Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

The Scottish Nation
Malcolm


MALCOLM, a surname originally Gilliecolane or Gillechallum, derived from two Gaelic words signifying the servant of St. Columba. Somerled, thane of Argyle, had a son of this name, who was slain with him near Renfrew in 1164.

                              The chief of the clan Challum or the MacCallums, an Argyleshire sept. originally styled the clan Challum of Ariskeodnish, is Malcolm of Poltalloch, whose family has been settled from a very early period in that county. One of this house, called Zachary Und Donald Mor of Poltalloch, was killed May 25, 1647, at Ederline, in South Argyle, in single combat with Sir Alexander Macdonald, called Allaster Mac Collkittoch, or left-handed. He was in the force of the marquis of Argyle when General David Leslie advanced into Kintyre to drive out the royalists, and was renowned in his day for his great strength. It is alleged that he slew seven of his assailants before he was himself slain. He was getting the better of Colkitto, when a Maclean came behind him with a scythe and hamstrung him; he was then easily overpowered.

                              In 1414, Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow granted to Reginald Malcolm of Corbarron, certain lands of Craignish, and on the banks of Loch Avich, in Nether Lorn; with the office of hereditary constable of his castles of Lochaffy and Craignish. This branch became extinct towards the end of the 17th century, as Corbarron or Corran is said to have been bequeathed by the last of the family to Zachary MacCallum of Poltalloch, who succeeded his father in 1686.

                              Dugald MacCallum of Poltalloch, who inherited the estate in 1779, appears to have been the first to adopt permanently the name of Malcolm as the family patronymic. Besides Poltalloch, the family possesses Kilmartin house and Duntroon castle, in the same county.

                              John Malcolm, Esq., of Poltalloch, born in 1805, a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant for Argyleshire and Kent, succeeded his brother, Neill, in 1857. Educated at Harrow and Oxford, he became B.A. in 1827 and M.A. in 1830. He married 2d daughter of the Hon. John Wingfield, Stratford, son of 3d Viscount Powerscourt, with issue. Heir, his son, John Wingfield.

_____

                              The Malcolms of Balbeadie and Grange, Fifeshire, POSSESS A BARONETCY OF Nova Scotia, conferred in 1665. In the reign of Charles I., Sir John Malcolm, eldest son of John Malcolm of Balbeadie, acquired the lands of Lochore in the same county. A branch of the Malcolms of Lochore and Innertiel settled in Dumfries-shire.

                              In 1746, Sir Michael Malcolm, baronet, being related to the last Lord Balmerino, was sent for to be present at his execution on Tower-hill. A daughter of lord Chancellor Bathurst saw him on the scaffold, and fell in love with him. He subsequently married her.

                              On Sir Michael’s death, the title devolved upon James Malcolm of Grange, and at the death of the latter in 1795, upon John Malcolm of Balbeadie, descended from the youngest brother of the first baronet. Sir John’s son, Sir Michael Malcolm, married in 1824, Mary, youngest daughter of John Forbes, Esq., of Bridgend, Perth, and with three daughters, had one son, Sir John Malcolm, born April 1, 1828, who succeeded to the baronetcy, on the death of his father in 1833.

MALCOLM I., King of Scots, was the son of Donal IV., who reigned from 893 to 904. On the abdication of Constantine III., Malcolm succeeded to the throne in 944. In 945, Edmund, the Saxon king of England, ceded Cumberland and part of Westmoreland to him, on condition that he would defend that northern territory, and become the ally of England. Edred, the brother and successor of Edmund, accordingly applied for, and obtained the aid of Malcolm against Anlaf, king of Northumberland, which latter country he wasted, and carried off the inhabitants with their cattle.

                              In the time of Malcolm I., the people of the province of Moray, in the north-east of Scotland, were a mixed race, formed of Scandinavian settlers, with Scottish and Pictish Celts. Turbulent and rebellious, they were continually at war with the sovereign, and an insurrection having occurred under Cellach, maormor of Garmoran, Malcolm marched north to reduce them to obedience. He slew Cellach, but was, some time thereafter, assassinated in 953 at Ulurn, supposed by Shaw to be Auldearn, after a reign of nine years. Other accounts state his death to have taken place at Fodresach or Forres. He was succeeded by Indulph, the son of Constantine II., and Indulph had for his successor, Duff, the son of Malcolm, who mounted the throne in 961. Another son of Malcolm I., Kenneth III., succeeded in 971, after an intermediate possessor of the throne named Culen, the son of Indulph.

MALCOLM II, King of Scots, the son of Kenneth III., succeeded to the throne in 1003, and had a troublous reign of about thirty years. He defeated and slew Kenneth IV. at Monievaird in Strathearn, and in consequence became king. His first annoyance came from the Danes who, in previous reigns, had made several attempts to effect a settlement in Scotland, but had been defeated in them all. They had secured a firm footing in England, and the year after Malcolm’s accession to the throne, they commenced the most formidable preparations, under their celebrated king, Sweyn, for a new expedition to the Scottish coasts. He ordered Olaus, his viceroy in Norway, and Enet in Denmark, to raise a powerful army, and to fit out a suitable fleet for the enterprise.

                              The coast of Moray was chosen as the scene of the menaced invasion. Effecting a descent near Speymouth, the Danes carried fire and sword through that province, and laid siege to the fortress of Nairn, then one of the strongest castles in the north of Scotland. They were forced to raise the siege for a time by Malcolm, who hastening against them with an army, encamped in a plain near Killflow or Kinlos. In this position he was attacked by the Danes, and forced to retreat, after being seriously wounded. The fortress of Nairn then capitulated to the invaders, but in violation of an express condition that their lives should be saved, the whole garrison were immediately hanged.

                              To expel the Danes from Moray, Malcolm mustered all his forces, and in the spring of 1010, with a powerful army he encamped at Mortlach. The Danes advanced to give him battle, and a fierce and sanguinary conflict ensued, the result of which was long doubtful. Three of the Scottish commanders fell at the very commencement of the engagement, when a panic seized their followers, and the king was borne along with them in their retreat till he was opposite the church of Mortlach, then a chapel dedicated to St. Molach. There, while his army were partially pent up in their flight by the contraction of the vale and the narrowness of the pass, he made a vow to endow a religious house on the field of battle should he obtain the victory. Then, rallying and rousing his troops by an animated appeal to their patriotism, and placing himself at their head, he wheeled round upon the Danes, threw Enotus, one of the Danish generals, from his horse, and killed him with his own hand. The Scots, catching his spirit, made an impetuous onset on the enemy, whom they drove from the field, thickly strewing the ground with their corpses. In gratitude to God for this signal victory, Malcolm got the church of Mortlach converted into a cathedral, and the village into the seat of a diocese, said to have been the earliest bishopric in Scotland. His endowment of it was confirmed by Pope Benedict, but in 1139 the bishopric was removed to Aberdeen. In the order of precedence, while this see lasted, it ranked next to that of St. Andrews. It was long thought that, during their occupation of Moray, the Danes had fortified Burgh Head, but the remains there found are now believed to be either of roman or Pictish construction.

                              To revenge this defeat and other disasters which, at this time, the invaders experienced on the coasts of Angus and Buchan, Sweyn, the Danish king, dispatched Camus, one of the ablest of his generals, to the Scottish shores. He had scarcely, however, effected a landing on the coast of Angus, in the neighbourhood of Carnonstie, than he was attacked in the plains of Barrie by Malcolm, at the head of a considerable army, and, after a bloody contest, defeated with great loss. He sought safety in flight, but was closely pursued, and killed. The place of his overthrow is indicated by a monumental stone, called the Cross of Camus, which stands on a small tumulus at Camustown, a village which has been named after him, in the parish of Monikie. The tumulus, according to tradition, contains the remains of Camus, and the story of the old chroniclers is that, after his defeat, he fled northwards, with a view to escape to Moray, where were some of his ships, but was pursued and overtaken here by Robert, the remote ancestor of the earls Marischal, who killed him by cleaving his skull with his battle-axe. About the year 1620, the tumulus was opened by order of Sir Patrick Maule, afterwards first earl of Panmure, when a skeleton of large dimensions in good preservation was discovered, with part of the skull wanting.

                              The Danes, however, were not to be deterred even by the repeated defeats which they had sustained, from their long cherished but often baffled scheme of the conquest of North Britain. And as for the Scots, the spirit which animated them has been well expressed in the lines of Home:

                                                “The Danes have landed, we must beat them back,
                                                Or live the slaves of Denmark.

                              In 1014, another Danish force landed on the coast of Buchan, about a mile west from Slaines castle, in the parish of Cruden. The Danes on this occasion were led by Sweyn’s celebrated son, Canute, afterwards king of England and Denmark, and again they experienced a signal overthrow. The site of the field of battle has been ascertained by the discovery of human bones left exposed by the shifting or blowing of the sand. Some writers assert that a treaty was entered into with the Danes, by which it was stipulated that the field of battle should be consecrated by a bishop as a burying-place for those of their countrymen who had fallen, and that a church should be there built and priests appointed in all time coming, to say masses for the souls of the slain. It is certain that a chapel was erected in this neighbourhood, dedicated to St. Olaus, the site of which has become invisible by being covered with sand. Another and far more important stipulation, it is said, was made by which the Danes agreed to quit every part of the Scottish coasts, and this was followed by the final departure, the same year, of these ruthless invaders from Scotland.

                              Malcolm was next engaged in war with the Northumbrians, and having, in 1018, led his army to Carham, near Werk, on the southern bank of the Tweed, he was met there by Uchtred earl of Northumberland, when a desperate battle took place. The victory was claimed by Uchtred, who was, soon after, assassinated, when on his way to pay his obeisance to the great Canute. To prevent an invasion of his territories, Eadulph, his brother and successor, in the year 1020, ceded to Malcolm the fertile region of Lodonia, or Lothian. That extensive and beautiful district had formerly been a part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, which in the time of Edwin, from whom Edinburgh derives its name, and who began his reign in 617, had extended from the Humber to the Avon; but ever after it had thus been acquired by Malcolm II., it formed an integral portion of the Scottish dominions. On this occasion, Malcolm gave oblations to the churches and gifts to the clergy, who, in return, bestowed on him the proud designation of vir victoriosissimus.

                              In 1031, Canute, the Danish king of England, the most powerful monarch of his time, invaded Scotland, to compel Malcolm to do homage for Cumbria, which he had refused, on the ground that Canute was a usurper; but, after some negotiations, Duncan, Malcolm’s grandson, afterwards king, agreed to fulfil the conditions on which that territory had been granted to the Scots, and Canute immediately returned to England.

                              Malcolm died in 1033, and was buried at Iona, the usual place of sepulcher, for many centuries, of the Scottish kings.


[picture of Iona]

                              Both Boece and Fordun assert that Malcolm II. Was murdered in the central tower of the castle of Glammis in Forfarshire, which seems to have been his usual place of residence. Wyntoun states that the cause of the insurrection which led to his assassination was that he had ravished a virgin. His words are:

                                                “----------he had rewyist a fayre May
                                                Of the land there lyand by.”

Tradition still pretends to point out a passage in the castle, with blood-stains on the floor, where the fatal act was perpetrated. It avers also that the ground being covered with snow, the assassins, in their flight, mistook their way, and unconsciously entered on the loch of Forfar, when the ice broke, and they were drowned; a very convenient method of getting rid of imaginary murderers. The whole story is a fiction of that fertile inventor of Scottish history, Hector Boece, and is totally incredible, even although no less than three obelisks, with symbolic characters, representative of the conspiracy and the pursuit of the fancied regicides, have for centuries stood in different parts of the parish of Glammis, to commemorate it. Pinkerton (Enquiry, vol. ii. p. 192) contends that Malcolm died a natural death, which is more likely than the fabulous account of his assassination.

                              The authenticity of the pretended laws of Malcolm, called the Leges Malcolmi, has been denied by Lord Hailes. He, however, introduced many improvements into the internal policy of his kingdom, and in him the church always found a guardian and benefactor.

                              Malcolm’s daughter, Bethoc, married Crinan, abbot of Dunkeld, and this marriage gave a long line of kings to Scotland, ending with Alexander III. Their son, Duncan, succeeded his maternal grandfather on the throne, and was “the gracious Duncan,” murdered by Macbeth. Crinan is styled by Fordun, Abthanus de Dull ac Seneschallus Insularum. The title of abthane appears to have belonged to an abbot who possessed a thanedom. It was peculiar to Scotland, and only three abthaneries are named in ancient records, namely, those of Dull in Athol, Kirkmichael in Strathardie, and Madderty in Strathearn. The title of thane, previously known in England, was not used in Scotland till the introduction of the Saxon policy into the latter kingdom by Edgar, who began his reign in 1097. The three thanedoms mentioned under the name of Abthaneries appear to have been vested in the crown, and were conferred by Edgar on his younger brother, Ethelred, who was abbot of Dunkeld. On Ethelred’s death they reverted to the crown.

                              In the time of Crinan, “there was certainly,” says Mr. Skene, “no such title in Scotland, but it is equally certain that there were no charters, and although Crinan had not the name, he may have been in fact the same thing. He was certainly abbot of Dunkeld, and he may have likewise possessed that extensive territory which, from the same circumstance, was afterwards called the abthanedom of Dull. Fordun certainly inspected the records of Dunkeld, and the circumstance can only be explained by supposing that Fordun may have there seen the deed granting the abthanedom of Dull to Ethelred, abbot of Dunkeld, which would naturally state that it had been possessed by his proavus Crinan, and from which Fordun would conclude that as Crinan possessed the thing, he was also known by the name of Abthanus de Dull. From this, therefore, we learn the very singular fact that the race which gave a long line of kings to Scotland, were originally lords of that district in Athol lying between Strathtay and Rannoch, which was afterwards termed the Abthania de Dull.” (Skene’s Highlands of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 137. 138.)

                              Departing from the generally received history of Scotland at this remote and confused period of our annals, Mr. Skene is of opinion, from the remarkable coincidence which he found between the Irish annals and the Norse Sagas, that two Malcolms of different families reigned in Scotland during the thirty years allotted to one, the second of these Malcolms being in possession of the throne the last four years of that time. From his account of the second Norwegian kingdom in the north of Scotland, which lasted only seven years, that is, from 986 to 993 (vol. i. p. 108), we learn that Sigurd, the 14th iarl of Orkney, after having defeated a Celtic army under Kenneth and Melsnechtan, maormors of Dala (Argyle) and Ross, in an attempt on their part to recover Caithness, in which Melsnechtan was slain, was obliged to retire to the Orkneys, by the approach of Malcolm, maormor of Moray, with a large Scottish force, and he was never afterwards able to regain a footing on the mainland of Scotland. He had previously made himself master of the districts of Ross, Moray, Sutherland, and Argyle, but had been driven out of them by a sudden rising of their maormors. These districts were left in possession of Malcolm, who was enabled, by his increased power and influence, and great personal talents, even to seat himself on the throne itself. It what his title to the crown consisted is not known, but whatever it was, he was supported in it by the Celtic inhabitants of the whole of the north of Scotland. His descendants, for many generations afterwards, constantly asserted their right to the throne, and as invariably received the assistance of the Celtic portion of its inhabitants. “In all probability,” says Mr. Skene, “the Highlanders were attempting to oppose the hereditary succession in the family of Kenneth M’Alpin, and to introduce the more ancient Pictish law.” Kenneth III. Is said to have got a law passed by his chiefs, on the moothill of Scone, that the son, or nearest male heir of the king, should always succeed to the throne, and when not of age, that a regent should be appointed to rule the kingdom in his name until he attained his fourteenth year, when he should assume the reins of government. As the sovereignty was not transmitted by the strict line of hereditary descent, brothers, by the law of tanistry, being preferred to sons in the succession, rival contests and civil wars for the crown were frequent. Kenneth’s law, if passed at all, of which there is no evidence, seems not to have been acted upon, as two princes, Constantine IV., the son of Culen, (mentioned earlier), and Kenneth IV. the son of Duff, succeeded to the crown before Malcolm; that is, on the hitherto received supposition that Malcolm II. was the son of Kenneth III., and grandson of Malcolm I. If such was the case, Kenneth IV., the son of Duff, was his cousin, and, during his reign, Malcolm stood in the position of heir presumptive to the crown, and was regulus or prince of Cumberland.

                              According to Skene, however, he was maormor of Moray, and so far as appears, not allied to the royal family at all. He seems to have made war on Kenneth IV., but by the interposition of Fothad, one of the Scottish bishops, a treaty was agreed to between them, by which it was stipulated that Kenneth should remain king for life, and that Malcolm and his heirs should succeed after him. Impatient to possess the crown, however, Malcolm again took the field, and in a bloody battle at Monivaird in Strathearn, Kenneth, after a brave resistance, was killed. According to the register of St. Andrews, Kenneth was slain “at Moleghvard,” in 1001. Other accounts make it 1003.

                              Soon after becoming king of Scotland, to conciliate Sigurd, earl of Orkney, called the Stout, and described as “a great chieftain and wide-landed,” Malcolm gave him his daughter for his second wife. The issue of this marriage was four sons. The eldest, Thorfinn, is said in the Orkneyinga Saga, to have been “a great chieftain, one of the largest men in point of stature, ugly of aspect, black haired, sharp featured, and somewhat tawny, and the most martial looking man; he was a contentious man, and covetous both of money and dignity; victorious and clever in battle, and a hold attacker. He was then five winters old when Malcolm, king of the Scots, his mother’s father, gave him an iarl’s title, and Caithness to rule over, but he was fourteen winters when he prepared maritime expeditions from his country, and made war on the domains of other princes.” He thus early began his career as a Vikingr. It was on the death of his father Sigurd, who was slain in 1014, at the battle of Clontarf in Ireland, fighting against the renowned Brian Borohime, that King Malcolm bestowed on him the district of Caithness, his eldest half-brother, Einar, having succeeded to the iarldom of the Orkneys.

                              In the Irish annals, under the year 1029, it is recorded that “Malcolm, son of Maelbrigde, son of Rory, King of Alban, died.” His reign would thus appear to have lasted only twenty-six, instead of thirty years. On his death, the Scottish portion of the nation succeeded in placing upon the throne the son of Kenneth IV., also named Malcolm, for whom, according to Mr. Skene’s view, he has been mistaken. In the Orkneyinga Saga he is known by the name of Kali Hundason, and in the history of Scotland, of Malcolm II.

                              This third Malcolm commenced his reign by attempts to reduce the power of the Norwegians in Scotland, but found them too strong for him. Thorfinn having refused to pay him tribute for the territories on the Scottish mainland, which he had received from his grandfather, Malcolm gave Caithness to Moddan, his nephew, with the title of iarl. To enable him to take possession of his new territory, Moddan raised an army in Sutherland, but Thorfinn collected his followers, and having been joined by Thorkell Fostri, with a large force from the Orkneys, presented such a strong front, that Moddan found himself obliged to retire without hazarding a battle. On this Thorfinn subjected to himself Sutherland and Ross, and carried his arms far and wide in Scotland. He then returned to Caithness.

                              Malcolm, on his part, with a fleet of eleven ships, sailed towards the north, but was attacked and defeated in the Pentland Firth by Thorfinn, and his fleet completely dispersed. This sea-fight took place a little way east of Durness. Malcolm fled to the Moray Firth, followed by Thorfinn and Thorkell. The latter, however, was soon dispatched to Thurso, to attack Moddan, who had arrived there with a large army. He reached Thurso at night, and having set fire to the house in which Moddan slept, that chieftain leapt down from the beams of an upper story, and was slain by Thorkell, who cut off his head. After a brief fight, during which a great number were killed, his army surrendered to Thorkell, who, with additional forces, then rejoined Thorfinn in Moray.

                              In the meantime, Malcolm had levied forces both in the east and west of Scotland, and having been joined by a number of Irish auxiliaries, he marched to give battle to Thorfinn. The opposing armies met in 1033, on the southern shore of the Beauly Firth, when Malcolm was totally defeated, and, according to some accounts, slain. Others state that he escaped by flight, and died the following year. Thorfinn thereafter conquered the whole of Scotland, all the way south to Fife. He then returned to his ships.

                              The only portion of the territory of the northern Picts that had not been subjected to his power was the district of Athole and the greater part of Argyle, and here the Scots, on the death of Malcolm, sought for a king; Duncan, the son of Crinan, abbot of Dunkeld, and grandson of Malcolm II., being raised to the vacant throne.

MALCOLM III. Better known in history by the name of Malcolm Cean Mor, or great head, was the elder of the two sons of Duncan, king of Scots, by his queen, a sister of Siward, earl of Northumberland. He was born about 1024, before his father was called to the throne, and, when the latter in 1039, after a reign of six years, was assassinated by Macbeth, Malcolm, then only fifteen years of age, fled to Cumberland, whilst his brother, Donald Bane, took refuge in the Hebrides.

                              On the accession of Edward the Confessor to the throne of England in 1043, Malcolm was placed by his father-in-law Siward, under his protection, when he became a resident at the English court. In his absence various attempts were made by his adherents in Scotland to dispossess Macbeth of the throne, in one of which Malcolm’s grandfather, the aged Crinan, abbot of Dunkeld, was slain in 1045. Nine years thereafter, namely in 1054, Malcolm obtained from Edward the assistance of an Anglo-Saxon army, under the command of Earl Siward, to support his claims to the crown. This force he accompanied into Scotland, and a furious battle is said to have ensued, in which Macbeth lost 3,000 men, and the Anglo-Saxons 1,500, including Osbert, the son of Siward. Macbeth fled northwards, leaving Lothian in possession of Siward, who placed Malcolm as king over that district, where the Saxon influence prevailed. Supported, however, by the Celtic inhabitants of the north of Scotland, and by the Norwegians of the districts under the sway of Thorfinn, the powerful earl of Orkney, Macbeth was still enabled to retain possession of the throne.

                              In 1056, another English army was sent to the assistance of Malcolm. At this time Thorfinn, and the son of the king of Norway, had gone to the south, with the strength of the Norwegian power in Scotland, to attempt the subjugation of England, but, according to the Irish annals, “God was against them in that affair,” and their fleet was dispersed in a storm. Macbeth, deprived of Thorfinn’s aid, was not able to withstand this new array against him. He was driven north to Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire, where he was overtaken and slain, December 5th, 1056. The attempt of his stepson, Lulach, to succeed him on the throne, was, after a struggle of four months, put an end to by his defeat and death at Essie in Strathbogie, on the 25th of the following April.

                              Malcolm was soon after crowned at Scone. Except the territories possessed by Thorfinn, consisting, besides Orkney and the Hebrides, of the nine districts or earldoms of Caithness, Ness, Sutherland, Ross, Moray, Garmoran, Buchan, Mar, and Angus, he was master of all the rest of Scotland. His first care was to recompense those who had supported him in his struggle for the crown. His next, to recover those northern districts which still remained under Norwegian rule. The most remarkable reward which he bestowed was on Macduff, maormor of Fife. The titles of earl and thane which Malcolm is said to have introduced, were not known in Scotland till after the Saxon colonization in Edgar’s time, the Norwegian title iarl being confined to the Orkneys and to Caithness.

                              Shakspere’s immortal tragedy of Macbeth, founded on the fables of Boece and the traditions of the times, has thrown an interest round the character of the principal personages concerned in it, which could never have been created by the facts of sober history; but there is sufficient in the events of Malcolm’s reign to render it one of the most important in our annals. Gratitude to the king of England, as well as the unsettled state of his own kingdom, led Malcolm to cultivate the alliance of Edward the Confessor, and he paid that monarch a visit in 1059. He had contracted an intimate friendship with Tostig, who had been created earl of Northumberland. He was the son of the celebrated Earl Godwin and brother of Harold, the last king of Saxon England. They were for a time esteemed “sworn brothers,” but a quarrel having taken place between them in 1061, Malcolm made a hostile incursion into Northumberland, and after laying that country waste, he even violated the peace of St. Cuthbert, in Holy Island.

                              On the death of Thorfinn in 1064, his Norwegian kingdom in Scotland, which had lasted thirty years, fell to pieces, and the different districts he had conquered reverted to their native chiefs, “who were territorially born to rule over them,” (Orkneyinga Saga). Malcolm married Thorfinn’s widow, Ingioborge, and by her he had a son, Duncan II. This marriage, however, does not seem in the slightest to have advanced his interests in the north. The chiefs of the districts formerly in subjection to the Norwegians refused to acknowledge his sovereignty, and chose a king for themselves, Donald, the son of Malcolm, maormor of Moray, and king of Scotland. It took Malcolm twenty-one years to reduce the northern districts under his dominion. In 1070, he is said to have obtained a victory over his opponents, but it was not decisive. In 1077, as the Saxon Chronicle informs us, he overthrew Maolsuechtan, maormor of Moray, the son of Lulach, and in 1085 he got rid of both his rivals by death. The Irish annals say that in that year, “Malsnectai, son of Lulach, king of Moray, died peacefully. Donald, son of Malcolm, king of Alban, died a violent death.”

                              Long previous to this, however, events in connexion with England had occurred which exercised an important influence on his reign, and which may now be briefly detailed. Edward the Confessor died 5th January 1066, and was succeeded by Harold. Tostig, the brother of the latter, had, from his extortions and his violence, so irritated the people of Northumberland, that they rose against him and drove him from his earldom. This happened a few years previous to the death of Edward the English king. Harold found it prudent to abandon his brother’s cause, on which Tostig became his bitterest enemy. He first took refuge in Flanders, with Baldwin, his father-in-law, and afterwards visited William, duke of Normandy. On Harold’s accession, he collected about sixty vessels in the ports of Flanders, and committed some depredations on the south and east coasts of England. He next sailed to Northumberland, and was there joined by Harold Halfager, by some called Hadrada, king of Norway, with 300 sail. Entering the Humber, they disembarked the troops, but were defeated and put to flight, when Tostig proceeded into Scotland. It is now known whether Malcolm received him at his court, or aided, or countenanced in any way, his projects against his brother, the new king of England. Lord Hailes thinks it probable that he was not received by Malcolm, but only remained at anchor in some Scottish bay, with the remains of his fleet, till joined by reinforcements from Norway. On receiving these he and Hadrada again invaded England, and were both slain at the battle of Stamford Bridge, 25th September 1066. The battle of Hastings took place on the 14th of the following October, when Harold was killed and William the Conqueror became king of England.

                              Two years thereafter, Edgar Atheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, and the heir of the Saxon line, with his mother, the princess Agatha, and his two sisters, Margaret and Christina, arrived in Scotland. In their train came many Anglo-Saxons, and among them Gospatrick and other nobles of Northumberland. Some authors say that it was their intention to proceed to Hungary, the native country of Edgar and his two sisters, when they were driven by a storm into the firth of Forth. Malcolm then resided at the tower which still bears his name, on the small peninsular mount, in the glen of Pittencrieff, near Dunfermline, in Fifeshire. On hearing of the arrival of the illustrious strangers, he hastened to invite them to his royal tower. There they were hospitably entertained, and as he was at this time a widower, there his nuptials with the princess Margaret were, soon after, celebrated with unwonted splendour.

                              Margaret was one of the most pious and accomplished princesses of her day, and her character and influence tended much to improve and refine the rude manners of her husband’s subjects. On her husband himself her virtues and gentleness exercised a most salutary power. We learn from Turgot, her confessor and biographer, that Malcolm liked and disliked whatever she did, and that such was his veneration for her worth and piety, that being unable to read, he was in the habit of kissing her missals and prayer-books, which, in token of his devotion, he caused to be splendidly bound and adorned with gold  and precious stones. She persuaded him to pass the night in fervent prayer, much to the astonishment of his courtiers. “I must acknowledge,” adds Turgot, “that I often admired the works of the divine mercy, when I saw a king so religious, and such signs of deep compunction in a laic.”

                              Into the court of Malcolm she introduced unusual splendour. She encouraged the importation of rich dresses of various colours for himself and his nobles, which led to the commencement of a trading intercourse with foreign countries, and to this reign may be assigned the introduction of the wearing of tartan, which came afterwards to distinguish the clans. In her own attire she was magnificent, and she increased the number of attendants on the person of the king. Under her guidance the public appearances of the sovereign were attended with more parade and ceremony than had ever previously been the case. She also caused the king to be served at table in gold and silver plate; “at least,” says Turgot, afraid of going beyond the truth, “the dishes and vessels were gilt or silvered over.”

                              Malcolm seems to have intrusted the care of matters respecting religion and the internal polity of the kingdom, entirely to her. Anxious for the reformation of the church, she held frequent conferences with the clergy. On one of the occasions the proper season for celebrating Lent was the subject of discussion between them. The clergy knew no language but the Gaelic, and the king, who had spend fifteen years in England, and understood the Saxon as well as his own native language, acted as interpreter. “Three days,” says Turgot, “did she employ the sword of the Spirit in combating their errors. She seemed another St. Helena out of the Scriptures convincing the Jews.” At last the clergy yielded to her views. She was also the means of inducing them to restore the celebration of the Lord’s supper, which had fallen into disuse, and of keeping sacred the Sabbath, which was scarcely distinguishable from any other day of the week.

                              Malcolm espoused the cause of his brother-in-law with great ardour. In September 1069, with the assistance of the Danes, and accompanied by Edgar Atheling, the Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian nobles, led by Gospatrick, invaded England, and having taken the castle of York by storm, they put the Norman garrison to the sword. Instead, however, of following up their success, the Northumbrians departed to their own territory, while the Danes retired to their ships. The secret of this change in their proceedings was that William had gained over Gospatrick, by conferring on him the earldom of Northumberland, and had bribed Osborne the Danish commander, to quit the English shores. Edgar Atheling and his few remaining adherents were, in consequence, obliged to retreat to Scotland.

                              The following year, Malcolm led a numerous army into England, by the western borders, through Cumberland. If it had been intended that he was to support the movements of Edgar, and his Danish and Northumbrian allies, he came too late. Nevertheless, his operations were energetic enough. After wasting Teesdale, he defeated an Anglo-Norman army that attempted to oppose his progress, at a place called Hinderskell, penetrated into Cleveland, and thence advanced into the eastern parts of the diocese of Durham, spreading desolation and dismay wherever he appeared. He spared neither age nor sex, and even the churches, with those who had taken refuge in them, were burnt to the ground. While thus engaged, he received intelligence that his own territory of Cumberland was laid waste by Gospatrick, who, as already stated, had gone over to King William’s interest.

                              On his return, Malcolm led captive into Scotland such a multitude of young men and women, that, says the English historian, Simeon of Durham, “for many years they were to be found in every Scottish village, nay, even in every Scottish hovel.” In 1072, William retaliated by invading Scotland both by land and sea. He penetrated as far as the Firth of Forth, but finding the conquest of Scotland not so easy a task as had been that of England, a peace was concluded at Abernethy, the old Pictish capital, when Malcolm consented, in accordance with the feudal custom of the Normans, to do homage for the lands which he held in England. Among the hostages which he gave on this occasion was his eldest son, Duncan, who thus had the benefit of living many years under the Norman monarchs of England. By this peace, Malcolm, in a manner, abandoned the cause of his weak-minded brother-in-law, Edgar Atheling, and that personage, after making his peace with the English monarch, received from him a handsome pension, and went to reside at Rouen in Normandy.

                              With Edgar Atheling, Malcolm had refused to give up to the English king, the exiled nobles and others who had taken refuge in Scotland. With the double view of strengthening his power by the influx of so many brave and skilful strangers, and of benefiting his subjects by the introduction among them of those who possessed a higher civilization than, in their rude and unsettled state, they had even known, he even encouraged them to come into his kingdom. Among them were persons of Norman as well as of Anglo-Saxon lineage, who had fled from the exactions and tyranny of the Conqueror, or had been refused promised rewards for their services. Malcolm received and welcomed them all, and to these Norman knights and adventurers who thus came flocking across the border, he gave lands and heritages, to induce them to remain. They thus became the progenitors of many of our noble families. Thousands of the poorer English, too, to escape the grinding oppressions of their Norman rulers, sought a refuge in Scotland, some even selling themselves for slaves, to obtain a subsistence.

                              Gospatrick, having incurred the suspicions of William, was deprived of the earldom of Northumberland, and returning into Scotland, succeeded in being reconciled to Malcolm, from whom he obtained the manor of Dunbar, and other lands in the Merse and Lothian. He was the ancestor of the earls of Dunbar and March. In 1079, in the absence of William in Normandy, Malcolm again invaded Northumberland, and wasted the country as far as the river Tyne. The following year, Robert, the eldest son of William, entered Scotland, but was obliged to retreat. To check the incursions of the Scots into England, he erected a fortress near the Tyne, at a place called Moncaster or Monkchester, from its being the residence of monks, but the name of which was thereafter in consequence changed to Newcastle.

                              At the request of his queen, who has been canonized in the Romish Calendar as St. Margaret, and of her confessor, Turgot, Malcolm founded and endowed a monastery, in the vicinity of his residence, for thirteen Culdees, which, with its church or chapel, was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. This was the origin of the abbey of Dunfermline.

                              The latter portion of Malcolm’s reign was occupied in a struggle with William Rufus, the son and successor of the Conqueror on the throne of England. Cumberland and his other English possessions having been withheld from him by the English king, Malcolm, assembling his forces, broke across the borders, in May 1091, when he penetrated as far as Chester, on the Wear; but on the approach of the English, with a superior force, he prudently retreated without hazarding a battle, and thus secured his booty and his captives. In the autumn of the same year, Rufus led a numerous army into Scotland. Malcolm advanced to meet him. By the intercession, however, of Edgar Atheling, who accompanied the Scottish army, and of Robert, duke of Normandy, the eldest brother of the English king, a peace was concluded, without the risk of a battle, Rufus consenting to restore to Malcolm twelve manors in England which he had held under the Conqueror, and to make an annual payment to him of twelve marks of gold, and Malcolm, on his part, agreeing to do homage for the same, under the same tenure of feudal service as before.

                              In 1092, William Rufus began to fortify the city of Carlisle and to build a castle there. As this was an encroachment on Malcolm’s territory of Cumberland he remonstrated against it, when the English king proposed a personal interview on the subject. Malcolm, in consequence, proceeded to Gloucester, 24th August 1093. As a preliminary measure, Rufus required him again to do homage to him there, in presence of the English barons. This Malcolm absolutely refused, but although he had done homage to Rufus for his English lands not much above a year before at Abernethy, he now offered to do it, as formerly had been the custom, on the frontiers of the two kingdoms, and in presence of the chief men of both. Some of his councilors advised Rufus to detain the Scottish king, now that he had him in his power, till he had complied with his request; but although he had the grace to reject this base proposal, it was with the most unkingly contumely that he dismissed him from his court. Malcolm returned home, burning with indignation and vowing revenge, and hastily assembling a tumultuous and undisciplined army, he burst into Northumberland, which he wasted, then, sweeping onwards to Alnwick, he laid siege to the castle. He had not been many days there, however, before he was surprised by Robert de Moubray, at the head of a strong Norman and English force3. A fierce engagement ensued, when Malcolm was slain, with his eldest son. This fatal fight took place 13th November 1093. Malcolm’s fourth son, Edgar, who was also in the battle, escaped, and three days after reached the castle of Edinburgh, where his mother lay dying. On his appearance, she in a faint voice eagerly enquired, “How fares it with your father, and your brother, Edward?” The youth was silent. “I know all,” she cried; “I adjure you by this holy cross, and by your filial affection, that you tell me the truth.” He answered, “your husband and your son are both slain.” Raising her eyes and hands to heaven, the dying queen said, “Praise and blessing be to thee, Almighty God, that thou hast been pleased to make me endure so bitter anguish in the hour of my departure, thereby, as I trust, to purify me, in some measure, from the corruption of my sins. And thou, Lord Jesus Christ, who, through the will of the Father, hast enlivened the world by thy death, O deliver me!” and straightway expired. So great was the benevolence of this truly excellent princess that she secretly paid the ransom of many of her Saxon countrymen in bondage in Scotland, when she found their condition too grievous to be borne.

                              The character of Malcolm Canmore is that of an able, wise, and energetic monarch, who, after subjecting to his sovereignty the various rude and discordant tribes that inhabited his kingdom, was successful in maintaining its independence unimpaired during a long reign of 37 years, and that against two such formidable opponents as William the Conqueror and his son, William Rufus. As an instance of his personal intrepidity the following incident is related: Having received intelligence that one of his nobles had formed a design against his life, he took an opportunity, when out hunting, of leading him into a solitary place, then, unsheathing his sword, he said, “Here we are alone, and armed alike. You seek my life. Take it.” The astonished noble, overcome by this address, threw himself at the feet of the king, and implored his clemency, which was readily granted.

                              The removal of his court from Abernethy to Dunfermline, about the year 1063, and the encouragement which, after the Norman conquest of England and his marriage with Queen Margaret, he gave to the immigration of Anglo-Saxons and Norman adventurers into the kingdom, had the effect of causing the Gaelic population to retire inland from the plains, and to divide themselves into clans and tribes, with the institution of separate chiefs, and the preservation of all those feelings and usages which long kept them a peculiar and distinct race from the other inhabitants of Scotland. In the reign of Malcolm Canmore, the whole of the country south of the Forth was possessed by the Scots, and those who spoke the Saxon language, while the Celtic portion of the nation occupied the remaining districts. Tenacious of their native language and ancient customs, the latter viewed with equal scorn and disgust the introduction of foreign manners and races into the kingdom, and hence began that long struggle between the Scottish and Celtic communities which lasted for nearly seven hundred years, and was only terminated on the field of Culloden in 1746. “The people,” says General Stewart of Garth, referring to the Gaelic inhabitants (sketches, vol. i. p. 20), “now beyond the reach of the laws, became turbulent and fierce, revenging in person those wrongs for which the administrators of the laws were too distant and too feeble to afford redress. Thence arose the institution of chiefs, who naturally became the judges and arbiters in the quarrels of their clansmen and followers, and who were surrounded by men devoted to the defence of their rights, their property, and their power; and accordingly the chiefs established within their own territories a jurisdiction almost wholly independent of their liege lord.”

                              Malcolm had by his queen, Margaret, six sons and two daughters. The sons were, Edward, who was slain with his father near Alnwick; Ethelred, who was bred a churchman and became Culdee abbot of Dunkeld; Edmund; Edgar, Alexander, and David. The three last were successively kings of Scotland. The elder daughter, Maud, married Henry I. of England, a marriage which united the Saxon and the Norman dynasties, and Mary, the younger, became the wife of Eustace, count of Boulogne.

MALCOLM IV., King of Scots, born in 1141, was the son of Prince Henry, son of David I., and succeeded his grandfather, May 24, 1153, a year after his father’s death, being then only twelve years old. The same year he was crowned at Scone. He acquired the name of Malcolm the Maiden, either from the effeminate expression of his features, or from the softness of his disposition. In the following November, Somerled, thane of Argyle, invaded the Scottish coasts, at the head of all the fierce tribes of the isles. The accession of a new king, and he a mere boy, appears to have been deemed by this formidable chief a favourable time to endeavour to advance the cause of his grandsons, the sons of the monk Wimond, otherwise Malcolm MacHeth, who claimed the earldom of Moray, and who had been imprisoned in Roxburgh castle by David I. as an impostor. In 1156, Donald, a son of Wimond, was discovered skulking at Whithorn in Galloway, and sent to share the captivity of his father. After harassing the country for some years, Somerled was at last forced back to his own territories, by Gilchrist, earl of Angus, and a treaty of peace was concluded with him in 1157, which was considered of so much importance at the time as to form an epoch in the dating of Scottish charters.

                              Malcolm had no sooner accommodated matters with Somerled, than a demand was made upon him by Henry I. of England, for those parts of the English territory which the Scottish kings held in that kingdom. On this account Malcolm had an interview with Henry at Chester, when he did homage to him for the same, as his predecessors had done, “reserving all his dignities.” Malcolm was then only sixteen years of age, and Henry, taking advantage of his inexperience, easily prevailed upon the youthful monarch, to surrender to him Cumberland and Northumberland, at the same time bestowing upon him the earldom of Huntington. Fordun says that the English king had, on this occasion, corrupted his councilors.

                              In 1158, desirous of obtaining the honour of knighthood from the king of England, Malcolm repaired to Henry’s court at Carlisle, for the purpose, but Henry refused to bestow upon him an honour, probably on account of his youth, which was highly prized in that age, and Malcolm returned home greatly disappointed. In the following year, Malcolm passed over to France, where the English monarch then was, and after serving under his banner he was at length knighted by him. The Scots, indignant at his subservience to Henry, and apprehensive that he would become the mere vassal of England, sent a deputation to remonstrate with Malcolm on his conduct. “We will not,” said they, “have Henry to rule over us.” Malcolm, in consequence, hastened back to Scotland, and on his arrival assembled a parliament at Perth.

                              The fierce nobles who, as governors of their respective provinces, were bound to maintain the independence of the kingdom, availed themselves of this opportunity to attempt to seize the king’s person. Accordingly, Ferquhard, earl of Strathearn, and five other earls assaulted the tower in which Malcolm had taken refuge, but were repulsed. On the interference of the clergy, a reconciliation took place between the young king and his offended nobles.

                              Fortunately for Malcolm an occasion almost immediately occurred to give employment to them and their followers. Fergus, lord of Galloway, the most potent feudatory of the Scottish crown, and the son-in-law of Henry I., threw off his allegiance, and stirred up an insurrection against Malcolm. At the head of a powerful army, the king entered Galloway, and though twice driven back, he at length succeeded, in 1160, in overpowering its rebellious lord. He then compelled Fergus to resign his lordship, and to give his son, Uchtred, as an hostage for the peace concluded between them; after which Fergus retired to the abbey of Holyrood, where he died of a broken heart.

                              In 1161, a still more formidable insurrection broke out among the inhabitants of the province of Moray, which comprehended all what is now Elginshire, all Nairnshire, a considerable part of Banffshire, and the half of continental Inverness-shire. The pretext was the attempt on Malcolm’s part to intrude the Anglo-Norman jurisdiction upon their Celtic customs, and the settling of Flemish colonists among them. The men of Moray were never wanting in an excuse for rising in arms. They were the most unruly and rebellious of all the subjects of the sovereigns of Scotland. According to Fordun, “no solatiums or largesses could allure, or treaties or oaths bind them to their duty.” On this occasion the insurgents laid waste the neighbouring counties, and so regardless were they of the royal authority that they actually hanged the heralds who were sent to summon them to lay down their arms. Malcolm dispatched against them a strong force under that Earl Gilchrist who had been sent against Somerled, but he was routed, and forced to recross the Grampians.

                              This defeat roused all the energy of Malcolm’s character, and with the whole array of the kingdom he marched against them. He found them assembled on the muir of Urquhart, near the Spey, ready to give him battle. After crossing that river, Malcolm’s nobles, seeing their strength, advised him to negotiate with the rebels, and to promise them that if they submitted, their lives would be spared. The Moraymen accepted the offer, the king kept his word, and now occurred the extraordinary circumstance of different parts of the country exchanging their populations. To put an end, at once and for ever, to the frequent insurrections which occurred in the province, Malcolm ordained that all who had been engaged in the rebellion should remove out of Moray, and that their places should be supplied with people from other parts of the kingdom. In consequence, some transplanted themselves into the northern, but the greater number into the southern districts, as far as Galloway. The older historians say that the Moraymen were almost totally cut off in an obstinate battle, and strangers put in their place, but this statement is at variance with the register of Paisley. Among the new families brought in to replace those who were removed, the principal were the powerful earls of Fife and Strathearn, with the Comyns and Bissets, and among those who remained were the Inneses, the Calders and others. After thus removing the rebels, and colonizing the province with a quieter race, Malcolm, as well as his successor, William the Lion, appear to have frequently resided in Moray, for from Inverness, Elgin, and various other of its localities, several of their charters are dated.

                              In July 1163, Malcolm did homage to the king of England and his infant son at Woodstock. The following year he founded and richly endowed an abbey for Cistertian monks at Coupar-Angus. He had previously, in 1156, founded the priory of Emanuel near Linlithgow, for nuns of the same order.

                              In 1164, Somerled, the ambitious and powerful lord of the Isles, made another and a last attempt to overthrow the king’s authority. Assembling a numerous army from Argyle, Ireland, and the Isles, he sailed up the Clyde with 160 galleys, and landed his forces near Renfrew, threatening, as some of the old chroniclers inform us, to make a conquest of the whole of Scotland. Here, according to the usual accounts, he was slain, with his son, Gillecolane, after a battle, in which he was defeated by an inferior force of the Scots. Tradition, however, states that he was assassinated in his tent by an individual in whom he placed confidence, and that his followers, deprived of their leader, hastened back to the Isles, without hazarding an engagement.

                              Malcolm died at Jedburgh, of a lingering disease, December 9, 1165, at the early age of 24, and was succeeded by his brother William, styled William the Lion.

MALCOLM, SIR PULTENEY, a distinguished naval officer, an elder brother of Sir John Malcolm, the subject of the following notice, was born at Douglan, near Langholm, Dumfries-shire, February 20, 1768. His father, George Malcolm, farmer, Burnfoot, had, by his wife, the daughter of James Pasley, Esq. of Craig and Burn, 17 children. Robert, the eldest son, at his death was high in the civil service of the East India Company; James, Pulteney, and John, the next three sons, were honoured with the insignia of knights commanders of the Bath at the same time, the former for his distinguished services in Spain and North America, when commanding a battalion of royal marines, and Sir John, for his military and diplomatic services in India. The younger sons were Gilbert, rector of Todenham; David, in a commercial house in India; and Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm, of whom a memoir is given below.

                              Pulteney entered the navy, October 20, 1778, as a midshipman on board the Sybille frigate, commanded by his maternal uncle, Captain Pasley, with whom he sailed to the Cape of Good Hope; and on his return thence, removed with him into the Jupiter, of which he was appointed lieutenant in March 1783. At the commencement of the French revolutionary war, he was first lieutenant of the Penelope at Jamaica; in which ship he assisted at the capture of the Inconstante frigate, and Gaelon corvette, both of which he conducted to Port Royal in safety. He also commanded the boats of the Penelope in several severe conflicts, and succeeded in cutting out many vessels from the ports of St. Domingo. In April 1794 he was made a commander, when he joined the Jack Tar; and upon Cape Nichola Mole being taken possession of by the British, he had the direction of the seamen and marines landed to garrison that place. In October 1794 he was promoted to the rank of post captain, and the following month was appointed to the Fox frigate, with which he subsequently served in the North Sea. Having proceeded with a convoy to the East Indies, he captured on that station La Modeste, of 20 guns. In 1797 the duke of Wellington, then Colonel Wellesley, of the 33d regiment, took a passage with Captain Malcolm, in the Fox, from the Cape of Good Hope to Bengal. He afterwards served in the Suffolk, the Victorious, and the Royal Sovereign; and in March 1805 was appointed to the Donegal, in which he accompanied Lord Nelson in the memorable pursuit of the combined squadrons of France and Spain to the West Indies.

                              On his return to the Channel, Captain Malcolm was sent to reinforce Admiral Collingwood off Cadiz. Four days previous to the battle of Trafalgar, the Donegal, being short of water, and greatly in need of a refit, was ordered to Gibraltar. On the 20th October Captain Malcolm received information that the enemy’s fleets were quitting Cadiz. His ship was then in the Mole nearly dismantled, but by the greatest exertions he succeeded in getting her out before night, and on the 23d joined Admiral Collingwood in time to capture El Rayo, a Spanish three-decker. Towards the close of 1805 the Donegal accompanied Sir John Duckworth to the West Indies, in quest of a French squadron that had sailed for that quarter; and in the battle fought off St. Domingo, February 6, 1806, Captain Malcolm greatly distinguished himself. On his return to England, he was honoured with a gold medal for his conduct in the action, and, in common with the other officers of the squadron, received the thanks of both houses of parliament.

                              In the summer of 1808 he escorted the army under General Wellesley from Cork to Portugal, and for his exertions in disembarking the troops, he received the thanks of Sir John Moore and Sir Arthur Wellesley. The Donegal was subsequently attached to the Channel fleet under the orders of Sir John Gambier; and after the discomfiture of the French ships in Aix Roads in April 1809, Captain Malcolm was sent with a squadron on a cruise. He next commanded the blockade of Cherbourg, on which station the ships under his orders captured a number of privateers, and on one occasion drove two frigates on shore near Cape La Hogue. In 1811 the Donegal was paid off, when Captain Malcolm was appointed to the Royal Oak, a new 74, in which he continued off Cherbourg until March 1812, when he removed into the San Josef, 110 guns, as captain of the Channel fleet under Lord Keith. In the subsequent August he was promoted to the rank of colonel of marines, and December 4, 1813, was appointed rear-admiral. In June 1814 he hoisted his flag in the Royal Oak, and proceeded to North America with a body of troops, under Brigadier-general Ross. Soon after his arrival, he accompanied Sir Alexander Cochrane on an expedition up the Chesapeake, when the duty of regulating the collection, embarkation, and re-embarkation of the troops employed against Washington, Baltimore, and New Orleans, devolving upon him, he performed it in a manner that obtained the warmest acknowledgments of the commander-in-chief. He was afterwards employed at the siege of Fort Boyer, on Mobile Point, the surrender of which, by capitulation, on February 14, terminated the war between Great Britain and the United States.

                              At the extension of the order of the Bath into three classes, January 2, 1815, Admiral Malcolm was nominated, with his two brothers, a knight commander. After his arrival in England, on the renewal of hostilities with France, in consequence of the return of Napoleon from Elba, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the naval force ordered to co-operate with the duke of Wellington and the allied armies, on which service he continued until after the restoration of the bourbons. His last appointment was to the important office of commander-in-chief on the St. Helena station, where he continued from the spring of 1816 until the end of 1817. By the cordiality of his disposition and manners, he not only obtained the confidence, but won the regard of the emperor Napoleon. “Ah! There is a man,” he exclaimed in reference to Sir Pulteney Malcolm, “with a countenance really pleasing; open, frank, and sincere. There is the face of an Englishman – his countenance bespeaks his heart; and I am sure he is a good man. I never yet beheld a man of whom I so immediately formed a good opinion as of that fine soldier-like old man. He carries his head erect, and speaks out openly and boldly what he thinks, without being afraid to look you in the face at the time. His physiognomy would make every person desirous of a further acquaintance, and render the most suspicious confident in him.” One day when fretting at the unjust treatment he received, he exclaimed to the admiral, “Does your government mean to detain me upon this rock until my death’s day?” Sir Pulteney replied, “Such I apprehend is their purpose.” “Then the term of my life will soon arrive,” said Napoleon. “I hope not, Sir,” answered Sir Pulteney, “I hope you will survive to record your great actions, which are so numerous, and the task will insure you a term of long life.” Napoleon felt the compliment and acknowledged it by a bow, and soon recovered his good humour. On his deathbed he paid a well-merited tribute to the generosity and benevolence of Sir Pulteney, whose conduct at St.  Helena is described by Sir Walter Scott in his ‘Life of Napoleon,’ in a manner highly honourable to him. He was advanced to the rank of vice-admiral July 19, 1821, and of admiral January 10, 1837. He died July 20, 1838. a monument has been erected to his memory. Subjoined is his portrait:


[portrait of Sir Pulteney Malcolm]

                              Sir Pulteney Malcolm married, January 18, 1809, Clementina, eldest daughter of the Hon. W. F. Elphinstone.

MALCOLM, SIR JOHN, a distinguished soldier and diplomatist, a younger brother of the subject of the foregoing memoir, was born May 2, 1769, on the farm of Burnfoot, near Langholm, in Dumfries-shire. In 1782 he went out to the East Indies as a cadet in the Company’s service. On his arrival he was placed under the care of his uncle, Dr. Gilbert Pasley, and assiduously applied himself to the study of the manners and languages of the East. The abilities which he displayed at the siege of Seringapatam, in 1792, attracted the notice of Lord Cornwallis, who appointed him Persian interpreter to a body of British troops in the service of one of the native princes. In 1794, in consequence of bad heath, he revisited his native country; but the following year he returned to India on the staff of Field-marshal Sir Alured Clarke; and for his conduct at the taking of the Cape of Good Hope, he received the public thanks of that officer. In 1797 he obtained a captain’s commission. In 1799 he was ordered to join the Nizam’s contingent force in the war against Tippoo Saib, with the chief command of the infantry, in which post he continued till the surrender of Seringapatam, where he highly distinguished himself. He was then appointed joint secretary, with Captain, afterwards Sir Thomas Munro, to the commissioners for settling the new government of Mysore. In the same year he was sent by Lord Wellesley on a diplomatic mission to Persia, a country which no British ambassador had visited since the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

                              Captain Malcolm returned to Bombay in 1801, when he was appointed private secretary to the governor-general, who stated to the secret committee that “he had succeeded in establishing a connection with the actual government of the Persian empire, which promised to British natives in India political and commercial advantages of the most important description.” In January 1802 he was promoted to the rank of major; and on the death of the Persian ambassador, who was accidentally shot at Bombay, he was again sent to Persia to make the necessary arrangements for the renewal of the embassy. In February 1803 he was appointed Resident with the rajah of Mysore; and in December 1804 he attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In June 1805 he was nominated chief agent of the governor-general, in which capacity he continued to act till March 1806, during which period he concluded several important treaties with native princes.

                              On the arrival in India, in April 1808, of the new governor-general, Lord Minto, he dispatched Colonel Malcolm on a mission to Persia, with the view of endeavouring to counteract the designs of Napoleon, who then threatened an invasion of India from that quarter. In this difficult embassy, however, he did not wholly succeed. He returned in the following august, and soon after proceeded to his residency at Mysore. Early in 1810, owing to a change in the policy of the Persian court, he was again appointed ambassador to Persia, where he remained till the nomination of Sir Gore Ouseley as minister plenipotentiary. On his departure the shah conferred upon him the order of the Sun and Lion, presented him with a valuable sword, and made him a khan and sepahdar of the empire.

                              In 1812 Colonel Malcolm again visited England, and soon after his arrival received the honour of knighthood. The same year he published, in one volume, ‘A Sketch of the Sikhs, a singular Nation in the province of the Punjaub, in India.’ In 1815 appeared his ‘History of Persia,’ in 2 vols. 4to, which is valuable from the information it contains, taken from oriental sources, regarding the religion, government, manners, and customs of the inhabitants of that country, in ancient as well as in modern times. He returned to India in 1817, and on his arrival was attached, as political agent of the governor-general, to the force under Sir Thomas Hislop in the Deccan. With the rank of brigadier-general, he was appointed to the command of the third division of the army, and greatly distinguished himself in the decisive battle of Mehidpoor, when the army under Mulhar Rao Holkar was completely routed. For his skill and valour on this occasion he received the thanks of the house of commons, on the motion of Mr. Canning, who declared that “the name of this gallant officer will be remembered in India as long as the British flag is hoisted in that country.” His conduct was also noticed by the prince regent, who expressed his regret that the circumstance of his not having attained the rank of major-general prevented his being then created a knight grand cross, which honour, however, was conferred on him in 1821.

                              After the termination of the war with the Mahrattas and Pindarries, he received the military and political command of Malwa, and succeeded in establishing the Company’s authority, both in that province and the other territories adjacent, which had been ceded to them.

                              In April 1822 he returned once more to Britain with the rank of major-general. Shortly after, he was presented by the officers who had acted under him in the late war with a superb vase, valued at £1,500. The court of directors of the East India company likewise testified their sense of his merits by a grant to him of £1,000 a-year. In July 1827 he was appointed governor of Bombay, which important post he resigned in 1831, and finally returned to Britain. On quitting India, he received many gratifying instances of the esteem and high consideration in which he was held. The principal European gentlemen of Bombay requested him to sit for his statue, which was executed by Chantrey, and erected in that city; the members of the Asiatic Society requested a bust of him for their library; the native gentlemen of Bombay solicited his portrait, to be placed in the public room; the East India Amelioration Society voted him a service of plate; and the United society of Missionaries, including English, Scots, and Americans, acknowledged with gratitude the assistance they had received from him in the prosecution of their pious labours.

                              Subjoined is Sir John Malcolm’s portrait:


[portrait of Sir John Malcolm]

                              Soon after his arrival in England in 1831, he was elected M.P. for Launceston, and took an active part in the proceedings in the house of commons upon several important questions, particularly the Scottish reform bill, which he warmly opposed. After the dissolution of parliament in 1832 he offered himself for Carlisle, but being unsuccessful, he retired to his seat near Windsor, and employed himself in writing a Treatise upon ‘The Government of India,’ with the view of elucidating the difficult questions relating to the renewal of the East India Company’s charter, which was published only a few weeks previous to his death. His last address in public was at a meeting in the Thatched House Tavern, London, for the purpose of forming a subscription to buy up the mansion of Abbotsford for the family of the great novelist; and on that occasion his concluding sentiment was “that when he was gone, his son might be proud to say that his father had been among the contributors to that shrine of genius.” On the day following he was struck with paralysis, and died at London, May 31, 1833. A monument has been erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey, and also an obelisk, 100 feet high, on Langholm hill, in his native parish of Westerkirk. He married, in June 1807, charlotte, daughter of Sir Alexander Campbell, Bart., by whom he had five children.

Sir John Malcolm’s works are:

Sketch of the Political History of India, from the Introduction of Mr. Pitt’s Bill, A.D. 1784, to the present date. London, 1811, 8vo.

Sketch of the Sikhs, a nation who inhabit the provinces of the Punjaub, situated between the rivers Jumna and Indus in India. London, 1812, 8vo.

Observations on the disturbances in the Madras Army in 1809; in 2 parts. London, 1812, 8vo.

History of Persia, from the most early period to the present time, containing an account of the religion, government, usages, and character of the inhabitants of that kingdom. London, 1815, 2 vols, 4to.

A memoir of Central India, including Malwa and adjoining Provinces, with the history and copious illustrations of the past and present condition of that country. London, 1823, 2 vols, 8vo.

The Political History of India from 1784 to 1823. Lond., 1826, 2 vols. 8vo.

The Government of India. London, 1833, 8vo.

The Life of Robert, Lord Clive, collected from the Family Papers, communicated by the earl of Powis. London, 1836, 3 vols, 8vo. Posthumous.

MALCOLM, SIR CHARLES, an eminent naval officer, the tenth son of George Malcolm of Burnfoot, and youngest brother of the preceding, was born at Burnfoot, Dumfries-shire, in 1782, and entered the navy in 1791, when only nine years old. In 1798, he was master’s mate of the Fox, of 32 guns, commanded by his brother, Pulteney, when, with the Sybille, of 38 guns, that ship entered the Spanish harbour of Manilla, the capital of the Philippines, under French colours, and in the face of three ships of the line and three frigates, succeeded in capturing seven boars, taking prisoner 200 men, and carrying off a large quantity of ammunition and materials of war. In 1807, he got the command of the Narcissus, 32. On board this ship he attacked a convoy of 30 sail in the Conquet Roads, on which occasion he was slightly wounded. In 1809, he assisted in the capture of Les Saintes, islands in the West Indies. In June of the same year he was appointed to the Rhine, 38, in which he actively co-operated with the patriots on the north coast of Spain.

                              Subsequently he served in the West Indies, and on the coast of Brazil. On July 18, 1815, he landed and stormed a fort at Corrigion near Abervack, which was the last exploit of the kind achieved during the war. In July 1822, he was  nominated to the command of the William and Mary, royal yacht, lying at Dublin, in attendance on the lord-lieutenant; and in 1826, to the Royal charlotte, yacht, on the same service. In 1827 he was knighted by the Marquis Wellesley, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Soon after he was appointed superintendent of the Bombay marine.

                              During the ten years that he held that office, he effected a complete reform in the administration of the service, and converted its previous system into that of the Indian navy. He also instituted many extensive and important surveys, and was prominently concerned in the establishment of steam navigation in the Red Sea. In 1837 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and in 1847 to that of vice-admiral. He died at Brighton, June 14, 1851, aged 69. He married first in 1808, his cousin, Magdalene, daughter of Charles Pasley, Esq., issue, one daughter; and, 2dly, in 1829, Elmira Riddell, youngest daughter of Major-general Shaw, and by her had three sons, two of whom entered the navy.


Return to The Scottish Nation Index Page


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast