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The Englishman Who Saved the Jacobites' Gold

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The Englishman Who Saved the Jacobites' Gold Martyn Downer THE ENGLISHMAN WHO SAVED THE JACOBITES’ GOLD hile describing how Robert Strange agent ‘Thomas Newton’—identified as Major prepared etching plates to print pa- Kennedy, an Irish officer in French service Wper money for Prince Charles Ed- who had been in the prince’s bodyguard at ward Stuart to pay his troops as the Jacobite re- Culloden—and recover the gold before sending bellion collapsed in 1746 (Insider, Winter 2019), it south to London.1 From his ‘cage’, a cleverly Jonathan Callaway recalled the mysterious fate constructed Highlands hideout, Cluny promised of a cache of French gold, landed too late to save to “raise so many of the cattle (sic) and drive you all the rising but ‘the subject of much entertaining I can…Let me know the place of delivery.”2 Unable speculation ever since’. The re-discovery of a sil- to return to Scotland himself for fear of capture, ver cup has now solved a riddle which has ob- Kennedy travelled to Newcastle where he enlisted sessed treasure hunters for centuries. It also sheds the help, possibly through Jacobite Freemason important new light on the chaotic aftermath of connections, of Northumbrian farmer Charles Culloden when the defeated Jacobites, in hiding Selby of Yearl (now Earle) near Wooler. across Scotland, were riven by betrayals, suspi- Charles’s name, taken from two recent cions and bitter jealousies. Stuart monarchs, betrayed his family’s Jacobite On 29th April 1746, two weeks after the sympathies. A kinsman of the Selbys of Battle of Culloden, the French privateer ships Biddlestone, a Catholic family with strong Mars and Bellone anchored in Loch nan Uamh at Jacobite ties, his father William Selby (1668- Arisaig on the west coast of 1723) had been ‘out’ in the earlier 1715 Scotland to offload six casks rebellion.3 William Selby’s imprisonment may “William Selby’s of Louis d’Ors worth about have caused his early death and radicalised his son imprisonment may £35,000 (£5 million today). as Charles seized this chance to serve the exiled The coins had been shipped prince, telling Kennedy that “I am sincerely yours have caused his early by Louis XV of France in to command at any time, & particularly when support of the Jacobite there is question of anything that regards our Dear death and radicalised rebellion. As the rebellion friend, whom I should always serve at the expense had since collapsed, the of my life & fortune.”4 his son as Charles casks were buried in several Visiting Yearl, Kennedy was introduced to seized this chance to secret locations near Loch Cluny’s brother-in-law Donald Macpherson of Arkaig. The whereabouts Breachachie with whom Selby was acquainted. serve the exiled prince” of the gold, its safekeeping Breachachie and Cluny had both been on the and distribution, when shore of Loch nan Uamh on 19 September necessary, to sustain or revive the Jacobite cause, 1746 when Prince Charles Edward Stuart, after was entrusted to Euan Macpherson of Cluny, months on the run, often in disguise, had finally chief of the Macpherson Clan, who had served escaped Scotland in a French warship. Identified as a colonel in the Jacobite army. as ‘D’ in the secret correspondence, Breachachie In April 1748, Prince Charles Edward volunteered to act as the go-between with Cluny Portrait of Charles Selby (1702-1789) titled on reverse Charles Selby of Earl with Cup presented to him by Prince Charlie, oil on canvas, English provincial school, circa 1760. Private Collection, courtesy Koopman Rare Art Ltd Stuart, now impoverished and facing expulsion and to carry the gold as far as the Scottish border from exile in France, sent coded orders that where he would meet Selby. Selby would then Cluny should cooperate with Jacobite secret stash the gold at his Northumbrian farmhouse 74 SPRING 2020 · SPRING 2020 75 before it could be safely delivered to Jacobite prince’s order, as Selby had refused all payment agents in London either by Kennedy or, more for risking his life smuggling the Jacobite gold. Timeline... likely, by Selby himself, as the major had already The cup itself was made in 1743 by Paul 1743: Silver cup made by Paul Crespin been arrested once at Newcastle and feared he Crespin (1694-1770), a highly regarded for Prince Charles Edward Stuart, was being watched. Breachachie would be paid London silversmith of Huguenot ancestry with Jacobite Prince of Wales. £600 (out of the gold) for his services but Selby workshops in Soho. About ten inches high, it Battle of Culloden refused all payment for risking his life in the is of typical period form with a pedestal foot, 16th April 1746: prince’s cause.5 two leaf-capped handles and a domed cover 29th April 1746: Gold landed by Mars Satisfied, Kennedy now replied to Cluny’s with baluster finial. The body of the cup is and Bellone at Loch nan Uamh and hidden at Loch Arkaig. request for delivery instructions telling him that from Culloden. Late to the action, Cluny had 1745 Louis d’Or, Louis XV applied with banding and profusely flat chased the “safest & best place of delivery that I can find out discovered the prince’s baggage in a deserted obverse and reverse, sold at with roses, scrolls and rocaille. The use of roses, 19th September 1746: Prince Charles auction by Spink for $1,700 is Yearl, a farm house belonging to a thorough gent, wagon near the battlefield. Many belongings nationalist symbols of Jacobite re-birth, which Edward Stuart escapes to France. also decorated the prince’s silver canteen, suggest a friend of mine & which is less than a small mile had been looted, including the prince’s silver April 1748: In exile, Prince Charles to Wooller which is eight miles to the Southward of canteen (now Collection of National Museums that the cup, a traditional object of loyalty, was Edward Stuart asks Major Kennedy to Kelso. This gent himself will go twenty miles on the Scotland)11; but several items of valuable silver a bespoke gift to the prince, possibly from a recover hidden gold. ”6 wealthy English sympathiser. It was important Edinburgh road to meet D. who he knows. survived, remnants of the courtly lifestyle the Major Kennedy, Donald Macpherson of In December 1748, Kennedy reported success prince had tried to project during the rebellion. for the prince, and his followers, that he should Breachachie and Charles Selby meet at in securing some, but not all of the ‘horses’ (no Safeguarding these precious possessions caused display all the trappings of a court in waiting Yearl in Northumberland. longer ‘cattle’) requested by the prince.7 Almost during the rebellion, and cups had the highest Cluny further anxiety despite the prince’s initial Gold valued at a century later, in 1835, it was reported that status of all silver objects. Practical and prized, By December 1748: suggestion, when they met after the battle, that, £6000 smuggled to London by Charles “an old man, lately deceased” recalled seeing the like the French gold, his silver should be used to they were used for ceremony and shared as Selby and a servant. Highlanders return across the Scottish border sustain the Jacobite cause. courtly gifts and in diplomatic exchanges. 8 Major Kennedy after delivering the gold to Yearl. Selby then rode Writing from France in 1755, Cluny recalled Amidst the decoration on the front of the 22nd April 1749: the gold down to London himself, accompanied cup is a cartouche engraved with the feathers arrested in London and interrogated that “these effects were removed to avoid danger at about the gold. only by a trusted servant. least fifty different times, and often by different hands and coronet of the Jacobite prince of Wales; In this way, Selby and Breachachie managed in the dark of night, sometimes thrown into falls of again this closely matches the same royal device June 1749: Major Kennedy escapes to France. to smuggle £6,000 of the Jacobite gold out water, sometimes into marshes, and sometimes into on the prince’s canteen captured at Culloden. A of Scotland and down to London in two pits dug on purpose in the ground.”12 The prince cartouche on the reverse has the later inscription: August 1749: In Paris, Major Kennedy runs. Kennedy promised another expedition claimed that his equipage had included a casket receives bill of exchange from Jacobite to Scotland in 1749 as: “the jockey I deal with of jewels but Cluny denied all knowledge of this, From bankers in London for smuggled gold. [Selby] is determined to take a tour to that country further fuelling mistrust between the two men. Prince Charles Edwd Stuart 31st January 1788: Prince Charles as soon as he has finished certain affairs”.9 In fact, 13 Meanwhile, the royal silver remained hidden To Edward Stuart dies in Rome. it appears no further gold was secured for the in Scotland and, following Cluny’s death in Chas Selby Esqr of Earle 1789: Charles Selby dies. prince as Kennedy was arrested in London soon 1763, it was entrusted to Donald Macpherson of in Remembrance of His Many Services in afterwards. After interrogation he managed to Breachachie who had acted with Charles Selby in 1745 & 1746 1835: Story of the cup published for the 10 first time by Thomas Selby. escape to France and disappeared. smuggling out the ‘Loch Arkaig Treasure’. After Although the secret plan to transport the gold repeated requests from the prince in Rome, the By its styling, it appears this inscription 1970s: Cup and portrait of Charles Selby over five hundred miles from its hiding place in remnants of the silver were eventually shipped was applied to the cup in the early nineteenth seen in Edinburgh.
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