerable ; and her family, well knowing the state
of the Earl's affairs, regarded his proposals of marriage unfavourably.
But the young nobleman, during the course of his courtship, and iti
opposing these objections, formed an interest in the heart of the young
lady. He was, indeed, a man born to charm the imagination of the
romantic, f not at that period of his youth, to rivet affection by
esteem. In his boyhood, although he made some degree of progress in
classical attainments, and even in philosophy and mathematics, thus
proving that natural ability was not wanting, he was far more successful
m attaining mere accomplishments, which add a powerful charm to
comeliness and symmetry than mastering more solid studies. He became an
adept in fencing, in riding, in drawing, and also in music; and acquired
the distinctive and comprehensive designation, of being "a polite
gentleman."
Disgusted with the cold
discussions on settlements and rent rolls, and disregarding maternal
cautions, Lady Anne soon followed the dictates of her own heart. She
married the young and handsome nobleman without her mother's consent,
and a tardy sanction to the union was wrung from Lady Livingstone only
when it was too late to withhold her approval.
The marriage was not, it
was said by those who were disposed to scandalize the Earl of
Kilmarnock, productive of happiness. The young Countess was possessed,
indeed, of beauty, wit, and good sense : but her husband, if we may
accredit the memoirs of his life, gave her much cause to complain of his
conduct. They Lived, however, as the same doubtful authority states, "if
not happily, at least civilly together." Such is the statement of a
contemporary writer; it must, however, be adopted with just as much
allowance as we give to similar reports raised by party writers in the
present day: and it will be shown not to accord with the dying
declarations of Lord Kilmarnock. "I leave behind," he wrote to his
agent, " in Lady Kilmarnock, what is dearest to me." Subsequently to his
marriage, Lord Kilmarnock's necessities and the additional burden of a
family induced him to apply to the English Government for a pension,
founded, as it is probable, on his father's services to Government in
1715. But this statement, and the conditions upon which the bounty was
given are left in obscurity. "Whether," says the anonymous biographer of
Lord Kilmarnock, "my Lord Kilmarnock's pension was a ministerial bribe,
or a royal bounty, is a question I cannot determine with any certainty;
but I have reason to suspect the former, since few pensions, granted by
a certain administration, that of Sir Robert Walpole, deserved the
latter." The same writer truly observes, that little or no dependance is
to be placed on that loyalty which wants the support of bribes and
pensions. "The practice," he adds, "is too general, and a defection of
this kind of men may be fatal to the state." The pension, as it appears
from Horace Walpole's letters, was taken from Lord Kilmarnock by Lord
Wilmington. "Lord Kilmarnock," he writes to Sir Horace Mann. "is a
Presbyterian, with four earldoms in view, but so poor since Lord
Wilmington's stopping a pension that my father had given him, that he
often wanted a dinner."
In the last days of his
existence the Earl, indeed, acknowledged that the state of his affairs
was, in part, the reason of his defection from Government. He attributed
it, (though, it must be stated, under the pressing arguments of a
minister of religion who considered what he termed "rebellion'' as the
most heinous sin, to the great and pressing difficulties into which he
had brought himself, by extravagance and dissipation: and declared,
according to the account of his spiritual guide, that the exigency of
his affairs was very pressing at the time of the rebellion; and that,
besides the general hope he had of mending his fortune by the success of
it, he was also tempted by another prospect, of retrieving his
circumstances if he followed the Pretender's standard.
Until the commencement of
the insurrection of 1745, Lord Kilmarnock enjoyed the possession of Dean
Castle, a very ancient edifice, situated about half a mile north east of
the town of Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire. "It is," says Grose in his
Antiquities of Scotland, "at a small distance from the main road leading
from Kilmarnock to Stewarton, and consists of a large vaulted square
tower, which seems to have been built about the beginning of the
fifteenth century : this is surrounded by a court and other buildings
more modern."'* Such is the description of Dean Castle before the year
1735; when, to add to Lord Kilmarnock's other necessities, it was
partially destroyed by lire, leaving only a rum which he was too much
impoverished even to restore to its former habitable state. In the
"great square tower," referred to by Grose, and of which a view is
preserved in his work on Scotland, the Boyd family had dwelt in the days
of their greatness, when one of their race was created Earl of Arran. In
that tower had the Earl imprisoned his royal wife, the Lady Margaret,
sister of James the Third, who was divorced from him, pleading, as some
say, a prior contract with the Lord Hamilton, to whom she was afterwards
united, taking to him the Isle of Arran as her dower.
It does not appear that
the Earl of Kilmarnock was originally in the confidence of the Jacobite
party : and their designs were not only matured, but far in full
operation before he took an open or active part in the Stuart cause. It
happened, however, that when Charles Edward resided at Holyrood, the
Countess of Kilmarnock was living in Edinburgh. Her beauty, and the
gaiety of her manners, attracted the admiration of the young 1'rince,
who bestowed no small portion of attention on the fascinating daughter
of one of his father's adherents. Lady Kilmarnock was as much attached
to pleasure as the young and beautiful usually are: she delighted public
diversions, and led the way to all parties of amusement. Her ambition,
no less than her early prepossessions conspired, it is said, to make her
a Jacobite; and she hoped, by the favour of Charles Edward, to obtain
the restoration of her father's title. Her entreaties to the Earl of
Kilmarnock to join the standard of the Prince were stimulated,
therefore, by a double motive; and, indeed, to a generous and romantic
mind, there required neither the inducements of ambition, nor of
gratified vanity, to espouse that part which seemed most natural to the
Scotch. After the battle of Preston Pans, Lady Kilmarnock's persuasions
took effect: her husband presented himself to the young Chevalier, who
received him with every mark of esteem and distinction, declared him a
member of the privy council, raised him to the rank of a general, and
appointed him colonel of his guards.
Another occurrence is,
however, stated to have had a considerable influence in forming the
Earl's decision.
During the course of the
conflict, he met, at Linlithgow, that incomparable man, and excellent
officer, Colonel Gardiner. This individual, whose character forms so
fine a relief to the party-spirited and debased condition of the British
army in the time of George the Second, was a native of Linlithgowshire,
having been born at Carriden, in the year of the Revolution, 1688. His
life commencing in that important era, had been one of events. He had
first entered the Dutch service; then had served in Marlborough's army
at Bamilies. Until this incident of his life, the young soldier, then
only nineteen, had run a course of dissolute pleasure, and had obtained,
from the frankness and gaiety of his disposition, the name of the happy
rake. Being in the Forlorn hope, he was wounded, and left in a state
hovering between life and death, on the field, and in a state of partial
insensibility, from which he was aroused at times to perfect
consciousness.
The ball which had struck
Gardiner, had entered his mouth; and without breaking a single tooth, or
touching the forepart of his tongue, had passed through his neck, coming
out above an inch and a half on the left side of the vertebra;. He was
abandoned by Marlborough's troops, who, according to their custom, left
the wounded to their fate, while they pursued their advantages against
the French.
In this state, the first
serious emotions of gratitude, the first convictions of a peculiar
Providence suggested themselves to the mind of the young officer and
although they did not, for some years, produce an absolute amendment of
life, they laid the foundation of his future conversion, and of that
exemplary piety and purity which extorted admiration even n a dissolute
age. After being present at every battle that Marlborough had fought in
Flanders, Colonel Gardiner had signalized his courage in the
Insurrection of 1715; and m 1745 he was again ordered to the north to
meet the Jacobite forces near Edinburgh.
It was during this, his
last campaign, when broken by id health and premature age, for this
brave and good man despaired of the restoration of peace to his country,
that he supped in company with Lord Kilmarnock, at Linlithgow. Colonel
Gardiner's prognostications had long been most gloomy. "I have heard him
say," declared Dr. Doddridge, "many years before the Scottish
Insurrection, that a few thousands might have a fair chance for marching
from Edinburgh to London, uncontrolled, and throw the whole kingdom into
an astonishment." This opinion was derived from his knowledge of the
defenceless state of the country, and the general prevailing
disaffection. And the pious, but somewhat distrustful views of Gardiner
led him to assign yet more solemn reasons for his anticipations of evil
For my own part, though I fear nothing for myself, my apprehensions for
the public are very gloomy, considering the deplorable prevalency of
almost all kinds of wickedness among us; the natural consequences of the
contempt of the Gospel. I am daily offering up my prayers to God for
this sinful land of ours, over which His judgments seem to be gathering
; and my strength is sometimes so exhausted with those strong cries and
tears, which I pour out before God upon this occasion, that I am hardly
able to stand when I arise from my knees."
Imbued with these
convictions, Colonel Gardiner, when he was retreating at Linlithgow with
the troops under his command, spoke unguardedly to Lord Kilmarnock of
the prospects of the English army, and thus confirmed the wavering
inclination of that ill-fated nobleman to follow Charles Edward. The
decisive step was not, it appears, taken until after the battle of
Preston Pans, in which Colonel Gardiner, who had a mournful presentiment
of the event of that engagement, fell, after a deportment truly worthy
of the British soldier, and of the Christian. This brave officer, after
having received two wounds, fought on, his feeble frame animated by the
almost supernatural force of strong determination. As lie headed a party
of foot who had lost their leader, and cried out, "Fire on, my lads,
fear nothing", his right-arm was cut down by a Highlander, who advanced
with a scythe, fastened to a pole. He was dragged from his horse; and
the work of butchery was completed by another Highlander, who struck him
on the head with a broadsword: Gardiner had only power to say to his
servant, "Take care of yourself." The faithful creature hastened to an
adjoining mill for a cart to convey his master to a place of safety. It
was not until two hours had elapsed, that he was able to return. The
mangled body, all stripped and plundered, was, even then, still
breathing; and the agony of that gallant saint was protracted until the
next day, when he expired in the house of the minister of Tranent.
This digression,
introducing as it does, one of the real heroes of this mournful period,
may be pardoned.
According to the evidence
on his trial, Lord Kilmarnock first joined the standard of Charles
Edward on the banks of the river which divides England from Scotland;
but Maxwell of Kirkconnel mentions that the Earl marched from Edinburgh
on the thirty-first of October, 1745, at the head of a little squadron
of horse grenadiers, with whom were some Perthshire gentlemen, who, in
the absence of their own commander, were placed under the conduct of
Lord Kilmarnock. After this decisive step, Lord Kilmarnock continued to
follow Charles during the whole of that dl-fated campaign, which ended
in the battle of Culloden. During the various events of that disastrous
undertaking, his character, like that of many other commanders in the
Chevalier's army, suffered from imputations of cruelty. That this vice
was not accordant with his general disposition of mind, the minister who
attended him on his death-bed sufficiently attests. "For myself,"
declares Mr. Foster, "I must do this unhappy criminal the justice to
own, that he never appeared, during the course of my attendance upon
him, to be of any other than a soft, benevolent disposition. His
behaviour was always mild and temperate. I could discern no resentment,
no disturbance or agitation in him." So gentle a character is not the
growth of a day; and if ever Lord Kilmarnock were betrayed into actions
of violence, it must have been under circumstances of a peculiar nature.
Among other charges which
were specified against him, was a participation in the blowing up of the
church of St. Junian's, in the retreat from Stirling. But when, in the
retirement of his prison chamber, the unfortunate nobleman reviewed his
conduct, and confessed the errors of his life, he fully and
satisfactorily cleared himself from the heinous imputation implied in
this work of destruction. "When the army of Charles were retiring from
Stirling he was confined to his bed ill of a fever. The first intimation
that he had of the blowing up of the tower of St. Ninian's was the
noise, of which he never could obtain a clear account. By the insurgents
it was represented as accidental: "this can I certainly say, as to
myself, that I had no knowledge before hand, nor any concurrence in a
designed act of cruelty." Such was Lord Kilmarnock's declaration to Mr.
Foster.
Another instance of
barbarity also laid to the charge of the Earl was. his alleged treatment
of certain prisoners of war who were intrusted to his care in the church
of Inverness, lie was accused of stripping these unfortunate persons of
their clothes. Upon this point he admitted that an order to deprive the
prisoners of their garments for the use of the Highlanders was issued by
Charles Edward : that the warrant for executing this order was sent to
him. He did not, as he declared, enter the church in person, but
committed the office of execution to an ulterior officer. The prisoners,
as might be expected, refused to submit to this indignity; upon which a
second order was issued, and their clothes were taken from them. The
well-timed remonstrance of Boyer, Marquis D'Eguilles, who had been sent
by the court of France in the character of Ambassador to Charles Edward,
arrested, however, the act of cruelty, which not even extreme necessity
can excuse. This nobleman had arrived some time previously at Montrose,
bringing in the ship in which he sailed, arms and a small sum of money,
and his influence, which was exerted in behalf of the captives, was
happily considerable He represented to the Earl of Kilmarnock, that the
rules of war did not authorise the outrage which was contemplated. Lord
Kilmarnock, convinced by his remarks, repaired to Charles Edward,
leaving heaps of the clothes lying in the streets of Inverness, with
sentinels standing to guard them. By the arguments which he addressed to
the Prince, these garments were restored to their unfortunate owners;
and a great stain on the memory both of Charles and of his adherent was
thus partially effaced.
Of such a nature were
those imputations which were charged upon Lord Kilmarnock; but they
appear to have met with only a transient credence; whilst a general
impression of his gentleness, and a prevailing regret for his fate
endured as long as the memory of the dire contest, and of its tragical
termination, dwelt in the recollection of those who witnessed those
mournful times.
After the battle of
Culloden, the prisoners were immediately set free. The Duke of
Cumberland, as he entered Inverness, taking his road amid the carcasses
of the dead strewed in the way, called for the keys of the prisons, and
with his own hands released the captives there, and, clapping them on
the shoulders as they came down stairs, exclaimed, "brother soldiers,
you are free." Unfortunately his compassion was of a party nature, and
was only aroused for his own adherents.
At Culloden, fatal to so
many brave men. Lord Kilmarnock was spared only to taste much more
deeply of the pangs of death than if he had met it in battle. His fate
had, indeed, been anticipated by the superstitious; and it was
considered a rash instance of hardihood in the unfortunate nobleman to
resist an omen which, about a year before the rebellion had broken out.
is said to have happened in his; house.
One day, as the maid who
attended usually upon Lady Kilmarnock was inspecting some linen in an
upper room of Dean Castle, the door of the apartment suddenly opened of
its own accord, and the view of a bloody head, resembling that of Lord
Kilmarnock, was presented to the affrighted woman. As she gazed in
horror, the head rolled near her. She endeavoured in vain to repel it
with her foot. She became powerless, but she was still able to scream;
her shrieks brought Lord Kilmarnock and his Countess to the chamber. The
apparition had vanished; but she related succinctly the story "which, at
that time,'' says the historian who repeats it, "Lord Kilmarnock too
much ridiculed, though it could have been wished that he had been
forewarned by the omen Such was the superstition of the times, in which
ignorance and credulity found such ready supporters."
At Culloden, this
ill-fated nobleman occupied a post not far from the Prince, in the rear
of whom was a line of reserve, consisting of three columns, the first of
which, on the left, was commanded by Lord Kilmarnock ; the centre column
by Lord Lewis Gordon and Glenbucket; and the right by the
justly-celebrated Roy Stewart. In the opposite ranks, an ensign in the
royal regiment, was his son, Lord Boyd. During the confusion of the
fight, when part'-blinded by the smoke, the unhappy Lord Kilmarnock, as
it fated to fulfil the omen, mistook a party of English Dragoons for
FitzJames's Horse, and was accordingly taken prisoner. He was led along
the lines of the British infantry. The vaunted beauty of his
countenance, and the matchless graces of which so much has been said,
were no^ obliterated by the disorder of his person, and his humiliating
position. Ilis hat had been lost in the conflict, and his long hair fell
about his face. The soldiers as he was led along stood in mute
compassion at this sight. Among those who thus looked upon this
unfortunate man was his son, Lord Boyd, who was constrained to witness,
without attempting to alleviate, the distress of that moment. "When the
Earl passed the place where his son stood, the youth, unable to bear
that his father should be thus exposed bareheaded to the storm which
played upon the scene of carnage, stepped out of the ranks and taking
his own hat from his head, placed it on that of his father. It was the
work of an instant, and not a syllable escaped the lips of the agitated
young man."
Lord Kilmarnock was
carried from the moor, which already, to use the words of an eyewitness
among the Government troops, " was covered witli blood; the men, what
with killing the enemy, dabbling their feet in the blood, and splashing
it about one another, looked like so many butchers." Never, did even
their enemies declare, was a field of battle bestrewn with a finer,
perhaps with a nobler race. "Every body allowed,'' writes one of
Cumberland's officers, "that men of a larger size, larger limbs, and
better proportioned, could not be found." The flower of their unhappy
country ; hundreds of these had not yet been blessed with the repose of
death, but were left to languish in agony until the next day, when they
were butchered by the orders of Cumberland. One of them. John Alexander
Fraser, in the Master of Lovat's regiment, was rescued by Lord Boyd from
destruction. A soldier had struck him with the butt of his musket,
intending, according to the orders given, to beat out his brains. The
poor wretch, his nose and cheek-bone broken, and one of his eyes
pierced, still breathed when this young nobleman passed him. He observed
the poor creature, and ordered his servants to carry him to a
neighbouring kin, where, in time, his wounds were cured. "He lived,"
observes Mr. Chambers, "many years afterwards, a dismal memorial of the
cruelties of Culloden."
According to one account,
Lord Kilmarnock owed his escape from the field of battle -with his life
to the brave and generous Lord Ancrum, who delivered him to the Duke of
Cumberland; and the same narrative adds, that the Duke issued orders
that no one should mention the Earls imprisonment to his son, but
considerately imparted the intelligence to the young man himself. It is
only fair to mention this redeeming trait in a man who had so many
awful, and almost inexpiable sins to answer for at the last day, when
not our professions of kindness, but our acts of mercy or of wrong will
be placed before a solemn and final account.
After his surrender at
Culloden, the Earl of Kilmarnock was conveyed to London. That
metropolis, in some of its most attractive features, was well known to
him : he had frequently resided there for several months during the
year, and had associated with the friends of government who were near
the court. He was now to view it under a very different aspect; and
during the period which elapsed between his surrender and his trial, he
had ample time to weigh the respective value of that society which had
formerly so much delighted him, and in which, it is said, he had
affected to talk freely of religion and of those great truths which were
now his only source of support.
"Whatever may have been
his early errors, the remaining days of Lord Kilmarnock were
characterized by gentleness to those who were placed in authority over
him; forbearance to those who slandered him, and submission to God.
Unable to conquer a natural intense love of life, he assumed no
pretended intrepidity: yet manifested a still greater concern for his
character, than for his fate. Society in general, as well as the
annalists of the times, mourned for him, and with him; and many who
beheld his doom, would have sacrificed much of their own personal safety
to avert the close of that tragic scene. But these were not times when
the generous might venture to interfere with security.
Two noblemen, differing
greatly in character from Lord Kilmarnock, shared his imprisonment:
Arthur, sixth Earl of Balmerinoch, or, as it is usually spelled
Balinerino, (pronounced Balmenno), and George, Earl of Cromartie.
Of these individuals,
Lord Balmenno, although an uncultured soldier, has excited by far the
greatest interest. He was descended, like most of his associates from an
ancient family, It was of German origin.4 first
known n Scotland in the reign of Robert Bruce, to whose sister, a German
Knight, surnamed Elphingston, or Elphinstone, was married. Such was the
esteem in which Robert Bruce held his foreign brother-in-law, that he
gave him lands in Midlothian, which still bear the name of Elphinstone.
Hence was he called Elphinstone of that Ilk—a mode of expression
employed in Scotland to prevent the repetition of the same name. In
process of time certain estates which a descendant of the German Knight
acquired at Arthbeg, in Stirlingshire, were also endowed with that
surname ; and, during several centuries, the martial and hardy race to
whom those lands belonged continued in the same sphere, that of private
gentlemen, chiefs of the House of Elphinstone. They were remarkable, in
successive generations, for that bold and manly character which
eventually distinguished their ill-fated descendant, Arthur Balmerino
and which, in time, extorted applause from the most prejudiced
politicians of the opposite party. Alexander Elphinstone, in the reign
of David the Second, might have emulated the supposed deeds of Guy Earl
of Warwick; he rivalled him in gigantic figure, in immense strength, and
knightly prowess. His disposition was not only martial, but chivalric;
for, conscious of extraordinary power, "he was more able," says a writer
of the last century, "to overlook an affront, than men less capable of
resenting it." His son, inferior in bodily strength, equalled him in
military exploits, which distinguished indeed a succession of the
Elphinstones of that Ilk. At Flodden, John Elphinstone, who was created
a Lord of Parliament by James the Fourth, was killed by the side of his
royal master, and being not unlike to that monarch in face and figure,
his body was carried to Berwick by the English, who mistook it for that
of the King. In the reign of James the Sixth, James, the second son of
the third Lord Elphinstone, was created a Baron by the name and title of
Lord Balmerino. He rose to high honours <n the State; but the first
disgrace that befell the family occurred in this reign. This was the
marriage of John, the second Lord Balmerino, to Jane Ker, sister of the
infamous Ker, Earl of Somerset, and favourite of James the Sixth, who,
for his sake, denounced a curse on his posterity, which seems, says the
writer before quoted, "to have followed them and the nation ever since."
Like most of the noble
families in Scotland, the house of Balmerino became impoverished during
the civil wars ; and when the father of Arthur Elphinstone succeeded to
his title, he found his estates wofully diminished. He was, however, one
of those men who were capable, by ability and prudence, of redeeming the
fortunes of his family. Circumstances were, indeed, adverse to the
prosperity of any whose loyalty to the Stuarts was suspected. Lord
Balmerino was prudent, but he was sincere. He was a man of excellent
parts, improved by reading, being, perhaps, one of the very best lawyers
in the kingdom, and very expert in the Scottish constitution; he
reasoned much and pertinently in Parliament, and testifying, on all
occasions, an unshaken loyalty to his Prince, and zealous affection to
his country, he gained the esteem and love of all good men.
Such was the father, of
whom this noble character was drawn, to whom Arthur, Lord Balmermo, owed
his being. Such was the man whom it would have been the wiser policy of
the British Ministry to have conciliated, on the accession of George the
First, but whose son they drove into an act of imprudence by their
distrust and injustice.
The first wife of John,
fourth Lord Balmeriino, was the daughter of Hugh, Earl of Eglintoun,
and, consequently, she was connected with some of the most strenuous
supporters of the Stuart cause in the kingdom of Scotland. By her he had
two sons. Hugh, who was killed in 1708, at the siege of Lisle, and
James, who was educated to the profession of the law. Upon the death of
this lady, Lord Balmerino married Anne, daughter of Ross, the last
Archbishop of St. Andrews, and by her had two sons: Arthur, who became
eventually Lord Balmerino, and Alexander, who died in 1733, unmarried;
and a daughter, Anne, who died also unmarried. The subject of this
memoir may, therefore, be deemed the last of the House of Balmerino.
Arthur Elphinstone was
born in the year 1688. He had, until late in life, no expectation of
succeeding to the title of his father after the death of Hugh, there
being still an elder brother, James. The characteristics of all this
branch of the Elphinstone family appear almost invariably to have been
those of honour and justice, and James resembled his father in the
integrity of his principles. The following character is drawn of him by
a contemporary writer: "He was rather a solid pleader than a refined
orator; but he understood the law so well, and preserved the chastity of
his character so tenderly, by avoiding being concerned in any scandalous
actions, that he was listened to with great attention by the bench, at
a, time when it was filled by the most eminent lawyers that ever
appeared in Scotland."
The abilities of this
able and conscientious man soon raised him to the bench, where he
discharged his duties with that high and nice sense of integrity which
can only be described by the word honour. He never mixed party-spirit
with his judgments: he lent himself to no ministerial purposes. The
dignity of the judge was preserved in his manly and courageous character
: and such was his application to business, that his court was thronged
with practitioners when those of other judges were nearly deserted.
Arthur, his younger
brother, possessed not his application, but displayed much,
nevertheless, of the natural ability of his family. "He was not much
acquainted with books; and though he was rich in repartee, yet he never
affected to reason.'' Such is the remark of a contemporary writer. Yet
who might not envy the clear, undisturbed intellect which showed him, in
a moment of peculiar temptation, the value of plain dealing, and the
inestimable price of a good conscience?
Some members of a family
seem fated to sulfer for the others. Arthur Elphinstone was educated in
the principles which brought him to the scaffold: they were those of his
father and brother, who were both fortunate enough to preserve them in
their own breasts, and yet not to encounter trouble on that account.
And, during the reign of Queen Anne the family appear to have been
deemed so well affected, as to procure them promotion, not only in civil
but military service. When very young, Arthur Elphinstone obtained the
command of a company of foot in Lord Shannon's regiment, on the
accession of George the First. His real opinions were, however,
manifested by hit, resignation of his commission; and by his joining the
standard of Lord Mar, under whom he commanded a company, and served in
the battle of Sherriff Muir. By throwing up his commission, he escaped
being punished as a deserter, and was allowed to retire to the
Continent. According to some accounts, he went first to Denmark; by
others it is said, that he entered at once into the French service. He
remained, at all events, twenty years in exile from his family; but in
1733, an event occurred, which greatly increased the natural desire
which his father, declining in strength, had long cherished of again
beholding his son. Alexander Elphinstone, the younger brother of Arthur,
died at Leith, two years before the Insurrection broke out. This young
man had had the misfortune in 1730, to light a duel, shortly after which
his adversary, Lieutenant Swift, had died of his wounds. The combat took
place on the Links of Leith; the affair was notorious, and Alexander had
been threatened with a prosecution, which was not, however, put into
execution.
This painful
circumstance, coupled with Alexander Elphinstone s death, may have
naturally added to the wish which Lord Balmerino entertained, to rescue
his exiled son from the sentence of outlawry under which lie stood, and
to restore him again to his home. Probably the desire of perpetuating
honours which had been gained by legitimate exertions, may have been
contemplated by the aged nobleman when he revolved in his mind how he
could compass the safe return of his younger, and surviving son. to
Scotland. James, the heir to the title, great as was the lustre which
his abilities and integrity shed upon it, was not likely to perpetuate
more honours, having no children by his wife Elizabeth Carnegie,
(laughter of David, fourth Earl of Northesk.
It is one of the
numerable instances of human short-sightedness, that the very recal of
Arthur Elphinstone to Scotland was the cause of the extinction of family
honours, and of that line in which they rested. According to some
accounts, he remained abroad until the general Act of Indemnity, from
which he was not excepted, took effect: but by others it is stated, that
his father, having made a strong application to Government, obtained a
tree pardon for his son. If such were the case, there seems a degree of
ingratitude in again joining the enemies of Government, which one can
scarcely reconcile with the generous character of this brave man.
He was in Switzerland
when he received a summons to return to his native country. His conduct
upon the arrival of this intelligence was honest and candid towards him,
to whom, according to his notions, he owed allegiance. He wrote to the
Chevalier (St. George) and laid open the circumstances of the case
before him; stating that he should not accept the proffered pardon
without his permission. James answered this explanation with his own
hand; and not only gave Arthur Elphinstone permission to return to
Scotland, but informed him that he had ordered his banker at Paris to
pay his travelling expenses. Thus authorized, Arthur returned home,
welcomed by his aged father with a satisfaction which happily was not
destined to be alloyed by any adverse circumstances during the lifetime
of the venerable nobleman.
Thus was this ill-fated
man restored to that land which probably, although long severed from its
glens and mountains, he hail not ceased to love. He was now of middle
age, being in his forty-fifth year; but. his disposition, in spite of
his long residence among foreigners, was still thoroughly Scotch. He was
as undaunted by danger as any of his valiant ancestors had been,
consequently he had no need to have recourse to guile; in short,
falsehood would have been impossible to that frank nature. He was blunt
in speech, but endowed with the kindest heart that ever throbbed in the
dungeons of that grim fortress in which his manly career was closed. He
had not, however, the prudence which is characteristic of his countrymen
: and which, once well understood, is as distinct from selfishness and
craft as their martial vehemence has generally been from cruelty. A
service in foreign campaigns had not lessened his ideas of honour; which
were perhaps more truly cherished among military men on the Continent,
than at that period in England. Few British troops, for example, ever
proved themselves more worthy of the name of soldiers than the Hessians
who served in Scotland in 1745. To the fine and soldierly attributes of
Lord Balmerino, to an intrepidity almost amounting to indifference, to a
warm and generous heart, were united that ready and careless humour
which accord so well with the loftier qualities of the mind, and
certainly rather enhance, than detract from the charm of graver
attributes of character.
In appearance, Lord
Balmerino was strongly contrasted with the fellow-sufferer with whom his
name is indelibly associated. "His person," writes a contemporary, "was
very plain, his shape clumsy, but his make strong: and he had no marks
of the polite gentleman about him. He was illiterate .n respect of his
birth; but rather from a total want of application to letters, than want
of ability." His manners are said to have been natural, if not courtly;
his countenance only inferior in its ungainlness to that of Lovat, but,
expressing, we may suppose, a very different temper of mind, harsh as
were its features, it captivated, as well as that of the handsome
Kilmarnock, female regard.
According to some
statements, Lord Balmerino married in 1711, before the first
Insurrection but no distinct allusion to a connection of so early a
period is to be found in the authenticated narratives of his life. It
was not, it seems evident, until after his return from Switzerland, that
he married Margaret, daughter of Captain Chalmers—the pretty Peggy," who
was at once his solace and his sorrow when in the Tower of London. In
1736, the father, whom he had returned to cheer in his decline, died at
his house in Leith, and was buried at the family seat at Restalrig in
Leith. His son James, succeeded to the title.
When the intelligence
arrived, that Charles Edward had landed in Scotland, Arthur Elphinstone
hastened to the standard of the Prince. On the thirty-first of October,
1745, he marched from Edinburgh, on the expedition to England, having
the command of a troop of horse, not complete, in number about forty.
His military talents were well known, for he had distinguished himself
in several campaigns in Flanders. But, as he took into the field only
his menial servants, no very important posts were entrusted to him; and
his career appears not to have been signalized by any remarkable
military exploits. In short, it may be truly said of him as of Dr. Donne
by Izaak Walton, that "nothing in his life became him Iike the leaving
it"
After joining the
insurgent army, Lord Balmerino engaged in all the various movements of
that enterprise. After the siege of Carlisle he entered that city at the
head of his troop, with pipes playing, and colours flying, having been
at twelve miles' distance when the town was taken; he then proceeded in
the fatal expedition to Derby, and returned a second time to Carlisle,
preceding in his march the main body of the army towards Scotland. He
was present at the battle of Falkirk, but did not engage in it: some of
the cavalry having been kept as a corps de reserve in that engagement.
His participation m that day's victory was, however, afterwards imputed
to him as an act of rebellion, although, he was merely drawn up in a
field near the field of battle, in company with Lord Kilmarnock and Lord
Pitsligo. The body which he commanded, went by the name of Arthur
Elphinstone's Life Guards.
A few weeks before the
battle of Culloden, the elder brother of Arthur Elphinstone, James Lord
Balmerino, died, leaving the title which he had enjoyed for so short a
period, to the brother, who was then engaged in so perilous a course.
This accession of honour brought with it lit tie increase of fortune,
but rather the responsibility of succeeding to encumbered estates. Of
these most had, indeed, passed into other families. To the first Lord
Balmerino charters of numerous lands and baronies had been given;
Barntoun, Harrie, Balumby, Innerpeffer, Balgregie, Balmerino, Dingwall,
&c.. were among his possessions. In 16U5, the barony of Restalrig, in
South Leith, was sold to Lord Balmerino by the noted and profligate
Robert Logan, Baron of Restalrig, to whose family that now valuable
property, including the grounds lying near the river, had belonged,
until the days of the Queen Regent, Mary. This estate, on which Lord
Balmerino's father resided, appears to have been almost the only vestige
of the former opulence of this branch of the Elphinstone family. His
embarrassed circumstances are deemed by some writers to have had a
considerable share in deciding Lord Balmerino to join in a contest in
which he had so little to lose; but it appeared, in the hour of trial,
that his principles of allegiance to the Stuarts had been unaltered
since the days of his youth, and that they were alone sufficient to
account for the part which he adopted. At the battle of Culloden Lord
Balmerino was made prisoner by the Grants, to whom, as one of the
witnesses on his trial affirmed, he surrendered himself. He was conveyed
to Castle Grant, and from thence to London, to the same dreary fortress
in which Lord Kilmarnock was likewise immured. The fate of these two
unfortunate men, hitherto but little dependant on each other, was
henceforth associated, until the existence of both was closed on the
scaffold.
George, the third Earl of
Cromartie, was the only one of their fellow-prisoners who was arraigned
and tried with Kilmarnock and Balmerino. He had taken even a more
decided part in the Insurrection than Balmerino, having raised four
hundred of his clan, who were with him in the battle of Falkirk. His
son, the young Lord
Macleod, was also in the
Jacobite army, and both father and son were surprised at Dunrobin, by a
party of the Earl of Sutherland's militia, on the fifteenth of April,
and taken prisoners. Lord Cromartie had. as well as Lords Kilmarnock and
Balmerino, strong ties to life, strong claims upon his reason to have
withheld him from a hazardous participation in a cause of peril. He had
been married more than twenty years to Isabel, daughter of Sir William
Gordon, and had by her a numerous family. For this nobleman, a powerful
interest was afterwards successfully exerted.
These three noblemen were
brought to London early in June. They were shortly afterwards followed
by about eight hundred companions in misfortune. Of these, who arrived u
the Thames on the twenty-first of June, about two hundred were left at
Tilbury Fort; while six hundred were deposited in the various prisons of
the metropolis. From henceforth scenes of distress, and even of horror,
were daily presented to the prisoners. The Marquis of Tullibardine
expired soon after his arrival at the Tower; Lord Macleod, with happier
fate, rejoined his father; Mr. Murray of Broughton who was treated with
a distinction, at that time, unexplicable, was also lodged in the same
fortress. Those who were led to expect the severest measures, might envy
the calm departure of the good old Marquis of Tullibardine; but ail
hearts bled when the gallant Colonel Townley, a Roman Catholic gentleman
of distinction, was dragged on a sledge, along with other prisoners, to
Kennington. his arms pinioned; insulted by a brutal multitude, and there
hanged. The horrid barbarities of this sentence being fulfilled on his
body, which was still breathing, the hangman preparing to take out the
heart and bowels, struck it several times on the chest, before life and
perhaps consciousness) was wholly extinct.
Day after day, the awful
tragedies were repeated, exceeding any similar displays of power since
the days of the Tudors. Each of these martyrs, as the voice of their own
party pronounced them, in their last moments declared, that "they died
in a just cause—that they did not repent of what they hail done—that
they doubted not their deaths would be avenged." When, after nine
executions had taken place in one morning, the heart of the last
sufferer was thrown into the fire, a savage shout from the infuriated
multitude followed the words "God save King George!" The unfortunate man
who had just perished was a young gentleman, named Dawson, a graduate of
St. John's College, Cambridge. He had for some time been engaged to a
young lady of good family, and great interest had been made to procure
his pardon. The lovers were sanguine in their expectations, and the day
of his release was to have been that of their marriage.
When all hope was at an
end, the young lady, not deterred by the remonstrances of her kindred,
resolved upon following Mr. Dawson to the place of execution. Her
attention was at length acceded to : she drove in a hackney-coach after
the sledges, accompanied by a relative, and by one female friend. As the
shout of brutal joy succeeded the silence of the solemn scene, the words
"My love.—I follow thee,—I follow thee!"
burst from the lips of
the broken-hearted girl. She fell on the neck of her companion, and,
whilst she uttered these words, "Sweet Jesus!—receive our souls
together!" expired: Recitals of these domestic tragedies, proofs of the
unrelenting spirit of government, tended to break the firmness of some
of those who survived.
Lord Cromartie sank into
dejection; Kilmarnock's fine and gentle nature was gradually purified
for heaven. Balmerino rose to heroism.
The prisons were crowded
with captives; the noblemen alone were committed to the Tower ; even two
of the Scottish chiefs were sent to Newgate ; the officers were
committed to the new gaol, South wark; the common men to the Marshalsea.
Meantime, strong and prompt measures were determined upon by Government.
Bills of indictment for
high treason were found against Lord Kilmarnock, the Earl of Cromartie,
and the Lord Balmerino, by the grand jury of the county of Surrey: a
writ of certiorari was issued for removing the indictments into the
House of Beers, on the twenty-sixth of June, and their trial was
appointed to take place on the twenty-eighth of July following.
Westminster Hall was accordingly prepared for the trials, and a high
steward appointed in the person of the justly celebrated Lord Hardwicke.
On the petition of Lord
Kilmarnock, Mr. George Ross was engaged as his solicitor, with
permission to have free access to him at all times. On the appointed day
the trials commenced. Westminster Hall was fitted up with unprecedented
magnificence; and tickets were issued by the Lord Chamberlain to the
Peers, to give access to their friends. At eight o'clock in the morning,
the Judges in their robes, with the Garter-King-at-Arms, the Usher of
the Black Rod, and the Serjeant-at-Arms waited on the Lord High Steward
at his house in Ormond Street : Garter m his coat of the king's arms,
and Black Rod, having the white staff attended them. After a short
interval the procession to Westminster Hall began: Lord Hardwicke,
designated during the term of the trial as ''his Grace" came forth to
his coach, his train borne, and followed by the chief judges and judges.
His coach was preceded by his Grace's twenty gentlemen, uncovered, in
five coaches two and two; by the Serjeant-at-Arms, and the Black Rod.
The heralds occupied the back seats of his Grace's coach; the judges in
their coaches followed. As the procession entered the Palace-yard, the
soldiers rested their muskets and the drums beat, as to the Royal
Family.
Meantime, the Peers in
them robes were assembled ; the Lord High Steward having passed to the
House, through the Painted Chamber, prayers were read ; and the peers
were called over by Garter-King-at-Arms. The Lord Steward, followed
first by hi« four gentlemen attendants, two and two ; and afterwards by
the clerks of the House of Lords, and the clerks of the Crown : by the
Peers, and the Peers' sons, proceeded to Westminster Hall, the Lord
Steward being alone uncovered, and his train borne by a page.
Proclamation for silence
having been made by the Lord Steward's serjeant-at-arms, the commission
was read, the lords standing up, uncovered. Then his Grace, making
obeisance to the lords, reseated himself; and Garter, and the Black Rod,
with their reverences, jointly presented the white staff, on their
knees, to his Grace. Thus fully invested with his office, the Lord
Steward took his staff in his hand and descended from the woolsack to a
chair prepared for him on an ascent before the throne.
The three lords had been
brought during this time from the Tower. The Earl of Kilmarnock was
conveyed in Lord Cornwallis's coach, attended by General Williamson,
Deputy Governor of the Tower; the Earl of Cromartie, in General
Williamson's coach, attended by Captain Marshal; and Lord Balmerino in
the third coach, attended by Mr. Fowler, Gentleman Gaoler, who had the
axe covered by his side. A strong body of soldiers escorted these
carriages.
The three lords being
conducted nto the Hall, proclamation was made by the Serjeant-at-Arms
that the Lieutenant of the Tower should bring his prisoners to the bar,
the proclamation being made in this form :— "Oyez, oyez, oyez,
Lieutenant of the Tower of London, bring forward your prisoners, William
Earl of Kilmarnock, George Earl of Cromartie, and Arthur Lord Balmerino,
together with the copies of their respective commitments, pursuant to
the order of the House of Lords."
Then the lords were led
to the bar of the House by the Lieutenant-Governor, the axe being
carried before them with its edge turned from them. The prisoners, when
they approached the bar, made three reverences, and fell upon their
knees. Then said the Lord High Steward your lordships may arise upon
which the three lords arose and bowed to his Grace the High Steward, and
to the House, which compliment was returned by the Lord High Steward,
and by the Peers.
Thus began the trial;
"the greatest, and the most melancholy scene," wrote Horace Walpole to
Sir Horace Mann, "that I ever saw. As it was the most interesting sight,
it was the most solemn and line; a coronation is but a puppet show, and
all the splendour of it Idle; but this sight at once feasted one's eyes,
and engaged one's passions of—a signal avowal for one whom a long
continuance in the world's business, and, perhaps, worse, its pleasures,
had hardened. A hundred and thirty-nine lords were present, making a
noble sight on their benches, and assisting at a ceremony which is said
to have been conducted with the most awful solomnity and decency
throughout, with one or two exceptions.
The Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke, who presided on this occasion, has been mostly deemed one of
the brightest ornaments of the woolsack. The son of an attorney at
Dover, as Philip Yorke, he had risen to the highest offices of the law,
by his immense acquirements, and his incomparable powers of illustration
and arrangement. By his marriage with a niece of the celebrated Lord
Somers, he strengthened his political interest, which, however, it
required few adventitious circumstances to secure. Three great men have
expressed their admiration of Lord Hardwicke almost in similar terms :
Lord Mansfield, Burke, and Wilkes. "When his lordship pronounced his
decrees, wisdom herself might he supposed to speak." In manner, he was
usually considered to be dignified, impressive, and unruffled; and his
intentions were allowed to be as pure and elevated, as his views were
patriotic.
On this eventful day,
since we cannot reject the testimony of an eye-witness of discernment,
we must believe that party spirit, which had usually so little influence
over his sense of justice, swayed the prepossessions of Lord Hardwicke.
At all events, it affected his treatment of the unhappy men to whom he
displayed a petulance wholly derogatory to his character as a judge, and
discreditable to his feelings as a man. "Instead of keeping up the
humane dignity of the law of England, whose character is to point out
any favour to the criminal, he crossed them, and almost scolded at any
offer they made towards defence." Such is the remark of Horace Walpole.
Comely in person, and possessing a fine voice, Lord Hardwicke had every
opportunity, on this occasion, of a graceful display of dignity and
courtesy ; yet his deportment, usually so calm and lofty, was
obsequious, "curiously searching for occasion to bow to the minister,
and, consequently, applying to the other ministers in a manner, for
their orders ;—not even ready at the ceremonial." Notwithstanding, Lord
Hardwieke, on his death-bed, could with confidence declare "that he had
never wronged any man." The unhappy Jacobites seem, indeed, to have been
considered exceptions to all the common rules of clemency. None of the
Royal Family were present at the trial, from a proper regard for the
feelings of the prisoners, and also, perhaps, from a nice sense of the
peculiarity of their own condition.
After the warrants to the
Lieutenant of the Tower were read, the Lord High Steward addressed the
prisoners, telling them that although their crimes were of the most
heinous nature, they were still open to such defences as circumstances,
and the rules of law and justice would allow. The indictments for high
treason were then read: to these, Lords Kilmarnock and Cromartie pleaded
guilty j but when the question was put to Lord Balmerino, he demanded
boldly, but respectfully to be heard, objecting to two clauses in the
indictment, in which he was styled "Arthur Lord Balmerino, of the town
of Carlisle," and also charging him with being at the taking of
Carlisle, when he could prove " that he was not within twelve miles of
it." Not insisting upon these objections, and the question being again
put to him, he then pleaded, 'not guilty.' Lord Kilmarnock and Lord
Cromartie were removed from the bar, and the trial of Balmerino began.
It was prefaced by addresses from Sir Richard Loyd, king's counsel, and
from Mr. Serjeant Skinner, who made, what was justly considered by H.
Walpole, "the most absurd speech imaginable," calling "Rebellion, surely
the sin of witchcraft," and applying to the Duke of Cumberland the
unfortunate appellation of "Scipio."' The Attorney General followed, and
witnesses were afterwards examined, who fully proved, though accused by
Balmerino of some inconsistencies, his acts of adherence to the
Chevalier; his being present in towns where James Stuart was proclaimed
King; his wearing the regimentals of Prince Charles's body guard; his
marching into Carlisle at the head of his troops, with a white cockade
in his cap; his presence at the battle of Falkirk, in a field with Lords
Kilmarnock and Pitsligo, who were at the head of a corps of reserve. Six
witnesses were examined, but there was no cross-examination, except such
as Balmerino himself attempted. The witnesses were chiefly men who had
served in the same cause for which the brave Balmerino was soon to
suffer. After they had delivered their testimony, the "old hero," as he
was well styled, shook hands cordially with them. In one or two
instances, as far as can be judged by the answers, the evidence seems to
have been given with reluctance. Lord Balmeriiio being asked if he had
any thing to offer in his defence, he observed that none of the
witnesses had agreed upon the same day as that which was named in the
indictment for being at Carlisle; and objected to the indictment, that
he was not at the taking of Carlisle as therein specified. His
objections were taken into consideration; the Lords retired to their
chamber, and there consulted the judges whether it be necessary that an
overt act of high treason should be proved to have been committed on the
particular day named in the indictment.
The answer being in the
negative, every hope of acquittal was annihilated for Balmerino. He gave
up every further defence, and apologised with his usual blunt courtesy
for giving their Lordships' so much trouble: he said that his objections
had been the result of advice given by Mr. Ross, his solicitor, who had
laid the case before counsel. The question was then put by the Lord High
Steward, standing up, uncovered, to the Lords, beginning with the
youngest peer. Lord Herbert of Cherburv; "whether Arthur Lord Balmerino
were guilty of high treason, or not guilty. An unanimous reply was
uttered by all those who were present; "guilty upon my honour." Lord
Balmerino, who had retired while the question was put, was then brought
back to the bar to hear the decision of the Lords. It was received with
the intrepidity which had, all throughout the trial, characterised the
soldier and the man. During the intervals of form, his natural
playfulness and humour appeared, and the kindness of his disposition was
manifested. A little boy being in the course of the trial near him, but
not tail enough to see, he took him up, made room for the child, and
placed him near himself. The axe inspired him with no associations of
fear. He played upon it, while talking, with his fingers, and some one
coming up to listen to what he was saying, he held it up like a fan
between his face and that of the gentleman-gaoler, to the great
amusement of all beholders. And this carelessness of the emblem of death
was but a prelude to the calmness with which he met his fate. "All he
troubled himself about," as a writer of the time observed, "was to end
as ho begun, and to let his sun set with as full and fair a Light as it
was possible." During the time that the Lords were withdrawn, the
Solicitor-General Murray, and brother of Murray of Broughton, addressed
Balmerino, asking him "how he could give the Lords so much trouble,"
when he had been told by his solicitor that the plea could be of no use
to him? The defection and perfidy of Murray of Broughton were now
generally known. and the officious insolence of his inquiry was both
revolting and indiscreet. Balmerino asked who this person was, and being
told, exclaimed, "Oh! Mr Murray, I am extremely glad to see you. I have
been with several of your relations, the poor lady, your mother, was of
great use to us at Perth." An admirable and well-merited rebuke. He
afterwards declared humorously that one of his reasons for not pleading
guilty was, "that so many fine ladies might not be disappointed of their
show."
Besides the interest
which at such a moment the grave dignity of Kilmarnock, contrasted with
the lofty indifference of Balmerino, might excite, there was some
diversion among the Peers, owing to the eccentricity of several of their
body. Of these, one, Lord Windsor, affectedly said when asked for his
vote, "I am sorry I must say. guilty upon my honour." Another nobleman,
Lord Stamford, refused to answer to the name of Henry, liavhig been
christened Harry. " "What a great way of thinking," remarks Horace
Walpole, "on such an occasion." Lord Foley withdrew, as being a
well-wisher to poor Balmerino; Lord Stair 011 the plea of
kindred—"uncle," as Horace Walpole sneeringly remarks, to his
great-grandfather ; and the Earl of Moray on account of his relationship
to Balmerino, his mother, .Jane Elphinstone, being sister to that
nobleman.
But the greatest source
of amusement to all who were present was the celebrated Audrey, or to
speak in more polite phrase, Ethelreda, Lady Townshend, the wife of
Charles, third Viscount Townshend, and the mother of the celebrated wit,
Charles Townshend. Lady Townshend was renowned for her epigrams, to
which, perhaps, in this case, her being separated from her husband gave
additional point. "When she heard her husband vote, "guilty upon my
honour," she remarked, "I always knew my Lord was guilty, but I never
knew that he would own it upon his honour." Her sarcastic humour was
often exhibited at the expense of friend or foe. When some one related
that Whitfield had recanted, "No, madam,"' she replied, "he has only
canted." And when Lord Bath ventured to complain to this audacious
leader of fashion, that he had a pain in his side, she cried out, "Oh'!
that cannot be, you have no side."
A touch of feminine
feeling softened the harshness of the professed wit, always a dangerous,
and scarcely ever a pleasing character in woman. As Lady Townshend gazed
on the prisoners at the bar, and saw the elegant and melancholy aspect
of Lord Kilmarnock, the heart that was not wholly seared by a worldly
career is said to have been deeply and seriously touched by the graces
of that incomparable person, and the mournful dignity of his manner.
Perhaps, opposition to her husband, whose grandfather was Minister to
George the First, and whose mother was a Walpole, gave the additional
luxury of partisanship; that passion which lasted even some weeks after
the scene was closed; and when the fashionable world were left to enjoy,
undisturbed by any fears of any future rebellion, all the dangerous
attractions of the dissolute Court.
The first day's
proceedings being at an end, the prisoners were remanded to the Tower.
On the following morning the proceedings were resumed, and the Lords
having assembled in the Painted Chamber, took their places in
Westminster Hall. The three lords were then again brought to the bar,
again kneeled down, again were bidden to arise. The Attorney-General
having prayed for judgment upon the prisoners, they were desired by the
Lord High Steward to say "why judgment of death should not be passed
against them according to law."
The reply of Lord
Kilmarnock is described as having been a "very fine speech, delivered in
a very fine voice if his behaviour during the whole of the trial, a
"most just mixture between dignity and submission." Such is the avowal
of one who could not be supposed very favourable to the party; but whose
better feelings were, for once called into play during this remarkable
scene.*
The address of Lord
Kilmarnock, however beautiful and touching in expression, will not,
however, satisfy those who look for consistency in the most solemn
moments of this chequered state of trial; but in perusing the summary of
it, let it be remembered that he was a father; the father of those who
had already suffered deeply for his adherence to Charles Edward; that he
was the husband of a lady who, whatever may have been their differences,
was at that awful hour still fondly beloved; that he dreaded penury for
his children, an apprehension which those who remembered the fate of the
Jacobites of 1715 might well recall; a dread, aggravated by his rank; a
dread, the bitterness of which is indescribable; the temptations it
offers unspeakably great. These considerations, far stronger than the
fear of death, actuated Lord Kilmarnock. He arose, and a deep silence
was procured, whilst he offered no justification of his conduct, "which
had been," he said, "of too heinous a nature to be vindicated, and which
any endeavour to excuse would rather aggravate than diminish." He
declared himself ready to submit to the sentence which he was conscious
that he had deserved. "Covered with confusion and grief, I throw myself
at his Majesty's feet."
He then appealed to the
uniform honour of his life, previous to the insurrection, in evidence of
his principles. "My sphere of action, indeed, was narrow; but as much as
I could do in that sphere, it is well known, I have always exerted
myself to the utmost in every part of his Majesty's service I had an
opportunity to act in. from my first appearance in the world, to the
time I was drawn into the crime, for which I now appeal before your
Lordships.
He referred to his
conduct during the civil contest; to his endeavours to avert needless
injury to his opponents; to his care of the prisoners, a plea which he
yet allowed to be no atonement for the "blood he had been accessary to
the spilling of. Neither," he said, "do I plead it as such, as at all in
defence of my crime."
"I have a son, my lords,"
he proceeded, "who has the honour to carry his Majesty's commission;
whose behaviour, I believe, will sufficiently evince, that he has been
educated in the firmest revolution principles, and brought up with the
warmest attachment to his Majesty's interests, and the highest zeal for
his most sacred person.
"It was my chief care to
instruct him in these principles from his earliest youth, and to confirm
him, as he grew up, in the justice and necessity of them to the good and
welfare of the nation. And, I thank God, I have succeeded;—for his
father's example did not shake his loyalty; the ties of nature yielded
to those of duty; he adhered to the principles of his family, and nobly
exposed his life at the battle of Culloden, in defence of his King and
the liberties of Great Britain, in which I, his unfortunate father, was
in arms to destroy."
Lord Kilmarnock next
alluded to the services of his father in 1715, when his zeal and
activity in the service of Government had caused his death: "I had
then," he added, "the honour to serve under him."
Lord Kilmarnock proceeded
to explain his own circumstances at the time of the insurrection: he
declared that he was not one of those dangerous persons who could raise
a number of men when they will, and command them on any enterprise they
will: "my interests," he said, "lie on the south side of the Forth, in
the well inhabited, and well affected counties of Kilmarnock and
Falkirk, in the shires of Ayr and Stirling." His influence he declared
to be very small.
This portion of his
appeal was Ill-advised : for it seems to have been the policy of
Government to have selected as objects of royal mercy those who had most
In their power, not the feeble and impoverished members of the Jacobite
party. It has been shown what favour would have been manifested to the
chief of the powerful clan Cameron, had he deigned to receive it: and
the event proved, that not the decayed branches, but the vigorous shoots
were spared. Lord Cromartie, who had taken a far more signal part in the
insurrection than either Kilmarnock or Balmerino, and whose resources
were considerable, was eventually pardoned, probably with the hope of
conciliating a numerous clan.
After appealing to his
surrender in extenuation of his sentence, and beseeching the
Intercession of the Lords with his Majesty, Lord Kilmarnock concluded—
"It is by Britons only that I pray to be recommended to a British
monarch. But if justice allow not of mercy, my lords, I will lay down my
life with patience and resignation; my last breath shall be employed in
the most fervent prayers for the preservation and prosperity of his
Majesty, and to beg his forgiveness, and the forgiveness of my country."
He concluded, amid the tears and commiseration of a great majority of
those who heard his address.
The Earl of Crornartie
was then called upon to speak in arrest of judgment. His defence is said
to have been a masterly piece of eloquence. It ended with a pathetic
appeal, which fell powerless on those who heard him.
"But, after all, if my
safety shall be found inconsistent with that of the public, and nothing
but my blood be thought necessary to atone for my unhappy crimes; if the
sacrifice of my life, my fortune, and family, are judged indispensable
for stopping the loud demands of public justice ; if, notwithstanding
all the allegations that can be urged in1 my favour, the bitter cup is
not to pass from me, not mine, but thy will, O God, be done."
Balmerino then arose to
answer the accustomed question. He produced a paper, which was read for
him at the bar, by the clerk of the court. It was a plea which had been
sent by the House of Lords that morning to the prisoners, and which, it
was hoped, would save all of these unfortunate men. It contained an
objection to the indictments, stating that the act for regulating the
trials of rebels, and empowering his Majesty to remove such as are taken
in arms from one county to another, where they might be tried by the
common courts of peers, did not take effect till after the facts,
implying treason, had been committed by the prisoners. The two Earls had
not made use of this plea, but Lord Balmerino availed himself of it, and
demanded counsel on it. Upon the treatment which he then encountered,
the following remark is made by one who viewed the scene, and whose
commiseration for the Jacobites forms one of the few amiable traits of
his character.
"The High Steward",
relates Horace Walpole, "almost in a passion, told him, that when he had
been offered counsel, he did not accept it,:—but do think on the
ridicule of sending there the plea, and then denying them counsel on
it." A discussion among the Lords then took place; and the Duke of
Newcastle, who, as the same writer truly remarks, "never lost an
opportunity of being absurd," took it up as a ministerial point "in
defence of his creature, the Chancellor." Lord Granville, however,
moved, according to order, to return to the Chamber of Parliament, where
the Duke of Bedford and many others spoke warmly for their "having
counsel," and that privilege was granted. "I said their" observes
Walpole, "because the plea would have saved them all, and affected nine
rebels who had been hanged that very morning."
The Lords having returned
to the Hall, and the prisoners being again called to the bar, Lord
Balmerino was desired to choose his counsel. He named Mr. Forester, and
Mr. Wilbraham, the latter being a very able lawyer in the House of
Commons. Lord Hardwicke is said to have remarked privately, that
Wilbraham, he was sure, would as soon be hanged as plead such a cause."
But he was mistaken: the conclusion of the trial was again deferred
until the following day, Friday, August the first, when Mr. Wilbraham,
accompanied by Mr. Forester, appeared in court as counsel for the
prisoners. Previously, however, to the proceedings of the last day, Lord
Balmerino was informed that his only hope was ill-founded; the plea was
deemed invalid by the counsel; and the straw which had. with the kindest
and most laudable intentions, been thrown on the stream to arrest his
fate, was insufficient to save him. He bore this disappointment with
that fortitude which has raised the character of his countrymen: when he
appeared on that last day, in Westminster Hall, with his brother
prisoners, he submitted, in the following brief and simple words, to his
destiny. "As your lordships have been pleased to allow me counsel, I
have advised with them; and my counsel tell me. there is nothing in that
paper which I delivered in on Wednesday last, that will be of any use to
me; so I will not give your lordships any more trouble."
When again asked,
according to the usual form, as well as the other prisoners, whether he
had anything more to say in arrest of judgment, Lord Balmerino replied;
"No, my- Lords, I only desire to be heard for a moment." Expressing his
regret that he should have taken up so much of their lordships' time, he
assured them that the plea had not been put in to gain time, but because
he had believed there was something in the objection that would do him
good. He afterwards added these few words, which one wisht have wished
unsaid: "My lords, I acknowledge my crime, and I beg your lordships will
intercede with his Majesty for me."
The Serjeant-at-Arms was
then distinctly heard proclaiming silence; and the Lord High Steward
delivered what Horace Walpole has termed, ''his very long, and very poor
speech, with only one or two good passages in it." On this, there may
be, doubtless, contending opinions. Those who looked upon the prisoners,
and saw men in the full vigour of life, condemned to death, for acting
upon acknowledged, though misapplied principles, could scarcely listen
to that protracted harangue with an unbiassed judgment. The hcnour of
the Lord High Steward's address had. throughout, one marked feature; it
presented no hope of mercy, it left no apology nor plea upon which the
unhappy prisoners might expect it. It amplified every view of their
crime, and pointed out, in strong and able language, its effect upon
every relation of society.
In conclusion. Lord
Hardwicke said, "I will add no more: it has been his Majesty's justice
to bring your lordships to a legal trial; and it has been his wisdom to
show, that as a small part of his national forces was sufficient to
subdue the rebel army in the field, so the ordinary course of his law is
strong enough to bring even their chiefs to justice.
"What remains for me, is
a very painful, though a very necessary part. It is to pronounce that
sentence which the law has provided for crimes of this magnitude—a
sentence full of horror! Such as the wisdom of our ancestors has
ordained, as one guard about the sacred person of the king, and as a
fence about this excellent constitution, to be a terror to evil doers,
and a security to them that do well."
And then vas heard,
thrilling every tender heart with horror, the sentence of hanging, first
to be put into execution, and followed by decapitation. The horrible
particularities were added—"of being hanged by the neck,—but not till
you. are dead—for you must be cut down alive—the rest of this sentence,
since it has long ago been suffered to fall into oblivion, may, for the
sake of our English feelings, rest there. By those to whom it was
addressed, it was heard .in the full conviction that it might be carried
out on them since that very morning, nine prisoners of gentle birth had
suffered the extreme penalties of that barbarous law.
Of the calm manner in
which his doom was heard by one of the state prisoners, Horace Walpole
has left the following striking anecdote:
"Old Balmerino keeps up
his spirits to the same pitch of gaiety: in the cell at Westminster, he
showed Lord Kilmarnock how he must lay his head: bid him not wince, lest
the strokes should cut his head or his shoulders; and advised him to
bite his lips. As they were to return, he begged they might have another
bottle together, as they should never meet any more till—he pointed to
his neck. At getting into his coach, he said to the gaoler, 'Take care,
or you will break my shins with this d-d axe.'
The English populace
could not forbear delighting in the composure of Balmerino, who, on
returning from Westminster Hall after his sentence, could stop the coach
in which he was about to be conducted to the Tower to buy gooseberries;
or, as he expressed it in his national phrase, honey-blobs.
That night, not contented
with saying publicly at his levee, that Lord Kilmarnock had proposed
murdering the English prisoners, the Duke of Cumberland proposed giving
his mistress a ball; but the notion was abandoned, lest it should have
been regarded as an insult to the prisoners, and not because a particle
of highminded regret for the sufferers could ever enter that hard and
depraved heart. Too well did the citizens of London understand the Duke
of Cumberland's merits, when, it being proposed to present him with the
freedom of some company, one of the aldermen cried aloud, "Then let it
be of the Butchers!"
The commission was
dissolved in the usual forms: "all manner of persons here present were
desired to depart in the fear of God, and of our sovereign Lord the
King." The white staff of office was broken by the Lord High Steward;
the Lords adjourned to the Chamber of Parliament; the prisoners returned
to the Tower.
Three weeks elapsed,
after the trial before the execution of Lord Kilmarnock and Lord
Balmerino. During that interval, hope sometimes visited the prisoners in
their cells, great intercession being made for them by persons of the
highest rank. But it was in vain, for the counsels of the Duke of
Cumberland influenced the heart of his royal father, who it is generally
believed, would otherwise have been disposed to compassion. During this
interval, the sorrows of the prisoners were aggravated by frequent
rumours that their beloved Prince was taken; but he was safe among his
Highlanders, and defied the power even of an armed force to surprise him
in his singular and various retreats.
The Earl of Crornartie
was the only one of the three prisoners to whom royal mercy was
extended. This nobleman had been considered, before the Insurrection, as
the only branch of the Mackenzies who could be relied upon. He had been
backward in joining the Jacobite army, and had never shared the
confidence of Charles Edward He had been disgusted with the preference
shown to Murray and to Sullivan, to the prejudice of more powerful
adherents of the cause; and it was reported, had rather surrendered
himself to the Earl of Sutherland's followers, than resisted when they
apprehended him.
Amiable in private life,
affable in manner, and exempt from the pride of a Highland chieftain?
this nobleman had been beloved by his neighbours of inferior rank; to
the poor he had been a kind benefactor. The domestic relations of life
he had fulfilled irreproachably. Every heart bled for him; and the case
of his son. Lord Macleod, who had espoused the same cause, excited
universal commiseration.
On the Sunday following
the trial, Lady Cromartie presented her petition to the King: he gave
her no hopes; and the unhappy woman fainted when he left her.
It is pleasing to rest
upon one action of clemency, before returning to the horrors of capital
punishment. To the intercession of Frederick Prince of Wales. Lord
Cromartie eventually owed his life; that intercession is believed to
have been procured by the merits and the attractions of Lady Cromartie,
who was indefatigable in her exertions.
This Lady, the daughter
of Sir William Gordon of Dalfolly, is said to have possessed every
quality that could render a husband happy. Beautiful and intellectual,
she manifested a degree of spirit and perseverance when called upon to
act m behalf of her husband and children, that raised her character to
that of a heroine. She was then the mother of nine children, and about
to give birth to a tenth. During the period of suspense, her conduct
presented that just medium between stoicism and excess of feeling, which
so few persons in grief can command.
At last, a reprieve for
Lord Crornartie arrived on the eleventh of August; it was not, however,
followed by a release, nor even by a free pardon. During two years. Lord
Crornartie was detained a prisoner in the Tower, there, being condemned
to witness the departure of his generous friends, Kilmarnock and
Balmerino, to the scaffold. On February the eighteenth, 1748, he was
permitted to leave his prison, and to lodge in the house of a messenger.
In the following August he went into Devonshire, where he was desired to
remain. A pardon passed the Great Seal for his Lordship on the twentieth
of October, 1749, with a condition that he should remain in any place
directed by the King. He died in Poland-street in London, on the
twenty-eighth of September, 1766.
On Thursday, the seventh
of August, the Reverend James Foster, a Presbyterian minister, was
allowed access to Lord Kilmarnock, to prepare him for a fate which now
seemed inevitable. Great intercession had been made for the ill-fated
prisoner, by his kinsman, James, sixth Duke of Hamilton, and husband of
the celebrated beauty, Miss Gunning; but the friendly efforts of that
nobleman were thought rather to have "hurried him to the block," When a
report reached him that one of the prisoners would be spared, Lord
Kilmarnock had desired, with the utmost nobleness of soul, that
Cromartie should be preferred to himself. Balmerino lamented that he had
not been taken with Lord Lovat; "for then," he remarked, "we might have
been sacrificed, and these two brave men have been spared." But these
regrets were unavailing, and Lord Kilmarnock and his friend prepared to
meet their doom.
Mr. Foster, on conversing
with Lord Kilmarnock, found him humbled, but not crushed by his
misfortunes; contrite for a life characterized by many errors, but
trustful of the Infinite mercy, to which we fondly turn from the stern
justice of unforgiving man. And the reverend gentleman on whom the
solemn responsibility of preparing a soul for judgment was devolved,
appears to have discharged his task with a due sense of its delicacy,
with fidelity and kindness.
Having introduced himself
to Lord Kilmarnock with the premises that his Lordship would allow him
to deal freely with him; that he did not expect to be flattered, nor to
have the malignity of his crimes disguised or softened;—Mr. Foster told
him, "that in his opinion, the wound of his mind, occasioned by his
private and public vices, must be probed and searched to the bottom,
before it could be capable of receiving a remedy. "If he disapproved of
this plan," Mr. Foster thought "he could be of no use to him, and
therefore declined attendance." To this Lord Kilmarnock replied that,
"whilst he thought it was not Mr. Foster's province to interfere in
things remote from his office, yet it was now no time to prevaricate
with him, nor to play the hypocrite with God, before whose tribunal he
should shortly appear."
This point being settled,
the minister of the Gospel deemed it necessary to persuade the Earl,
that he was not to be amused with vain delusive hopes of a reprieve;
that he must view his sentence as inevitable; otherwise that his mind
might be distracted between hope and fear; and that true temper of
penitence which alone could recommend him to Divine mercy would be
unattainable.
The unfortunate Earl
touchingly answered, that indeed, when he consulted his reason, and
argued calmly with himself, he could see no ground of mercy; yet still
the hope of life would intrude itself. He was afraid, he said, that
buoyed up by this delusive hope, when the warrant for his execution came
down, he should have not only the terror of his sentence to contend
with, but the fond delusions of his own heart; — to overcome the bitter
disappointment—the impossibility of submission. He therefore assured Mr.
Foster, that he would do all in his own power to repel that visionary
enemy, and to fix his thoughts on the important task of perfecting his
repentance, and of preparing for death and eternity.
In regard to the part
which Lord Kilmarnock had taken in recent events, there seemed no
difficulty in impressing his mind with a deep sense of the
responsibility which he had incurred in helping to diffuse terror and
consternation through the land, in the depredation and ruin of his
country and in convincing him that he ought to consider himself
accessory to innumerable private oppressions and murders. "Yes," replied
Lord Kilmarnock, with deep emotion, "and murders of the innocent too."
And frequently he acknowledged this charge with tears, and offered up
short petitions to God for mercy.
But when Mr. Foster
mentioned to him that the consequences of the "Rebellion and its natural
tendency was to the subversion of our excellent free constitution, to
extirpate our holy religion, and to introduce the monstrous
superstitions and cruelties of Popery," Lord Kilmarnock hesitated; and
owned, at length, that he did not contemplate such mischiefs as the
result of the contest; that he did not believe that the young Chevalier
would run the risk of defeating his main design by introducing Popery;
nor would so entirely forget the warnings which the history of his
family offered, so far as to make any attacks upon the liberties and
constitution of the country. His entering into the Rebellion was
occasioned, as he then declared, by the errors and vices of his previous
life; and was a kind of desperate scheme to extricate him from his
difficulties. Humbled and penetrated by the remembrance of former
levity, Lord Kilmarnock remarked, that not only was Providence wise and
righteous, but to him, gracious; and that he regarded it as an
unspeakable mercy to his soul, that he had not fallen at the battle of
Culloden, impenitent and unreflecting ; for that, if the Rebellion had
been successful, he should have gone on in his errors, without ever
entertaining any serious thought of amendment. "Often," added the
contrite and chastened man, "have I made use of these words of Christ,
'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not
as I will, but as thou wilt.'" But he had checked himself by the
reflection, that it was not for him who had been so great a sinner, to
address himself to God in the same language with his blessed Saviour,
who was perfectly innocent and holy.
In time, aided by the
representations of his spiritual attendant, the deepest remorse for a
life not untainted by impurity of conduct, was succeeded by religious
peace. It was then that the prisoner turned to that Bread of Life which
Christ hath left for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
But the Minister who led him into the fold of the Great Shepherd, would
not consent to administer to him the Holy Sacrament without a full
confession made :n the presence of the gentleman gaoler, of his past
offences, and of his contrition for them. At that solemn moment, when
the heart was laid open to human witnesses, Lord Kilmarnock professed
the deepest penitence for his concurrence in the Rebellion, and for the
irregularities of his private life : he declared his conviction that the
Holy Sacrament would be of no benefit to hirn whatsoever, if his remorse
and contrition were not sincere. This assurance was, in other words,
yet, in substance the same, emphatically repeated. During the
conversations held with Lord Kilmarnock, Mr, Foster perceived that the
confessions of the penitent were free and ingenuous ; that he examined
his own heart with a searching anil scrupulous care, sternly challenging
memory to the aid of conscience. At last, he declared that he should
rather prefer the speedy execution of his sentence to a longer life, if
he were sure that he should again he entangled by the snares and
temptations of the world. This was a few days before his death.
Gradually, but
effectually, the spirit that had so much In it of a heavenly temper ;
the heart, so framed to be beloved, was purified and elevated; so that,
a beautiful and holy calm, a heavenly disinterestedness, a patience
worthy of him who bore the name of Christian, were manifested in one
whom it were henceforth wrong to call unhappy. When Lord Cromartie's
reprieve became known to Mr. Foster, he dreaded, lest this subdued, yet
fortified mind, should be disturbed by the jealousies to which our
worldly condition is prone : ho trembled lest the sorrow of separation
from a world which Lord Kilmarnock had loved too fondly, should be
revived by the pardon of his friend. "Therefore," relates Mr. Foster,
"in the morning before I waited upon him. I prepared myself to quiet and
mollify his mind. But one of the first things he said to me was, that he
was extremely glad that the King's mercy had been shown to Lord
Cromartie." "My Lord," inquired Mr. Forster, "I hope you do not think
you have any injustice shown you?" Lord Kilmarnock's answer was, "Not in
the least; I have pleaded guilty: I entirely acquiesce in the justice of
my sentence; and if mercy be extended to another, I can have no reason
to complain, when nothing but justice is done to me."
With regard to some
points upon which the public odium was directed to the young Chevalier
and his party, Lord Kilmarnock was very explicit in his last
conversations with Mr. Foster. We have already seen how far he was
enabled to clear himself concerning his conduct to the prisoners at
Inverness. A report having been industriously circulated, probably with
a view to excuse the barbarities of the Duke of Cumberland, that an
order had been issued in the Pretender's council at Inverness, to
destroy the prisoners who might be taken at the battle of Culloden, Mr.
Foster put the question to Lord Kilmarnock, Whether that statement were
true? "I can most sincerely and freely answer, No," was the satisfactory
reply; and a similar contradiction was given by the dying man to every
accusation of a similar tendency.
On Monday the eleventh of
August, General Williamson desired Mr. Foster, "in the gentlest terms
that he could use, to apprize Lord Kilmarnock, that he had received the
order for his, and for Lord Balmerino's execution. Mr. Foster at first
refused to undertake this office. "I was so shocked at it," writes the
good man "that I could not think of delivering the message myself, but
would endeavour to prepare the unfortunate Lord for it, by divesting
him, as far as I could, of all hope of life." Such, indeed, had been the
continual aim of all the reverend minister's counsels ; and he had hoped
to entrust the last mournful task of informing him of the order to other
hands. On finding Lord Kilmarnock in a very resigned and calm state of
mind, he ventured, however, to hint to him how necessary was that
diligent and constant preparation for death which he had endeavoured to
impress upon his mind. This was sufficient: the ill-fated prisoner
immediately inquired, "whether the warrant for his execution was come
down?" "I told him that it was," relates Mr. Foster, and that the day
fixed upon was the following Monday."
Lord Kilmarnock received
this intimation with a solemn consciousness of the awful nature of its
import; but no signs of terror nor of anxiety added to the sorrows of
that hour. In the course of conversation, he observed to Mr. Foster,
that "he was chiefly concerned about the consequences of death, in
comparison of which he considered the thing itself' a trifle: with
regard to the manner of his death he had, he thought, no great reason to
be terrified, for that the stroke appeared to be scarcely so much as the
drawing of a tooth, or the first shock of a cold bath upon a weak and
fearful temper." At the last hour, nevertheless, the crowd,—the
scaffold,—the doom, upset that sublime and heavenly resignation,—the
weakness of the flesh prevailed, although only for an instant.
In the silence and
solitude of his prison. Lord Kilmarnock's recollection reverted to those
whom human nature were shortly to be left to buffet with the storms of
their hard fate. It reverted also to those who might, in any way, have
suffered at his hands. The following touching epistle, addressed to his
factor, Mr. Robert Paterson, written two days only before his execution,
shows how tender was his affection for his unhappy wife: in how
Christian a spirit towards others he died. His consideration for the
poor shoemakers of Elgin is one of those beautiful traits of character
which mark a conscientious mind. The original of this letter is still in
existence, and is in the possession of the great-grandson of him to whom
it was addressed.
"Sir,
"I have commended to your
care the inclosed packet, to be delivered to my wife in the manner your
good sense shall dictate to you, will be least shocking to her. Let her
be prepared for it as much by degrees, and with great tenderness, as the
nature of the thing will admit of. The entire dependance I have all my
life had the most just reason to have on your integrity and friendship
to my wife and family, as well as to myself, make me desire that the
inclosed papers may come to my wife through your hands, in confidence;
but you will take all the pains to comfort her, and relieve the grief I
know she will be in, that you and her friends can. She is what I leave
dearest behind me in the world; and the greatest service you can do to
your dead friend, is to contribute as much as possible to her happiness
in mind, and in her affairs.
"You will peruse the
State before you deliver it to her, and you will observe that there is a
fund of hers (I don't mention that of five hundred Scots a-year); as the
interest of my mother-in-law's portion in the Countess of Errol's hands,
with, I believe, a considerable arrear upon it; which, as I have ordered
a copy of all these papers to that Countess, I did not care to put in.
There is another thing of a good deal of moment, which I mention only to
you, because if it could be taken away without noise it would be better;
but if it is pushed it will be necessary to defend it.
That is, a bond which you
know Mr. Kerr. Director to the Chancery, has of me for a considerable
sum of money, with many years Interest on it, which was almost ail play
debt. I don't think I ever had fifty pounds, or the half of it, of Mr
Kerr's money, and I am sure I never had a hundred; which however I have
put it to, in the inclosed declaration, that my mind may be entirely at
ease. My intention with respect to that sum was to wait till I had some
money, and then buy it off. by a composition of three hundred pounds,
and if that was not accepted of, to defend it; in which I neither saw,
nor now see anything unjust; and now I leave it on my successors to do
what they find most prudent in it. Beside my personal debt mentioned in
general and particular in the State, there is one for which I am liable
in justice, it is not paid, owing to poor people, who gave their work
for it by my orders; it was at Elgin in Murray; the regiment I commanded
wanted shoes. I commissioned something about seventy pair of shoes and
brogues, which might come to about three shillings, or three and
sixpence each, one with another. The magistrates divided them among the
shoemakers of the town and country, and each shoemaker furnished his
proportion. I drew on the town for the price out of the composition laid
on them, but I was told afterwards at Inverness, that it was believed
the composition was otherwise applied, and the poor shoemakers not paid.
As these poor people wrought by our orders, it will be a great ease to
my heart to think they are not to lose by me, as too many have done in
the course of that year; but had I lived, I might have made some enquiry
after it; but now it is impossible, as their hard Statement ships in
loss of horses, and such things which happened through my soldiers, are
so interwoven with what was done by other people, that it would be very
hard, if not impossible, to separate them. If you will write to Mr.
Jones at Elgin, (with whom I was quartered when I lay there,) he will
send you an account of the shoes, and if they were paid to the
shoemakers or no; and if they are not, I beg you'll get my wife, or my
successors, to pay them when they can.
"Receive a letter to me
from Mrs. Boyd, my cousin Malcomb's widow ; I shall desire her to write
to you for an answer.
"Accept of my sincere
thanks for your friendship and good services to me. Continue them to my
wife and children.
"My best wishes are to
you and yours, and for the happiness and prosperity of the good town of
Kilmarnock, and I am, sir, your humble servant,
"Kilmarnock."
Tower of London,
August 16th, 1746.
On the Saturday previous
to the execution of Lord Kilmarnock, General Williamson gave his
prisoners a minute account of all the circumstances of solemnity, and
outward terror, which would accompany it. Lord Kilmarnock heard it much
with the same expression of concern as a man of a compassionate
disposition would read it, in relation to others. After suggesting a
trifling alteration in the arrangements after the execution, he
expressed his regret that the headsman should be, as General Williamson
informed him, a "good sort of man ;" remarking, that one of a rougher
nature and harder heart, would be more likely to do his work quickly. He
then requested that four persons might be appointed to receive the head
when it was severed from the body in a red cloth; that it might not, as
he had heard was the case at other executions, "roll about the scaffold
and be mangled and disfigured." "For I would not," he added, "though it
may be but a trifling matter, that my remains should appear with any
needless indecency after the just sentence of the law is satisfied." He
spoke calmly and easily on all these particulars, nor did he even shrink
when told that his head would be held up and exhibited to the multitude
as that of a traitor. "He knew," he said, "that it was usual, and it did
not affect him." During these singular conversations, his spiritual
attendant and the General, could hardly have been more precise in their
descriptions had they been portraying the festive ceremonials of a
coming bridal, than they were in the fearful minutiae of the approaching
execution. It was thought by them that such recitals would accustom the
mind of the prisoner to the apparatus and formalities that would attend
his death, and that these would lose their influence over his mind. "He
allowed with me," observes Mr. Foster, "that such circumstances were not
so melancholy as dying after a lingering disorder, in a darkened room,
with weeping friends around one, and whilst the shattered frame sank
under slow exhaustion." But experience and human feelings contradict
this observation of the resigned and unhappy sufferer; we look to death,
under such an aspect, as the approach of rest: but human nature shrinks
from the violent struggle, the momentary but fierce convulsion, plunging
us, as it were, into the abyss of the grave.
At this moment of his
existence, when it was certain ruin at Court and in the army, to
befriend the Jacobite prisoner, a friend, the friend of his youth, came
nobly forward to attend Lord Kilmarnock in his dying moments. This was
John Walkinshaw Craufard, of Craufurdland in the county of Ayr, between
whose family and that of the House of Boyd, a long and intimate
friendship of several centuries had existed; "so much so," observes a
member of the present family of Craufurd, "that a subterranean passage
is said to exist between our old castles, of which we fancy proofs; but
these are fire-side legends."
*Mrs. Hovison Craufurd,
the lady of William Howison Craufurd, Esq., of Craufurdland Castle,
Ayrshire. To this Lady I am indebted for much of the information
(afforded by her admirable letters) which has been introduced into this
Memoir of Lord Kilmarnock. To this lady I addressed an inquiry respect
an original portrait of Lord Kilmarnock. Her efforts to obtain any
intelligence of on have been wholly unavailing; and we have been led to
the conclusion that, in the fire at Dean Castle, all the portraits of
Lord Kilmarnock must have been destroyed; his resemblance, his name, his
honour, and his Castle thus becoming extinct at once. At Craufuidland
Castle there is a fine portrait of Lord Kilmarnock's brother, his widow
and daughter, painted in oils, after a singular fashion, black pad
white; giving it a ghastly hue. This perhaps accounts for the local
tradition near Kilmarnock, "that on hearing of his biother's death, Mr.
Boyd's colour fled, and never returned; nor was he ever seen to smile
again." A tradition not difficult of belief.
The present Mr. Craufurd,
of Craufurdland Castle, represents also the family of Howison of
Braehead. In Mrs. Howison Craufurd's family an amusing circumstance
relative to Lord Lovat occurred. He was one evening in a ball-room, and
was paying court to the great-grandmother of that lady. As he was
playfully examining, and holding in his hand her diamond solitaire, a
voice whispered in his ear, "that Government officers were in pursuit of
him; and that he must decamp," Decamp he did, taking with him, perhaps
by accident, the costly jewel. The young lady was in the greatest
trepidation, and her family were resolved to recover the ornament. Many
years after, on his return from France, Lovat, whose character, in no
respect, rose above suspicion, was taxed with the robbery, and refunded
a sum which gave twenty pounds to each of e host of granddaughters, then
in their girlhood.
"The family of Craufurd,"
observes Mr. Burke, "is one of antiquity and eminence in a part of the
empire where ancestry and exploit have over been held in enthusiastic
admiration." By marriage, in the thirteenth century, it is allied
anciently with the existing house of Loudon; and its connection and
friendship with the House of Boyd was cemented by the death of one of
its heads, Robert Craufurd. in 1487, in consequence of a wound received
at the Wyllielee, from attending James Boyd, Earl of Arran, in a duel
with the Earl of Eglintoun. In the days of Charles the First and Second,
the Craufurds had been Covenanters, as appears in the history of that
time and in the year 1745, they were stauch Whigs; and Colonel
Walkinshaw Craufurd had, when called upon to pay a mournful proof of
respect to Lord Kilmarnock, attained the rank of Colonel in the British
army. Besides the ancient friendship of the family, there had been
several intermarriages; and the father of Colonel Craufurd had espoused,
after the death of Miss Walkinshaw. Elenora, the widow of the Honorable
Thomas Boyd, the brother of Lord Kilmarnock.
Colonel Walkinshaw
Craufurd was a fine specimen of the true Scottish gentleman, and of the
British officer. He was a very handsome, stately man. of highbred
manners, and portly figure, whom his tenantry both feared and honoured.
He Lived almost continually in the highest circles in London, except
when in service, and also at the Court, visiting his Castle in Ayrshire
only in the hunting season, for he kept a pack of hounds. To such a man
the sacrifice of public opinion, then all against the Jacobites,—the
sure loss of Court favour.—the risk of losing all military promotion,
were no small considerations; yet he cast them all to the winds, and
came nobly forward to pay the last respect to his kinsman and friend.
Already had he
distinguished himself at the battle of Dettingen and Fontenoy; and he
might reasonably expect the highest military honours: yet he incurred
the risk of attending Lord Kilmarnock on the scaffold, and performing
that office for him which that nobleman required. I almost blush to
write the sequel; for this act, Colonel Craufurd was, immediately after
the last scene was over, put down to the very bottom of the army list.
Such was the petty and vindictive policy of the British Government,
influenced, it may be presumed, by the same dark mind that visited upon
the faithful Highlanders the horrors of military law, in punishment of
their fidelity and heroism. "The King,'' observes Horace Walpole,
referring to these and other acts, "is much inclined to mercy; but the
Duke of Cumberland, who has not so much of Cassar after a victory, as in
gaining it, is for the utmost severity."
Whilst the mind of Lord
Kilmarnock was thus gradually prepared for death, Lord Balmerino passed
cheerfully the hours which were so soon to terminate in his doom. Fondly
attached to his young wife, Balmerino obtained the boon of her society
in his prison. So much were the people attracted by the hardihood and
humour of this brave old man, that it was found necessary by the
authorities to stop up the windows of his prison-chamber in the Tower,
in order to prevent his talking to the populace out of the window. One
only was left unclosed, with characteristic cruelty: it commanded a view
of the scaffolding erected for his execution. One day the Lieutenant of
the Tower brought in the warrant for his death: Lady Balmeriuo fainted.
"Lieutenant," said Lord Balmerino, "with your d---d warrant you have
spoiled my Lady's dinner."
Lord Balmerino is said to
have written to the Duke of Cumberland a "very sensible letter,"
requesting his intercession with the King; but this seems to have been
unavailing, from the well-known exclamation of George the Second, when
solicited for the other prisoners, "Will no one speak a word to me for
poor Balmerino?"
The day appointed for the
execution was the eighteenth of August, at eight in the morning. Mr.
Foster visited Lord Kilmarnock, and found him in a calm and happy
temper, without any disturbance of that serenity which had of late
blessed his days of imprisonment. He affected not to brave death, but
viewed it in the awful aspect in which even the best of men, and the
most hopeful Christians, must consider that solemn change. He expressed
his belief, that a man who had led a dissolute life, and who yet
believed the consequences of death, to affect indifference at that hour,
showed himself either to he very impious, or very stupid. One
apprehension still clung to his mind, proving how sensitive had been
that conscience which strove in vain to satisfy itself. He told Mr.
Foster "he could not be sure that his repentance was sincere, because it
had never been tried by the temptation of returning to society."
Lord Kilmarnock continued
in a composed state of mind during the whole morning. After a short
prayer, offered up by Mr. Foster, at his desire, he was informed that
the sheriffs waited for the prisoners. He heard this announcement
calmly; and said to General Williamson, with his wonted grace, "General,
I am ready to follow you." He then quitted his prison, and descended the
stairs. As he was going down, he met Lord Balmerino; and the friends
embraced. "My Lord," said the noble Balmerino, "I am heartily sorry to
have your company in this expedition."
The prisoners then
proceeded to the outward gate of the Tower, where the Sheriffs, who had
walked there in procession, received them: this was about ten o'clock in
the morning of the eighteenth of August. The bodies of the two noblemen
having been delivered with the usual formalities to the Sheriffs, they
proceeded to the late Transport Office, a building near the scaffold.
Two Presbyterian ministers, Mr. Foster and Mr. Home, accompanied Lord
Kilmarnock, whilst the Chaplain of the Tower and another clergyman,
attended Lord Balmerino. Three rooms, hung with black, were prepared ;
one for each of the condemned noblemen; another, fronting the scaffold,
for spectators. Here, those who were so soon to suffer, had a short
conference with each other, chiefly relating to the order, said to have
been issued at Culloden, to give no quarter. This was a subject, not
only of importance to Lord Kilmarnock's memory, but to the character of
the Jacobite party generally.
"Did you, my Lord," said
the generous Balmerino, still anxious, even at the last hour, to justify
his friends, "see or know of any order, signed by the Prince, to give no
quarter at the battle of Culloden?"
"No, my Lord," replied
Kilmarnock.
"Nor I neither," rejoined
Balmerino; "and therefore it seems to be an invention to justify their
own murderous scheme."
To this Lord Kilmarnock
answered, "No, my Lord, I do not think it can be an invention, because,
while I was a prisoner at Inverness, I was told by several officers that
there was such an order, signed 'George Murray,' and that it was in the
Duke of Cumberland's custody." To this statement, (which was wholly
erroneous) Lord Balmerino exclaimed, "Lord George Murray! Why then, they
should not charge it on the Prince." After this explanation, he bade
Kilmarnock a last farewell: as he embraced him, he said, in the same
noble spirit, that he had ever shown, "My dear Lord Kilmarnock, I am
only sorry I cannot pay all this reckoning alone: once more, farewell
for ever."
Lord Kilmarnock was then
left with the sheriffs, and his spiritual advisers. In their presence,
he solemnly declared himself to be a Protestant, and said that he was
thoroughly satisfied of the legality of the King's claim to the throne.
He had been educated in these principles, and he now thoroughly repented
having ever engaged in the Rebellion. He afterwards stated to his
friends that he had within this, week taken the sacrament twice in
evidence of the truth of his repentance.
The hour of noon was now
fast approaching, when the last act of relentless justice was to be
performed. Mr. Foster, after permitting the Earl a few moments to
compose himself, suggested that he should engage with him in prayer, and
afterwards proceed to the scaffold. The minister then addressed himself
to all who were present, urging them to join with him in this last
solemn office, and in recommending the soul of an unhappy penitent to
the mercy of God. Those who were engaged in this sad scene, sank on
their knees, whilst, after a petition relating to the prisoner, a prayer
was offered up "for King George, for our holy religion, for our
inestimable. British liberties." This prayer, for the royal family, Lord
Kilmarnock hail often protested he would, at the latest moment, offer up
to the throne of God.
After this solemn duty
had been performed, Lord Kilmarnock bade an affectionate farewell to the
gentlemen who had accompanied him, and here Mr. Foster's office ceased,
the Rev. Mr. Home, a young clergyman, and a personal friend of Lord
Kilmarnock, succeeding him in attendance upon the prisoner. Many reports
prevailed of Lord Kilmarnock's fear of death, and of the weakness of his
resolution; and Balmerino, it is said, apprehended that he would not
"behave well," an expression used, perhaps, in reference to his
opinions, perhaps in anticipation of a failure of courage. As leaning
upon the arm of his friend Mr Home, Lord Kilmarnock saw, for the first
time, that outward apparatus of death to which he had taken such pains
to familiarise himself; nature still recurred upon him —for an instant,
the home of peace, to which he was hastening, was forgotten;—"the
multitude, the block, the coffin, the executioner, the instrument of
death." appalled one, whose character was amiable, rather than exalted.
He turned to his attendant, and exclaimed, "Home, this is terrible!" Yet
his countenance, even as he uttered these words, was unchanged, and in a
few moments, he regained the composure of one whose hope was in the
mercy of his Creator. What else could sustain him in the agonies of that
moment? "His whole behaviour," writes Mr. Foster, "was so humble and
resigned, that not only his friends, but every spectator, was deeply
moved; the executioner burst into tears, and was obliged to use
artificial spirits to support and strengthen him." As the man kneeled
down, after the usual custom, to pray for forgiveness, Lord Kilmarnock
desired him to have courage, and placing a purse of gold in his hand,
told him that the dropping of a handkerchief should be the signal for
the blow.
Mr. Foster having
rejoined Lord Kilmarnock on the scaffold, a long conversation, in a low
voice, took place between them; for Lord Kilmarnock made no speech. "I
wish," said Mr. Foster, "I had a voice loud enough to tell the multitude
with what sentiments your Lordship quits the world." Again, the
unfortunate nobleman embraced his friends; and bade Mr Foster, who
quitted the scaffold a few minutes before his execution, a last
farewell. During all this time, which was more than half an hour, he
took no notice of the multitude below: except, observing that the green
baize over the wall obstructed the view, he desired that it might be
lifted up that the crowd might see the spectacle of his execution.
A delay now took place,
attributed by some to Lord Kilmarnock's "unwillingness to depart:" but
owing to a few trivial circumstances which, as Mr. Foster remarks, "are
unnecessary to be mentioned in order to vindicate the noble penitent
from the imputation of fear in the critical moment." To the last, a
scrupulous attention to decorum, and nicety in dress characterized Lord
Kilmarnock. At his trial, he was described as having been a little too
precise, and his hair "too exactly dressed for a person in his
situation." On the scaffold the same care was manifested. He appeared in
a mourning suit, and his hair, which was unpowdered, was dressed
according to the fashion of the day, in a bag, which it took some time
to undo, in order to replace the bag by a cap. Even then, the cap being
large, and the hair long, his lordship was apprehensive that some of the
hair might escape, and intercept the stroke of the axe. He therefore
requested a gentleman near him, to tie the cap round his head, that he
might bind up the hair more closely. As this office was performed, the
person to whom he had applied, wished his lordship a continuance of his
resolution until he should meet with eternal happiness. "I thank you,"
returned Lord Kilmarnock, with his usual courtesy and sweetness; "I find
myself perfectly easy and resigned."
There was also another
impediment,—the tucking of his shirt under his waistcoat was next
adjusted. Then Lord Kilmarnock, taking out a paper containing the heads
of his last devotions, advanced to the utmost stage of the scaffold, and
kneeled down at the block, on which, in praying, he placed his hands,
under the executioner remonstrated, begging of him to let his hands fall
down, lest they should be mangled, or should intercept the blow. He was
also told that the neck of his waistcoat was in the way; he therefore
arose, and with the help of Colonel Walkinshaw Craufurd. had it taken
off. Near him were standing those who held the cloth ready to receive
his head; among these Mr. Home's servant heard Lord Kilmarnock tell the
executioner, that in two minutes he would give the signal. A few moments
were spent in fervent devotion; then the sign was given, and the head
was severed from the body by one stroke. It was not exposed to view
according to custom: but was deposited in a coffin with the body, and
delivered to his Lordship's friends. One peculiarity attended this
execution. It is not required by law that the head of a person
decapitated should be exposed; but is a custom adopted in order to
satisfy the multitude that the execution has been accomplished. Since,
by Lord Kilmarnock's dying request. this practice was omitted, the
Sheriffs ordered that all the attendants on the scaffold should kneel
down, so that the view of the execution might not be impeded to those
who were below.
The scaffold was
immediately cleared, and put in order for another victim; and Mr. Ford,
the Under Sheriff, who had attended the first execution, went into the
room in the Transport Office where Balmerino awaited his doom. "I
suppose," inquired the undaunted Balmerino, "that my Lord Kilmarnock is
no more." And having asked how he died, and being told the account, he
said: "It is well done, and now, gentlemen, I will no longer detain you,
for I desire not to protract my life." He spoke calmly, and even
cheerfully; Lord Kilmarnock had shed tears as he bade his friends
farewell, but Balmerino, whilst others wept, was even cheerful, and
hastened to the scaffold. His deportment, when in the room where he
awaited the summons to death, was graceful and yet simple, without
either any ostentation of bravery, or indications of indifference to his
fate. He did not defy the terror, he rose above it. He conversed freely
with his friends, and refreshed himself twice with wine and bread,
desiring the company to drink to him, as he expressed it in his Scottish
phrase, ain degrae ta liaivenbut above all, he prayed often and
fervently for support, and support was given.
True to the last to his
professions, Lord Balmerino was dressed in what was called by a
contemporary, "his Rebellious Regimentals," such as he had worn at
Culloden ; they were of blue cloth, turned up with red; underneath them
was a flannel waistcoat and a shroud. He ascended the scaffold,
"treading," as an observer expressed it, "with the air of a General,"
and surveying the spectators, bowed to them; he walked round it, and
read the inscription on his coffin, "Arthurus Dominus de Balmerino,
deeoratus, 18" die August. 1746, atatis sua- 58°;" observed "that it was
right," and with apparent pleasure looked at the block saying, it was
his "pillow of rest." Lord Balmerino then pulling out his spectacles,
read a paper to those who stood around him, and delivered it to the
Sheriff to do with it as he thought proper. It was subsequently printed
in a garbled form, much of it being deemed too treasonable for
publication, and in that form is preserved in the State Trials. It is
now given as it was really spoken.
"I was bred in the
anti-revolution principles, which I have ever persevered in from a
sincere persuasion.
"I was brought up in
true, loyal, and anti-revolution principles and I hope the world is
convinced that they stuck to mo. I must acknowledge I did a very
inconsiderate thing, for which I am heartily sorry, in accepting a
company of Foot from the Princess Anne, who I know had no more right to
the Crown than her predecessor the Prince of Orange..... To make amends
for what I had done I joined the .... (Pretender) when he was in
Scotland in 1715, and when all was over I made my escape, and lived
abroad till the year 1734.
"In the beginning of that
year I got a letter from my father which very much surprised me; it was
to let me know he had a promise of a remission for me. I did not know
what to do; I was then, (I think.) in the canton of Beme, and had nobody
to advise with: but next morning I wrote a letter to the ....
(Pretender) who was then at Rome, to acquaint the .... (Pretender) that
this was come without my asking or knowledge, end that I would not
accept of it without his consent. I had in answer to mine, a letter
written with .... (The Pretender's) own hand, allowing me to go home;
and he told me his banker would give me money for my travelling charges
when I came to Paris, which accordingly I got. When the .... (the
Pretender's son) came to Edinburgh I joined him, though I might easily
have excused myself from taking arms on account of my age; but I never
could have had peace of conscience if I had stayed at home....... I am
at a loss when I come to speak of the .... (Pretender's son,) I am not a
fit hand to draw his character, I shall leave that to others. (Here he
gives a fulsome character of the Pretender''s son.) that the restoration
of the Royal Family, and the good of my native country, are inseparable.
The action of my life which now stares me most in the face, is my having
accepted a commission in the army from the late Princess Anne, who I
knew had no more right to the crown than her predecessor, the Prince of
Orange, whom I always considered as an infamous usurper.
"In the year 1715, as
soon as the King landed in Scotland, I thought it my indispensable duty
to join his standard, though his affairs were then in a desperate
situation.
"I was in Switzerland in
the year 1734, where I received a letter from my father acquainting me
that he had procured me remission, and desiring me to return home. Not
thinking myself at liberty to comply with my father's desire without the
King's approval. Pardon me if I .say, wherever I had the command, I
never suffered any disorders to he committed, as will appear by the Duke
of Buccleugh's servants at East Park; by the Earl of Findlater's
minister, Mr. Lato, and my Lord's servant, A. Cullen ; by Mr. Rose,
minister at Nairn, (who was pleased to favour me with a visit when I was
prisoner at Inverness;) by Mr. Stewart, principal servant to the Lord
President at the House of Culloden; and by several other people. All
this gives me great pleasure, now that I am looking upon the block on
which I am ready to lay down my head; and though it would not have been
my own natural inclination to protect everybody, it would have been my
interest to have done it for . . . (the Pretender's son) abhorred all
those who were capable of doing injustice to any.....I have heard since
I came to this place, that there has been a most wicked report spread,
and mentioned in several of the newspapers that .... (the Pretender's
son) before the battle of Culloden, had given out orders that no quarter
should be given to the enemy. This is such an unchristian thing, and so
unlike .... (the Pretender's son,) that nobody (the Jacobites) that
knows him will believe it. It is very strange if there had been any such
orders, that neither the Earl of Kilmarnock, who was Colonel of the
regiment of the bation, I wrote to Rome to know his Majesty's pleasure,
and was directed by him to return home; and at the same time I received
a letter of credit upon his banker at Paris, who furnished me with money
to defray the expense of my journey, and put me in repair. I think
myself bound, upon this occasion, to contradict a report which has been
ndustriously spread, and which I never heard of till I was prisoner;
that orders were given to the Prince's army to give no quarter at the
battle of Culloden. With my eye upon the block, which will soon bring me
unto the highest of all tribunals, I do declare that it is without any
manner of foundation, both because it is impossible it could have
escaped the knowledge of me, who was captain of the Prince's Life
Guards, or of Lord Kilmarnock, who was colonel of his own regiment; but
still more so, as it is entirely inconsistent with the mild and generous
nature of that brave Prince, whose Foot Guards, nor I, who was Colonel
of the second troop of Life Guards, should ever have heard anything of
it; especially since we were both &t the head-quarters the morning
before the battle; I am convinced that it is a malicious report
industriously spread to . .
"Ever since my
confinement in the Tower, when Major White or Mr. Fowler did me the
honour of a visit, their behaviour was always so kind and obliging to me
that I cannot find words to express it; but I am sorry I cannot say the
same thing of a General Williamson: he has treated me barbarously, but
not quite so ill as he did the Bishop of Rochester; and had it not been
for a worthy clergyman's advice, I should have prayed for him in the
words of David, Psalm 100, from the fith to the 15th verse. I forgive
him and all my enemies. I hope you will have the charity to believe I
die in peace with all men; for yesterday I received the Holy Eucharist
from the hands of a clergyman of the Church of England, in whose
communion I die as in union with the Episcopal Church of Scotland
"I shall conclude with a
short prayer."—(Here a prayer is mentioned much the same as in Wm.
Ford's account.) patience, fortitude, intrepidity, and humanity, I must
declare upon this solemn occasion, are qualities in which he excels all
men I ever knew, and which .t ever was his desire to employ for the
relief and preservation of his fathers subjects. I believe rather, that
this report was spread to palliate and excuse the murders they
themselves committed in cold blood after the battle of Culloden.
"I think it my duty to
return my sincere acknowledgments to Major White and Mr. Fowler, for
their humane and complaisant behaviour to me during my confinement. I
wish I could pay the same compliment to General Williamson, who used me
with the greatest inhumanity and cruelty; but having taken the sacrament
this day, I forgive him, as I do all my enemies.
"I die in the religion of
the Church of England, which I look upon as the same with the Episcopal
Church of Scotland, in which I was brought up."
After delivering this
speech, Lord Balmerino laid his head upon the block, and said, "God
reward my friends, and forgive my enemies: bless and restore the King;
preserve the Prince, and the Duke of York.—and receive my soul."
The executioner then
being called for, and kneeling to ask forgiveness, Lord Balmerino
interrupted him "Friend, you need not ask my forgiveness; the execution
of your duty is commendable." He then gave the headsman three guineas,
saying, "this is all I have; I can only add to it my coat and
waistcoat," which, accordingly, he took off. laying them on the coffin
for the executioner. After putting on a flannel jacket made for the
occasion, and a plaid cap, he went to the block in order to show the
executioner the signal. He then returned to his friends. "I am afraid,"
he said, addressing them, "that there are some here who may think my
behaviour bold: remember, sir," he added, addressing a gentleman near
him, "what I tell you; it arises from a just confidence in God, and a
clear conscience." Memorable, and beautiful words, distinguishing
between the presumption of indifference, and the security of a living
faith. When he laid his head on the block to try it, he said, "if I had
a thousand lives I would lay them all down in the same cause."
Lord Balmerino then
showed the Executioner whore to strike the blow; he examined the edge of
the axe, and bade the man to strike with resolution; "for in that,
friend," he said, as be replaced the axe in the hand of the man, "will
consist your mercy." He asked how many strokes had been given to Lord
Kilmarnock. Two clergymen coming up at that moment, he said, "no,
gentlemen, I believe you have already done me all the service you can."
He called loudly to the warder, and gave him his periwig; and instantly
laid down his head upon the block, but being told that he was on the
wrong side, he vaulted round, and extending his arms uttered this short
prayer: "O Lord, reward my friends, forgive my enemies" —he uttered, it
has been stated, another ejaculation for king James; but that petition
was suppressed in the prisled accounts of his death: then, pronouncing
these words, "receive my soul," he gave the signal by throwing up his
arm, as if he were giving the signal for battle. His intrepidity, and
the suddenness of that last, sign terrified the executioner, whose arm
became almost powerless; the affrighted man struck the blow on the part
directed, but though, it is hoped, it destroyed all sensation, the head
was not severed, but fell back on the shoulders, exhibiting a ghastly
sight. Two more strokes of the axe were requisite to complete the work.
Then, the head having been received in a piece of scarlet cloth, the
lifeless remains of the true, and noble hearted soldier were deposited
in a coffin, and delivered to his friends.
A vast multitude viewed
this spectacle, so execrable m its cruelty, so great in the deportment
of the sufferers. Even on the masts of ships, in the calm river, were
the spectators piled, all classes of society were interested in this
memorable scene; and, for a few short weeks, the fashionable circles
were diverted by the humours of Lady Townshend, and the witticisms of
George Selwyn. During the imprisonment of Kilmarnock, it had been the
fancy of the former to station herself under the window of his chamber
in one of the dismal towers in which he was detained; to send messages
to him, and to obtain his dog and snuff-box. But even this show of
affected feeling failed to make compassion fashionable in the regions of
St. James's. Calumny was busy at the grave of the beheaded Jacobites;
and the accounts of those who attended them in their last hours were
attacked by anonymous pamphleteers. It was said, among other things,
that Balmerino uttered no prayer at the last moment; and his behaviour
was contrasted with that of Kilmarnock. On this allegation, Mr. Ford,
the Under-Sheriff, who was on the scaffold, observes, "the authors of
these attacks being concealed are unworthy of other notice, since
nothing is easier to an ingenious and unprejudiced mind, than to
distinguish between the subject and the man: my Lord Kilmarnock was
happily educated in right principles, which he deviated from, and
repented; whereas, the great, though unhappy Balmerino. was unfortunate
in his,—but, as he lived, he died."
The characters of these
two noblemen, who, in life, held a very dissimilar course, until they
cooperated in arms, are strongly contrasted. To Kilmarnock belonged the
gentle qualities which enhance the pleasures of society, but often, too,
increase its perils: the susceptible, affectionate nature, not fortified
by self-control; the compassionate disposition, acting rather from
impulse than principle. Infirm in principle, his rash alliance with a
party who were opposed to all that he had learned to respect in
childhood ; and whom he joined, from the stimulus of a misdirected
ambition, cannot be justified. To this, it was generally believed, he
was greatly incited by the persuasions of his mother-in-law, the
Countess of Errol.
Whilst we bestow our
cordial approbation on those who engaged in civil strife from a sense of
duty, and from notions of allegiance, which had never been exterminated
from their moral code, we condemn such as, attaching themselves to the
Jacobite party, outraged their secret convictions, betrayed the trusts
of Government, and -violated the promise of their youth Such a course
must spring cither from selfishness, or weakness, or from a melancholy
union of both. In Lord Kilmarnock it was far more the result of weakness
than of self-interest: his fortunes were desperate, and his mind was
embittered towards the ruling government : his admiration was attracted
by the gallantry and resolution of those who adhered to the Chevalier .
his sense of what was due to his rank, and the consciousness of high
descent, coupled with empty honours and real poverty, stimulated him to
take that course which seemed the most likely to regain a position,
without ever enjoying which a man may be happy, but which few can bear
to lose. This was his original error; he joined the standard of Charles
Edward,—but he was no Jacobite. He fought against his own convictions,
the hereditary prepossessions implanted in the heart by a parent.
From henceforth, until
immured in the Tower, all in the career of Lord Kilmarnock was
turbulence, and, it must be acknowledged, crime. For nothing can justify
a resistance of sovereign power, save a belief in its illegality. "I
engaged in the rebellion," was Lord Kilmarnock's confession, "in
opposition to my own principles, and to those of my family; in
contradiction to the whole tenor of my conduct." Such were his
expressions at that hour when no earthly considerations had power to
seduce him into falsehood.
By those historians who
espouse the Jacobite cause, this avowal has been severely censured; and
Lord Kilmarnock has been regarded as deserting the party which he had
espoused. But, with his conviction, such a line of conduct as that which
he pursued in prison, could alone be honest, and therefore alone
consistent with his religious hopes, before he quitted life. Such
censure has been well answered in Lord Kilmarnock's own words, "I am in
little pain for the reflections which the inconsiderate or prejudiced
part of my countrymen, (if there are any such whom my suffering the just
sentence of the law has not mollified,) may cast upon me for this
confession. The wiser or more ingenious will, I hope, approve my
conduct, and allow with mo, that next to doing light is to have the
courage and integrity to avow that I have done wrong." These sentiments
were not, be it observed, made public until after his death.
If, in early life, the
career of Lord Kilmarnock were tainted by dissolute conduct, his deep
contrition, his sincere confession of his errors, his endeavours to
amend them, redeem those very errors in the eyes of human judgment, as
they will probably plead for him, with One who is more merciful than
man. In his prison, his patience in suspense, his forbearance to those
who had urged on his death, his generous sentiments towards his
companions in misfortune,—his care for others, his trust in the mercy of
his Saviour, present as instructive a lesson as mortals can glean from
the errors and the penitence of others.
Contrasted with the
gentle, unfortunate Kilmarnock, the gallant bearing of Balmerino rises
to heroism.
One cannot, for the sake
of his party, help regretting that be had not taken a more prominent
part in the councils of the young Chevalier, or held a more
distinguished position in the field. His integrity, his strong sense,
and moral courage might have had an advantageous influence over the
wavering, and confirmed the indecisive. In the field, his would have
been the desperate valour which suits a desperate cause ; but his
resources were few, and his influence proportionately small.
The soldier of fortune,
driven at an early age from home, sent from country to country, serving,
with little hope of advancement, under various generals, Balmerino had
learned to view life almost as a matter of indifference, compared with
the honest satisfaction of preserving consistency. His existence had
been one of trial, and of banishment from all domestic pleasures, and in
the perils of his youthful days, he had learned to view it as so
precarious, that his final doom came not to him as a surprise, but
seemed merely a natural conclusion of a career of danger and adventure.
His heroism may excite less admiration even than the resignation of
those who had more to lose; but his intrepidity, his courageous
sincerity, his contempt of all display, his carelessness of himself, and
the tender concern which he evinced for others, are qualities which we
should not be English not to appreciate and venerate. His were the
finest attributes of the soldier and the Jacobite: the firm, adherence;
the enthusiastic loyalty; the utter repugnance to all compromising; and
the lofty disregard of opinion, which extorted, even from those who
endeavoured to ridicule, a reluctant respect.
For the relentless
pretext of what was called justice, which sent this brave man to his
doom, there is no possibility of accounting, except in the deep party
hatred of the Government. Lord Kilmarnock is believed to have owed his
death to the false report industriously spread of his having treated the
English prisoners with cruelty: but no such plea could injure Balmerino.
One dark influence, at that time all powerful at court, all powerful
among the people, denied them mercy;—and the crowds which witnessed the
death of Kilmarnock and of Balmerino, hastened to do homage to the Puke
of Cumberland. Nothing can, in fact, more plainly show the effect of
frequent executions upon the character of a people than the details of
the year 1746. With the inhabitants of London, like the French at the
time of the Revolution, the value of life was lowered; the indifference
to scenes of horror formed a shocking feature in their conduct. In the
great world, jests, and witticisms delighted the Satellites of power. It
was the barbarous fashion to visit Temple Bar for the purpose of viewing
the heads exhibited there ; spying glasses being let out for the ghastly
spectacle. And the coarse, unfeeling invectives of the press prove the
general state of the public mind, in those days, more effectually than
any other fact could do —in the present times, the cruelty which pursues
its victim to the grave would not be tolerated.
In his latest hours, the
chief concern of Lord Kilmarnock seems to have been for his eldest son,
to whom he addressed the following beautiful letter:
Extract of the late Earl
of Kilmarnock's letter to his son Lord Boyd.
" Dated. Tower, 17th of
August, 1746.
"Dear Boyd,
"I must take this way to
bid you farewell, and I pray God may ever bless you and guide you in
this world, and bring you to a happy immortality in the world to come. I
must, likewise, give you my last advice. Seek God in your youth, and
when you are old He will not depart from you. Be at pains to acquire
good habits now, that they may grow up, and become strong in you. Love
mankind, and do justice to all men. Be good to as many as you can, and
neither shut your ears nor your purse to those in distress, whom it is
in your power to relieve. Believe me, you will find more joy in one
beneficent action; and in your cool moments you will be more happy with
the reflection of having made any person so, who without your assistance
would have been miserable, than in the enjoyment of all the pleasures of
sense (which pall in the using), and of all the pomps and gaudy show of
the world. Live within your circumstances, by which means you will have
it in your power to do good to others. Above all things, continue in
your loyalty to his present Majesty, and the succession to the crown as
by law established. Look on that as the basis of the civil and religious
liberty and property of every individual in the nation. Prefer the
public interests to your own, wherever they interfere. Love your family
and your children, when you have any; but never let your regard to them
drive you on the rock I split upon; when, on that account, I departed
from my principles, and brought the guilt of rebellion, and civil and
particular desolation on my head, for which I am now under the sentence
justly due to my Prince. Use all your interest to get your brother
pardoned and brought home as soon as possible, that his circumstances,
and bad influence of those he is among, may not induce him to accept of
foreign service, and lose him both to his country and his family. If
money can be found to support him, I wish you would advise him to go to
Geneva, where his principles of religion and liberty will be confirmed,
and where he may stay till you see if a pardon can be procured him. As
soon as Commodore Burnet comes home, inquire for your brother Biliie,
and take care of him on my account. I must again recommend your unhappy
mother to you. Comfort her, and take all the care you can of your
brothers: and may God of His infinite mercy, preserve, guide, and
comfort you and them through all the vicissitudes of this life, and
after it bring you to the habitations of the just, and make you happy in
the enjoyment of Himself to all eternity!"
LETTER DELIVERED BY THE
LATE EARL OF KILMARNOCK TO MR. FOSTER.
"Sunday, 17th of August,
1746.
"As it would be a vain
attempt in me to speak distinctly to that great concourse of people, who
will probably be present at my execution, I chose to leave this behind
me, as my last solemn declaration, appealing for my integrity to God,
who knows my heart.
"I bless God I have
little fear of temporal death, though attended with many outward
circumstances of terror; the greatest sting I feel in death is that I
have deserved it.
"Lord Balmerino, my
fellow-sufferer, to do justice, dies in a professed adherence to the
mistaken principles he had imbibed from his cradle. But I engaged in the
Rebellion in opposition to my own principles, and to those of my family;
in contradiction to the whole tenour of my conduct, till within these
few months that I was wickedly induced to renounce my allegiance, which
ever before I had preserved and held inviolable. I am in little pain,
for the reflection which the inconsiderate or prejudiced part of my
countrymen may cast upon me for this confession.
"The wiser, or more
ingenious, will, I hope, approve my conduct, and allow with me that,
next to doing right, is to have the courage and integrity to own that I
have done wrong.
"Groundless accusations
of cruelty have been raised and propagated concerning me; and charges
spread among the people of my having solicited for, nay, even actually
signed orders of general savage destruction, seldom issued among the
most barbarous nations, and which my soul abhors. And that the general
temper of my mind was ever averse from, and shocked at gross instances
of inhumanity, I appeal to all my friends and acquantance who have known
me most intimately, and even to those prisoners of the King's troops to
whom I had access, and whom I ever had it in my power to relieve; I
appeal, in particular, for my justification as to this justly detested
and horrid crime of cruelty, to Captain Master, of Ross,
Captain-Lieutenant Luton and Lieutenant George Cuming of Alter.
"These gentlemen will, I
am persuaded, as far as relates to themselves, and as far as has fallen
within their knowledge as credible information, do me justice; and then,
surely my countrymen will not load a person, already too guilty and
unfortunate, with undeserved infamy, which may not only fix itself on
his own character, but reflect dishonour on his family.
"I have no more to say,
but that I am persuaded, if reasons of state, and the demands of public
justice had permitted his Majesty to follow the dictates of his own
royal heart, my sentence might have been mitigated. Had it pleased God
to prolong my life, the remainder of it should have been faithfully
employed in the service of my justly offended sovereign, and in constant
endeavours to wipe away the very remembrance of my crime.
I now, with my dying
breath, beseech Almighty God to bless my rightful sovereign, King
George, and preserve him from the attacks of public and private enemies.
"May his Majesty, and his
Illustrious descendants, be so guided by the Divine Providence as ever
to govern with that wisdom, and that care for the public good, as will
preserve to them the love of their subjects, and secure their right to
reign over a free and happy people to the latest posterity.'"
That Lord Boyd
reciprocated the affection of his father appears from the following
letter, which he addressed, a few days after the execution of Lord
Kilmarnock, to Colonel Walkinehaw Craufurd, who was then at Scarborough.
"My Dear Jons,
"I had yours last post,
and I don't know in what words to express how much I am obliged to you
for doing the last duties to my unfortunate father; you can be a judge
what a loss I have suffered; you knew him perfectly well, that he was
the best of friends, the most affectionate husband, and the tenderest
parent. Poor Lady Kilmarnock bears her loss much better than I could
have imagined; but it was entirely owing to her being prepared several
days before she got the melancholy accounts of it. I shall be here for
some time, as I have a good deal of business to do in this country; so I
shall be extremely glad to see you as soon as possible. I am, my dear
John, your most sincere friend and obedient humble servant, Boyd."
"Kilmarnock (House)
August 27th, 1746."
Yet the young nobleman
did not, it appears, entirely satisfy the expectations of those who were
interested in his fate, and attached to his father's memory, as the
following extract from a letter written by Mr. George Posse, to Colonel
Craufurd, shows.
*For both these letters,
hitherto unpublished, I am indebted to the courtesy of Mrs. Craufuid of
Craufurdland Castle.
"Dear Sir,
"I am favoured with yours
of the thirteenth from Scarborough, and had the honour of one letter
from Lord Boyd since his father's execution, and sorry to tell you. it
was not wrote in such terms as I could show or make any use of. If you
had seen him, I dare say it would have been otherwise. However, I took
the liberty of writing with plainness to him, in hopes of drawing from
him, what may be shown to his honour, and to his own immediate
advantage.
* * put him in mind of
writing to his cousin, Duke of Hamilton, and Mr. Home; an omission,
which, with submission, is unpardonable, as he was apprised of their
goodness to his father; and I gave him some hints with relation to
himself, by authority of the ministry, which, if he continue in the
army, may be improved upon. Those things I think proper to mention to
you, as I know your friendship for Boyd, that you may take an
opportunity of mentioning them to him. when you are with him, which I
hope will be soon. He is appointed deputy Captain-Lieutenant; but that I
look upon as a step to higher preferment. I should like to hear from
you; direct to (Crawfurdland) Kilmarnock, and I am, dear sir. your most
obedient, humble servant.
"Geo. Bosse."
Leicestereld, September
b6h, 174(i.
Notwithstanding these
seeming acts of negligence, which may possibly have been explained, Lord
Boyd became, in every way, worthy of being the representative of an
ancient race. He was an improved resemblance of his amiable, unhappy
father. Possessing his father's personal attributes, he added, to the
courtesy and kindliness of his father's character, strength of
principle, a perfect consistency of conduct, and sincere religious
connections, both in the early and latter period of his life. His
deportment is said to have combined both the sublime and the graceful:
His form, six feet four inches m height, to have been the most elegant;
his manners the most polished and popular of his time. To his domestic
relations he was exemplary, systematic, yet with the due liberality of a
nobleman, in his affairs; sagacious and conscientious as a magistrate;
generous to his friends. "He puts me in mind," said one who knew him,
"of an ancient hero; and I remember Dr. Johnson was positive that he
resembled Homer's character of Jaspedon." "His agreeable look and
address," observes that adorer of rank, Boswell, "prevented that
restraint, which the idea of his being Lord High Constable of Scotland
might otherwise have occasioned."
At the time of his
father's execution, Lord Boyd was only twenty years of age. He claimed
and obtained the maternal estate, and obtained it in 1731. In 1758 he
succeeded Mary, Countess of Errol in her own right, his mother's aunt,
as Earl of Errol, and left the army in which he had continued to serve.
He retired to Slains Castle, where he passed his days in the exercise of
those virtues which become a man who is conscious, by rank and fortune,
of a deep responsibility, and who regards those rather as trusts, than
possessions. He died at Calendar-house, in 1778, universally lamented,
and honoured.
The Countess of
Kilmarnock survived her husband only one year; and died at Kilmarnock in
1747. Two sons were, however, left, in addition to Lord Boyd, to
encounter, for some years, considerable difficulties. Of these, the
second, Charles, who was in the insurrection of 1745, escaped to the
Isle of Arran, where he lay concealed, in that, the ancient territory of
the Boyds, for a year. He amused himself, having found an old chest of
medical books, with the study of medicine and surgery, which he
afterwards practised with some degree of skill among the poor. He then
escaped to France, and married there a French lady; but eventually he
found a home at Skins Castle, whore he was residing when Dr. Johnson and
Boswell visited Scotland. He was a man of considerable accomplishment;
but, as Boswell observed; "with a pompousness or formal plenitude in his
conversation," or as Dr. Johnson expressively remarked, "with too much
elaboration in his talk." "It gave one pleasure," adds Boswell, "to see
him, a steady branch of the family, setting forth all its advantages
with much zeal.''
William Boyd, the fourth
son of Lord Kilmarnock, was in the Royal Navy, and on board Commodore
Burnet's ship at the time of his father's execution. He was eventually
promoted to a company of the 14th foot, in 1761.
Lord Balmerino left no
descendants to recall the remembrance of his honest, manly character.
His wife, Margaret Chalmers, survived him nearly twenty years, and died
at Restalrig, on the 24th of August, 1755, aged fifty-six.
The remains of these two
unfortunate noblemen were deposited under the gallery, at the west end
of the chapel in the Tower. Beside them repose those of Simon, Lord
Lovat. "As they were associates in crime, so they were companions in
sepulchre," observes a modern writer, "being buried in the same grave."
But the more discriminative judge of the human heart will spurn so rash,
and undiscerning a remark; and marvel that, in the course of one
contest, characters so differing in principle, so unlike in every
attribute of the heart, and viewed, even by their enemies, with
sentiments so totally opposite, should thus be mingled together in their
last home. |