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OLIPHANT,
Laurence (1691. —1767), Laird of Gask,
Jacobite, son of James Ogilvie, Laird of Gask, by Janet, daughter of the
Rev. Anthony Murray of Woodend, Perthshire, was horn in 1691 The Gask
branch of the Oliphants descended from William Oliphant of Newton,
Perthshire, second son of Colin, Master of Oliphant, slain at Flodden.
The estate of Gask came
into the possession of the family in
1625. The family possessed strong royalist sympathies. At the
rebellion of 1715 the Laird of Gask
sent his two sons to support the
insurgents, Laurence receiving a commission in Lord Rollo’s regiment,
dated 2 October, 1713. He was present at the battle of Sherrifmuir
and in January 1716 he acted as one of the garrison's adjutants during the
short time that the Pretender remained at Scone. After the suppression of
the rebellion he remained for some time in hiding but subsequently he was
permitted to return home unmolested.
He succeeded his father as
Laird of Cask in 1732. Oh the arrival of the Chevalier in 1713, he joined
him at Blair Athole. So indignant was he with this tenants for refusing to
take up arms that he laid an inhibition on their cornfields; (1) but the
Prince on arriving at Gask laughingly removed the inhibition.
Laurence. eldest soil of
the Laird of Gask, born 25.
May 1724, acted as A. D. C.
of the Prince at the battle of Prestonpans and after the battle was sent
by the Prince to prevent the fugitive dragoons from taking refuge in
Edinburgh. On his way thither he slew ten of them, and took a pair of
colours.
When the Prince set out for
England he sent the Laird of Gask
back to Perth to undertake with Lord Strathallan the civil and military
government of the North, the duties discharged by Gask being
chiefly those of treasurer. Both father
and son were present at Falkirk and Culloden; and after the battle of
Falkirk when the Prince’s troops, on
account of the slight resistance and rapid flight of the enemy, dreaded
some ambuscade, young Gask and the eldest son of Lord Strathallan went
down together from the hill towards the town of Falkirk, in the guise of
peasants, to obtain information.
(2)
When the Prince after Culloden declined
further to continue the contest, the Laird of Gask and his son fled
eastward, into Aberdeenshire, and after remaining in hiding for about six
months, in the neighbourhood of the Dee, obtained, with other Jacobites, a
passage in a vessel which landed them in Sweden on 10 October 1746. Thence
they passed south to France. The estates of Gask were seized by the Crown
and sold, but in 1753 they were
purchased by some friends and presented to Oliphant.
On the death of Charles,
seventh Lord Oliphant. on 19 April, 1718, Gask laid claim to the title,
which. however, was assumed by Charles Oliphant of Laughton who died on 3
June, 1751, and in his will acknowledged the Laird of Gask to be heir to
the title. The peerage was also confirmed to him by the Pretender in 1760.
He was permitted to return home in 1763, but the attainder was not
reversed.
He died early in 1767.
Oliphant married Amelia Anne Sophia, second
daughter of William, second Lord
Nairne. His son, Laurence, paternal grandfather
of Caroline, Lady Nairne, the poetess, died on 1 .January 1792.
Dict, of Nat. Biog. Vol.
42. T. F. Henderson. 1895.
References:
(1) Chambers, History of
the Rebellion. ed. 1869 pp.
63—64.
(2) Home. History
of the Rebellion p. 175.
Histories of the Rebellion.
Anderson’s Oliphants in Scotland.
Kingston Oliphant's Jacobite Lairds of Gask. |
