WOMEN WHO WORE THEIR TARTAN WITH PRIDE

A guest article written by regular correspondent Bill Clark. Bill lives in Fort Wliiam.

WOMEN WHO WORE THEIR TARTAN WITH PRIDE 

There were many women who followed their men during the Jacobite uprising of 1745, putting their lives on the line and many of them would lose their lives in the aftermath of Culloden.   Irrespective of the views of the establishment historians past and present the 45 was every bit a battle to end the hated union as a fight to put a Stuart on the throne.    

On 14 October1745 Edinburgh witnessed the proclamation of King James VIII when thousands of people (figures of 20,000 to Lord Elcho’s 60,000) turned out to cheer the young Prince.  However, not quite everyone was cheering as the author of the Woodhouselee Manuscripts “A narrative of events in Edinburgh and surrounding area during 1745 Jacobite uprising” Patrick Crichton wrote a very scathing view of the proceedings to his friends “A popish Italian prince with the oddest crue Britain could produce came all with plaids, bagpipes and bairbuttocks, from the prince to the baggage man.” We can take it as read he was giving a biased view.   Others observed that the streets were crammed with people and every window in the high street had people straining their necks to glimpse the prince.   Just as now, many people talked a good political fight but the following few women were committed to Scotland and were not afraid to put their lives on the line or their families’ fortunes.  The English would make up their own stories about them.

MARGARET MURRAY 

One woman at the proclamation of King James VIII in Edinburgh’s High Street had a better view of the prince than most, her name was Margaret Murray, she was the wife of the prince’s secretary John Murray of Broughton.    It was recorded that she was sitting astride a white horse wearing a dress decorated with white rosettes and she gave her salute with her unsheathed sword at the same time as 900 highlanders who had marched to the cross with pipers playing between each company and on arrival, they were arranged in a half circle around the Market Cross.  After the declaration Margaret Murray rode amongst the cheering crowds handing out white cockades and encouraging volunteers to join up.  Visually, she must have made quite an impact. 

Margaret was known as “curly” because of her long black curly hair. She was the daughter of Colonel Robert Ferguson of Nithsdale who had served with the Cameronians a regiment originally recruited from militant Presbyterians.   It was recorded by each of the writers who put pen to paper that Margaret Murray was a stunning looking young lady, yet there is no painting in existence to confirm all the compliments that were recorded by her many admirers.    She was committed to Scotland and the Jacobite cause and she was to show that in a way that could not be achieved without boundless courage.  Her husband was the titular Colonel of the Hussars “cavalry” and his wife used the clout she obviously had through her husband to dress up not unlike the men of her husband’s regiment.   The Cumbrian writer and English volunteer James Ray said that the Hussar horsemen wore short close fitting tartan jackets with a tartan sash across their bodies.  Margaret, just like the men wore a plumoshe feather in her fur bonnet and, like any well-dressed Hussar, had pistols in holsters on either side of the saddle pommel and a sword by her side.  The woman I am referring to marched with their husbands and were just as passionate for the Jacobite and Scottish independence cause as their husbands and were indeed the real deal.   James Ray the English spy also wrote in anger that many of the women in Lancaster had now taken to wearing tartan ribbons and garters and when Ray reached Scotland, he was even more astonished at the level of female support for the Jacobite cause “It is remarkable how many of the prettiest ladies in Scotland wore tartan and were Jacobites.”   This is the same James Ray who after the battle of Culloden rode into Inverness and slit the throat of two badly injured Jacobites and boasted about his cowardly deed. 

The Hanoverians accused Margaret of perpetrating outright terror on anyone who spoke ill of the Jacobite cause and she was later on in the cause to show her total commitment in a quite extreme way.   At the battle of Prestonpans she was seen amongst the Jacobite Hussars with drawn sabre.   

The Hanoverian claim that she tried to convince the Jacobite army to dispose of the redcoat survivors of the battle was nothing more than a poor effort at smearing her and many of the Jacobite women were to become victims of such vitriol.   It was in contrast to the view held by Alexander Carlyle the minister’s son who like his parents was a staunch Hanoverian supporter and who recorded after the battle of Prestonpans that he, like his parents, had been impressed by the humanity shown and the care given by the Jacobite surgeons to the injured from both sides after such horrific bloodletting.  He was also impressed by the politeness of the Highland officers who had been sent to guard his parents after the battle.

WOMEN WERE JUST AS COMMITTED     

A few days after the battle of Prestonpans Margaret and a friend, Rachel Erskine of Grange, armed as Hussars set out in a chaise for her husband’s Broughton Estate in Peeblesshire accompanied by some Highlanders.    Travelling through villages and towns they entered an inn on her husband’s estate and with pistols cocked the innkeeper was roughly told by Margaret “How dare you be at home, when my husband, to whom you are so much obliged, is attending the Royal Standard and fighting for his king and country.  Make haste you dog and get you ready to join him, or by God, I’ll shoot you instantly.” Rachel also with a pistol in her hand ordered the Highlanders to gather in all the horses in the vicinity they could get their hands on while the women held up and relieved a servant of Charles Hope, who was a brother of the Earl of Hopetoun, of 5 of the Earls best horses, money, gold watches, diamond rings and other jewellery.   He was taking the hoard to his master who had fled to England and had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.   Margaret and Rachel sent word to Edinburgh and a separate party of Highlanders came out to escort them back to Edinburgh with all the booty they had acquired for the armies use.

THE FAMILY OF RACHEL ERSKINE

At this stage it is worth recording Rachel’s family background.   Her mother Lady Grange, was the wife of James Erskine who was raised to the Bench as Lord Grange a Scottish lawyer with Jacobite sympathies, and a younger brother of the Earl of Mar, the man who led the Jacobites in the 1715 uprising.  They had been married for 25 years and had 9 children.    Nevertheless, they had an unhappy marriage and after they split, she threatened to sell him out to the Hanoverians.   Many people who knew the couple confirmed that she had an insanely violent temper, was eccentric, drunken and ill balanced.  On many occasions she had threatened to murder him.  As Lord Grange was a practicing Christian, it was claimed he could not bring himself to have her assassinated or sent to a mad house so in 1732 he arranged with Lord Lovat, Chief of the Frasers, and some Skye MacLeods who had a hand in arranging her kidnapping and after being moved from place to place she ended up on St Kilda for 8 years and thereafter in various other remote locations.   I cannot help but wonder why none of her 9 children including Rachel, who was named after her mother, never tried to look for her.   Years later, when word reached Edinburgh that she had been kidnapped and was being held on St Kilda her solicitor, Thomas Hope, paid for a rescue attempt which was unsuccessful as she had been moved.    She died in captivity after 13 years of imprisonment.

INVASION OF ENGLAND

During the march through England the Hussars along with other horse regiments were used as scouts collecting monies and ensuring that quarters were provided for the army.      I would imagine that Margaret would have been up for this type of work. 

The women were with the army when the demand was made for the unconditional surrender of the Carlisle garrison.   Stories were circulated by the Hanoverians that the young wife of Murray of Broughton would once again have been more than happy to see the men of the garrison put to the sword.  That was also said about other women like Margaret Ogilvy.   It was yet another Hanoverian smear, nothing changes on that score.  The attraction for the public then as now was violence and illicit sex.

When the Jacobite Army entered Derby, it was there that yet another English spy, Dudley Bradstreet, claimed that he was a spokesperson for the English Jacobite gentry.   He also told them that there was an enormous army ahead of them at Northampton and another army waiting for them north of Londen.  He later boasted that there was not nine men waiting for them at Northampton.   The Scots knew that they were heading for a major battle against an army with close to 11,000 men which was located north of London and knew that they would also have to deal with General Wade’s army of 8000 men which was on its way south from Newcastle.   The Duke of Cumberland was also on the scene with his men.     After taking the spy’s word, orders were given to the Jacobite officers against the wishes of Prince Charles to retrace their steps back to Scotland.  It was also agreed not to inform the men before they were on the march that the decision had been taken to head we back to Scotland where they intended to join up with a second Jacobite army of 4000 men which had been raised by Lord John Drummond.

The Chevalier Johnstone recounted that as that decision was being made to retreat back to Scotland the Scots who had been wildly excited at the battle ahead had been crowding round the cutlers shops disputing who should be the first in line to have their swords sharpened.  They headed north by alternative routes to the roads they had taken on the way south.  On realising that they were turning back the infuriated Highlanders, who had built themselves up for the forthcoming battles, were all too aware that they had been hoodwinked.  Unsurprisingly, their morale plummeted and many believed that they had been betrayed and cries of betrayal were heard amongst the men.   It was also reported that Margaret Murray, on hearing the news that they were retreating, broke down and cried like a child.  

THE MARCH TO INVERNESS 

After the battle of Falkirk in January which was won by the Jacobites against a larger English army the order to retreat north to Inverness was given and Margaret Murray, who was in a chaise alongside Cameron of Lochiel who had suffered an injury at the recent battle.  On passing through St Ninians the gunpowder which was being stored in St Ninians church blew up killing some men and townspeople.  Her horse bolted throwing her to the ground suffering a concussion from her fall.   When the army reached Inverness Isobel Stuart another of Margarets friends recorded that the frosts and snows were the worst she had ever experienced.

ETHNIC CLEANSING 

After Culloden, Hanoverian revenge was the order of the day and it was melted out to men, women and children to ensure that the only offer that was open to them was death, the colonies or the military.   All had the result of families being destroyed or if the leading families had something to offer by way of raising men to fight under the English flag which, in effect, would see many of those men lose their lives and their families would lose their homes and all they possessed.  On the other hand, many Scots did, just like today, become good little Englanders through greed or just to survive.   

The English troops had orders to spare neither man woman or child.   Cattle, sheep, goats were driven off to market depriving families of sustenance.   For example, 10,000 black cattle belonging to local families were brought in to Fort Augustus from the surrounding area before they were driven to market for the financial benefit of the English troops who were running amok burning and killing with, it must be said, help from some Scots.  The surviving men from the Jacobite army were returning to their families in an effort to find safety for those who found themselves in a hell not of their making.

LOYAL TO THE END

Margaret Murray, who was now pregnant, walked from Inverness to Glendessary, deep in the Lochaber hills, where she met Dr Archie Cameron’s wife who was also pregnant with her 8^th child and from there both walked over the roughest of land you could encounter at the best of times to Glenahurich in Sunart to the home of Maj Alexander Cameron of Dungallon who had been Standard Bearer to the prince.    Unsurprisingly, it was reported as being a painful and difficult journey.  They were no sooner there than her husband, John Murray of Broughton, arrived with others with news that troops were closing in and so they moved again first to a small island on Loch Shiel and from there to Ardgour and over Loch Linnhe to Appin always keeping one step ahead of attempts to capture them.  Like many others searching to find a way to safety Margaret’s husband made his way south to organise a ship to take them to France only to be captured close to his own lands.   His guilt was predetermined and it was not a prison sentence that he was facing, nor was it a quick execution, it was a visit to an English scaffold to suffer England’s punishment by being hung by the neck for 5 or 6 minutes (unless relations paid the executioner enough money to leave them hanging until deemed to be unconscious) before being cut down still alive and then before a baying mob having to face the executioner’s knife and while being fully conscious having his inners removed being butchered.   To save himself from such a fate, Margaret’s husband turned kings’ evidence and passed on information on some people who had promised military support but failed to live up to their commitment to join the Jacobites.  Lord Lovat had been late in that regard and he paid the price as a Lord.   Lords were executed in a more gentile way, their head being removed by an axe.   On being freed in 1748, John Murray was ostracised by his erstwhile colleagues.   Would they have suffered being butchered in public if there was a way out?  His wife, Margaret, whom he had shared and gone through a journey of hell that few could have survived, all to achieve Scottish freedom was unrepentant.   She could not cope with his betrayal and shame as she saw it, washing her hands of him, she never looked his way again.  She obviously believed that he should have been prepared to suffer on the scaffold as others had done, rather than betray anyone.   He, not surprisingly, lived out the rest of his life in England and was buried at Finchley London but not before he married a young lady or at least co-habited and had a further six children.  He eventually finished up in a mad house and died there.   As for Margaret, I hope she found someone that lived up to the standards that she had set.   She divorced her husband on his release from prison in 1748 and some reports say one thing or another about her later life however, there is not one reliable written record confirming where or when she died.   Is there a limit to that sort of commitment and loyalty to a cause when it means the end of your marriage, never mind your husband having to be publicly butchered to prove his loyalty.  How many women would willingly accept that sacrifice on behalf of their husbands?   

MARGARET OGILVY-LADY OF SWORDS

Margaret Ogilvy was the daughter of James Johnstone, 3^rd Baronet of Westerhall, a Jacobite family.   She marched with a tartan sash along with her husband David Ogilvy’s Forfarshire regiment.   This young man was the Earl of Airlie and he had raised his regiment in no time at all notwithstanding not all were willing volunteers.   At full strength the regiment stood at 800 men, all dressed in their tartan kilts.  The Airlie’s were a young couple who had married in 1738.   The Hanoverian David Clark’s later deposition against Lady Margaret Ogilvy accused her of inciting violence in Coupar Angus by drawing her sword and intimidating and threatening Bailie James Hay into proclaiming King James VIII as the rightful king.   She continued enforcing the Stuart proclamation in villages as well as fundraising for the Jacobite army.   Along with her husband she invaded the home of David Clark and destroyed everything that featured the face of King George.    She was also at her husband’s side when the army invaded England and on their return from England she was reported as standing with her husband at the battle of Falkirk when the Forfarshire regiment was in the second line of the army.  That day the Jacobites defeated a larger English army than the one which fought at Culloden.  

A REVERSAL OF FORTUNES

At the battle of Culloden there were many spectators as was the want in those days and a fair number of them were to lose their lives.    Margaret Ogilvy was again to the rear of the army and when it retreated from Culloden moor, she gave her horse over to her husband as he had lost his own in the melee of action.   She gave up more than her horse as Margaret Ogilvy was captured in Inverness, and thereafter, she was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle and with a sentence of death hanging over her by beheading as befitting her position as a lady.   Her family and friends appealed for her freedom to no avail.  There was only one way to save her and with the help of her sister and a friend whom she changed clothes with on a prison visit, she escaped.   On hearing that her husband had also escaped to France, via Norway and Sweden, she soon joined him there but only after the ship that had been earmarked to take Margaret and other Jacobite officers to France from its North Berwick berth was unable to take sail because of gale force winds.  She disguised herself as a man before travelling to London and on to France.    That did not stop the establishment pamphleteers from claiming that she only followed the Jacobite army because she was attracted to the Jacobite usurper himself.   As for Margaret, she got pregnant by her husband while in France and insisted on travelling back to Scotland to have the baby where she gave birth to a boy but only after breaking through the Hanoverian blockade.    All Margarets family were involved with the Jacobite cause all-be-it, one brother James over time became a Lieutenant-colonel in the English army.  In some ways it is no different today in what goes on in our politics.   As for her husband David Ogilvy, he became a General in the French Army and he received a free pardon from England in 1778.   Unfortunately, Margaret had died in 1757 her health giving out through the rigours of prison and the campaign.

LADY ANNE MACKINTOSH NEE FARQUHARSON

There have been many strong women throughout the centuries who have been involved in Scotland’s story, yet have been lost to Scottish history.  I mention only a few of many such women involved in the 45 with their own story.   Another young woman born into a strong Jacobite family was Anne Farquharson of Invercauld who had married Aeneas MacKintosh chief of the clan MacKintosh who was a serving officer in the Hanoverian English army.  On being informed by her husband that he would not be giving up his military position and therefor he would not be calling out his MacKintosh clansmen to join the Jacobite’s.   Anne coming from a staunch Jacobite family was not going to let her husband get in the way of family loyalty.   Anne rode attired in her tartan riding habit with a blue bonnet on her head and a white cockade to the home of a young man barley yet nineteen years of age.  He was Alexander MacGillivray of Dunmaglass an extremely young chief whose clan was a member of the clan Chatten confederation of clans and informed him that she was bringing out her husband’s clan for the Jacobite’s and would he lead them.  There is no record of him hesitating and it appears that his young bride to be, Elizabeth Campbell, was thrilled to see him lead the clan.   Anne continued to the homes of the leading men of the clan and gathered 300 soon to be 350 armed kilted clansmen and with young Col Alexander MacGillivray at their head marched to meet the invading English army, for that is what they believed it to be.   The MacKintoshes, along with the other clan regiments, fought well at Falkirk in seeing off an English army.

Many MacKintoshes were later to fall closer to home before the volley fire and grape shot of the English front-rank regiments on Culloden Moor including, the young man who led them, Alexander MacGillivray.   A few days later some women of the MacGillivray clan including his young bride to be Elizabeth Campbell retrieved his body from the battlefield and buried him on his own land.  Three months later, Elizabeth joined him, having died, according to her family, of a broken heart.

A MAHOGONY SCAFFOLD AND A SILK NOSE

For Lady Anne MacKintosh the ordeal after Culloden was not over, she was arrested and her house was ransacked by the redcoats.  She was thereafter taken to Inverness where General Hawley on being informed who she was, threatened to build a Mahogony scaffold and provide her with a silk nose for her neck.   Fortunately, Anne knew too many influential people on each side of the conflict and her husband’s loyalty to the English army no doubt would have helped her survive, she was released into her husband’s custody, just as he had previously been released into hers after he had earlier been captured by the Jacobites.  It did not finish there, but that is another story.  Her commitment to the Jacobite cause never wavered.

JENNY CAMERON

English propaganda came into its own with the stories that were spread about Jenny Cameron from Glendessary in Lochaber.   She joined up with the 200 MacPhees and Cameron clansmen who had been raised from her father’s lands in Glendessary and marched with them to Glenfinnan where they joined up with the rest of Clan Cameron.  That part was true but the claim that she was Prince Charles mistress and followed him into England and a lot more besides were poor efforts at scandal.   She was close to 50 years of age and that was old in those days.  The government went out of its way to blacken the reputations of those who fought for Scottish independence and, like today, both male and female were fair game for the various salacious stories.  Nothing has changed.   The next time we hear about Jenny Cameron is after the uprising when she moved to East Kilbride.  She bought a small estate and opened an orphanage for some of her Highland neighbour’s children who had lost their parents through the uprising and had accompanied Jenny to East Kilbride.  While living a quiet life she was said to be popular locally and made friends easily.    Unlike most of Clan Cameron, Jenny was a catholic but financially supported the local Presbyterian school.  Jenny died in 1772.   A cairn with a plaque marks her grave today.  Unfortunately, there was one thing she requested but did not get for whatever reason.   She had asked that her body should find its last resting place back home in Lochaber.    

MY COMMENTS

My thanks to Bill for sharing this interesting information about Scottish heroines of the past. I often think women are the driving force in moving Independence forward. In my day Winnie Ewing, Margaret Ewing, Margo Macdonald and many others. Today it is Sara Salyers, Eva Comrie, Ash Regan and hopefully Kate Forbes leading the way.

I am, as always

Yours for Scotland

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