The Travelling Table A tale of ‘Prince Charlie’s table’ and its life with the MacDonald, Campbell, Innes and Boswell families in Scotland, Australia and England, 1746-2016 Carolyn Williams Published by Carolyn Williams Woodford, NSW 2778, Australia Email: [email protected] First published 2016, Second Edition 2017 Copyright © Carolyn Williams. All rights reserved. People Prince Charles Edward Stuart or ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ (1720-1788) Allan MacDonald (c1720-1792) and Flora MacDonald (1722-1790) John Campbell (1770-1827), Annabella Campbell (1774-1826) and family George Innes (1802-1839) and Lorn Innes (née Campbell) (1804-1877) Patrick Boswell (1815-1892) and Annabella Boswell (née Innes) (1826-1914) The Boswell sisters: Jane (1860-1939), Georgina (1862-1951), Margaret (1865-1962) Places Scotland Australia Kingsburgh House, Isle of Skye (c1746-1816) Lochend, Appin, Argyllshire (1816-1821) Hobart and Restdown, Tasmania (1821-1822) Windsor and Old Government House, New South Wales (1822-1823) Bungarribee, Prospect/Blacktown, New South Wales (1823-1828) Capertee Valley and Glen Alice, New South Wales (1828-1841) Parramatta, New South Wales (1841-1843) Port Macquarie and Lake Innes House, New South Wales (1843-1862) Newcastle, New South Wales (1862-1865) Garrallan, Cumnock, Ayrshire (1865-1920) Sandgate House I and II, Ayr (sometime after 1914 to ???) Auchinleck House, Auchinleck/Ochiltree, Ayrshire Cover photo: Antiques Roadshow Series 36 Episode 14 (2014), Exeter Cathedral 1. Image courtesy of John Moore Contents Introduction .……………………………………………………………………………….. 1 At Kingsburgh ……………………………………………………………………………… 4 Appin …………………………………………………………………………………………… 8 Emigration …………………………………………………………………………………… 9 The first long journey …………………………………………………………………… 10 A drawing room drama on the high seas ……………………………………… 16 Hobart Town ……………………………………………………………………………….. 19 A sojourn at Windsor …………………………………………………………………… 26 At Bungarribee ……………………………………………………………………………. 30 Bound for Capertee …………………………………………………………………….. 33 In the Capertee Valley ………………………………………………………………….. 39 To Parramatta ……………………………………………………………………………… 47 …. and on to Port Macquarie ……………………………………………………….. 54 The table stays in Port Macquarie while Annabella wanders ……….. 60 Newcastle: the table’s final home in Australia …………………………….. 63 The table’s final voyage ……………………………………………………………….. 65 To Garrallan ………………………………………………………………………………… 70 With the Boswell sisters at Sandgate House I and II ……………………… 74 Auchinleck House ………………………………………………………………………… 75 Postscript …………………………………………………………………………………….. 77 References and Acknowledgements ……………………………………………. 78, 79 Appendices: Maps of the table’s journeys …………………………………… 80 Campbell family tree …………………………………………………………………… 83 To my mother Ruth Isabell Williams (née Campbell) (1928-2016) 1 The travelling table When they left Skye [in 1816] … my grandfather took with him to Lochend as a household treasure an old-fashioned mahogany writing table which the Prince1 was said to have used at Kingsborough. This table he took to Australia, and after many long journeys and strange adventures it was brought back to Scotland in 1865 by me, and is now at Garrallan, Old Cummock. From Annabella Boswell’s Journal, p.204. Some 200 years after that journey from the Isle of Skye to Lochend (in Appin, Scotland), the table made an appearance on the Antiques Roadshow. Having survived “many long journeys and strange adventures” it is, remarkably, still in the possession of the Boswell family. Antiques Roadshow Series 36 Episode 14 (2014), Exeter Cathedral 1. Image courtesy of John Moore. The ‘grandfather’ in Annabella Boswell’s story is John Campbell (1770-1827) and the gentleman on the right in the photograph above is the current owner of the table, John Boswell, a descendant of John Campbell through Annabella Boswell. John Campbell was my 4th great-grandfather. His son, Patrick, was my ancestor and Patrick’s sister, Lorn, was Annabella Boswell’s mother. This makes Annabella Boswell my 1st cousin four times removed, so John Boswell is a distant cousin of mine. 1 Prince Charles Edward Stuart or ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ (1720-1788). Charles was the grandson of deposed King James II of England and Ireland, and VII of Scotland, and sought to reclaim the throne for the Stuarts. 2 In this piece I trace as best I can the adventures and long journeys of the table from Scotland to Australia and back 40 or so years later to the present day. Focusing on the table as a means of tracing a part of my family history creates a different angle on a familiar story (there are already several published accounts of this family). It first of all extends the story back to before the table came into John Campbell’s possession and the circumstances through which it became invested with meaning and value that continues to this day: the Jacobite uprising of 1745-1746 and the flight of ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ to the Isle of Skye following his defeat at the Battle of Culloden. The table, and John Campbell’s attachment to it, piqued my curiosity about the broad historical forces that shaped my Campbell ancestors’ lives and propelled them to Australia in 1821. Of course, most of the table’s story is unknown, as is the story of its human companions. But there are moments when the table becomes visible and can therefore be located in space and time. The table first makes an appearance in Annabella Boswell’s Journal, then in her unpublished writings and her Will, and finally on the Antiques Roadshow. Where there is no documentary evidence, I surmise the table’s location from around 1798 (when John Campbell acquired it) until it came into Annabella Boswell’s possession from her comment that John Campbell was an admirer of the Prince. If, for that reason, the table was a treasured possession, Campbell would have kept it with him and used it throughout his life. So to locate the table from 1798 until his death in 1827, I follow the movements of John Campbell; then, after his death, George Innes (Annabella Boswell’s father), who bought the table and gave it to Annabella when she was still a child. Annabella Boswell’s writings provide us with enough information to identify probable and actual locations of the table from around 1828 to the time of her death in 1914. Through the generous assistance of the Antiques Roadshow I was able to contact John Boswell, and the information he provided about the table’s whereabouts since Annabella Boswell’s death enabled me to complete the story. That the table provides a visible line of continuity across generations of a family is of course due to its identity as ‘Prince Charlie’s table’ (as it was called in the family) and its longevity as an object. It has simply outlived all but its current owner while itself remaining relatively unchanged over the 275 or so years of its life. Of course, the table has suffered wear and tear from use and as a result of its remarkable travels, and it has been modified and strengthened. Annabella Boswell tells us that the table was done up and a plaque attached for identification purposes in the early 1860s, after it had been lost for a time. The plaque reads (citing the incorrect year): “This table was used by Prince Charles Edward, at Kingsborough Isle of Skye 1745”. But objects also create continuity through functioning as vectors of stories and an ‘aide-de-memoire’, producing durable memories and maintaining affectional ties to people and places long gone. For these reasons objects are invested in, cherished and preserved, hung on to and then handed on – in the case of this table, for nearly 300 years. And lest human memory fails, a more durable entity – the affixed plaque – will tell future generations about the table’s association with the Prince. The table’s enduring physicality also invites speculation about what it was witness to well beyond the timeframe of a human lifespan, the specific places and buildings it inhabited at different times, the people who wrote at it and what they wrote. Fortunately, much of this information is readily available through the past efforts of Campbell family historians. But more than a passive object and silent witness, the table was a participant in those events and acts of writing through furnishing a surface to write on. Whenever I read a letter or document that its owners have written, I can’t help but see the writer’s writing companion, the table. I think about the table’s contribution to 3 maintaining social connections and filial ties half a world away at a time when the ‘letter’ – and the network of people, systems, roads, vehicles, ships and objects that ensured its delivery – was the only technology of long-distance communication. Annabella Boswell’s letters, journals and documents would have been written at the table. And now John Boswell writes his correspondence to me at the table. As I follow the table and its human companions I briefly note the historical context and features of the places in which they resided and the means by which they got there. All of the table’s travels – whether from Scotland to Australia and back again, or when it changed hands within the family and travelled to other places with them – relied on some kind of transport. During its lifetime the table has witnessed astounding developments in technology and transportation. Over the course of its travelling life (including to the Antiques Roadshow) sail had given way to engine-powered ships, and horses and carts, bullocks and drays had given way to engine-powered land vehicles – railways, cars and trucks. It is even possible that the table may one day fly. In its early life the table’s travels involved hazardous sea voyages and journeys on barely passable roads. Nowadays we can scarcely imagine what it took, in terms of developments in ship technology and sailing techniques, navigational charts and instruments (which themselves co-evolved with European trading and colonisation of faraway places), dependence on the vagaries of the weather, seas and winds, and the sheer hard work of the crew, to sail around the world in a pre-engine, pre-GPS age.