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THE devotion with which
the men of Highland Deeside followed the cause of the Stuarts was but
poorly rewarded by Fortune. In the wars of the Covenant and Montrose the
balance of loss and gain was much against them, while in the war of the
Revolution they suffered perhaps more severely than any others, if we
except the unfortunates of Glencoe. Inverey had his house burned and his
lands wasted; and the whole country about Abergeldie and Strathdee was
thoroughly devastated. The whig General complacently records that he
“burned twelve miles of very fertile Highland country, at least 1200 or
1400 houses.” After the ’15 the common people seem to have fared
somewhat better, the attention of the Government being directed more
against the leaders, especially the Earl of Mar, whose estates were
forfeited. A general disarming Act was indeed passed, but the execution
of it was lethargic and inefficient, as was seen 30 years later, and
such arms as were surrendered were, in General Wade’s own language,
“broken and useless and worth little more than the value of the iron.”
There was no danger, however, of similar leniency in 1746; England’s
alarm had been too great for that After accounts had been settled with
the Stuart forces at Culloden, the whole .fabric of Celtic feudalism was
systematically attacked and destroyed The heritable jurisdictions of the
chiefs over their people were abolished, and military tenure of land
forbidden. These measures aimed at the landlords.
For the tenantry, Acts forbidding the carrying of arms and proscribing
the Highland dress were passed. Even the bagpipe was declared to be an
instrument of war. The terms of the oath administered were:—
“I, A. B., do swear 1 have not nor shall have in my possession any gun,
sword, or arm whatsoever, and never use tartan, plaid, or any part of
the Highland garb; and if I do may I be cursed in my undertakings,
family, and property; may I never see my wife, nor children, nor
relations; may I be killed in battle as a fugitive coward, and lie
without burial in a strange land far from the graves of my forefathers
and kindred.”
Some of the Hanoverian leaders in Scotland entered a protest against the
needless severity, or rather brutality, of the Act; but they were
disregarded, and against the rebellious clans in particular it was
strictly enforced.
Mar Castle was acquired from Farquharson of Invercauld and a garrison
established there; but, as it was considered necessary to keep an eye on
the people in their remotest comers, posts were established also at
Inchrory, Ribbalch-laggan in Glengaim, at the Spital of Glenshee, in
Glenclunie, and at Dubrach above the Linn of Dee. From each of these,
small detachments of soldiers patrolled the country, looking out for
“thieves,” i.e., the professional caterans who were the last to give up
their arms and accept the new rkgime, and spying for the forbidden
tartan. Regular reports were sent up by the officers to the Secretary of
State in London. A collection of these will be found in Col. Allardyce’s
Historical Papers, giving a good idea of the state of the country at the
time and the sort of duties that fell to the Redcoats. One would have
expected that such policeman work would have been little to the taste of
English officers, but such is not the impression that the reports
convey. It may be, however, that a show of zeal was considered advisable
in view of the sentiments at head-quarters. The feelings of the natives
under the new dispensation remain unrecorded, except in tradition, which
reports that the inevitable was for the most part quietly accepted, but
that the humiliation was bitter. A picture of the situation in the years
immediately succeeding Culloden can be formed from the more significant
of these military reports.
"I beg leave to observe that 3 or 4 days’ patrolling wears out a pair of
shoes . . . All is quiet: we have not seen one man in arms or in the
Highland dress (Braemar Barracks, July, 1749). Two orderly men
apprehended two Highlanders in kilts, but in passing near a village the
inhabitants, mostly women, got hold of one of the soldiers and the
prisoner made his escape (Loch Rannoch, July, 1749). 1 apprehended a man
for wearing the plaid and sent him to Aberdeen. The Sergeant is now
returned and informs me that he carr/d the prisoner before the Sheriff.
The Sheriff said that it was only a dyed blanket and not a plaid. The
Serg. asked the Sheriff if the people might wear their plaids if dyed,
the Sheriff told him that the intent of the Act was not to oppress the
poor, and dismissed the prisoner (Braemar Barracks, Aug. 10). Since my
last I have taken up and sent to Aberdeen another Highlander for having
a plaid of different colours, which I think the Sheriff cannot well call
a blanket, as he was pleased to call the other (Aug. 1749). We had a
race after a Highlander who appeared in Highland dress and completely
armed, he fairly outran all the party, and as he was going into a wood
we fired upon him but miss’d him, but I imagine we shall see him no more
in that dress (Braemar, Sept, 1749). Lieut Moody at Corgarff has taken
up 4 Highlanders and is to send them to Aberdeen (Oct, 1749). Nothing
extraordinary has happened since my last, save only I seiz’d a Durk from
one John Michy, forester to Lord Braco (Feb., 1750). A soldier found in
a wood three french Bayonets, a Gun Barrell, and a dirk (Braemar). One
of the soldiers of this garrison had his fingers cut by a fellow in the
country on Wednesday last; the soldier says it was because he would not
drink the Pretender’s health (Corgarff 1750). I understand there is a
great many arms yet in this country. I have made all enquiry I can, but
as yet have not been able to find any of them (Braemar, 1750).”
Even three years after Culloden the clansmen had not given up hope that
the “ star of their fate ” and the Stuarts’ might rise once again. One
July day the garrison were astonished to perceive a defiant, tartaned
figure strutting past the castle in full view of all His name (which we
could have wished to know) is unrecorded, but whoever he was, his object
was unmistakeable. Seizure and swift dispatch to Aberdeen promptly
descend on the culprit, but it is felt that there is something unusual
in the air, and investigation has to be made. The officer in charge
presently reports the explanation :—“The country people have good news,
as they call it, amongst them . . . that the Pretender is landed in Long
Island with 20,000 men, which spirits them up greatly.
The Murder of Sergeant Davies.—The report from the Castle for Oct. 1st,
1749, contains the first intimation of a tragedy, which led five years
later to two men being tried for murder in Edinburgh before the Court of
Justiciary. The proceedings at the trial were published in 1831 by Sir
Walter Scott, who was acquainted in his youth with one of the counsel on
the occasion. “The Sergeant of the party at Dubrach,” says the officer,
“has been missing ever since Thursday morning. I am much afraid the poor
man is murdered, as he was very active in his duty, and two days before
that he was in pursuit of five men which appeared in arms and in the
Highland garb.” Three days later he adds: “I have had a sergeant and 10
men in search of the missing man, but can hear nothing of him. My
reasons for suspecting that he is murdered are as he was very alert and
diligent in his duty and . . . .” The evidence against the two men who
were ultimately arrested and tried was not strong enough to secure a
conviction; and so the problem of the death of the Sergeant was never
officially solved. There is reason to believe, however, that had the
authorities been able to produce all the facts that were known among the
people, the men could not have escaped. We shall first give the account
of the murder that can be gathered from the evidence at the trial, and
then fill up the lacunae from the traditions of the district.
Sergeant Arthur Davies, of Gen. Guise’s regiment, was stationed during
the summer of 1749 with a detachment of men at Dubrach in Glendee. Twice
a week it was his duty to patrol the hills to the south and south-east,
and meet about the head of Gleney a similar party whose headquarters
were in Glenshee. The route which he and his men were in the way of
taking from their station at Dubrach struck south-east into the hills,
crossed Glen Cristie and Glen Connie till Gleney was reached, and
thereafter proceeded south to the top of the glen. Their beat thus
traversed a wild and remote country. The Glenshee corporal testified
that he would not venture on it alone, and that even with his party he
was not without fear. To Davies, however, the solitude had a particular
attraction as affording him the better opportunity of a shot at the
deer, of which sport he was passionately fond. His practice indeed was
to leave his men when they had got to suitable ground, and “follow his
game alone.” At that time, and for nearly a hundred years after, there
were some small farms in Gleney, the larachs of which may probably still
be seen. The highest of these was Altalait, occupied by John Grant They
were not far distant from the route that the soldiers took.
Besides being a sportsman, Davies was a considerable dandy. He was
dressed in a blue coat and a vest of “stript lutstring,” wore two gold
rings on his fingers, large silver buckles on his shoes, silver
knee-buckles, two dozen silver buttons on his vest, and carried a silver
watch with a silver seal, and a purse with fifteen and a half gold
guineas in his pocket "He used to take out his purse and show the
gold, and even when he was playing with children,” according to his
wife’s testimony, “he would frequently take it out and rattle it for
their diversion.” Such a figure must have been something of a novelty on
the hills of Braemar.
Thus accoutred, the unfortunate man left Dubrach before daybreak on the
28th September, followed soon after by four privates of the post He had
his gun and ammunition with him, his intention being to keep at some
distance from the men and “follow his sport.” All of them made for
Gleney, and the rendezvous with the Glenshee party. Soon after sunrise
John Grower, Inverey, came across Davies in Glen Connie, or rather
Davies came across him. Grower “had gone out for his horses to lead in
the corns and met with the Sergeant, of whom he had some acquaintance
before, and he had at that time a good deal of conversation with him,
particularly with reference to a tartan coat which the Sergeant had
observed him to drop and after strictly enjoining him not to use it
again, dismissed him.” Going on his way, Davies is next heard of at the
head of Gleney, where he met the Glenshee corporal. After some talk,
they parted, each of them setting out on the return journey to his
headquarters. The four privates had completed the round by 4 o’clock,
reaching Dubrach again at that hour, but Davies never returned, and, as
far as his friends could learn, never was seen again.
The night before the day when he disappeared, two men, Duncan Terig
alias Clerk and Alex. Bain MacDonald, had slept in the above mentioned
John Grant’s house at Altalait in Gleney. Clerk’s father was farmer in
Milton of Inverey not far off; Macdonald was forester to Lord Braco, and
lived in Allanaquoich on the other side of the Dee. According to Grant,
they rose early in the morning and set off to the hills (where Davies
also was hunting) after deer. Both carried guns, though only MacDonald
had permission to do so, and Clerk wore the forbidden plaid, a grey
tartan with red in it Suspicion fell on these two as the murderers of
Davies, but it was not till 1754, five years after, that they were
brought to trial. The Crown relied mainly on the evidence of two
witnesses and on certain suspicious circumstances. Clerk’s sweetheart
was said to have been seen wearing Davies’s rings, and some of his
property was traced to MacDonald’s possession. Clerk also, “though he
was not possesst of any visible funds or effects which could enable him
to stock a farm before the period of the murder, yet soon thereafter
took a lease of farms,” for which he paid a considerable rental. But
other evidence made out his father to be a man of means.
The first witness was a young man Macpherson alias MacGillas, in Inverey.
The story he told was peculiar. About a year after the Englishman’s
disappearance, he said, a vision of a man appeared to him announcing
himself as the ghost of Sergeant Davies, and requesting him to go to the
hill of Cristie in Gleney and bury his bones. On his asking who had
committed the murder he got the answer that it was Clerk and MacDonald.
At the specified spot he found human remains, which he recognised from
the clothing and other things to be those of the Sergeant. The rings,
silver ornaments, and money were all gone. With the help of one Donald
Farquharson, the body was buried where it lay, the sentiment of those
whom he consulted being all for concealment, because, “as it would not
be carried to a kirk unkent, the same might hurt the country, being
under the suspicion of being a rebel country.” On being asked what
language the ghost spoke in, Macpherson replied, “In as good Gaelic as
ever I heard in Lochaber.” The counsel for the defence elicited the fact
that Macpherson had entered Clerk’s service some time after the ghostly
visitation, and that certain financial transactions had taken place
between them, as to the price of silence, which seem to have broken
down.
The next witness, Angus Cameron, a man of Rannoch in Perthshire, had a
more straightforward story to tell. In the year of the murder he had
been living by the cateran trade. He belonged to a band which operated
far and wide over the country. On the night of the 27th September, he
and a companion had slept in Glenbruar braes, ten miles distant from the
scene of the murder, had risen before daybreak, and made their way to
the hill of Cristie, where they had arranged to meet their leader and
others of the band from Lochaber. Whatever their business was (and
though Cameron does not say, there is little difficulty in supposing
that a cattle-lifting job was on hand), it required secrecy. They lay
hidden for the day in a hollow on the hill, keeping a look-out for their
expected companions. About mid-day, Duncan Clerk (whom Cameron was
acquainted with) and another man passed so close to them that Cameron
easily recognised them, but they continued to lie quiet in their
hiding-place. Later in the day, about an hour and a half before sunset,
they caught sight of a man in blue, with a gun in his hand, within
gunshot distance of them. Cameron’s account of the scene that was then
enacted runs as follows:—“That he saw Clerk and his companion meet with
the man in blue; and, after they had stood for some time together, he
saw Clerk strike at the man in blue, as he thought, with his naked hand
only, upon the breast; but, upon the stroke, he heard the man struck cry
out, and clap his hand upon the place, turn about, and go off; that
Clerk and the other man stood still for a little and then followed
after, and he saw the said Duncan and the other man, each of whom had a
gun, fire at the man in blue, and immediately he fell.” This thrilling
spectacle, thrown in such a surprising manner before their eyes, was too
serious for the caterans; they immediately got up and bolted, leaving
the two men handling the dead body.
In spite of this evidence
the Edinburgh jury were not satisfied of the prisoners’ guilt The
counsel for the defence fastened of course on the ghost story and made
great play with the English sergeant speaking “ good Lochaber Gaelic,”
though, as Scott remarks, there was nothing more ridiculous in a ghost
speaking a language which he did not understand when in the body than
there was in his appearing at all. Anyhow, Clerk and Macdonald were
assoilzied simpliciter and dismissed from the bar.
Such were the circumstances under which Davies met his death, as far as
they can be gathered from the published account A careful reading of the
evidence, however, leaves the impression that more might have been
produced against the prisoners. Tradition enables us to complete the
story.
They were, as their advocate was convinced, guilty. Clerk, who was a
determined and fearless man, was the prime mover; Macdonald, it is said,
never fired at all. The people who were shearing their com in Gleney had
seen them setting out with their guns, and the spot where the deed was
done was at no great distance from where they were working; indeed the
shots are said to have been heard by them. Macpherson, at any rate, who
happened to be on the hill, heard the firing close beside him and
thought the hunters had shot a deer. Running forward over a hillock
which obstructed his view, he was horrified to find them engaged in
robbing a dead body. Clerk immediately ordered him to take a share of
the spoil and threatened to shoot him if he did not. Macpherson fled
precipitately, and managed to escape owing to the fortunate interference
of his dog, which seized and held Clerk.
Apart from the odium which his duties were certain to bring on him,
tradition also says that the unhappy Sergeant had earned much ill-will
from his needlessly provocative manner to the people. When coming from
the Castle to Dubrach with his men’s pay, he would sometimes shake the
bag in the faces of the natives and boast that it held as much as would
buy up all the cattle in Gleney.
Scott’s explanation of the ghost story agrees with the account current
in Braemar. According to the traditionary record, Macpherson bad tried
blackmailing Clerk, and, whether it was on the failure of this or from a
more worthy motive, he determined to reveal what he knew. He felt that
the sentiment of the country, though it did not actively approve of the
murder, was in favour of letting sleeping dogs lie. He therefore
invented the story of Davies's apparition having visited him and ordered
him to bury his bones, well knowing that according to current Highland
belief a ghost’s commands must be obeyed whatever they might be.
In presenting the case against the men, the Crown put forward no other
motive than robbery. The most charitable explanation, and also the one
that perhaps best fits all the facts, would give a less repulsive
character to the crime. It is allowable to suppose that Clerk and
MacDonald had meant to devote the day to deer-hunting as they said; that
Davies had met them in the afternoon and challenged Clerk for wearing
tartan, as he had challenged John Grower in the morning, only that
Clerk’s case was much worse seeing that he earned firearms; that in a
moment of passion the Highlander struck at the hated Englishman, not
with his hand as it seemed at first to Cameron, but with his dirk; and
that, having by this act of violence forfeited his life if Davies
escaped, after the few minutes’ hesitation which Cameron noticed, he
made an end of the matter. This view finds some corroboration in the
statement of Clerk’s father-in-law that he had acted in self-defence,
and also perhaps in a remark which Clerk himself made on one occasion
when declining a discussion of the subject with Macpherson, “What can
you say of an unfortunate man?” And there we may fittingly leave the
matter, merely adding that, whether Clerk’s conscience troubled him or
not, he soon after took a farm in Gleney, within the bounds of which lay
the hill of Cristie, and there passed the remainder of his life.
The Highland Dress.—With the complete suppression of the caterans soon
after 1750, the work of the Red-coats was done, and the Highlanders of
Deeside settled down to accommodate themselves as best they could to the
new aspect of things. Still, the recollections of the stirring times of
the past were hard to kill. There is a rather interesting statement in
the minister’s account of Crathie and Braemar about 1795, which shows
that the fires of the old clan spirit had not even then fallen
completely cold. He tells again the story of the Fiery Cross and Cam-na-cuimhne,
the gathering-place and slogan of the Farquharsons, as he may have heard
it from old men who fought at Culloden, and adds that “ at this day, was
a fray or squabble to happen at a market, or any public meeting, such
influence has this word over the minds of the country people, that the
very mention of Cam-na-cuimhne would in a moment collect all the people
in this country who happened to be present, to the assistance of the
person assailed.”
The law against the Highland dress was less rigorously enforced some ten
years after it was first put in execution. By that time, however, the
Highlanders of Deeside had reconciled themselves to the garments of the
Sassenach. The Government were in an equivocal position in the matter.
Owing to the outbreak of the Seven Years’ war and the urgent need for
soldiers, they began to draw on the important military resources lying
available in the Highlands. One kilted regiment after another was
authorised and embodied. The same thing took place during the war of the
American Revolution, twenty years later. The authorities were thus
blessing and banning the same thing at the same time. It is not too much
to say that but for the existence of these Highland regiments the
national garb would finally have become as extinct as the toga. In 1782,
when the fortunes of England had sunk to the lowest ebb, the Act against
the dress was formally repealed, partly, no doubt, as an acknowledgment
of the splendid services of the Highlanders in the war, but chiefly from
selfish motives, with a view to promote further recruiting. Apparently
the event was supposed to have some interest for the people of Braemar,
as there is among the Invercauld papers a proclamation in Gaelic
announcing that the Highlanders “are no longer bound by law to the
womanly dress of the lowlanders. This is to publish to every man, young
and old, high and low, that they may after this put on and wear trues,
philabeg, short coats, and hose, and belted plaid, without fear of the
laws of the Kingdom and notice of enemies.”
Other Changes.—The new lowland dress and the disuse of arms, though the
most obvious of the changes that followed the violent disruption of the
clan system, were not the most important. The altered relations of the
peasantry to their superiors involved deep-reaching consequences.
Gradually the lairds and chiefs withdrew from familiar intercourse with
the people, and the gentry of middle rank—the tacksmen and duine-vasals
of the clan—in course of time disappeared. It was the presence of this
upper class that gave to Highland society its peculiar character. The
common man was strictly dependent on the lairds and tacksmen for his
little holding, but at the same time they owed their power and military
importance to his goodwill and readiness in their service. Thus, the
obligation being reciprocal, the dignity of the lower orders was
preserved. “They were prompt to serve, without servility.” General
Stewart gives a vivid picture in his Sketches of the manners of the
Highlanders under the old rigime. “By habitual intercourse with their
superiors they acquired a great degree of natural good breeding,
together with a fluency of nervous, elegant, and grammatical expression.
The Gaelic language is singularly adapted to colloquial ease, frankness,
and courtesy. A Highlander was accustomed to stand before his superior
with his bonnet in his hand, if so permitted (which was rarely the case,
as few chose to be outdone in politeness by the people), and his plaid
thrown over his left shoulder, with his right arm in full action, adding
strength to his expressions, while he preserved a perfect command of his
mind, his words, and manners.”
Another feature that struck strangers and travellers among them was
their elasticity of body and freedom of carriage, due partly to the fact
that they were rather herdsmen than ploughmen, and partly to their
fondness for manly exercises and trials of strength and endurance, from
which the modem “Highland Games” are directly descended. Capt Burt, an
Englishman who wrote about 1730, says: “They walk nimbly and upright, so
that you will never see, among the meanest of them, in the most remote
parts, the clumsy stooping gait of the French paisans or our own country
fellows, but on the contrary a kind of stateliness in the midst of their
poverty.”
By the end of the 18th century all this was greatly altered. Observers
who lived at the time and saw the passing of the old order have recorded
that even the appearance of the people seemed quite changed. Instead of
those martial figures with an erect and independent air and ease of
manners they saw “only plain, home-spun folk.” It will be noticed in the
account of Sandy Davidson that in many of the most striking
peculiarities of his manners and character, besides his devotion to the
chase, he belonged to an earlier generation rather than to his own.
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