Copy (exact and faithful) of the Accompts of James Gib, who served the Prince in station of Master-Household and provisor for the Prince's own Table. 24 Monday. At Moy hall. N.B. — This is the day in the morning of which Lord Loudon thought to have surprized the Prince, and to have taken him prisoner in his bed at Moy or Moy-hall. Old Lady Macintosh, living in Inverness, and getting notice of Lord Loudon's design, dispatched a boy (Lachlan Macintosh) about fifteen years of age, to try if he could get past Lord Loudon's men, and to make all the haste he could to Moy to warn the Prince of what was intended against him. The boy attempted to pass by Lord Loudon and his command, but found that he could not do it without running the risque of a discovery; and therefore, as he said, he lay down at a dyke's side, till all Lord Loudon's men passed him, and, taking a different road, came to Moy about five o'clock in the morning. And though the morning was exceedingly cold, the boy was in a top sweat, having made very god use of his time. He said that Lord Loudon and his men (to use his own words) were within five quarters of a mile of Moyhall. Immediately the Prince was awaked, and having but about thirty men for a guard, he marched two miles down the country by the side of a loch, till his men should conveen. There was not the least suspicion entertained of any danger, otherwise there would have been a much stronger guard about the Prince's person; and there is no doubt to be made but that Lord Loudon had got certain information of the small number of men who were to mount guard upon the Prince that night, which had induced him to try the experiment. Lady Macintosh (junior) was in great pain to have the Prince save off from Moy when she heard the alarm. The Prince returned the same night (Monday) to Moy and slept there. Mr. Gib, upon the alarm, having been sleeping in his cloaths, stept out with his pistols under his arm, and in the close he saw the Prince walking with his bonnet above his nightcap, and his shoes down to his heels; and Lady Macintosh in her smock petticoat running through the close, speaking loudly and expressly her anxiety about the Prince's safety. Mr. Gib went along with the Prince down the side of the Loch, and left several covered waggons and other baggage at Moy, about which Lady Macintosh forbad Mr. Gib to be in the least anxious, for that she would do her best to take care of them. And indeed she was as good as her word; for upon the Prince's return to Moy, Mr. Gib found all his things in great safety, the most of them having been carried off by Lady Macintosh's orders into a wood, where they would not readily have been discovered, though Lord Loudon and his men had proceeded to Moy. But they were most providentially stopt in their march, which happened thus. A blacksmith and other four, with loaded muskets in their hands, were keeping watch upon a muir at some distance from Moy towards Inverness. As they were walking up and down, they happened to spy a body of men walking towards them, upon which the blacksmith fired his piece, and the other four followed his example. The Laird of Macleod's piper (reputed the best of his business in all Scotland) was shot dead on the spot. Then the blacksmith (Fraser) and his trustly companions raised a cry (calling some particular regiments by their names) to the Prince's army to advance, as if they had been at hand, which so far imposed upon Lord Loudon and his command (a pretty considerable one), and struck them with such a panick, that instantly they beat a retreat, and made their way back to Inverness in great disorder, imagining the Prince's whole army to be at their heels. This gallant and resolute behaviour of the five, which speaks an uncommon presence of mind, happened much about the same time when the boy (Lauchlan Macintosh) arrived at Moy to give the alarm. (The Lyon in Mourning, ed. cit., II, 134.) 198. After Culloden John Fraser The brutalities perpetrated upon the conquered by the victors at Culloden are shown in the account, given by Mr. Fraser, of the execution of prisoners, with its attendant outrages. An account of the Signal Escape of John Fraser taken from the Copy Printed at Edinburgh. John Fraser, Ensign in the Master of Lovat's regiment, was shot through the thigh by a musket bullet at the battle of Culloden, and was taken prisoner, after the battle, at a little distance from the field, and carried to the House of Culloden, where a multitude of other wounded prisoners lay under strong guards. There he and the other miserable gentlemen (for most of them were gentlemen), lay with their wounds undressed for two days in great torture. Upon the third day he was carried out of Culloden House, and with other eighteen of his fellow prisoners flung into carts, which they imagined were to carry them to Inverness to be dressed of their wounds. They were soon undeceived. The carts stopt at a park dyke at some distance from the house; there they were dragged out of the carts; the soldiers who guarded them, under command of three officers, carried the prisoners close to the wall or park dyke, along with they ranged them upon their knees, and bid them prepare for death. The soldiers immediately drew up opposite to them. It is dreadful to proceed! They levelled their guns! They fired among them. Mr. Fraser fell with the rest, and did not doubt that he was shot. But as those gentlemen who proceeded thus deliberately in cold blood had their orders to do nothing by halves, a party of them went along and examined the slaughter, and knocked out the brains of such as were not quite dead; and observing signs of life in Mr. Fraser, one of them with the butt of his gun struck him on the face, dashed out one of his eyes, and beat down his nose flat and shattered to his cheek, and left him for dead. slaughter thus finished the soldiers left the field. In this miserable situation, Lord Boyd riding out that way with his servant, espied some life in Mr. Fraser, who by that time had crawled to a little distance from his dead friends, and calling out to him, asked what he was. Fraser told him he was an officer in the Master of Lovat's corps. Lord Boyd offered him money, saying he had been acquainted with the Master of Lovat, his colonel. Mr. Fraser said he had no use for money, but begged him for God's sake to cause his servant carry him to a certain mill and cott house, where he said he would be concealed and taken care of. This young Lord had the humanity to do so, and in this place Mr. Fraser lay concealed, and by God's providence recovered of his wounds, and is now a living witness of as unparallel'd a story in all its circumstances as can be met with in the history of any age. The Mr. Fraser is well known and his veracity attested by all the Inverness people. N.B. Mr. David Chisholm, Presbyterian Minister at Kilmorack in the shire of Inverness, when in Edinburgh at the General Assembly in May 1758, told that said Fraser or MacIver still lives at a place called Wellhouse in said parish of Kilmorack, that his name is Alexander and not John, and that he himself (Mr. Chisholm), is a blood relation to said Alexander Fraser's Wife (See f. 1619). Robert Fraser, A.M. (From The Lyon in Mourning, ed. cit., II, p. 260ƒ.) 199. Bond Given by the Young Pretender The Lyon in Mourning The conditions of the bond given by Prince Charles to Hepburn of Kingstoun were hardly calculated to give it value, save as a curiosity, but it well illustrates the manner in which money was raised for the Stuart cause. The original was preserved by Mr. John Goodwillie, who attested the copy under the name of Benevole — a punning translation of his name in Latin. L. S. We, Charles Prince of Wales, etc., Regent of the kingdoms of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, Whereas Patrick Hepburn of Kingstoun in the County of Haddington hath advanced to us by the hands of Collonel Lauchlan M'Lauchlan of that Ilk the sum of seven hundred and fourty pounds sterling in numerate money of Britain, we therefore hereby authorise and appoint our treasurer for the time to repay the aforsaid sum of seven hundred and fourty pounds to the said Patrick Hepburn, his heirs and assigneys whomsoever, and that how soon we shall arrive at our Palace of St. James, London, our Royall Father settled upon the throne of our royall ancestors, and our said kingdoms in peace and tranquillity, under our government. Given at our Palace of Holyroodhouse, the seventeenth day of October, 1745. The following letter, written by a spectator of the execution of the rebel lords, furnishes a fitting conclusion to the extracts concerning the Jacobite uprisings, which in 1715 and 1746 threatched the throne of the Protestant Succession. LETTER DESCRIBING THE EXECUTION OF THE REBEL LORDS IN 1746, COPIED FROM THE ORIGINAL August 20th (1746). · Grimstone attended the Lords' tryal, I thought it would not be disagreeable to you to have an account of their exit or the last act of their tragedy, especially as I saw part of it, and heard the rest from one who was on the scaffold. The sheriffs came there between 9 and 10 to see if everything was prepared. The scaffold was nine feet above ground, with a rail and black bays hanging from it. On the floor (which was covered with sawdust) was fixed the block, 2ft. 2in. high and 3 inches broad: near it lay red bags to receive the heads, and two white sheets to wrap the bodies in, and on each side were the coffins with coronets and inscriptions, and on the ground two hearses. The executioner was in blew with gold buttons and a red waistcoat (the cloaths of Fletcher executed by him): the ax that of a carpenter. Dear Sir, As you and Mrs. At 11 the Lords came: Kilmarnock attended by Foster and a young clergyman. Balmerino was dressed in blew turned up with red (his uniform). Going into the house prepared for them, a spectator asked which was Balmerino; to which he replied, "I am he at your service." Then turning to Kilmarnock, he told him he was sorry he was not the only sacrifice, and asked the sheriffs if they were ready, for he longed to be at home, and said he was asham'd for some of his friends, who shed tears when Lord Kilmarnock came on the scaffold. The bays was turned up that all might see, and the executioner put on a white waistcoat. My Lord had a long discourse with Foster, who pressed him to own there what he had told him privately, - a detestation of the fact for which he suffered; which he did and which Foster has advertised. The executioner was a great while fitting him for the block, my Lord rising several times; and when down on his knees, it was six minutes before he gave the sign, when his head was nearly severed from his body by one blow; a slight cut finished the execution, and the body fell on its back... . The scaffold being cleared, and the executioner having put on a clean shirt, Lord Balmerino mounted the stage, and immediately walked to his coffin, and read the inscription, and then called up a warder, and gave him his tye wig, and put on a Scotch plaid cap, and then read a paper denying |