| NMIOlM/y, j { :LIBMRY | wsmum j THK FRISONEES OF THE* *41 ¥0L I THIKD 0 M 1 J1-.! O 11 SeOTTlSifl HISTORY SOCIETY “•■RkX' - bit ScS>. SHSj % PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY THIRD SERIES VOLUME XIII THE PRISONERS OF THE 45 VOLUME 1928 -V THE PRISONERS OF THE 45 EDITED FROM THE STATE PAPERS BY SIR BRUCE GORDON SETON, Bt. of Abercohn, C.B. AND JEAN GORDON ARNOT VOLUME I Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable Ltd. for the Scottish History Society 1928 Printed in Great Britain INTRODUCTION The field of Jacobite research has been so thoroughly- examined by successive generations of enquirers that it might well appear that nothing worthy of further study remained for investigation. There are, however, two aspects of the campaign of 1745-6 which have not yet been dealt with comprehensively—the purely military and the personal. Both of these are, of course, referred to in every work dealing with the adventure of Prince Charles Edward ; but, as regards the first, it is obvious that the ordinary historian is not sufficiently acquainted with military opera- tions from the tactical or strategical point of view, to write a technically accurate account of the campaign, free from political or racial bias; and, as regards the second, historians and students alike have confined themselves almost entirely to the part played by the limited class who were responsible for the policy of the attempt, or by the rather larger class who, while not concerned with such policy, were the actual leaders of the expeditionary force. The military history of the ’45 awaits a qualified writer ; the prison history of the personnel is the subject of this work. Information stored up in the State Papers regarding the prisoners of this campaign incidentally throws a good deal of light on its military aspect; but it was not with that object in view that these volumes have been compiled. An attempt has here been made to rescue, from the oblivion in which they have lain for one hundred and eighty years, the names, the fate and, to some extent, the vi PRISONERS OF THE ’45 achievements, of the rank and file of the Jacobite army— the ‘ Kanonenfutter ’ of the campaign. Those men may have cared little for military operations, tactical or strategical, and still less for the policy behind them ; they may have been impelled by the clan system, by herd instinct, by religion, by romance—or even by economic necessity—to plunge into the maelstrom. It is impossible to assess the relative strength of the motives which impelled the individual. What is certain is that, willingly or unwillingly, they embarked on a course of armed resistance to an established Government equipped with a regular army well trained in warfare, without regard to the inevitable consequences. Abandoned, almost en- tirely, by the French Government and by the English Jacobites, and opposed by the majority of their own fellow- countrymen, they set out in support of what was from its inception a Lost Cause ; and a very large proportion of them had to pay the price of their loyalty. To some it meant permanent exile from their native land ; to all it meant physical and mental torture; to many, to far more than we can now say, it involved the painful journey to ‘ Tir nan Og,’ from which there was no returning. To all—^Highland, Lowland, French and English Jacob- ites alike—may be applied the ancient words : ‘ They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword ; they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; ‘ They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. ‘ Of whom the world was not worthy.’ References to prisoners appear in many contemporary works ; but in none is there anything approaching a comprehensive account of them or their disposal. The information, contained in the Lists of Persons concerned INTRODUCTION vii in the Rebellion, collected by the Supervisors of Excise in Scotland, has been published by the Scottish History Society ; but of the 2590 persons mentioned therein only about 300 are definitely stated to be prisoners at the time of compilation, although the Records show that there were about 900 in Scottish prisons, over 600 in the prison camp of Inverness, and many hundreds in England captured at Carlisle or on the high seas. Whether the discrepancy was the result of lack of information or deliberate cannot now be stated. The Lyon in Mourning and the Letters of Albemarle and the Lord Justice Clerk no doubt give a good deal of in- formation about prisoners, but the numbers referred to are comparatively few ; and clan and family histories usually mention only their own members, and these mostly persons of importance. All these sources together fail to provide material for a complete record of the prisoners of the ’45 as a whole. The original intention of this work was to publish for the Society the official Jail Returns of Scotland during the campaign and up to the General Pardon in July 1747. Of these Returns two manuscript sets exist: one, which is probably the original, was lent by the late Dr. Walter Blaikie for this purpose ; the other, a contemporary copy, is in the Charter Chest of Seton of Touch, and was lent by Sir Douglas Seton-Steuart, Bt. It was the copy kept by Mr. Robert Seton, W.S., who dealt with the rationing accounts of prisoners. These Returns were analysed by transferring the name of each of the 900 individual prisoners contained in them to a History Sheet. It was then found that, in the absence of any reference to the large numbers captured at Culloden and in the subsequent operations, the record dealt only with a portion of the Jacobite prisoners, and it was decided viii PRISONERS OF THE ’45 to continue the work by a systematic search of the State Papers in London. The same procedure was adopted. All the State Papers dealing with the ’45—^Domestic and Scottish, Patent Rolls, Treasury Records, Admiralty and War Office Papers— were copied ; and the individuals contained in them were transferred to History Sheets. Each Sheet ultimately contained all the prison history of each individual, as far as such could be ascertained. The information so obtained was then amplified by examination of the contemporary documents published by this and other Societies, clan and family histories and similar works, detailed below ; such additional matter was also transferred to the Sheets, and the authority is given for each item. The two volumes of Lists of Prisoners are compiled from these History Sheets ; and references are given to every entry in the State Papers which has been traced. Great care was necessary in avoiding, as far as possible, the error of showing the same individual twice, and thereby inflating the total number. The method adopted to avoid this is explained in Chapter XII. (‘ Identification ’). No attempt has been made to trace the history of the prisoners who were transported, after leaving Great Britain ; this could only be done by reference to records in America. It is impossible to acknowledge adequately the assistance that has been given by correspondents all over Scotland interested in the history of their ancestors who were out in the ’45 ; and much useful information has been derived from this source. To the late Dr. Blaikie, through his loan of the original copy of the Scottish Jail Returns, are due, in the first place, the inception of the work; without the kindly assistance of Mr. J. R. N. Macphail, K.C., at every INTRODUCTION ix stage of the work, it would never have been completed. Miss Henrietta Tayler has provided several items of in- formation from the Public Records, including the in- valuable ‘ Case of Nicholas Glascoe ’ ; and Miss Lucy Drucker supplied much of the information in the State Papers on which the Lists are based ; and Mr. David Anderson of H.M. Register House permitted the use of the Manuscript Orders of the Duke of Cumberland in his possession. Mr. Duff Tayler and Dr. J. M. Bulloch have kindly reviewed the lists of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire prisoners. As far as possible, the authority for statements and the source of quotations have been given in abbreviated form throughout the three volumes. SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY STATE PAPERS Abbreviations used in Title. the Text. Ad Admiralty Papers. Addl. MSS. Additional Manuscripts, British Museum. Baga. Baga de Secretis. Appendix II. to the 5th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, pp. 172-193. C.O. Docquet Book Crown Office Docquet Book. Egerton Egerton Manuscripts, British Museum. Newcastle Newcastle Papers, British Museum. J.R. Jail Returns. P.R. Patent Rolls. P.R.Cal. Patent Roll Calendar. P.S.O. Privy Seal Office Docquet Book. S.P.Scot. or S.P.S. State Papers, Scotland. Series ii. S.P.Dom. or S.P.D. State Papers Domestic. S.P.Dom. Entry Book State Papers Domestic Entry Book. S.P.Dom. M.S. Cal. State Papers Domestic Manuscript Calendar. S. PState Papers.Dom. DomesticMil. Military. T. BTreasury .M.Board .Minutes. T.B.P. Treasury Board Papers. W.O. War Office Papers. Note.—The numbers following an abbreviation indicate the Bundle and Folio number. Thus, S.P.D., 29-94 means State Papers Domestic, Geo. II., Bundle 29, Folio 94; and P.R., 3621-21 means Patent Rolls, Geo. II., Bundle 3621, Folio number 21. The name of a town following the abbreviation J.R., means that it is the Jail Return of the prison of that town.