jl]^ ^'
 
 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAYERHOUSE
 
 JOHJST GRAHAM OP CLAV:EE_H0U3E . 
 
 PEOM TEE PICTTJKE AT MBi:VII.LB
 
 /^^N 
 
 7 
 
 JOHN GEAHAM 
 OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 
 1648-1689 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES SANFORD TERRY, M.A. 
 
 BURNKTT-FLETCHER PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN 
 
 LONDON 
 
 ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY 
 
 LIMITED 
 
 1905
 
 Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 It is nearly half a century since Napier's Life and Times 
 of John Graham of Glaverhouse appeared. That work, 
 tantalising in its arrangement, provocative in its tone, 
 furnished a mass of material wherewith to test the 
 accuracy of facts which, unchallenged, had acquired a 
 prescriptive right of association with Claverhouse and 
 his career. Since Napier's frenzied work was published 
 nothing has been written to displace him from his posi- 
 tion as the one available and exhaustive source of 
 information upon the subject. A single considerable 
 effort has been made to deal with Claverhouse's career 
 and character (Clavers: The Despot's Champion, by 'a 
 Southern': Longmans, 1889), but professedly the 
 authoress's aim was to rearrange Napier's materials 
 rather than to offer fresh ones. 
 
 The present work is an attempt to marshal the large 
 amount of untouched material, bearing directly or 
 indirectly upon Claverhouse's career, which has accumu- 
 lated. The nature and sources of it are sufficient^ 
 indicated in the notes to this volume. But it may be 
 observed, that while a great proportion of it has been 
 published only recently, an appreciable amount of it was 
 available to Napier, and was overlooked by him. The 
 remark applies also to various MS. sources which have 
 been hitherto untapped. The result is, I hope, both to 

 
 vi JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 present a rounder and completer picture of Claverhouse 
 than has hitherto been available, and to dissipate the 
 appalling number of errors which, for very lack of careful 
 probing, have come to be accepted as unchallengeable 
 facts in the record of his career. 
 
 An invitation from Sir James Balfour Paul to write the 
 section upon the title ' Viscount of Dundee ' for his new 
 edition of Douglas's Peerage has rendered it unnecessary 
 for me in this volume to enter minutely upon the early 
 history of the Grahams of Claverhouse. 
 
 In regard to the MS. sources which I have consulted, 
 I desire in particular to express my deep indebtedness 
 to Mr. J. Maitland Thomson, Curator of the Historical 
 Department of the General Register House, Edinburgh, 
 and to his profound knowledge, so freely laid at my dis- 
 posal, of the unpublished MSS. under his charge. I have 
 also to express my acknowledgments to Mrs. Graham- 
 Wigan for placing the Duntrune MSS. at my disposal, 
 and to Messrs. J. and J. Ogilvie, of Dundee, for the facili- 
 ties they have afforded me for consulting them ; to Mr. 
 Henry Scrymgeour-Wedderburn of Wedderburn for per- 
 mission to consult the documents in the Scrymgeour- 
 Wedderburn Charter Chest, and to Mr. Alexander 
 Wedderburn, K.C., for his kind interest and help therein ; 
 to the Earl of Home for allowing me to consult the 
 Douglas MSS. in his possession, and to Mr. Robert 
 Strathern for the information he has afforded me there- 
 from ; to Mr. A. H. Millar for the information derived 
 from the MSS. of the Town Council of Dundee; to Mr. 
 Kenneth MacDonald, Town Clerk of Inverness, for tran- 
 scripts from the MS. records of that municipalitj'' ; to
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 the Keeper of the Advocates' Library for information 
 from the MSS. under his charge ; to Mr. J. Maitland 
 Anderson for information from the records of the 
 University of St. Andrews; to the Assistant Keeper of 
 the Archives at the Hague for information drawn from 
 the Dutch Archives ; to the French Ministry of War ; 
 and to Mr. F. L. Mawdesley for placing at my disposal 
 a rare broadside which has enabled me to settle the 
 authenticity of the letter and speech attributed to 
 Dundee after the battle of Killiecrankie. The British 
 Museum MSS. have yielded one unpubhshed letter of 
 Dundee. The Scottish MS. Warrant Book in the Record 
 Office has furnished a mass of new and valuable 
 information. 
 
 Among the illustrations in this volume, I have to thank 
 Miss Leslie Melville, the Earl of Strathmore, and Colonel 
 D. M. Smythe for the portraits of Dundee and his wife. 
 That of Lady Dundee has been familiar hitherto only in 
 a rough sketch published originally in the Bannatyne 
 volume of Dundee's letters. I have included a map 
 showing Dundee's itinerary in the campaign of 1689, and 
 also a large-scale plan of the district about Killiecrankie, 
 to illustrate the unconventional account of the battle 
 which I venture to advance. 
 
 To employ Dundee's career as the foundation for an 
 historical treatise upon the causes and significance of the 
 Revolution of 1689 is not practicable, and in this book is 
 not attempted. At the same time my object has been to 
 connect his career as closely as possible with the develop- 
 ment of the policy which he was appointed to carry out, 
 and, as is appropriate, to display the military history both
 
 viii JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 of the Revolution and of the post-Restoration period, with 
 which Dundee was so intimately connected, in greater 
 detail than so far has been attempted. My hope is, that 
 to that extent, this study of Dundee may be accepted as 
 a not exclusively biographical contribution to the history 
 of Scotland in the period. 
 
 C. S. T. 
 
 King's College, Olu Abekdeen, 
 9th September 1904.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. Ancestry and Early Years, 
 II, Service in Hollz\nd, 
 
 III. Drumclog, 
 
 IV. Bothwell Bridge, 
 V. Helen Graham, 
 
 YI. Sheriff of Wigton, . 
 YII. At Court, 
 YIII. Privy Councillor, 
 IX. Marriage, 
 X. The New Keign, 
 XL Provost op Dundee, . 
 XII. Viscount op Dundee, 
 
 XIII. The Convention, 
 
 XIV. In the Track of Montrose, 
 XY. With the Clans, 
 
 XVI. Killiecrankie, . 
 
 PARE 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 34 
 
 GO 
 
 85 
 
 102 
 
 122 
 
 134 
 
 154 
 
 188 
 
 220 
 
 232 
 
 249 
 
 265 
 
 283 
 
 319 
 
 APPENDICES— 
 
 I. Claverliouse's Regiment, ..... 346 
 
 II. Dundee's Death at Killiecrankie, . . . .350 
 
 III. Dundee's alleged Letter to James announcing his 
 
 Victory, 355 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 362
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 John Gkaham of Claveehouse, .... Frontispiece 
 
 (From the original at Melville, in the 2)ossession of Miss Leslie Melville.) 
 
 John Graham OP Claverhouse, . . .To face page 89 
 
 (From the original, attributed to Sir Peter Lely, at Olamis 
 Castle, in the possession of the Earl of Strathmore.) 
 
 Jean, Viscountess of Dundee, . . . „ „ 159 
 
 (From the original at Methven Castle, in the possession of 
 Colonel David Murray Smythe. ) 
 
 Dundee's Campaign, April-July 1689, . . „ ,, 267 
 
 Map to illustrate the Site of the Battle 
 
 OF Killiecrankie, 27th July 1689, . . „ „ 335
 
 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 
 
 The lands of Claverhouse lie three miles or so north- 
 eastward of Dundee, where the Dichty curves its narrow 
 channel on its journey from the Sidlaws to the sea. For 
 nearly three centuries, from the time of Flodden to that ot 
 Killiecrankie, the owners of them, and of wider acres 
 absorbed into the estate, were a branch of the Grahams, 
 whose record is notched deep on the tallies of Scotland's 
 history. The Grahams of Claverhouse trace back to the 
 dimmer ancestry of the name through William, Lord of 
 Graham,^ and his second wife. Lady Mary Stewart, daughter 
 of King Robert the Third. So, through the connecting 
 generations, the blood of the Stewart flowed to the 
 Viscount of Dundee, the House's champion of a later time 
 — Unica depulsi Gramus tutela Stuarti^ as his comrade 
 of the Grameid called him. The eldest son of William 
 of Graham and Lady Mary Stewart was Robert Graham 
 of Strathcarron and Fintry.^ From him and his second 
 wife, Matilda, daughter of Sir James Scrymgeour of Dud- 
 hope, the Grahams of Claverhouse descend. To display 
 
 ^ He is usually styled Lord of Kincardine. I adopt the style which the 
 Lyon has sanctioned in The Scots Peer'age. 
 
 - Philip, 2%e Grameid, ed. Canon Murdoch, Scot. Hist. Soc, p. 190. 
 
 ^ The Forfarshire descendants of Robert Graham took the name of their 
 Stirlingshire home to their property near Dundee. Mains Castle is also, 
 though less commonly, called Fintry Castle. 
 
 A
 
 2 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 the family tree would be tedious and profitless, save to 
 dislodge many inaccuracies which have nested in it.^ 
 Nor, with an exception here and there, is it other than a 
 record of nonentities dowered Avith a competence. Dundee 
 inherited little but a name and a property from his fore- 
 bears. One may traverse the prologue rapidly. 
 
 The first Graham of Claverhouse was John, the elder 
 son of Robert of Strathcarron and Fintiy, and Matilda 
 Scrymgeour. How and when he acquired Claverhouse 
 is not clearly recorded. The neighbouring property of 
 Ballargus was obtained by or for him in 1481. Claver- 
 house was added early in the sixteenth century. His son 
 John, who married a sister of Cardinal Beton, had a 
 Crown charter of both properties on 11th November 1532. 
 This second John's son, also named John, erected them 
 into a single tenandry under a Crown charter of 13th July 
 1541, and, dying unmarried or childless, passed them on 
 to his brother William. William's son and successor, 
 Sir William Graham, was the first of the lairds of Claver- 
 house to leave the faintest record on their country's 
 history. He was knighted, represented his county in the 
 Parliament of 1633, busied himself assiduously in the 
 local duties of his station, and incidentally expanded his 
 property not inconsiderably. Glenogilvie was his purchase, 
 and henceforward, probably, his home. His son George, a 
 Justice of the Peace, is also discernible, Avith incongruous 
 association, in a drunken brawl at Perth, He married 
 Mariot Fotheringham of Powrie, died about April 1645, 
 and was succeeded by his son William, the father of 
 the Viscount. William Graham — who is usually and in- 
 accurately styled Sir William — married, a few weeks 
 before his father's death. Lady Magdalene Carnegie, fifth 
 and youngest daughter of John, Earl of Ethie, afterwards 
 
 ^ I refer for authorities to my article on the title ' Viscount of Dundee ' 
 in The Scots Peerage, ed. Sir James Balfour Paul.
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 3 
 
 first Earl of Northesk.^ She survived her husband for 
 over twenty years,^ and died during her elder son's military 
 service in Holland. One desires to know somewhat of the 
 mother of so famous a son. But inquiry is baffled. She 
 acted as his guardian or ' tutrix ' during his minority, and 
 her signature proclaims her one whose education was 
 exceptional in an unrefined age.^ 
 
 The children of William and Lady Magdalene Graham 
 numbered two sons and two daughters. John, the elder 
 son, though possibly not the eldest child, carried the 
 family's renown to its zenith. David, the younger son, 
 closely associated with his brother's military service, suc- 
 ceeded him as the third holder of a forfeited title, and 
 died unmarried.* Of the daughters, the younger, Anne 
 
 ^ Their marriage contract is dated 7th, 15th, and 24th February 1645 
 (Fraser, Carnegies oj Southesk, vol. ii. p. 357). Lady Jean Carnegie, 
 whom Napier, Mowbray Morris, and the author of The Des2)0t's Chamjnon 
 give as the Viscount of Dundee's mother, was in fact his maternal aunt. 
 It is a coincidence that both the Viscount's mother and Montrose's wife 
 were named Magdalene Carnegie. The former, as Sir William Fraser 
 suggests, was named Magdalene after her mother, Magdalene Halyburton. 
 
 '^ On 5th October 1675 James Graham, chamberlain of the Claverhouse 
 family, acknowledges the receipt from David, Earl of Northesk, of the 
 following articles belonging to the late Lady Magdalene Graham of 
 Claverhouse : ' Ane embroydered purs, quhairin ther is ane pear of gold 
 bracelleits, ane gold ring, in it a litell diamond, another smal ring of 
 litell worth, an litell hinger sett about with stons and sum rubies, wherof 
 it leaks on ston, and hath an litell pearll ; which things did belong 
 to the leat Lady of Clawerhous, and was giuin to the Earll of Ethic in 
 custody, with consent of the sed Laird of Clawerhous his freinds. Butt 
 it is to be remembred, that ther is yitt in the custody of the sed nobell 
 Earll an portugall doucott, ane ear whoop, with ane peic of m.onnij 
 wyghting thrie rix doUors' (Fraser, Carnegies of Southeslc, vol. ii. p. 358). 
 
 It may be noticed that Lady Magdalene Graham died nine years before 
 her son the Viscount of Dundee's marriage. The legend of her solemn 
 imprecation upon her daughter-in-law's second nuptials is demonstrably 
 false, therefore, on the simple test of dates. For the legend, see The 
 DespoVs Champion, p. 162. 
 
 ^ The Drmtrune MSS. are my authority for both statements. 
 
 ■* The suggestion that he and his brother the Viscount were twins is 
 disproved by the fact that in a disposition by Lady Magdalene Graham, 
 dated 2nd April 1653, in favour of her son John Graham, the latter is 
 described as 'John Graham, my eldest son ' [Duntnuie MSS.).
 
 4 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Graham, married Robert Young of Auldbar,^ who helped 
 to fill his brother-in-law's purse in the lean days before 
 Killiecrankie. The elder sister, Magdalene Graham, 
 married Sir Robert Graham of Morphie.^ The Grahams 
 of Morphie were an offshoot of the old Fintry stock,^ 
 whose Stirlingshire stronghold, Graham or Fintry Castle, 
 stood on the bank of Endrick "Water. The Youngs had 
 risen to be landed proprietors from the ranks of the well- 
 to-do merchants of Dundee.^ 
 
 Like his grandfather, William Graham played a part, 
 though briefly, in the stirring public drama of his time. 
 Thrice he was appointed upon the Committee of War for 
 Angus.'' On 9th March 1649 his name is found among 
 others to be mulcted in one half-year's rent, upon the 
 ground that ' dy verse persones . . . have not lent any 
 money to the publict in the tyme of the Troubles,' and 
 that 'dyverse of them who have not lent, have beene 
 for the late engagement.' *^ William Graham was in that 
 category. His heart was with Hamilton at Preston, as it 
 surely was with his kinsman Montrose, though he left it 
 to his more daring son to convert passive sympathy into 
 active endeavour. 
 
 Early in 1653, or late in 1652, William Graham died.'^ 
 During his lairdship he had watched, aloofly, many stirring 
 
 1 Oeneral Register of Sasines, xvi. 43, 64. 
 
 2 Register of Deeds (Mackenzie), vol. xxxv., 28th Sept. 1674 ; Oen. Reg. 
 of Inhibitions, 8th Dec. 1673. 
 
 3 Father Richard Augustine Hay in his MS. (Advocates' Library), 
 vol. iii. fol. 55, has a notice of the Morphie Grahams, whom he describes 
 as ' descended of Fintre.' 
 
 * The Despot^s Champion, p. 8. The author inaccurately gives Claver- 
 house another sister. 
 
 ^ Acts. Parlt. Scot., vol. vi. pt. i. pp. 560, 814; vol. vi. pt. ii. p. 36. 
 
 « Ibid., vol. vi. pt. ii. p. 709. 
 
 ^ His son, John Graham of Claverhouse, was served general heir to his 
 father on 3rd February 1653 {Abbreviate of Retours, General, vol. xxi. 77). 
 Every endeavour to establish the precise date of William Graham's death 
 has been defeated.
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 5 
 
 events. He had shared the feelings of dismay which the 
 execution of Charles the First had aroused. He had 
 followed the second Charles's insincere coquettings with 
 the Covenant. Dunbar and Worcester were within his 
 experience. The execution of Montrose in 1650 had been 
 to him the loss of both kinsman and patriot, Cromwell's 
 armies he had seen surging through the land. From his 
 home he could have looked upon Monck's English lines 
 round Dundee in 1651.^ He had seen, too, the sacrifice 
 of Scottish independence, his country merged into the 
 English Commonwealth, her institutions shattered. He 
 died in hopeless days, when no faint hope of a Restora- 
 tion had arisen, with no prevision of a second Stewart 
 catastrophe, over whose dark record his famous son shed 
 a lustre, meteoric yet abiding. 
 
 It is symptomatic of the curious lacunoi in the career 
 of one so famous, that the date of John Graham of 
 Claverhouse's birth has remained a matter rather for 
 ingenious calculation than for precise and convincing 
 statement. A lawsuit in which Claverhouse was involved 
 in June 1687 has furnished the dry bones of the problem. ^ 
 Briefly, it proves that for seventeen of the forty years 
 preceding June 1687 Claverhouse was a minor.^ Napier, 
 hastily concluding that he was a minor during the first 
 seventeen years after 1647, placed his birth in 1643.^ 
 But in regard to the interests involved in the lawsuit 
 Claverhouse's minority dated only from his father's 
 
 ^ There was a residence of some sort upon the Claverhouse property, 
 as there was also at Ballargus, but from 1640 everything points to Glen- 
 ogilvie as the residence of William Graham, and that of his widow and 
 children. See below, Chap. vii. 
 
 " The case is reported in Fountainhall, Historical Notices of Scotitsh 
 Affairs, vol. ii. pp. 798, 811. 
 
 ^ Fountainhall's statement is : 'As for Claveris, he was 17 years of this 
 40 [1647-87] a minor.' 
 
 * Napier, vol. i. pp. 178, 183 ; vol. ii. p. 2. Mr. Mowbray Morris, 
 following Napier, animadverts upon the signiticauce of the birth of 
 Claverhouse in the year of the Solemn League and Covenant.
 
 6 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 dcath.^ If he was for seventeen years a minor after 
 that event, it follows that he must have completed his 
 fourth year before it. As he was served heir to his 
 father on 3rd February 1653, he must have been born 
 before 3rd February 1649. One can be more precise, 
 however. On 24th June 1669 Claverhouse was removed 
 from the Commission of the Peace for Forfarshire on the 
 ground that he was a minor.^ But on 5th August 1669 
 he had a precept for infefting him as his father's heir in 
 the lands of Easter Brigton.^ These lands Avere held 
 ward of James, Marquis of Douglas, and Claverhouse's 
 entry implies that he was then of age.* With a narrow 
 margin on either side, Claverhouse's birth may be placed 
 in July 1648.5 
 
 To picture the record of a career where authentic 
 facts are wanting is fascinating but futile. In regard 
 to Claverhouse there is barely a fact ascertainable to 
 lighten the darkness which veils his youthful days. His 
 infant memory may have retained some faint impressions 
 of his kinsman Montrose's death. His father's son can 
 hardly have been allowed to be ignorant of Worcester 
 fight, its import to the cause of Monarchy and to the 
 royal House. But these are conjectures. He was not 
 
 ^ Napier's error was first pointed out in The Despofn Champion, p. 7. 
 
 - Privy Council Acta (MS. Register House), vol. Nov. 1667 — June 
 1G73, fol. 227. 
 
 ^ Scrymgcour- Wedderhurn Charter Chest, Box vii. bundle i. No. 25. 
 
 ■* Mr. Maitlaiid Thomson, to whom I owe this information, informs me 
 that the retour upon which the precept must have proceeded is not iu 
 the Register of Retours. If discovered, it would help materially to 
 define the precise date of Claverhouse's birth. 
 
 ^ The conclusion is materially strengthened by the fact that Claverhouse, 
 who on 24th June 16G9 had been removed from the Commission of the 
 Peace for Forfarshire as being a minor, was on 2nd September 1669 
 reinstated niion it (Privy Council, Acta (MS. Register House), vol. Nov. 
 1667— June 1673, fol. 261). It may be noticed also that on 14th July 1662 
 the ward of the Claverhouse lands was granted to David, Lord Lour. 
 The date coincides with the completion of Claverhouse's pupilage upon 
 attaining his fourteenth year.
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 7 
 
 five years old when he was projected prematurely into a 
 domain of interests not bounded by his nursery walls. 
 On 3rd February 1653 he was served general heir to his 
 father/ and entered into possession of an estate which, 
 if not of considerable value, represented a fair competence 
 to its owner. He held it for something more than thirty- 
 six years." 
 
 Appropriately, the first glimpse of him beyond the 
 bounds of his home life connects him with the town whence 
 came his title. On 22nd September 1660, soon after his 
 twelfth birthday, Claverhouse and his brother David 
 were admitted burgesses and guild-brethren of Dundee.^ 
 In the time to come the town received the elder brother 
 less willingly as Provost. But their future chief-magis- 
 trate and Constable was not yet discernible in the almost 
 effeminately pretty child, with frank, questioning eyes, 
 whom his unsuspecting brother burgesses admitted to 
 their ranks. Two years later, in July 1662, coincident 
 with his fourteenth birthday, Claverhouse was placed 
 under the ward of his uncle David, Lord Lour, afterwards 
 second Earl of Northesk.* His emancipation from petti- 
 
 ^ * 1653. Feb. 3. John Grahame of Claverhouse as heir in general to 
 William G. of Claverhouse his Father' (Abbreviate of Retours, General 
 (MS. Register House), vol. xxi. 77). 
 
 - After Claverhouse's death in 1689, a statement by David Graham of 
 Duutrune gives the gross income of his estate as £7739, 18s. 4d. Scots, 
 on which Lady Dundee held a jointure of £3333, 6s. 8d. Scots [Duntrune 
 MSS.). The statement tallies with another valuation of it in 1679 as 
 jjroducing a rental of upwards of £600 sterling (Fraser, Bed Book of 
 Menteilh, vol. i. p. 422). 
 
 * Millar, Eminent Biirgesses of Dundee, j). 166. Their admission is 
 stated as ' by reason of their Father's Privelege. ' But William Graham's 
 name is not on the Burgess Roll. 
 
 ■* In the Privy Seal, English Register (MS. Register House), vol, i. 
 Ill, there is entered, under the date 1-ltli July 1662, the gift to David, 
 Lord Lour, of the ward of the lands which belonged to the deceased 
 William Graham of Claverhouse, with the marriage of John Graham, 
 now of Claverhouse, son and heir of William. Upon the attainment of 
 his fourteenth year Claverhouse ceased to be a 'pupil,' and was thence- 
 forth free from the control of his ' tutrix.' The grantee of the marriage.
 
 8 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 coat government was the climax to his first excursion 
 into the wider world outside the policies of Glenogilvie. 
 
 At St. AndreAvs, as was natural, Claverhouse completed 
 his education. But the accepted date of his matricula- 
 tion ^ is demonstrably ridiculous. According to Napier,^ 
 he and his brother David matriculated at St. Leonard's 
 College on 13th February 1665. The matriculation roll 
 for that date does contain the names of 'Joannes 
 Grahamus' and 'David Grahamus,' but it is the purest 
 inference that they were the brothers.^ As to Claver- 
 house, the impossibility of the date is patent. Napier's 
 failure to remark its incongruity is the more astonishing, 
 in that on his own dating of Claverhouse's birth, the 
 youth entered college in his twenty-second year ! Though 
 he was born five years later than Napier supposed, he 
 would still be in his seventeenth year at the time of his 
 matriculation in February 1665. At that age the average 
 student of the seventeenth century had left the university 
 behind him. Gilbert Burnet, Claverhouse's contemporary, 
 has put it complacently on record : ' I was five years at 
 the Colledge of New Aberdeen, and went thro the com- 
 mon methods of the Aristotelian Philosophy with no 
 small applause, and passed Master of Arts some moneths 
 
 in this case Lord Lour, had the right to nominate his ward's wife and to 
 levy the ' avail ' ; single if the ward married without leave, double if he 
 rejected the nominee and married another. 
 
 1 See Napier, vol. i. pp. 18, 179 ; vol. ii. p. 2 ; Mowbray Morris, Claver- 
 house, p. 3 ; The Despot's Champion, p. 9 ; and Mr. T. F. Henderson's 
 article, ' John Graham of Claverhouse,' in the Diet. Nat. Biogtrqjhi/. 
 
 2 It is worthy of notice that James Browne, in his History of the 
 Highlands (vol. ii. p. 124), a work published over twenty years before 
 Napier's book, states, without giving his authority, that Claverhouse 
 matriculated at St. Andrews in 1660, and left the university in 1670. 
 
 '^ That the ' David Grahamus ' of 13th February 1665 was Claverhouse's 
 brother is, I think, eminently probable. If so, the university records 
 show that he graduated M.A. on 25th July 1668. The 'Joannes 
 Grahamus' of 1665 does not appear to have graduated. I am indebted 
 to Mr. J. Maitland Anderson, Librarian of the University of St. 
 Andrews, for my information upon this subject.
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 9 
 
 before I was fourteen.'^ Burnet matriculated, in fact, 
 one niontli before his tenth year ! Jeremy Taylor was 
 Perse scholar of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1628, in his 
 fifteenth year.^ Thomas Dempster, the author of Historia 
 Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, entered Pembroke Hall, 
 Cambridge, in his tenth year.^ Claverhouse's entry into 
 St. Andrews should be looked for, therefore, in the 
 decade preceding 1665, the year which so far has been 
 accepted as that of his matriculation. 
 
 In the ten years 1655-1664 the name John Graham 
 appears once only in the Matriculation Roll of St. 
 Andrews. It occurs on 29th February 1660, when John 
 Graham and two others were admitted to the third year's 
 class in St Salvator's College.* They had entered the 
 university at latest in 1658.^ In the autumn of 1658 
 Claverhouse had recently passed his tenth birthday. 
 The year is appropriate. But a comparison of the sig- 
 nature of the John Graham of 1660 with that of 
 Claverhouse places the matter practically beyond ques- 
 tion.*^ The conclusion is therefore insistent, that in the 
 
 ^ Sup2)lement to Burners Hiatory, ed. H. C. Foxcroft, p. 454. 
 
 '^ Diet. Nat. Biogrcqjhy, vol. Iv. p. 439. ^ Ibid., vol. xiv. p. 335. 
 
 ^ The entry bears that on this date William Duudas, Patrick Robertson, 
 and John Graham were admitted students in philosophy ' in Collegio 
 Salvatoriano in 3tiani classem.' 
 
 ^ Formal matriculation, at this period, v/as not compulsory. It seemed 
 possible that John Graham might have migrated to St. Andrews from 
 some other Scottish university. An examination of their Matriculation 
 Rolls, however, reveals no John Graham as a first year's student in or 
 about 1658. The inference is that his studies began, as they ended, at 
 St. Andrews. 
 
 " For comparison, the signature of 1660 is given with an authentic 
 Claverhouse signature of 1676, taken from the Grandtully Bool: 
 
 tb6o 
 
 The significant point is the initial J intertwined in the capital G, almost
 
 10 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 autumn of 1658, soon after the completion of his tenth 
 year, Claverhouse entered St. Andrews, and that on 
 29th February 1660 he was enrolled a third year's 
 philosophy student in St. Salvator's College.^ If so, 
 his university record can bo completed. On 27th July 
 1661 he graduated Master of Arts.^ He was just entering 
 his fourteenth year. 
 
 Whether, like Gilbert Burnet, Claverhouse fultilled his 
 university course ' Avith no small applause ' is a matter 
 upon which there is httle satisfactory evidence. Like 
 old Alexander Leslie, who died in the year which saw 
 Claverhouse's emancipation from the university, he has 
 been condemned as illiterate. ' I got the length of the letter 
 G,' Leslie said once to an inquirer who was astonished at 
 even that modest conquest of the alphabet.^ But Claver- 
 house had at least reached the average university standard 
 of his contemporaries. The test of spelling on which Scott 
 found him wanting is, after all, misleading. Claverhouse 
 spelled with rare originality, it is true, but so did many of 
 
 invariably found in Cl.averhouse's signature. It will be noticed that in 
 the signature of 1660 the same feature is apparent, as though the writer 
 wore unaccustomed to write his Christian name in full, and had, on this 
 occasion, failed to observe that he had done so. 
 
 1 There is a further fact, for which I am indebted to Mr. Maitland 
 Anderson, which deserves mention. At this time the students at St. 
 Andrews were divided into three groups, according to their rank and fee- 
 paying ability. They were classed as Poteniiores, Potentes, and Minus 
 Potenles. In the Faculty Qucestor's Book, the John Graham of 1658 is 
 classed among the Potentes ; the John Graham of 1665 among the 
 Poteniiores. The latter, in the same record, appears as having paid his 
 B.A. fee in 1667, and thereafter he disappears. Either he failed to 
 complete his curriculum, or having completed it, failed to proceed to 
 his M.A. degree. One would expect to find Claverhouse among the 
 Poteniiores rather than the Potentes, and the fact that the .John Graham 
 of 1665 was in that category is the only shred of evidence to identify him 
 with Claverhouse. 
 
 '^ Mr. J. Maitland Anderson informs me that the fellow-graduates of 
 John Graham o*n 27th .July 1661 were William Dundas, Patrick 
 Robertson, and a David Graham who had matriculated in 1658. 
 
 ^ Terry, Life of Alexander Leslie, p. 12.
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 11 
 
 his contemporaries, even among the learned professions.^ 
 Orthography and accurate spelling, in point of fact, were 
 hardly yet polite accomplishments. Some indications, of 
 no particular value, reach us of the subjects which claimed 
 his interest. ' He had made,' writes Drummond of Bal- 
 haldy,^ ' a considerable progress in the Mathematics, espe- 
 cially in those parts of it that related to his military 
 capacity; and there was no part of the Belles Lettres 
 which he had not studyed with great care and exactness. 
 He was much master in the epistolary way of writeing ; 
 for he not onely expressed himself with great ease and 
 plainencss, but argued well, and had a great art in giving 
 his thoughts in few words.' Balhaldy's praise of Claver- 
 house's letters is not misjudged. They are vigorous, 
 practical, and direct, the expression of a clear and masterful 
 mind. They have their flashes of humour, embellish- 
 ments of apt classical quotation, and are sufficient, if all 
 other evidence were wanting, to proclaim him a man of 
 some information and of rare practical ability. The 
 author of the Memoirs of 1714, distinguishing those 
 characteristics on which Balhaldy remarks, describes 
 Claverhouse as the possessor of ' a liberal education in 
 humanit}^, and the mathematicks, in which he made a 
 very considerable progress.'^ The Rev. Thomas Merer, 
 adding a curious, and probably apocryphal, detail to 
 
 ^ Mr. Mowbray Moi'ris (Claverhouse, p. 6) instances, particularly. Sir 
 George Mackenzie and the Dairy mples. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Sir' Etven Cameron of Locheill, p. 279. Elsewhere (p. 273) 
 Balhaldy says that Claverhouse ' had ane education suitable to his birth 
 and genius.' 
 
 "' Memoirs of the Lord Viscount Dundee, 1714, cd. Henry Jenucr, p. 3. 
 Mr. Jenuer conjecturally attrilnites the authorship of the Memoirs to the 
 Rev. Charles Leslie, who in 1714 was a member of the Chevalier de St. 
 George's household at Bar-le-Duc. Lord Macaulay dismissed the work as 
 the production of 'a stupid and ignorant Grub Street garreteer.' (See 
 Macaulay's Works, ed. 1866, vol. iii. p. 66 note.) The Memoirs are 
 patently full of errors, but I am inclined to hold that their value is 
 greater than that Macaulay attached to them.
 
 12 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 the sum of Claverhouse's experiences at St. Andrews, 
 states that 'in his Minority ' there/ he was admired for 
 his Parts and Respects to Church-men, which made him 
 dear to the Arch- Bishop of that See, who ever after 
 honour'd and lov'd him.' ^ Sir John Dahymple, who was 
 born considerably over a generation after Claverhouse's 
 death, and whose Memoirs were given to the world nearly 
 a century after that event, follows tradition rather than 
 fact when he declares that ' Dundee had inflamed his 
 mind from his earliest youth by the perusal of antient 
 poets, historians, and orators, with the love of the great 
 actions they praise and describe. He is reported to have 
 inflamed it still more, by listening to the antient songs of 
 the highland bards.' ^ The legend of Claverhouse's interest 
 in Gaelic literature grew out of the event in his career 
 which colours the whole of it — his leadership of the Clans 
 and the devotion he inspired among them. That he did 
 not understand the language of those he led at Killie- 
 crankie is more than improbable.^ 
 
 ^ A Short Account of Scotland, p. 95. The author, whose work was 
 published iu 1702, describes it as the outcome of his experiences with his 
 regiment in Scotland in 1689. He was chaplain to the Queen's Regiment 
 of Horse (now the 1st (King's) Dragoon Guards) in June 1685. The regi- 
 ment served at Sedgemoor, and Morer was still upon the roll of it in 
 November 1687. Sir John Lanier was its colonel, and Morer no doubt 
 accompanied it when it was summoned to Scotland at the time of the 
 Revolution. See Dalton, English Army Lids, vol. ii. pp. 5, 121. 
 
 2 Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. i. part ii. p. 46. 
 
 3 The following statement is found in An Account of the Proceedings of 
 the Meeting of the Estates in Scotland (No. 77, p. 172), under the date 3rd 
 December 1689 : ' That which gave the late Viscount of Dundee so much 
 credit with, and authority over them, the he understood not their Lan- 
 guage, nor was of their Country, was his Name and Relation to the great 
 Marquis of Montross ; for whose memory those Highlanders have all 
 imaginable respect and veneration, and believe that Fortune and Success 
 was entail'd on that Name of Graham. ' This appreciation is introduced 
 by way of comment upon Cannon's failure to lead the Highlanders after 
 Dundee's death. Balhaldy, who drew upon a valuable fund of Highland 
 tradition, gives no ground for believing that Claverhouse understood 
 Gaelic, though on one occasion he attributes to him the employment of a
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 18 
 
 From his graduation at St. Andrews to the year of his 
 majority there is no record of Claverhouse and his actions.^ 
 During those eight years, it may be assumed, he remained 
 at Glenogilvie, and viewed the opening of the drama in 
 which he was later to play a leading part. The Pentland 
 Rising was already suppressed at Rullion Green (28th 
 November 1666) before the fencible men of Angus, whom 
 the Council on 21st November 1666 ^ ordered to mobilise, 
 could take the field.^ Claverhouse's first appointment in the 
 public service came three years later. On 11th February 
 1669 he was appointed a Commissioner of Excise and 
 Justice of the Peace for Forfarshire ; ^ but on 24th June 
 1669 his commission was withdrawn upon the ground 
 that he was still a minor.^ On 2nd September 1669, 
 having attained his majority in the interval, the cancelled 
 commission Avas restored.*' For the next two years his 
 life was seemingly spent upon his property and in the 
 conduct of county affairs.^ 
 
 So far Claverhouse's interests and activities had been 
 exclusively parochial. He had, however, the example of 
 
 Gaelic phrase. Prince Charles in the '45, it may be remembered, got a 
 good deal more out of the Clans than Claverhouse, and upon an equally 
 slender linguistic equipment. 
 
 1 Among the Dxmtrtme MSS. there is a discharge by the Laird of 
 Balnamoon in favour of Claverhouse. It is dated at Leith on 2nd August 
 1662, and is signed by Claverhouse. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, vol. ii. 
 p. 21. 
 
 ^ It is improbable that Claverhouse joined one of the six troops of horse 
 which were raised at this crisis. See Kirkton, Secret and Triie History of 
 the Church of Scotland, p. 225 ; Wodrow, History, vol. ii. p. 13. 
 
 4 Privy Council Acta (MS. Register House), vol. Nov. 1667— June 1673, 
 fol. 187. 
 
 5 Ibid., fol. 227. ^ Privy Council Acta, ibid., fol. 261. 
 
 ■? On 6th April 1671 the Council appointed a number of new justices for 
 Forfarshire in the room of persons whose names are mentioned. Claver- 
 house's name does not appear, and it is a fair inference that at that time 
 he was still in Scotland, fulfilling the duties entailed upon him by his 
 commission of September 1669. The Council's letter of Gth April 1671 is 
 in Privy Council Acta, fol. 478.
 
 14 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 his kinsman Montrose, and of his direct ancestors, to 
 tempt him to the Continent to learn the art of war under 
 the great captains of the age. In 1672 ^ his brief service 
 with foreign armies probably commenced. That his first 
 military experience was gained in the service of France 
 is stated too emphatically by the earliest authorities to 
 admit of question. Balhaldy asserts that Claverhouse 
 ' travelled into France for his further improvement,' and 
 served ' several years ' as ' a volunteer in the French 
 army.' 2 The if emo^rs of 1714 also declare him to have 
 ' spent some time in the French service as a volunteer, 
 with great reputation and applause.' ^ James Philip, his 
 companion in the campaign of 1689, in a passage rhetorical 
 rather than of literal accuracy, pictures him on the Loire 
 and Seine sharing the triumphs of the French arms.^ 
 
 1 Charles Kirkpatrick Sliarpe assumed that Claverhouse finished his 
 college course at St. Andrews in May 1668 — nearly seven years beyond 
 the actual date— and that he proceeded to France soon after. He takes 
 him to Holland in 1672, two years before the actual date (Napier, vol. i. 
 p. 179), Mowbray Morris gives the date 1668 as that in which ' Claver- 
 house is said to have left Scotland for France ' (Claverhouse, p. 8). From 
 page 13 above, it appears clearly that Claverhouse cannot have left Scot- 
 land before April 1671. A thorough search among the deeds in the 
 Register House has failed to give any clue to the date of Claverhouse's 
 departure from Scotland. 
 
 - Memoirs of Locheill, p. 273. 
 
 '^ Memoirs of the Lord Viscount Dundee, ed. Henry Jenner, p. 3. 
 
 ■* Grameid, p. 41. The passage is as follows : — 
 
 ' quem Gallica castra 
 Ad Ligerim, celsas tollit qua Aurelia turres, 
 Sequana Parisiam quaque auctior alluit urbem, 
 Hostibus eversis toties videre superbum, 
 Saepius et saevi respersum sanguine belli.' 
 
 Canon Murdoch pertinently remarks on the passage, that Claverhouse 
 could not possibly have seen any active service on the Seine and Loire. 
 He suggests that the ' Gallica castra ' were probably camps of instruction. 
 It should be noticed, however, that the earliest published reference to 
 Claverliouse's career is silent regarding his French service. In Janiiary 
 16S3 an unknown Avriter, ' W. J.,' dedicated ' The Muses New Yeares Gift 
 and Hansell to the Right Honored Captano John Grahamo of Claver-
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 15 
 
 Since the fornication of the Triple Alliance in 1668 and 
 the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which had closed the War 
 of Devolution, Louis the Fourteenth had been patiently 
 preparing to avenge upon the Dutch the check he had 
 received. In 1670 the secret Treaty of Dover gained him 
 Charles the Second's adhesion, and in 1672 several British 
 regiments were raised for service on the French estab- 
 lishment. Among them were the Duke of Monmouth's 
 ' Royal English,' Bovil Skelton's ' New Royal English,' and 
 the Earl of Roscommon's regiments.^ It is improbable 
 that Claverhouse sought a commission in any of them. 
 Nor was it necessary to look beyond his own country for 
 the opportunity for employment. Lord George Douglas's 
 Scottish Regiment (1st Foot) was in the service of France 
 throughout the greater part of Charles the Second's 
 reign,2 and in the early part of 1673 was busily recruiting 
 in Scotland.^ In the summer of 1672 Sir William Lock- 
 hart's regiment was similarly employed.* It was pro- 
 bably in one or other of these Scottish regiments that 
 Claverhouse served from 1672 to 1674. One is tempted 
 to identify him with the John Graham who, on 25th July 
 
 howse.' It is printed in Laing [Fugitive Scotish Poetry), and has these 
 lines : — 
 
 ' Himsclfe does venter oer the Lyons coast, 
 Vnto the AHays camp he does resort.' 
 
 The lines suggest, with their context, that Claverhouse proceeded from 
 Scotland, and not from France, to William's service in Holland. ]\Iorer 
 (Short Account of Scotland) makes no mention of Claverhouse's French 
 service. 
 
 ^ Dalton, English Army Lists, vol. i. p. xvi. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. XV. 
 
 ^ On 12th March 1673 the Privy Council made an Order as to recruit- 
 ing in Scotland for Lord George Douglas's regiment, and on 1st April 
 1673 the Earl of Linlithgow was empowered to issue passes for those who 
 should take service in it. [Privy Council Acta (MS. Register House), 
 vol. Nov. 1667— June 1673, fol. 691, 693.) 
 
 * On 29th August 1672 the Privy Council gives directions regarding 
 recruiting for Lockhart's regiment [Privy Council Acta (MS. Eegister 
 House), vol. Nov. 1667— June 1673, fol. 638.)
 
 16 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 1672, was commissioned junior lieutenant in Lockhart's 
 regiment.^ In any case he was under the general com- 
 mand of the Duke of Monmouth,^ and began a military 
 association which was resumed seven years later in 
 Scotland. 
 
 It would be idle to attempt to construct the record of 
 Claverhouse's French service in the absence of even the 
 vaguest information as to his doings. He followed, 
 though he may not have taken part in it, the bewilder- 
 ingly rapid advance of the French army across the Rhine 
 in June 1672, an exploit which Louis's contemporaries 
 lauded as stupendous, and Napoleon slighted as ' opera- 
 tion de quatrieme ordre.' The fall of John de Witt, the 
 triumph of William of Orange, his heroic patriotism, and 
 the withdrawal of the French troops from Holland in the 
 winter of 1672-73, may have come more immediately 
 within the range of Claverhouse's experiences. If he was 
 attached to Lockhart's regiment, it is probable that he 
 was engaged in the siege of Maastricht in 1673.^ His 
 service in France cannot have extended far beyond that 
 event. In February 1674, Charles the Second, yielding 
 tardily to the pressure of public opinion, withdrew from 
 his alliance with France. Monmouth returned to England. 
 John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough, also 
 
 ^ The name ' John Grahame ' appears under this rank in Dalton {English 
 Army Lists, vol. i. p. 121). Inquiries at the Biblioth^que Nationale, the 
 Archives Nationales, and the Miniature de la Guerre, in Paris, have failed 
 to elicit any information regarding Claverhouse's French service. I am 
 informed by the French Ministry of War that no regimental rolls or pay- 
 sheets exist for the foreign regiments in the French service in the reign 
 of Louis the Fourteenth. 
 
 - Monmouth, whose regiment was raised on 1.5th February 1672, was, 
 on 29th January 1673, created ' general de tous les sujets du roi d'Angle- 
 terre qui estoient ou qui viendroient en France.' On 20th May 1673 he 
 was appointed ' lieutenant-g^n^ral des armees du roi. ' He returned to 
 England in 1674. (FiefF^, Histoire des Troupes l^trangeres au Service de 
 France, p. 175.) 
 
 ^ Dalton, English Army Lists, vol. i. p. 121.
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS 17 
 
 came home to be appointed Colonel of the Second Foot.^ 
 Others, like Hugh Mackay of Scourie, Claverhouse's 
 opponent at Killiecrankie, drifted into the service of the 
 United Netherlands.^ Claverhoiise also found his way 
 to Holland, but whether directly from France or after 
 a brief visit to Scotland cannot be determined.^ By July 
 1674, he had entered the service of the Prince against 
 whom he had been so recently fighting. He lived to 
 revert to the earlier antagonism. 
 
 ^ Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. i. p. 297. 
 
 - Ferguson, Scots Brigade, vol. i. p. 470. He had been serving as 
 captain in the Royal Scots Regiment in France. 
 
 * Mr. Fortescue states that out of the troops disbanded, three English 
 regiments were formed for the service of the Prince of Orange. He adds 
 that among their officers was John Graham of Claverhouse (see History 
 of the British Army, vol. i. p. 297). Mr. Fortescue is in error. Major 
 John Bornardi, in his Short History (p. 17), describes these English troops 
 as consisting of ten companies, who from Bois-le-Duc joined William at 
 Grave after the battle of Scnoffe. He mentions their officers, among 
 them Hugh Mackay of Scourie, ' a Scotch Gentleman very large in his 
 Person, and afterwards advanced to Greatness in Station.' He does not 
 mention Claverhouse, though he particularly gives the names of ' those 
 who afterwards were rais'd to great Stations.' It may also be noticed, 
 that whereas this Bois-le-Duc contingent joined William shortly before 
 the siege of Grave in September or October 1674, Claverhouse was already 
 serving in William's army in July 1674, and was present at Seneffe.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND, 1G74-1677 
 
 Claverhouse can hardly have been absent from Lock- 
 hart of Carnwath's patriotic retrospect when, a quarter 
 of a century after Dundee's death, he wrote of his country- 
 men : ' Those of Rank (as they still do) travelled Abroad 
 into foreign Countries for their Improvement, and vast 
 numbers, when their Country at home did not require 
 their Service, went into that of forreign Princes, from 
 whence, after they had gained immortal Honour and 
 Glory, they returned home.' ^ The armies which Alex- 
 ander Leslie led in the Bishops' Wars and under the 
 banner of the Solemn League and Covenant had swarmed 
 with veterans, whose training had been in the camp of 
 Gustavus Adolphus. The Swedish Lion of the North 
 had passed to his rest ; but France and Holland still 
 invited the activities of the Scot abroad. Conde and 
 Turenne offered a training under the Napoleons of that 
 age. Holland, whose forces had long since been stiffened 
 by the Scottish Brigade in her service, furnished an 
 employment and a cause alike congenial. Claverhouse 
 impartially availed himself of both opportunities for 
 experience in his chosen profession. 
 
 At the close of July 1674 William's army lay round 
 Nivelles in Brabant. Conde was entrenched to the south 
 of him, behind the Pieton, not far from Charleroi.^ A 
 
 1 Alemoirs concerning the Affairs of Scotland, p. 387. 
 '•^ The Netherland- Historian, Amsterdam, 1675, p. 499. 
 IS
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND 19 
 
 number of English volunteers had already joined William's 
 own Company of Guards. Among them were David 
 Colyear, afterwards first Earl of Portmore, and the young 
 Laird of Claverhouse.^ 
 
 The Dutch war had considerably changed its character 
 at the moment when Claverhouse transferred himself 
 from the one side to the other in it. England was no 
 longer active, but neutral. Among her allies Holland 
 counted the Emperor Leopold, the Great Elector, the 
 Kings of Spain and Denmark, and the Dukes of Bruns- 
 wick and Hesse. The campaign of 1674 opened with the 
 invasion of Franche-Comt6, conducted by the Due de 
 Navailles with the brilliancy which had marked Conde's 
 campaign in 1668. Conde was elsewhere, watching the 
 movement of the confederate army in Brabant, and 
 ready, as he proved at Seneffe, to strike when the 
 opportunity arrived.^ 
 
 Conde meanwhile remaining obstinately behind his 
 trenches, William resolved to advance towards Binche, 
 designing to cut oft' Conde's supplies from that quarter, 
 and haply to draw him out to battle. On 9th August 
 1674 he broke up his camp about Nivelles, lay at Seneffe 
 on 10th August, and on the following day (11th August), 
 two hours before daylight, marched from Seneffe to take 
 position between Binche and Mariemont. The imperial 
 troops led the van ; the Dutch were in the centre ; the 
 Spaniards brought up the rear.^ Claverhouse and his 
 fellow-volunteers naturally accompanied the Prince. A 
 
 ^ Carleton, Memoirs, pp. 12, 13. Carleton enumerates them as follows : 
 ' Clavers, who since was better known by the Title of Lord Dundee ; Mr. 
 Collier, now [1728] Lord Portmore ; Mr. Rooke, since Major-General ; 
 Mr. Hales, who lately died, and was for a long time Governor of Chelsea 
 Hospital ; Mr. Venner, Son of that Venner remarkable for his being one 
 of the Fifth-Monarchy Men ; and Mr. Boyce. The four first rose to be 
 very eminent ; but Fortune is not to all alike favourable.' 
 
 ^ See Laviese et Rambaud, Histoire G4n6rah, torn. vi. p. 114. 
 
 ^ The, Netherland-JIistorian, p. 499 ; Carleton, Mevioirs, p. 13.
 
 20 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 special baggage-wagon carried their effects.^ Towards 
 midday 2 on llth August Cond6 fell suddenly upon 
 William's Spanish rearguard.^ He routed it after ' a long 
 and sharp Dispute/ and threw himself up)on the baggage- 
 train between William's Dutch troops and the Spaniards. 
 Confusion followed his onslaught. The baggage-wagons 
 drove madly for safety, or were captured. Carleton lost 
 ' every Thing but Life.' Claverhouse was in no better 
 plight. Late at night Condo called off the attack, leaving 
 ' lighted Matches hanging in the Hedges, and waving 
 with the Air, to conceal it [his retreat] from the Con- 
 federate Army.' * 
 
 In Claverhouse's career, the battle of Seneffe has a 
 particular interest. The earliest reference to his conduct 
 
 ^ Carleton, Memoirs, p. 13. 
 
 2 Sir Richard Bulstrode reports to the Earl of Arlington that Condti's 
 attack was descriljed by fugitives as having taken place ' upon Saturday 
 about Eleven at Noon ' {Original Letters, p. 88). 
 
 ^ Major John Bernardi [Life, p. 15), who was in the engagement, gives 
 the following account of it : ' Conde, who lay with the French Army at 
 no great Distance, made an expeditious Detatchment of Twenty Thousand 
 Men or upwards, and attack'd the Rear of the Dutch Army upon their 
 March ; his Highness was soon in Action himself, but the Front and Rear 
 of his Army being at a League and a half distance, it was impossible to 
 bring the advanced Part to the Assistance of the Rear, Time enough to 
 save the Baggage, most of which was lost. Some Thousands of Men 
 being kill'd on both sides, the French march 'd off in as much Haste as 
 they came on, it being near Night, and the Dutch Army having had a 
 long and wet March that Day, made it impracticable to pursue the 
 Enemy, his Highness contenting himself with Encamping on his design'd 
 Ground, near the Field of Battle.' 
 
 •^ Carleton, Memoirs, pp. 14-16. Claverhouse's experience may be 
 inferred from Carleton's statement : ' The English Voluntiers had their 
 Share of this ill Fortune with the rest ; their Waggon appointed them 
 being among those intercepted by the Enemy ; and I, for my Part, lost 
 every Thing but Life . . . The Baggage, as I have said, being cut off, 
 and at the Mercy of the Enemy, every one endeavour'd to escape through, 
 or over the Hedges . . . for they were all cut to Pieces that could not 
 get over.' On the day following the battle a number of baggage-wagons 
 arrived at Brussels from the army, among them one of Sir Walter Vane's 
 and two of Lord Clare's. Nine of Vane'a wagons had fallen to the 
 enemy (Bulstrode, Original Letters, p. 88). For the rust under which 
 Coudd drew oif his army, see Firth, Cromwell's Army, p. 85.
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND 21 
 
 in it is in an ode addressed to him by an anonymous 
 admirer in January 1683/ which describes his prowess in 
 general but laudatory terms. The lines run thus : — 
 
 ' I saw the man who at St. Neff did sie 
 His conduct, prowess, martiall gallantric. 
 He wore a white pluiuash that day, not on 
 Of Belgians wore a white but him alone.' 
 
 Eight years later, Philip of Almerieclose, whose manu- 
 script is dated 1691, adds an embellishment to the story, 
 in Claverhouse's soliloquy : — 
 
 ' Nonne ego cum lasso per Belgica stagna caballo 
 Agmina liligeri fugeres victricia Galli, 
 Ipse mei impositum dorso salientis equi te 
 Hostibus eripui, salvumque in castra reduxi V ^ 
 
 Philip's statement, categorical as to the nature of the 
 service rendered to William, is indefinite as to the occa- 
 sion of it. Twenty-three years later, in the Memoirs of 
 1714, Claverhouse's rescue of William is for the first time 
 attached to SenefFe : ' At the battle of St. Nuff, 1674, 
 when the Prince of Orange was dismounted, and in great 
 danger of being taken, he [Claverhouse] rescued him, and 
 brought him off upon his own horse.' ^ Balhaldy's 
 Memoirs of Locheill * and Dalrymple ^ repeat the state- 
 ment.^ 
 
 ^ ' The Muses New Yeares Gift and Hansell, to the Pdght Honored 
 Captane John Graham of Claverhowse, January 1C83,' in Laing, Fttgidve 
 Scotish Poetry ; principally of the. Seventeenth Century. 
 
 '^ Grameid, p. 202. Canon Murdoch gives the following translation : 
 ' Did not I, when thou [William of Orange] fleddest on wearied steed 
 through Belgic marsh from the conquering troops of lily-bearing France 
 — did not I myself snatch thee from the enemy, and mount thee on the 
 back of my fresh steed, and restore thee safe to the camp ? ' 
 
 3 Memoirs of Dundee, ed. Jenner, p. 3. 
 
 '' Memoirs of Locheill, p. 274. The Memoirs were completed by 1737. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 46. 
 
 *"' Napier (vol. i. p. 10) states quite inaccurately that the Grameid con- 
 firms the Memoirs of 1714. The former, as has already been pointed out, 
 does not mention iScneffe. The author of The Despot's Cham];>ion, p. 18, 
 discusses the point with characteristic care, and is inclined to hold that 
 * William's momentary peril and rescue . . . may have occurred at any 
 other conjuncture during the three years spent by Clavers in Holland.'
 
 22 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 In every tradition there is probably a substratum of 
 truth, and in the present case it is to be found in the ode 
 of 1683 and the Grameid, rather than in Balhaldy and the 
 Memoirf^ of 1714. Had Claverhouse's rescue of William 
 occurred at SenefFe, it is inconceivable that his panegyrists, 
 writing in 1683 and 1691, should have failed to attach it 
 to that battle. The less contemporary statements of 
 Balhaldy and of the Memoirs are therefore, apart from 
 other disproving evidence, under suspicion as the sum of 
 two facts true in themselves, but as a compound-fact 
 inaccurate. That conclusion is strengthened by subjecting 
 the story to another test. Had William at SenefFe been 
 in such peril as Balhaldy and the Memoirs of 1714 declare, 
 it is incredible that some record of it should have 
 failed to appear in contemporary accounts of the battle. 
 Evidence is not wanting, that William's bravery, or the 
 sudden onslaught of the enemy, placed him in a position 
 of jeopardy.^ But neither among the Dutch traditions 
 nor in their records is there a shred of evidence to support 
 the necessity for Claverhouse's opportune rescue of him.^ 
 
 The facts of the case suggest themselves as follows: 
 That Claverhouse fought at Seneffe is established, though 
 
 ^ ' The Prince of Orange, whose Valour and Vigour having led him 
 into the Middle of the Enemy, and being then sensible of his Error, by 
 a Peculiar Presence of Mind, gave the Word of Command in French, 
 which he spoke perfectly well. But the French Soldiers, who took him 
 for one of their own Generals, making Answer, that their Powder was 
 all spent, it afforded Matter of Instruction to him to persist in his Attack ; 
 at the same Time, that it gave him a Lesson of Caution, to withdraw 
 himself, as soon as he could, to his own Troops' (Carleton, Memoirs, 
 p. 18). 
 
 In 77(6 Nctherland- Historian (p. 505) it is admitted, that 'perhaps his 
 [William's] zeal might have carryed him to farre.' William's despatch, 
 describing the battle, is silent upon any particular danger to which he 
 himself had been exposed. It is printed in The Netherland- Historian, 
 pp. 505-9. 
 
 ^ I am indebted to the Assistant Keeper of the State Archives at the 
 Hague for having verified my conclusions upon this point. There is no 
 record whatever of Claverhouse in the Dutch Archives before 24th 
 November 1676.
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND 23 
 
 the distinction attributed to him in the ode of 16S3 is 
 barely substantiated. That in the course of his Dutch 
 campaigns he rendered some service to William which, in 
 his own mind, constituted a claim upon the Prince may 
 also be allowed. That the nature of the obligation under 
 which William lay to him was as the Grameicl states it, 
 must also be granted. Philip, who bivouacked with 
 Claverhouse round many camp fires in 1689, must have 
 had the story from his hero's mouth; and Glaverhouse 
 was too strong a man to play the braggart. But that it 
 happened at SenefFe, and inspired, since it was unrequited, 
 Claverhouse's withdrawal from William's service, must be 
 dismissed as the addenda of a later period. Macaulay's 
 scepticism stands fully justified.^ 
 
 From Seneffe William fell back south-westward to 
 Quaregnon and St. Ghislain. There he encamped, await- 
 ing supplies from Brussels. On 31st August 1674, the 
 necessary equipment having reached him, William 
 
 ^ 'About the early relation between William and Dundee some Jacobite 
 [in the Mevioirs of 1714], many years after they were both dead, invented 
 a story which by successive embellishments was at last improved into a 
 romance, which it seems strange that even a child should believe to be 
 true. The last edition [in Balhaldy's Memoirs of LocheiW] runs thus : 
 William's horse was killed under him [Balhaldy does not say so] at 
 Seneff, and his life was in imminent danger. Dundee, then Captain 
 Graham [a statement wholly inaccurate], mounted His Highness again. 
 William promised to reward this service with promotion, but broke his 
 word, and gave to another the commission which Graham had been led 
 to expect.' Macaulay proceeds to detail Balhaldy's account of Claver- 
 house's withdrawal from William's service, though he dates the event 
 inaccurately in 1674 instead of 1677, and concludes: 'This legend, of 
 which I have not been able to discover the slightest trace in the volu- 
 minous Jacobite literature of William's reign, seems to have originated 
 about a quarter of a century after Dundee's death [i.e. in the Memoirs 
 of 1714], and to have attained its full absurdity in another quarter of 
 a century [i.e. in Balhaldy].' See Macaulay, Works, ed. 1855, vol. iii. 
 p. 269. 
 
 Napier and later biographers of Claverhouse have attempted to contro- 
 vert Macaulay by stating that authority contemporary with Claverhouse 
 supports the authorities whom Macaulay impugned. So far as the Seneffe 
 episode is concerned, I have shown that they do not, in fact, do so.
 
 24 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 marched northward to lay siege to Ath. The garrison 
 was opportunely reinforced, and William returned to his 
 old quarters.^ A fortnight later, on 14th September, his 
 heavy siege-train having joined him, he marched to 
 Oudcnarde, and on IGtli September invested it. On 21st 
 September Condc appeared. William urged a general 
 action while Conde's troops were fatigued by their rapid 
 march. But failing to convince his allies of the wisdom 
 of the proposal, he abandoned the siege, and leaving 
 Waldeck in command at Ghent, whither his army retired, 
 he rode on to Dendermonde with a guard of fifty men, of 
 whom Claverhouse may have been one, with the intention 
 of returning to Holland. William, in fact, faced the diffi- 
 culties which confronted Marlborough in a later campaign 
 over the same ground. Reflection convinced him that 
 little was to be gained by irritability. On 27th September 
 he returned to the camp at Ghent.^ Thence he moved to 
 the siege of Grave, on the Maas, which had been in 
 progress throughout the summer. On 28th October the 
 town capitulated, and by 9th November 1674 William 
 had returned to the Hague on the conclusion of the 
 campaign.^ 
 
 The siege of Grave probably dated for Claverhouse 
 
 ^ The Netherl and- Historian, pp. 515-16; Carleton, Memoirs, p. 18. 
 Carleton appears to have been encamped at Valenciennes between the 
 battle of Senefte and the advance to Ath. If so, Claverhouse was pre- 
 sumably there also. 
 
 ■■^ The Netherl and- Historian, pp. 516-18. 
 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 518, 527-28; Carleton, Memoirs, p. 21. Before William 
 marched from Ghent to the siege of Grave, ' his Highness having Notice 
 that ten Companies of the English Subjects at Bois-le-Duc [s' Herto- 
 genboseh] (but seven Leagues from the Grave) were compleat, well 
 armed and fit for Service, sent them Orders to march and joyn the Army 
 with all Expedition, which they performed in Two Days Time, and were 
 in Two Days after commanded into the Trenches.' iiernardi, who en- 
 listed in one of these companies, mentions among their captains, Sir 
 Henry Bellasize, Captain Thomas Monlc, Captain John Morgan, Captain 
 Philip Savage, and Hugh Mackay of Scourie. He gives the date of the 
 capitulation of Grave as 29th October (Bernardi, Life, pp. 17, 20).
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND 25 
 
 the commencement of a rivalry which Killiecrankie, 
 fifteen years later, tardily adjusted. That Claverhouse 
 ultimately left the Dutch service because his claims for 
 promotion were inadequately recognised is stated by Bal- 
 haldy and by the Memoirs of 1714. That his complaint 
 had reference to the preference shown to a particular 
 rival is also the assertion of both. His rival, according 
 to Balhaldy, was ' Mr. Collier, a son of the Earl of 
 Portmore,' who disappointed Claverhouse of the command 
 of one of the Scottish regiments in the Dutch service.^ 
 The Memoirs of 1714 do not mention the name of the 
 officer whose promotion Claverhouse so highly resented, nor 
 do they embroider the story with Balhaldy's picturesque 
 detail, but the ground-fact, that Claverhouse withdrew 
 from William's service because he failed to obtain the 
 high command he sought, is identical.^ 
 
 Balhaldy's story is interesting fiction. Macaulay dis- 
 missed it with the comment that the Palace of Loo, 
 where Clavcrhouse's breach of discipline ^ is said to have 
 occurred, was not then built ; and that the author of the 
 
 ^ His promotion is called the result of an * intrigue,' and Balhaldy 
 adds that Claverhouse, upon learning Colyear's appointment, gave him 
 some blows with his cane ' in the royal precincts. William sent for 
 him and demanded an explanation. ' The Captain answered, that he was 
 indeed in the wrong, since it was more his Highness his business to 
 have resented that quarrel than his ; because Mr. Collier had less injured 
 him in dissappointing him of the regiment, than he had done his Highness 
 in making him breck his word. Then replyed the Prince, in ane angry 
 tone, "I make yow full reparation, for I bestow on yow what is more 
 valuable than a regiment, v/hen I give yow your right arm ! " The 
 Captain subjoyned, that since his Highness had the goodness to give him 
 his liberty, he resolved to employ himself elsewhere, for he would not serve 
 a Prince longer that had brock his Word ' (Rfemoirs of Locheill, p. 275). 
 
 ^ ' One of the Scotch regiments in Holland becoming vacant, his interest 
 with the Court of England ' [which so far was certainly non-existent], 
 ' and the Prince of Orange's promises for services performed, encouraged 
 him to stand candidate for the regiment, which a Dutch interest carried 
 against him. He resented this affront so highly, as to leave the Dutch 
 service, and return to Scotland 1677' {Memoirs of Dundee, ed. Jenner, 
 p. 3). ^ See note ' above.
 
 26 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 story appeared to be under the impression that the 
 regulations against brawling within the royal precincts, 
 under Henry the Eighth's statute, were equally valid in 
 Holland.^ Neither objection conclusively damns the story. 
 Its disproof rests upon more direct evidence. Accord- 
 ing to Balhaldy, Claverhouse's Jacob was ' Mr. ColUer, a 
 son of the Earl of Portmore.' David Colyear, later the 
 first Earl of Portmore, entered William's service with 
 Claverhouse in July 1674. Yet Claverhouse's rival was 
 this man's son ! Assuming, however, that Balhaldy re- 
 ferred to David Colyear himself, disproof of his story is 
 positive. David Colyear did not receive a lieutenant- 
 colonelcy in William's service until 1683 — five years after 
 Claverhouse had left Holland ! ^ 
 
 In another category is the tradition that Claverhouse's 
 successful rival was his antagonist of later days, Hugh 
 Mackay of Scourie.^ Mackay was in the Bois-le-Duc con- 
 tingent summoned by William to the siege of Grave. In 
 the course of the siege Sir William Ballantine, a lieutenant- 
 colonel of the Scots Brigade, was killed,^ and on 19th 
 March 1675 Mackay received the vacant commission.^ 
 Two years later he obtained further promotion.^ Possibly 
 on both occasions Claverhouse was Mackay's competitor. 
 But that his rival's success inspired no personal rancour 
 may be inferred from the fact that the Grameid has no 
 
 1 Macaulay, Works, vol. iii. p. 269. 
 
 2 For Colyear's commission, see Ferguson, Scots Brigade in Holland, 
 vol. i. p. 505. Obviously Claverhouse could not have placed himself in 
 competition with Sir Alexander Colyear, the Prince's Scottish Audjutant- 
 General. Sir Alexander, in 1675, was given the command of a new 
 regiment formed at Bois-le-Duc [ibid., vol. i. p. 473). 
 
 ^ See Robert Mackay, House and Clan of Mackay, p. 388. 
 
 * See Ferguson, Scots Brigade, vol. i. p. 581. 
 
 ^ His commission was dated from 1 2th October 1674 (Ferguson, Scots 
 Brigade, vol. i. p. 470). 
 
 " See below, p. 29. Mr. Ferguson remarks : ' There seems no doubt 
 that on one of these occasions the preference so sharply avenged at Killie- 
 crankie took place ' {Scots Brigade, vol. i. p. 471).
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND 27 
 
 word upon it ; though, had it existed, the relation of the 
 two men in 1689 could hardly have failed to elicit it. 
 Nor did the preference shown to Mackay impel Claver- 
 house to renounce the service of an ungrateful Prince. 
 He did not withdraw from it until nearly three years 
 after Mackay's first commission ; until four months or 
 more after the second. In the interval he even accepted 
 a commission of lower rank than that to which he is 
 asserted to have aspired. 
 
 The campaign of 1675 was indecisive. Limburg was 
 besieged by the French, and William marched to its 
 relief from his camp near Louvain. At Roermond he 
 learned that the place had surrendered, and returned to 
 Brabant.^ The demolition of the walls of Maubeuge, 
 Enghien, and Nivelles, completed the campaign.^ At its 
 conclusion, or in the course of it, Claverhouse returned to 
 Scotland. He came home, it may be assumed, upon a 
 summons to his mother's death-bed,^ and remained in 
 Scotland until the spring of the following year. Early in 
 March 1676 he was in Edinburgh, and thence he wrote to 
 Thomas Steuart, younger of GrandtuUy : — 
 
 Edinburgh, March the 7, 1676. 
 Sir, — I think no wonder that a poor lad like yow should 
 prig thus for five pound with your good friend, who will may 
 be never have the occasion to ask another favour of yow. Send 
 but your horse here, and if he be wholl and sound, it shall not 
 be so litell a business shall keep us from a bargon. Give orders 
 to Jhon Steuart or Colin, to recaive my obligation. If ther be 
 any thing wher in I can serve you, either here or els wher, you 
 know hou friely you may comand me. I have always been, and 
 shall still bo, as much as I really am, 
 
 Dear Sir, your most humble servant, 
 
 J. CtRAHAME. 
 
 1 have got four of the best grou hounds of Scotland now, and 
 
 ^ Carleton, Alemoirs, p. 22. 
 
 2 Bernardi, Life, p. 23. He writes ' Newell,' which I take to be 
 Nivelles. ^ See above, p. 3.
 
 28 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 you be a good fellow you will send me a setting dogue, and then 
 I would be a prince.^ 
 
 Horse and hound were sent to him. Claverhouse wrote 
 again to young Grandtully a few days later to express his 
 thanks for both,^ and on 80th March 1G76 he sailed for 
 Holland.^ The chief incident of this year's campaign was 
 the siege of Maastricht. On 1st July William invested 
 the town. In response to their petition, he formed the 
 English volunteers into a single brigade under Sir John 
 Fenwick, and placed them in the lines next to his own 
 Guards.^ Ten or twelve days passed before the arrival of 
 William's heavy artillery. In the interval lines of circum- 
 vallation were thrown up. Trenches were then opened 
 towards a detached fort called 'The Dauphin.'^ The 
 latter operation was commenced upon 18th July, and the 
 execution of it was entrusted to William's Guards and 
 others, under the command of the Rhinegrave.^ At 
 the end of July William's Guards, with other regi- 
 ments, were ordered to assault 'The Dauphin,' and 
 did so with the loss of three captains and other 
 
 1 Eraser, Red Booh of Grandtully, vol. ii. p. 229. 
 
 - Il)kl., vol. ii. p. 230. The letter is imdatecl. 
 
 ^ On 4th April 1676, James Graham, Claverhouse's chamberlain, writes 
 to young Grandtully from Dundee : ' The Laird off Clawerhous hid his 
 service presented to yow, and did intend till haw wreittin to yow himsellf , 
 but was much strained with tym, for hie intended not till haw sailed till 
 Munonday last, but was forsed to seall upon Saterday [.30th March], and 
 went a litell in heast. But I hop this day hie is in Holland. Sir, your 
 hors giws him good satisfaction at present, and I hop the longer he keeps 
 him the better. Sir, Clawerhous commanded me to intreitt yow if ye 
 culd help Colonell Graham with any men who wold go to Holland with 
 him willingly, hie wold tak it as a fawor dun to himself. Hie [Colonel 
 Graham] is heir for the present' {Red Booh of Grandtully, vol. i. p. cxl). 
 
 * William Carr, A Particular Account of the Present Siege of Mastricht, 
 pp. 2, 3. The account is in the form of a letter, dated from the Hague on 
 5th September 1676, new style. Carr describes Fenwick's brigade as 
 ' next his Highnesses own Guards on the Boss-port-side. ' 
 
 '' Bernardi, Life, p. 29. 
 
 " Carr, A Particular Account, etc., p. 4.
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND 29 
 
 officers.^ On 4th August the Enghsh brigade carried the 
 bastion, and held it until the springing of three mines in 
 the captured outwork threw the victors into confusion, and 
 enabled the garrison to retake it.^ The approach of the 
 French compelled William to raise the siege, and on 28th 
 August he withdrew.^ His losses had been enormous.* 
 
 To the wide gaps which the siege of Maastricht had 
 made among the officers engaged in it, rather than to any 
 exceptional services which ho had so far rendered, Claver- 
 house probably owed his first promotion in William's 
 service. On 24th November 1G76 he received a com- 
 mission as ritmeester, or captain of horse, in the regiment 
 commanded by Major Cabeljauw.^ He held it for little 
 more than a year.^ Hugh Mackay of Scourie, however, 
 kept ahead of him in the competition, if it existed, for 
 promotion. On 27th August 1677 Mackay was com- 
 missioned colonel of one of the Scottish regiments in the 
 Dutch service, in the room of Colonel Henry Graham,'^ 
 
 ^ Carr, A Particular Account, etc., p. 7. Bernardi {Life, p. 30) describes 
 the assault as conducted by ' the Prince of Orange's Blue Guards.' 
 
 ^ Bernardi, Life, p. 30. According to Carr's Accoimt (p. 8), ' the Guards 
 of the Prince ' were under orders to second tlie English brigade in the 
 event of the latter failing in the assault on 4th August. 
 
 ^ Carr, A Particular Accoimt, etc., p. 16. 
 
 * * Eleven Thousand of his Highness's Army were killed and wounded ; 
 three Colonels of the English Brigade also lost their Lives, viz. Colonel 
 Widderington, Brother to the late Lord of that Name, Colonel Dolenian 
 [? Thomas Dolman], and one of the 8cotch Colonels [? Henry Graham]. 
 Sir John Fenwick was wounded, and near one Half of the other Officers 
 and private Soldiers of every Regiment was killed and wounded ' (Ber- 
 nardi, Life, p. 32). 
 
 ^ For this hitherto unrecorded fact in Claverhouses's career I am in- 
 debted to the Assistant Keeper of the Dutch Archives, who was so good 
 as to direct a search of the records for references to Claverhouse's Dutch 
 service. In the commission of 2J:th November 1G76 Claverhouse is 
 described as ' baron de Claverhous.' Further investigation of the Dutch 
 Archives has unfortunately failed to elicit any information as to the ser- 
 vice of Major Cabeljauw's regiment, or to Claverhouse's conduct in it. 
 
 ** See below, p. 31. 
 
 ^ Ferguson, Scots Brigade, vol. i. p. 470. Mackay's commission Mas 
 dated from 28th April 1677.
 
 30 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 who had probably been killed in the course of the sicge.^ 
 Claverhouse's recent promotion, and the fact that the 
 vacant regiment had been commanded by his namesake, 
 may alike have prompted him to become a candidate in 
 opposition to Mackay. But there is no evidence that he 
 did so. Certainly he was not impelled by a sense of un- 
 requited service to resign the commission he had so 
 recently gained. 
 
 The campaign of 1677 was the last which Claverhouse 
 served under William of Orange. Early in the spring of 
 the year the Due d'Orleans laid siege to St. Omer. 
 Without waiting for ' the majestick Motions of the 
 Spaniards/ his allies, William marched to the relief of 
 the town. At Cassel, whilst traversing difficult ground, 
 he was attacked by Orleans.^ The battle gave the French 
 one of the notable victories of the war. William retreated 
 and left St. Omer to its fate. After an interval of six 
 weeks he invested Charleroi. Conde drew near, however, 
 and getting between Charleroi and Brussels, whence 
 William's siege artillery was expected, compelled the 
 besieging army to draw off. The siege of Charleroi was 
 abandoned, and a few weeks later William marched to 
 Enghien.^ Leaving his army encamped there, he pro- 
 ceeded to England, and in November 1677 married the 
 Princess Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York. 
 
 Simultaneously, so tradition would have it, Claverhouse, 
 mortified and disappointed, flung himself free from an 
 ungrateful master. That the tradition is wholly unreliable 
 in its incidents has already been shown. It is equally so 
 in the general impression it conveys. The ascertained 
 
 ^ See Beruardi, Life, p. 32. 
 
 " Carleton, Memoirs, p. 31. According to Carleton, William was 
 marching ' over a Morass,' and liis troops were not able, ' by the Strait- 
 ness of the Passage, to engage all at once.' He adds that the French 
 attacked before half of William's army was over. 
 
 ^ Carleton, Memoirs, p. 34 ; Bernard!, Life, pp. 37 et seq.
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND 31 
 
 facts are two : On 9th December 1677 Claverhouse's suc- 
 cessor as ritmeester in the regiment of Major Cabeljauw 
 received his commission.^ By that date, therefore, Claver- 
 house had decisively left the Dutch service. On the 
 following 19th February 1678 the Marquis of Montrose 
 was able to refer to his kinsman of Claverhouse as 
 strongly recommended to him for a commission by the 
 Duke of York.2 It is impossible to escape the conclusion 
 that Claverhouse owed to William his introduction to 
 James's notice.^ William's recommendation of Claver- 
 house to James must be accounted for upon one of two 
 grounds. Either his good offices were spontaneous, in 
 which case the obligation under which he lay to Claver- 
 house was something beyond that of a commander to a 
 subordinate. Or, on the other hand, William's recommen- 
 dation was solicited by Claverhouse. Both suppositions 
 equally veto the motive of his resignation as given by 
 Balhaldy and the Memoirs of 1714. For, in the one case, 
 it is inconceivable that William should have foisted on to 
 the shoulders of another obligations binding on himself. 
 In the other, it is equally impossible to believe that 
 Claverhouse should have condescended to beg for the 
 mediation of one who had refused, as Balhaldy asserts, 
 to pay his own debt of honour. 
 
 To disentangle fact from fiction in this crisis of Claver- 
 house's career : He had entered William's service in 
 1674 as a volunteer, and served in that rank till 1676, 
 when he received his captaincy. Balhaldy and the 
 Memoirs of 1714 detail an unauthenticated and im- 
 
 ^ State Archives at the Hague. ^ See below, p. 35. 
 
 ** Balhaldy states that William is said to have I'ecommended Claver- 
 house as ' a tine gentleman, and a brave officer, fitt for any otfice, civil or 
 military.' William was indeed generous, if the rest of Balhaldy's story 
 is correct {Memoirs of Locheill, p. 275). Morer writes : ' At liis [Claver- 
 house's] Return [to England], however, the Prince gave him a Letter of 
 Recommendation, directed to the Duke of York, with a Request to pro- 
 vide for him ' (Short Account, p. 95).
 
 32 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 probable tradition in ascribing to him William's rescue at 
 Sencffe. If further disproof of the legend than that 
 already advanced is needed, it is found in the fact that 
 Claverhouse waited for over two years before promotion 
 rewarded a service which, if rendered at all at that 
 period, would assuredly have been immediately recog- 
 nised. On the other hand, that Claverhouse established 
 some claim upon William's notice beyond that of mere 
 service under him may be accepted upon the authority of 
 the Grameid. Taking it as established that Claverhouse 
 did render some signal service to William, the occasion of 
 it is rather to be looked for in the campaigns of 1676 or 
 1677. Claverhouse's commission as ritmeester in Novem- 
 ber 1676 suggests, though far from conclusively, that the 
 campaign of that year had made William his debtor. 
 But the balance of probability inclines to the campaign 
 of 1677. The battle of Cassel and the operations round 
 Charleroi furnished a better opportunity for the asserted 
 rescue of William than the campaigns of the preceding 
 years,^ and more naturally fall in with William's immediate 
 recommendation of Claverhouse to James. 
 
 Nor is it necessary to postulate wounded pride, unre- 
 quited service, or disappointed ambition, in explanation of 
 Claverhouse's resignation of his Dutch commission. He 
 had conclusively adopted the profession of arms, but that 
 he contemplated an indefinitely prolonged service abroad 
 is improbable. He had proceeded to Holland, as he had 
 earlier to France, to acquire the best training in the 
 science of his profession. Having acquired it, inclination 
 drew him homeward to apply it. His mother's recent 
 death, duty to his estate, clamoured equally for his 
 
 ^ When William withdrew from the siege of Charleroi, he again 
 traversed the field of Seneffe (see Carleton, Memoirs, p. 33). One is 
 tempted to hazard the conjecture that the scene of Claverhouse's service 
 to William may have been on the battlefield, though not at the battle of 
 SeuefFe.
 
 SERVICE IN HOLLAND 33 
 
 return. That lie did not remain in Scotland upon his 
 brief visit in 1675-76 was certainly due to his desire to 
 secure in William's service such a rank as should com- 
 mend him for employment in his native land. By 
 November 1676 he had obtained his captaincy. A service 
 of some value to William increased his claim for con- 
 sideration. William's visit to England gave him oppor- 
 tunity to press it. William did so with happiest result. 
 His good word proved the first step in a career of almost 
 breathless advancement.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 DRUMCLOG 
 
 By 9th December 1677 Claverhouse had resigned his 
 commission in the Dutch service.^ The hope of employ- 
 ment drew him to Scotland, where a narrow-minded but 
 conscientious peasantry'' was being surely driven to revolt. 
 His interest was with the Duke of York, and to London 
 he perhaps made his way. Possibly he accompanied 
 William of Orange thither. Whatever his passport — 
 William's recommendation of him, his military service, 
 his distinguished bearing, a decisiveness of character 
 and suggestion of masterful ability — Claverhouse faced 
 homewards assured of the good-will of a Prince whose 
 friendship he more than requited. He waited no long- 
 time for proof of its existence. 
 
 In February 1678 a new regiment, ' His Royal Highness' 
 Regiment of Horse,' was raised for service in Flanders. Its 
 colonel was Henry Mordaunt, second Earl of Peterborough. 
 The young Marquis of Montrose received a troop in it.^ 
 The regiment was commissioned on 16th February,^ and 
 
 ^ State Archives at the Hague. 
 
 2 S. P. Domestic Entry Book, No. 29, fol. 254. The regiment was 
 disbanded in January and March 1679 (Dalton, English Army Lists, vol. 
 i. p. 202). On 19th January 1679 Barillon writes from London to 
 Louis XIV. : ' Le regiment de cavalerie de M. le Due d'York fut casse 
 hier. J'apprends cependant qu'il a rencontre de grandes difficultes a 
 tirer des orphevres I'argent que la cour esperait en avoir. Cela n'est pas 
 d'un mediocre embarras, car il en faut pour licencier les troupes et pour 
 les fairs subsister ' (Campana de Cavelli, Les derniers Stuarts a Saint- 
 Germain en Laye, vol. i. p. 243). 
 
 * Domestic Entry Book, ibid. 
 34
 
 DRUMCLOG 35 
 
 three days later (19tli February) Montrose wrote to his 
 kmsman of Claverhouse to offer, with apology to one who 
 so recently had held a higher rank, the lieutenancy of his 
 troop. ' I pretend that non bot gentlemen should ride 
 in it' the Marquis explained.^ Montrose was clearly 
 anxious to enlist his kinsman's service and experience. 
 He wrote to Graham of Monorgan on the same date to 
 urge him to influence Claverhouse. The Duke of York, 
 he stated, 'has a very good opinion of Claverhouse, and he 
 bid me endeavour by all means to get him for my 
 Lieutenant. Therefore, I most earnestly beg that you 
 would be pleased to represent to him the advantages he 
 may have by being near the Duke, and by making him- 
 self better known to him. And withal assure him from 
 me, that if he Avill embrace this offer, he shall also share 
 with me in my advancement and better fortune.'- 
 
 That Claverhouse accepted Montrose's offer is generally 
 asserted by his biographers.^ That he should have 
 rejected it in face of the Duke of York's recommendation 
 
 ^ Smythe, Lettars of John G'rahame of Claverhovt<e, Bann. Club, 
 p. 87. 
 
 " Quoted in Napier, vol. i. p. 184. 
 
 ■' My predecessors have fallen into a bewilderment of error upon this 
 point, and upon Claverhouse's early military service in Scotland. Mr. 
 Morris {Claverhouse, p. 44), who misunderstands the nature of Mon- 
 trose's commission, asserts that Claverhouse accepted the lieutenancy, 
 and that 'promotion was not long delayed.' Claverhouse, in fact, never 
 held a lower commission than that of captain in Scotland. The author 
 of The Desjiot's Champion also confuses the Duke of York's Regiment, 
 commissioned in February 1678, with the three independent troops of 
 horse raised in Scotland later in the year, to the command of one of 
 which Claverhouse was appointed. Mr. Henderson in his article in 
 the Diet. Nat. Biog. falls into the same error as the author of The 
 Despot's Champion. There is no evidence, he says, when Claverhouse 
 obtained his lieutenant's commission, but he obtained his captaincy when 
 Montrose succeeded to a command. Montrose, in fact, was on 26tli 
 October 1678 commissioned Captain of the Life Guard of Horse in Scot- 
 land in room of the Marquis of Atholl ( Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. v. 
 fol. 34). Not only had Claverhouse no connection whatever with the 
 Life Guards, but his commission as captain of his own independent 
 troop was senior to Montrose's by more than a month.
 
 36 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 of him may appear strange. That he did reject it cannot 
 be questioned, for one Patrick Graham was commissioned 
 to the Heutenancy.^ On what grounds Claverhouse re- 
 fused his kinsman's invitation can only be conjectured. 
 If a desire to return home had weighed in his so recent 
 resignation of his Dutch commission, his unwillingness 
 to undertake a further period of foreign service is intel- 
 ligible. Possibly the proffered lieutenancy, even in a 
 troop of gentlemen riders, seemed barely to measure his 
 deserts, Wliatever the reason, His Royal Highness's 
 Regiment of Horse went to Flanders without him. 
 
 Claverhouse's biographer flounders in a dull sea of con- 
 jecture in this early period of his hero's career. In 
 September 1678 the young laird was in the saddle, and 
 his unenviable task of Whig-harrying had begun. But 
 up to that point his movements are hard to trace. On 
 Montrose's offer he had turned his back. Perhaps he 
 never received it — at least, in time to say Yes or No 
 to it. Montrose had written from London on 19th 
 February. A week later, 27th February 1678, Claver- 
 house had the Privy Council's permission ' to goe aff the 
 Kingdome.'^ Why he went and whither he went are 
 mysteries soluble conjecturally merely. One imagines 
 that his recent departure from Holland had been sudden. 
 The resignation of his Dutch commission may have been 
 made from England, and withheld until he was assured 
 
 ^ Oddly enough, a John Gi'aham was commissioned cornet in Mon- 
 trose's troop (Dalton, English Army Lists, vol. i. p. 202). As to this 
 Cornet John Graham, the Privy Council on 2nd May 1678, gave permission 
 to leave the kingdom to ' John Grahame, post-master Generall, Represent- 
 ing that he being called to abroad with the Marquis of Montrose, his 
 cheiffe, for his Majesties present service' {Privy Council Acta, June 1673 
 —Aug. 1678, fol. 698). See Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1673-75, p. 92. 
 
 - Pricy Council Acta, June 1673— Aug. 1678, fol. 619. The Council, on 
 3rd January 1678, in consideration of ' the great disorders latly com- 
 mitted in some westerne and other shires,' had forbidden noblemen, 
 heritors, magistrates of bui'ghs, and others, to leave the Kingdom (ibid., 
 fol. 554).
 
 DRUMCLOG 87 
 
 of York's patronage. If so, Holland might call him 
 for the adjustment of business, and a good-bye to old 
 comrades. His visit, to Holland or elsewhere, was of 
 no long duration. By the middle of June, there is 
 ground for believing, he was again in Scotland.^ On 
 10th July ho was appointed by the Estates to act as 
 a commissioner for raising ' a new and voluntar offer ' 
 of £180,000.2 
 
 With the autumn of 1678 Claverhouse's career merges 
 into the history of Scotland. To elaborate the mise-en- 
 scene is happily unnecessary. The setting is familiar. 
 Briefly, eighteen years had shattered the hopes of 1660, 
 the annus mirabilis. To the restored monarchy the 
 Covenant was frankly anathema. But the extravagances 
 of Laud were avoidable and avoided, and the tenets of 
 Calvin had freedom under Episcopal direction. The 
 hybrid satisfied or disturbed Scotland unequally. In the 
 North, Presbyterianism was adaptive, though reluctant. 
 In the South-West it stood at bay, resolute and 
 defiant. 
 
 The standing military establishment in Scotland in 
 1678, at the moment when Claverhouse entered it, con- 
 sisted of His Majesty's Horse and Foot Guards, the Earl 
 of Mar's infantry regiment, two companies of Highlanders 
 under Colonel James Menzies and the Earl of Caithness, 
 and three companies of dragoons under the Viscount 
 Kingston, Captain John Strachan, and Captain John 
 Inglis,^ In September 1678 this establishment was 
 increased by three independent troops of horse, to the 
 captaincy of which the Earl of Airlie, the Earl of Home, 
 
 ^ On IStli June 1678 he was served heir to his grandfather and great- 
 great-grandfather in certain Lands {Sei'vices of Heirs, vol. i. Forfar, 
 Nos. 475, 476), and to hiw father in the Glen or Barony of Ogilvie 
 {ScrymgeotLr-Wedderhurn Charier-Chest, Box iv. , bundle iii.. No. 7). 
 
 2 Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. viii. p. 22S. 
 
 3 Warraiit Book, Scotland, vol. v. No. 94.
 
 38 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 and Claverhouse were respectively commissioned on 23rd 
 September 1678.i 
 
 Undoubtedly Claverhouse owed his commission to the 
 Duke of York's favour and personal interest with the 
 King. For his troop there must have been many suitors, 
 and, as the disposal of the other commands shows, of 
 higher rank than himself. There is no reason to doubt 
 Thomas Morer's statement, that while Home and Airlie 
 received their commissions on Lauderdale's nomination, 
 the King withdrew the third from the minister's patronage.^ 
 From the troop to which royal favour had appointed him, 
 Claverhouse was not severed during his service in Scot- 
 land. As captain of it, and ultimately as colonel of the 
 regiment of which the three troops formed the nucleus, 
 his men learned to know him a brave, resolute, and 
 inspiriting leader, and to yield him a devotion which drew 
 a band of the shattered regiment round him in his supreme 
 moment at Killiecrankie. 
 
 Within a few weeks of his commission Claverhouse was 
 on active duty, of a type barely satisfying, one imagines, 
 to one who knew military service in another form. In 
 the South- West disaffection was rife. On 14th May 1678 
 the Privy Council had informed the King of 'numerous 
 
 ^ Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. iv. fol. 419-421. Each troop consisted 
 of a captain, lieutenant, cornet, quartermaster, three corporals, two 
 trumpets, and sixty rank and file. The captain's pay was 14s. per day, 
 including an allowance of 4s. for two horses. On 27th September 1678, 
 Robert Graham (who was killed at Drumclog), and James Graliam, were 
 commissioned to the cornetcy and quartermastership of Claverhouse's 
 troop (ibid., vol. iv. fol. 452-53). Upon the death of the latter, Claver- 
 house's brother, David, was on 3rd March 1680 commissioned to the 
 vacant quartermastership (ibid., vol. v. fol. 437). There is in the Register 
 House a set of vouchers for the pay of Claverhouse's troop, dating from 
 28th November 1678. 
 
 - Short Account of Scotland, p. 95. Merer writes : 'And 'twas a par- 
 ticular Testimony of the King's Favour ; for tho' he allowed Duke 
 Lauderdale to dispose of the other Commissions as he thought good, yet 
 he excepted Mr. Graham's, and 'twas the only I^xception on that Occa- 
 sion.'
 
 DRUMCLOG 39 
 
 lield-couventicles kept in several places of the kingdom, 
 who, Avith armed men, have in many places resisted your 
 authority, and , . . seeing these insolences are daily iter- 
 ated, and are still upon the growing hand,' they urged 
 the despatch of troops, ' whose constant employment may 
 be for dissipating and interrupting those rendezvouses of 
 rebellion.' ^ To what extent frequenters of the forbidden 
 conventicles already contemplated a resort to arms, is 
 difficult to determine.'^ The Government had done little 
 to convince them that passive measures were likely to 
 obtain consideration and tolerant dealing. With fresh 
 forces raised to coerce them, and the soldiery quartered 
 in their midst, Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge were 
 inevitable. 
 
 Dumfriesshire and Annandale were assigned to Claver- 
 house and his troop. Captain John Inglis and a com- 
 pany of dragoons were at his disposal. On 27th December 
 1678 he was at Moffat, and on the morrow, on the point of 
 marching to Dumfries, sent his first despatch to the Earl 
 of Linlithgow, Commander-in-Chief. He had already 
 learned, he told his chief, ' that this contry has been 
 very loose.' In the past week there had been ' grate field 
 conventikles just by here, with great contempt of the 
 reguler clergy, who complain extreamly, when I tell them 
 I have no orders to aprehend any for past misdemainers.' 
 A more pressing difficulty faced him. ' They tell me,' he 
 wrote, ' that the one end of the bridge of Dumbfrich is in 
 
 1 Quoted in Napier, vol. ii. p. 185. 
 
 - Speaking of the rising of 1679, Wodrow declares : ' There was no pre- 
 concert, nor any formed design laid down ; but the oppressed people 
 gradually fell into the rising, by a chain of things making it some way 
 necessary to them ' {History, vol. iii. p. 62). On the other hand, one 
 Robert Smitli, formerly of the parish of Dunscore, Dumfries, gave 
 evidence a few years later, to the effect that ' for near two years before 
 the Rebellion, in the year 1679,' prepai'ations for a rising were being 
 made {A True Account and Declaration of the horrid Conxjjiracij again.^t 
 the Late King, Jiis present Majesty, and the Govermnent. London, 1685).
 
 40 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Galaiia.' The Nitli, in fact, bounded his commission. 
 Hence, he complained, ' they may hold conventicles at 
 our nose, [and] we not dare to disspat them, seing our 
 orders confines us to Dumfriche and Anandell. Such ane 
 insult as that would not please me,' he added, 'and on 
 the other hand, I am unwilling to exceed orders, so that 
 I expect from your Lordship orders how to cary in such 
 cases.' 1 
 
 To picture Claverhouse indifferent to instructions is 
 at variance with every known fact regarding him. His 
 reluctance to exceed orders was not the timidity of in- 
 experience. ' I must acknowledge that till now in any 
 service I have been in, I never inquyred further in the 
 lawes then the orders of my superiour ofl&cers,' he wrote 
 to Linlithgow a few days later from Dumfries (6th January 
 1679). Linlithgow had assured him that his scrupulous 
 limiting of his activities to within the bounds of Dumfries 
 
 o 
 
 and Annandale was ' frivolous.' Meanwhile he had begun 
 to execute his orders within his immediate province. At 
 Castlemilk, in Annandale, a conventicle had been built 
 ' upon the expence of the comon purse of the disaffected.' 
 In its internal fittings it masqueraded as a cow-byre. On 
 3rd January 1679, Claverhouse with a squad of his troop 
 superintended its destruction. ' So perished the charity 
 of many ladys,' he wrote to Linlithgow, by way of epitaph.- 
 Meanwhile the Government was intent upon a measure 
 which considerably enlarged the powers already vested in 
 Claverhouse. On 9th January 1679, the Committee for 
 Public Affairs drew up a memorandum for the King's 
 
 ^ Smythe, Letters, p. 1. 
 
 - Ihid., p. 3. The following passage from his letter illustrates 
 Claverhouse's character : ' Mr. Cuper, who is here baily and stewart 
 for my Lord Stormont, offered to aprehend Bel, that built the meeting 
 house, if I would concur ; I sayd to him that it would be acceptable, 
 but that the order from the Counsell did only bear the taken up tlie 
 names of persones accessory to the building of it. '
 
 DRUMCLOG 41 
 
 approval. It pointed to the threatened ' subversion of 
 the protestant reHgion, as well as the peace of the 
 kingdom,' owing to ' the dangerous and pernicious prin- 
 ciples instilled into the minds of unwary people, by 
 seditious preachers in their scandalous conventicles.' It 
 drew attention to the difficulty of coping with the danger 
 from a distance, and recommended that the Council 
 should be empowered to nominate sheriffs -depute or 
 bailies-depute ' where the council shall find sheriff- 
 deputes and other deputes , . . have been remiss.' The new 
 officials would be empowered ' to put the laws in execu- 
 tion only against withdrawers from public ordinances, 
 keepers of conventicles, such as are guilty of disorderly 
 baptisms and marriages, resetting and communing with 
 fugitive and intei communed persons, and other vagrant 
 preachers.' ^ On 18th January the King approved of the 
 Committee's recommendation,- and ten days later (28th 
 January) the Council resolved to proceed to the crea- 
 tion of sheriffs-depute within the disturbed area.^ Its 
 purpose was to combine civil powers with the military 
 authority of officers on whom it could depend for a more 
 rigorous prosecution of the law than the heritable sheriffs 
 and their deputes had so far shown. Accordingly on 27th 
 February, Claverhouse and his lieutenant, Andrew Bruce 
 of Earlshall, were nominated Sheriffs-depute of Duml'ries, 
 Annandale, Wigton, and Kirkcudbright. Sir Robert 
 Grierson of Lag was associated with them in Wigton, and 
 Captain John Paterson in Kirkcudbright.* 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. pp. 11-12. - Ibid., vol. iii. p. 13. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 13. The districts were, the shires of Lanark, Ren- 
 frew, Ayr, Wigton, Perth, Dumfries, Dumbarton, Linlithgow, Fife and 
 Kinross, Stirling, Haddington, Berwick, Roxburgli, and the stewartries 
 of Kirkcudbright and Annandale. 
 
 * Ibid. , vol. iii. p. 20. The new deputes, though nominated by tlie 
 Council, received their deputation from the heritable sherifT or steward. 
 The Earl of Queensberry's deputation (undated) to Claverhouse and Earls- 
 hall is pi'inted in Napier, vol. i. p. 253.
 
 42 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 At the age of thirty, and little more than a year since 
 his withdrawal from Holland, Claverhouse found himself 
 closely involved in one of the most pitiable chapters of 
 his country's history. That he whole-heartedly approved 
 of the policy which he was commissioned to carry out 
 is attested by his letters, and is not to his discredit. 
 To imagine that those whose fear and hatred he earned 
 were persecuted solely as irreconcilables in religion is 
 as far from the truth as to picture their religious ex- 
 travagances representative of an ideal which the country 
 generally was anxious to endorse. Conventicleism was 
 in its general aspect undoubtedly revolutionary, in that 
 it presented itself as a political manifestation against an 
 authority established and otherwise generally acquiesced 
 in. Howie speaks of the notorious David Hackston of 
 Rathillet, one of the Archbishop's murderers, as ' declared 
 a rebel to the King, though no rebel to Zion's King.' ' 
 The sentence affords some vindication of the Govern- 
 ment's attitude. No civil authority — at least in the 
 seventeenth century, when religious profession and civil 
 duty Avere inextricably mingled — could allow a consider- 
 able and active section of its subjects to contract or 
 covenant itself outside its legal and natural allegiance, 
 or to impose qualifications upon its submission to that 
 authority. Political necessity was at the root of religious 
 intolerance in the seventeenth century in Scotland as in 
 England. To speculate upon the more practical wisdom 
 of milder treatment of dissentients, or to judge the 
 authorities upon their failure to adopt it, is to confuse 
 the character of the period. Persecutors and persecuted 
 alike were the product of their environment, and 
 share in not unequal proportions its narrowness and 
 its bigotry.2 
 
 ^ Scots Worthim, vol. i. p. .37;''. 
 
 - Speaking of the Cixmeronian position as consisting in ' disowning all
 
 DRUMCLOG 43 
 
 Throughout January and February 1679, Claverhouse's 
 headquarters were at Dumfries. Of his promised weekly 
 letters to his Chief but few are extant. On 7th February 
 he sent intelligence that a batch of prisoners was on its 
 way to Edinburgh.^ On the following day he wrote again 
 (8th February). He was far from satisfied with the 
 quartering of his troops and with the arrangements made 
 by the Commissioners of Supply. With characteristic 
 decisiveness he added: 'What to doe in this case your 
 Lordship can best tell ; for my pairt, if my troup com to 
 want hay and straw, I will goe to any of the comissioners 
 lands that ar adjacent, and talk it, offering the rats [rates], 
 and think I doe nothing but what I may answer for, 
 thogh I be very unwilling to disoblidge any gentlemen.' 
 He broached another grievance : ' My Lord, good intelli- 
 gence is the thing we want most here. Mr. Welch ^ and 
 others preach securly with in twenty or thretty myles of 
 us, but we can doe nothing for want of spays [spies] ; if 
 the counsell and your Lordship thoght fit, there should 
 be so many inter tined for every quarter, which would be 
 of great use.' ^ On 24th February he recurred to the 
 same subject. He had received an order to seize six 
 persons in Galloway. He had obeyed it at once, and after 
 riding forty miles, ' which is the most can be riden in one 
 night,' had found two only of those he was in search of. 
 The wives of two of his quarry he had found ' laying above 
 
 temporal authority, which did not flow from and through the Solemn 
 League and Covenant,' Sir Walter Scott remarks : ' This doctrine . . . 
 is in theory, and would be in practice, inconsistent with the safety of any 
 well-regulated government, because the Covenaiiters deny to their 
 governors that toleration, which was iuiquitously refused to themselves. 
 In many respects, therefore, we cannot be surprised at the anxiety and 
 rigour with which the Cameronians were persecuted, although we may 
 be of opinion, that milder means would have induced a melioration of 
 their principles' [Minstrehy of (lie Scottish Border, Poetical Works, 
 vol. ii. p. 22G). 
 
 ^ Smythe, Letters, p. 9. ^ John Welcli, minister of Irongray. 
 
 2 Smythe, Letter li, p. 11. 
 
 /
 
 44 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 the clothes in the bed, and great candles lighted,' expect- 
 ing his arrival. Those whom he caught, the women told 
 hira, had none to blame but themselves, since they ' would 
 not contribut for intelligence.' So completely were his 
 movements anticipated, Claverhouse complained, that 
 ' tlier is almost no body lays in tlier bed, that knowes 
 themselfs any ways guilty, with in fourty milles of us, 
 and with in a few days I shall be upon them three scor 
 of mylles of at on bout, for seasing on the others contined 
 in the order.' The stretch of country committed to him 
 was, in fact, more than he could adequately police ; ^ he 
 put its range at ' above a hondred myles.' The proximity 
 of the coast was another difficulty ; ' for all those rogues 
 run over to Yrland.' Portpatrick and Ballantrae he 
 proposed to secure. He asked that similar vigilance 
 might be exercised in the Ayrshire ports.- 
 
 To a young commander whose striking power was 
 already ineffective within a forty-miles radius, added 
 responsibilities were honourable but distracting. On 27th 
 February 1679 the Council framed their commission to 
 Claverhouse and the other newly-nominated sheriffs- 
 depute. They were instructed to dissipate conventicles, 
 to apprehend their frequenters, and also all vagrant 
 ministers, intercommuned persons, and others declared 
 fugitive by the Council or courts, or whose apprehension 
 might be ordered by the Council. They were empowered 
 to cite before them persons frequenting conventicles or 
 performing illegal marriages or baptisms ; to ' unlaw ' such 
 as refused to appear when cited, and to impound the 
 movables of such as failed to pay fines, ' forbearing always 
 
 1 An Act of Council of 13th February 1G79 partly met Claverhouse's 
 complaint. One company of foot, one troop of Horse Guards, and one 
 company of dragoons were allocated to Galloway, and were directed to 
 ' oversee ' Wigtonshire and Kirkcudbright (Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 16). 
 
 2 Smythe, Letters, p. 13. Another letter to Linlithgow, undated, but 
 presumably written in February or March 1679, is in ibid., p. 15, but is 
 of no particular importance.
 
 DRUMCLOG 45 
 
 labouring oxen or horse from the last of October to the 
 last of May for labouring.' At the desire of the parish 
 minister they were licensed to apprehend 'any person 
 who shall contemptuously disobey the discipline and 
 censures of the church,' and to imprison them until they 
 found surety for their good behaviour ; to prosecute such 
 as withdrew from the services of their parish church, 
 and to report to the Council the names and particulars of 
 those they apprehended. Their work was to be paid by 
 results : ' You are to apply the whole fines of all the 
 persons who are not landed men to yourself, and the other 
 sheriff-deputes who concur mutually with you at each 
 respective sentence and proceeding, and to their members 
 of court, and collectors ; and the fines of all landed men, 
 and their wives and children, the one half to the com- 
 missioners appointed within their jurisdiction, the other 
 half to be forthcoming to the king, which the commis- 
 sioners are appointed to uplift, and be countable for the 
 one half The deputes were to hold their courts ' once 
 every week at least, and oftener as you shall think fit.' ^ 
 
 Amid the calls of public service Claverhouse found 
 leisure to enter upon a correspondence of a personal 
 bearing. It is too indicative of his purposeful character, / 
 his abounding self-confidence, and resolution to push his 
 interests in every inviting channel, to hold over to its 
 more natural and later context. The Earldom of Menteith 
 was in 1679 in the hands of its eighth holder, William 
 Graham. His health was bad, he was separated from his 
 wife, he was childless, and his estates were deeply encum- 
 bered. His heiress — his titles excepted — was his cousin, 
 Helen Graham, the daughter of his uncle, Sir James 
 Graham. On whose initiative is not clear, Claverhouse 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. pp. 21-23. The commission was probably not im- 
 mediately operative. The order to Queensberry to appoint Claverhouse 
 and Earlshall as his deputes gave him until 2nd April 1679 to do so 
 (Napier, vol. ii. p. 196).
 
 46 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 threw himself into a pretty scheme which promised 
 greatly to his advantage. He proposed to marry Helen 
 Graham, whom probably he had never seen; to make the 
 much encumbered Earl his pensioner, and eventually, if 
 the necessary authority could be obtained, to succeed to 
 the Earldom. At about the time Avhen he received his 
 troop, he visited Menteith and found him sympathetic. 
 Montrose also, who was consulted as head of the family, 
 seemed 'very well satisfyed,' though he played for his 
 own hand later. Shortly after, Claverhouse despatched a 
 delightfully ingenuous communication to Menteith : ^ — 
 
 ' My dear Lord, 
 
 Since I pairted with you, I Avaited on my Lord 
 Montrose at Sterling, and from thence to Comernad, and so to 
 his owen house. I told him all that had passed betuixt your 
 Lordship and me; he seemes to be very well satisfyed, and 
 assurs me that he will com to Edinbourg when ever I shall 
 advertise him. I would apoint no daye till I akquainted your 
 Lordship with it. So, my Lord, if you contineu your resolution 
 in it, I shall wait for your comands with this bearer. 
 
 My Lord, as your friend and servant, I doe tak the liberty to 
 give you on advise, which is that ther can be nothing so ad- 
 vantagious for you as to setle your affaires, and establish your 
 successor in tyme, for it can doe you no prejudice if you com to 
 have any childring of your owen body, and will be much foi- 
 your quyet and comfort if yoe have non ; for who ever you mak 
 choyse of will be in place of a sonne. You knou that Julius 
 Caesar had no need to regrait the want of isseu, having adopted 
 Augustus, for he kneu certenly that he had secured to himself 
 a thankfull and usefull friend, us well as a wyse successor, 
 neither of which he could have promised himself by having 
 childring; for nobody knous whether they begit wyse men or 
 fooles, beseids that the tays of gratitud and friendship ar 
 stronger in generous mynds than those of natur. My Lord, I 
 may, without being .suspected of self interest, offer some raisons 
 to reneu to you the advantage of that resolution you have taken 
 in ray faveurs. First, that there is nobody of my estat out 
 
 ^ lied Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 170. The letter is undated.
 
 DRUMCLOG 47 
 
 of your nam would confound there famly in yours, and 
 nobody in the nam is able to give you those conditions, nor 
 bring in to you so considerable an interest, besids that I will 
 easier obtine your cusin german ^ then any other, which brings 
 in a great interest, and contineus your family in the right lyne. 
 And then, my Lord, I may say without vanity that I will doe 
 your family no dishonor, seing there is nobody you could mak 
 choyse of has toyld so much for honor as I have don, thogh 
 it has Ijeen my misfortun to atteen but a small shear. And 
 then, my Lord, for my respect and gratitud to your Lordship, 
 you will have no raison to dout of it, if you consider with what 
 a francness aiid easiness I lieve with all my friends. But, my 
 Lord, after all this, if thes raisons cannot perswad you that it is 
 your interest to pitch on me, and if you can think on any body 
 that can be mor proper to restor your family, and contri1)ut mor 
 to your confort and satisfaction, mak frankly choyse of him, for 
 without that you can never think of geating any thing don for 
 your famly : it will be for your honor that the world see you 
 never had thoghts of alienating your family, then they will 
 look no mor upon you as the last of so nol)le a race, but will 
 consider you raither as the restorer then the ruiner, and your 
 family raither as rj^sing than falling ; Avhich, as it will be the 
 joy of our friends and relations, so it will be the confusion of 
 our enimys. — I am, my dearest Lord, 
 
 Your most humble and most faithfull servant, 
 
 J. Grahame.' 
 
 For all his deprecation of any taint of self-interest, diffi- 
 dence is not a characteristic of Claverhouse's letter. An 
 amusing and precocious sententiousness, confident reliance 
 upon himself, and little shrinking from self-appraisement, 
 are writ large over it. They were qualities which the 
 holder of a fading title could appreciate in one who aspired 
 to restore its fortunes. Menteith therefore wrote to his 
 uncle, Sir James. He described Claverhouse as ' a person 
 exceeding ueel accomplished as any I knou, uith natur 
 gifts, for all thats noble and verteus may be seen in him, 
 and as uee say, he is ueel to live, for he hes a free esteat 
 
 ' Helen Graham.
 
 48 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 upuards of six hundir pund starling yearly of good payable 
 rent, neir by Diindie.' He would give his consent, he 
 added, to Helen Graham's marriage to no one but his 
 protege.'^ Claverhouse hastened to formally propose him- 
 self for Helen Graham's hand. Military duty prevented 
 him from proceeding to Ireland, where she and her parents 
 were living. He wrote to Sir James, however, and on 
 14th February 1679 was anxiously awaiting his mes- 
 senger's return. ' I begin to despair of his coming,' he 
 tells Menteith, and ' of the success of that voyage.' Mon- 
 trose had sent him a disturbing and, as it proved, prema- 
 ture rumour, that ' ane Yrish gentleman has caryed awa}'^ 
 the Lady.' ' Houever, my Lord,' Claverhouse added, ' it 
 shall never alter the course of our friendship ; for if, my 
 Lord, either in history or romance, either in natur or the 
 fancy, man thor be any stronger names or rairer exemjjles 
 of friendship then these 3^our Lordship does me the honor 
 to name in your kynd and generous letter, I am resolved 
 not onlly to equall them but surpass them.'^ So the 
 prologue ended. Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge were 
 events of the past, and the name of the unknown captain 
 of horse had gained some notoriety, before Claverhouse 
 had opportunity to press his suit in person. 
 
 Throughout March and April 1679 Claverhouse was 
 busily employed. In the middle of March he was in ' the 
 utmost parts of Galloway.' ^ Queensberry was not easy to 
 work with, and provender for the troops was not readily 
 obtained. For reasons not hard to guess, also, Claverhouse 
 refused to act with Queensberry 's own nominated depute.* 
 But these were trifles. The attitude of the persecuted 
 Whigs was becoming increasingly threatening. On 30th 
 March a small party of dragoons, which had been sent 
 from Lanark to disperse a conventicle at Lesmahagow, 
 
 1 Red Book of Menteith, vol. i. p. 422. - Ibid., vol. i. p. 172. 
 
 '■' Sraythe, Letters, p. 16. ■* See Napier, vol. i. pp. 254-57.
 
 DRUMCLOG 49 
 
 met the fate of Claverhouse at Drumclog two months 
 later. The dragoons, less than twenty strong, rode down 
 upon a prayer-meeting, and stumbled upon an army. The 
 lieutenant bade those present disperse. They refused, 
 fired a volley, and the lieutenant fell mortally wounded. 
 Seven of the dragoons were made prisoners ; the remain- 
 ing seven and their ensign fled back to Lanark. ^ The 
 result was heartening to the Whigs. On 21st April 
 Claverhouse Avrites to Linlithgow from Dumfries : ' I fynd 
 Mr. Welch is acustoming both ends of the contry to face 
 the Kings forces, and certenly intends to brak out in ane 
 open rebellion.' He reported the holding in the district 
 of ' the teriblest convencle that has been yet heard of/ 
 and warned Linlithgow that ' the armes of militia in this 
 shyr, as well as in that of Wigton, and Annandelle, ar in 
 the hands of the contry people, thogh very disaffected.' ^ 
 
 May 1679 opened ominously. On the 3rd the Arch- 
 bishop, James Sharp, was foully done to death on Magus 
 Muir, near St. Andrews.^ No word of the tragedy had 
 reached Claverhouse at Dumfries when three days later 
 (6th May) he wrote to Linlithgow. He had been beating 
 up conventicles with little success. ' If I gate them not 
 here, I shall goe and visit them in Tiviotdalle or Carak, 
 wher, they say, they dar look honest men in the face,' he 
 added.* His opportunity was nearer than he suspected. 
 On 29th May he writes from Falkirk. He had arrived 
 there the previous night, ' with the horse and dragoons 
 and munition in good pass.' He had information — it 
 proved passably accurate — ' that aighteen parishes shall 
 meet Sonday nixt [1st June] in Kilbryd moor with in 
 four myles of Glascow.' He was sceptical of the truth of 
 
 ^ Lmulerdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 162. - Smythe, Letters, p. 18. 
 
 •^ For accounts of the tragedy see Kirkton, Secret and True History of 
 the Church of Scotland, pp. 403 etseq., 483 ; Maidmeut, Analecta Scolica, 
 second series, p. 388. ^ Smythe, Letters, p. 24. 
 
 D
 
 50 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 the report, but intended to inform Lord Ross at Glasgow, 
 ' so that with our joint force we may attaque them.'^ He 
 had left Dumfries with no warning of the serious business 
 in which he was shortly to be engaged.^ Before his letter 
 had reached its destination the rebellion was proclaimed. 
 
 Since the affair at Lesmahagow the Whigs had 
 increased in numbers and in spirit. It was therefore 
 resolved, says Wodrow, to make ' a testimony against the 
 iniquity of the times.' Robert Hamilton and a party of 
 three or four score horse ^ were appointed to proceed to 
 some public place for the purpose. The 29th May 1679 
 was the date selected. It was the King's birthday and 
 the date of his restoration; its public observance had 
 been enjoined. As the occasion for a protest against an 
 uncovenanted monarchy it was appropriate. It was at 
 first intended, so Wodrow had reason to believe, to make 
 the demonstration at Glasg^ow.^ But as Lord Ross ^ and 
 
 ^ Smythe, Letters, p. 27. So far as can be judged from the scanty cor- 
 respondence, Claverhouse had evacuated Dumfries and his own particular 
 district in obedience to orders which had reached him from Linlithgow 
 on 5th May. See his letter of 6th May in ihkl. , p. 24. 
 
 - Montrose, who met him at Mugdock on 30th May, informed Menteith 
 that Claverhouse ' is sent with his troop, and a troop of dragoons, to 
 guard some arms and ammunition transjjorted to this countrey ' (Bed Book 
 of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 173). Wodrow, speaking of the events of this 
 month, says that Claverhouse had lately surprised a conventicle at Gala- 
 shiels {Hifitory, vol. iii. p. 61). Galashiels was so completely out of 
 Claverhousc's quarter that the circumstance possibly took place during 
 his march from Dumfries. 
 
 2 Wodrow gives their number as about eighty. Montrose gives them as 
 'about three score hors ' {Red Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 173). 
 
 •1 Wodrow is probably misinformed on this point. The Privy Council, 
 in a letter to Lauderdale on 3rd June 1679, state more probably, that 
 after the demonstration at Kutherglen Hamilton's party 'intended to 
 have done the same at Glasgow, had not Claverhouse his unexpected 
 arrival there, with his troop and company of dragoons, luckily prevented 
 them' (Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 82). 
 
 5 George, Lord Ross of Hawkhead was a lieutenant - colonel of the 
 Guards on the Scottish establishment. Like Claverhouse, he maiTied one 
 of the Cochranes of Dundonald. His sou William, Lord Ross served under 
 Claverhouse in the latter's regiment.
 
 DRUMCLOG 51 
 
 some troops were quartered there, Rutherglen was chosen 
 for the purpose. On the afternoon of 29th May Hamilton 
 and his party rode into the town, extinguished the bon- 
 fires, burned the Acts which had established and sup- 
 ported Episcopacy since 1661, and affixed to the Market 
 Cross their own Declaration or Testimony.^ Their work 
 accomplished, the party withdrew southward towards the 
 vale of Avon and Newmilns.^ 
 
 News of the proceedings at Rutherglen reached Claver- 
 house late on the afternoon of 29th May 1679. His 
 letter to Linlithgow from Falkirk that morning shows 
 that he contemplated a junction with Ross at Glasgow. 
 He must have been already some distance on his way 
 thither. Despatching a part of his troop in ineffectual 
 pursuit of Hamilton's party, he hastened towards Glas- 
 gow. On the 30th Montrose received him at Mugdock 
 Castle, his seat near Milngavie.^ Within a few hours 
 he had joined Ross at Glasgow. 
 
 Claverhouse's appearance with his troop and dragoons 
 brought welcome reinforcement to Glasgow. In relation 
 to its proximity to the area of disturbance, its garrison 
 was not considerable. Ross had at his disposal four 
 companies of foot, and one troop of Montrose's Life 
 Guards. Two companies of foot and fifty dragoons were 
 distributed in the shires of Renfrew and Lanark.* Late 
 on 31st May 1679 Claverhouse set out from Glasgow to 
 follow Hamilton's trail.^ At Hamilton he made a few 
 prisoners, the preacher John King among them. There 
 he gained important intelligence. On the following day, 
 Sunday, 1st June, a large conventicle was to meet near 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 66. 
 
 '•^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 68. Wodrow writes 'Evandale. ' 
 
 ^ lied Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 173. According to Montrose, 
 Hamilton was ' pursued by a party of that [Claverhouse's] troop till 
 midnight, tho' in vain.' 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 16. ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 82,
 
 52 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Loudoun Hill, not far distant. At Hamilton Claverhouse 
 called a halt, and rested his force for the inglorious 
 morrow.^ 
 
 On the morning of 1st June 1679 Claverhouse was 
 early astir. By six o'clock he was at Strathaven with 
 his prisoners."^ He breakfasted at the Tower Inn, kept 
 by one James or ' Scribble ' Young,^ and then, ' thinking 
 that wee might mak a litle tour to see if we could fall 
 upon a conventicle,' rode on towards Loudoun Hill, some 
 six miles south-westward of Strathaven, where the con- 
 venticle was said to be.* 
 
 Breasting the hill at Drumclog, Claverhouse came into 
 vicAv of the Whigs, a half-mile or so to the northward 
 of him, heavy land and a narrow bog intervening.^ 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iii. pp. 68, 69. Wodrow makes the statement, of obvious 
 parentage : ' I am told he [Claverhouse] was dissuaded, by some of his 
 friends, from going thither, and assured there would be a good many 
 resolute men in arms there, yet trusting to his own troop, and some 
 others of horse and dragoons he had with him, he would go.' 
 
 - His despatch to Linlithgow {Stoioe MSS., 142, fol. 95) is consonant 
 with the view that Claverhouse rested at Strathaven on the night of 31st 
 May. Wodrow (vol. iii. p. 69), however, states : ' Upon the Sabbath 
 morning, June 1st, he marched very early from Hamilton to Strathaven 
 town, about five miles south, and carried his prisoners with him.' 
 
 ^ Alton, History of the Rencounter at Drumdog, p. 52. Alton's infor- 
 mation was derived from his grandfather, who was contemporary with 
 the events he describes. 
 
 ^ Wodrow (vol. iii. p. 69) confirms Claverhouse's despatch as to his 
 having ridden straight to Loudoun Hill from Strathaven. Alton (p. 52) 
 states, however, that after breakfast at Strathaven, Claverhouse heard 
 that the conventicle was not to meet that day ; that he thereupon rode 
 back towards Glasgow ; that about a mile north of Strathaven he got 
 certain information regarding the conventicle, and turning about, rode 
 towards Loudoun Hill by way of Letham House and Crewbui-n. 
 
 •'' Claverhouse describes the enemy as 'drauen up in batell upon a most 
 advantagious ground to which there was no coming but throgh moses. ' 
 Alton (p. 93) remarks : 'The ground on the north side of the bog where 
 the Covenanters made their stand, was rather steeper than that occupied 
 by the niilitar}', but was also fair Ij'ing arable land, with a declivity of 
 about a foot in twenty. The marshy ground between these arable fields was 
 only a few yards broad . . . and there is now no vestige of a bog in that 
 place.' Had Claverhouse known the ground, Alton says elsewhere 
 (p. 54), ' he could easily have avoided the marsh, and passed the end of
 
 DRUMCLOG 53 
 
 Warning of his coming had preceded him. The preacher, 
 James Douglas, had finished his sermon ; non-combatants 
 had fallen to the rear.^ Placing his prisoners under 
 guard,2 Claverhouse reconnoitred the enem}^'^ He 
 reckoned them at four battalions of foot and three 
 squadrons of horse.^ In numbers they easily surpassed 
 him.^ It is averred by Creichton that Claverhouse 
 
 it by a public road, only about two or three hundred j'ards to the west- 
 ward.' James Russell describes the bog as ' a great gutter like a stank ; 
 being no way to get about it' (Kirkton, Secret and True History, p. 442). 
 
 ^ They ' went forward, and drew up all in a body, and then prayed and 
 sang,' says James Russell (iYjuZ., p. 442). Thomas Brownlee of Torfoot, 
 who Avas present, gives a picturesque account (Howie, Scots Worthies, 
 vol. i. pp. 587 et seq. ), which is probablj^ accurate in the main. He says : 
 ' The venerable Douglas had commenced the solemnities of the day. He 
 was expatiating on the execrable evils of tyranny. ... In this moment 
 of intense feeling, our watchman, posted on the neighbouring height, 
 fired his carabine, and ran toward the Congregation. He announced the 
 approach of the enemj'. We raised our eyes to the Minister. " I have 
 done," said Douglas, with his usual firmness. — "You have got the 
 theory, — now for the practice ; you know j^our duty ; self-defence is 
 always lawful. But the enemy approaches." He raised his eyes to 
 heaven and uttered a prayer — brief and emphatic — like the prayer of 
 Richard Cameron, "Lord, spare the green, and take the ripe." . . . Our 
 aged men, our females and children retired ... to the rising ground in 
 the rear of our host. The aged men walked with their bonnets in hand. 
 Their long grey locks waved in the breeze. They sang a cheerful f)salm. 
 The music was that of the well-known tune of The Martyrs ; and the 
 sentiment breathed defiance.' 
 
 - In ' the farm-yard of North-Drumclog ' (Aiton, p. 53). 
 
 ^ 'We could see him,' says Torfoot, 'view our position with great 
 care. His officers came around him ' (Howie, ihid. ). 
 
 ■^ The foot, he reported to Linlithgow (Stowe 3ISS. ), were ' all well 
 armed with fusese and pitchforks.' 
 
 ^ Claverhouse took into action iiis own troop of horse and a company 
 of at least sixty dragoons, according to his despatch to Linlithgow. A 
 similar strength is assigned to him in A true Account of the Rising of the 
 Rebels in the West of Scotland, Lond. 1679. (Brit. Mus. 600 e. 32). The 
 strength of Claverhouse's own troop, including officers, was under 
 seventy. His total force was certainly under one hundred and fifty. 
 Creichton gives him about one hundred and eighty ( Works ofSicift, ed. 
 Scott, vol. X. p. 127). The strength of the Whigs cannot so easily be 
 established, as a great proportion of them was non-combatant. Creichton 
 (ibid.) puts them at eight or nine thousand; the Memoirs of 1714, at 
 three thousand ; A true Account (see above), at ' 14 or 1500 men well 
 armed and in good order.' Their combatant force is probably under-
 
 54 JOHN GRA.HAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 inarched to Drumclog under sealed orders.^ The infer- 
 ence is, obviously, the compulsion of engagement against 
 odds. Nothinsr can be further from the facts. Claver- 
 house was at Drumclog on his own initiative.^ Superiority 
 of numbers in the enemy would weigh little with one 
 whose training taught him to gauge military effectiveness 
 in discipline, smartness, and equipment. But common 
 prudence — it was his first chance to prove himself other 
 than an efficient policeman — and military ritual de- 
 manded that he should first summon his enemy and 
 declare the consequences of resistance. He sent forward 
 a flag and demanded a parley. The conditions he offered 
 are conjecturable. Whatever their nature, they were 
 contemptuously rejected.^ Battle was to resolve the 
 issue. 
 
 estimated by James Russell, who puts it at ' about 50 horse and about 
 as many guns, and about 150 with forks and halberts ' (Kirkton, p. 441). 
 By Wodrow (\'ol. iii. p. 69) they are given as ' about 40 horse, and 150 or 
 200 foot.' Among modern writers, Mowbray Morris {Claverhouse, p. 67) 
 and the author of The Despot's Cliamjnon (p. 45) both overestimate 
 Claverhouse's force at about two hundred and fifty men. Mr. Henderson 
 in the Diet. Nat. Biog. supposes the Whigs to have outnumbered Claver- 
 house by about four to one. 
 
 ' Sirifi\s Works, ed. Scott, vol. x. p. 126. 
 
 - His despatch to Linlithgow makes it quite clear that with the capture 
 of King and the Rutlierglen demonstrators his particular inission was 
 accomplished. 
 
 " Scott [Old Mortality, chap. xvi. ) most unwarrantablj' allowed himself 
 to represent Claverliouse's cornet as shot by Balfour while parleying with 
 the Whigs. The author of The Desjiofs Chamj)ion (p. 49) very properly 
 condemns Sir Walter's unlicensed addendum to history. But her state- 
 ment that 'No Hag of truce was sent at Drumclog' is, I think, untenable. 
 The Laird of Torfoot gives the following account (Howie, vol. i. p. 588), 
 which, stripped of its adornments, leaves tlie main fact established, since 
 there was no motive to introduce it, picturesque or depreciatory, unless 
 it did actually occur : ' We soon learned that he wished to treat with us 
 . . . His flag approached the edge of the bog. Sir Robert [Hamilton] 
 . . . demanded the purjiose for which he came. " I come, "said he, " in 
 the name of his sacred Majesty, and of Colonel [sic] Grahame, to ofifer you 
 a pardon, on condition that you lay down your arms, and deliver up your 
 ringleaders." "Tell your officer," said Sir Robert, " . . . that we shall 
 lay down our arms to treat, provided that he also lay down his. Thou 
 hast my answer." ' Russell does not mention the incident.
 
 DRUMCLOG 55 
 
 The superior numbers of the enemy, the apparent 
 inaccessibility of their position, and the consequences of 
 defeat alike preached caution. ' The ruffle of an incon- 
 siderable party of the King's troops will raise a formidable 
 rebellion,' old Tom Dalziel remarked at a later time.^ It 
 was so now. But Claverhouse took the risk, light- 
 heartedly, and with disastrous result. Throwing out a 
 skirmishing party of horse towards the swamp, Claver- 
 house invited an engagement.^ The Whigs detached as 
 many foot from their main body, and at pistol-shot 
 distance in advance of it.^ A few volleys were fired 
 with little effect.'^ Both parties then pushed forward 
 a section of their main body — dismounted dragoons on 
 the one side, William Cleland with a motley force of 
 guns, pitchforks, and pikes on the other.^ Further 
 volleys were exchanged across the morass, and Cleland 
 
 The asserted ' No quarters ' order issued by Claverhouse before the 
 engagement rests on the authority of James Russell (Kirkton, p. 442) and 
 Torfoot (Howie, vol. i. p. 589). Claverhouse's orders, if Wodrow (vol. 
 iii. p. 69) transcribes them correctly, gave him power ' to kill and destroy 
 all he found in arms, at any field-meeting, [and] to deal with them as 
 traitors.' Claverhouse may have received such instructions from his 
 military superior. But to employ the fact to represent in him a measure 
 of ferocity beyond that of his opponents is ingenuous. See the matter 
 discussed in The DespoVs Champion, p. 50 ; Napier, vol. ii. p. 228. 
 
 1 Quoted in Napier, vol. ii. p. 227. 
 
 ^ For the engagement we have Claverhouse's own account, brief, clear, 
 and straightforward, in his despatch to Linlithgow ; and also, on the 
 other side, that of James Russell (printed in Kirkton, p. 441). The two 
 correspond exactly in the main incidents of the fight. Torfoot's account 
 is of no value for accurate detail. 
 
 ^ According to Russell, both skirmishing parties numbered twelve. 
 Russell himself was one of them, 
 
 ^ Claverhouse says shortly of this preliminary skirmishing : ' they [the 
 Whigs] run for it.' From Russell's account it appears that Claverhouse 
 sent three separate skirmishing parties, one of whom was wounded, the 
 only casualty on either side. After the first volley, he admits, ' the 
 honest party retired back to the body.' So also did Claverhouse's skir- 
 mishers, he asserts. 
 
 ^ Claverhouse calls his dragoons ' three score ' : the Whigs he describes 
 as a ' bataillon.' According to Russell the battalion consisted of no more 
 than from thirty-two to forty men.
 
 56 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 was driven back in some confusion.^ Claverhouse chose 
 the moment to advance. A fusillade or two might thin 
 the enemy's ranks, induce a stampede, and open a punish- 
 ing pursuit. A hand-to-hand scuffle he could hardly 
 contemplate. The nature of the ground, the equipment 
 of the enemy, seemed to forbid it. Aligning the marsh, 
 his troops 'fired desperately.' On the other side were 
 but few guns to answer. Pitchforks and pikes clamoured 
 for close-quarters. ' For the Lord's sake go on ! and 
 immediately they ran violently forward, and Clavers was 
 tooming the shot all the time on them.' ^ The foot 
 threaded the treacherous marsh; the horse followed, 
 treading paths obscured to the royal troops. Cleland 
 and his following were over first, flanking Claverhouse 
 on his left. Their main body threw themselves on his 
 centre. Desperation alone could have nerved a charge so 
 perilous. Their fire wrought havoc, though their own death- 
 roll was heavy. Claverhouse's cornet, Robert Graham,^ 
 
 1 Claverhouse says the dragoons 'mad them run again shamfully.' 
 Russell admits that the Whigs were ' very confused in the coming off of 
 the last [Cleland's] party.' 
 
 - Such is Russell's vivid account. Claverhouse writes tersely; 'and 
 they pereaiving that we had the better of them in skirmish, they resolved 
 a general ingadgement, and imediately advanced Avith there foot, the 
 horse folouing. ' 
 
 •^ His death has been made the subject of needlessly sceptical inquiry. 
 Napier (vol. i. p. 334) found a Cornet William Graham of Claverhouse's 
 regiment surviving in 1684 ; gratuitously assumed that he was the cornet 
 of Drumclog, and therefore had not died there. He also (vol. ii. p. 223) 
 ventured to quote Claverhouse to prove his assertion. Claverhouse's 
 comma-less despatch mentions the loss of ' the coronet Mr Crafford and 
 Captain Bleith. ' On the strength of this Napier asserts that the cornet's 
 name was not Graham. The motive of this laboured argument was to 
 disprove Sir Walter Scott's story of Claverhouse at Bothwell Bridge 
 calling to his men to remember the fate of his kinsman and cornet and 
 to give no quarter. The answer to this is complete. On 27th September 
 1678 Robert Graham was commissioned cornet in Claverhouse's troop 
 [Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. iv. fol. 452). On 3rd March 1680 William 
 Graham was commissioned to the cornetcy ' in place of the deceased 
 Robei't Graham ' [ibid., vol. v. fol. 436). As Claverhouse's troop had only 
 one cornet attached to it, and as Claverhouse's despatch mentions him as
 
 DRUMCLOG 57 
 
 his Corporal Crawford/ and a Captain Blythe, fell. At 
 close-quarters sword, pitchfork, and pike came into play. 
 The troopers, clogged by the heavy ground, reeled before 
 the strange onslaught. Claverhouse, his horse horribly 
 
 killed, there can be no manner of doubt tbat Cornet Robert Graham was 
 killed at Drumclog. 
 
 In Scott's Old Mortality the dead cornet is called liichard Graham. He 
 is described as the son of Claverhouse's brother David, and the heir of 
 the former, who describes himself in the novel as married and childless 
 in 1679. In fact, Claverhouse was unmarried in 1679, and his brother 
 David never married at all ! 
 
 The Whig apologists, equallj' with Napier, have had a motive for 
 disproving the death of Robert Graham at Drumclog. Creichton ( Worhfi 
 of Sicift, vol. X. p. 128) alleges that 'The rebels, finding the cornet's 
 body, and supposing it to be that of Clavers, because the name Graham 
 was v/rought in the shirt neck, treated it with the utmost inhumanity, 
 cutting off the nose, picking out the ej^es, and stabbing it through in a 
 hundred places.' The Mevioirs of 1714 (p. 6) declare : 'imagining him 
 to be Clavers, they barbarously tlirust many swords into his dead body, 
 and beat his head into a jelly.' Guild's Bellum Bothudliammi (quoted in 
 Scott's Minstrelsy, Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 219) refers thus to the 
 cornet's death : 
 
 'hie siguifer, elieu ! 
 
 Trajectus globule, Grremus, quo fortior alter, 
 
 Inter Scotigeuas fuerat, uec justior ullus ; 
 
 Huuc mauibus rapuere feris, faciemque virilem 
 
 Ftedaruut, lingua, auriculis, manibusque resectis, 
 
 Aspera diffuso spargentes saxa cerebro.' 
 
 The tradition is no doubt wholly fictitious. Such mutilation as the 
 cornet's body was subjected to was certainly due to the horses riding 
 over it in the fight. Equally absurd is the Whig version of his death 
 detailed by Russell (Kirkton, p. 442) : ' One Grahame, that same morning 
 in Strevan his dog was leaping upon him for meat, and he said he would 
 give him none, but ho should fill himself of the whigs' blood and flesh or 
 night ; but instead of that, his dog was seen eating his own thrapple (for 
 he was killed) by several ; and particularly James Russell, after the 
 pursuit.' 
 
 In The Ballad of Loudon Hill (Scott, Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 223) 
 the cornet is pictured in favoui'able contrast to Claverhouse, and as 
 deprecating his commander's savage resolution to fight. 
 
 Alton (Rencounter at Drumcloy, p. 60) records a tradition, which he 
 regarded as reliable, that the relatives or friends of the dead cornet, 
 unable to identify his body, left the coflin they had brought at High 
 Drumclog, where it remained in a cart-shed for many years, until it was 
 used for the burying of a vagrant beggar. 
 
 ^ Claverhouse calls him 'Mr. CrafTord.' There is little doubt that he 
 was the Corporal Crawford to whom he refers in his letter to Linlithgow 
 of 7th February 1679. See Smythe, Letters, p. 9.
 
 58 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 gored, was carried off the field by the maddened beast. ^ 
 His men abode no longer.^ 
 
 Claverhouse rode headlong from his defeat. His 
 prisoners, King and the rest, were unheeded, and found 
 unlooked - for liberty. At Strathaven, where he had 
 breakfasted, he ran the gauntlet of enemies heartened 
 
 ' Claverhouse's account runs : ' With a pitchfork they made such an 
 opening in my sorre[l] horses belly that his guts hung out half an elle 
 and yet he caryed me af an myl, which so disin[c]oroged our men that 
 they sustined not the sliok but fell into disorder.' In the Memoirs of 
 1714 (p. 7) the wound is said to have been caused by a scythe. There 
 can be no question that the wound was inflicted during the engagement. 
 Alton, however (p. 57), states that a man named Finlay, of Lesmahagow, 
 came up with Claverhouse at Capernaum, near Coldwakening, 'and would 
 probably have killed that Officer, had not another of the Covenanters 
 called to Finlay to strike at the horse, and thereby secure both it and 
 the rider.' 
 
 ■•^ The mortality of the fight was chiefly on the side of the royal troops. 
 The Whig losses are no doubt underestimated by Russell (Kirkton, p. 
 444) at three killed and as many wounded. Claverhouse, he says, lost 
 thirty-six killed. That number roughly tallies with the best accounts. 
 Claverhouse reported three officers killed or wounded, eight or ten of his 
 troop killed, and ' many mor ' of the dragoons. He lost a dozen men 
 during the pursuit through Strathaven. Sergeant James Nisbet, whose 
 father boasted of having killed seven of the troopers at Drumclog, puts 
 Claverhouse's losses at thirty or thirty-five killed [Memoirs of Mr. 
 William Veitch, ed. M'Crie, p. 519). The complete casualty list is 
 probably given in A true Account of the Rising of the Rebels in the West of 
 Scotland, at three officers, about eight troopers, and twenty dragoons, 
 in addition to ten or tw'elve killed during the pursuit. 
 
 'I saved the standarts,' Claverhouse reported to Linlithgow. Russell 
 (Kirkton, p. 444) asserts that Thomas Weir took one of the standards 
 and was mortally wounded, probably in the endeavour. A note on a 
 banner said to have been used by the Whigs at Drumclog and Bothwell 
 Bridge is in Proc. Soc. Antiquaries Scot., vol. iii. pp. 253-258. But Dr. 
 Hay Fleming (Six Saints of the Covenant, ed. Hay Fleming, vol. ii. p. 216) 
 is very sceptical of the claim of the 'Bluidy Banner' to have been present 
 at either fight. Aiton (p. 109) thinks it improbable that the Whigs 
 raised any banner at Drumclog. 
 
 The credit for the Covenanters' success seems to have been shared 
 between Piobert Hamilton and William Cleland (see Wodrow, vol. iii. 
 p. 70). Veitch describes Cleland {Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch, ed. 
 M'Crie, p. 107) as 'a youth extraordinary in warlike affairs and promis- 
 ing, a great philosopher, physician and divine, very sober and pious.' 
 He became lieutenant-colonel of the Angus regiment, and was killed at 
 Dunkeld in 1689. His poems were posthumouslj- published in 1697.
 
 DRUMCLOG 59 
 
 to action, and twelve saddles were emptied ere he gained 
 the open.^ Three or four miles from Glasgow, Ross ^ met 
 him, bringing reinforcements. Both concluded an imme- 
 diate attack on the city as probable, and returned thither. 
 Before nightfall Claverhouse was penning his despatch 
 to Linlithgow. ' This may be counted the beginning of 
 the rebellion,' was his comment on the day's tussle. 
 
 ^ ' The toun of Streueu dreu up as we was making our retrait and 
 thoght at a pass to cut us of, but we took couradge and fell to them, 
 made them run, leaving a dousain on the place ' (Claverhouse's despatch 
 to Linlithgow). According to Alton (p. 59) the people of Strathaven 
 attacked Claverhouse in a lane called the ' Hole-closs.' 
 
 The pursuit of Claverhouse by the Whigs from Drumclog is said by 
 Alton (p. 57) to have extended to Calder Water. The graves of two 
 of his dragoons, who were shot near Hillhead, were visible near there 
 until 1750. Defoe {Memoirs of the Cluirch of Scotland, p. 197) asserts 
 that William Cleland ' laid Hands on the Bridle of Claverhouse's Horse, 
 and had certainly taken him Prisoner, if he had been well seconded,' 
 after Claverhouse's flight from the field. According to Russell (Kirkton, 
 p. 444) : ' The honest party pursued as long as their horse would trot, 
 being upward of two miles.' 
 
 '■^ Ross had received a despatch from Claverhouse, about two or three 
 in the afternoon, desiring assistance. He marched with reinforcements 
 about five o'clock [Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 167). Alton (p. 59) 
 mentions Cathkin, northward of East Kilbride, as the spot where Claver- 
 house met the reinforcements.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 
 
 It was past one o'clock on the morning of 2nd June 1679, 
 and the city was asleep, when a post-boy, his horn wind- 
 ing, galloped into Edinburgh and roused Linlithgow.^ 
 He bore a despatch from Ross to his Chief, briefly 
 announcing his intention to barricade Glasgow against 
 the enemy's expected assault.- Prompt measures were 
 imperative. An urgent summons was sent to the members 
 of Council. Within an hour they met, and resolved to 
 call the scattered forces together from Teviotdale, Dumfries, 
 and Fife. Linlithgow proposed to march westward with 
 them early on 4th June.^ Twenty-four hours after its 
 predecessor, a second despatch arrived from Ross. It 
 was dated '6 acloke at night' (2nd June), and reported 
 the rebels' attack upon Glasgow.^ A second time the 
 Privy Councillors were summoned from their beds. They 
 met 'very early' on 3rd June. Claverhouse's Druniclog 
 despatch was also before them. In the light of it and 
 of Ross's latest report they issued a proclamation declar- 
 ing 'the said insurrection to be an open, manifest, and 
 horrid rebellion, and high treason,' and summoned the 
 rebels to surrender their arms within twenty-four hours.^ 
 Meanwhile Claverhouse's anticipations had been realised 
 
 1 Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch, ed. M'Crie, p. 108. 
 '•^ Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 167. 
 
 '^ Council's letter of 3rd June 1679 to Lauderdale, in Wodrow, vol. iii, 
 p. 82. •* Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 16G. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 72. 
 60
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 61 
 
 with startling suddenness. Premeditated or not, Drum- 
 clog was the prologue to rebellion. No sooner was the 
 pursuit of Claverhouse abandoned than Hamilton and 
 his fellows resolved ' to continue and abide together in 
 arms.' To do so was their only chance. That the Govern- 
 ment would exert its fullest strength against them was 
 certain. Should they disband, ' the soldiers would be 
 upon them one by one, and destroy them.' ^ So, on the 
 afternoon of their victory, the Covenanters marched to 
 Strathaven. There they obtained refreshment. Hamilton 
 was reached ere nightfall.^ Glasgow, where Claverhouse 
 and his troops stood to arms through the night,^ was but 
 ten miles distant. 
 
 Ross had made preparations to resist the threatened 
 attack. Glasgow's four main arteries were barricaded. 
 Musketeers and dragoons were placed at points of vantage.^ 
 At sunrise on Monday, 2nd June, a scouting party was 
 sent out to observe the enemy, and Claverhouse joined 
 it. A few hours later the Whigs came in sight. As they 
 approached their force divided. Part made towards the 
 Gallowgate, the rest towards the High Kirk and College.^ 
 Robert Hamilton led the former, not without questioning 
 of his courage and competence.^' About eleven'^ the 
 rash and ill-judged assault was made. From behind the 
 barricades the troops covered their assailants with re- 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 70. 
 
 2 Kirkton, p. 447 ; Wilson, A true and impartial Relation, p. 75. 
 ^ Creichtoii's Alemoirs, in Swift, vol. x. p. 129. 
 
 ■* Lauderdale Pa2jers, vol. iii. p. 16G. 
 
 •^ Creichton's Memoirti, in Swift, vol. x. p. 129. Creichton asserts that 
 theGallowgate party, having a shorter distance to traverse, attacked before 
 the other, and so enabled the defenders to deal with each attack separ- 
 ately. Ross {Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 166) confirms Creichton. 
 
 •* Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 71. 
 
 ' Wodrow (ibid.) says : ' About ten of the clock the country men came 
 to Glasgow.' Russell (Kirkton, p. 447) gives the time as 'about 12 hours 
 of the day.' Ross, in his despatch to Linlithgow (Lauderdale Papers, 
 vol. iii. p. 160), times the assault at ' abowt eleven aclock.'
 
 62 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 morseless fire. The streets were strewn with decad and 
 dying.^ Sullenly the Whigs withdrew.^ Eastward of the 
 town they rallied.^ These were of the 'honest' party, or 
 irreconcilables ; for the day's repulse had driven a cleaving 
 wedge into ranks already bursting to division. A second 
 body drew aloof on Tollcross Moor.'^ Ross sent out 
 his horse and dragoons to follow their retreat towards 
 Hamilton.^ At six o'clock in the evening he was penning 
 his despatch to Linlithgow. ' I know not what Jwdgment 
 to give of this afaire,' was his comment, ' bot I am swre 
 thes wes the warmest day I saw the yeare.' ^ 
 
 The confidence displayed by the Whigs, and reports 
 
 1 Paissell says the assailants lost ' four or five men only,' and that the 
 troops lost ' thrice as many. ' Ross reported to Linlithgow : ' the number 
 of thes that are killed I can not condescend wpon as yet, the town's 
 people hurled ther dead bodies so cjuickly of the streit ; we have taken 
 a great many of ther wownded men and [are] still taking mor owt of ther 
 bowses they fled to. I blise god non of owr officers hes resaved anj' 
 hurte, some few of owr sowldiers ar ill wownded, two of which onlly I 
 think shall dye. ' Creichton is therefore confirmed in his statement, that 
 ' the king's party lost not so much as one man.' Wodrow (vol. iii. p. 71), 
 while affecting to disbelieve the legend that the bodies of the dead (seven) 
 Whigs were allowed to lie on the street and were prohibited burial, 
 repeats that ' the seven dead bodies lay upon the street from eleven of 
 the clock till night came on ' ; that the women at length took them up 
 and dressed them for burial, and that the soldiers then ' turned the bodies 
 out of their dead clothes, and went off with the linens.' 
 
 - Creichton, who dictated his reminiscences to Swift at a time when 
 Claverhouse was a hero and Ross forgotten, represents Claverhouse as 
 active in the repulse of the Gallowgate attack. It is clear, however, from 
 Ross's despatch to Linlithgow, that Claverhouse's and the Earl of Home's 
 troops were held in reserve in the Market Place, to act in case the 
 barricades were rushed. 
 
 ^ Creichton describes the spot as ' a field behind the high church, where 
 they stayed imtil five in the afternoon.' Russell gives the spot as ' be-east 
 tlie town about a mile.' 
 
 ■^ ' Many left the honest party,' says Russell, ' but drew up on Towcross 
 moor.' 
 
 ^ Ross and Creichton both make this statement. Russell states that 
 the ' honest' party prepared to fight, but the troops withdrew. Wilson 
 {A true and imqMrtial Relation, p. 76) confirms him. Wodrow, however, 
 states that ' they waited some time in the open fields without any appear- 
 ance of a visit from the soldiers.' 
 
 ^ Laudtrdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 166.
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 63 
 
 of their increasing numbers, were alike alarming to the 
 authorities. LinlithgoAv's earliest plan had been to con- 
 centrate the small force at his disposal at Glasgow, Stirling, 
 and Edinburgh.^ He now resolved to draw his forces 
 together at Stirling, and thence to march to the West. 
 On 4th June he set out from Edinburgh. Ross and 
 Claverhouse were instructed to evacuate Glasgow and to 
 fall back on Stirling.- On 3rd June they marched to 
 Kilsyth. The next day (4th June) found them near 
 Falkirk, where fresh orders reached them.^ They were 
 bidden by Linlithgow, who lay at Falkirk on the night 
 of the 4th, to join him next morning at Bonnybridge,* 
 and to return with him towards Glasgow. Its evacuation, 
 as must have been foreseen, had laid it at the mercy 
 of the rebels. Linlithgow's strategy, in fact, is open to 
 criticism. To concentrate at Stirling, and thereby to 
 denude both Edinburgh and Glasgow of their troops, 
 sacrificed the latter, and exposed the former to danger 
 should the enemy repeat the tactics of the Pentland 
 rising.^ Linlithgow was wise not to risk the safety of his 
 scattered units, but his choice of Stirling for concentration 
 is unintelligible, save upon the score of over- timidity. 
 
 On the morning of 5th June Linlithgow effected a junc- 
 tion with Ross, Claverhouse, and the Stirling troops at 
 Bonny bridge. He found himself with about eighteen 
 
 * Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 167. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 168. Linlithgow had no artillery, and his equipment 
 was otherwise incomplete. See ibid., vol. iii. p. 170. 
 
 '' Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 83. 
 
 ^ In his narrative of the rebellion Linlithgow calls it ' a place called 
 Larbour some two miles from ffalkirk ' {Laxulerdale Papers, vol. iii. 
 p. 168). In his letter to the Chancellor (quoted in Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 83) 
 he gives the ' bridge of Bonny ' as the rendezvous. 
 
 ^ In his letter to the Chancellor, Linlithgow gives the danger to Edin- 
 burgh as the ground for his change of plans. In his narrative of the 
 rebellion he dwells upon his desire to anticipate the rebels at Glasgow 
 as his chief object. Both contingencies should certainly have been 
 foreseen.
 
 64 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 hundred horse, dragoons, and foot.^ That night his force 
 lay at Kilsyth. A communication from the Glasgow 
 magistrates met him there. They reported the Whigs 
 to be still about Bothwcll Bridge and Hamilton, in 
 number about seven thousand. A couple of soldiers 
 whom Linlithgow sent out to gain intelligence brought 
 similar information. Sending out a party of the Horse 
 Guards to reconnoitre, Linlithgow ventured to make a 
 further and final step forward.'^ By midday on 6th June 
 he was at Kirkintilloch. His reconnoitring party had re- 
 turned, and reported that Glasgow was already occupied. 
 The rumoured strength of the rebels increased in steady 
 crescendo. Linlithgow believed that eight thousand horse 
 and foot, ' if not more,' faced him. To engage ' mad 
 zealots,' as he called them, on unequal terms was to court 
 disaster. Assuming the inequality, he was undoubtedly 
 wise. On the other hand, to retreat might entail results 
 hardly less dangerous than defeat. The position was 
 difficult, and Linlithgow sought the advice of his officers. 
 If not unanimous, at least the majority counselled with- 
 drawal. Early in the afternoon of 6th June Linlithgow 
 announced his intention to fall back upon Stirling.^ On 
 the same date the Council ordered him to return to Edin- 
 burgh.* Drumclog was only five days old, and Claver- 
 house's interpretation of it fully confirmed. The rebellion 
 was already out of hand. 
 
 1 Lauderdale Pajjers, vol. iii. p. 168. 
 
 '^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 1(38, and Linlithgow's letter of 6th June 1679 to the 
 Chancellor, in Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 83. 
 
 ^ Linlithgow's despatch from Kirkintilloch declares that ' the whole 
 officers ' counselled him to retreat. In his narrative of the rebellion he 
 states that ' three or four ' were of another opinion. There is probably 
 the nucleus of a fact in the statement of the Memoirs of 1714 (p. 8), 
 that Olaverhouse strongly opposed Linlithgow's retreat, and ' offered, 
 with a thousand horse and foot, to disperse the rebels, or never to return 
 himself alive.' 
 
 ■^ Wudrow, vol. iii. p. 84. Linlithgow received the order early on the 
 morning of 7tli June {Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 169).
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 65 
 
 Meanwhile Glasgow and the country surrounding it lay 
 at the mercy of an army growing in numbers, but leader- 
 less and divided. But for the grimness of the issue, the 
 tragedy of Bothwell Bridge has an aspect of comedy 
 which the author of Old Mortality has barely exaggerated. 
 A mob of devoted souls, prating of ' testimonies,' but 
 divided as to the character of them ; a part of them 
 blinded by their earliest success into resolution to 
 continue ; part of them, more discerning, intent upon 
 negotiation as the prologue to hard blows and an ulti- 
 mately certain defeat ; acceptors of the Indulgence, re- 
 jectors of it, rubbing shoulders on the march, swaying 
 round rival pulpits at sermon ; and poised above all, 
 military incompetence sufficient to damn the cause of 
 archangels. 
 
 The morrow (3rd June) of their repulse at Glasgow 
 found the Whigs two miles or so to the south of Hamil- 
 ton.^ In council they debated their defeat and its cause. 
 The presence of Achan was feared and detected. One 
 Thomas Greenridge, who had served under Dalziel at 
 Bullion Green, was expelled the camp. Thence the host 
 passed, purified, to Strathaven.'^ On the 4th, upon some 
 alarm, occasioned probably by the exodus of the troops 
 from Glasgow, the Whigs sought the shelter of Kypes Rig, 
 but, the alarm proving false, drew back through Strath- 
 aven, and quartered at nightfall towards Kilbride.^ On 
 the 5 th the evacuation of Glasgow was known, and 
 rumour of Linlithgow's ultra- cautious march towards 
 Stirling may have reached them. That night they en- 
 camped at Kilbride.'^ On the 6th they cautiously 
 approached Glasgow, sending forward Captain Brown and 
 a party of near two hundred to search for arms. The 
 
 1 Kirkton, p. 448. 
 
 - Wilsou, A true and im2)artial Rdation, p. 76. See Kirkton, p. 447. 
 
 3 Kirkton, p. 451. ^ Wilsou, p. 77. 
 
 E
 
 66 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 royal troops were, however, reported in the neighbour- 
 hood. Brown feared an ambush, and called a halt. Five 
 volunteers ventured in and found Glasgow defenceless. 
 By nightfall the host was quartered in and about the city.^ 
 A fortnight of wrangling and indecision followed the 
 Covenanters' entry into Glasgow. On 8th June, the 
 octave of Drumclog, a ' very great convention ' was held 
 at Rutlierglen.2 The occasion served for the 'honest' or 
 non-Indulgence officers to meet apart. A resolution to 
 hold aloof from Welch and the moderates, until the 
 latter had declared ' against all the defections and apos- 
 tacies of the times,' ^ was the outcome of their meeting. 
 The next day, 9th June, found the leaders again in Glas- 
 gow.* The rival factions met face to face in council. 
 Both agreed upon the necessity for a public declaration 
 of their position and aims. Neither could accept the 
 other's drafting of it,^ Truce was cried for a few hours. 
 On 10th June no council of war was held, but the two 
 parties ' had a hot disputation, particularly concerning 
 the indulgence.' At night the main body moved to 
 ToUcross Moor.^ Welch and his party appear to have 
 
 ^ Wilson, p. 78. Bro^vTi was clearly alarmed by Linlithgow!s recon- 
 noitring party of Horse Guards (see above, p. 64). Russell (Kirkton, 
 p. 451) gives the Whig strength on 6th June as 'near six thousand.' An 
 obviously exaggerated account of the behaviour of the Whigs in Glasgow is 
 given in A true Relation of the inhuman Cruelties lately acted by the Rebels 
 in Scotland. With the Manner of their Taking of Glascough. Being the 
 Substance of a Letter sent to a Person of Quality. London. Printed by 
 A. M. and B. B. 1679 (Brit. Mus. G. 5016). Napier (vol. ii. p. 229) 
 fearlessly quotes its statements as authoritative. 
 
 ■^ James Ure of Shargarton's narrative, in Memoirs of William, Veitch, 
 p. 456. Ure's story is enhanced in interest by the annotations of Robert 
 Hamilton. ^ Wilson, p. 80. 
 
 ■* Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 458. •'' Wilson, p. 82. 
 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 83, 84. On the 10th they buried at Glasgow the heads of 
 those who had bsen executed for taking part in the Pentland rising. See 
 A further Account of the Proceediiigs against the Bebels in Scotland since 
 the Arrival of His Grace the Duke of Monmouth. Communicated in a 
 Letter to a Person of Quality. From Edenburgh. Dated the 1 9th of tJus 
 instant June 1679 (Brit. Museum. T. 3* 70).
 
 BOTH WELL BRIDGE 67 
 
 remained in Glasgow. On the lltli some of the ' honest' 
 officers rode in, as from Balak to Balaam, to invite a 
 curse upon the hated Indulgence, but without success.^ 
 The next day, 12th June, the council of war was sum- 
 moned to Hamilton. Its session was stormy. The neces- 
 sity for a public Declaration was admitted, for recruits 
 would not flock to a vague watchword. Each side pro- 
 duced a draft to its wishes. But there unanimity ceased.^ 
 The debate was continued on the morrow, 13th June. An 
 alarm, that their outposts at Both well Bridge were in 
 menace, enabled Welch to snatch a victory, ' upon per- 
 suasion of some that pressed much for peace.' At Hamil- 
 ton Cross he affixed a Declaration, inadequate, the ' honest' 
 party deemed, in all save its condemnation of prelacy.^ 
 The same night the distracted host marched to Old 
 Monkland.* On the 14th the officers met. The alarm of 
 yesterday had pointed the need of union. It was the 
 eve of the Sabbath, and Welch and his associates were 
 entreated ' to preach against all the sins of the time, 
 particularly the indulgence.' Welch protested the liberty 
 and inspiration of the pulpit and rejected lay interfer- 
 ence.^ The next day, Sunday, 15th June, contention 
 reached its height. Hamilton's party sought to gag the 
 ministers, ' and told them, if they did not preach, name 
 and sirname, against the indulgence, they should preach 
 none.' ^ Rival Boanerges struggled for the pulpits, ' the 
 people pleading a power to call what ministers they 
 pleased ; so when the day was far spent they preached at 
 
 1 Wilson, p. 85. 
 
 2 Kirkton, p. 457. Hamilton's party, also, clearly designed to remove 
 the officers of the Welch faction from their commands. See Memoirs of 
 William Veitch, p. 461. 
 
 ^ Kirkton, p. 457. The Declaration was also published at Glasgow. 
 See Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 94 ; Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 464 ; Wilson, 
 p. 89. 
 
 ^ Wilson, p. 90. 5 Kirkton, p. 459. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 466; Wilson, p. 90.
 
 68 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 several places where they pleased.'^ On the same day 
 Monmouth set out from London to quell the rebellion.^ 
 His task cannot be said to have promised much difficulty. 
 Monmouth's departure froin London marked the com- 
 pletion of anxious preparations by the Government. On the 
 date of Linlithgow's recall to Edinburgh (6th June) the 
 Scottish Council had urged Lauderdale that fresh troops 
 were necessary if the rebellion Avas to be stemmed.^ They 
 had already (5th June) called out the militia, and on the 
 8th directed them to rendezvous at Leith and Stirling.* 
 Freemen and heritors were similarly summoned on the 
 7th.^ On the 9th the Earl of Mar received orders to secure 
 the passages of the Forth, and to seize all persons in arms 
 passing over it.'' On the 11th Lauderdale sent welcome 
 intelhgence to the anxious Council. He announced that 
 a regiment of foot, with cannon and ammunition, was 
 ordered to Berwick by sea. Two more foot regiments, 
 three regiments of horse, eight hundred dragoons, and 
 three troops of grenadiers were also to be despatched. 
 The Duke of Monmouth had been appointed to command 
 in chief. '^ On the 15th the army about Edinburgh was 
 of sufficient strength to justify an immediate advance. 
 
 1 Kirkton, p. 459. 
 
 '^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 99. Fountainhall (Historical Observes, p. Ill) 
 records a rumour that the sending of Monmouth to Scotland ' was ane 
 artifice and stratagem of York's to draw him under the jjremunire of ane 
 English Act of Parliament, made in 1643, and yet standing unrepealed, 
 declaring it hy treason to invade the Kingdom e of Scotland without the 
 authority of the Parliament of England, and to shun which Monmouth 
 then took a remission.' 
 
 3 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 84. 
 
 * Ibid., vol. iii. pp. 73, 84. 5 Ibid., vol. iii. p. 74. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 85. The Whigs were moving to their rendezvous in 
 another direction also. On 10th June the Master of Ross encountered a 
 party at Gala Water (Napier, vol. i. p. 280). The Memoirs of 1714 (p. 7) 
 call the spot 'Beuly Bog,' and give the sole credit of the achievement to 
 Claverhouse, who may have been present. 
 
 ■^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 86. Monmouth's commission, dated 12th June 
 1679, and his instructions, dated 14th June 1679, nie iu the Warrant 
 Book, Scotland, vol. v. fol. 158, 159.
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 69 
 
 Besides the standing forces, there were present the shire 
 levies of Fife, Berwick, East and Mid Lothian, and Edin- 
 burgh. The Angus iniHtia and one of the Perthshire 
 regiments were expected at Edinburgh ; the other had 
 proceeded to StirUng to join the Stirlingshire force.^ 
 Heavy rains and the incompleteness of the artillery 
 equipment delayed the advance until the morning of the 
 17th.^ That night Linlithgow encamped in Kirkhill park, 
 near Broxburn. On the 18th the more distant shire levies 
 were to join him at Blackburn. His total force he put at 
 about five thousand.^ 
 
 Monmouth reached Edinburgh on 18th June,^ and was 
 at once sworn of the Council.^ On the 19th he joined the 
 army at Blackburn, and assumed the command.*^ He 
 advanced on the 20th to Muirhead, near Kirk of Shotts, 
 where Cromwell had lain nearly a generation before. 
 The Council had a despatch from him from there. He 
 intended, he declared, ' to be within a mile of the enemy ' 
 the next day.'' On the evening of the 21st he advanced 
 upon Both well Bridge. Major Oglethorp, with five troops 
 of dragoons and Lord Home's troop of horse, led the van. 
 Monmouth followed with the rest of the cavalry — Claver- 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 87. 
 
 2 Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 170. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. pp. 99, 100. Linlithgow appears to have had eight 
 militia regiments — those, namely, of East Lothian, the Merse (Berwick), 
 two Perthshire, two Fifeshire, Angus, and Edinburgh. 
 
 4 The London Gazette, No. 1418. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 99. 
 
 ^ The London Gazette, No. 1419 ; A fiiriher Account of the Proceedingn 
 against the Rebels in Scotland since the Arrival of His Grace the Duke of 
 Monmorith. Communicated in a Letter to a Person of Quality from Edtn- 
 hurgh. Dated the \^th of this instant June. Another account has : 'His 
 Grace the Duke of Monmouth came up to the Kings Army on Thursday 
 the 19th day of June, which then lay at Moorhead beyond Blackborne ' 
 (An exact Relation of the Defeat of the Rebels at Bothwell- Bridge. Pub- 
 lished by Authority. In the Savoy : Printed by Tho. Newcomb, 1679. 
 Brit. Museum T. 3*). Muirhead is some six miles W. by S. of Black- 
 burn. 
 
 ' Wodrow, vol. iii. pp. 100, 101.
 
 70 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 house's troop among them — and three hundred com- 
 manded foot. LinHthgow led the infantry.^ 
 
 The preparation to avenge Drumclog has been dis- 
 played. "What of those whom it threatened? The 
 advance of the army found the Whig divisions accent- 
 uated. On 16th, 17th, and 18th June their force lay on 
 Shawhead Moor, and its officers met in frequent and 
 acrimonious debate.- The Hamilton faction desired 'a 
 day of humiliation.' Welch and his party protested. 
 ' The whole army was put in confusion,' and at nightfall 
 on the 18th drew back through Airdrie, crossed Both well 
 Bridge, and encamped on Hamilton Moor.^ The 19th 
 brought rumour of Monmouth's advance,* but the wrang- 
 ling continued. On the 20th reinforcements arrived from 
 Galloway. Favourers of the Indulgence, they strength- 
 ened Welch and his adherents. Hamilton received and 
 rejected a written statement of their desires. Its tenor 
 was, a joint undertaking to stand by Welch's Hamilton 
 Declaration (13th June), and to postpone consideration of 
 their differences until a free Parliament and Assembly 
 should be summoned.^ The urgent need for agreement 
 had immediate emphasis. In the early hours of the 21st 
 the Whig outpost at the ford eastward of Hamilton was 
 attacked. James Cleland was shot in the thigh, and died 
 of the wound.^ A few hours later the two factions met in 
 
 ^ An exact Relation of the Defeat of the Rebels. The Memoirs of 1714 
 (p. 8) state that Monmouth marched ' on Saturday at night, or rather 
 Sunday [22nd June] morning.' 
 
 Oglethorp, who led the van, was Major Theophilus Oglethorp, com- 
 missioned on 11th June 1(579 to the Earl of Feversham's Roj^al Regiment 
 of Dragoons (Dalton, English Army Lists, vol. i. p. 255). 
 
 2 See Memoirs of William Veitch, pp. 469, 470 ; Wilson, pp. 92, 93 ; 
 Kirkton, p. 460. 
 
 3 Kirkton, p. 462 ; Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 469. 
 * Wilson, p. 96. 
 
 ^ Kirkton, p. 462 ; Wilson, p. 96 ; Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 472. 
 
 ^ Kirkton, p. 463 ; Wilson, p. 97. Monmouth, on his arrival at Black- 
 burn on 19th June, had sent forward Major Oglethorp with a detachment 
 of horse and dragoons {London Gazette, No. 1419).
 
 BOTH WELL BRIDGE 71 
 
 final council. The one was anxious to purge the army of 
 its Erastian elements. The other refused to fight under 
 the officers chosen before the arrival of the Galloway men 
 had given the moderates a preponderance. The debate 
 was heated. Hamilton and his party withdrew. The 
 moderates sat on to frame a petition to Monmouth. Its 
 terms did not satisfy the other side. After much negotia- 
 tion — ' a hot debate and a new separating ' — it was agreed 
 that the framing of it should be entrusted to a few repre- 
 sentatives of both sides.^ Within a few hours the host, 
 leaderless,^ distracted, unprepared, blundered into battle. 
 The narrative of one of their number is eloquent : ' Our 
 men, with our divisions, slipped away still from us ; for it 
 was our common discourse that we could do no good. . . . 
 We were not concerned with an enemy, as if there had 
 not been one within 1000 miles of us. There were none 
 went through the army to see if we wanted powder 
 or ball. I do really think there were few or none that 
 had both powder and ball in all the army to shoot twice.' 
 ' A little before day,' adds Ure of Shargarton, ' we saw the 
 enemy kindling their matches a great way off.'^ 
 
 To an army of sound Tnoral and effective equipment the 
 position which the Covenanters held might have given 
 victory, even against superior numbers. Success at 
 
 1 Kirkton, p. 463 ; Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 473 ; Wilson, p. 97. 
 
 2 According to the information of Robert Smith of Diuiscore (A true 
 Account and Declaration of the horrid Con^j^iracy a(ja/nst the late King, 
 p. 119), the election of officers was postponed till the following day, but 
 was prevented by Monmouth's early attack. The officers had been chosen 
 on 17th June before the Galloway contingent arrived (Wilson, p. 93). It 
 is clear from all the accounts that no fresh election was made on the 
 20th, and that the Galloway men rejected those already chosen. See 
 Howie, Scots Worthies, vol. i. p. 583. 
 
 ' Ure of Shargarton's narrative, in Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 474. 
 James Nimmo, who joined the army before Bothwell Bridge, writes : 
 ' But when I came I was not halfe ane hour there untill I feared the Lord 
 was not with them, seeing no Authorctie in discipline . . . [and] percav- 
 ing much devision among thos that should have guided the rest ' (Narra- 
 tive of Mr. James Nimmo, p. 12).
 
 72 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Drumclog they owed to the difHculty of frontal attack, 
 and the impossibility of a flanking or enveloping move- 
 ment. In the coming fight the conditions were repeated. 
 The Clyde ringed them in on the east, whence Monmouth 
 approached them. On their front they were similarly 
 protected, save for the narrow ])ridge which spanned the 
 Clyde at Bothwcll.i 
 
 About three o'clock in the morning of 22nd June Mon- 
 mouth's advanced guard swung into view round Bothwell 
 Church and drew down towards the bridge. The main 
 body was still about a mile in the rear.^ At the earliest 
 alarm the Whigs took position between Hamilton and 
 the bridge, in two bodies. Their main body drew up on 
 the height of the valley, near the Little Park. A smaller 
 body, half a mile or so in advance, kept the bridge.^ 
 Throughout the night it had been held by two companies 
 of foot and three troops of horse.* When Monmouth's 
 advanced party was sighted, a request for reinforcements 
 was sent to the rear. The Stirling, Glasgow, Lennox, and 
 Galloway foot went forward. A troop of the Galloway 
 
 ^ According to Creichton {Works of Swift, vol. x. p. 1.S2), Monmouth's 
 resolution to force Bothwell Bridge was contrary to the opinion of his 
 officers, who suggested crossing the river ' by easy fords.' Sir Walter 
 Scott, in a note to the passage, remarks that there were no easy fords in 
 the neighbourhood, though the river in parts was fordable. Creichton's 
 condemnation of Monmouth's plan as ' a preposterous and absurd resolu- 
 tion ' seems uncalled for, but is quite in keeping with the general tone of 
 his memoirs. Monmouth had to get his guns over the river. 
 
 '^ Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 476. Uro of Shargarton describes this 
 advanced party as ' four companies of dragoons, and the king's troup of 
 the gaard, and the duke William's troop.' The main body, he says, was 
 observed 'marching north-west, for they came about because of their 
 cannon which was with them.' 
 
 3 ' The Rebels were drawn up in two Lines, or Bodies rather, half a 
 Mile one from the other ; one near the Bridge, which was the weakest in 
 number ; the other near their Camp, as high as the Little Park ' (London 
 Gazette, No. 1420). 
 
 ■* Wilson, p. 102. Hackston of Rathillet, Henry Hall of Haugh-head, 
 and Andrew Turnbull commanded the troops of horse. Tlic two com- 
 panies of foot were commanded by John Fowler and Alexander Ross. 
 See Kirkton, p. 465.
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 78 
 
 horse formed in their rear, and the single effective piece 
 of ordnance they possessed was dragged down to command 
 the bridge-way.^ 
 
 By seven o'clock in the morning^ Monmouth and his 
 main body faced their opponents; the bridge, guarded 
 and barricaded, intervening. Some desultory shots had 
 already been fired, with casualties on both sides,^ before 
 Monmouth rode forward to reconnoitre. On his way to 
 Oglethorp's advanced post ' within Pistol-shot ' of the 
 bridge, he was informed that the enemy desired to parley.* 
 Both factions were at length unanimous in desiring to 
 approach Monmouth,^ though Hamilton's assent was given 
 reluctantly, and at the last moment.^ Monmouth could 
 do no less than accept a parley. He signified his willing- 
 ness, and hostilities were meanwhile delayed. 
 
 ^ Urc of Shargarton, who broiight up the earliest reinforcements to the 
 bridge, says : ' I drew np liard upon the water-side against the west end 
 of the bridge. Glasgow, when they came down, drew up on my right 
 hand, and Lennox on my left ; there came also down about 200 Galloway 
 foot : they had no other arms but pikes and halberts, with four pair of 
 colours, and took gi'ound on our right hand farthest from our enemy. 
 There came one troop of their horse and drew up behind us, and then our 
 cannon was drawn down, being a field piece and two muskets of found 
 unmounted [i.e. without supporting frames], so these were not made use 
 of ' {Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 475). 
 
 As to the Whigs' artillery, Russell (Kirkton, p. 467) confirms Ure in 
 his statement that it consisted of a single gim, ' a brazen piece.' John 
 Blackader (Memoirs, p. 244), who was not present at the battle, gives the 
 Whigs ' only one cannon or two at most.' A letter from Edinburgh, of 
 24th June 1679 [A further and more particular Account of the total Defeat 
 of the Rebels in Scotland), states : ' The Rebels had 4 pieces of Canon, one 
 of which they threw into the River of Clyd, the other .3 were taken. ' In 
 the well-known picture of the battle (Kirkton, p. 468) the Whigs are 
 represented with only one gun. 
 
 - Lauderdale Paj^ers, vol. iii. p. 171. 
 
 ^ Kirkton, p. 466 ; Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 476. 
 
 * An exact Relation of the Defeat of the Rebels at Bothivell- Bridge. 
 Published by Authority. 
 
 5 Kirkton, p. 467. 
 
 ^ Wilson, p. 102. Hamilton (Michael Shields, Faithful Contendings 
 displayed, p. 195) states that he signed the petition without reading 
 it, believing that Donald Cargill had drawn it up.
 
 74 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 To the disappointment of Hamilton and the extremists,^ 
 the petition was carried to Monmouth by two of the 
 moderate party — David Hume and a Galloway laird 
 named Murdoch.^ The petition itself, a statement of 
 grievances addressed to one ' oft' whois princely clemency 
 and naturall aversione from shedding of christiane blood 
 we have had so savorie a report,' merely desired Mon- 
 mouth's leave to send 'some of our number to adress 
 them selfs to your grace To lay oppine our heart in this 
 mater.' ^ It is not easy to understand what practical and 
 beneficial result was anticipated from the opportunity 
 they sought.* There was an obvious condition which 
 
 ^ According to Russell (Kirkton, p. 466) they had chosen two of their 
 number for the purpose, 'but their going was prevented by Mr. [David] 
 Hume ; and a Galloway laird, Murdoch, sent a drummer to desire hearing, 
 which was granted.' He adds, that his party, before the departure of the 
 deputation, endeavoured to force hostilities. 
 
 - Robert Smith of Dunscore (A true Account, etc., p. 119) gives the 
 name of David Hume's colleague as ' Captain Mackculloch.' Wodrow 
 (vol. iii. p. 106) calls him 'laird of Kaitloch,' i.e. William Fergusson. 
 
 ^ The petition, bearing Robert Hamilton's signature, is printed in 
 Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 260. 
 
 * Monmouth obviously could not. go beyond the letter of his instruc- 
 tions. Those instructions were unknown to Wodrow, who, while ad- 
 mitting (vol. iii. p. 99) that he had never seen them, ventured to describe 
 them as 'not altogether unfavourable to presbyterians. ' I extract the 
 following passages from Monmouth's instructions in the Warrant Book, 
 Scotland (vol. v. fol. 159) :— 
 
 * 3. By your Commission you are authorised to Grant Pardons to all or 
 as many of the Rebells as are now in Armes against us, without any 
 limitation. And seing this Rebellion was openly declared at Rugland 
 upon the 2%^^ day of May last past, you may as you think fit give absolute 
 Pardon to any person or persons for all that was done there or any Act of 
 Rebellion occurring thereafter ; Excepting only such as were legally 
 forfeited for Crimes before that time, as also excepting those who were 
 guilty of the late horrid niurther of the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews. 
 
 ' 4. You shall cause execute Martiall Law, even unto Death or other 
 punishments conforme to the Articles of Warre Signed by us the 26'^'^ 
 ffeb""? 167f and thereafter printed & published, and againe authorised & 
 reprinted by our Warrant dated the 11"^ Jan""?" 167i ^jy W'liich our Militia 
 Iforces & others called to our assistance are expresly Subjected to those 
 Articles. 
 
 ' 5. And as you have power to reclaime such as you find capable of our 
 mercy, conforme to our 3*1 Instruction, So you shall pursue the obstinate
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 75 
 
 must have been foreseen, and Monmouth named it: With 
 rebels he could hold no communication. As a prelimin- 
 ary he required them to lay down their arms.^ With this 
 answer Hume and his colleague returned across the 
 bridge." 'And hang next,' was Hamilton's commentary 
 when Monmouth's order to surrender their arms was 
 reported to him.^ 
 
 Monmouth did not await a reply to his ultimatum 
 before completing his arrangements for attack. His 
 cannon were brought into position to command the 
 bridge. Hardly were they placed when the enemy beat a 
 second parley. Major Maine was sent to learn their 
 resolution. Monmouth, they opined, had brought ' terms 
 of accommodation from England.' They desired to know 
 their purport. Maine carried Monmouth's refusal. Hume 
 
 Rebells who shall remaine in Armes, with ffire & Sword, and all the 
 extremities of Warre, untill you shall absolutely reduce them.' 
 
 ^ Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 172 ; Kirkton, p. 466. 
 
 With little measure of truth, so far as can be gathered, Monmouth is 
 represented by later writers as either offering gentler terms, or as having 
 been influenced to harshness by others. Charles James Fox {History of 
 James the Second, p. 114) says that he carried sealed orders not to treat 
 with the rebels, ' lest the generoiis mildness of his nature should prevail.' 
 The Memoirs of 1714 state absurdly (p. 9) that Monmouth, 'by his 
 Majesty's special commission, offered them every third church in the 
 kingdom, with many other privileges, providing they would lay down 
 their arms, and return home to their respective dwellings, and live 
 quietly under the Government.' Blackader, who was not present at the 
 battle, states that Monmouth inclined to give ' a more favourable answer. 
 But several Scots noblemen did so stir up and instigate the duke, that 
 they dissuaded him from hearkening, or granting them any cessation, but 
 presently to fall on with force, unless they should cast down their 
 arms' {Memoirs, p. 245). ^cott \n Old Mortality has carelessly adopted 
 Blackader's statement. He represents Monmouth's sinister advisers as 
 Claverhouse, whose military rank he misrepresents, and Dalziel, who 
 was not present at the I)attle. 
 
 ^ Wodrow (vol. iii. p. 106) interpolates the absurd story that the Whig 
 envoys approached Monmouth 'in disguise,' but Claverhouse 'having 
 some jealousy [suspicion] of tlicm, watched them upon their return, and 
 having got some hint of them, saluted them by their names.' Scott has 
 adopted this episode in Claverliouse's recognition of and conversation 
 with Henry Morton. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of William. Veitch, p. 477.
 
 76 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 and his coUcaj^iie withdrew, and Monmouth gave orders 
 to engage.^ 
 
 A brief artillery duel opened the battle.^ Despite their 
 inferiority the issue of it was encouraging to the Whigs. 
 Monmouth's gunners were driven from their guns.^ 
 Quickly rallying, they again opened fire on the bridge, 
 while Major Oglethorp and a storming party had orders 
 to entrench until the guns had effected a breach. The 
 entrenchment was not complete Avhen the defenders of 
 the bridge were observed in confusion.* Oglethorp and 
 his dragoons were at once sent forward, and after ' a brief 
 
 ^ An exact Relation of the Defeat of the Febels, which adds that Mon- 
 mouth had refused to grant a cessation of preparations during negotia- 
 tions, but promised that whenever he should hear their drum bringing 
 him their proposals in writing he woTiId stop the fight. Russell (Kirkton, 
 p. 466) says that in the interval betweea the two deputations Monmouth 
 had signified by an English trumpeter his intention to give them half an 
 liour to make their preparations. John Blackader (Memoirs, p. 245) 
 states that Monmouth gave them ' the space of half an hour, or an hour 
 at most,' in which to lay down their arms. 
 
 2 In this account of the battle I follow An exact Relation of the Defeat 
 of the Rebels at Bothwell-Bridge. Published by Authority. 
 
 ^ Russell (Kirkton, p. 467) declares, that had not the bridge been 
 'stopt with an baracade for defence,' Monmouth's abandoned guns might 
 have been taken. He adds that the gunners were rallied by David Leslie 
 with the cry, ' Would they fleg for country fellows ? ' Ure of Shargarton 
 [Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 477) says that Monmouth's troops retreated, 
 ' both horse and foot, near five pair of butts.' 
 
 ^ Blackader (Memoirs, p. 246) writes : ' It was resolved, as is said, by 
 Robert Hamilton, that the party should be called back from the bridge, 
 and join with the body, that the enemy might come over and give them 
 battle on the fair field.' A similar statement appears in Robert Law's 
 Memorialls, p. 151. Russell gives no hint of any order to retire, and 
 from the Exact Relation it is clear that the defenders of the bridge yielded 
 to superior force, and contested its possession hand to hand with the 
 advancing troops. In the Privy Council's narrative to Lauderdale 
 (Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 172) it is also stated, that after the play 
 of the artillery, ' a party attackt the bridge, and after some short dispute 
 caryd it.' Here, as elsewhere, truth is obliterated beneath the jealousy 
 and recriminations of the two factions. Hamilton's incompetency may 
 be allowed, but accusations of cowardice (see Memoirs of John Blackader, 
 p. 247, and Robert Law, Memorialls, p. 151) are pi'obably exaggerated. 
 A similar and unfounded charge is brought against Monmouth by 
 Creichton (Works of Swift, vol. x. p. 133).
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 77 
 
 dispute ' ^ the bridge was gained. Oglethorp's orders were 
 not to advance beyond the bridge. But in the heat of 
 pursuit the order was disobeyed, and the victors pressed 
 ' up some part of the rising ground ' towards the Whigs' 
 main body. They found themselves in some jeopardy. 
 Perceiving their pursuers small in number, and unsup- 
 ported, the Whigs rallied. Oglethorp was driven back 
 ' to the houses at the foot of the Bridge.' Reinforcements 
 were hurried to his support — Linlithgow's son, Lord 
 Livingstone, and three hundred foot. Once more the 
 Whigs were driven back upon their main body.^ There- 
 upon Monmouth himself crossed the bridge at the head 
 of Linlithgow's regiment of Guards, and of his own troop. 
 With the troops already over he advanced to the ridge of 
 the valley and halted, awaiting the rest of his force. The 
 armies faced each other, ' but two carabine's shot asunder,' ^ 
 A haphazard and leaderless effort was made by the Whigs 
 to retrieve the day. Monmouth's position seemed assail- 
 able on his right, where his artillery was placed, and some 
 'hollow ground' offered advantage. Posting a body of 
 the Atholl Highlanders on the ' hollow ground,' supported 
 by five troops of English dragoons, Monmouth was still 
 forming his second line when the Highlanders on his 
 right found themselves engaged,* Driven back upon the 
 dragoons, their position was relieved by the artillery, 
 which opened fire on the Whig left. A round or two 
 
 1 Lauderdale Papen, vol. iii. p. 172. According to Creichton {Works 
 of Sioift, vol. X. p. 134), it took five hours for the army to cross the bridge. 
 
 '^ Ure of Shargarton's narrative (Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 478) 
 describes this movement shortly : ' My Lord Lithgow's son came down to 
 the bridge with about 500 of red coats too, and we still fired on both 
 sides. ' The ' houses at the foot of the Bridge ' appear very clearly in the 
 picture of the battle. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of William Veitch, p. 480. 
 
 ^ Russell's accoiint (Kirkton, f). 468) states that the attack was directed 
 chiefly against Monmouth's artillery. Thomas Weir of Greenridge is 
 represented as its leader. Possibly he was the Thomas Greenridge already 
 alluded to (see above, p. 65).
 
 78 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 threw it into confusion. Their horse on that quarter rode 
 headlong from the field, Those on the right soon followed 
 them.i The foot joined the stampede, and the rout was 
 complete. Ordering Oglethorp, Claverhouse, and the 
 cavalry to follow in hot pursuit, Monmouth followed with 
 the foot, and halted about a mile towards Hamilton. It 
 was about ten in the morning when a messenger was de- 
 spatched to Edinburgh, bearing news of tlie victory.^ 
 
 Sober history competes unequally with romance, and 
 the Claverhouse of BothAvell Bridge is, perhaps irrevo- 
 cably, the Claverhouse of Old Mortality. His features are 
 familiar, to the confounding of fact. Unknown as he was, 
 so far, to the majority of his countrymen, with but eight 
 months' undistinguished service in Scotland behind him, 
 he appears proleptically in the character which the Killing 
 
 ' Ure of Shargarton writes : ' My men fired on the dragoons, and they 
 at them, and their cannons played ; tlie foot, hearing this, and being 
 troubled a little with the horse, fled ; and so thej^ all fled, and not a man 
 was standing on all the left hand. I cried to my men to make away. 
 The right hand stood a little, but not so long as to put on a pair of gloves ; 
 so they all fled, and I turned with all my speed' [Memoirs of William 
 Veitch, p. 481). 
 
 2 Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 172. The Whig losses are given by 
 the Exact Relation as between seven and eight hundred killed, and over 
 twelve hundred prisoners. On 24th June the Council were without exact 
 details, but believed the rebels had lost eight hundred killed and over 
 eleven hundred prisoners (Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 114). Creichton (Works 
 of Sioift, vol. X. p. 134) puts their loss at seven or eight hundred killed, 
 and fifteen hundred prisoners. T\\e Memoirs oi 1714 (p. 9) declare that 
 about fifteen hundred were made prisoners and a larger number killed. 
 Among their own writers estimates vary more widely. Blackader 
 {Memoirs, p. 249) speaks of about four hundred killed and above twelve 
 hundred prisoners. Law [Memorialls, p. 151) gives them eight hundred 
 killed and three hundred prisoners. Wodrow (vol. iii. p. 108) mentions 
 about four hundred killed and twelve hundred prisoners. The most 
 reliable contemporary accounts on both sides put their total strength at 
 between six and seven thousand. It may be safely asserted that their 
 loss was nearly one-third of that number. 
 
 Accounts of the battle, which I have not seen, are calendared among 
 the Hamilton MSS. in Hist. MSS. Comm. Eejit. xi. , App. pt. vi. p. 162, 
 No. 98. The laird of Torfoot's narrative is in Howie, Scots Worthies, 
 vol. i. pp. 594-97. It displays the egotistical and verbose qualities of his 
 account of Drumclog.
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 79 
 
 Time, fairly or unfairly, gave him six years later, He, 
 plain captain of horse until the end of 1682, is styled 
 colonel in the fight, and is promoted general on the 
 morrow of it. He and old Tom Dalziel — who was not 
 even present at the battle ^ — are named as those appointed 
 to check Monmouth's assumed inclination to treat with 
 the rebels. Finally, impelled by desire to avenge his 
 cornet's death and his own defeat at Drumclog, Claver- 
 house, in flagrant disobedience to his commander's orders, 
 and with the cry, ' Kill, kill ! ' urges his troop through the 
 flying and helpless ranks of the enemy, greedy for blood 
 and relentless. Such is Scott's picture of him. 
 
 Had Claverhouse ended his career at Bothwell Bridge, 
 history would have recorded little concerning him, and, 
 recording little, would have added nought. But he lived 
 to epitomise two tragic crises sharply cleaving his country- 
 men's sympathy ; and inevitably, the career and character 
 of him in the making are focussed to the conflicting and 
 completed record he left. At Bothwell Bridge he was 
 a plain captain of horse ; a subordinate, whose duty it was 
 to execute orders, unprivileged to inspire or control the 
 policy which directed them. In the contemporary and 
 
 ^ Dalziel's stern reproof of Moumouth after the battle is familiar to 
 readers of Old Mortality. Its foundation rests upon a passage in Creich- 
 ton's most unreliable narrative, some of whose inaccuracies Scott himself 
 corrected in his edition of Swift (vol. x. p. 137). The real facts as to 
 Dalziel and his relation to Monmouth are as follows : On 15th June 1679, 
 upon receiving news of Monmouth's appointment to command in chief, 
 the Scots Privy Council, at Linlithgow's suggestion, proposed Dalziel's 
 name to Lauderdale for appointment as lieutenant-general (Wodrow, 
 vol. iii. p. 87). On 19th June Dalziel's commission as lieutenant-general 
 was dated [Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. v. fol. 168). On 22nd June, 
 the date of Bothwell fight, it reached Edinburgh by flying packet (Wod- 
 row, vol. iii. p. 101). On tlie same date, and after the news of the 
 victory had reached Edinburgh, his commission was handed to Dalziel by 
 the Chancellor (Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 173). On 1st November 
 1679, Monmouth's commission having expired, Dalziel's succession to the 
 connnand was intimated to the Council ( Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. v. 
 fol. 314).
 
 80 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 authoritative accounts of the battle it is not even pos- 
 sible to determine the position of his troop. In the 
 Exact Relation, published ' by authority,' his name is 
 but once mentioned, and only as one of several officers 
 ordered to pursue the rebel rout. Neither Russell nor 
 Ure of Shargarton singles him out for distinctive execra- 
 tion. The only hint of his position in the fight is 
 Creichton's statement that he led the cavalry on the right, 
 when Monmouth was over the bridge, and the last phase 
 of the fight was imminent.^ Of distinctive achievement, 
 other than his resolute pursuit, a newsletter of 24th June 
 1679 records the capture, ' with his own hands,' of two 
 standards.' - That is the sum of the facts. 
 
 The conditions of the fight at Both well Bridge denied 
 the cavalry the chance of service until the precipitate 
 fiight of the enemy unloosed them in pursuit. Claver- 
 house's energetic participation in it is generally recorded.^ 
 
 ^ Worhn of Swift, vol. x. p. 134. Claverhouse was not in command. 
 
 ^ A further and more j^cirticular Account of the, total Defeat of the 
 Rebels in Scotland. 
 
 ^ The ballads, in particular, single him out. The following illustrations 
 may serve. In the ' Battell of Bodwell-Bridge, or, the Kings Cavilleers 
 Trump ' (Laing, Fugitive Scotiah Poetry, 2nd series, No. 35) Claverhouse is 
 thus alluded to : 
 
 ' And when the Whig sojors began for to flee, 
 The good Captain Clavers after them would be, 
 And no man with him but his own Companie, 
 When they ran from the Battell of Bodwell.' 
 
 Sir Walter Scott [Poetical Worlcs, vol. ii. pp. 233, 240) quotes from 
 Wilson's ' Clyde ' : 
 
 ' But fierce Dundee, inHanied with deadly hate, 
 In vengeance for the great Montrose's fate, 
 Let loose the sword, and to the hero's shade, 
 A barbarous hecatomb of victims paid. ' 
 
 And from ' The Battle of Bothwell Bridge ' : 
 
 ' "0 hold your hand," then Monmouth cry'd, 
 " Gie quarters to yon men for me ! " — 
 But wicked Claver'se swore an oath, 
 His Cornet's death revenged sud be.
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 81 
 
 He was still smarting under his recent reverse. It would 
 be foolish to imagine that the keenness of his pursuit was 
 not whetted thereby. The point is, however: Was he 
 acting under orders, or, as in the picture of him that Scott 
 presents, did he wantonly exceed them ? In other words, 
 did Monmouth connive at the escape of his routed enemy 
 by forbidding pursuit ? That he did so is a tradition 
 which persistent iteration has crystallised to a fact.^ But 
 there is not a shred of evidence in support of it. It is 
 specifically stated in the official account of the battle, that 
 so soon as the Wliig horse began to run, Monmouth 
 ordered Oglethorp and his dragoons, Claverhouse and 
 Major Maine with their troops, and the Earl of Eglinton 
 with his troop of volunteers, to pursue, ' whilst he [Mon- 
 mouth] followed himself with the rest of the Army so 
 fast as not to be put in disorder.' ^ The messenger who 
 brought news of the victory to Edinburgh carried with 
 him not a hint of any backwardness on Monmouth's part, 
 
 " hold your hand," then Monmouth cry'd, 
 
 " If onythiug you '11 do for me ; 
 Hold up your hand, you cursed Graeme, 
 
 Else a rebel to your King ye '11 be. " ' 
 
 The earliest reference to Claverhouse's energy in pursuit is in the Edin- 
 burgh newsletter of 24th June 1679 {A further and more ^tartiadar 
 Account, etc.), which states that his troop, 'remembring the slaughter 
 the Rebels made amongst them on the 29th of May {sic), resolved now to 
 have full satisfaction, and therefore utterly refused either to give or 
 take Quarter. ' 
 
 1 Creichton (Works of Sivift, vol. x. p. 134) and Robert Smith of 
 Dunscore [A true Account and, Declaration of the horrid Conspiracy, 
 p. 119) both affirm it. Neither is a reliable witness. Blackader 
 {Memoirs, p. 247), whose knowledge of the battle was at second-hand, 
 also states that Claverhouse disobeyed orders, and that he was compelled 
 to desist by the Life Guards. The Memoirs of 1714 (p. 9) by implication 
 convey a similar fact. 
 
 ^ An exact Relation, etc. It will be observed that Monmouth did not 
 employ the whole of his cavalry in the pursuit. Those mentioned were 
 probably on his right wing. This, combined with the further fact, that 
 Monmouth halted the rest of his army — that part of it which was not 
 pursuing — after advancing about a mile, may possibly have conveyed an 
 immediate impression which time and tradition have expanded. 
 
 F
 
 82 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVEKHOUSE 
 
 or of imwillingness to push his victory home. Upon the 
 information he conveyed, the Council, within a few hours 
 of the battle, wrote to Lauderdale : ' Our army is still in 
 persute of the rebells when Lundin came away.' ^ Claver- 
 house's asserted disregard of orders may fitly rest with the 
 story of the Whig gallows ^ in the limbo of historical 
 fictions. 
 
 The bubble blown at Rutherglcn burst with Bothwell 
 rout. While the survivors of the Whigs scattered for 
 safety, Monmouth led his army through the district in 
 which the enemy had so recently roamed at will. On 
 24th June he was near Strathaven.^ Reconnoitring parties 
 were sent beyond Douglas and Newmilns, and confirmed 
 the conclusion that the rebels would make no further 
 head. On the 25th Monmouth found it possible to dis- 
 miss the militia levies, and requested the Council to recall 
 others on their way to join him.* On the 26th he returned 
 to Edinburgh, and had the Council's thanks for his con- 
 duct of the brief campaign.^ On 3rd July he was treated 
 
 ^ Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii. p. 172. 
 
 2 The most preposterous account of the gallows which the Whigs 
 are svipposed to have erected in their camp for the execution of their 
 prisoners is in the newsletter of 24th June 1679 {A further and more 
 particidar Account) : 'I must not forget to inform you, that there were 
 likewise taken two pair of Gallows, which they carried along with them ; 
 One was like our ordinary Tools of that kinde, and this was for the 
 poorer sort. But the other, being intended for the Gentry, was of a 
 mode wholly new, and so curiously contrived, that I know not well 
 how to describe it ; 'Tis one streight piece of Wood with a Screw, having 
 12 or 15 branches which screwed up to the top, where there was a cross 
 piece of wood full of long Iron Spikes, on which the Heads of Persons 
 of Quality were to be fixt ; and each of the aforesaid Branches had an 
 Iron Hook at the end, to hang people on.' That a gallows did stand 
 in or near the Whig camp is ailirmed by Creichton ( Works of Sioift. vol. x. 
 p. 136) and Blackader (Memoirs, p. 249), both of whom state that the 
 captured W^higs were guarded near it. "Whether it was the ordinary 
 ward gallows or not, it may be safely asserted that the Whigs had not 
 erected it with the motive ascribed to them. 
 
 3 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 114. 
 
 4 Ibid. The militia levies from beyond the Forth were ordered home 
 on 27th June [ibid., vol. iii. p. 116). ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 116.
 
 BOTHWELL BRIDGE 83 
 
 ' at a very noble Collation of Meats and Fruits ; after 
 which the Lord Provost presented his Grace with the 
 Freedom of this [Edinburgh] City, the Letters being in a 
 large Gold Box.' ^ Three days later (6th July) the Duke 
 took leave of the Council and departed for London.^ 
 
 Monmouth's withdrawal from the army left to his 
 subordinates the completion of the task he had begun. 
 On 26th June 1679 the Council proclaimed the leaders of 
 the rebellion, forbade any from harbouring them or others 
 concerned in it, and commanded the pursuit of them as 
 traitors. ^ Claverhouse was early and late in the saddle. 
 On 24th June news of his engagement with a party of 
 fugitive rebels at Ayr reached Edinburgh. * (The Council's 
 proclamation of 26th June sanctioned a systematic search 
 for those who so lately had menaced the State.) Wodrow 
 follows the track of him in Ayrshire, Galloway, Nithsdale, 
 and Dumfries.^ On 6th July he was hard on the heels of 
 
 1 TM London Gazette, No. 1423. 
 
 ^ Wodi'ow, vol. iii. p. 117. The termination of Monmouth's com- 
 mission may be briefly sketched here. A reaction at Court in York's 
 favour brought about his disgrace, though there is certainly considerable 
 exaggeration in the statement in James's memoirs [Life of James the 
 Second, ed. J. S. Clarke, vol. i. p. 508), that Monmouth was found to have 
 'managed those fanatticks [in Scotland], as if he rather intended to put 
 himself at the head of their forces, than repell them, and as if he had more 
 inclination to court their friendshipp, than punish their rebellion.' On 
 12th September 1G79 The London Gazette (No. 1442) announced: 'The 
 King has thought fit to take from the Duke of Monmoiith his Commission 
 of General, His Majesty at present not thinking that Command neces- 
 sary.' On 13th September 1679 Dalziel and the members of the army in 
 Scotland were ordered to be informed of it ( Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. 
 v. fol. 276). On 18th September 1679 intimation of the withdrawal of 
 Monmouth's commission was received by the Scottish Council (Wodrow, 
 vol. iii. p. 154). 
 
 2 Ibid., vol. iii. p. 114. 
 
 * A further and more jiarticular Account of the total Defeat of the Rebels. 
 
 ^ See Wodrow, vol. iii. pp. 120-122. In A Cloud of Witnesses for the 
 royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ (p. 394) the following inscription is 
 recorded as appearing upon a headstone in the churchyard of Galston, 
 Ayrshire : — 
 
 'Here lies Andrew Richmond, who was killed by bloody Graham of
 
 84 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 John Balfour, Sharp's murderer, and others, near Minni- 
 gaff, in Kirkcudbright. On 8th July he was still on their 
 track as they fled towards Carrick.^ A fortnight later 
 his service was suddenly interrupted. With the Council's 
 permission he set out for London on 2.5th July. Lin- 
 lithgow accompanied him. The Chancellor, the Earl of 
 Rothes, followed a few days later.^ Whether leave of 
 absence was solicited by Claverhouse cannot be established. 
 But that his advice and experience were desired in regard 
 to the recent crisis seems clear. Popular tradition of a 
 later time came to associate his visit with the disgrace of 
 Monmouth. 
 
 ' Then he's awa' to London town ; 
 Aye e'en as fast as he can dree, 
 Fause witnesses he has wi' him ta'en, 
 
 And ta'en Monmouth's head frae his body.' ^ 
 
 The couplet is an illustration of popular mis-association 
 of facts. The Scottish administration was approaching a 
 crisis, and out of it the Duke of York emerged victorious. 
 Claverhouse watched and certainly could not as yet guide 
 these movements of high policy. But the change was 
 wholly to his interest.* 
 
 Claverhouse, 1679 ; for his adherence to the word of God, and Scotland's 
 Covenanted work of Reformation.' Wodrow does not mention Galston 
 among the places visited by Claverhouse. 
 
 1 Kirkton, p. 473. 
 
 - Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 172. 
 
 •' Scott, Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 240. 
 
 * The author of The Despot's Champion (pp. 72-74) suggests that 
 Claverhouse was in a position to testify to private bargaining between 
 Monmouth and the Whig deputation to him at BothM'ell. But there is 
 really no ground for taking seriously the couplet qiioted above, and the 
 author's attempt to find a ground-fact of truth in it is ingenious but 
 supertluous.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 
 
 From tlie suppression of the rebellion of 1679 to the 
 commencement of 1682 there is a lull in Claverhouse's 
 military activities. Few facts are recoverable concerning 
 him in those eighteen months. His correspondence is 
 scanty. Only six letters of his are extant, and they 
 relate to his projected marriage to Helen Graham. In 
 the course of the period he paid two visits to London, 
 and, through the greater part of it, was seemingly in close 
 attendance upon his patron, the Duke of York. That 
 relationship is the key to his life in the few years that 
 remained to him. 
 
 Unswerving loyalty to the Monarchy bound Claverhouse 
 to his patron. The Covenant he discerned as a conflict- 
 ing political creed, and gave his resolute service against 
 it. Not even the flagrant misrule of James's reign could 
 lessen the call upon his allegiance. That the interests of 
 the Monarchy involved the maintenance of episcopacy in 
 Scotland, Claverhouse accepted among other tenets of 
 Stewartism. A ' fiery and skilful Episcopalian Jacobite ' 
 is Ranke's summary of him.^ But that his religious con- 
 victions were loosely rooted, the accident of his political 
 sympathies, cannot be admitted. Neither self-interest 
 nor the example of his friends availed to entice him from 
 the Protestant fold. Few men have drawn upon them- 
 selves a fuller measure of execration. Not one of his 
 
 1 IlUtory of EiKjland, vol. iv. p. 550.
 
 86 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 accusers, while lashing him as the persecutor of the 
 'honest/ ventures to challenge him as irreligious, or to 
 suggest that his zeal was that of the mercenary, colour- 
 less and devoid of principle. Even the Devil's elegy on 
 Grierson of Lag credits Claverhouse with devotion to his 
 interests ! ^ John Dick, in a hysterical passage, is fain to 
 single out Claverhouse's love of horse-flesh for distinctive 
 characterisation.^ Unchallenged by his enemies, the testi- 
 mony of his friends to the seriousness of his religious con- 
 victions gains in credibility. Balhaldy records his practice 
 of holding family prayers, adding that a disposition so 
 unexpected weighed with a Presbyterian observer of it 
 to the climax of marriage with ' a high-flyeing church- 
 
 1 The following lines appear iu ' An Elegy in Memory of that Valiant 
 Champion, Sir R. Grierson, late Laird of Lag, who died December 23rd, 
 1733. Wherein the Prince of Darkness commends many of his best 
 Friends, who were the chief Managers of the late Persecution ' : — 
 
 ' Brave Clavers flourish'd in bis day ; 
 And many lives did take away, 
 
 He to his utmost did contrive, 
 How he might make my kiugxloni thrive, 
 And how he might bring down all those, 
 That did my government oppose. 
 
 He was made Viscount of Dundee, 
 For venturing his all for me. 
 This honour he enjoy 'd not long. 
 Soon after this he was ta'en home : 
 By sudden fate at last he fell. 
 At Killicrankie near Dunkel. 
 No longer he coidd serve me here ; 
 But Lag survived for many a year.' 
 
 '^ * And for that Blood Thirsty Wretch Claver-House, how thinks he to 
 Shelter himself that Day? Is it Possible the Pitiful thing can be so 
 Mad as to think to Secure himself by the Fleetness of his Horse (a 
 Creature he has so much Respect for, that he Regarded more the k>ss of 
 his Horse at Drumclog, than all the Men that fell there, aud Sure on 
 either Party there fell Prettier Men than himself) ; no Sure, though he 
 could fall upon a Chymist that could Extract the Spirits out of all the 
 Horse in the World, aud Infuse them in his one, though ho were on that 
 Horse Back never so well Mounted, he need not Dream of Escaping' 
 (John Dick, A Testimony to the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and 
 Government of the Church of Scotland, 1684).
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 87 
 
 man ' ! ^ To Thomas Morer, the army chaplain, Claver- 
 house was ' a gentleman fix'd in his Religion/ and ' a great 
 admirer of the Church- of-England- Worship ' ; his watch- 
 word, ' Conscience and Loyalty.' ^ 
 
 When Clavcrhouse arrived in London in the mid- 
 summer of 1679 the Duke of York was still an exile in 
 Holland. Monmouth's popularity and position seemed 
 secure and unassailable. Before he left Scotland the 
 Privy Council had issued (29th June 1679) a proclama- 
 tion partially suspending the laws against conventicles.^ 
 It is possible that the administration, trembling, as in 
 1066, at the magnitude of the danger it had withstood, 
 oscillated to moderation. Or, it may be, the moment 
 was chosen, when the Whigs were cloven asunder, to 
 throw another apple of discord among them, and under 
 the guise of toleration to isolate the irreconcilables from 
 their less resolute, and now embittered, colleagues. 
 Whatever the motive, on 27th July 1679, the Scottish 
 Council received the draft of a royal proclamation of 
 Indemnity. It offered pardon to all concerned in the two 
 rebellions, and generally to religious dissidents, provided 
 that within a reasonable period — 18th September 1679 
 for those in the country, and 13th November 1679 for 
 those out of it — they took oath not to resort again to 
 arms. On 14th August 1679 the proclamation was pub- 
 lished.* On the same date the Council issued a royal 
 proclamation instituting two circuit Courts for proceed- 
 ing against ' the persons who were engaged in the said 
 rebellion, and have not accepted, or shall not accept, the 
 benefit of our indemnity.' ^ 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Locheill, p. 278. '^ Short Account of Scotland, p. 98. 
 
 3 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 149. ■* Ibid., p. 118. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 140. It may be noticed that the execution of this commis- 
 sion in Dumfries and Kirkcudbright was entrusted to the sheriflFs- 
 principal, the Earls of Queensberry and Nithsdale, who had so recently 
 been compelled to accept Claverhouse as their depute.
 
 88 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 The two proclamations were barely issued before an 
 unforeseeable event wholly changed the situation. The 
 King was attacked by fever. York came back at an 
 urgent summons. Monmouth's brief ascendency ended 
 with his return. His relations to English nonconformity 
 were well known. His Scottish anabasis and the 
 measures that had followed it weighed lightly against the 
 fact that he posed as York's rival in the succession. 
 Within a fortnight of York's return his disgrace was 
 decreed, his commission withdrawn.^ In Scotland the 
 change of masters was instantly felt. On 19th September 
 1679 Dalziel, who could be relied on to eschew the 
 delicate tread of Agag, had a warrant to employ the 
 troops against those who had not accepted the recent 
 Indemnity.^ On 13th November 1679 further minatory 
 proclamations were issued, though the time for submission 
 to the Indemnity was extended to 1st January 1680.^ The 
 new policy was in train. On 24th November 1679 York 
 
 ^ See above, p. 83. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 154. On 1st November 1679 a royal letter in- 
 timated to the Scottish Council that, upon the withdrawal of Mon- 
 mouth's commission, ' Wee looke upon our Lieutenant Generall [Dalziel] 
 to be the Commander in chiefe of all our said fForces ' ( Warrant Book, 
 Scotland, vol. v. fol. 314). Fountainhall (Historical Notices of ScotiKh 
 Affairs, vol. i. p. 243) commenting on the fact that Dalziel's commission, 
 received at Edinburgh on 6th November 1679, empowered him 'only to 
 be liable and accountable to, and judgeable by, his Majesty himselfe,' 
 adds that Dalziel 'would not accept it otherwayes.' Dalrymple 
 (Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. i. pt. i. p. 76) tells the fol- 
 lowing characteristic story of Dalziel at this time : ' When the Dutchess 
 of York came first to Scotland, she one day observed three covers upon 
 the dining-table. She asked the Duke for whom the third cover was 
 intended ? He answered. For General Dalziel, whom he had asked to 
 dine with him. The Dutchess refused to permit a private gentleman to 
 sit at table with her. Dalziel, who had been in the imperial service, 
 entered the room in the mean time ; and, hearing the scruples of the 
 Dutchess, told her, he had dined at a table where her father had stood at 
 his back ; alluding to the Duke of Modena's beiug a vassal of the 
 Emperor. The Dutchess felt the reproof, and advised her husband not 
 to offend the pride of proud men.' 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 157.
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 89 
 
 himself arrived at Edinburgh to superintend its applica- 
 tion.^ Claverliouse undoubtedly accompanied him.^ On 
 4th December 1679 the Duke took his seat at the Privy 
 Council.^ 
 
 With York in the Council, and Dalziel in command of 
 the troops, ' a new scene of suffering,' in Wodrow's 
 phrase,* opened upon the harassed Whigs. The Indul- 
 gence had done its cleaving work. Their ranks had been 
 winnowed. The stalwarts, the followers of Cameron, 
 Cargill, and Hamilton, alone remained a menacing force, 
 fugitive, and scattered. The events of 1679 were re- 
 peated. On 22nd June 1680, the anniversary of Both- 
 well Bridge, the Sanquhar Declaration disowned Charles 
 Stewart as King.^ A month later, 22nd July, at Airds 
 Moss, in Auchinleck, Ayrshire, the Cameronian remnant 
 was surprised by Bruce of EarlshalL*^ Cameron was 
 slain : Hackston of Rathillet was made prisoner.^ Cargill 
 for the moment escaped. 
 
 In the punitive measures of 1680 Claverhouse took 
 but a moderate share. On 6th January he was ordered 
 to act in his old districts — Dumfries, Wigton, Kirkcud- 
 bright, and Annandale — to hunt down those who had re- 
 
 ^ The London Gazette, No. 1465. With the Duchess of York he had 
 set out from London on 27th October [ibid., No. 1455). 
 
 ^ Either in 1679, or upon his return to London in 1680, Claverhouse 
 had his portrait painted by Sir Peter Lely. The picture is in the pos- 
 session of the Earl of Strathmore at Glauiis Castle. Napier (vol. ii. 
 Preface, p. xxi) would assign the picture to Kueller at a later j^ear. But 
 tradition and expert opinion concur in attributing it to Lely, who died 
 in 1680. 
 
 " Lauderdale Paj)ers, vol. iii. p. 186. "* Vol. iii., p. 176. 
 
 ■'' Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 213. 
 
 ^ For accounts of the engagement see Creichton's in Works of Swift, 
 vol. X. p. 145 ; Law, Memorialls, p. 155 ; Hackston of Kathillet's in 
 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 219 ; Alexander Shields, Tlie History of Scotch- 
 Presbytery, p. 38. 
 
 On 30th July lUSO he was executed ' in a most severe manner ' 
 (Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. i. p. 270). His trial is recorded 
 in Oonijjlete Collection of State Trials, vol. x. pp. 791 et seq.
 
 90 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 jected the offer of indemnity, and to procure witnesses 
 against them.^ An interruption to that service occurred 
 in February. On the 10th of the month he was ordered 
 to bring to Edinburgh a prisoner from Dunbar.^ His 
 absence from his own district seems clearly connected 
 with York's return to England on 16th February.^ That 
 he accompanied James is probable. At least he followed 
 him to London. With the Duke at his back leave of 
 absence would not be difficult. His brother David, who 
 on 3rd March 1680 was commissioned quartermaster of 
 his troop,* was available to watch his interests in Scot- 
 land.^ 
 
 Claverhouse's anxiety to return to London was bred of 
 desire to bring to a conclusion the project already mooted 
 to Menteith — his marriage to Helen Graham, and his 
 eventual succession to the Menteith Earldom. York's 
 friendship promised to remove difficulties. But it rested 
 with Helen Graham to give him wife and title : and Helen 
 Graham, or her parents, had other ambitions. She had 
 made no runaway match with an Irishman, as Claverhouse 
 had been led to fear. None the less his suit and Men- 
 teith's recommendation of him had ahke been rejected. 
 Menteith had adapted himself easily to the new position. 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 182. 2 j^ci., p. 191. 
 
 3 The London Gazette, No. 1488. * See above, p. 38. 
 
 ^ Wodrow (vol. iii. p. 190) supports the view that Claverhouse was not 
 in Scotland in March and April 16S0. He says that Claverhouse 'had 
 the gift of what belonged to the fugitives in Nithsdale and other places 
 in tlie south,' and that he constituted his brother 'and another of his 
 name' — Cornet William Graham, presumably — liis 'donators.' In 
 Galloway, where Claverhouse had also license ' to uplift the moveables of 
 all such ... as had been at Bothwell, or were fugitate,' Wodrow says 
 that his brother ' was employed by him ; and by himself or some deputed 
 by him, he went through every parish there, and prosecuted his business 
 with the utmost severity. ' On the other hand the Council on 30th June 
 1680 ordered the troops to the South-West, and Wodrow's comment sug- 
 gests that Claverhouse was with them (vol. iii. p. 217). But as he was 
 certainly in London on 3rd July 1680, Wodrow's statement must be read 
 as applying to Claverhouse's troop only.
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 91 
 
 ' Seeing ye was not pleased to accept of the Laird of 
 Claverhows to matcli with that young lady your daughter,' 
 he Avrote (18th November 1679) with eupeptic buoyancy 
 to Helen's father, then in London ; ' I have now weell 
 grounded and serious thoughts of a very honourable and 
 noble persone in this kingdome.' ^ The ' noble persone ' 
 was the young Marquis of Montrose, who so recently had 
 encouraged Claverhouse. But Menteith had either failed 
 to measure Montrose's inclinations, or Montrose, attracted 
 elsewhere, changed his mind. Lady Graham wrote 
 indignantly to Menteith, who, on 27th May 1680, took 
 Montrose to task for having visited the Grahams 'bot 
 tuyse this month.' Hint of his attentions in another 
 quarter was interjected. Montrose was bidden to play the 
 game.2 
 
 At this point Claverhouse again entered the lists. On 
 3rd July 1680 he wrote from London to Menteith.^ The 
 postscript, ' Excuse this scribling, for I am in heast, going to 
 Windsor,' suggests the social atmosphere in which already 
 he was living. His letter took Menteith mildly to task 
 for having pinned his hopes on Montrose rather than on 
 himself. ' So soon as I cam ' to London, he proceeded, ' I 
 told Sir James ^ hou much he was obliged to you, and hou 
 sincer your desseins wer for the standing of your family ; 
 withall I told him that my Lord Montrose Avas certenly 
 ingadged to you to mary his dochter, but that from good 
 hands I had raison to suspect he had no dessein to per- 
 form it; and indeed my Lord Montrose seemed to mak 
 no adress there at all in the begining.' Claverhouse's 
 appearance in London, his favour with York, and the 
 chance of losing the devolution of the Menteith Earldom, 
 spurred Montrose to more serious wooing. ' Hearing that 
 
 1 Red Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 176. '^ Ibid., p. 180. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 183. 
 
 * Sir James Graham, Helen Graham's father.
 
 92 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 I went somtymes ' to visit the Grahams, Claverhouse con- 
 tinues, Montrose 'feared that I might gate ane interest 
 with the father, for the dochter never apeared, so observent 
 they wer to my Lord Montrose, and he thoght that if I 
 should com to mak any friendship there, that when he cam 
 to be discovered, I might com to be acceptable, and that 
 your Lordship might turn the cheass upon him. Wherfor 
 he went there, and entred in terms to amuse them till I 
 should be gon, for then I was thinking evry day of going 
 away, and had been gon, had I not fallen seek.' Montrose 
 comes badly out of the business. A hitch in the pro- 
 ceedings which were to establish him Menteith's successor 
 suggested an understanding with Claverhouse, whose in- 
 fluence with York he suspected as the cause of it. ' My 
 Lord Montrose,' Claverhouse continues, ' leat me knou 
 that our differences proceeded from mistakes, and that 
 if we mate we might com to understand on another, upon 
 which I went to him. After I had satisfyed him of som 
 things he complained of, he told me that the title was 
 stoped, and asked me if I had no hand in it; for he 
 thoght it could be no other way, seing Sir James con- 
 cured. I asseured him I had not medled in it, as befor 
 God 1 had not.' Montrose made a strange proposal. He 
 would settle the Menteith title on Claverhouse if the 
 latter would aid in removing the check which barred its 
 immediate settlement upon himself. Claverhouse objected, 
 that without the hand of Helen Graham ho had ' never 
 any mynd for the title.' ' He answered me,' Claverhouse 
 continued, ' I might have Sir James' dochter and all.' 
 What of Montrose's pretensions ? Claverhouse inquired. 
 Thus challenged, Montrose admitted that he had ' given 
 comission to speak to my Lady Rothes about her dochter, 
 and she had recaived it kyndly.' Helen Graham was 
 still in the market. Montrose offered Claverhouse his 
 good offices with her parents. 'He thoght to mak mo
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 93 
 
 serve him in his desseins,' was Claverhouse's comment, 
 'and brak me with Sir James and his Laidy.' Montrose, 
 in fact, insinuated to them that Claverhonse 'had a 
 dessein upon their dochter, and was carying it on 
 under hand.' Claverhonse at once ' told my Lady Graham 
 all.' Montrose followed on his heels and gave his own 
 story. The Grahams accepted it. Soon the royal assent 
 to the devolution of the Menteith earldom was granted. 
 But Montrose held back, and 'asheamed of his cariadge,' 
 wrote Claverhonse, 'went away Avithout taking lieve of 
 them, which was to finish his triks with contemp.' Indeed, 
 Claverhonse added angrily, Montrose 'and som of his 
 friends indevored to ruin that yong laidy's reputation 
 to gate an excuse for his cariadge, and broght in my 
 name. But I mad them quikly quyt those desseins, for 
 there was no shadow of ground for it.' ^ Smarting under 
 Montrose's treatment, Claverhonse assured Menteith, Sir 
 James would prove pliable if the Earl would come to 
 London to second his first 'protege. He added a hasty 
 reference to general affairs : ' Things fly very high here, 
 the indytments apear frequently against the honest Deuk ' 
 of York. 'Asseur yourself,' he concluded, 'if ever ther 
 be baricades in Glascou again, you shall not want a call ; 
 and, my Lord, I bespeak ane imployment under you, 
 which is to be your lievtenent generall, and I will asseur 
 you we will mak the world talk of us. And therfor 
 
 1 It is usually stated by his biographers that Claverhouse lived a clean 
 life in a vicious age. The authority for the statement is Patrick Walker's 
 remark in his life of Walter Smith (Six Sainfs of the Covenant, ed. Hay 
 Fleming, vol, ii. p. 64) : ' The hell wicked-witted, bloodthirsty Graham 
 of Claverhouse, who hated to spend his time with wine and women, which 
 made him more active in violent unheard of persecution.' Claverhouse 
 may or may not have lived a clean life, but it is perfectly clear that the 
 motive of Walker's remark was not to testify to Claverhouse's purity, 
 but to suggest that what wine and women were to others, persecution 
 and lust for blood were to him. The only reflection upon Claverhouse's 
 moral character is in a satire quoted by C. K. Sharpe in Kirkton, p. 389, 
 It does not appear in the smallest degree authoritative.
 
 94 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 provyd me treues, as you promised, and a good bleu 
 bonet, and I will assour you there shall be no treuse 
 trustier then myn. My Lord, dispond not for this dis- 
 apointmcnt, but shou resolution in all you doe. When 
 my affaires goe wrong, I remember that saying of Loucan, 
 Ta'in viala PoTnpeii quam prospera mundus adoret. On 
 has ocasion to shou ther vigour after a wrong stape to 
 make a nimble recovery. . . , My Lord, I have both at 
 hom and abroad sustained the caracter of an honest 
 and franc man, and defys the world to reproach me of 
 anything.' 
 
 Claverhouse's reliant insistence upon his integrity and 
 frank outspokenness is justified by his life. It is not 
 incompatible with an obvious resolution to succeed in 
 any effort in which his material interests were involved. 
 That Montrose had behaved badly is clear, though his 
 statement of the case is not available. His return to 
 Scotland threatened an influence upon Menteith sinister 
 to Claverhouse, and the latter was the more anxious to 
 expose Montrose's perfidy, and judiciously to suggest to 
 Menteith his already influential position at Court. On 
 8th July 1680, without awaiting Menteith's reply, he wrote 
 again : ^ ' Speaking with the Deuk the other day, I took 
 ocasion to tell the Deuk that your Lordship's case was 
 very hard, and mad him understand a litle the business, 
 as far as could be don without wronging my Lord 
 Montrose reputation too much, which I should be un- 
 willing to doe, whatever he doe by me. The Deuk sheuk 
 his head, and said it was not ryght. I said nothing, 
 seing I had no comission, and that it was only by way 
 of discours.' ' I am going,' he added, ' for oght I knou, 
 to Dunkerk with the envoyes to see the Court of France. 
 I am only to be away eight days, so your Lordship may 
 lay your comands on me.' 
 
 1 Bed Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 188.
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 95 
 
 More than a month elapsed before Claverhouse re- 
 sumed his correspondence with his kinsman. His visit 
 to France had probably taken place. On 24th August 
 1680 he wrote to Menteith from London. ^ He had heard 
 from the Earl that his interests 'went ill in Scotland,' 
 intelligence discounted, he was able to reply, by informa- 
 tion ' from on who has the direction of all my affaires ' — 
 his brother David, probably — ' who asseured me they wer 
 never in better order, both the affaires of my estate and 
 troup.' He had long been a stranger to both, and his 
 visit to London was further prolonged by another matter 
 which touched him — the forfeiture of the estate of Mac- 
 dougall of Freuch.2 His postscript added : ' My Lord, 
 your cousin has been seek these ten days of the small 
 poks, but in all apearance will recover, tho' she has them 
 mighty ill. I will have the honor to see your Lordship 
 shortly.' 
 
 Claverhouse's anticipated meeting with Menteith pro- 
 bably did not take place.^ There was, in truth, little 
 hope of occupation in Scotland to tempt him thither. 
 Cameron's death, followed a year later (12th July 1681) 
 by Cargill's apprehension,* extinguished the last flicker of 
 active revolt. Claverhouse, one may assume, remained at 
 his patron's side during the stormy Exclusion debates in 
 the Parliaments of 1680 and 1681, until York came safely 
 to harbour upon the flood of Tory reaction. In June 1681 
 the Duke was in Edinburgh,^ and on 28th July 1681, 
 
 ^ Red Booh of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 189. " See below, p. 96. 
 
 ^ There is no actual proof of Claverhouse's presence in Scotland before 
 7th October 1681. 
 
 * Fountainhall, Historical Observes, p. 45. 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. i. p. .300. A peculiar band of 
 fanatics, the ' Sweet Singers ' were ' so rude as to throw out broken 
 chandlers, and other trash, at the Duke of York's eoatch, as it passed 
 by the Canongate prison ' on 2.3rd June 1681. For this 'company of dis- 
 tracted men and women,' as Fountainhall calls them, see hia Historical 
 Observes, p. 29 ; Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 350 ; Law, MemoriaUs, p. 186.
 
 96 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 as High ComiJiissioncr, opened a memorable Parliament. 
 His succession to the throne, assailed in England, was 
 secured in Scotland by an Act. Allegiance to the 
 future King was safeguarded by a Test, compulsory 
 upon all office-holders, and comprehensive to the verge 
 of contradiction. 
 
 Claverhouse probably accompanied York to Edinburgh. 
 The proceedings of the Estates had for him a particular 
 interest. Among those who had been prominent in the 
 late rebellion was Patrick Macdougall, a Galloway laird, 
 whose estate of Freuch, or Galdinoch, with other holdings, 
 lay in and round the parish of Stoneykirk, in the Rhinns 
 of Galloway, upon the coast of Wigtonshire.^ So early as 
 18th February 1679 he had been proclaimed a frequenter 
 of conventicles and a resetter of intercommuned persons.^ 
 He had taken part in the rebellion, and was specifically 
 excepted from the Indemnity of the following July.^ 
 Early in February 1680 a process of forfeiture was in- 
 stituted against him, and his goods and property were 
 declared forfeit to the Crown.* Macdougall's estate was 
 of not inconsiderable value,^ and on 21st April 1680 a 
 charter was granted for its erection into a barony in 
 favour of Claverhouse.^ The operation of the charter, 
 however, was delayed.'^ On 3rd February 1681 a royal 
 
 1 These details appear in the Beg. Mag. Sig. (MS.), vol. Ixviii. No. 261. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 4. ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 180. 
 
 * Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. i. p. 252. Macdougall was, in 
 fact, still at large. 
 
 ^ In the charter of it to Claverhouse, the ward and relief were fixed at 
 £36.3 and the marriage at £726 {Beg. Mag. Sig. (MS.), vol. Ixviii. No. 261). 
 
 •^ Ibid. ; Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. v. fol. 464. 
 
 '' In his letter to Menteith of 24th August 1680 Claverhouse writes : 
 ' My affaires . . . wer never in better order, . . . only ther was a stop 
 in the passing my signatur of the forfitur, and I stayed here a purpos 
 for to secur it, which nou, I think, I have don, tho' I never had raison to 
 fear it, notwithstanding all oposition I had, and the King and Deuk my 
 frends' {Bed Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 189). The cause of the 'stop' 
 was Claverhouse's asserted failure to account for the fines he had levied. 
 See The Despot'' s Gham2non, p. 124.
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 97 
 
 letter to the Commissioners of the Treasury ordered the 
 necessary steps to be taken to enable Claverhouse to be 
 legally possessed of the forfeited estate.^ Concurrently 
 with these favours Claverhouse obtained another. He 
 had inherited — his great-grandfather had acquired the 
 property in 1640^ — the Glen or Barony of Ogilvie in 
 Glamis parish. On 11th May 1680 a royal letter to the 
 Exchequer ordered the conversion of his tenure of the 
 property from simple to taxed ward, ' in consideration of 
 his Loyalty, and of severall good and acceptable Services 
 done by him unto Us, especially in the time of the late 
 Rebellion.''^ On 6th September 168] he had a ratifica- 
 tion of both concessions by the Estates.'^ 
 
 Claverhouse's movements in this period of his career 
 are followed with difficulty. Inference rather than facts 
 avails to trace them. If he had accompanied York to 
 Scotland, he returned once more to London. Helen 
 Graham, or rather the more friendly bearing of her 
 parents, drew him thither. A letter from Lady Graham 
 to Menteith on 15th July 1681 offers a clue to this 
 feverish coming and going. Lady Graham at length 
 expressed her willingness, since Claverhouse had ' prest 
 it so much,' to entertain the Earl's proposal regarding 
 him, and to ' wave the propositiones ' of two other 
 suitors for her daughter's hand, until she had learned 
 from the Earl what he proposed to do in the ' setlement 
 of the honour of your ancestors, and the recouering of such 
 landes as formerly belonged to them.' Unless some satis- 
 factory arrangement could be made upon these points, 
 
 ^ Warrant Booh, Scotland, vol. vi. fol. 263. Claverhouse was re- 
 quired to pay a sum not exceeding two years' rental of the estate as a 
 proportional payment towards the sum of £14,325, at which the expenses 
 of the suppression of the rebellion in 1679 were assessed. 
 
 2 Reg. Mag. Sig. (MS.), vol. Ix. No. 134. 
 
 2 Warrant Booh, Scotland, vol. vi. fol. 23. The ward and relief were 
 fixed at £40 and the marriage at 1000 merks (Reg. Mag. Sig. (MS.), 
 vol. Ixvii. No. 202). ^ Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. viii. pp. 314, 315. 
 
 G
 
 98 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 she was unable to contemplate Helen's ' matching ' in 
 Scotland, 'wheare she would be a daly spectator of the 
 rueines of that noble famely she came from.' She asked 
 for a speedy and positive answer.^ Menteith appears to 
 have given it, and in terms embarrassing to Claverhouse. 
 On 1st October 1681 he wrote from London to the Earl:^ 
 ' I am infinitly sensible of your Lordship's kyndness to 
 me in wryting so kyndly to my Lady Graham and her 
 dochter, especially when people had been representing me 
 so fooly to you.^ I have not dared to present them, 
 because that in my Laidy's letter you wished us much 
 joy, and that we might live happy togither, which looked 
 as if you thoght it a thing as good as don. I am seur my 
 Laidy, of the heumeur I knou her to be, would have gon 
 mad that you should think a business that concerned her 
 so neerly, concluded before it was ever proposed to her ; 
 and in the dochter's you was pleased to tell her of my 
 affections to her, and what I have suffered for her ; this 
 is very galant and oblidging, but I am afeared they 
 would have misconstructed it, and it might doe me pre- 
 judice ; and then in both, my Lord, you wer pleased to 
 take pains to shoe them almost clearly they had nothing 
 to expect of you, and teuk from them all hopes which 
 they had, by desyring them to requyr no mor but your 
 consent. Indeed I think it not propre your Lordship 
 should ingadge yourself at all. They would be glade to 
 knou that you only had a resolution to recover your 
 business, they would leave the reast to your owen good- 
 ness ; and for my[self] I declair I shall never press your 
 Lordship in any thing but what you have a mynd to, 
 and I will asseur you I need nothing to perswad me to 
 take that young laidy. I would take her in her smoak.' 
 
 1 Red Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 197. ^ /jj^Z., vol. ii. p. 201. 
 
 2 Another letter of the same date from Claverhouse to Menteith [ibid. , 
 vol. ii. p. 198) shows that some one — Montrose probably — was endeavour- 
 ing to make mischief between them.
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 99 
 
 Claverhouse was in earnest. Menteith's premature con- 
 gratulations, one suspects, were born of boredom and 
 feded interest. None tlie less, Claverhouse spurred him 
 to fresh and more judicious effort : ' My dear Lord, be yet 
 so good as to wryt neu letters to the same purpose. ... I 
 will be in impatiance till I have those letters. I bygue 
 your Lordship not to grudge at the truble I give you to 
 wryt tuyse. I hope you shall not have occasion to regralt 
 any thing you doe for me, and in doing this you doe me 
 the greatest favour I can recaive of any mortall, so I hop, 
 my Lord, you will think it worth the whyll to oblidge 
 a friend of yours at so high a rait, for tho' you never doe 
 mor for me, I will be eternelly yours, and by geating me 
 that yong laidy you mak me happy, and without you I 
 can never doe it, so I am in your reverence, and yet looks 
 not on my fate as mor desperat for that.' And with a 
 final burst : ' For the love of God wryt kyndly of me to 
 them, and promise them kyndness, but I never shall suffer 
 them to think of any engadgments from you. Long may 
 you lieve to enjoy your esteat, whill I have the occasion 
 to acquyt myself of so many and so considerable obliga- 
 tions I owe you.' 
 
 Claverhouse, then, had his romance, an incongruous 
 undercurrent of the stress of Drumclog and Bothwell. 
 And was it Helen Graham's also ? If so, Lady Graham 
 was the repressor of it — ' a very cunning woman,' Claver- 
 house describes her. Her visit to London had been dis- 
 appointingly inconclusive. With her family she was 
 preparing to return to Ireland. Claverhouse can hardly 
 have awaited their departure. On 7th October 1681 
 Stirling gave him the freedom of its burgh,^ a testimony 
 
 ^ Extracts from the Records of the Royal Burgh of Stirling, a.d. 1667- 
 1752, p. 33. The record runs : ' Admittis and receaves Captain John 
 Graham of Claverhous, Sir Andro Bruce of Earleshall, Mr. David 
 Grahame, brother to Claverhous, [and six others], burgessis and gild 
 breither of the said brugh, gratis, and they present made faith as use is.'
 
 100 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 to the position which his three years' service in Scotland 
 had won for him. The next few weeks he passed probably 
 in his own home, so long a stranger to him. Thence he 
 set out for Edinburgh to take part in a public drama 
 shortly to be enacted. On 26th November 1681 he 
 embarked at Burntisland on board The Blessing, in com- 
 pany with ' several Gentle-Women, Ministers, and a whole 
 Throng of common Passengers.' The passage to Leith 
 was stormy, to the verge of shipwreck, and has quaint 
 record by one who shared it and marked Claverhouse's 
 deportment : ^ 
 
 ' Courage is still the same on Land, at Sea, 
 He who can boldly kill, dares bravely die : 
 Yet he whose Ire hath smil'd on Seas of Blood, 
 Looks pale on Water, in his coolest Mood. 
 Soiildiers stern Fire abhorres the death of Slaves ; 
 It can't Resist, nor Vengeance wreck on Waves. 
 Mars crops his Fame, on Camps, Fields, Cities hie : 
 But what's ten thousand Swords against a Sea 1 ' 
 
 Claverhouse's visit to Edinburgh was in obedience to a 
 summons to attend the trial of Argyll. Th^ Earl had 
 been arrested in November upon his refusal to take the 
 Test. On 12th and 13th December 1681 he was tried 
 and found guilty of treason. Both Montrose and Claver- 
 house were upon the jury.^ Their conjunction was 
 strange, in view of their recent rivalry. Claverhouse had 
 written (11th December 1681) to Menteith on the day 
 before Argyll's trial.^ He reported some step on Mon- 
 trose's part hostile to Menteith's interests. ' My Lord,' 
 he added, 'you see by this and many other things, hou 
 prejudicial! it is for you not to com to som settlement in 
 your affairs, ether on way or other, and in the mean tyme 
 my aidge slips away, and I loose other occasions, as I 
 
 1 Alexander Tyler, The Tempest, hetioeen Btirnt-Island and Leith, in a 
 Boat called The Blessing, in November 1681. 
 
 2 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 337. ^ Red Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 203.
 
 HELEN GRAHAM 101 
 
 suposo the young laidy also does.' Menteith had written 
 to Lady Graham to propose a meeting. Claverhouse was 
 forwarding the letter to her, ' If they be in Yrland,' he 
 told Menteith, ' I shall propose that they come to my 
 house [Freuch] in Galoua, and there they shall need no 
 protection, for I am in good hopes not only to comand 
 the forces there, but be Scherif of Galoua.' His hope was 
 realised, but Helen Graham was not to share his rising 
 fortunes. On 1st March 1682 Claverhouse wrote his last 
 letter to Menteith on the subject : ' I must tell you it is 
 most necessary wee meet. ... I have had on[e] in 
 Yrland whom I shall bring alongs [with] me, and you 
 shall knou all' ^ The letter suggests a crisis. Helen 
 Graham, in fact, was on the verge of marriage to Captain 
 Rawdon, nephew of the Earl of Conway.- Lucan's 
 aphorism haply consoled Claverhouse ! 
 
 ^ Red Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 205. '^ Ibid., vol. i. p. 425.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 SHERIEF OF WIGTON 
 
 The circumstances under which Claverhouse, after a long 
 interval, found himself once more an active agent of the 
 Council's policy call for brief preface. That body was the 
 mouthpiece of the Duke of York, and the Duke's policy 
 was concentrated upon securing quiet succession to his 
 brother's crown. The Act of Succession had affirmed his 
 right ; the Test Act had provided a text of acquiescence. 
 Its inconsistencies furnish the key to its motive. But 
 even its lavish mesh barred passage to the fanatics of the 
 Covenants. Their strength and resolution had been twice 
 demonstrated, even under a King whose bondage to the 
 Scarlet Woman was cryptic. Their opposition under 
 more open conditions could be foreseen. James's poHcy 
 was to bear down resistance in that quarter before his 
 accession tempted it from fevered declamation to overt 
 resistance. The Test Act was therefore the gauge of 
 loyalty, whose strenuous application should winnow the 
 Tory wheat from the Whig chaff. Those whom it threat- 
 ened hastened to pronounce it anatJiema in time-honoured 
 ritual. On 12th January 1682 an armed party of Camer- 
 onians burned the obnoxious Act at Lanark. Two days 
 later (14th January) the Council ordained an answering 
 holocaust of the Rutherglen and Sanquhar Declarations, 
 Cargill's Covenant, the latest Lanark Declaration, and the 
 Solemn League and Covenant.^ ' Some thought it but a 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 362. 
 102
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 103 
 
 sorry politique to biirne the Solemne League/ Fountain- 
 hall comments, ' to revive the memory of what was long 
 agoe buried in oblivion.' ^ The inclusion of that docu- 
 ment, however, precisely points the spirit in which the 
 Test Act was conceived. 
 
 His service in Galloway had been foreshadowed by 
 Claverhouse in his letter of 11th December 1681 to 
 Menteith. The necessity for it appears in a statement of 
 Queensberry to Haddo on 2nd January 1682 : ' In the 
 heads of Galloway some of the Rebells meet; but their 
 number is not considerable, not exceeding 12 or 16, and 
 their bussieness is only to drinke and quarrell : so neither 
 Church nor Steate (in my judgement) need feare them. 
 However, I 'm still of opinion the sooner Garisones be 
 pleaced, and a competent pairtie sent with Cleveres for 
 scoureing that pairt of the countrey the better. Besydes, 
 I 'me tolde feild conventicles continow in Annandaile and 
 Galloway, but all will certainly evanish upon Cleveres' 
 aryvall, as I have often tolde.' ^ On 7th January 1682 
 the Council submitted to the King a list of jurisdictions 
 which had become forfeited by their holder's refusal to 
 take the Test. The Heritable Sheriffdom of Wigton and 
 the Heritable Regality of Tongland were among them. 
 For both of them the Council, inspired, no doubt, by 
 York, recommended Claverhouse.^ The Council's recom- 
 mendation was endorsed without delay. On 19th January 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Historical Observes, p. 58. 
 
 - Letters illuslrative of Public Affairs in Scotland, addressed to George, 
 Earl of Aberdeen (Spalding Club), p. 5. One infers from a letter, of 26th 
 January 1682, from Lord Ross to Turner (Sir James Turner, Memoirs, 
 p. 281), that Ualzicl was nervous as to the locality of Claverhouse's em- 
 ployment. Ross writes : ' I remember the Generall shew me that he did 
 aprehend ther was a designe thatClaveres should come wast, but I found 
 him wery avers to it. ' 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 359. Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw (Wigton) 
 and Viscount Keumurc (Tongland) were the persons dispossessed. Sir 
 Andrew Agnew was ultimately reinstated on 25th April 1689 (Sir Andrew 
 Agnew, The Hereditary Sheriffs of Oallowuy, vol. ii. p. 154).
 
 104 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERH0U8E 
 
 1682 Claverhouse was appointed to both of the forfeited 
 jurisdictions.^ On 26th January the Council received the 
 King's instructions to draft his commission,- and five days 
 later (31st January) the document was completed. In 
 the Sheriffdom of Wigton he was empowered ' to call 
 before him, his deputies and substitutes, the persons 
 frequenting and residing in the said shire of Wigton, 
 guilty of withdrawing from the public ordinances, in their 
 parish churches, since our late act of indemnity, as also 
 the persons guilty of conventicles, disorderly baptisms and 
 marriages, harbouring and resetting of rebels during the 
 said space, and to impose and exact the fines conform to 
 the acts of parliament, and to do and perform every thing 
 requisite and necessary, for putting the same to due and 
 vigorous execution.' He was further commissioned to act 
 as Sheriff-depute in the adjacent jurisdictions of Dum- 
 fries, Annandale, and Kirkcudbright, seeing that ' the 
 persons guilty of these orders do remove from one juris- 
 diction to another, when they are called in question and 
 pursued ; and that we find it necessary for our service, in 
 this exigent, that the persons guilty of these disorders, in 
 the places adjacent [to Wigtonshire] ... be brought to 
 justice.'^ 
 
 From New Galloway on 16th February 1682 Claver- 
 house wrote the first of a series of letters to Queensberry 
 regarding the duty upon which he was engaged.* He had 
 
 1 Paper Register, (Register House MS.), x. 258 ; Warrant Book, Scot- 
 land, vol. vi. fol. 594. Both commissions were ' during the King's 
 pleasure only,' and therefore expired upon the death of Charles the 
 Second. They were not renewed by his successor. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 360. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 370. Wodrow states further that Claverhouse 
 had the Council's permission ' to make use of the house or chapel belong- 
 ing to Sir John Dalrymple, to keep guard in, and in the house at Kirk- 
 cudbright, belonging to Sir Robert Maxwell. ' 
 
 * These letters are printed in the Buccleuch and Queensberry MSS. 
 [Hist. MSS. Gomni. Rept. xv., pt. viii. pp. 264-294). They number thirty-
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 105 
 
 already traversed Wigton and Kirkcudbright, from Stran- 
 raer on the west to Dumfries on the east, ' The rebelles,' 
 he reported, ' have lieved, I fynd, peacably here till nou, 
 and their wyfes ar still in their houses, and takes it worse 
 nou then they would have don at first to be ruined ; for 
 then they expected it, and nou after so long forbearance 
 they wer becom secur. The contry here abouts is in 
 great dreed. Upon our marche yesterday most men wer 
 flaid, not knouing against whom we desseined; but the 
 act of counsell about the saif conduct ^ amuses many, and 
 will be of use to make them mor unexcusable in the eyes 
 of the people, if they make not use of it, which I am 
 feared feu will doe.' ' The first thing I mynd to doe,' he 
 explained, ' is to fall to work with all that have been in 
 the rebellion, or accessory their too by giving men, mony 
 orarmes; and nixt recetts,^ and after, field conventicles; 
 for what remains of the lawes against the fanatiks, I will 
 threaten much, but forbear sever excicution for a why 11, 
 for fear people should grou desperat and increase too 
 much the number of our enimys. My Lord, their is on 
 faveur I must deseir of you and I believe when I have 
 got it I will not by land with it ; which is, that your 
 Lordship would be pleased to consider, that having 
 business in so many places and with so many people, I 
 will be put to great expence; and there is no doing 
 business without being open handed; so would desyr 
 your Lordship would speak with the Deuk and represent 
 the thing to the Lords of the Treasury, that I may have 
 the gift of any that ar not yet fortited that I can fynd 
 probation against. I mean only of their movables; and 
 shall with it suport all the expence of the goverment, as 
 
 ^ Claverhouse was empowered by the Council ' to call for, and commune 
 with the rebels, or any suspect to have been in the rebellion from Gallo- 
 way,' with ' power to give them safe conducts, not exceediug fourteen 
 days, to pass and repass, and commune with them ' (Wodrow, vol. iii. 
 p. 370). '^ i.e. harbourers of rebels.
 
 106 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 mantincnce of prisoners, witness, speys, and all other 
 expence necessary in this contry ; for your Lordship would 
 lait them knou that I have many things to doe extrinsik 
 to the office of an officer,' On 22nd February 1682 he 
 wrote from Dumfries : ^ ' I have spok with most pairt of 
 the forfited heritors wyfes at their owen houses, but see 
 litle inclination in them to . . . mak their peace with the 
 King. ... I have so far prefered the publik concern to 
 my owen, that I have not so much as called at French, 
 tho I passed in sight of it. I can catch no body, they are 
 all so alarumed. My Lord Deuk Hamilton was pleased 
 to tell me befor I pairted, that I would doe well to lay 
 closs in houses, for he would make it so uneasy for the 
 Whighs to lieve in the West, that he would send them 
 all in to me ; but by what I see yet, I send mor in on him 
 then he does on me.' He had a scheme, he added, 
 ' which would secur the peace both of the West and this 
 contry, and I am perswaded will seem raisonable to your 
 Lordship, and I wonder no body has thoght on it yet ; but 
 I will say nothing till I have put things to som order 
 here, and I will bygue lieve for three or four days to com 
 to Edinbourg and give you ane acount of it.' 
 
 Claverhouse propounded his scheme in his next letter 
 to Queensberry : ^ ' The proposal I wrot to your Lordship 
 of, for securing the peace, I am seur Avill please in all 
 things but on, that it will be som what out of the Kings 
 pokett. The way that I see taken in other places is to 
 put lawes severly against great and small in excicution ; 
 which is very just : but what effects does that produce, 
 but mor to exasperat and alienat the hearts of the whoU 
 body of the people ; for it renders three desperat wher it 
 gains on ; and your Lordship knous that in the greatest 
 crymes it is thoght wyse[s]t to pardon the multitud and 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Comm. Rer>t. xv., pt. viii. p. 266. 
 
 ■^ Ibid. , p. 267. The letter is dated from New Galloway, 1 st March 1682.
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 107 
 
 punish the ringleaders, wher the number of the guilty is 
 great, as in this case of Avholl contrys. Wherfor I have 
 taken ane other cours here. I have called two or three 
 parishes togither at on church, and after intimating to 
 them the pouer I have, I raid them a libell narating all 
 the acts of parlement against the fanatiks, wherby I 
 made them sensible hou much they wer in the Kings 
 reverence, and asseured them he was relenting nothing of 
 his former severity against dissenters, nor care of manten- 
 ing the esteblished goverment, as they might see by his 
 doubling the fynes in the late Act of Parlement ; and, in 
 end, told them that the King had no dessein to ruin any 
 of his subjects he could recleam, nor I to inrich my self by 
 their crymes, and therfor any who would resolve to con- 
 form and lieve regularly might expect faveur, excepting 
 only recetters and ringleaders. Upon this on Sonday last 
 their was about three hondred people at Kilkoubrie 
 [Kirkcudbright] church ; som that for seven year befor 
 had never been there. So that I doe expect, that with in 
 a short tyme, I could bring tuo pairts of three to the 
 church.' ' But when I have don that, it is all to no 
 purpose,' he was compelled to admit ; ' for we will be no 
 sooner gon but in corns there ministers, and all repents 
 and fall bak to ther old ways ; so that it is in vain to 
 think of any setlement here, without a constant force 
 pleased in garison . . . for there ar som of them, doe 
 what they lyk, they cannot keep the preachers from their 
 houses in their absence, So made ar som of their wyfes.' 
 He proposed that one hundred dragoons should be raised 
 for service in Galloway, and was ready to superintend 
 them without pay. To support ' the uixt officer, who is 
 to be the drudge,' he suggested that the rank and file of 
 his own and the other two independent troops of horse 
 should be reduced from sixty to fifty-seven, which was 
 ' the establishment of Holland.' The cornet's pay could
 
 lOS JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 bo found by abolishing that officer from the Bass Kock 
 garrison, ' seing he has no body to gaird but solen geese 
 and ministers ; the first will not flee away, and the others 
 would be as well in Blakness or Dumbarton.' For the 
 hundred dragoons, the twenty-four men on the Bass or 
 their pay could be utilised. There remained a further 
 sum of about £700 to finance his scheme. He suggested 
 that the Treasury could ' fynd a way to cut of som ydle 
 pension . . . and if it could be got no where els, it were 
 better sell that [Bass] rok ' ! 'I will asseur you,' Claver- 
 house added, with pride in his offspring, ' there has been 
 no mor faisable project, tho I say it myself; for first, it 
 would secur this contry : then if those of the West wer 
 frustrat of this retreat, they would be easilyer found.' 
 He concluded : ' If this doe not, I may brake my head to 
 no purpose ; for I knou after that no other way but to 
 doe as others, and gate as much mony as I can, which I 
 have not thoght on as yet, by puting the lawes in excicu- 
 tion.' Such was the scheme, less interesting in itself 
 than as a revelation of the man and his character. His 
 sentences ring true. With Queensberry there was no 
 motive for pretence of moderation, for affectation of dis- 
 interestedness. His employers were careless of either. 
 Even Burnet allowed him 'virtue and probity' in spite 
 of his ' violent hatred against the whole presbyterian 
 party.' ^ 
 
 The Claverhouse who reveals himself in these Queens- 
 berry letters is, in fact, vastly aloof from the Claverhouse 
 of distorted Covenanting hagiology. ' It will be mor of 
 consequence to punish on[e] considerable laird then a 
 hondred litle bodys,' he writes to Queensberry on 5th 
 March 1682 ; '^ ' Beseids, it is juster, because these only sin 
 
 ^ Supplement to Burnet's Hiatory, ed. H. C. Foxcroft, p. 305. 
 - HiHt. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 270. The letter is dated 
 from Wigtou.
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 109 
 
 by the exemple of those.' He had not ' fallen 3^et to work 
 in good earnest in any pairt, because I thoght best to 
 understand the steat of the contry befor I layed domi my 
 measeurs.' A week later he reported ^ a case for severity. 
 He had captured ' that great villain MkCIorg, the smith 
 at Menegafif, that made all the chkys,'^ and after whom 
 the forces has troted so often ; it cost me both paines and 
 mony to knou hou to fynd him. I am resolved to hang 
 him, for it is necessary I make som exemple of severity, 
 least rebellion be thoght cheap here. There can not be 
 alyve a mor wiked fellou.' He added : ' I am to meet 
 to moron with all the heritors of this shyr, to see how 
 they ar inclyned as to bringing their people to church and 
 securing the peace of the contry, that I may be favorable 
 to them. I fynd it no hard work to conform this shyr, 
 had I but tyme anogh. . . . Nou when your Lordship is to 
 see the King ^ and that the state of this contry is to be 
 considered, it wer necessary to lait him knou that we 
 have not forces anogh for all the work we have. It wer 
 no great business for the King to send as much mony as 
 would mantain fyve or six hondred mor dragoons ; and 
 in tuo or three years this contry I am seur would be 
 broght to forgett all there follys.' Before the end of the 
 month he was in Edinburgh with his prisoners, desirous 
 also to 'give acount to the general and those of the 
 goverment of my proceedings ; for I bogood to aprehend 
 that in your Lordships absence som people might take the 
 occasion to misrepresent me.' He added : ' I have in- 
 formed them fully of all my measurs ; and I am so happy 
 
 '■ Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 270. The letter is dated 
 from Stranraer, 13th March 1682. 
 
 2 Probably a kind of implement for cutting the bridle-reins of the 
 cavalry. 
 
 " The Duke of York left Edinburgh for Newmarket on 6th March 1682. 
 Queensberry was instructed to follow him to lay the state of the Treasury 
 before the King (Wodrow, vol. iii. p. .364).
 
 no JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 as that they all seem satisfyed, and particularly the 
 gcnerall ; liou long it will be so, God knous.' ^ 
 
 Claverhonso's visit to Edinburgh was of no long dura- 
 tion. On 1st April 1682 he was at Kirkcudbright, whence 
 he sent a report to Queensberry of the state of that part 
 of his wide command : ^ ' This contry nou is in parfait 
 peace. All who wer in the rebellion ar ether seased, gon 
 out of the contry, or treating their peace ; and they have 
 alraidy so conformed as to going to the church that it is 
 beyond my expection. In Dumfries not only almost all 
 the men ar com, but the woemen have given obedience ; 
 and Earngray,^ Welshes owen parish, have for the most 
 pairt conformed, and so it is over all the contry ; so that, 
 if I be suffered to stay any tyme here, I doe expect to see 
 this the best setled pairt of the kingdom on this seyd Tay. 
 . . . All this is don without having recaived a farthing 
 mony, ether in Nidsdell, Anandell or Kilkoubrie, or im- 
 presoned any body ; but in end there will be need to 
 make examples of the stuborn that will not complay ; nor 
 will there be any denger in this after we have gained the 
 great body of the people, to whom I am becom acceptable 
 anogh, having passed all bygons upon bonds of regular 
 cariadge hereafter.' His postscript is luminous : ' Since 
 the wryting of this I have been at church, where there 
 was not ten men and not above thretty woemen wanting 
 of all the toun ; where there used to be ten, I sawe six or 
 seven hundred.' 
 
 From Kirkcudbright Claverhouse passed to New Gallo- 
 way, Dumfries,* and thence to Moffat. From Moftat he 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Comm. Bept. xv., pt. viii. p. 271. The letter is dated 
 from Edinburgh, 25th March 1682. 
 
 - Ibid., p. 271. '^ Irongray, 
 
 ^ According to Wodrow (vol. iii. p. 402), Claverhouse apprehended on 
 4th April 1682 one Thomas Greg, a merchant- in Carrick, and carried him 
 to New Galloway and thence to Dumfries. After eleven days' imprison- 
 ment there, he was, without trial, sent to Leith, placed on board a ship
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 111 
 
 wrote to Queensberry on I7th April 1682 :^ ' I must say 
 I never sawe people goe from on extremity to another mor 
 cavalierly then this people does. We ar nou com to read 
 lists evry Sonday after sermon of men and weomen, and 
 we fynd feu absent. ... I have examined every man in 
 the shyr, and almost all the Stcuartry of Galouy, and fixt 
 such a guilt upon them, that they ar absolutly in the 
 Kings reverence, and I shall give them no discharge, 
 would they give me millions, till I have bond for their 
 regular cariadge, and maintenance for those dragoons, if 
 the King think fit to rease them ; and if I doe this, I 
 think it not ill use of that comission. Did the King and 
 the Deuk knou what those rebellious villans, which they 
 call minesters, put in the heads of the people, they would 
 think it necessary to keep them out. The poor people 
 about Menegaff confess upon oath that they wer made 
 reneu the Covenant, and belieue the King was a Papist, 
 and that he desseined to force it on them.' 
 
 In May 1682 the Duke of York returned to Scotland. 
 He narrowly escaped drowning on the voyage.- Claver- 
 
 bound for Holland, and 'gifted to the recruits there,' Nothing was laid 
 to his charge but nonconformity, Wodrow states, adding that he had the 
 story from Greg himself. On the face of it, the story is eminently im- 
 probable. It may be noticed, however, that a similar charge is brought 
 against Lauderdale : ' There were fourteen men taken at a Field-Con- 
 venticle, who (without being legally convict of that or any other Crime) 
 were secretly, and in the night, taken out of Prison, upon a Warrant 
 signed by the Earl of Lynlithgo, and the Lords Hatton and Collington, 
 and were delivered to Captain Maytland, who had been Page to the Duke 
 of Lauderdale, but was then a French Officer, and was making his Leavies 
 in Scotland, and were carried over to the Service of the French Kiug in 
 the year [1GJ76 ' {Some particular Matter of Fact relating to the Adminis- 
 tration of Affairs ill Scotland under the Duke of Lauderdale, p. 3). 
 
 1 Hist. 31 SS. Comm. Jlept. xv., pt. viii. p. 272. 
 
 2 See accounts of the catastrophe in Law, Memorialls, p. 232 ; Biscoe, 
 The Earls of Middhton, p. 140. York was present at Privy Council in 
 Edinburgh on 8th May 1C82, when he produced letters-patent constitut- 
 ing Sir George Gordon of Haddo (who had shared .James's narrow escape 
 from drowning) Chancellor in room of the late Earl of Rothes (Fountain, 
 hall, Historical Observes, p. 68).
 
 112 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 honso hastened to report tlie measures he had taken, and 
 the success that had attended them. On 15th May 1682 
 he received the Council's thanks for his diligence in 
 executing his commission in Gallowa}^^ The success and 
 independent initiative which distinguished his methods 
 stood in contrast to the work of others similarly em- 
 ployed. On 20th May Dalziel was ordered to confer 
 with him, ' and to consider what further necessary is to 
 be done as to settling of the peace ' of Ayr and Lanark.^ 
 His appearance in that locality hastened the exodus of 
 those who had cause to fear him. On l7th June 1682 he 
 reported to Queensberry ^ a circumstance of sinister import 
 to himself. On the previous day he had left Edinburgh 
 upon his return to Galloway. As he approached a spot 
 which he calls 'the Bille,' * he had information that a party 
 of Whig's ' of six or seven scor ' had left about six hours 
 before. They had passed there from Clydesdale towards 
 Teviotdale a few days before, and were returning west- 
 ward. ' Som say they hade a meeting with the Teviotdelle 
 folks,' Claverhouse reported ; ' others would make me 
 believe they had a mynd for me. They did ask in 
 severall places what they heard of me, and told they wer 
 seur my troup was far in in Galaway ; others say they 
 wer flaying the West for fear of the diligen[c]e the gentry 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 371. -^ Ibid., p. 373. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 273. The letter is dated 
 from Dumfries. 
 
 * There is no place of the name on the map. Claverhouse's letter 
 makes it clear that it was on the Tweed, and in the route of a party 
 proceeding from Clydesdale to Teviotdale. Also it had an inn or change- 
 house. In a letter to Menteith, on 1st March 1682, Claverhouse invites 
 the Earl to meet him at ' the Bille, which is aighteen mylle from 
 Edinbourg' (Red Book of Menteith, vol. ii. p. 205). If he refers to the 
 same place, he certainly underestimates its distance from Edinburgh. 
 The place was also one which Claverhouse would pass on his journey 
 from Edinburgh to Galloway. It must, therefore, be looked for on the 
 Tweed somewhere between Broughton and Moffat, and may certainly be 
 identified with the Crook Inn on the border of Tweedsmuir parish. It 
 was a famous hostelry in the old coaching days.
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 113 
 
 is deseined to use for their discovery. I could believe 
 this, wer they not returned.' Sending an express back to 
 Edinburgh to warn the authorities — for he ' thoght it fit 
 the quarters should be advertised not [to] be too secur, 
 when these rogues had the impudency to goe about so ' — 
 Claverhouse continued his journey to Galloway. His two 
 days' delay in starting from Edinburgh had saved him 
 from a possible repetition of Drumclog.^ 
 
 Throughout the remainder of the year 1682 Claver- 
 house, with some interruptions, continued his pacification 
 of Galloway. Wodrow records his activity in August and 
 September in Kenmure and New Glenluce.^ But his 
 illuminating letters to Queensberry fail us.^ The event of 
 chief interest in the exercise of his sheriff's commission 
 is a quarrel which illustrates his fearless independence, 
 his resolution to abate not one jot of the powers his com- 
 mission conferred, and his shrewd ability in surroundings 
 other than those of his chosen profession. As Sheriff of 
 Wigton, Claverhouse had already found reason to suspect 
 the attitude of the Dalrymples of Glenluce. Sir James, 
 the elder, who later became Viscount Stair, had already 
 proclaimed his hostility to Lauderdale's repressive policy. 
 He had sought to mitigate the severity of the Test Act, 
 and failing, had fled to London to escape its operation.* 
 His son. Sir John, who later became first Earl of Stair, 
 remained in Scotland, and as Heritable Bailie of the 
 Regality of Glenluce was responsible for the furtherance 
 of a policy which, like his father, he heartily disliked.^ 
 
 1 Queensberry writes to Aberdeen on 27th June 1682: 'I doubt not 
 but your Lordship hes full account of Cleveres' rancounter att the Bile. 
 It was good he came not a day sooner ; for certanly their designe was 
 against him ' {Letters addressed to George, Earl of Aberdeen, p. 23). 
 
 2 Wodrow, vol. lii. pp. 382, 384. 
 
 ^ Two only are extant — one of 2nd October 1682, and one undated. 
 '' Diet, Nat. Biography. 
 
 5 Mackay {Memoir of Sir James Dab-ymjjle, p. 182) writes: 'The 
 conduct of Stair throughout these proceedings does not appear diffi- 
 
 H
 
 114 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 So early as 5th March 1682 Claverhouse had given 
 Queensberry a hint of the attitude of the Dalrymples : 
 ' Here in the shyr [Wigton] I fynd the lairds all follouing 
 the exemple of a leat great man [Sir James Dalrymple], 
 and still a considerable heritor here amongst them, which 
 is, to lieve regularly them self's, but have their houses 
 constant hants of rebelles and intercomed persons, and 
 have their childring baptysed by the saim, and then lay 
 all the bleam on their wyfes, condeming them and swear- 
 ing they can not help what is don in their absence. But 
 I am resolved this gest shall pass no longer here, for it[s] 
 laghing and fooling the goverment,' ^ It was not until 
 the following August that Claverhouse had inclination or 
 opportunity to fullil his threat. Challenging Sir John 
 Dalrymple's jurisdiction in Glenluce, he apprehended a 
 number of his tenants on the plea that they were fre- 
 quenters of conventicles and absentees from church.^ On 
 31st August 1682 Dalrymple presented a bill of suspen- 
 sion to the Council, alleging that he had already fined 
 those whom Claverhouse had dealt with. Claverhouse's 
 answer was a flat negative. Dalrymple's attachments and 
 fines, he averred, were collusive, and were designed only 
 to prevent his more zealous action. The Council reserved 
 the point of jurisdiction for consideration. The prisoners' 
 fines, ' which ware most exorbitant,' Fountainhall declares, 
 were sequestrated meanwhile. Dalrymple received a hint 
 
 cult to understand. He wished for quiet, was anxious to keep in with 
 the Government, no doubt in part with a view to maintain the rights and 
 preserve tlie estates of himself and his son, and he used all the influence 
 he could command with this object. But he was also plainly endeavour- 
 ing in the country, as he had done at the Council Board in Edinburgh, to 
 mitigate the severity of the penal laws.' 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Eept- xv., pt. viii. p. 269. 
 
 ' Wodrow (vol. iii. p. 384) records Clavei'house's capture of four 
 persons in New Glenluce in August 1682 ' merely for not hearing of the 
 incumbents.' If, as seems probable, they were the same people regard- 
 ing whose apprehension Dalrymple made his protest, VVodrow's statement 
 of the facts of their treatment is far removed from the truth.
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 115 
 
 of the temper of the Council in an admonition, ' that 
 heritable Bailzies or Shireffs, who are negligent themselfes 
 in putting the laws to execution, should not offer to com- 
 pete with the Shireffs commissionat and put in by the 
 Privy Counsell, who executed vigorously the King's laws.' ^ 
 In spite of the Council's support, Claverhouse had 
 reason to fear that Sir John's attitude tended to weaken 
 his control of Galloway. On 30th September 1682 Sir 
 George Mackenzie, Lord Advocate, wrote to Aberdeen t^ 
 ' Wee sent a letter recomending to Clavrose to put the 
 lawes to execution, and promising to assist him ; vchich 
 hee desyred, becaus hee heard that people ver, since Sir 
 John Dalrympl's processe, slackening.' Claverhouse also 
 feared its possible effect upon his position at Court, and 
 asked leave to proceed to London. He wrote to Queens- 
 berry from Edinburgh on 2nd October 1682 to tell him 
 his anxiety and the refusal of his request : ' I send your 
 Lordship here inclosed the treasurer deputs letter, by 
 which I see the Deuk will not lait me up. I supose he 
 has no mind the thing should be beared by the King, 
 because it would load a certain person. They seem satis- 
 fyed that the Deuk promises he will see it don, and that 
 my lord Maitland shall not have lieve to speak of it. 
 But I am of a quyt contrary opi[ni]on, for I knou hou 
 much ons presence prevails with the good natur of the 
 King and Deuk.' He had sent up an ' explanatary letter,' 
 and had ' wryten positivly, either that I have lieve to 
 come, or that the explanatary letter, which I have sent 
 up, be seigned ; otherways, I have raison to believe that 
 evill offices have been don me from this to the Deuk.' ^ 
 Queensberry did not share Claverhouse's nervous appre- 
 hensions, but wrote to the Duke on his behalf. James 
 
 1 Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. i. p. 373. 
 
 '^ Letters addressed to George, Earl of Aberdeen, p. 77. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 274.
 
 116 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 sent an assuring answer (2nd December 1682) : ' I am 
 absolutly of your mind as to Claueros, and thinke his 
 presence more necessary in Galloway then any where els ; 
 for he need not feare any thing Stairs can say of him, his 
 Majesty being so well satisfyd with him.' ^ 
 
 Emboldened, it may be, by the assurance of support in 
 high quarters,- Claverhouse took the aggressive against 
 Dalrymj)le. On 14th December 1682 he formally indicted 
 him before the Privy Council.^ He accused him of weak- 
 ening the hands of the Government in Galloway by 
 ' traversing and opposing ' him in the exercise of his 
 commission. He averred that Dalrymple employed ' dis- 
 loyall and disaffected persons to be his bailzies and clerks ' 
 in the Regality; that he had taken no steps to impose the 
 Test there until long after January 1682 ; that he had 
 imposed mock fines on delinquents, ' not the 50 or 60 part 
 of what the law appointed,' and ' only to prevent Claveris 
 fynes ' ; that he had discharged his tenants from attend- 
 ing the Sheriff- Courts summoned by Claverhouse, and 
 had accused him of misappropriation of the fines levied 
 by him on them. Further, Claverhouse alleged that 
 Dalrymple had offered him £150 sterling ' to connive at 
 the irregularities of his mother, the Lad}' Stairs, his 
 sisters, and others.' * Dalrymple indignantly repelled the 
 
 ' Hist. MSS. Comm. llept. xv., pt. viii. p. 177. An undated letter from 
 Claverhouse to Queensberry, clearly in October 16S2, speaks of his 
 troop as ordered to remain at Dumfries [ihid. , p. 274). 
 
 ^ If Fountainhall may be relied on {Chronological Notes, p. 38), Claver- 
 house desired to cite Sir John Dalrymple for treason, but Aberdeen 
 refused to issue a warrant. Fountainhall states that Aberdeen's refusal 
 was among the causes which contributed to his fall in 1684. 
 
 '^ Fountainhall, Hidorical Notices, vol. i. pp. 388-390. 
 
 ^ Macka}- {Memoir of Sir James Dalrymple, p. 182) suggests that the 
 Dalrymples had merely offered to join in a bond Avith others in Galloway 
 for the good behaviour of the shire, and in order to relieve it from the 
 burden of the troops. He points out that a similar course had already 
 been taken in Fife and in part of Lanark. There can be little doubt that 
 this was the nature of Dalrymple's proposal, though Claverhouse no 
 doubt accurately discerned the motive of it. The idea of a bribe is
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 117 
 
 charges. He was reproved by the Chancellor, Aberdeen, 
 ' for the tart reflections he had theirin on Claveris in- 
 genuity,' says Fountainhall, who with Sir George Lockhart 
 acted for Dalrymple. Sir George Mackenzie, Lord Advo- 
 cate, appeared for Claverhouse. The case, says Fountain- 
 hall, roused ' much transport, flame, and humeur.' ^ The 
 condition of Galloway was brought into it. Dalrymple 
 alleged that the shire was ' orderly and regular,' and the 
 need for Claverhouse and his troops there no longer 
 existent. Claverhouse, inspired by a recent nine days' 
 wonder,^ declared that there were as many elephants and 
 crocodiles in Galloway as loyal or regular persons, a state- 
 ment which hardly tallies with the burden of his letters 
 to Queensberry. 
 
 Claverhouse's libel of Dalrymple was further heard on 
 21st December 1682 and 6th January 1683.3 On 12th 
 February 1683 the Council gave judgment. Fountainhall 
 records the sentence : ' They found, that Claverhouse had 
 done nothing but what was very legal, and consonant to 
 his commission and instructions, and the Chancellor 
 complimented him so far, that they wondered that he, 
 not being a Lawyer, had walked so warily in so irregular 
 a Country, (for he ascribed the reduction of the West to 
 a peaceable conformity and reformation, to himself,) and 
 therefore the Chancellor gave him the Council's thanks 
 for his encouragement; and found that Sir John Dal- 
 rymple, tho' a Lawyer and Bailie of the Regality of 
 
 absurd. Sir C4corge Mackenzie, writing to Aberdeen on 10th October 1682, 
 reveals the true nature of the proposal : ' Clavroso has brok a cabal that 
 was designing in Galloway, to undertak for the peace of the countrey, as 
 Clidsdale did ' {Letters to Georrje, Earl of Aberdeen, p. 88). 
 
 1 Napier (vol. ii. p. 309) quotes Sir John Dalrymple's libel of Claver- 
 house, accusing him of having threatened to box his ears 'in presence of 
 the Committee of Council appointed to examine witnesses, in the very 
 time tliat Committee was sitting upon that affair.' 
 
 '■^ In January 1681 Scotland for the first time was visited by an elephant. 
 See a quaint description of it in Law, Memorialls, p. 176. 
 
 * Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. i. pp. 391, 394.
 
 118 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Glenluce, bad exceeded his bounds, find bad weakened 
 tbe hands of his Majesty's authority and the Council's, 
 and their commissions, and interfered with them ; and 
 therefore they declared the said Sir John to lose his 
 heritable Bailcry during his lifetime, and to pay £500 
 Sterling of fine, and to enter that night into prison in the 
 Castle of Edinburgh, to ly there not only till he paid it, 
 but during tbe Council's pleasure.' ^ The fine Avas paid, 
 and on 20th February 1683 Sir John was given liberty 
 within the bounds of Edinburgh.^ 
 
 Clavorhouse's victory was less personal in its character 
 than a confirmation of the methods which the Government 
 had chosen to employ, of a system of whose effectiveness 
 Claverhouse was himself the most signal exponent. 
 Fountainhall, who had failed to obtain a verdict for his 
 client, accurately diagnosed the rigour of it as designed 
 ' to discourage all from stopping or opposing their military 
 commissions.'^ The SherifiF of Wigton had shown what 
 might be done by a man of vigour and resource. Claver- 
 house's task had been to make the law respected; to 
 produce at least an appearance of conformity ; above all, 
 to extrude all active agents of disturbance. That he had 
 succeeded is attested. That his success was carried by 
 delicate methods of persuasion it would be idle to main- 
 tain. Claverhouse was far too shrewd a man to suppose 
 that thronged churches proved changed conviction in 
 their frequenters. He was not charged with the role of 
 missionary. His business was to compel obedience, to 
 extinguish rebellion in the headquarters of it. Therein 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, The Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session, 
 vol. i. p. 217. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. i. p. 220. Upon his appointment as Lord Advocate in 
 February 1687 Sir John obtained a precept for £1200, of which £500 
 represented the fine in which he had been mulcted four years before 
 (Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 783). 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Decisions, vol. i. p. 217.
 
 SHERIFF OF WJGTON 119 
 
 he had succeeded, not so much by sledge-hammer poHcy, 
 
 as by a nice discrimination in the economy of punitive 
 
 effort. The Herodian method one judges condemned by 
 
 him as inartistic and ponderous. Solely as an essay in 
 
 effective administration, the exercise of his commission in 
 
 Wigton stamps him a man of abounding ability. 
 
 An unknown admirer in January 1G83 hailed Claver- 
 
 house ^ 
 
 ' The brave reformer of great Gallaway-shire, 
 I howp he will to Colonel's place aspire.' 
 
 The pious hope was already fulfilled. On 25th December 
 1682 he was promoted colonel, and received the command 
 of a new-formed regiment, 'His Majesty's Regiment of 
 Horse,' made up of his own and the other two indepen- 
 dent troops which had been raised in 1678, with the 
 addition of a fourth.^ Its formation and reinforcement 
 was both a reward for Claverhouse's efficient service, and 
 also a concession to the advice he had persistently pressed 
 on the authorities as to the necessity for an augmentation 
 of the standing forces of the Crown in Scotland. With 
 the regiment now formed Claverhouse served till within 
 a few months of his death. The brief and inglorious 
 campaign of 1688 in England against William of Orange 
 was its last service under him, its last appearance as part 
 of the Scottish establishment.^ 
 
 * The Muses Neio Yeares Oift and Hansell, in Laing, Fugitive Scotish 
 Poetry. 
 
 - The commission is among the Duntrune MSS. It bears, that seeing 
 it was designed ' to form into a Regiment those our three standing Troops 
 of Horse (Excluding oiir Troop of Guard) in our ancient Kingdome of 
 Scotland, and to order the raising of a fourth to be added thereunto,' 
 Claverhouse is appointed 'Colonell of our said Regiment of Horse, As 
 also Captain of a Troop tlicrein. ' The commission is endorsed: 'Com- 
 mission to John Graham of Claverhouse to be Colonell of his Ma*^ new 
 formed Regiment of Horse in Scotland.' A draft of the commission is in 
 the Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. vii. fol. 481. 
 
 ^ See a note on the regiment in Appendix i.
 
 120 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 The significance of Claverhouse's successful libel of 
 Dalrymple was driven home by the Council. On 1st 
 March 1683 that body issued new and categorical instruc- 
 tions to Claverhouse and others holding similar com- 
 missions. They were empowered to call for the books 
 and records of Sheriffs and Bailies of Regalities within 
 their bounds, and to examine the fines imposed by them : 
 ' In case you find any not fined who were guilty, or that 
 fines have been taken up without sentence, or by collusion 
 given down and rebated, and not adequate and according 
 to law, you are to pursue such persons, and to fine either 
 such persons as have been pursued and not sentenced, or 
 such as being fined, their fines have not been exacted 
 ■within the space of a month, by payment or security ; and 
 such whose fines have been inadequately imposed, in as 
 much more as will make the same correspond with law. 
 And you are to have no regard to any receipts but such 
 as are particular, bearing the crimes and fines imposed, 
 and the money truly paid, relating to a sentence, which 
 you are to allow i^ro tanto. And you are to give account 
 of any of these magistrates guilty of such negligence, 
 connivance, and collusion.' ^ 
 
 Claverhouse did not remain in Scotland to fulfil in- 
 structions so entirely in harmony with his own views. 
 With the curious concentration on self-interest and duty 
 alike which distinguishes him, there were reasons which 
 made his presence at Court imperative. A pretty little 
 plot was on foot, of character honest and above board, 
 with promise of a climax profitable to the three actors 
 in it — Queensberry, Aberdeen, and Claverhouse himself. 
 In their joint interests he was to proceed to London, where 
 experience had already taught him ' hou much ons pre- 
 sence prevails with the good natur of the King and Deuk.' 
 On 1st March 1683 he writes to Aberdeen, probably 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 423.
 
 SHERIFF OF WIGTON 121 
 
 from French or Dumfries : ' I have don all I had to doe 
 here, as my Lord Treasurer may inform your Lordship, 
 and will be to morow at Carlyll, and I hop at Neu- 
 market on Monday or Tuesday ' ^ A week later he was 
 at Court. 
 
 ^ Letters addressed to Oeorge, Earl of Aberdeen, p. 101.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 AT COURT 
 
 High above the town of Dundee, and still witli an aspect 
 of menace, stands the Castle of Dudliope.^ On its site the 
 Scrynigeonrs for generations had held ward over the town 
 below. A castle stood there as early as 1298. In the 
 middle of the fifteenth centmy a larger and stronger 
 structure took its place. One hundred and fifty years 
 later, enlarged and strengthened, it grew to its present 
 form, a solid, severe, L-shaped pile, round-towered at the 
 junction of its wings and at their extremities : a single 
 gateway, giving outlet from its courtyard, fronting east- 
 ward. It stands to-day much as it stood two hundred 
 years and more ago, suggestive of strength rather than of 
 comfort, a citadel rather than a home. 
 
 At no great distance from DudhojDe lay the Claverhouse 
 estate. On it a quasi-ruin, not unpicturesque in its en- 
 vironment, poses mendaciously to some as a relic, or at 
 least the approximate site, of what once was Claverhouse's 
 Castle. Its mendacity is incorrigible ! Itself of structure 
 so recent as 1850,- it is the confusing memento of a castle 
 as ungenuine as itself. There was never, in fact, a Claver- 
 
 1 For the history of Dudhope, see Lamb, Dundee : Its quaint and historic 
 Buildings. Ochterlony of Guynd describes Dudhope at this period as 
 ' ane extraordinare pleasant and sweet place, a good house, excellent 
 yards, mucli planting, and fyne parks. It lyes pleasantly on the syde of 
 the hill of Dundie, overlooks the town, and as of purpose built there to 
 command the place ' (quoted in Warden, A7lg^ls or Forfarshire, vol. ii. 
 p. 261). 
 
 2 A. H. Millar, Historic Castles and Mansions, p. .S99. 
 
 122
 
 AT COURT 12^ 
 
 house Castle during the Grahams' tenure of the estate 
 A residence of some sort stood upon the property. 
 Claverhonse's great- great -grandmother dated her will 
 from the 'Barnes of Clavorhouse' in 1594.^ Claypotts 
 Castle, also, whose traditions disfigure Cardinal Beton and 
 Claverhouse alike, was a family possession, but inadequate 
 as a residence, since 1620.^ To Claverhouse ' home ' meant 
 Glenogilvie." One of the earliest marks of royal favour had 
 been solicited by him in regard to it.'* As a child of three 
 it had sheltered him when Monck beleaguered Dundee.^ 
 There he spent his last hours before he rode forth on the 
 campaign which brought him immortality. It was his 
 wife's home after his death. Ungrateful as it is to uproot 
 local tradition, Dudhope Castle has its place in the story 
 of Claverhonse's life largely for the reason that Claver- 
 house ' Castle ' did not exist. 
 
 Dudhope had given its name to the Viscounty 
 which Charles the First created in favour of Sir John 
 Scrymgeour in 1641. Twenty years later (1661) his 
 grandson John was created Earl of Dundee. He died 
 without issue in 1668. His earldom and titles became 
 extinct or dormant, and the Crown, as ultimate heir, 
 granted his estates to Charles Maitland, Lord Hatton, 
 brother of the first Duke, and his successor (24th August 
 1682) as third Earl, of Lauderdale.*^ Hatton, soon after 
 the Restoration, was appointed Master of the Mint in 
 Scotland. For twenty years he exploited the office in his 
 
 1 Testament of Geillis Gaw, Edinburgh Testaments, 22ncl July 1595. 
 The Barns of Claverhouse still exists, as a farm. 
 
 '■^ Scrymgeour- Wedderhurn Charter Chest, box iv, bundle iii. No. 3. 
 
 •* Ochterlony of Guynd, a neighbour and contemporary of Claverhouse, 
 describes the property as ' a pleasant place, a good house, and well 
 planted' (quoted in Warden, Angus or Forfarshire, vol. ii. p. 257). 
 
 ■» See above, p. 97. 
 
 ^ Monck's order of protection to ' the Lady Carnigges of the Glenn ' 
 and her children, dated 30th August 1651, is among the Duntrune MSS. 
 
 ^ Com2)lete Peerage, vol. iii. p. 179.
 
 124 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 own interest. Not until June 16S2, when a committee 
 was appointed to examine into the state of the Mint, was 
 his malversation exposed. On 20th March 1683 he was 
 fined £72,000, the sum at which his defalcations were 
 assessed, thouofh the Jvino: reduced the fine to £20,000.^ 
 A trinity of conspirators watched the circumstances with 
 interest. Aberdeen, the Chancellor, coveted Hatton's 
 fine, or, in default, his Dundee property. Queensberry, the 
 Treasurer, had hopes of the dukedom, which had lapsed 
 Avith the death of Hatton's brother.^ Claverhouse, with a 
 watching brief for the others, was intent upon securing 
 Dudhope for himself, and with it the Constableship of 
 Dundee. He could claim the Scrymgeours in his ancestry. 
 From Newmarket, on 9th March 1683, Claverhouse sent 
 Queensberry the first report of his mission. He assured 
 him of the Duke of York's friendship, adding : ' It is hard 
 to gate any business don here. I walked but nyn mylles 
 this morning with the King, beseids cock faighting and 
 courses.' ^ He sings the same burden four days later ^ : ' It 
 is very hard to doe any thing here either with King or 
 Deuk, for the Deuk hunts, beseids going where ever the 
 King goes.' Still, he could assure Queensberry, all went 
 well : ' The Deuk is so proud of the success of our [Scot- 
 tish] affairs, that he very justly atributs to himself the 
 ryse and bigining of all to his sending me, contrair to the 
 
 ^ Diet. Nat. Biog., vol. xxxv. p. 350. 
 
 2 The Duke of Lauderdale died at Tunbridge Wells on 24th August 
 1682. He was, writes Fountainhall [Chronological Notes, p. 25), ' the 
 learndest and most powerful minister of state in his age.' He reflects the 
 general feeling against the Duchess in his remark : ' discontent and age 
 were the chief ingredients of his death, if his dutchess and phisitiens 
 war frie of it.' 
 
 3 Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 275. York wrote to Queens- 
 berry on the same day : ' Yours by Clauers I receved since I came, and 
 have discoursed with him at large of what you and the Chanceler [Aber- 
 deen] had charged him with ' [ibid., p. 185). 
 
 ^ Ihid,, p. 276. The letter, which is seemingly printed out of its due 
 order in the Report, is dated from Newmarket, 13th March 1683.
 
 AT COURT 125 
 
 opinion of most except your Lordship and a feu others, 
 with those comissions in to Galloway ; and the King is 
 very resolved that it shall be follouod ; and all here 
 magnify what you doe, and says it is a good copie [for] 
 them, and the noyse of it helps to keep there affairs 
 right.' Claverhouse's flattery has a deft touch ! 
 
 In his next letter (London, 20th March 1683) ^ his 
 desire for Dudhope claims the pith of it : ' My Lord, I 
 have written to my Lord Ch[ancellor] about a business 
 concerns my self, of which he and I talked befor I pairted,^ 
 as my Lady AroU will tell you. I must bygue your Lord- 
 ships assistance in that business of the lands of Didop. 
 My Lord Ch[ancellor] deseins nothing but to sell it, and 
 bay land in the north, seing he is to gat Stirling Castle to 
 duell in.^ Wherfor I desyr lieve to ask the house of 
 Didop and the Constablerie and other jurisdictions of 
 Dondie belonging to my Lord Lauderdelle ; and I offer 
 to bay fourty chalders of victuall'* from my Lord 
 Ch[ancellor] laying about it, tho I should sell other 
 lands to doe it.' The legend of Claverhouse Castle 
 vanishes before Claverhouse's explanation of his motive 
 for purchase : ' I have no house,' he informs Queens- 
 berry, ' and it lays Avithin half a myl of my land ; and 
 all that business would be extreamly convenient for me, 
 and signify not much to my Lord Chancelour, especi- 
 ally seing I am willing to bay the land. I would take this 
 for the greatest favour in the world, for I cannot have the 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Comm. Kept. xv. , pt. viii. p. 275. 
 
 - Napier (vol. ii. p. 321) prints a deposition by Claverhouse in 1685, in 
 which he states that Aberdeen had commissioned hira to secure for him 
 'a gift . . , of a thousand pounds sterling a-year, or twenty thousand 
 pounds sterling, which was thought to be the etjuivalent.' Tlie amount 
 of Hatton's fine was £20,000. In the result Claverhouse secured the 
 promise of £4000 of it for himself. 
 
 ^ The Haddo estates are in Aberdeenshire. Claverhouse's prediction 
 as to Stirling Castle was not fulfilled. 
 
 ^ i.e. land producing th>t retui'n.
 
 126 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 patiance to build and plant.' ^ The same letter carried 
 news of his impending elevation to the Privy Council.^ 
 
 ^ The legend of a castle inhabited by the Grahams upon their Claver- 
 house property seems to have arisen from the discovery, about 1793, of 
 the ruins of a building of some pretensions upon the Claverhouse estate. 
 That it was a secular building is by no means established. But even if 
 it were, there can be no reasonable doubt that it was a ruin when the 
 Grahams acquired the property, and that it served none of them as a 
 residence. See correspondence in The Dundee Advertiser 7th, 9th, 14th 
 July 1904:. Claverhouse's categorical statement to Queensberry, that he 
 possessed no ' house,' i.e. manor-house or castle, upon his property near 
 Dundee is confirmed by the ' Contract Matrimoniall betwixt Colonell 
 John Gi-ahame of Claverhouse and Lady Jeane Cochrane,' dated 9th June 
 1684 (Smythe, Letters of John Grahame of Claverhouse, p. 88). The con- 
 tract enumerates his property in detail. It mentions ' the toure, fortalice 
 and maner place ' of Glenogilvie, the ' fortalice and maner place ' of Clay- 
 potts, and ' the house ' of Dudhope, It specifies merely ' all and heall 
 the lands of Ballargus and Claverhouse, with the corne milne of the 
 samen.' Had there been a manor place upon either it would have been 
 specifically mentioned. Having regard to the retinue Claverhouse main- 
 tained at Dudhope, Claypotts was certainly inadequate to his needs. 
 
 It is possible to indicate the successive homes of the Claverhouse 
 Grahams. Ballargus was acquired in 1481 by John Graham, son of 
 Robert Graham of Strathcarron and Fiutry and Matilda Scrymgeour 
 {Reg. Mag. Sig., 1424-1513, p. 327). He also, subsequent to 14th Novem- 
 ber 1503, acquired Claverhouse, and his son John had a charter of both 
 properties from the Crown on 11th November 1532 (Acta Dom, Cone, 
 at Sessions (MS.) xxiv. 36). Upon his resignation, his son — a third 
 John — had a Crown charter (13th July 1541) erecting the two holdings 
 into the single tenandry of Claverhouse {Reg. Mag. Sig., 1513-46, p. 551). 
 The charter makes it clear that Ballargus was the principal residence of 
 the family at that time. In 1594 the widow of William Graham of 
 Claverhouse is found residing at the ' Barnes of Claverhouse' {Edinburgh 
 Testaments, 22nd July 1595), and in May 1612 her grandsons witness a 
 charter ' apud Claverhouse,' no doubt the same house {Reg. May. Sig., 
 1609-20, p. 285). In 1620, however, Sir William Graham, the then laird, 
 bought Claypotts {Scrymgeour- Wedderhurn Charter Chest, box iv. bundle 
 iii. No. 3), and in 1640 he acquired Glenogilvie {Reg. Mag. Sig. (MS.) 
 Ix. 134). From that period Glenogilvie was the chief residence of the 
 family, and from Claverhouse's statement in 1683 and his marriage- 
 contract of 1684 it is clear that there was at that time neither upon the 
 Claverhouse nor the Ballargus property any description of residence 
 which met the precise definition of a ' manor house. ' 
 
 - On the date of tliis letter (20th March 1683), Alexander, Earl of 
 Moray, wrote from Whitehall to Queensberry : ' befor I left Newmarkit 
 all matters wharin Claverous uas instructed near discoursed of befor the 
 Kinge and order'd to be drauue and dispatched according to your desyre ' 
 {Hist. Comm. Rcpt. Buccleuch and Queensherry MSS., vol. ii. p. 23). In 
 his letter of 20th March 1683 Claverhouse remarks the advantage to
 
 AT COURT 127 
 
 Dudhope, in the result, came tardily to Claverhouse ; 
 for Aberdeen developed and played an independent hand 
 of his own. Queensberry's business halted at the outset. 
 There were others, in fact, flying kites for titles or aug- 
 mentation of them. (»)ueensberry perhaps was impatient 
 at hearing much of Dudhope and little of his dukedom. 
 Claverhouse had a reminder. ' I was at my Lord Midle- 
 tons dining when your last came to my hands,' he wrote 
 in answer.^ ' Imediatly after diner, notwithstanding of all 
 the orders of secrecie you have so stricly giuen me, I 
 ventured, talking of the state of things, to tell him hou 
 necessary it was that som persons, whom I named,- should 
 have equalls ; and fynding he intered in to the same sense, 
 I poussed it further, and told him that I had alraidy 
 sounded the Deuk and had not found him averse.' ' But 
 with all,' Claverhouse hastened to add, ' I told him that 
 my lord treasurer,^ when I pairted, had not given me the 
 least order to that purpos ; but, on the contrary, when I 
 told him that it * was propre for him and offered him my 
 service, he positively desyred me, if, I tendered his inte- 
 rest, not to maidle with it ; but that my Lord Chancelor 
 had laift me Cristian liberty.' ^ Middleton fell in with the 
 scheme, though he had other interests to advance. ' After 
 
 Queensberry of having the two Secretaries, Moray and Middleton, in his 
 interests. The latter had hopes of Queensberry's influence to enable him 
 to pay his debts. 
 
 ^ Hint. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 277. The letter is dated 
 from London, 29th March 1683. 
 
 ■^ Claverhouse refers to the Dukes of Hamilton and Buccleuch (Mon- 
 mouth). His meaning is, that James's party ought to boast ducal digni- 
 taries to match their opponents. 
 
 ^ i.e. Queensberry himself. 
 
 * i.e. a dukedom. In his deposition in 1685 (Napier, vol. ii. p. .321) 
 Claverhouse states distinctly that before liis coming up to London in 1683 
 he was commissioned by Queensberry, as well as Aberdeen, ' to move the 
 late King, and King James, then Duke, some things relating to their 
 present private affairs.' 
 
 ^ One seems to discern Claverhouse's intention to suggest Queensberry's 
 disinterestedness at the expense of Aberdeen.
 
 128 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 having raisoned tlie business, and prepaired against all 
 difficultys [that] might be objected,' Claverhouse pro- 
 ceeds, ' we went to St. James', when we desyred of the 
 Deuk to speak with leaseur with him ; upon which he 
 teuk us in to his closet, and having for introduction 
 begun with the Mint business and my Lord Maitland, we 
 fell imediatly on your affair. The Deuk proposed diffi- 
 cultys. We discussed all, and convinced him and made 
 him acknouledge it, after having given many arguments 
 from different heads; and then we tossed the business 
 from hand to hand, that we broght him quyt about. Then 
 it was concluded my Lord Huntlie must also be [created a 
 Duke].^ Then my Lord Midletoun spok of the Register.- 
 It was not my pairt to opose any thing that was proposed 
 for a man hade often don me kyndness ; but on the other 
 hand I will take on my salvation that I never beared of it 
 till that afternoon, nor believe I the Register expects it at 
 this tyme ; but it seems there has been sumthing betwixt 
 them when the Register was here. The Deuk seemed very 
 inclyned, and said, " Is it ane Earl ? " and would have late 
 it pass, as I thought, but my Lord Midletoun said. No, but 
 a Yyscount, upon which the Deuk underteuk to indevor 
 it all with the King. We had the francest conference 
 that I believe ever was, and his Hyghness expressed a 
 great deall of kyndness to you all. . . . He told us laghing, 
 that we would all be as great tyrants as my Lord Lauder- 
 delle was, and lait you alon.^ He has his owen maximcs 
 
 ^ George Gordon, fourth Marquis of Huntly, was created first Duke of 
 Gordon in 1684. He held Edinburgh Castle for the King during the 
 meeting of the Convention of Estates in 1689. 
 
 - George Mackenzie. He was created Viscount Tarbat in 1685 and 
 Earl of Cromarty in 170.3. 
 
 ^ The author of The Despot's Ghamfjion (p. 136) misinterprets this 
 phrase, ' and lait you alon,' as a jocose expression conveying Claver- 
 house's belief that Queensberry would justify James's apprehension. 
 Such a meaning is entirely foreign to the context and to the tone of the 
 letter. Claverhouse means that James had not been allowed to think 
 that Queensberry was a party to the wire-pulling concerning the dukedom.
 
 AT COURT 129 
 
 and politiques, but all was very friendly. . . . We shall not 
 give over till we have brought it to a cloase, or it will feall 
 at the King, which I hop not.' ' I hop,' he added, ' you 
 will pardon me for puting my Lord Midleton on the secret. 
 It does not concern you, seing he thinks it is with out 
 your knouledge what Ave doe ; and that it is mainly on the 
 publict acount we doe it. My Lord, it hade been better 
 for me to have had all the honor of doing it alon, as by 
 my last to my Lord Ch[ancellor] you will see in all apear- 
 ance I might have don ; but if your business be don, 
 I shall be content with out considering who gate the 
 thanks.' In recognition he suggested a gift from fines or 
 forfeitures to Middleton. As to his own affair, he con- 
 cluded : ' My Lord, I promise to my self that you will 
 perswad my Lord Ch[ancellor] to consent to my gating 
 Didop and the jurisdiction, which can not wrong him> 
 seing I am willing to buay a pairt of the land.^ My Lord, 
 I have wryten this in great heast, I dout if you will bo 
 able to read it.' 
 
 Claverhouse's letter sheds a ruthless light upon the 
 public life of his time. It is less pertinent to comment 
 upon it than to point to the surprising position to which 
 Claverhouse had attained. It was little more than four 
 years since he had entered the public service of his 
 country. Already he was recognised as the man to whose 
 administration of Galloway James could attribute ' the 
 ryse and bigining ' of the success of his affairs ; - whose 
 
 1 Mr. Mowbray Morris {Claverhouse, p. 99) misapprehends the nature 
 of Claverhouse's interest in this matter. He speaks of Claverhouse's 
 'designs on the fat acres of Dudhope.' What Claverhouse wanted was 
 Dudhope Castle and the Constableship of Dundee. The limited purchase 
 of land whicli he suggested was designed chiefly to commend the transac- 
 tion to Aberdeen. 
 
 - In Letters addressed to George, Earl of Aberdeen (m). 1U7-111), there is 
 a lengthy report on Claverhouse's administration of Galloway in 1682. 
 It is printed in the Spalding volume among the documents of 1683. It is 
 endorsed : ' For the Earle of Aberdeen, Lord High Chancelour of Scot- 
 land.' It begins: 'Claverhouse being called befor the Comitty of 
 
 I
 
 130 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 ability and address had rapidly opened to him a social 
 circle, the entree to which was barely his by birth ; 
 entrusted by the highest officials in Scotland with the 
 management of intimate private affairs ; cock-fighting, 
 coursing, in royal company ; the friend and adviser of the 
 Heir- Apparent. The record is remarkable. Sheer ability, 
 and the power to impress others with a sense of it, founded 
 upon a satisf3dng belief in self, alone explain it. 
 
 If Queensberry's hopes were raised by Claverhouse's 
 hasty but encouraging letter, they were dashed by 
 its successor.^ He had seen the Duke of York again, 
 Claverhouse wrote, and had reminded him of Queens- 
 berry's business : ' I hoped he had not forgot to press the 
 King to it. He told me he had used all the arguments 
 he could to perswad the King ; but that he could not 
 move him to it. I did aledge that I feared the King or 
 he must have been diverted from it by [the] Inglish 
 councell, and there upon took the liberty to tell him in a 
 respectful way hou unsaive it wer to take measeurs from 
 people that could not knou our business nor the circum- 
 stances of our affairs. The Deuk very fairly denayed all, 
 
 Counsell, gave this account of the affaires of Galouay.' The report is in 
 the third person, and is obviously the account of some one who was pre- 
 sent when the report was made. The phrase, ' Claverhouse being called 
 befor ' the Committee of Council, is proof that the report was not made at 
 Edinburgh in 1683, for Claverhouse was then a Privy Councillor. The 
 fact that Claverhouse had the Council's thanks on loth Maj^ 1682 for his 
 conduct in Galloway suggests that the real date of the report was May 
 1682, though it is hard to understand why Aberdeen should have been so 
 aloof from Edinburgh as to require so lengthy a report. In any case 
 there is no evidence that it was Claverhouse's composition. It is accepted 
 as his both by the author of The DesjmVs Champion (p. 125), and less em- 
 phaticallj' by Mr. Mowbray Morris [Claverhoiise, p. 94), It is important 
 to lodge this caveat, for the terms of the report are somewhat at variance 
 with the spirit which breathes in Claverhouse's letters to Queensberry 
 (quoted in Chapter vi. ) detailing his administration of Galloway. If the 
 date of the report was in fact 1683, the presumption is that Claverhouse's 
 report was made to the Committee of Council in London. 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 278. It is dated from 
 London, 10th April 1683.
 
 AT COURT 131 
 
 but told me the King had been so vexed with the nobiii- 
 tating people here (for when the door was once opened all 
 would be in) that he could not willingly hear any thing 
 upon that subject. I will say without vanity that nothing 
 was unsaid that could make for the purpose ; but the 
 Deuk in end told me it was impossible. I told him then, 
 that in all this I hade only raison to complean ; for I was 
 very seur that both the King and he would be at last 
 convinced hou much it was there interest, and would cer- 
 tenly doe it ; only I would be so unliapy as not to be the 
 bearer ; upon which the Deuk told me that he thoght 
 some tyme after the King might be broght to it.' Claver- 
 house urged Queensberry not to be downhearted ; ' for 
 the gr[eat]est men in Ingland ar glaid to gate it after 
 many pulls. Therfor, contineu cheerfully your indevors 
 in the Kings service, and it can not faill.' There was no 
 need, he wrote two days later,^ for Queensberry to ' take 
 so easily alarums ; the Deuk will not so easily alter the 
 opinion he has of you.' 
 
 By the last week in April 1683 the Mint business had 
 been settled. On 24th April the Duke of York informed 
 Queensberry to that effect,^ and added that Claverhouse 
 would soon be sent back to Scotland. ' I only keep him 
 here,' he explained, ' till the Archbishope and Generall 
 [Dalziel] shall be come, and by him I shall answer all 
 your letters.' ' As to the Mint,' Claverhouse wrote to 
 Queensberry two days later,^ ' there is a letter ordered 
 for your Lordship, telling that the King[s] pleaseur is that 
 my Lord Lauderdeall dispon to the Chancelour the lands 
 about Dondie, and to me the house and jurisdiction,^ for 
 which I render your Lordship most hairty thanks.' He 
 
 1 HUt. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 280. The letter is dated 
 from Loudon, 12th April 1682. 
 - IhkL, p. 188. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 280. The letter is dated from London, 2Gth April 1683. 
 * i.e. the Constableship of Dundee.
 
 182 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 was 'to pairt next week,' he added. His departure was 
 delayed however. Early in May 1683 he left London 
 for Windsor, and spent a fortnight there.^ Dalziel's visit, 
 some grievance he brought with him, and a difficulty 
 which had arisen between Queensberry and the city of 
 Edinburgh, were the matters which detained him.^ On 
 3rd May he announced that the King's orders regarding 
 the Mint were ' sent down by this post.' ^ The document 
 was received at Edinburgh on 10th May, and was read at 
 Council. It announced the mitigation of Lauderdale's 
 fine from £72,000 to £20,000. It granted the whole of 
 that amount to Aberdeen and Claverhouse — £16,000 to 
 the former, and £4000 to the latter. But it stipulated 
 that if Lauderdale, with his son Richard, Lord Justice- 
 Clerk, disponed Dudhope and his property within a ten- 
 mile radius of Dundee to Aberdeen, he should be ' free of 
 the forsaid summe of 20,000 lb. sterling.' In that event 
 Claverhouse was empowered to redeem from Aberdeen 
 the house, yards, and parks of Dudhope, and the Constable- 
 ship of Dundee, at twenty years' purchase.'* 
 
 The last days of Claverhouse's visit brought other marks 
 of favour. On 11th May 1683 a royal letter to the 
 Scottish Privy Council announced the addition of Colonel 
 
 1 On 28th April 1683 he writes to Queensberry : ' My Lord Midloton 
 and I goe on Monday for Windsor, when we will be senr to doe what we 
 oght' (Hist. MSS. Comm. Eept. xv., pt. viii. p. 281). 
 
 2 See York's letters of 3rd and 9th May 1683, in ibid., pp. 188, 189. 
 In the latter, York writes : ' The Old General is now a going back, and I 
 hope better satisfy 'd then when he came from Scotland, his Majesty 
 hauing caused Lord Morray to write downe to the Chanceler, about some 
 little things which were but resonable.' 
 
 ^ nid., p. 281. In 1685 Claverhouse stated that this letter was 
 drawn up at the King's command by Middleton and himself, ' who best 
 knew the lands and the nature of the gift.' He added further, that he 
 wrote to Aberdeen on the matter, and 'had his approbation.' See 
 Napier, vol. ii. p. 322. 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. i. p. 438. Fountainhall says 
 that thirty years' purchase would have been a fairer price, in the opinion 
 of some, ' because of the great dependance and superiority.'
 
 AT COURT 183 
 
 John Graham of Claverhoiise to their number.^ On the 
 following day (12th May) a warrant was issued for a 
 commission to his brother, David Graham, to be con- 
 junct-Sheriff of Wigton.2 On 14th May, seemingly, 
 Claverhouse set out from Windsor upon his return to 
 Scotland.^ A warrant to the Scottish Treasury for pay- 
 ment of £200 to him was signed on the same day/ 
 
 Note. — 111 addition to Claverhouse's letters to Qucensbeny 
 quoted in this chapter, there is evidence of a concurrent corre- 
 spondence with the Chancellor, Aberdeen. The letters are not 
 among those included in the Spalding Club vohime, and pro- 
 bably do not now exist. The dates of two of them were 13th 
 March 1683, 31st March 1G83. Fragments of Aberdeen's replies 
 are printed in Napier, vol. ii. pp. 322-24. 
 
 ^ Warrant Booh, Scotland, vol. viii. fol. 59. 
 
 " Ibid., fol. 73; Paper Register (MS. Register House), x. 362. The 
 Reverend Archibald Stewart, in History vindicated in the Case of the 
 Wigton Martyrs (2nd edit. p. 23), inaccurately dates David Graham's 
 commission as 12th May 1682. The commission was 'during pleasure,' 
 and therefore lapsed with the death of Charles the Second. 
 
 ^ On 13th May 1683 York writes to Queensberry from Windsor : 
 ' This gos to you by Clavers, to whom I must refer for severall things I 
 have to say to you, and to informe you how things go here' {Hist. MSS. 
 Cornm. Eept. xv., pt. viii. p. 189). 
 
 ^ Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. viii. fol. 70.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 
 
 The league between Aberdeen, Qucensberry, and Claver- 
 house, founded on mutual interests, briefly survived 
 Claverhouse's return to Scotland. Claverhouse found 
 himself thwarted by Aberdeen in his impatient hopes of 
 Dudhope. Queensberry, who had imagined rather than 
 actual ground for suspecting the sincerity of Claverhouse's 
 representations on his behalf, was ready to attribute to 
 him his failure to secure a dukedom. He viewed, also, 
 Aberdeen's ascendency in Scotland with some dislike, and 
 suspected Claverhouse to be his rival's backer in high 
 quarters. Their quarrel grew to considerable dimensions, 
 and entailed upon Claverhouse the single check in the 
 steady stream of royal favour which bore his ambition 
 onward. Incidentally one adds Queensberry — but not 
 yet — to the long roll of those in high place whom 
 Claverhouse fearlessly challenged. The Dalrymples, the 
 Hamiltons, the Maitlands, Aberdeen, Queensberry, at one 
 time or another had his assault ! To his superiors he 
 can have inspired hardly less dismay than his ' terrible 
 cornet of horse ' to George the Third. Claverhouse, 
 indeed, shared in no mean degree the resolute, unshrink- 
 ing courage of Pitt, and that nice appreciation of his own 
 powers which enabled an earlier Prime Minister to 
 prophesy, in retrospect, an Archbishopric as his equally 
 obvious and inevitable attainment ! 
 
 On 22nd May 1683, upon his return to Scotland,
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 135 
 
 Claverhouse was sworn of the Privy Council.^ His 
 services were soon commanded elsewhere, to complete the 
 work which his London visit had interrupted. During 
 his absence the Council had resolved upon a new 
 method whereby to compel the disturbed shires to obedi- 
 ence and good conduct. ' The main concern of the 
 Government/ as Professor Hume Brown remarks,^ ' was 
 still the suppression of that intractable remnant which 
 defied every engine of authority that had been directed 
 against them. Though they had now lost their second 
 great leader, Cargill, they still met in the moors and 
 mosses and hills to pray and preach, and to denounce 
 woes to their idolatrous rulers. . . . Outlaws by their 
 own choice, they were now hunted, in their own phrase, 
 like partridges on the mountains.' How to deal with 
 them offered a subject of difference to the authorities. 
 Indulgence and indemnity had failed of result, but there 
 were those who were disposed still to rely upon it. The 
 policy had Claverhouse's convinced opposition. ' My 
 Lord,' he had written to Queensberry on 1st April 1682,^ 
 ' we hear noysc here of ane Indulgence. I hop no body is 
 so mad as to advyse it ; but Lord Tuedell ■^ could not goe 
 up [to London] but it would be thoght ane Indulgence 
 Avould com doun with him.' His own visit to London in 
 the next year, apart from the personal motives which 
 inspired it, had been as the emissary and mouthpiece of 
 the party of ' thorough ' in the Council.^ The report he 
 had given of his pacification of Galloway was clearly 
 offered in support of the policy which he was anxious to 
 see confirmed and extended. It had impressed both the 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol, i. p. 441. 
 2 History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 420. 
 
 •^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 272. The letter is dated 
 from Kirkcudbright. 
 
 ^ John Hay, second Earl and first Marquis of Tweeddale. 
 5 Fountainhall, Historical Observes, p. 94.
 
 136 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 King- and the Duke of York, he was able to report from 
 Newmarket on 13th March 1683, adding that ' the King 
 is very resolved that it shall be folloiied.' ^ 
 
 The fruit of Claverhouse's representations was a royal 
 proclamation of 13th April 1683. 'Seeing we are now 
 fully persuaded,' it ran, ' that it is neither difference in 
 religion, nor tenderness of conscience (as it is pretended), 
 but merely principles of dislo3''alty and disaffection to us 
 and our government, that moves them (under pretext of 
 religion) to disturb the quiet of our reign and peace of 
 this our ancient kingdom,' the King commanded the 
 institution of a circuit Court of Justiciary to open at 
 Stirling on 5th June 1683, and to proceed thence to 
 Glasgow (12 th June), Ayr (19 th June), Dumfries (26th 
 June), Jedburgh (3rd July), and Edinburgh (10th July),^' 
 Its work was to complete within a larger area the task 
 which Claverhouse had undertaken in Galloway. Fit- 
 tingly, therefore, on 4th June 1683, the Sheriff of Wigton 
 was ordered to accompany the Court, to be ready ' to 
 depoiie on oath, anent any persons guilty of treason, or 
 reset of rebels, or whatever shall be inquired of them by 
 the Justices.' ^ He had already on 31st May been com- 
 manded to attend the Justices in another capacity, with 
 commission to command the forces in each place visited 
 by the Court, except Glasgow and Stirling, where Dalziel 
 was expected to be present.* 
 
 The circuit opened at Stirling on 5th June 1683. Three 
 days later (8th June) an incident occurred which was in 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Conwi. Bepf. xv., pt. viii. p. 27G. 
 
 '^ Wodrow, vol. iii. p. 475. ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 483. 
 
 4 Order of Council, 31st May 1683, in Napier, vol. ii. p. 343. The 
 members of the Court were the Earl of Perth (Lord Justicc-CJenenil), Lord 
 Richard Maitland (Lord Justice-Clerk), Sir James Foulis of Colinton, Sir 
 John Lockhart of Castlehill, and Sir David Balfour of Forret (Lords of 
 Session). The Lord Advocate, Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, the 
 ' Bluidy Advocate,' was public prosecutor {ibid. , vol. ii. p. 353).
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR L37 
 
 some degree its justification. On that day five troopers 
 of the Horse Guards Avere conveying a prisoner named 
 Smith to Glasgow. At Inchbelly, between that town and 
 Kilsyth, his rescue was effected by a party of seven well- 
 wishers, ' who had darned them selves in a house on a 
 strait pass on the high way.' As the prisoner and his 
 escort passed the ambush, a volley brought down two of 
 the Guards. One Avas left dead upon the place ; the other 
 was wounded. Their assailants, Avith the prisoner, im- 
 mediately scattered. Four escaped AvestAvard. The 
 remainder made their way toAvards Hamilton, and tAVO 
 of them were captured, ' the insolentest rogues that ever 
 I spoke to,' Hamilton reported. The next morning (9th 
 June) both of them were sent under escort to Glasgow.^ 
 Claverhouse had the ncAvs of the event at Stirling. ' This 
 murder they have comitted,' Avas his comment, ' gives 
 us all neu vigeur.' '^ 
 
 Closely folloAving the proceedings of the circuit, Claver- 
 house, on 9th June 1683, Avrote both to Queensberry and 
 Aberdeen from Stirling. ' This Justice Air has suceeded 
 mervilusly,' he told the former. ' The Judges goe on very 
 unanimusly, and my Lord Advocat does wonders.' The 
 Test had been generally accepted, and the number of 
 ' fugitives ' Avould be small.^ A single capital sentence 
 had been imposed. Claverhouse Avrote at length upon the 
 
 ^ The Duke of Hamilton to Queensberry, dated from Hamilton, 9th 
 June 1683, in Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 252. 
 
 - Rnd., p. 282. On 14th June 1683 the two men concerned in the 
 affair, whom Hamilton had appreliended, were executed at Glasgow. 
 The Lords of Justiciary reported to Aberdeen : ' We have ordered the 
 gallowes to stand, for the better instruction of the great numbers of 
 rebells who ar cited to appeir befor this court ' (Letters addressed to 
 George, Earl of Aberdeen, p. 126). The two men were John Wharry and 
 James Smith, the inscription on whose monument appears in Thomson's 
 Martyr Graves of Scotland, edit. 1903, p. 239. According to Fountain- 
 hall (quoted in Napier, vol. ii. p. 361), they were Lesmahagow men. 
 Wharry he calls 'M'Wherrie. ' 
 
 2 Hist. MSS. Comm. liept. xv., pt. viii. p. 281.
 
 138 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 case to Aberdeen.^ The man's name was William Bogue.^ 
 He had been ' out ' in 79, and noAv presented himself with 
 ' a fals sham eertificat ' purporting that he had taken the 
 bond of Indemnity.^ He was asked on his oath whether 
 he had taken the bond or not, but would not answer. He 
 refused to call Bothwell Bridge rebellion, or Sharp's death, 
 murder. He was offered benefit of the Indemnity if he 
 would take the Test, but refused. ' Upon which,' Claver- 
 house adds, ' the Judges, moved by the outcry of all the 
 bystanders,' ^ put the man on his trial forthwith for high 
 treason and brought him in guilty. The wretched man 
 thereupon offered to take the Test, but ' with the old 
 gloss —as far as it consisted with the Protestant religion 
 and the glorie of God ; and after that was refused him, 
 offered in end to take it any way.' ' By all which,' Claver- 
 house concluded, ' it clearly apears that he would doe any 
 thing to saive his lyf; but nothing to be reconciled to 
 the goverment.' 
 
 Bogue's tardy willingness to take the Test placed the 
 Court in some difficulty. His execution was postponed in 
 order that the Chancellor's ruling might bo received.^ It 
 could not be ' thoght an}^ sourty for the government/ 
 
 ^ Letters miresscdto George, Earl of Aberdeen, p. 121. 
 
 2 The name also appears as Boick and Boag. 
 
 ^ The Lords of Justiciary in their report to Aberdeen [ibid., p. 116) 
 state that the certificate was 'blank in tlie cristined name.' The certifi- 
 cate was signed by Sir William Paterson, Clerk of Council (Fountain- 
 hall, Historical Notices, vol. i. p. 44.3). 
 
 •* The Lords of Justiciary, detailing the case to Aberdeen, write : 
 ' advocats, and some of tlie very persons that wer cited as panuells, called 
 out that he might goe to the knowledge off ane inqueest ' (Letters, etc., 
 p. 116). 
 
 ^ See Maitland's letter of 9th June 1683 to Aberdeen in Letters, etc. 
 p. 118. Fountainhall [Historical Notices, vol. i. p. 443) says the Justices 
 would ' willingly have repreeved ' Bogue, but ' would not attempt it 
 without the Chancelor's consent.' He adds, that ' publick intimation 
 was made in the Court that Boog was not hanged for refusing the Test 
 (as the rumor was put to fright others from compearing), but for his being 
 in the rebellion at Bothuel Bridge. '
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 139 
 
 Claverhouse pointed out to Aberdeen, ' the taking of the 
 Test by men after they ar condemned ; seing the casuists 
 agree that ane oath imposed where the alternative is hang- 
 ing can[not] any ways be binding ; and it is to be suposed, 
 who refused it when they had the freedom of choyse, and 
 taks it after condemned, docs it only because they think 
 themselfs not bound to keep it.' In favour of mercy 
 there was a single argument, and that amounted to little. 
 'All that I can hear of inconvenience,' Claverhouse 
 continued, ' is, that it may terify those in his circum- 
 stances to com in. It may be said that his caise may be 
 mistaken, and it may deter all from coming in. Ex- 
 perience of this day answers that. Above tuenty have 
 taken the Test since he was condemned ; and the terror 
 of his usadge, as I am informed, is lyke to cause most com 
 in that ar to-day declaired fugitives, of which the number, 
 in four shyres, will not be much above a hondred. If this 
 man should not be hanged, they would take advantage 
 that they have disapointed us by rescueing the other, and 
 given us such aprehensions that we durst not venter on 
 this.' There follows a glimpse of character, luminous 
 and by no means isolated : ' I am as sorry to see a man 
 day [die], even a whigue, as any of them selfs ; but when 
 on days justly for his owen faults, and may sane a hondred 
 to fall in the lyk, I have no scrupulL' Upon Aberdeen 
 his representations ^ had their effect. Bogue was executed 
 at Glasgow and is enrolled among the martyrs, not wholly 
 deservedly.^ The two men of the Inchbelly incident 
 completed the death-roll of the entire circuit. 
 
 1 Fountainhall's declaration as to the merciful disposition of the Judges 
 is not confirmed by their own correspondence. 
 
 '■^ His grave is in Campsie churchyard, and bears the inscription : 
 ' Erected in memory of William Boick, who suCfered at Glasgow June 
 XIV. MDCLXXXIII for his adherence to the Word of God and Scotlands 
 Covenanted Work of Reformation. 
 
 ' Underneath this stone doth lie 
 Dust sacrificed to tyranny
 
 140 JOHN GRiVHAM OF CLAVE RHOUSE 
 
 The Court of Justiciary opened at Glasgow on 12tli 
 June 1688. Claverhouse anticipated that its session 
 would deal with ' the most considerable things ' of the 
 circuit, and had promised Queensberry an account of 
 thoui.i But no letter from him is extant. A glimpse of 
 him, and of the proceedings there, comes from the Duke 
 of Hamilton's unfriendly pen. ' Claverhouse and the 
 [Lord Justice-] Clarke are the cheife derectors' of the 
 Court, he reported on 14th June. ' It is not in my pouer 
 to expres to yow what I saw and heard there,' he wrote a 
 few days later. ' I can not tell you how many are declared 
 fugitives, for the Clarke himself could not tell when he 
 left Glasgow, and denunced onely the absents in generall, 
 so I hope the leidges are securr untill their names are 
 knouen. Many more bothe of gentlemen and tenants 
 tooke the Test then I expected, none assoilied how inocent 
 so euer, but all bound over to ansuer at Edinburgh the 
 24th of July nixt.'2 At Ayr, on 19th June, the Laird of 
 French's neighbour, the Provost of Stranraer, indicted for 
 ' actuall rebellion,' threw himself upon the mercy of the 
 Court, and was handed over to Claverhouse to receive 
 safe-conduct.^ At Dumfries no fact regarding Claverhouse 
 emerges save the town's expenditure of one pound ten 
 shillings Scots ' for a pound of candle ilk night to Claver- 
 
 Yet precious in Immanuers sight 
 Since martyred for his kingly right.' 
 
 (Thomson, Martyr Graves, p. 243.) 
 
 Thomson says that nothing is known of Bogue, but Fountainhall {Hifi- 
 torical Notices, vol. i. p. 443) describes him as ' tennent in Auchinreoch.' 
 As to the date of his execution, which is given as 14tli June in the 
 inscription above, the Lords of Justiciary, writing to Aberdeen (Letters, 
 etc., p. 126) on 13th June, declare that Bogue was hanged 'this day.' 
 They add that he died ' adhereing to his wicked principles, and pretend- 
 ing he wes a martyr ; which justified the seutance even in this humourous 
 shyre.' 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Comm. Rex)t. xv. , pt. viii. p. 282. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 253,254. 
 
 ^ Letters addressed to George, Earl of Aberdeen, p. 128.
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 141 
 
 house's troop, when they kept guard the time the Judges 
 were here.' ^ The circuit opened at Jedburgh the following 
 week. 
 
 Claverhouse was still in attendance upon the Judges 
 when news of the Rye House Plot reached Scotland. 
 Moray at Whitehall opined that some of the ' helishe 
 plotinge criwe ' would seek shelter in Scotland.^ On 3rd 
 July 1683 it was remitted to Claverhouse and two others 
 to draft a proclamation to deal with the crisis.^ On 5th 
 July he reported to Aberdeen from Jedburgh the steps he 
 had taken to patrol the Border : ^ 'I have comanded 
 fourty dragoons to the Langom [Langholm], which is the 
 hairt of the Deuk of Monmouth's interest; and tuenty 
 there ar at Anan. My troup lays at Moffet, and a pairt 
 of Captain Strachan's troup at Dumfries, to cape what 
 may eskeap the tuo advanced posts. They have orders 
 conform to the proclimation. On this hand we have sent 
 out three partys of ten horses a piece, who have orders to 
 bate along the Borders, and corespond with the pairtys of 
 Langom and Coll. Struthers on the other seyd. So soon 
 as the Lords [of Justiciary] ar gon, all the troupes here 
 shall march to different posts closs on the border. ... I 
 am glad to hear that the conspiracy is lyk to be so well 
 discovered, and that the King resolves so sudenly and 
 vigourusly to bring to punishment the wicked authors of 
 it. We hear from people comes from the other seyd, 
 that great dilligence is doing there for search of those 
 traitors.' 
 
 Claverhouse later took his share in the examination of 
 
 ^ Quoted from the town's records, iu Napier, vol. ii. p. 362. 
 
 ^ The Earl of Moray sends information to Aberdeen on 2 1st Jnne 168,S 
 (Letters, etc. , p. 130). It is curious to notice that the Duke of York, 
 writing to Queensberry on 22nd June, ends his letter with the state- 
 ment : ' All things, God be thanked, go uery well in this country ' (Hist, 
 MSS. Comm. Kept, xv., pt. viii. p. 192). 
 
 * State Pa2iers, Domestic, Car. II., Bundle 42S, fol. 141. 
 
 * Letters addressed to Georyc, Earl of Abtrdecv, p. 138.
 
 142 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 those iinplicated in the Plot. In the interval he is trace- 
 able mainly in his correspondence with Queensberry, 
 Avhose attitude was becoming increasingly suspicious and 
 unfriendly. Clavcrhouse's relations with the Chancellor 
 and Dalziel at the Council Board were also strained and 
 difficult, and in the militar}'- measures which the general 
 situation entailed, he was subjected to orders whose wisdom 
 he doubted, or was thwarted in measures which he re- 
 garded as necessary. ' I have spok to the Chancelor,' he 
 wrote on 28th August 1683,^ ' that the generall [Dalziel] 
 might be called for against the councell day, and all 
 things concerning the disposing the quarters for the 
 troupes might be adj ousted. He seemed to inclyn that 
 I should give a sheam (sic) of it in wryting, which I am 
 unwilling to doe in the terms we ar in, not knouing what 
 use might be made of it. Houever, befor the Kings 
 service suffer I will ventur on it.' Especially he was 
 concerned for his particular province, Galloway. ' I thoght 
 I had prepared that affair of the garisons so well,' he 
 wrote a fortnight later,^ ' that there could not have been 
 the least difficulty in it ; for my Lord Chancelor seemed 
 satisfyed and made me wryt about it to the Generall, but 
 when it came in councell the Ch[ancellor] refered all to 
 the Generall. I sustined with all the might I could ; but 
 was not able to bring about the Generall nor perswad the 
 councell to doe it of themselfs.^ . . . Houever, the thing 
 being so raisonable, and a proposell of your Lordships, 
 and sustined by me, who they had raison to believe under- 
 stood that contry, your Lordship may easily guess I was 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Comm. Bept. xv., pt. viii. p. 282. The letter is dated 
 from Edinburgh. 
 
 - Ibid., p. 283. The letter is dated from Edinburgh, 13th September 
 1683. 
 
 '^ Exercising his commission to place his troops where he liked, Claver- 
 house desired to garrison certain houses in Galloway without further 
 warrant than the consent of their owners. See his letter of 28th August 
 1683.
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 143 
 
 not well satisfyed ; and I took the liberty to tell my Lord 
 Ch[ancellor], that if the Deuk [of York] had been at that 
 boord, as he was when I was first sent to Galloway, I 
 would have been believed in maters of that contry, 
 especially when I was but seconding my Lord Treasurer. 
 The Ch[ancellor] then desyred the Gen[eral], my Lord 
 Linlithgou and Livingston and I to confer about it nixt 
 morning, which would have turned to nothing, had not 
 your Lordships letter com to my Lord Chancelor ; ^ Avhich 
 pleased him so well that there was not the least difficulty 
 thereafter. ... I then asked whither or not I should con- 
 tineu my former cair of that contry [Galloway] or not. 
 The Ch[ancellor] shuned to make answer; but being 
 pressed, all he answered was, that they took nothing from 
 me. After I asked hou they would dispose of my troup. 
 The Ch[ancellor] had a mynd it should lay here for a 
 tyme ; the generall was for sending it to Fyfe. I told it 
 was usless to the King[s] service here, and would be so in 
 Fyfe. I desyred it might be sent to Comlok,^ Maybolle 
 or som place neer Galloway ; that in caise there be need 
 I may mak inrods nou and then. It was refered to the 
 Generall. So I knou not hou it will be, but I am sear I 
 am very indifferent ; for I told in Councell that wherever 
 it went I thoght may self no ways oblidged to march with 
 it, because that was the Cap. Lievtenents business.' ' I 
 see not that the Court grous much here,' he added: 'I 
 fynd myself worse there evry day, but I take no notice 
 of it. I goe thither as I used to doe, but only when I 
 have business of publik concern ; and houever things goe 
 am resolved to doe as a good subject oght and a man of 
 honor. I will by no means prejudge the Kings service for 
 my interest, nor will I doe mean things to insinuat 
 
 ^ Later in the letter Claverhouse advises Queensberry ' not to stand 
 upon the ceiumony of writing first ' to Aberdeen. 
 ^ Cumnock,
 
 U4> JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 myself.' There is nothing in his Hfe to prove him untrue 
 to that ideal of duty. For the moment he and his more 
 resolute policy alike were out of harmony with his 
 colleagues. 
 
 To Ayrshire Claverhouse appears to have gone with his 
 troop. He writes to Qucensberry from Ayr on 27th Sep- 
 tember 1683.^ The Dudhope affair was still unsettled 
 and he was anxious for permission, on that and other 
 grounds, to go up to London. By 12th October he was 
 back at Edinburgh. His projected visit to Court had 
 been vetoed in high quarters, and he betook himself for a 
 fortnight to Angus and home.^ But Aberdeen's supremacy 
 was already threatened. So long ago as 2Sth August 
 1683 ^ Claverhouse had answered Queensberry's jealous 
 doubts : ' Houever suspects me of having given advice to 
 the Deuk to lait things be governed by the chief minister 
 alon, wrong me mightily. I can apeall to the Deuk and 
 my Lord Midleton, if I did not always say that things by 
 cause of secrecy oght to be managed by you tuo ; ^ and if 
 you could not agree, by a Juncto ; and I think I was 
 right.' ' If the Juncto be not fixed again winter,' he 
 Avrote on the eve of his departure for Angus, ' all will yet 
 goe wrong.' ^ Upon his return to Edinburgh he wrote 
 again to Queensberry : ^ ' The affaire of the Juncto is no 
 secret here, and every body thinks it was the only thing 
 could have keeped people "^ with in bounds ; but by what 
 I can learn, if it be at all, it will turn to the old Juncto, or 
 to the officers of state only.' His forecast was fulfilled. 
 On 13th December 1683 the Council at Edinburgh 
 
 1 Hif<L MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 2S-5. 
 
 2 See his letter of 12th October 1683 in ihid., p. 285. 
 a Ihid., p. 282. 
 
 •* i.e. Queensberry and Aberdeen. 
 
 ■'■' Hist. MSS. Comm. Rejit. xv., pt. viii. p. 285. 
 
 « Ibid., p. 286. The letter is dated from Edinburgh, 30th October 1683. 
 
 ^ i.e. Aberdeen.
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 145 
 
 received the King's letter appointing his seven Ministers 
 of State ' to manage all affairs there.' The rest of the 
 Councillors, Fountainhall remarked, would have little to 
 do ' save to ratify their conclusions.' ^ There is no hint 
 that Claverhouse anticipated such a consequence. The 
 Junto at least extinguished Aberdeen, with whose policy 
 he was little in accord. 
 
 With the formation of the Junto, Claverhouse's letters 
 cease for a time. He is traced fitfully in the autumn and 
 winter of 1683. The Government was eagerly unravelling 
 the skeins of the recent Plot, and Claverhouse took his 
 share in the work. The Scottish Council formed a sub- 
 committee for the purpose, and Claverhouse was placed 
 upon it. On 10th December 1683 papers from London 
 relating to the Scottish prisoners were remitted to it for 
 consideration.^ Evidence remotely implicating Sir John 
 Cochrane — with whose family Claverhouse was shortly to 
 enter into intimate and unexpected relations — was before 
 the sub- committee on 11th December. Two days later 
 (13th December) Sir Alexander Gordon of Earlston was 
 examined, and sentence on him was deferred.^ 
 
 In the opening months of 1684 Claverhouse's movements 
 are still vaguely traced. A letter from the Council to the 
 King on 23rd January asking permission, in certain cases, to 
 dispense the fines imposed upon husbands for the irregu- 
 larities of their nonconforming wives, had his signature.^ 
 In April he was again in the saddle. A recommendation 
 of the Council to Dalziel (22nd April) ^^ that Colonel 
 Graham should command the troops in Ayrshire — includ- 
 ing Lord Ross's troop of his own regiment, five companies 
 of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Buchan's foot regiment, 
 
 1 Quoted in Napier, vol. ii. p. 382. 
 
 - Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 71. 
 
 ^ State Papers, Domestic, Car. II., Bundle 438, fol. 9, 81, 
 
 ■* Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 4. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iv. p. 12. 
 
 K
 
 146 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 and half of llic troop of Horse Guards — impelled Claver- 
 hoiise to call upon his chief. He gave Queensberry an 
 account of his visit : ^ 'I called at the Generalls this 
 fornoon, and he was gon out to diner. Som time after he 
 sent the order of councell to me without any order from 
 himself, and sent me word by his servant that that was 
 all he hade to say. I told his man I would wait on him 
 imediatly after diner, and when I cam to his lodging, his 
 man told me he was layen doun, and that he had not 
 been well for som days. I offered to stay till he was awak, 
 but his man told me I needed not, for he would give me 
 no other orders. I can doe nothing without his orders, 
 for act of councell says the Generall is to comand my 
 Lord Balcares ^ tronp and mine and Cap. Clielands to 
 Clidsdelle; and that he should give orders to Coll, 
 Bouchan and me to comand there. Houever, least the 
 Kings service suffer in the time, I will goe and join my 
 Lord Ross troup, till the half of the Gairds and the other 
 troops com. I hop your Lordship will cause dispatch 
 them. If the Generall will not, the councell may give 
 the orders imediatly to the respective troupes.' 
 
 The renewal of military activity was largely necessary, 
 in Claverhouse's opinion, because of Aberdeen and 
 Dalziel's earlier neglect of the measures he had urged. 
 In November 1683 York had drawn Queensberry 's atten- 
 tion to a new outburst of ' feild conventicles and other 
 meettings of late amongst the disorderly people.'^ He 
 was, he added, of Queensberry's mind, ' that, if every 
 body would bestur themselvs and be as diligent as you, it 
 would not be so easi for them to meett ; but I hope when 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Bepi. xv., pt. viii. p. 286. The letter is undated, 
 but is clearly of April 1684. Napier (vol. ii. p. 370), who misdates many 
 of the Queensberry letters, assigns this one to August 1683. 
 
 - The Earl of Balcarres had been recently commissioned to a troop in 
 Claverhouse's regiment. See Appendix i. 
 
 3 Hitit. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 198.
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 147 
 
 you all [of the Junto] are at Edenburgh, you will do your 
 parts to hinder them.' The reproach rang the knell of 
 Aberdeen. Claverhouse's insistence upon the wisdom of 
 planting garrisons in the disaffected districts stood justi- 
 fied. By 19th May 1684 he had fulfilled his commis- 
 sion, and had returned to Edinburgh to give account of 
 his proceedings. Dalziel's ill-will had pursued him to the 
 last. After much delay he had given Claverhouse his 
 orders, ' but he is in a terible huff,' Claverhouse reported 
 to Queensberry : ^ ' I marched to Air,' he continued, ' with 
 Coll. Bouchan and the fyve compagnies of foot, and the 
 half of the Gairds with my Lord Ross troup. After which 
 I went in to Galloway, and visited the houses apointed for 
 garisons,2 and I fynd them very propre ; so soon as beds 
 and other necessarys ar provyded the troupes will enter 
 into them, which will be imediatly. I was at Dumfries, 
 and gave all necessary orders for those that lay there 
 . . .; after which I went into Clidsdelle, and considered 
 the houses apointed for garisons there. They are propre 
 anough for the use, but by what I can perceive, they will 
 not be provyded on a sudain with necessarys. I am nou 
 com in to give the Comitty acount of this, and to knou 
 if there be any thing further to be don in those contrys 
 for the Kings service. I fynd the want of the garisons 
 in Galloway,^ and the withdrawing the forces from the 
 shyr of Air, has occasioned all the insolency that appeared 
 in those rogues this last winter, and nou that the troops 
 ar so posted I shall answer for the peace and good order 
 of all those contreys, which in a maner is all the fanatik 
 pairt of the kingdom.' Renfrewshire was also within the 
 purview of his commission, and thence, a few weeks later, 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 287. The letter is dated 
 from Edinburgli, 19th May 1684. 
 
 ^ The hoiises were Kaitloch, Ballagan, Kenmure, and Machermore in 
 Minnigaff (Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 12). 
 
 •* He had himself recommended them. See above, p. 142.
 
 148 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 he took his wife from a family tainted with adherence to 
 principles of which he was, in his own phrase, the 
 ' cleanser.' 
 
 Meanwhile Claverhouse, with characteristic tenacity, 
 had been pursuing his quest of Dudhope. Its possession 
 came to him only on the eve of his marriage; for the 
 business proved long and tedious. In May 1G83 the 
 Crown had given its decision in the Mint affair. Lauder- 
 dale was condemned in £20,000. One-fifth of the fine was 
 given to Claverhouse, but should Lauderdale alternatively 
 convey his Dundee lands to the Chancellor, Claverhouse 
 was empowered to purchase Dudhope and the Constable- 
 ship of Dundee from Aberdeen at twenty years' purchase. 
 It would, in fact, have been financially better for Claver- 
 house had he taken the £4000; for his twenty years' 
 purchase of Dudhope brought him no more than four 
 years' interest upon a capital outlay almost equivalent to 
 a year's rental of his whole property.^ But he coveted 
 Dudhope as a residence. It befitted his rising station and 
 the greater honours he anticipated. To the Constable of 
 Dundee it was particularly appropriate. At the outset 
 Aberdeen and his partner in the spoiling of Lauderdale 
 held together amicably. On 20th July 1683 Claverhouse 
 and he jointly signed a procuratory to James Carnegie, a 
 Writer to the Signet, to require Lauderdale and his son, 
 the Lord Justice-Clerk, to surrender the Dundee property .^ 
 Aberdeen, however, made his own terms with Lauderdale. 
 The Chancellor desired cash rather than land. In August 
 1683 he agreed to accept from Lauderdale £8000 doAvn, 
 and security for a further £1600. In return he assigned 
 to him Claverhouse's right to purchase Dudhope. Lauder- 
 
 ^ He paid £6000 Scots for Dudhope. His income at the time of his 
 death is given by David Graham of Duntrune as £7739, 18s. 4d. Scots 
 {Duntrum 3ISS.). 
 
 - Duntrune MSS.
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 149 
 
 dale then approached Claverhouse, and offered him 
 Dudhope and the Constableship on the terms which 
 Aberdeen had been empowered to exact. The transaction 
 was ingenious.^ By a colhisive arrangement Lauderdale 
 was relieved of the alternative payment to Claverhouse of 
 the £4000, to which he was clearly entitled if Lauderdale 
 failed to transfer his Dundee property to the Chancellor. 
 Claverhouse's purchase money, in fact, was to enable 
 Lauderdale to satisfy and compound with Aberdeen. 
 Claverhouse's passive acquiescence can have seemed 
 probable to neither of them. Their hopes rested chiefly 
 upon a vigorous campaign of misrepresentation at Court. 
 Letters to the King and Duke from Lauderdale and his 
 son were sent up, 'so stuft with lyes, and so unjust to 
 Claverhous, so flatering of the Chanslour, that I shall not 
 feall to jnake the truth knoun,' Melfort wrote to Queens- 
 berry on 1st September 1683.^ Melfort used his influence 
 in Claverhouse's interest,^ and York assured him that 
 Lauderdale should have no exoneration until Claverhouse 
 was 'justly and truely payed.'"* Claverhouse had other 
 friends at Court. ' Whyll I am wryting,' he told Queens- 
 berry on 13th September 1683, ' I just nou recaived a 
 
 ^ Fountainhall {Historical Notices, vol. i. p. 440) describes the transac- 
 tion thus: 'In August 1683 the Chancelor and Lauderdale agrees; and 
 so he reaps the fruit of all this pains he had tane in carrieng on a decreet 
 and fyne for his oune use ; he accepts of the halfe, viz. 8000 Ih. sterling, 
 or 100,000 lb. Scots, and 20,000 lb. Scots farder, when they shall be able, 
 and wheiron they gave him Sir William Sharp, Cockburne, &c. , cau- 
 tioners ; and having gotten ane assignation to the Chancelor's right, they 
 offered to Claverhouse (who resented the Chancelor's transacting for 
 liimselfe, and deserting him and entring in freiudship with Halton) the 
 house, yeards, and old park of Dudhop, with the constabulary of Dundy 
 for 20 years purchasse, as he was to have payed to the Chancelor, in 
 whosse place they ware come ; and they being debitors aHernative in 
 4000 lb. sterling, or that offer, they elected this last ; which he declined 
 to accept : — So the freindship betuen the Chancelor and Claveris, 
 bottomed on interest, lieir falls asunder. 
 
 2 Hist. AfSS. Comm. Bucdeuch and Queensherry 3ISS., vol. ii. p. 127. 
 
 2 See his letter of 3rd September 1683 in ibid., p. 129. 
 
 ■» Ibid., p. 131. The letter is dated 5th September 1683.
 
 150 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 letter from my Lord Advocat telling me my business is 
 don, and on from my Lord Midleton, giving me acount of 
 his diligence, that the Denk had promised no remission 
 should pass till I was satisfyed. Colin [Mackenzie] wryts 
 that ane explanatory letter is to com doun that will leave 
 no ground of debeat.' ^ 
 
 In spite of encoiu-aging reports from Court, Claver- 
 house pressed for permission to come up to London, the 
 more so as Maitland was already there. But by 12th 
 October 1683 Claverhouse had heard definitely that the 
 Duke had ' no mynd I should com up ; but gives all 
 asseurances that he will have the thing performed with 
 out fraud or trik.' He added : ' Great pakets in great 
 heast com from my Lord Maitland to my Lord Chan- 
 celor,' ^ With Aberdeen's influence already somewhat at 
 a discount, his collusive transaction with Lauderdale 
 furnished his adversaries with another cry in their eager 
 pursuit of him. Melfort writes to Queensberry on 20th 
 October 1683 : ' It is lyke the Chanslour is the occatione 
 of Claverhous his not comeing up. But I am of opinione 
 it is the uors for him, for if all had come out nou, and 
 nothing had folloued on it, I am affrayed all might be 
 forgott. But it being still refreshed by other complaints, 
 uill make all go better, for ther are too many things to 
 gain all ue desire at this bout. And Claverhous uill lose 
 nothing by it, for Maitland shal get nothing done. Upon 
 the contrary, I am of opinione the Duke will command 
 him to giv obedience to the King's desire in that mater.' ^ 
 Maitland, in fact, was sent back to Scotland, and Claver- 
 
 1 Hid. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 284:. Claverhouse had asked 
 for permission to come up to London (ibid., p. 282). - Ibid., p. 285. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Bucdeiich and Queen-iberry MSS., vol. ii. p. 156. 
 Melfort wrote to Queensberry a week earlier (13th October 1683) : ' I am 
 of your opinione anent Claverhous coming up, and shal againe endeavour 
 it. But I am affrayed the Duke uill not desire to kno mor then he does 
 in that mater, for he is mor then convinced of the truthe.'
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 151 
 
 house had renewed assurances, he told (i^ueensberry, that 
 ' the Deuk will not see me wronged.' ^ 
 
 With considerable support behind him Claverhouse 
 prepared to make his case against Lauderdale good at 
 law.- Moray, at the King's command, recommended 
 arbitration.^ The proposal was without result. On 24th 
 January 1684 Claverhouse's case was opened before the 
 Lords of Session.'* In spite of Lauderdale's attempt to 
 delay or quash the hearing, the case was continued on 31st 
 January. Lauderdale now offered Dudhope and the Con- 
 stable's office on the original terms — twenty years' 
 purchase. Claverhouse objected. It had been expressly 
 ' commoved,' he declared, between himself and Aberdeen, 
 that he should obtain the estate for nothing. It is 
 eminently probable that some such bait had been offered 
 by Aberdeen to gain Claverhouse's concurrence in his 
 private arrangement with Lauderdale. Since Aberdeen 
 had abandoned his claim upon the Dundee property, it 
 was immaterial to him Avhether it remained intact to 
 Lauderdale, or was shorn of Dudhope to satisfy Claver- 
 house. Aberdeen, however, denied the statement from 
 the Bench. Claverhouse asseverated the fact with such 
 heat as to draw a reproof from one of the Judges. He 
 still protested, that while the King's award of the Mint 
 fine had made Aberdeen and himself joint-donators, 
 Aberdeen had compounded with Lauderdale for a cash 
 consideration. To force him to purchase his share of the 
 donative was, therefore, to render it ' no donative at all,' 
 since he was required to pay for it ' the full worth and 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Gomm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 286. The letter is dated 
 from Edinburgh, 80th October 1683. 
 
 - A document endorsed ' Information for the Laird of Claverhouse 
 against the Earl of Lauderdale and Sir Richard Maitland his son,' dated 
 26th November 1C83, is among the Duntrune MSS. 
 
 ^ Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. viii. fol. 217. The letter is dated 8th 
 December 1683. See Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 471. 
 
 '^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 486.
 
 152 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 more.' ^ He failed, however, to carry the Court with hiin. 
 On the following day (1st February) the Lords of Session 
 fixed twenty 3^ears' rental of Dudhope as the purchase 
 price, and ordered a valuation of the property for the pur- 
 pose of computing it. Lauderdale was instructed mean- 
 while to prepare a deed of conveyance of the property to 
 Claverhouse." After an interval of three weeks the Court 
 (28th February 1684) fixed £6000 Scots as the purchase 
 price, and ordered conveyance of the property to Claver- 
 house before the following 20th March.^ Lauderdale failed 
 to obey. On 29th March 1684 a royal letter was before the 
 Council peremptorily ordering him to ' perfyt his disposi- 
 tion to Claverhouse ' within eight days thereafter, under 
 threat of withdrawing the remission of the original and 
 larger fine imposed on him for his Treasury defalcations.^ 
 Lauderdale thereupon gave tardy obedience. On 23rd 
 April 1684 ' the King's familiar Councillor, Colonel John 
 Grahame of Claverhouse, his heirs and assignees whomso- 
 ever,' received a Crown charter of Dudhope Castle, the 
 lands of Gastlehill, the office of Constable of Dundee, and 
 the absolute right to be first magistrate and officer under 
 the King in the town of Dundee and all its territories in 
 all time coming. Severed from the residue of the old 
 
 1 Fouiitainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 490. Since, under the 
 terms of the King's award of Lauderdale's fine, Claverhouse was granted 
 an alternative right to acquire Dudhope, etc. , on twenty years' purchase, 
 it is clear that Claverhouse's challenge to that arrangement was due to 
 the transaction between Aberdeen and Lauderdale in the interval. I 
 have interpreted his protest, as recorded by Fountaiuhall, in that sense. 
 
 2 Ihicl., vol. ii. p. 490. 
 
 ^ Ibid, , vol, ii. p. 503. Maitland and his wife were given until the same 
 date to concur in Lauderdale's conveyance of the property. If they 
 failed to do so, the Court ordered 'the decreet to be extracted.' On 6th 
 February 1683 the Court had found ' Maitland's subscriving the disposi- 
 tion, and his Lady's renuncing, sufficient to secure Claveris against hir 
 life-rent' (ibid., vol. ii. p. 401). Maitland, in January 1684, was found to 
 have been 'trafficking' with Argyll. See Foiintainhall, Chronological 
 Notes, p. 73. 
 
 ■* Fountaiuhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 523.
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR 153 
 
 Scrymgeour property, the subjects conveyed to Claver- 
 house were erected into the barony of New Dundee.^ His 
 later title was already suggested. The town from which 
 he took it hastened to make formal protest against the 
 powers of its new Constable, who a quarter of a century 
 before had been admitted a burgess and guild-brother.^ 
 
 ^ Berj. Mag. Sig. (MS.), Ixix. 155. The ward and relief were taxed at 
 £20, and the marriage at £40. Though the convej'ance of Dudhope to 
 Claverhouse was contingent upon his payment of the purchase price, 
 there is among the Duntmne MSS. a receipt, dated 2nd August 1687, hy 
 John Maitland, factor to the Earl of Lauderdale, acknowledging 40(iO 
 merks paid to him by Major-General Graham of Claverhouse. 
 
 - On 14th May 1684 the Council of Dundee lodged a protest against 
 the powers of the Constableship vested in Claverhouse, ' particularlie of 
 cognoscering upon & decyding ryots, bloods, batteries, pettie thifts, and 
 other lesser crymes comitted within y*^ bounds & jurisdictione of ye Sd 
 towne' (Charters, Writs, and Public. Documents of the Royal Burgh of 
 Dundee, p. 103). The editor remarks (p. 105) that this protest is but one 
 of a series against the pretensions of the Constables,
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 ' The Advocate's brother told one of the pleasantest stories 
 imaginable this day,' Moray writes to Queensberry on 5th 
 September 1683/ ' that the Chanslonr had sent to the 
 Earl Dundonald to tell him that the match he intended 
 with Claverhoiis was no ways able to secure him, but if 
 he uold lett Gordonston^ hav his grandchild, he uold 
 secure him, at which the mother and daughter uer so 
 allarmed, they immediately run out of the toun.' Claver- 
 house's earlier romance, if romance it was, was nearly 
 two years in its grave. At the outset of it, at least, 
 interest rather than affection had guided him, though in 
 the climax of the wooing he had vowed his readiness to 
 take Helen Graham ' in her smock.' No taint of interest 
 rests upon his second courtship. There is, rather, a touch 
 of sporting recklessness in it. For on the Dundonalds 
 there pressed a double cloud of suspicion. The Earl, the 
 first of his title, had served the Stewarts loyally. An 
 earldom in 1669 had been his reward. But his two sons 
 compromised him woefully. His heir, William, Lord 
 Cochrane, had married a daughter of the sixth Earl of 
 Cassillis, a resolute Covenanter during the ' Troubles ' and 
 to his death. Lady Cochrane found or formed a home 
 
 1 Hist. MSS, Comm. Bucdeuch and Quttnahtrry MSS., vol. ii. p. 131. 
 
 ^ Sir Ludovick Gordon of Gordonstown. As he was sixty years old and 
 had already been twice married, Jean Cochrane's preference for Claver- 
 house is intelligible. See The House of Gordon, ed. J. Malcolm Bulloch, 
 New Spalding Clnb, vol. i. p. 525. 
 151
 
 MARRIAGE 155 
 
 entirely to her mind. Her husband died in 1679, the 
 year of Driimclog and Bothwell Bridge. He passed from 
 the world amid the prayers of his chaplain for the success 
 of the rebels, so it Avas said. Yet his daughter Jean 
 married Claverhouse ! The younger son of Dundonald, 
 Sir John Cochrane of Ochilltree, had brought the family 
 into deeper discredit. Implicated in the Rye House Plot, 
 he had fled to Holland. Claverhouse was officially sifting 
 the evidence against him on the eve of marriage to his 
 niece ! The father of two such sons could hardly escape 
 suspicion. The very year that brought Claverhouse in- 
 congruously into his family, brought also a formal indict- 
 ment of Dundonald for his elder son's Whiggism.^ For the 
 hawk to mate with its quarry is not more bewildering 
 than that Claverhouse should take a wife from the Whig- 
 tainted Cochranes of Paisley. The consequences he knew, 
 and, beino" Claverhouse, dared. 
 
 The first hint of it breaks feverishly into his corre- 
 spondence just after Dudhope had come to him. ' I must 
 say,' he writes to Queensberry on 19th May 1684,^ ' that 
 the neu alleya[ncej that I am lyk to mak is not unusfull 
 to me in the shyr of Air and Ranfrou. They^ have the 
 guyding of those shyrs and they doe strenthen my hands 
 in the Kings service.' ' I have wryten to his Royal 
 Highness anent that match,' he continues, ' hearing that 
 Deuk Hamilton had scrupulled to allaya with that family 
 without the King and Deuks lieve.* I feared that this 
 might have been advysed by som persons^ to load me 
 
 1 See Diet. Nat. Bioy. , vol. xi. pp. 162, 175. 
 
 - Hid. MSS. f'omm. Eept. xv., pt. viii. p. 287. The letter is dated 
 from Edinburgh. ^ i.e. the Cochranes. 
 
 ^ Hamilton writes to Queensbei-ry on 3rd November 1684: 'My 
 daughter Susann is to be marled on my Lord Cochran the 13 instant, 
 at which wee shall drinke your health ' (//^.s^ ]\ISS. Comm. Rejd. xv. , 
 pt. viii. p. 261). The Lord Cochrane refei^red to was John, second Earl 
 of Dundonald, brother of the Hon. Jean Cochrane, Claverhouse's wife. 
 
 ■'' Claverhouse alludes, no doubt, to Aberdeen.
 
 156 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 that had not been so circumspect.' What follows is 
 vivid in its aiito-portraitiire, suggestive, too, in its picture 
 of the high-mettled girl who had her way in spite of her 
 family's outcry of horror. ' For my owen pairt,' Claver- 
 houso continues, ' I look on myself as a cleanger. I may 
 cur people guilty of that plaigue of presbitry be con- 
 versing with them, but can not be infected, and I see 
 very litle of that amongst those persons but may be easily 
 rubed of And for the yong ladie herself, I shall answer 
 for her. Had she been right principled ^ she would never, 
 in despyt of her mother and relations, made choyse of a 
 persicutor, as they call me. So who ever thinks to mis- 
 represent me on that head will fynd them selfs mistaken ; 
 for both in the King and churches interest, dryve as 
 fast as they think fit, they will never see me behynd.' 
 Another letter to Queensberry on the same date ^ marks 
 Claverhouse's anxiety regarding Dundonald, who was 
 threatened on his account. ' I sawe nothing singular in 
 my lord Dundonalds caice,' he declared, 'saive that he 
 has but on rebel on his land for ten that the rest of the 
 lords and lairds of the south and west have on theirs; 
 and that he is willing to depon he kneu not of their 
 being such. The Deuk [of York] is juster then to charge 
 my Lord Dindonald with Sir Johns ^ crymes. He is a 
 mad man and lait him parish. They deserve to be 
 damned would owen him. The Deuk knous what it is 
 to have sons and nepheus that follou not advice. I have 
 taken peins to knou the state of the contreys'^ guilt as 
 to recett, and if I make it not apear that my Lord 
 
 ^ i.e. if she had been as Whiggish as her family. 
 
 - Hist. MSS. Gomm. Rejjf. xv., pt. viii. p. 2S8. This letter, dated from 
 Edinburgh, 10th May 1684, is not signed. As certain phrases are common 
 to both, tliis may have been the draft of the one already qnotccl. But as 
 both reached Queensberry, it is probable that Claverhouse despatched 
 them to him at different addresses. 
 
 ^ Sir John Cochrane. ■* Renfrew.
 
 MARRIAGE 157 
 
 Dindonald is on of the clearest of all that coutrey, and 
 can hardly be reached in lawe, I am content to pay his 
 fyne. I never pleaded for any,^ nor shall I here after : 
 but I must say I think it hard that no regaird is had 
 to a man in so favorable circumstances — I mean con- 
 sidering others, upon my acount, and that nobody offered 
 to medle with him till they beared I was lyk to be con- 
 cerned in him. They have Haiged ^ him ; so that he has 
 not given me so much as he would have given to any 
 body that could have don him no service.^ And since 
 faveur might have been shouen him without prejudging 
 the Kings service, considering his aidge and the imploy- 
 ments he has had, it was not friendly to fall upon him to 
 my prejudice; but mor shall goe with him, or manifest 
 partiality shall apear.' ' After all,' he continued, ' I am 
 very indifferent whether my Lord Dindonald be fyned or 
 not; it will concern my Lord Cochran, not me. I will 
 gate no mor nor I have got, unless it should be signifyed 
 from above that he has got faveur on my acount, 
 which I would not dispair of if I wer at London, and 
 my friends, if they lyked, might doe, which would put 
 D[uke] H[amilton] made ; for he thinks to doe all for 
 them or not maidle with them. I will make ane other 
 use of those people then is expected. They offer me all 
 asistance in those shyres.' He concluded : ' What ever 
 com of this, lait not my enimys misrepresent me ; they 
 may abuse the Deuk for a time, and hardly ; but or long 
 I will in dispyt of them lait the world see that it is not 
 in the pouer of love, nor any other folly, to alter my 
 
 1 He means that he never used his influence to secure mitigation of a 
 sentence. 
 
 ^ i.e. frightened. 
 
 '^ Claverhouse means that Dundonald had been less generous in the 
 mari'iage settlements than he otherwise would have been. There can be 
 little doubt that Claverhouse's influence alone can have recommended 
 the match to Dundonald's familj'.
 
 158 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 loyalty.'^ It is his life in epitome. He wrote again 
 ten days later — Queensberry was at Court : Aberdeen's 
 fall imminent — ' I flatter myself Avith the hopes that you 
 will doe me such good offices with his R.H. as you 
 have often don heretofor to so good purpos ; so that I 
 will not need to fear any misrepresentations can be made 
 against me.' ^ 
 
 On 9th June 1684 a family gathering at Paisley wit- 
 nessed the contract matrimonial between Claverhouse and 
 the Honourable Jean Cochrane. Bride and bridegroom 
 appended their signature — the bridegroom with a delibera- 
 tion apparent in the carefully formed letters ; the bride 
 with a clearness and decision which matched his own. 
 Her grandfather and grandmother added theirs — the old 
 Earl's very tottering and shaky. So also did her cousin, 
 Lord Ross.^ Her brother, young Lord Cochrane, destined 
 for Hamilton's ' Susann,' gave his consent. Her mother's 
 signature is significantly absent. The bridegroom had 
 the support of a single friend, Colin Mackenzie, so often 
 mentioned in his letters to Queensberry.^ Pruned of legal 
 iteration the contract settled in jointure upon the new 
 Lady of Claverhouse an annuity of five thousand merks 
 Scots,^ secured upon an elaborate and imposing enumera- 
 tion of Claverhouse's properties, and the liferent of Glen- 
 ogilvie. She, on her part, brought her husband a dowry 
 
 ^ Claverhouse adds in a postscript : ' I spok to Dindonald about giving 
 sumthing and gating his grand chylds forfitur and sons echeat ; but he 
 will not maidle with them, and will stand his own tryall.' 
 
 - Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 289. The letter is dated 
 from Edinburgh, 29th May 1684. 
 
 * Grizel, the only daughter of the first Earl of Dundonald, married 
 George, Lord Ross, Claverhouse's colleague at Glasgow in 1679. She had 
 died in 1665. Lord Ross died in 1682. His son and successor, who 
 signs the contract above, was William, Lord Ross, who had a troop in 
 Claverhouse's regiment. 
 
 ■* See the facsimile of the signatures in Napier, vol. ii. p. 392. In the 
 contract Colin Mackenzie is described as ' advocatt, one of the Commissars 
 of Edinburgh.' 
 
 ■' Napier values this at £276, 15s. 6d. sterling.
 
 JEA2T VISCOUNTESS OP DUNDEE. 
 
 PROM THE PIOTUSE AT METHVBN CASTLE.
 
 MARRIAGE 159 
 
 of forty thousand merks Scotx} Should she survive her 
 husband, ' without children of the said marriadge then 
 one lyfe,' Glenogilvie was assigned for her residence, ' or 
 to live at any place else where she pleases.' The devolu- 
 tion of his estates Claverhouse devised upon his heirs 
 male by this or a subsequent marriage, and in default, 
 to his eldest heir female by Jean Cochrane, ' she alwayes 
 marieng ane gentleman of the name of Grahame, att liest 
 who and ther airs shall be hold en and obliest to assume 
 the said name, and shall weer and bear the amies of the 
 family of Claverhouse,' In the event of male issue by a 
 subsequent marriage, his excluded female issue by Jean 
 Cochrane were provided for — £20,000 Scots if there were 
 but one daughter ; twenty thousand merks each if there 
 were two ; twenty thousand merks to the eldest of three, 
 or more, and thirty thousand merks in equal division to 
 the others.^ 
 
 What manner of woman was she, the last Lady of 
 Claverhouse ? A fair, open face, her head poised proudly 
 on a slender neck, looks at one from her portrait. In 
 that strange inquest of her body, one hundred years after 
 her death, her hair was still ' beautiful auburn,' her com- 
 plexion ' fine.' 3 
 
 ' It seems the Gods design'd her outward form 
 Their masterpiece and standart uniforme,' 
 
 wrote an anonymous epitaphist. Dundee is made to 
 address her in another elegy : 
 
 ' Your body wes refyned the master-piece 
 Of hyer powers for each attractive grace, 
 And you wer cloathed with such excellencie, 
 And therein did the rest of souls outvie, 
 As if you differed from the specie.'* 
 
 1 Napier values this at £2214, 4s. Od. sterling. 
 
 ^ See the contract in Smythe, Letters of John Grahame of Clactrhou&e, 
 p. 88. 
 
 2 The Edinburgh Cotirant of 27tli July 1795, quoted in Napier, vol. iii. 
 p. 674. 
 
 ^ Both are printed in Maidmeut, AnaJtcta Scoticn, first series, pp. 57, 59.
 
 160 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Her character, in lack of other evidence, is best dis- 
 cerned in the fact that she was Claverhouse's wife. One 
 cannot picture hini mated to a nursery Miss. Spirit 
 she had : her marriage in her mother's despite proclaims 
 it. Short though her life with him was, prejudiced as 
 was her upbringing, her husband's cause and principles 
 she made her own.^ ' Let me know what is become of 
 my Ladie Dundie,' writes Alexander Robertson of Struan 
 to his mother from Paris, 9th April 1690. ' If she be in 
 Edinburgh goe see her, and tell her that the K[ing] and 
 Q[ueen] almost adore iier.' - Identified with his glory, 
 she shared the calumny which assailed him.^ She sur- 
 vived him less than seven years, and her end, like his, was 
 sudden and tragic* 
 
 ^ She raised money for him during his Highland campaign (see his 
 letter of 27th June 1689 in Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 360). 
 According to Creichton (Works of Swi/t, vol. x. p. 179) it was at her 
 summons that her husband made his raid on Dundee on I3th May 1689, 
 she having assured him that the dragoons there (now the Scots Greys) 
 were ready to join him. See also Napier, vol. iii. p. 556. 
 
 ■^ Quoted in Napier, vol. iii. p. 673. 
 
 ^ I have already (see above, p. 3) alluded to the absurd story of the 
 curse which the mother of Claverhouse is said to have pronounced upon 
 his wife's second marriage with William Livingstone, third Viscount 
 Kilsyth. The equally absurd story of her second husband having killed 
 Dundee at Killiecrankie in guilty collusion with the Viscountess is 
 sufficiently exposed by Napier, vol. iii. p. 683. 
 
 ^ She and her child bj' Kilsyth were accidental!}^ killed in an inn at 
 Utrecht on 16th October 1695. The following letter written from Utrecht 
 on the next day describes the tragedy : ' On Tusday night, being the 15 
 of this instant, Kilseith, with m3'Lady Dundee and familie, arived here in 
 perfect good health, about six of the cloacke, and went to lodge at the 
 Casle of Antwerp till they should be better accommodated. Thej^ dined 
 both at the publick table yesterday, where my lady was exti-aordiary 
 good company. Five or sex more of our country men d3med likewise 
 with them. They went above stiears to the chamber about two a cloacke, 
 for my lady was to receave some visits from some of our country men. I 
 parted with my lady about the quarter of ane hour after two, to goe to 
 my chambre, to lay by the books which I had att my coUedges in the 
 forenoon ; and before I gott the lenth of my chambre, there came on 
 runing to me with the sad news that the chamber wherin they where 
 had fallen vpon them, and that it was thought that they were all killed ; 
 and, affter I came there, I found to my sad regraite, it was so. Kilseith
 
 MARRIAGE 161 
 
 Tuesday, 10th June 1684, was Claverhoiise's wedding- 
 day.^ It bore ominous presage of the whole course of 
 his broken married life. He had ridden down to Paisley 
 from Edinburgh through a peaceful country on the pre- 
 vious Saturday, leaving word at Glasgow as he passed 
 that he would be found at Paisley in case of need.^ He 
 little expected a summons to duty. Trouble, however, 
 was brewing. On Sunday the 8th, Dalziel at Glasgow 
 had nows of a formidable conventicle at Black Loch, near 
 Slamannan. On the 9th, while Claverhouse was signing 
 
 was, by great providence, gotten out, but his legs were a litle squised, 
 and all his cloaths torn. Mr Walkenshaw of Barrowfield, who had been 
 paying my lady his respects, was gotten out about three quarters of ane 
 hour thereafter. He was sore bruised, but nothing of him broke, he will 
 certainly be well enouth within two or three dayes. But the poor Lady 
 Dundee with her sone, and chamber maid, were kiled with the fall. It 
 wes ane houre thereafter before the ladyes body could be gott out, but 
 it could easily be knowne, by seeing her corps, that she had been killed 
 with the fall of the jists. The house itself is nott fallen, only the people 
 to whom the house belonged had bin all that day carreing up their trufs 
 [turfs] to the chamber immediately above thers, and after they had carried 
 up the last sackfull of 3 00 tuns, the weight of that great quantity of 
 turff broke doune the loft aboue them. The thing was so suden that, if 
 the chamber had bein full, there could have bein no more saved. The 
 thing that saved Barrowfield was a table Avhich he stood by ; and tlie 
 thing [that] saved Kilseith was that the weight lighted on his back, and 
 threw him close to the dore, where he was almost kiled whene they were 
 breaking up the dore, for he had neither place to go back nor forward. 
 Kilseith is the most aflickted man that ever was ; and no wonder, after 
 [the deaths] of so line a lady, child, and good servant, so sudinly, and by 
 such a niauer' {Hid. MSS. Comm. Ilept. xii. , pt. viii. p. 49). Another 
 contemporary account of the tragedy is in Napier, vol. iii. p. 736. The 
 bodies of Lady Dundee and her infant son by Kilsj^h were embalmed 
 and sent to Scotland for interment. They were buried at Kilsyth on 5th 
 March 1696 {Account Book of Sir John Foulis of Ravelston, Scot. Hist. 
 Soc, p. 190). The lead coffin in which they were buried in the Kilsyth 
 vault was opened on 15th May 1795, and the bodies were discovered to 
 be in a state of perfect preservation. See Napier, vol. iii. pp. 674 et seq. 
 
 1 There is no record of the marriage in the Register of the Abbey 
 Parish, Paisley. The only evidence for the date of the marriage is 
 Claverhouse's complaint, in a letter to the Lord President, ' They might 
 have let Tuesday pass,' meaning that on his wedding-day above others his 
 enemies might have left him in peace. 
 
 " Sec his letter to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, dated from Paisley, 
 16th June 1684, in Napier, vol. ii. p. 401. 
 
 L
 
 162 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 his marriago contract at Paisley, the General had further 
 details from a party ho had sent to reconnoitre. The 
 conventicle numbered about one hundred, ' most men, and 
 all of them armed with guns and swords.' That night 
 the fugitives, the troops in hot pursuit of them, crossed 
 the Clyde near Hamilton, and scattering, left their pur- 
 suers at a chcck.^ The further tracking of them fell to 
 the troops in Renfrew and Ayrshire. Dalziel, gruff and 
 not over-kind towards Claverhouse, spared him a summons 
 on such a day. But Ross, who held a troop in Claver- 
 house's regiment and was with his colonel at Paisley, 
 received an account of the disquieting event from Glasgow.^ 
 Claverhouse had the first news of it on his wedding morn- 
 ing. He took prompt measures. Buchan, with Ross's troop, 
 a half-troop of the Horse Guards, and thirty fusiliers, was 
 ordered up from Dalmellington to Newmilns to await him. 
 Captain Inglis's dragoons also had an instant summons.^ 
 
 ' There 's ancient men at weddings been 
 For sixty years or more ; 
 But sic a curious wedding-day 
 They never saw before.' 
 
 Amid the bustle of preparation for the service so unkindly 
 thrust upon him, Claverhouse and Jean Cochrane were 
 made man and wife. Before nightfall he was galloping 
 southward to the rendezvous at Newmilns. All night 
 
 1 See Dalziel's letter of 9th June 1684 and enclosures in Napier, vol. ii. 
 p. 395. 
 
 ^ Napier (vol. ii. p. 401) is inclined to cavil at Dalziel for having com- 
 municated with Ross without informing Ross's superior officer of the 
 circumstances. It is charitable to conclude that Dalziel's motives were 
 as I have stated them. 
 
 ^ See Claverhouse's letter to the Archbishop, dated from Paisley, 16th 
 June 1684, in Napier, vol. ii. p. 401. The letter is one of three which 
 Napier extracted from the Queensberry manuscripts, but which are not 
 calendared, so far, in the Reports of the Historical Manuscripts' Com- 
 mission. The other two letters are, one to Sir David Falconer, the Lord 
 President, dated from Paisley, 13th Juue 1684, the other to Dalziel, dated 
 from Kilbride, loth June 1684.
 
 MARRIAGE 163 
 
 and next day (lltli June) the hills and moors between 
 Clydesdale and Ayr were searched and drawn blank. 
 The wearisome hunt ended at Strathaven. Concluding 
 that the conventicle had passed some other way, or had 
 scattered, Claverhouse ordered Buclian to conduct the 
 troops back to their quarters in the south, keeping a close 
 eye upon the hills and moors on the Clydesdale side 
 as he marched.^ On the 12th Claverhouse returned to 
 Paisley.2 
 
 Provoking ill-fortune had not yet spent itself. Buchan, 
 on 12th June, fulfilling his orders, came upon the elusive 
 quarry ' in the heart of the hills on the Clydesdale side,' 
 heading for Galloway. Shots were fired, and one of the 
 soldiers was wounded. But before Buchan could bring 
 up his horse the Whigs had drawn off". He hurried on to 
 close Galloway to their entrance, and sent a despatch to 
 Claverhouse at Paisley.^ It reached him on the morning 
 of Friday the 13th. By noon he was again in the saddle 
 and galloping southward.^ Through Kilmarnock and 
 Mauchline he hurried to join Buchan at Cumnock. He 
 was there ere nightfall, and had the news that the fugi- 
 tives, much reduced in number, had passed near Airds- 
 moss, ' barefooted many of them, and taking horses in 
 some places to help them forward.' On the morrow 
 (14th June) he searched every nook and cranny for a trace 
 of them. Four parallel columns swept every square mile 
 of likely cover. ' We were at the head of Douglas,' writes 
 Claverhouse. ' We were round and over Cairntable. We 
 were at Greenock-head, Cummer-head, and through all 
 the moors, mosses, hills, glens, woods; and spread in 
 small parties, and ranged as if we had been at hunting, 
 
 1 See his letter of 16tli Juue 1684, in Napier, vol. ii. p. 401. 
 
 2 He writes from Paisley on 13th June. See his letter in Napier, vol. 
 ii. p. 397. ^ Napier, vol. ii. p. 402. 
 
 * Claverhouse to Dalziel, 15th June 1684, in Napier, vol, ii. p. 400.
 
 164 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 and down to Blackwood, but could learn nothing of those 
 rogues.' 1 He ended the beat at Kilbride, and sent Dalziel 
 an account of his ill-success. Captain Strachan had 
 marched from Dalmellington northward, between Mauch- 
 line and Newmilns, he reported, scouring all the suspected 
 places as he came along. Bruce of Earlshall had patrolled 
 by Sanquhar, Muirkirk, and on to Strathaven. Buchan 
 had marched round Cairn Table, and Claverhouse himself, 
 with Lord Ross, had come ' through the hills more 
 easterly, leaving Douglas and Lesmahago a mile or two 
 on our right.' ' We traced them/ he concluded, ' from 
 the Boghead near Airdmoss to the Hakhill, wdthin two 
 miles of Cumnock town, and from that to Gap, towards 
 Cairntable, but could never hear more of them. They 
 are separated, as most believe, and gone towards the hills 
 of Moffat. I am sure there is not one man of them 
 within these bounds.' ^ Next day he returned to Paisley 
 and the interrupted honeymoon. 
 
 A month of inactivity followed the bustle and disturb- 
 ance of his wedding-w^eek. Claverhouse had leisure to 
 take his wife to her new home, Dudhope, whence he writes 
 for the first time in August. July 1684, however, brought 
 a recurrence of June's disturbance, and called Claver- 
 house again to service. Early in the month a party of 
 Claverhouse's troop at Dumfries was despatched to Edin- 
 burgh with sixteen prisoners, whose apprehension was 
 probably connected with the recent hunt for the Black 
 Loch conventicle. As the party threaded the narrow 
 Pass of Enterkin, between Thornhill and Sanquhar, heed- 
 less of the Inchbelly incident, it encountered the familiar 
 ambuscade. One of the troops was killed ; the majority 
 of the prisoners escaped ; two only of them were brought 
 
 ^ Claverhouse to the Archbishop, 16th June 1684, in Napier, vol. ii. p. 
 402. 
 
 - Claverhouse to Dalziel, 15th June 1684, in Napier, vol. ii. p. 400.
 
 MARRIAGE 165 
 
 in to Edinburgh.^ On 10th July 1684 Queensberry had 
 returned to Edinburgh.^ His ascendency in the Scottish 
 Council was at length assured, and Claverhouse, whose 
 decisive break with him was still to come, no longer 
 found himself hampered by Aberdeen and Dalziel's 
 niggard support. On 14th July he was required to make 
 inquiry into the ambuscade, and the possible connivance 
 of the locality.^ On the following day (15th July) he was 
 appointed a member of the Committee of Council on 
 Public Affairs. Two other officers of his regiment — 
 Drumlanrig and Balcarres — were also appointed upon it. 
 The Committee was specially charged to direct ' the 
 execution of the laws against fanatical and disorderly 
 persons.' * 
 
 The influence of Claverhouse's committee may perhaps 
 be detected in a proclamation which the Council made 
 public on 22nd July. It appealed to the recent Black 
 Loch and Enterkin incidents to justify a rigorous prosecu- 
 tion of the law against those whom the circuit Court of 
 Justiciary twelve months before had failed to bring to 
 compliance with it.^ Upon 1st August 1684 the joint 
 command of Claverhouse and Buchan in Ayrshire and 
 Clydesdale was continued, with power to each of them to 
 call for and examine on oath all persons able to give 
 information regarding frequenters of conventicles and 
 
 1 Fountainhall, Chronological Notes, p. 96. A spirited but unreliable 
 account of the incident is in Defoe, ALemoirs of the Chxtrch of Scotland, 
 p. 189. Wodrow (vol. iv. p. 173) gives the number of the prisoners as 
 nine, and of the escort as twenty-eight, of whom one was killed and 
 several were wounded. Only one of their prisoners, he states, was 
 ultimately brought to Edinburgh. 
 
 " Fountainhall, Chronological Notes, p. 9.3. Aberdeen was replaced by 
 Perth in the Chancellorship under a new commission which reached 
 Edinburgh on 15th July 168-4 (Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 29). 
 
 2 Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 29. ■* Ibid., vol. iv. p. 31. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iv. p. 31. A proclamation of those who had been declared 
 fugitive by the 1683 Circuit is printed by Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 13. It 
 numbers upwards of eighteen hundred names. It is dated 5th May 1684.
 
 166 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 their resetters, and to appoint substitutes for the 
 purpose.^ 
 
 Once more Claverhouse scoured the familiar ground. 
 On 5th August 1684 he wrote to Queensberry from 
 Strathaven.2 He had already been through the Drum- 
 clog moorlands,^ and ' from this,' he continued, ' I am 
 going throu Ranfrou and through the laigh pairts of the 
 shyr of Air up to Drumelington ... I have writen to the 
 garisons of Galloway to drawe out and march al along on 
 the right, and I with the troups I have here will march 
 on their left on this seid the hilles.' He already had 
 searched the moors for fugitives, ' a purpose to chease 
 them from this to the hilles, and make them think them- 
 selfs secur there, but they have such intelligence that 
 there is no surprising them. When we cam here, they 
 told they beared of my coming; and last night I was 
 asking if there wer any troupes at Neumilles as I came 
 from Machline, and tho it was undernight and no body 
 but my owen servants, they told me my lord Ross troup 
 was there and that I was expected. I fear we doe nothing, 
 for so soon as I com I fynd they acquaint all the contrey 
 expecting a search.' He promised to report his proceed- 
 ings to Queensberry at Edinburgh a week later."* On 25th 
 August 1684 he wrote from Dudhope :^ ' Tho I stay a feu 
 days here, I hop no body will reproach me of eating the 
 bread of ydleness, seing no body has and will goe mor 
 cheerfully about any thing that concerns the Kings or 
 your Lordships service.' A humane representation in 
 behalf of prisoners for petty theft in the Tolbooth of 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 33. 
 
 2 Hist. MSS. Comm. Bept. xv., pt. viii. p. 289. 
 
 8 His route to Strathaven he gives as vid Douglaa, Ochilltree, Mauch- 
 line, and Newmilns. 
 
 * Wodrow (vol. iv. pp. 172, 174, 175) gives brief notes upon Claver- 
 house's proceedings at this time. 
 
 '" Hist. MSS. Comm. Bept. xv., pt. viii. p. 290.
 
 MARRIAGE 167 
 
 Dundee, whom the law condemned to death, is the earliest 
 record of his residence at Dudhope as Constable of 
 Dundee.^ Nor as an indication of character does it stand 
 alone in disproof of the reality of the travestied Claver- 
 house whom Covenanting tradition has set up in its 
 Chamber of Horrors. 
 
 Claverhoiise was not suffered long to eat the bread of 
 idleness. The Black Loch conventicle had impressed the 
 Government with the sense of danger not yet surmounted. 
 It was resolved to repeat the itinerant Court of Justiciary 
 of 1683. On 6th September 1684 Claverhouse and Queens- 
 berry's son, Drumlanrig, were appointed to act for the shires 
 of Dumfries, Wigton, and the ste war tries of Annandale and 
 Kirkcudbright. They were empowered ' to hold courts, and 
 in these courts to call and convene all persons guilty of 
 conventicles, withdrawing from public ordinances, dis- 
 orderly baptisms and marriages, and such like disorders 
 and irregularities.' Queensberry was also joined with 
 them.^ Their escort was furnished by Claverhouse and 
 Drumlanrig's troops and Captain Strachan's dragoons.^ 
 The Court opened at Dumfries^ on 2nd October 1684. 
 Thence it passed to Kirkcudbright and Wigton. Wodrow 
 accuses it of ' greater irregularities and severities ' than 
 the Courts held elsewhere at the same time.^ The accusa- 
 
 ^ On lOtli September 1684 the Council, on his representation, empowered 
 him then and for the future to substitute whipping or banishment for the 
 death penalty which the law allowed for petty theft and larceny. See 
 the Minute of Council quoted in Napier, vol. ii. p. 410. 
 
 2 Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 113. 
 
 3 Fountainhall, Historical Notice-i, vol. ii. p. 557. 
 
 ^ The author of the Memoirs of 1714 (p. 11) makes the statement that 
 at Dumfries ' some mistakes happened between Queensberry and Clavers. 
 He adds that Claverhouse left the Court, rode post-haste to Edinburgh, 
 and on the next day started for London, where he was at tlie time of 
 Charles the Second's death in February 1685. The credibility of the 
 story may be gauged by the fact that Claverhouse writes quite amicably 
 to Queensberry on 30th October, after the circuit was ended ; and that 
 he was not in England when Charles died. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 119.
 
 168 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 tion rests upon his statement alone, and the special 
 instances of severity which he enumerates were the 
 customary sentences for the offences with which the 
 Court was commissioned to deal.^ 
 
 His judicial labours ended, Clavcrhouse fared home- 
 ward. A letter to Queensberry from Burntisland on 30th 
 October 1684^ shows him on his way to Dudhope after a 
 brief visit to Edinburgh, suppers and dinners with ' all 
 the good compagnie in toun.' His letter is particularly 
 interesting. He had heard it said, he told Queensberry, 
 that their circuit in Galloway had been much less severe 
 than that of Clydesdale in the terms of ' the Bond of 
 Peace' which they had exacted. The Government had 
 had for some time in its armoury an ingenious weapon 
 by which to curb its enemies. ' When any Scottish 
 subject had reason to fear violence at the hand of another, 
 he could procure what were known as "letters of law- 
 burrows," by which the party complained of became bound 
 to keep the peace. By a novel and ingenious application 
 of this system the Government demanded security by 
 law-burrows from those of the King's servants who still 
 refused to take the bond.' ^ But to hold the landlord as 
 the compulsory surety for his tenant and his tenant's 
 family's good behaviour was obviously unfair. Clavcr- 
 house, at least, did not shrink from condemning it ; ' for it 
 is unjust,' he told Queensberry, ' to desyr of others what we 
 would not doe our selfs. For I declair I think it a thing 
 not to be desyred, that I should be forfaited and hanged 
 
 ^ The cases of William Macmillan, William Macgeorge, Charles Max- 
 well, and William Martin, will be found in his vol. iv. pp. 122, 124, 125. 
 According to the author of History vindicated in the Case of the Wigton 
 Martyrs (second edit., p. 24), the records of the Court's proceedings at 
 Dumfries and Kirkcudbright are in the Register House, and those of 
 Wigton are in the possession of Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw. 
 
 '•^ Hist. 3ISS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 290. The letter is dated 
 from * Bruntelin. ' 
 
 ^ Hume Brown, History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 406.
 
 MARRIAGE 169 
 
 if my tenents wife, tuenty mille from mo, in the midost of 
 hilles and woods, give mate or shelter a fugitive. The 
 Register I could not see, but I have writen from this my 
 mind to hime.' He wrote sound sense, but it is question- 
 able whether he was wise to do so. Queensberry's friend- 
 ship was near the end of its tether. And for all his brave 
 assertion of continued loyalty, Claverhouse's marriage 
 with a Whig Cochrane was a fact capable of use against 
 him, and, in the result, formed the ostensible cause of his 
 temporary disgrace. 
 
 At the moment when James's accession was imminent, 
 promising Claverhouse the ear and favour of his new 
 sovereign, there were sinister influences at work which 
 doomed him to disgrace on the very threshold of his 
 Eldorado. Queensberry had his own wares to cry, and 
 Claverhouse, as will be seen, jeopardised the hawking of 
 them. His marriage also laid him under suspicion ; un- 
 deserved, it is true ; but the fact of it was sufficient. 
 Enemies in plenty he had, for he was not a man who 
 trode delicately when once he had mapped his route. 
 Lauderdale was at Edinburgh making court to Perth, the 
 new Chancellor. Sir John Dalrymple, as Claverhouse 
 reported to Queensberry,^ was 'as assidous there as he 
 used to be.' As to Perth : ' I hear he is mad against me, 
 tho I have mor reason to be so against him.' Perth's 
 motives for malignity towards Claverhouse are not clear. 
 In character and honest integrity the two men were as 
 far apart as the Poles. Perth was ready to apostatise at 
 a nod from his master. In fact he did so. But Claver- 
 house was not a man to juggle with his conscience. Of 
 what was going on around him he was perfectly aware. 
 ' Sir George Locart is com home,' he tells Queensberry in 
 the same letter, ' who, it is thoght, has been a considerable 
 
 ^ Hiiit. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 291. The letter is dated 
 from Edinburgh, 4th November 1684.
 
 170 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 agent, and has ^'ot a neu light, for, as I hear, he stood to 
 Glory to the Father ^ with the Ch[ancellor] to-day.' As 
 for himself, he had ' fallen fool ' the previous day with 
 one of his colleagues in Council ' about the fanatiks bak- 
 slyding and the causes of it. I told that we wer interupted 
 by his telling that those who had taken the test could not 
 be fyned, and that there wer abondance had taken it, as I 
 was informed, and yet would not lieve orderly.' It was to 
 be immediately demonstrated that a spirit was abroad 
 among the persecuted remnant which neither Test nor 
 fines were adequate to curb. 
 
 The closing months of Charles the Second's reign 
 opened a chapter whose continuation disfigures that of 
 his successor. Since the quashing of the rebellion in 
 1679 the Government's policy had been severe but not 
 wantonly cruel. No lives had been taken — excepting 
 William Rogue's — for disobedience to the law. The two 
 men who had been executed at Glasgow in 1683 were 
 guilty of or accessory to an assault upon the King's forces, 
 and were condemned on that count. The Enterkin episode 
 was in the same category. Granted to the full the pro- 
 vocative nature of the Government's policy, the initiative 
 in blood-letting lay, not with the Government, but with 
 its opponents. The fact is not adduced in condonation of 
 a policy of reprisals. Viewed dispassionately, the con- 
 duct of the Government and those it oppressed is upon a 
 similar plane of condemnation. The mote in the one and 
 the beam in the other level the scales to equilibrium. One 
 wades in the record of the period, in fact, through the fag- 
 end of mediaevalism. To condemn the one side for failure 
 to rise superior to the methods of its opponents indicates 
 a faulty perspective. 
 
 The Inchbelly and Enterkin incidents had been casual 
 encounters. But now, upon the conclusion of the Justiciary 
 
 ^ i.e. the Doxology.
 
 MARRIAGE 171 
 
 circuit of 1684, the Cameronian remnant issued what was 
 tantamount to a declaration of war, Renwick's ' Apolo- 
 getical Declaration and Admonitory Vindication ' was 
 given to the world on 28th October 1684. In flagrant 
 antagonism to the facts, Wodrow ascribes the inspiration 
 of it to ' the barbarous murder of some honest country 
 people in the fields,' and, with a nearer approximation to 
 truth, to ' the extraordinary severities exercised Septem- 
 ber and October last.' ^ On 8th November it was widely 
 published and affixed to market crosses and church doors 
 in the western shires. It not only threatened resort to 
 armed defence, but it explicitly announced the with- 
 drawal of its adherents from their obedience to the reign- 
 ing sovereign.^ It was a declaration of flat rebellion. So 
 the authorities understood it, and so they dealt with it. 
 Remedy rather than retaliation was the wiser and juster 
 method ; but neither side held the monopoly of intem- 
 perance. On 22nd November 1684 the authorities gave 
 their reply. A new form of oath was to be devised, bind- 
 ing the subscriber to a solemn attestation of his abhor- 
 rence of Renwick's Declaration ' in so far as it declares a 
 war against his sacred Majesty and asserts that it is lawful 
 to kill such as serve his Majesty in Church, State, Army 
 or country.' A further clause bound the subscriber not 
 to take up arms against the King or any commissioned by 
 him. The penalty of refusal was, logically and inevit- 
 ably, death.3 
 
 Claverhouse was not present in Council when the 
 Council's policy was declared. He signed an order for 
 its enforcement on the following day (23rd November 
 1684).* Up to this point no man's life, save of those he 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 147. The text of the Declaration is in ibid., vol. 
 iv. p. 148. 
 
 2 Fountainhall, Historical Observe-'^, p. 141. 
 
 * Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 1.54. The Abjuration Oath was not drafted till 
 25th November 1684 {ibid., vol. iv. p. 157). * Ibid., vol. iv. p. 156.
 
 172 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 had met in fair fight, lay at his door. He had fined and 
 imprisoned, as his orders empowered him. He had now 
 more summary powers, and he obeyed them, not with the 
 lust of indiscriminate slaughter, but sparingly, with the 
 judgment of a master of pimitivc tactics, with an eye to 
 example rather than to the rearing of a holocaust. The 
 first of his alleged ' atrocities ' falls within the early days 
 of the more savage policy which Renwick's ])eclaration 
 invited. There is still to be seen in the churchyard of 
 Crossmichael, a Kirkcudbrightshire village, a sculptured 
 slab to the memory of William Graham of that place. In 
 conventional phrase, the epitaph records his death for 
 ' adherence to Scotland's Reformation, Covenants, National 
 and Solemn League.' Martyrdom came to him, so the 
 stone declares, while ' makeing his escape from his 
 mother's house,' when he was 'pursued and taken and 
 instantly shot dead by a party of Claverhouse's troop.' The 
 event took place, the epitaph states inaccurately, in 1682.^ 
 The earliest evidence upon the case is that of Alexander 
 Shields, in 1690. It goes further than the epitaph in 
 that it asserts that Claverhouse himself was present at 
 William Graham's execution.^ Seventeen years later the 
 story was further embellished. ' The young Man,' writes 
 Defoe,^ without a particle of authority, ' being forced to 
 quit the House, and run to save his Life, Claverhouse rid 
 after him and overtook him ; and tho' the young Man 
 offer'd to surrender, and begg'd him to save his Life, he 
 shot him dead with his Pistol.' So legend grows and 
 
 1 Thomson, Martyr Graven of Scotland, p. 365. 
 
 ^ A Short Memorial of the Sufferings and Grievances, past and present, of 
 the Presbyterians in Scotland, p. 34. The statement runs : ' John Graham 
 of Claver house. Viscount of Dundee, in the Year 1682 with a party of his 
 Troup, pursued William Graham in the parish of [blank] in Galloway, 
 making his escape from his Mother's house, and overtaking him, instantly 
 shot him dead. ' Shields's statement appears verbatim in A Cloud of Wit- 
 nesses, p. 368. 
 
 3 Alemoirs of the Church of Scotland, p. 194.
 
 MARRIAGE 173 
 
 establishes itself unblushingly as fact. The story in its 
 final and correct form is told by Wodrow.^ William 
 Graham," it appears, was a tailor at Crossmichael. Return- 
 ing from work to his home, he was overtaken on the 
 highway by Claverhouse and a party of his troops. They 
 stopped him, searched him, and finding a Bible in his 
 pocket, took him with them for further examination to 
 Kirkcudbright, thence to Wigton, and thence to Dum- 
 fries. Refusing to answer the questions put to him, he 
 was placed in irons, transferred to Edinburgh, and passed 
 out of Claverhouse's jurisdiction. At Edinburgh he was 
 questioned upon ' the declaration of the society ' — that is, 
 Renwick's Declaration — and ' refusing to answer,' Wodrow 
 concludes, ' was condemned and died most comfortably.' 
 The story of a lad pistolled on the highway in 1682 falls 
 to the ground a palpable falsehood. To state the facts — 
 Claverhouse, during the renewed Whig activity in 1684, 
 arrested and sent to Edinburgh a man whose demeanour 
 roused his suspicion. His suspicion was not groundless. 
 Offered the Oath of Abjuration and liberty, the prisoner 
 refused it,^ and died bravely for conduct which pro- 
 claimed him a rebel at heart if not in fact.* 
 
 1 Vol. iv. p. 167. 
 
 ^ Wodrow gives his Christian name as James, but as he specilically 
 calls him ' tailoi- in the parish of Corsmichael,' and includes the detail of 
 his being on his way 'to his mother's house,' there is no room to doubt 
 his identity with the William Graham whose grave is in Crossmichael 
 churchyard. 
 
 3 I have no hesitation in adding this detail to Wodrow's account. On 
 2nd December 16S4 the Council sanctioned the proffer of the Abjuration 
 Oath to those who were already in prison on minor counts, with liberty 
 as the reward of their acquiescence in it. See Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 157. 
 
 •^ The author of The. Detijioi's Chcijnpion (p. 206) misses Wodrow's 
 evidence, which proves that William Gi'aham was executed subsequent to 
 the imposition of the Abjuration Oath in November 1684. Accepting the 
 epitaph's date, 1682, however, as that of (Jraham's death, the author easily 
 demonstrates its impossibility in the light of the fact that no hint of so high- 
 handed a proceeding appears among the charges which Sir John Dalrymple, 
 in 1683, brought against Claverhouse's administration of Galloway. 
 
 The most probable date for William Graham's arrest is about 17tli or
 
 174 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Meanwhile Renwick's Declaration had been translated 
 into deeds. On 20th November 1684, a few days before 
 the drafting of the Abjuration Oath, a cold-blooded 
 murder was perpetrated at Blackburn, a village of Lin- 
 lithgowshire. The victims were two of the Lifeguard, 
 Thomas Kennoway and Duncan Stewart by name. The 
 former had rendered himself particularly obnoxious to 
 the Cameronians by the energy he had shown against 
 them. On 17 th November he returned to Livingston from 
 a mission which boded ill for the local ' society people.' ^ 
 His comrade, Duncan Stewart, joined him there, and 
 together they proceeded to an inn ^ at Swineabbey, west- 
 ward of the neighbouring village of Blackburn, where 
 Kennoway had his quarters. There they continued 
 ' drinking and laying their projects,' says Wodrow, until 
 the 20th, ' when they were cut off,' shot dead as they 
 came out unsuspecting from the house.^ The authorship 
 
 18th December 1684 (see below, p. 176). Claverhouse was then in the 
 neighbourhood of Crossmichael, and Graham's arrest would connect 
 naturally with Claverhouse's search for the large body of Whigs who had 
 recently raided Kirkcudbright. 
 
 1 Wodrow (vol. iv. p. 152) describes him as having been active against 
 the Whigs since 1666. According to Alexander Reid, Kennoway was 
 a native of Calder and 'haunted at the Swine-abbey.' He had kept 
 a careful eye upon the proceedings of the disaffected in the district, 
 and had just returned from a journey to the north in search of James 
 Nimmo, a Bathgate man, who had fled from him [Life of Alexander 
 Reid, written by Himself, p. 46). If that was his character, it is suffi- 
 cient to explain why the local ' society people ' had marked him out for 
 vengeance. Wodrow states, however, that he had just returned from 
 Edinburgh, with licence to apprehend a large number of persons against 
 whom (Wodrow supposes) he had given information. He had been a 
 marked man for some time. One Archibald Stewart gave testimony at 
 Edinburgh, on 15th November 1680, that the Whigs ' had a design to kill 
 one Thomas Kennoway in the Guard . . . because he had taken several 
 of their Partj' ' [A true and impartial A ccount of the Examinations and 
 Confessionn of several execrable Conspirators against the King and his 
 Government in Scotland. Published by authority. Loud. 1681). 
 
 ^ So soon as news of the murder reached Ediuburgh the Council ' called 
 for Carmichell, landlord of the house, and examined him and others' (Foun- 
 tainhall. Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 570). 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 153.
 
 MARRIAGE 175 
 
 of the outrage cannot be a matter for doubt, though its 
 perpetrators were never discovered. ' It shews of what 
 abominable principles they are,' York wrote to Queens- 
 berry upon the news of the murder, ' and what all loyal 
 men are to expect from them : for now they are not m a 
 condition of doing the government any harme, they will 
 vent their malise upon privat persons; so that all you, 
 that have so great a share of the affairs there, aught more 
 particularly to have a care of yourselvs.' ^ 
 
 The Blackburn outrage did not stand alone. Its suc- 
 cessor brought Claverhouse into the field. The Reverend 
 Peter Pierson, minister of Carsphairn, in Kirkcudbright- 
 shire, had rendered himself as obnoxious to his neighbours 
 as Kennoway in his district. He lived alone in his manse, 
 was suspected of being 'a favourer of poperie,' and of 
 keeping firearms in his house. He was a man of some 
 spirit. He had been heard to say that ' he feared never a 
 Whig of them, nor any thing else bot rats and mice.' Like 
 Kennoway, he was believed to be an informer,^ and he 
 met the same sudden end. On 11th ^ December 1684 
 four armed men crept through the darkness towards the 
 manse. Their names were James Macmichael, Robert 
 Mitchell (nephew of James Mitchell, who had attempted 
 Archbishop Sharp's murder), William Herron, and Roger 
 Pedzen or Peden. Mitchell went on ahead, rapped and 
 waited. After an interval the minister opened the door 
 ' a little.' Macmichael, in ambush, fired his pistol, ' least 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Rtjjt. xv. , pt. viii. p. 211. The widows of the 
 murdered men were very tardily compensated. On 30tli March 16SS a 
 warrant was issued for payment of £15 sterling yearly to each of 
 them ( Warrant Booh, Scotland, vol. xii. fol. 651). A recommendation 
 to that effect had been made on 9th December 1084 (Wodrow, vol. iv. 
 p. 153). 
 
 -' Fountainhall [Hinforiral Notices, vol. ii. p. 581) describes him as 'a 
 great delater of them [the Whigs], and jealous in rebuking them in his 
 sermons.' 
 
 ^ See Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 581.
 
 176 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVEllHOUSE 
 
 Mr, Pearsone should have fyred first,' and his victim fell 
 dead.i 
 
 Five days after the Carsphairn murder an event of even 
 more menacing import took place at Kirkcudbright. On 
 Tuesday, 10th December 1684, a large body, numbering 
 over one hundred, entered the town, released the prisoners 
 confined there, seized all the arms they could find, and 
 made off with impunity.^ Only two years before Claver- 
 house had boasted of his effectual pacification of the dis- 
 trict. He hastened to confront the altered conditions. 
 Scouring the country-side as he rode, he had passed, one 
 conjectures, Carsphairn and Dairy, and had struck the 
 head-waters of the Dee near Crossmichael,^ when on 18th 
 December ^ he came upon a body of those for whom he 
 was searching at Bridge of Dee, a few miles north of 
 Kirkcudbright. Claverhouse and his troop gave hot pur- 
 suit. When it ended, he held three of the Cameronians 
 prisoners, and left five of them dead in the track of their 
 flight.5 
 
 With more or less absolute detachment from its environ- 
 ment, the Bridge of Dee encounter is detailed by Whig 
 martyrologists as a wanton, purposeless, and unprovoked 
 assault upon blameless, law-abiding, and unsuspecting 
 persons. Even Wodrow, who had evidence of it in his 
 
 ^ Letter of information to Wodrow, quoted in Napier, vol. i. p. 89. 
 See Wodrow 's account in his vol. iv. p. 197. 
 
 Sir Robert Dalziel to Queensberry, dated from Dumfries, 18th 
 December 1684, quoted in Napier, vol. ii. p. 428. The Memoirs of 1714 
 (p. 11) add the not unlikely detail that the party ' killed a poor man there 
 who was one of the sentries on the Tolbooth, only for challenging them 
 " Who comes there ? " ' 
 
 •* If this conjectural itinerary is correct, the arrest of William Graham 
 (see above, p. 173) probably took place at this time. In that case the 
 motive for his arrest is clear. ■^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 177. 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 585, whence it appears 
 that Claverhouse's account of the event reached the Council at Edin- 
 burgh on 20th December 1684. It may be noted that in his Chronoloyical 
 Notes (p. 115) Fountainhall gives the date as 21st December 1684.
 
 MARRIAGE 177 
 
 possession, suppressed the fact that one of those killed at 
 the encounter at Bridge of Dee was the very James Mac- 
 michael who a week earlier had pistolled the minister of 
 Carsphairn in cold blood. He suggests ingenuously : ' It 
 may be, the rescue of some prisoners at Kirkcudbright, by 
 some of the wanderers, a little before this, was the pretext 
 for all this cruelty ' ! Claverhouse was in the district for 
 no other reason than to punish an open and flagrant 
 defiance of the Government, whose significance was in- 
 tensified by the menacing tone of Renwick's Declaration 
 and the cold-blooded murders that had followed it. Having 
 regard to the character of James Macmichael, it is idle to 
 suggest that his associates in the encounter on the 18th 
 were innocent of active participation in the recent raid 
 on Kirkcudbright. Claverhouse, with his prisoners, was 
 already at or on his way to Kirkcudbright to judge them 
 by his justiciary power, when he learned the identity of 
 James Macmichael with the Carsphairn murderer. By 
 his orders the murderer's body, which meanwhile had 
 been carried to Dairy by sympathisers, was hung 
 upon a tree. Wodrow asserts that it was disinterred 
 from its hasty grave for the purpose. In the circum- 
 stances the fact is not improbable.^ Two of the prisoners 
 
 ' Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 177; Fountainhall, Historical Notices,Yo\. ii. p. 585. 
 
 Of the five men whom Fountainhall mentions as killed at Bridge of 
 Dee, four only can be identified. A joint monument to Robert Stewart, 
 described as of Ardoch, and John Griersou is in the churchyard of Dairy, 
 whither the bodies were removed for burial. The inscription records the 
 story, probably apocryphal, that Claverhouse, 'No sooner had he done this 
 horrid thing, But's forced to cry, Stewart's soul in Heaven doth sing.' 
 It asserts also as a fact, upon which even Wodrow admits that testimonj' is 
 not unanimous — that their bodies were exhumed by Claverhouse's orders. 
 The exhumation of Macmichael, the Carsphairn murderer, may be ad- 
 mitted, and is probably the foundation for a similar charge in regard to 
 the others (see Thomson, Martyr Graves of Scotland, p. 380). On Auchen- 
 cloy moor a joint monument records the names of Robert Ferguson, 
 James Macmichael or Macmichan, Robert Stewart, and John Grierson. 
 A few yards distant from it a monument stands to the memory of Robert 
 Ferguson, ' who was surprized and instantly shot to death on this place 
 
 M
 
 178 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 taken at Bridge of Dee were tried and executed at 
 Kirkcudbright.^ 
 
 by Graham of Claverhouse' (ibid. p. 405). Wodrow's list corresponds 
 with tliat of the Auchencloy epitaph— it is probably more correct to say 
 that the latter follows Wodrow. Alexander Shields {Sho7-t Memorial^ 
 p. 3-i) gives the names as Robert Stewart, John Grier, Robert Ferguson, 
 'and another.' 'Their Corps being buried,' he adds, 'were at his 
 [Claverhouse's] command raised again.' He states also that Claverhouse's 
 arrival in Galloway was ' in answer to the Viscount of Kenmures Letter.' 
 Defoe (^femoirs of the Church of Scotland, p. 250) embellishes the story 
 with characteristic inventiveness. The four men — he substitutes an 
 Archibald Stewart for Macmichael — were trapped in a house and were 
 praying when Claverhouse came upon them, he asserts. He adds that 
 Claverhoiise ' caus'd them to be drag'd just to the Door, and shot them 
 Dead as they came out, without any Enquiry whether they were the 
 Persons that he came to apprehend.' 
 
 ^ Their names were Robert Smith, of Glencairn, and Robert Hunter. 
 According to Wodrow (vol. iv. p. 177), Claverhouse ' called an assize, and 
 made a form of judging them, and caused execute them there.' Their 
 epitaph (see A dotal of Witnesses, p. 3S8) states that Bruce of Earlshall 
 and Captain Douglas formed, with Claverhouse, the Court that tried 
 them. It runs : — 
 
 ' This monument shall show posterity. 
 Two headless martyrs under it do ly, 
 By bloody Graham were taken and surpriz'd, 
 Brought to this town, and afterwards were siz'd ; 
 By unjust law were sentenced to die, 
 Then first they hang'd, then headed cruelly. 
 Captain Douglas, Bruce, Graham of Claverhoiise, 
 Were these that caused them to be handled thus : 
 And when they were unto the gibbet come, 
 To stop their speech, they did beat up the drum. 
 And all because they woidd not comply 
 With Indulgence, and bloody Prelacy. 
 In face of cruel Bruce, Douglas, and Graham, 
 They did maintain, That Christ was Lord supreme ; 
 And boldly owned both the covenants. 
 At Kirkcudbright thus ended these two saints.' 
 
 Both Bruce of Earlshall and Captain Lord William Douglas were officers 
 of Claverhouse's regiment (see Appendix i. ). Claverhouse, it would 
 appear, tried the men by virtue of his office as Bailie of the Regality of 
 Tongland, to which he had been commissioned on 19th January 1682 
 ( Warraiit Bool:, Scotland, vol. vi. fol. 594). The fact that these two men 
 were made prisoners and stood their trial is in itself disproof of Defoe's 
 story of the summary shooting of the Bridge of Dee party. It is a fair 
 inference that these two men surrendered or were made prisoners, in the 
 pursuit, and that those who were shot maintained a more uncompromis- 
 ing demeanour. James Macmichael, at least, had nothing to hope from 
 surrender.
 
 MARRIAGE 179 
 
 After five years' interlude Scotland was again in the 
 throes of civil war. That affairs had come to such a pass 
 is the truest test of the unwisdom of Charles the Second 
 and his advisers. But facing the position as they viewed 
 it, war presented itself as a measure of defence, at least 
 of retaliation. The too frequent attempt to represent it 
 as a wanton, unprovoked aggression upon a peaceable 
 albeit outraged people is to distort the facts. Renwick's 
 Declaration, rebellious as it was in tone, might have 
 received scant notice but for the acts that had followed it. 
 Together they indicated a menace to the public safety 
 which no responsible Government could tolerate. It met 
 the crisis by methods which the standard of the period 
 suggested as appropriate, whose ferocity differed no whit 
 in character from that displayed by its opponents. As to 
 Claverhouse, it is the silliest and least discerning of 
 apologies which represents him above the standard of the 
 party to which he belonged, the executant of a policy 
 which his intelligence condemned, and dissociating him- 
 self from personal responsibility under cover of his soldier's 
 implicit duty to obey. Such an apology is to present its 
 subject a poltroon. An honest man in such a case could 
 resign his commission. Emphatically Claverhouse was 
 an honest man, and he did not resign. Nor was his 
 acquiescence rooted in mere indifference. The policy 
 of which he was the agent had his entire approval. 
 There was, in fact, no practical alternative to it within 
 the vision of the party to which he belonged, to whom 
 the Monarchy and undeviating loyalty to it were the only 
 foundations which promised political stability. 
 
 It was as no mere mercenary that Claverhouse entered 
 upon the struggle between authority and rebellion. For 
 that reason the climax of a quarrel, which for the moment 
 placed him under a cloud, and stifled his authority both 
 in the Council and in the field, must have been par-
 
 180 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 ticularly galling to him. The quarrel was with Queens- 
 berry, who had lately received the coveted dukedom.^ 
 The causes of it may be inferred, but are nowhere specifi- 
 cally stated. At the root of it was the old complaint on 
 Quccnsberry's part of Claverhouse's half-heartedness, as 
 he supposed, in his interests at Court in 1683. His sus- 
 picions were carefully fanned by those who had their own 
 interests to serve.^ 'I am confident,' York wrote to 
 Queensberry (26th June 1683) ' they do him [Claverhouse] 
 much wrong who report he should say I am displeased 
 with you ; since I assure you there is no such thing, and 
 that he is not a man to say things which are not ; and this 
 justice I must do him, that, whilest he was here, no man 
 was more your friend then he, and did presse all your 
 concerns with more earnestnesse.' ^ James's emphatic 
 statement was sufficient for the moment to remove 
 Queensberry's suspicions. But six months later the 
 relations between the two men were again strained. 
 ' When I come downe to you,' York writes on New 
 Year's Day 1684, 'Claueros shall know I am not satis- 
 fyd with his behaviour to you.' ^ Claverhouse also 
 had a grievance. In March 1683 he was dissatis- 
 fied with Queensberry's patronage of vacant military 
 commissions.-^ It was upon the same subject that York, 
 on the following 26th June, assured Queensberry that 
 Claverhouse had made no formal complaint.^ Claver- 
 house's annoyance undoubtedly arose from the com- 
 missions bestowed in his own regiment. Drumlanrig, 
 Queensberry's son, was appointed to the lieutenant- 
 colonelcy of it in July 1684. Another son, Lord William 
 
 ^ His creation is dated 3rd November 1684 (Complete Peeraye, vol. vi. 
 p. 315). 
 
 ■•^ See Hamilton's letters to Queensberry, in Hist. MSS. Com. Bept. xv., 
 pt. viii. pp. 252, 253, 256. 
 
 3 Tbid., p. 192. 4 Ibid., p. 201. ^ Ibid., p. 275. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 192.
 
 MARRIAGE 181 
 
 Douglas, was given a troop in it in the following Novem- 
 ber. A Cornet William Douglas, in the latter's troop, is 
 further suggestive of family influence lavishly employed.^ 
 Claverhouse was no doubt equally ambitious for the pro- 
 motion of his family, and his only brother, who had served 
 with him since 1680, still held no higher rank than that 
 of cornet. 
 
 A vacancy was imminent which interested Claver- 
 house more particularly. Dalziel, the Commander-in- 
 Chief in Scotland, was an old man of over eighty years. 
 His death or retirement seemed imminent.^ He died, in 
 fact, in 1G85. It needs little perception to picture Claver- 
 house already bent upon securing the vacant command. 
 But here also Queensberry thwarted him. His brother, 
 Colonel James Douglas, on 12th August 1684, had taken 
 over the command of Linlithgow's regiment of foot.^ He, 
 like Claverhouse, had an eye upon Dalziel's retirement, 
 and could count on his brother's interest. Queensberry, 
 secure in his dukedom, had no longer an interest in 
 maintaining friendly relations with Claverhouse. As 
 Lord High Treasurer he was in a position to harass his 
 brother's rival considerably, by demanding the fines which 
 Claverhouse had levied upon delinquents in Galloway. 
 Clavcrhouse's recent connection with the Whig Cochranes, 
 also, offered opportunity for insidious misrepresentation. 
 Queensberry availed himself of both courses, and dinned 
 
 ^ See Appendix i. 
 
 ^ Queensberry was clearly moving to force Dalziel's retirement. Mel- 
 fort writes to him circ. Sept. 1684 : 'If Dalyell dye not I am affrayed it 
 iiill be hard to remove him' (//ts<. MSS. Comm. Bucdeuch and Queens- 
 berry MSS., vol. ii. p. 173). 
 
 3 Journal of the Hon. John Erskine of Carnock, Scot. Hist. Soc, ji. 75. 
 The regiment in 1685 mustered fourteen companies, with a strength of 
 eleven hundred and twenty, besides otficcrs (Hist. 3ISS. Comm. lieid. x., 
 pt. i. p. 136). Clavcrhouse's regiment at that time consisted of six 
 troops of fifty horse each, exclusive of ofEcers. Claverhouse, Drumlanrig, 
 Lord Ross, the Earl of Airlie, the Earl of Balcarres, and Lord William 
 Douglas were the troop captains (ibid.).
 
 182 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 the ears of York and the Secretaries with accounts of 
 Claverhouse's shortcomings. On 13th December 1684 
 Moray replied. James had given him ' a hint conserninge 
 Olaverous. I find him displeased, as he lies good resone, 
 at his caerige, and as freely as the short time would alow 
 me, I tould the ill consequences of the fiery temper of 
 yong men, uho ought to understand themselfs better then 
 to faell so grosly in their diuety to sutch as the Kinge 
 chifly trusts.' ^ Melfort also wrote, having received from 
 his brother the Chancellor ' a full accompt of Claverhous 
 insolence.' He had at once passed it on to York. ' I find 
 the Duke really angry uith him,' he reported, ' and so 
 soon as he comes to Scotland you uill se him used accord- 
 ingly, especially if he be so foolish after this as to continou 
 his insolence,' ^ 
 
 Claverhouse's demeanour continued the reverse of con- 
 ciliatory. His rival, Douglas, gave him an opening and 
 he seized it with avidity. Douglas was somewhat of a 
 martinet. His relations with his regiment were not 
 cordial. Among his fads was a desire to have his men 
 ' all of one pitch or height.' Their beards were remorselessly 
 trimmed to a uniform pattern. Neither untidy cravats 
 nor cravat strings were permitted, that the men might 
 appear ' young and brisque.' When their outfit failed to 
 satisfy their colonel's standard of smartness, a new one 
 was purchased at their own expense.^ The regiment 
 murmured, and the malcontents were ejected. On 11th 
 December 1684 a number of them petitioned the Council. 
 They complained that Douglas had forfeited their arrears 
 of pay, and had applied it to shoe and clothe his regiment. 
 Claverhouse was present and backed their complaint. 
 ' It would discouradge any to enter in his Majesties 
 
 ^ HM. JISS. Gomm. Buccleuch and Queensherry MSS., vol. ii. p. 37. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 171. 
 
 ^ Foiintainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 561.
 
 MARRIAGE 183 
 
 service, if they ware used thus,' he protested. Queens- 
 berry defended his brother. Recruits were given a free 
 outfit, was his argument, and could be expected to pay for 
 its renewal. * Thus grew the diiTerence betuen Claveris 
 and the Treasurer,' Fountainhall remarks.^ The debate 
 between them grew hot, and Claverhouse lost his temper. 
 Perth hurried to give James an account of the scene. 
 Claverhouse also thought it necessary to offer an ex- 
 planation. York expressed his concern that his iwotege 
 should have been ' so little master of himself.' ' I had a 
 letter from Clauros by the last post,' he wrote, 'who 
 endeauors to excuse his warmth by saying he took what 
 was sayd as leveld at him.' - There for the moment the 
 matter ended. The Carsphairn murder and the raid on 
 Kirkcudbright followed hard on the scene in Council. If, 
 as seems probable, Queensberry's irritating remark had 
 oblique reference to Claverhouse's marriage, and the sus- 
 picion it cast upon his zeal, his decisive action at Bridge 
 of Dee was sufficient answer.^ He had some reason, 
 
 1 Foimtaiuliall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 580. As to the clothing 
 of his own regiment, Claverhouse writes to Queensberry on 13th Sep- 
 tember 1683 : ' Your Lordship may remember I got licence to import read 
 cloath for my troup, and so much gray cloath for the trompeters and 
 ketledrumers. The cloath being imported I presented to my Lord 
 Ch[ancellor, Aberdeen] in councell a declaration under the colcctors hand 
 that it had been visited and the deus payed, and therefor desyred up my 
 bond of 500 p. st. My lord was pleased to refer all to your Lordship. 
 I also informed him that the gi'ay cloath was not of the right color, and 
 therefor desyr I might have lieve to cary it bak to Ingland and bring other 
 in the place of it, or els that those of the manifactory might have it, and 
 I aloued to bring in as much' (Hint. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. 
 p. 284). 
 
 '■^ Hist. MSS. Gomm. Rept. xv., j)t. viii. p. 212. The letter is dated 
 ISth December 1684. 
 
 * There is no doubt that Queensberry represented Claverhouse as 
 inactive against the Whigs, and that his marriage was seized upon as a 
 plausible foundation for the allegation. See Fountainhall, Chronological 
 Notes, p. 43. David Graham of Claverhouse was upon the jury that con- 
 demned Robert Baillie of Jerviswood on 24th December 1684 [The Tryal 
 and Process of Hir/h- Treason and Doom of Forfaidlure against Mr. 
 Robert Baillie of Jerviswood, Traitor. Edin. 1685, p. 38).
 
 184 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 therefore, to be ' extreamly piqued ' at receiving through 
 Melfort an admonitory letter in answer to that he had 
 written to James.^ Melfort, seemingly, was doing his 
 utmost to fan James's resentment : ' As for Claverhouse/ 
 he wrote to Queensberry on 10th January 1685, 'I am sure 
 the Duke does not at all aprove his cariage, and I have 
 done as I ought ; but since I had your last, I hav not 
 spocken to the Duke. I uold kno by the first if Claverhous 
 took leav of your Grace before he uent uest ; for in that 
 point the Duke contradicted me, and said he had, uhich 
 I said uas mor then I kneu.' ^ 
 
 Since his raid upon the Whigs at Bridge of Dee, 
 Claverhouse had been deprived of further opportunity to 
 show that his marriage had not modified his principles. 
 On 4th December 1684 Lord George Drummond had 
 been commissioned to proceed to the south-western shires 
 with justiciary powers. Four of the six troops of Claver- 
 house's regiment were placed at his disposal.^ Claver- 
 house was given employment elsewhere, and with Balcarres 
 opened a similar Court of Justiciary in Fifeshire on 15th 
 January 1685.* At about the same time his rival, Douglas, 
 was despatched to Galloway, Claverhouse's particular 
 preserve. Fountainhall, no prejudiced admirer of Claver- 
 house, frankly hints the motive of Douglas's selection as 
 a desire on Queensberry's part ' to put a rub on Claver- 
 house,' in the hope that ' the glory ' of defeating the 
 Whigs might fall to his brother. Douglas, in fact, got 
 scant glory from his expedition. He was nearly killed in 
 an obscure skirmish and lost one of his officers, the only 
 one so far in the death-roll of the rebellion.^ 
 
 1 Melfort to Queensberry, 3rd Jan. 1685, in Hist. MSS. Comm. Queens- 
 berry and Bucchuch MSS., vol. ii. p. 203. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 205. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 158. 
 
 ■* Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 602. 
 
 •'' Fountainhall, Historical Observes, p. 146 ; Chronological Notes, p. 43.
 
 MARRIAGE 185 
 
 Meanwhile the cabal against Claverhouse energetically- 
 pursued him at Court. Queensberry desired permission 
 to proceed against him for recovery of the fines which 
 he had exacted as Sheriff in Galloway. A considerable 
 portion of them had been expended in the public service. 
 In April 1682 Claverhouse had not received 'a farthing 
 mony' from the Exchequer to finance his vigorous 
 measures.^ In the previous February, asking for a gift 
 of the forfeited personalty of any against whom he could 
 bring proof of rebellion, he had undertaken to support 
 from that source ' all the expence of the goverment, as 
 mantinence of prisoners, witness, speys, and all other 
 expence necessary in this contry.' - Fines, in fact, were 
 reckoned an ordinary source of revenue,^ and there is 
 not a shred of evidence to prove that Claverhouse had 
 put into his own pocket more than his office entitled him 
 to by way of stipend, namely the balance of funds 
 applied by him to the public service. The system was 
 vicious and uneconomical. Also it offered an easy method 
 of reprisal when one of its agents fell into disgrace with 
 his employers. Claverhouse, however, was under a more 
 personal obligation. The gift of French to him had been 
 conditioned by his payment to the Exchequer of a sum 
 calculated upon a two years' purchase of it. Queensberry 
 himself had used his influence to quash that condition,^ 
 and in May 1684 Claverhouse had the King's promise 
 that it would not be exacted. And as to his ' bond for 
 the superplus of the fynes of Galloway,' Claverhouse told 
 Queensberry, the King had ' ordered a letter impouring 
 your Lordship to give acount of what we should have, 
 both for expence and reward ; and this I may saifly say 
 was spent.' ^ None the less, relying upon Claverhouse's 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Comm. Eept. xv., pt. viii. p. 271. ^ Ihid., p. 266. 
 
 ' Hume Brown, History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 420. 
 
 ■* Hist. MSS. Comm. Bept. xv., pt. viii. p. 276. ■' Ihid., p. 289.
 
 186 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 diminished interest, Queensberry pushed the matter per- 
 sistently. In September 1684 MeUbrt had told him 
 that it was 'unfitt' for him to press the subject then, 
 though he had hopes that James would take it up. 
 He added, that as Claverhouse ' has a promis for the 2 
 years [purchase of French], that may be delayed.' ^ 
 Queensberry acquiesced.^ On 20th January 1685 Mel- 
 fort sent further encouragement : ^ 'I have got orders 
 from his Royal Highness,' he reported, ' to send Claver- 
 lious such a repremand, as, I hope, uill sufficiently sho 
 his Royal Highnesses displeasure, and prevent thes sort 
 of discourses * for the future, and yet kept the mater intire 
 till your Grace has time to informe the Duke upon the 
 place.' For some reason, however, James was induced to 
 sanction more summary action. Four days later (24th 
 January 1685) Melfort informed Queensberry: 'I uaited 
 for a fitt oportunity to mov the Duke in Claverhous' 
 affair, and am nou commanded to tell your Grace that 
 tho' the Duke desires nothing in the tuo years' rent of 
 the forfaulted esteats [of French] to be done till he coms 
 to Scotland, yet he orders the fynes uplifted by Claver- 
 hous to be counted for, and payed in, or any other bond 
 to be sued for, that he or any other may upon that accompt 
 be ouing to the King ; so nou uithout a grudge, ye may 
 call for them.' ' I am aftrayed that gentleman,' he added, 
 has mistaken his measures, and if he persist, I question 
 not that he uill find it so.' ^ 
 
 Melfort's forecast of events proved accurate, though 
 Claverhouse, with characteristic buoyancy, survived the 
 apparent wreck of his fortunes. For the moment the 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Queensberry and Buccleuch MSS., vol. ii. p. 172. 
 '^ See Melfort's letter of 15th Jan. 1G85 in ibid. p. 207. 
 3 Ibid., p. 209. 
 
 ■^ The reference is to Claverhouse's altercation with Queensberry in 
 Council on 11th December 1684. 
 ■"' Hint. MSS. Comm. Queensberry and Buccleuch MSS. , vol. ii. p. 209.
 
 MARRIAGE 187 
 
 cabal against him triumphed, and at a critical period. On 
 6th February 1685 Charles the Second died, and James 
 the Seventh, once Claverhouse's patron and now his 
 somewhat reluctant judge, entered upon his brief and 
 troubled reign. On 10th February Claverhouse signed 
 the proclamation of his accession at Edinburgh.^ Within 
 a few weeks he was pointedly excluded from the Privy 
 Council. To that incongruous pass his marriage and 
 Queensberry's unprincipled exploiting of it had brought 
 him. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 202. The fact may be held to dispose of the 
 statement in the Memoirs of 171-t (p. 11), to the effect that Claverhouse 
 was at Court when Charles the Second died. He was certainly not in 
 London on the day after Charles's death ; for Melfort writes to Queens- 
 berry on 7th February 1685 regarding Claverhouse : ' I liav some ground 
 to beleiv he uill come hither.'
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE NEW REIGN 
 
 The new reign opened ominously for one whose career 
 was destined to be almost its Scottish epitome. Queens- 
 berry lost no time in acting upon the permission accorded 
 him.i ' I had a letter from Claverhouse/ Melfort reported 
 to him on 7th February 1685, ' complaineing of a charge 
 of horning for the Bond givn to your Grace for fynes 
 collected by him and not payed in. He has urytt to 
 others upon the same point, but least it might hav bein 
 thought, as indeid I found it uas, that it had bein upon 
 the accompt of the tuo years' rent of [Freuch], I explaned 
 the mater so as he is thought as impudent for not paying, 
 as he uold hav your Grace thought for charging him 
 malicious. I shal uatch his motions hear; but I beleiv 
 he may doe mor against himself by coming up uithout 
 leav, then you could uish to see come upon him. I hav 
 some ground to beleiv he uill come hither.' ^ Claverhouse 
 was, in fact, anxious above everything to lay his case 
 personally before the King. That opportunity was denied, 
 and Dudhope held him an impatient prisoner,^ Melfort's 
 correspondence alone gives a glimpse of him. He was 
 not without hopes, apparently, of a royal remission in his 
 
 ^ See above, p. 186. 
 
 '^ Hist, MSS. Comm. Buccleuch and Queensherry MSS., vol. ii. p. 214. 
 
 ^ He witnesses the baptism of Jean, daughter of John Wcdderljurn and 
 hio wife, Rachel Dunmore, at Dundee on 16th February 1685 { Wedder- 
 hum Book, vol. ii. p. 496) 
 188
 
 THE NEW REIGN 189 
 
 favour. Melfort hastened to reassure Queensberry."^ ' I 
 am confident Claverhous has no ground to expect a 
 precept for his mony. ... I am confident it uill not be 
 in his pouer to disturbe the King's servants' peace in any 
 thing ; nor I hope uill he hav the impudence to designc 
 it.' ' I am sory,' he wrote a few daj^s later,^ ' Claverhous 
 should be such a fool as to continou after the King's 
 commands. If the King come to take inspectione in the 
 affair, Claverhous uill not find himself right in thes 
 methods.' Drumlanrig, Claverhouse's subordinate, arrived 
 at Court to watch his father's interests. He brought fresh 
 reports of his colonel's irreconcilable demeanour. ' I am 
 really sory at Claverhous' cariage,' Melfort wrote to 
 Queensberry (24th February), ' tho' ye kno my opinione 
 of him befor this fell out.' James's attitude, he admitted, 
 was an uncertain quantity. As he phrased it, ' the King 
 has uneasy consequenses.' ' But,' he added, ' if he [Claver- 
 house] uill play the fool, he most drink as he breus.' ^ 
 Clearly James was a reluctant party to the intrigue. 
 Claverhouse appealed directly to him. ' I had a letter 
 from Claverhous this day,' Melfort wrote to Queensberry 
 on 28th February, ' and the King another. He desires to 
 come up, but I shal prevent it till your Grace come, if I 
 can ; but I dare promis nothing.' * 
 
 In March 1685 Queensberry himself arrived at Court.^ 
 His departure left Claverhouse in angry mood. He had 
 asked in Council for time to meet his bond to the 
 Exchequer, and to enable his brother to collect the fines 
 in Galloway. He was granted five or six days. Considering 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. BucclfAich and Queensberry JfSS., vol. ii. p. 216. 
 The letter is dated IGth February 1685. Melfort adds : ' I admii-e much 
 of his frendship uith Earl Aberdein ; if it be true, he is a fj'ne man. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 217. The letter is dated 21st February 1685. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Bttccleuch and Queensberry 3ISS., vol. ii. p. 218. 
 
 ^ Tbid., p. 219. 
 
 ^ He set out from Edinburgh on 7th March 1685 (Fouutainhall, Chrono- 
 logical Notes, p. 126).
 
 100 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 the distance at which Galloway lay, he protested, five 
 or six days' grace was ' as good as none at all.' ' Then 
 you shall have none,' Queensberry had rejoined.^ At the 
 same time another ' rub ' was put upon him. The 
 enforcement of the Abjuration Oath in Galloway had 
 brought reprisals by their more resolute brethren upon 
 those who had taken it. The Council, therefore, again 
 sent Colonel Douglas to that district, in face of the recom- 
 mendation of the ministers of Galloway, who urged that 
 ' Claveris's name was more formidable ther.' ^ Yet another 
 opportunity was found for Douglas's service. The appear- 
 ance of a number of ' desperate rebels in arms,' marching 
 unchecked through Ayrshire, was reported to the Council 
 on 24th March 1685. Douglas was ordered to deal with 
 them.^ A day or two later he received larger powers. 
 Claverhouse's commission as Sheriff of Wigton had expired 
 with the late King's death. It was not renewed.^ On 
 27th March 1685 a commission was drawn in favour of 
 ' our trusty and well beloved counsellor, colonel James 
 Douglas, colonel of our regiment of guards, to be our 
 Justice in all the southern and western shires.' Claver- 
 house was present in Council on that date, but his 
 signature is pointedly absent from those confirming his 
 rival's commission.^ To Claverhouse there remained only 
 his colonelcy; his commission was renewed on 30th 
 March 1685.^ His seat on the Privy Council was with- 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Chronological ^otes, p. 126. In the same writer's 
 Historical Notices (vol. ii. p. 623) the date of the incident appears as 2nd 
 March 1685. 
 
 '^ Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 623. The order is dated 
 2nd March 16So. 
 
 2 Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 206. 
 
 * This fact is of importance in view of the endeavour that has been 
 made to connect Claverhouse through his commission with the judicial 
 sentences of the 'Killing Time.' 
 
 5 Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 207 ; Privy Council Acta (MS.), vol. Feb.— 31st 
 Dec. 1685, fol. 31. 
 
 6 Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. ix. fol. 361.
 
 THE NEW EEIGN 191 
 
 drawn on 3rd March 1685.^ Such was the harvest of 
 Queensberry's plodding hostihty. The ' pretence ' he 
 exploited, as Foimtainhall remarks, was that Claverhouse, 
 ' having married a daughter of a phanatick familie, viz. 
 Dundonald, he was not fitt to be trusted with the King's 
 secrets.' ^ 
 
 James was but half converted to the vengeful policy 
 which Queensberry pressed on him. ' Last night the 
 Kinge tould me,' Moray wrote (4th April 1685), ' that tho' 
 he had put Claverous off the Councill, to show him and 
 others that he would support his ministers, . . . yit he 
 uished that I uold uryt to Claverous and tell him that 
 be makeing acknowligment of his fault to your Grace, 
 he would restor him to his place and favour.' ' I tould 
 his Majesty,' he continued, ' he kniw Claverous to be of 
 a hye, proud and peremptor humor.' Such a letter as 
 James ordered would ' blow up his [Claverhouse's] humor 
 to a greater highe [sic] of insolence then ever. Besyd 
 that he uold certinly talk of it uithe intollerable conset 
 and vanety.' James yielded. ' This,' Moray concluded, 
 ' hes bine put in the King's head, but I doe not know by 
 whom.' ^ 
 
 Even upon the terms the King proposed, Claverhouse 
 for the moment was unwilling to purchase his pardon. 
 He continued to refuse an ' application ' or apology to 
 Queensberry.^ James sent a reprimand (16th April 1685),^ 
 
 ^ The King's letter constituting the new Council is dated 3rd March 
 1685 ( Warrant Book, MS. Register House). Claverhouse took his seat 
 for the last time in Council on 3rd April 1C85 (Privy Council Acta), The 
 new commission was opened and recorded on 9th April 1685. 
 
 '-' Fountainhall, Chronological Notes, p. 128. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Buccleuch and Queensberry MSS. , vol. ii. p. 47. 
 
 "* Moray expresses surprise on that account on 14th Ajsril 1685 (Hist. 
 3fSS. Comm. Buccleuch and Queensberry MSS., vol. ii. p. 51). 
 
 '' Melfort to Queensberry in ibid., p. 220. Melfort writes: 'The 
 King, having nottice that Claverous has not bcin to pay that civility that 
 uas fitt, has by this post ordered him to doe it, so concerned is he to hav 
 that mater at ane end to your Grace's satisfactione.'
 
 192 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 and the new Council on the same date made an order ' in 
 odium ' of the stubborn colonel, inviting any ' to complain 
 on him ' to his further undoing.^ Claverhouse would not 
 budge an inch from his stubborn position until he had 
 exhausted his hopes of James's favour. Upon the arrival 
 at Edinburgh of the new commission of Council he had 
 written (11th April 1685) to James to renew his request 
 for permission to plead his case personally. Moray sent 
 the King's answer: 'Sir, I had yours of the ij, and 
 acquented the King uithe your desire of haueing leaw to 
 com up : and am commanded to returne you this ansswer 
 — That, when you haw made your applicatione to his 
 Commissioner [Queensberry], and by his favorable repre- 
 sentatione is restored to your place in Cowncill, his 
 Majcstie will allow you to com up, but by no means befor 
 that time.' Moray enclosed a copy of it for Queensberry 's 
 satisfaction. He had had difficulty in inducing James to 
 sanction it, and was convinced that the King ' had bine 
 dealt with in the matter, by his uay of anssweringe me at 
 first.' 2 James, in fact, was probably aware that Queens- 
 berry was making the utmost of Claverhouse's alleged 
 affront, and was disinclined to accept Queensberry's 
 sinister interpretation of the Cochrane marriage. On 
 1st May 1685 ^ Moray had another audience of him. 
 Claverhouse in the meanwhile had bowed to necessity. 
 Queensberry had received overtures, barely an apology 
 from him. James complained that Queensberry had not 
 yet informed him of the fact. Moray replied, that the 
 ' application ' Claverhouse had made was ' as bade, and 
 rather uors then he had forborne it.' Claverhouse ought, 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Chronological Azotes, p. 128. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Bucdeuch and Queensberry MSS., vol. ii. p. 53. 
 In spite of James's refusal, Moray seems not to have been surprised at a 
 rumour that on 28th April 1685 Claverhouse was in Loudon (ibid., p. 59). 
 
 ^ On the same date Claverhouse was engaged in the summary execution 
 of John Brown of Priesthill.
 
 THE NEW REIGN 193 
 
 he urged, to be compelled to make a ' signall acknowleg- 
 ment ' of his fault. James made no reply, ' walked up 
 and doune a great uhyll silent, and then sayd he uold 
 consider of it.' ^ A week later his mind was made up. 
 ' Yisterday, Avhen uee uear coming auay from the King,' 
 Moray wrote to Queensberry (9th May 1685), 'ho caled 
 me bak, and tould me he was posetively resolved to send 
 doune a letter uithe E. Dumbarton ^ for putinge Claver- 
 ous on the Councill, but that he uold hawe non to know 
 of it, and it uas to lye in your hand uhyle you thought fitt 
 to doe it.' 3 On 11th May 1685 Moray, with reluctance 
 one imagines, countersigned a letter under the royal sign- 
 manual restoring Claverhouse to the Privy Council,* from 
 which a month earlier he had been so pointedly excluded. 
 The single check in his prosperous career lay behind him. 
 He had fought the crisis single-handed. The event of 
 it stands a signal testimony to the strength of his sove- 
 reign's good- will. 
 
 For two months Claverhouse delayed to resume his seat 
 in the Council. The fact was due in part to impediments 
 slowly surmounted, of which Queensberry was the archi- 
 tect; in part to imperative calls upon his service in 
 another sphere. The vindictive and retaliatory spirit 
 which Ren wick's Declaration had evoked has already been 
 touched upon. Under the new King the policy framed 
 in November 1684 remained official still. No added 
 ferocity distinguished the methods by which James was 
 resolved to stamp out the rebellious spirit which had con- 
 fronted his brother. In May 1685, as in November 1684, 
 
 ^ Hint. MSS. Comm. Bucdeiich and Queensberry MSS., vol. ii. ii. (31. 
 
 - Lord George Douglas had been created Earl of Dumbarton in 1675. 
 Shortly after James's accession he was appointed to direct the camimign 
 against Argyll (Diet. Xaf. Biograjjhy). 
 
 ■^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Buccleuch and Queensberry MSS., vol. ii. p. 64. 
 Moray ascribes James's resolution to Claverhouse's ' new alleya ' with the 
 Duke of Hamilton (ibid., p. 65). See above, p. 155. 
 
 ■' Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. ix. fol. 499. 
 
 N
 
 194 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 the Abjuration Oath was the sieve whose mesh should 
 winnow the loyal from the disloyal. The ' Killing Time,' 
 as pictured by Covenanting historians, is an orgy of 
 slaughter gloatingly engineered by a Government sur- 
 passing Nero in the lust of it. Persecution it was, cruel it 
 was, ill-judged it was in its futile endeavour to force an 
 outward and detested conformity in the teeth of profound 
 antagonism. But a Carnival of Blood, wanton, unpro- 
 voked, and heedless, it was not. 
 
 James had not reigned a month before a new method 
 was hit upon to rid the kingdom of those whom the 
 Government had every right to regard as disloyal, and to 
 relieve them from the extreme consequences of their 
 attitude. Framed on 26th February 1685 and published 
 on the following 2nd March, the new King offered in- 
 demnity to all those at the moment declared fugitive, 
 provided that within twenty days after 2nd March they 
 took the oath of allegiance, or in default gave caution to 
 leave the kingdom before 20th May 1685.^ Compulsory 
 exile may differ but little in degree of severity from 
 summary execution. The present point is merely that 
 the alternative was offered, and that those who neglected 
 it courted inevitably the consequences of their rejection 
 of it. Queensberry's instructions (28th March 1685) as 
 High Commissioner of the impending meeting of the 
 Estates left no loophole for doubt that the consequences 
 would be enforced. He was ordered to secure the passing 
 of an Act ' defining the diligence to be done by Sheriffs 
 and other magistrates within and without their bounds, 
 in the cases of rebellion, disorders, appearance of rebells 
 or disorderly persons, conventicles, etc., and in what 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 205. The murderers of Archbishop Sharp, of 
 the minister of Carsphairn, and of Kennoway and Stewart at Swiueabbey, 
 were excepted from the Indemnity. The Indemnity was withdrawn 
 upon the outbreak of Argyll's rebellion. The roj'al order to that effect 
 is dated •25th May 1685 {Hist. MSS. Comm. Rtpt. xv., pt viii. p. 96).
 
 THE NEW REIGN 195 
 
 manner the heretors and commons shall rise, concur and 
 pursue after such, give in intelligence of any conventicles, 
 appearances of rebells, disorderly or vagrant persons, 
 raise the country, follow and pursue, take, apprehend, or 
 kill them, inform magistrates or their respective land- 
 lords, or the landlords their superiour officers in the 
 shire.' ' You are likewise,' his instructions ran, ' to 
 endeavour the obtaining an Act, declaring all preaching 
 at conventicles in houses (as well as in the fields) to be 
 death in the preacher, and banishment and great fines in 
 the hearers and landlords, as also severe fines upon cities 
 or townes where such conventicles shalbe kept.' ^ The 
 Estates opened on 23rd April 1685. The Chancellor's 
 speech is eloquent of its temper. ' We have a new sect 
 sprung up among us,' he said,^ 'from the dunghill, the 
 very dreggs of the people, who kill by pretended inspira- 
 tion, and instead of the temple of the Lord, had nothing 
 in ther mouths but the word, wreisting that blessed con- 
 veyance of His holy will to us to justifie a practice, sug- 
 gested to them by him who was a murtherer from the 
 beginning, who haveing modelld themselves into a 
 commonwealth (whose idoll is that accursed paper the 
 Covenant, and whose only rule is to have non at all) have 
 proceeded to declaire themselves noe longer his Majestie's 
 subjects, to forfeit all of us who have the honour to serve 
 him in any considerable station, and will be sure ere long 
 to doe so, if not prevented by this great and honourable 
 court. It is how to ridde our selves of these men, and of 
 all who inclyne to ther principles, that we are to offer to 
 his Majestic our advice, concurrence and utmost assist- 
 ance. These monsters bring a publick reproach upon the 
 nation in the eyes of all our neighbours abroad, while 
 in ther Gazetts we are ]nentiond as acting the vilest 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. pp. 92, 93. 
 2 Ibid., p. 147.
 
 196 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 assassinations and the horridest villanies. They render 
 us unquiet and unsecure at home ; they bring reproach 
 upon our rehgion and are our great plague. Lett us for 
 the saike of our alledgiance, lor his Majestic's honour, for 
 our reputation abroad, for the vindication of our rehgion, 
 and for our ounc peace and tranquilhtie, make haiste to 
 gett our selves cured of it.' The Estates responded 
 heartily to the invitation.^ 
 
 Neither in the Council nor in Parliament was Claver- 
 house concerned in the drafting of the measures which 
 the King's advisers advocated. Virtually the country was 
 under martial law, and he and the regiment under his 
 command were required to administer it. He did so with 
 an assured conviction that the policy ordained was just 
 and necessary. He executed it with vigour, but not in- 
 discriminately. In a persecution whose proportions have 
 been vastly overestimated, the tale of victims tradition- 
 ally and generously accorded him is grotesque in its 
 exaggeration. 2 
 
 Claverhouse breaks a long silence in a letter to Queens- 
 berry on 3rd May 1685.^ The purport of it would read 
 reproachfully to one who so lately had represented its 
 writer the captive of a Whig Delilah. The letter narrated 
 
 ^ See Hint. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. pp. 91-98. 
 
 2 A typical case may be mentioned here. According to Defoe 
 (Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, p. 252) Claverhouse saw a man 
 riding ahead of him on the highway. As he refused to stop when sum- 
 moned to do so, Claverhouse ordered one of his men to shoot him as he 
 rode before them. It was found afterwards that he was deaf. His name 
 was Robert Auchinleck. That is Defoe's story. Wodrow (vol. iv. p. 
 184) says that the man's Christian name was William ; that he was a 
 ' full conformist,' but rode on for fear lest his horse should be taken from 
 him ; that he outdistanced his pursuers, who came up with him while 
 he was drinking at a public-house. Finally, his executioner was not 
 Defoe's 'murthering Persecutor' Claverhovise, but a 'company of 
 Douglas's foot.' The incident took place, no doubt, upon one or other of 
 Douglas's missions in January or March 1685. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Kept, xv., pt. viii, p. 292. The letter is dated 
 from Galston, Ayrshire.
 
 THE NEW REIGN 197 
 
 an incident which Wodrow, by a judicious but repre- 
 hensible suppression of pertinent facts, has represented as 
 the wanton murder of a peaceable and unoffending man, 
 whose only fault was his nonconformity. Let Claver- 
 liouse toll his own story : 
 
 May it please your Grace, — 
 
 On Frayday last,^ amongst the hilles betuixt Douglas and 
 the Plcl lands, we perseucd tuo fellous a great way throu the 
 mosses, and in end seised them. The}' had no amies about 
 them and denayed they had any, but being asked if they would 
 take the abjuration, the eldest of [the] tuo, called John Broun, 
 refused it, nor would he swear not to ryse in amies against the 
 King, but said he kneu no King ; upon which, and there being 
 found bullets and match in his house and treasonable peapers, 
 I caused shoot him dead," which he suffered very inconcernedly. 
 The other, a yong fellou, and his neplieu, called John 
 Brounen, offered to take the oath ; but would not swear that 
 he had not been at Neumilles ^ in armes at the rescuing the 
 prisoners. So I did not knou what to doe with him. I was 
 convinced that he was guilty, but sawe not hou to proceed 
 against him ; wherfor after he had said his prayers and carabins 
 presented to shoot him, I offered to him that if he would make 
 ane ingeneous confession and make a discoverie that might be 
 of any importance for the Kings service, I should delay puling 
 him to death, and plead for him ; upon which he confessed that 
 he was at that attake of Neumilles, and that he had com 
 straight to this house of his uncles on Sunday morning.* In 
 the mean time he was making this confession the souldiers 
 found out a house in the hille under ground, that could hold a 
 dusen of men, and there wer swords and pistolles in it ; and 
 this fellou declaired that they belonged to his uncle, and that 
 
 1 1st May 1G85. 
 
 '^ Summary execution before two witnesses was the penalty of refusal 
 to take the Abjuration Oath. Tiie Council's resolution to that effect was 
 dated 22nd November 168 i. (See Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 154). Even 
 Wodrow, Avhile hinting that the ' murders ' of 1685 were carried out by 
 some who were not commissioned under this order, admits that Claver- 
 lionse was lawfully empowered under it (vol. iv. p. 155). 
 
 ■^ The rescue alluded to took place in April 1685. See Napier, vol. i. 
 p. 142 ; Fountainliall, Historical Observes, p. 160. 
 
 4 2oth April 1685.
 
 198 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 he hud hirkcd in that place ever since BothwelV where he was 
 in armes. He confessed that he had a halbart and told who 
 gave it him about a month agoe, and we have the feleou 
 prisoner. He gave acount of the names of the most pairt of 
 those that wer there. They wer not above sixty, and they 
 wer all Gaston and Neumilles men, saive a feu out of Streven 
 .parish. He gave also acount of a conventicle keeped by 
 Renek- at the bak of Carantable,^ where there wer threttin 
 scor of men in armes mustered and exercised, of which number 
 he was with his hallard. He tells of ane other conventicle 
 about three moneths agoe keeped near Louden Hille, and gives 
 acount of the persons wer at l)oth, and what childring wer 
 baptised, particularly that at Carntable, which was about the 
 time that Liev: Muray and Crichton should have laiten them 
 eskeap. He also gives acount of those who gave any assist- 
 ance to his uncle, and we have seised there upon the good man 
 of the upmost Plellands and ane other tenent about a myll 
 belou, that is flaid upon it. I dout not but if we had time to 
 stay, good use might be made of his confession. I have 
 acquyted my self when I have told your Grace the caise. He 
 has been but a moneth or tuo with his halbart ; and if your 
 Grace thinks he deserves no marcy, justice will pass on him, for 
 I, haAing no comission of justiciary myself,'* have delyvered 
 him up to the Lievetenent Generall [William Drummond of 
 Cromlix] to be disposed of as he pleases. — I am, my Lord, your 
 Graces most humble servant, J. Grahame. 
 
 Who was John Brown ? What justification had Claver- 
 hoiise for his summary execution ? How comes it that 
 
 ^ i.e. the battle of Both well in 1679. 
 
 - James Renwick. " Cairn Table. 
 
 * Douglas had received a comprehensive justiciary power on 27th 
 Marcli 1685 for the southern and western shires (Wodrow, vol. iv. 
 p. 207). Claverhousc had no power to deal summarily with any case 
 other than a refusal to take the Abjuration Oath. His name is not found 
 in the long list of deputes who were ordered to assist Douglas in the 
 exercise of his justiciary commission. Claverhouse's brother David is 
 among them, however, and he is described as ' sheriff of Galloway, in the 
 shire of Wigton, and Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. ' An examination of 
 the Warrant Book in the Record Office, however, reveals the fact that 
 David Graham had received no commission as Sheriff of Galloway from 
 James the Seventh up to 11th May 1685, the date of his alleged partici- 
 pation in the Wigton murders. See p. 133 above.
 
 THE NEW REIGN 199 
 
 Defoe's ' murthering Persecutor,' traditionally greedy for 
 blood, spared the nephew, and condemned the uncle to 
 instant death ? 
 
 John Brown, a man approaching his sixtieth year, 
 dwelt at Priesthill near Muirkirk, an Ayrshire village. 
 He was a carrier by occupation — men called him the 
 ' Christian carrier.' He had for many years been a marked 
 man, and, upon Wodrow's admission, had been 'a long 
 time upon his hiding in the fields.' Being not only of 
 ' shining piety,' but also of ' solid digested knowledge and 
 experience,' with a ' singular talent of a most plain and 
 affecting way of communicating his knowledge to others,' 
 he had employed his leisure in instructing youths, who, 
 ' wanting the advantage of sermons, needed instructions 
 when they came and joined themselves to the sufferers.' ^ 
 There is no reason to doubt Wodrow's eulogy, though 
 Walker endows John Brown with an impediment which 
 harmonises barely with Wodrow's record of his gifts.^ 
 But Wodrow's assertion, that Brown was 'no Avay 
 obnoxious to the Government, except for not hearing the 
 episcopal ministers,' is as far from the truth as his sugges- 
 tion that the Abjuration Oath was not offered to the 
 unhappy man.^ Brown's death was far from being the 
 unlicensed and Avanton murder of one whose only crime 
 was nonconformity. His record can be traced, and it 
 entirely negatives Wodrow's ingenuous picture of passive 
 nonconformity. His name is found among those declared 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 244. 
 
 ^ Brown was 'a man of stammering speech,' according to Walker (Six 
 Saints of the Gooenant, ed. Hay Fleming, vol. i. p. 84). 
 
 •' Even the epitaph on Brown's grave at Priesthill convicts Wodrow 
 of inaccuracy, if not of a deliberate intention to suppress a material 
 fact. Brown was 'murdered,' says the epitaph, 'for his testimony 
 to the Covenanted work of Reformation, Because he durst not own 
 the authority of the then Tyrant destroying the Same ' (Thomson, 
 Martyr Graves, p. 144). The inscription gives Brown's age as fifty - 
 eight.
 
 200 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 outlaws in the royal proclamation of 5tli May 1684.' 
 Amid the quiet activities which Wodrow attributes to 
 him he yet had leisure to bring himself prominently 
 before the authorities. Two months before his death a 
 committee of the Privy Council had expressly recom- 
 mended his exclusion from the Indemnity published on 
 2nd March 1685, as one who 'refuses the allegiance.'^ 
 Wodrow's picture of the unsuspecting old man suddenly 
 seized while, with a conscience void of offence, he was 
 cutting his peats, is yet further discredited when we turn 
 to Claverhouse's despatch. It was only after pursuing 
 Brown and his nephew ' a great way throu the mosses ' 
 that Claverhouse succeeded in capturing them. Both 
 denied the possession of arms, a statement which was not 
 true. A search of the house at Priesthill, to which they 
 were brought, revealed the existence of ' bullets and 
 match ' stored in it. On the hillside a hiding-place was 
 also discovered ' under ground, that could hold a dusen of 
 men, and there wer swords and pistolles in it.' The 
 nephew, after John Brown's execution, when his informa- 
 tion could not harm him, admitted that the arms were 
 his uncle's, the hiding-place his also, and that John 
 Brown had lurked there ' ever since BothAvell, where he 
 was in armes.' In the house itself were discovered 
 ' treasonable papers.' Their nature can only be inferred. 
 Possibly they were no more than Brown's corre- 
 spondence with other ' society people.' Possibly they 
 were of a more dangerous character. Alexander 
 
 ^ The list is printed bj- Wodrow. The entry regarding Brown is : 
 ' John Brown of Priestfield, for reset' (vol. iv. p. 18). It may be noticed 
 that Wodrow elsewhere misnames Brown's home as Priestfield. This 
 points to his familiarity with Brown's appearance in the fugitive roll, a 
 fact which in his narrative he carefully suppressed. 
 
 - The report is dated 10th March 1685. The extract runs : ' John 
 Brown, an old man, in the fugitive roll, refuses the allegiance, and so 
 ought not to have the benefit of the indemnity' (quoted in Aytoun, 
 Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, 2nd edit. p. 344).
 
 THE NEW REIGN 201 
 
 Peden, a stormy petrel, had parted company Avith him 
 a few hours before, with prophetic forebodings, it is 
 asserted, of the tragedy to follow.^ Argyll sailed from 
 Holland on the morrow of it.^ But the character of the 
 ' treasonable papers ' is irrelevant. Brown was not con- 
 demned upon them. He was offered the authorised test 
 of loyalty — the oath abjuring Renwick's rebellious 
 Declaration. He refused to take it, or to undertake not 
 to take up arms against the King. The consequences he 
 cannot have been ignorant of. Summary execution before 
 two witnesses was the punishment enjoined by the 
 Council. His fate was inevitable whoever had been his 
 judge, for there was no alternative. ' I caused shoot him 
 dead, which he suffered very inconcernedly,' is Claver- 
 house's terse record of the scene. Even the martyrologists 
 admit that he gave the unhappy victim, whom the law and 
 not he condemned, a respite for prayer and leavetaking.^ 
 
 ^ Patrick Walker, Six Saints of the Covenant, ed. Hay Fleming, vol. i. 
 p. 84. 
 
 ^ Journal of the Hon. John Ershine of Carnoclc, Scott. Hist. Soc, 
 p. 114. 
 
 '^ The amplification of tradition has added various picturesque or 
 harrowing details to the scene, which can be dismissed. While Walker 
 states that a file of six troopers shot Brown, and that 'the most part of 
 the bullets came upon his head,' Wodrow thought fit to represent the 
 troopers as so affected by Brown's eloquent prayer that Claverhouse ' was 
 forced to turn executioner himself, and in a fret shot him with his own 
 hand.' Howie (Scots Worthies, vol. i. p. 455), with an even more fevered 
 imagination, declares that Claverhouse actually feared the mutiny of his 
 melted troops, and ' snatched a pistol from his own belt,' and so forth. 
 The taunts which Claverhouse is alleged to have made to the imhappy 
 widow are too foolish for consideration. They were obviously incubated 
 in a circle which was not instructed in the standards of gentlehood. 
 The jeering at a woman whose husband lay dead at her feet (if indeed she 
 was present) is too gross and palpable a fiction to pass current with those 
 who remember that if Claverhouse was a persecutor he had also the in- 
 stincts and training of a gentleman. The allegation is also wholly at 
 variance with the character he reveals in his letters. His alleged pro- 
 fane answer to the woman's rebuke rests upon a similar plane. The 
 presence of John Brown's wife at his execution is asserted with varying 
 details which bespeak the fact that no coherent and authoritative account 
 of the circumstance was at the disposal even of the martyrologists of a
 
 202 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 It is hardly necessary to point out that, even if other 
 disproof were wanting, the perverted account of John 
 Brown's death, which Wodrow and Macaulay have 
 sponsored, is shattered by Claverhouse's treatment of 
 John Brown's nephew on the same occasion. His name 
 was John Browneii, or Browning. He at first refused to 
 confess that he was concerned in a recent rescue of 
 prisoners at Newmilns. He offered, however, to take the 
 Oath of Abjuration. Thereby he avoided his uncle's fate. 
 But clearly he was no passive nonconformist. ' I was con- 
 vinced that he was guilty,' Claverhouse told Queensberry, 
 ' but sawe not hou to proceed against him.' He bade 
 him prepare for death, and then offered him his life if he 
 would confess his part in the Newmilns rescue, and give 
 information incriminating his colleagues. Browning did 
 both. ' He has been but a moneth or tuo ' in arms, 
 Claverhouse reported to Queensberry in extenuation of 
 his case; adding, that having no commission of justiciary 
 himself, he had delivered him up to the proper authority. 
 The case is typical of the methods of a man who, heartily 
 concurring in the policy of which he was an agent, allowed 
 neither zeal, vindictiveness, nor the strongest presumptions 
 of guilt to carry him a hair's-breadth beyond the limit 
 which the law and his commission allowed him. 
 
 To disentangle Claverhouse from the meshes in which 
 the insatiable credulity, to call it by no other name, of 
 
 later generation. That she 'sras forced to witness her husband's death is 
 incredible. That she should have done so, impelled by a dreadful 
 fascination, is possible ; but that she should have brought out her 
 children to witness the tragedy surpasses the power of belief. Yet 
 Wodrow says her 'young infant' was with her, and that she was enceinte. 
 Walker says her child was in her arms, and tliat tliere was with her also 
 ' another child of his [Brown's] first wife's.' He does not mention her 
 approaching confinement. Alexander Shields (-.4 Short Memorial, p. 35), 
 writing only five years after the event, states briefly that Brown was shot 
 'before his own door, in presence of his wife.' He mentions no children, 
 nor any of the horriljle and fictitious details which tradition had crystal- 
 lised into facts when Wodrow was eagerly searching for them.
 
 THE NEW REIGN 203 
 
 uncritical writers has bound him is a task which, easy in 
 itself, all but exhausts the patience in view of its apparent 
 futility. Literature of the type of Wodrow meets a 
 demand which in itself speaks to the aloofness of Claver- 
 house and the policy he typifies from the strong under- 
 current of his countrymen's ideals and aspirations. It is 
 poured out in profusion. It still takes Wodrow, Macaulay, 
 and epitaphic testimony, as its sufficient and satisfying 
 authority. It is ignorant or contemptuous of every 
 species of literature which corrects its hide - bound 
 prejudices. It moves in its narrow, uninformed groove, 
 and will do so to the end of the chapter. There is not in 
 the whole range of history a literature so uninformed, so 
 aloof from the method and inquiry which modern usage 
 demands as essential, so w^edded to indelible and pre- 
 judiced impressions, as that which owns Wodrow and 
 Howie of Lochgoin as its parents. All honour to the 
 spirit which cribs and confines its outlook. But would 
 that some power should irrevocably level its output to 
 the standard which even the meanest and least reputable 
 writer of history holds before him ! Prejudice is pardon- 
 able ; but prejudice founded upon wilful neglect of evidence 
 is beyond condonation. 
 
 The traditional account of John Brown's death, a 
 characteristic illustration of the Wodrowesque method, 
 pales to insignificance before a cherished example of 
 Olaverhouse's illegal violence which is alleged to have 
 occurred at Mauchline, not far distant, five days later 
 (6th May 1685). Defoe, as almost invariabl}'^, presents 
 the fable in its most extravagant form. According to 
 him, Claverhouse had discovered five men, whose names 
 he does not mention, confined in different prisons in the 
 locality. Attendance at conventicles was their only crime. 
 None the less, 'without any Trial or other Sentence 
 than his own Command, his (Olaverhouse's) bloody
 
 204 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Soldiers fetcli'd them all to Mauchlin, a Village where 
 his Head Quarters were, and hang'd them immediately, 
 not suffering them to enter into any House at their 
 coming, nor at the Entreaty of the poor men, would 
 permit One to lend them a Bible, who it seems offered 
 it, nor allow them a Moment to pray to God.'^ Patrick 
 Walker '^ provides another version, which stands in curious 
 contrast to Defoe's. He gives details of the five men, and 
 the circumstances of their arrest. Peter Gillies was one of 
 them. He was a native of Muiravonside,^ and was arrested, 
 upon the information of the minister there, by a body of 
 Highlanders under Lieutenant - General Druramond's 
 orders.^ John Bryce, of West Calder, was also appre- 
 hended by the same force.- At Carluke, on their south- 
 ward progress, William Finneson, or Fiddison, and Thomas 
 Young were made prisoners through the instrumentality 
 of ' the Laird of Lee's footmen.' ^ The four men were 
 carried prisoners to Mauchline, Drummond's head- 
 quarters. All four of them were Walker's 'very dear 
 acquaintances,' and with the circumstances of their arrest 
 he may be deemed familiar. Claverhouse so far does not 
 come into the story. The fifth of the Mauchline victims, 
 according to Walker, was named John Binning, who had 
 
 ' Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, p. 250. 
 
 '^ Six Saints of the Covenant, ed. Hay Fleming, vol. i. p. 297. 
 
 ^ This I take to be Muirside, a village in old Monkland parish, Lanark- 
 shire. 
 
 •* On 21st April 1685, 'upon rumors of fears of Argile's landing,' the 
 Council had ordered a force of twelve hundred Highlanders to be 
 ' presently ' sent into the western shires at the disposal of Drummond 
 and Colonel Douglas (Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 636). 
 
 ^ Wodrow (vol. iv. p. 245), whose information is based upon 'a very 
 large and circumstantiate account,' describes Gillies as ' a walker of cloth 
 in a mill belonging to Sir James Murray of Skirling,' and as having 
 already been punished for allowing his house to be used as a conventicle. 
 John Bryce was a weaver. 
 
 ® Cromwell Lockhart of Lee was appointed one of Colonel James 
 Douglas's deputes in the latter's commission of justiciary of date 27th 
 March 1685 (Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 207).
 
 THE NEW REIGN 205 
 
 been apprehended while ' waiting upon cattle, without 
 stocking or shoe.' He was certainly John Brounen, or 
 Browning, whom Claverhouse, having no power of 
 justiciary, had sent to Mauchline to be tried by 
 Drummond immediately after John Brown's execution 
 at Priesthill.^ The five men were hanged ' all up upon one 
 gibbet,' says Walker, ' without suffering them to pray at 
 their death.' None were allowed ' either to sell them or 
 lend them Bibles,' and ' their corps were buried upon the 
 spot.' Walker does not aver, with Defoe, that the five 
 men were executed without trial. Alexander Shields, 
 whose evidence is most nearly contemporary, associates 
 Dumbarton (of whose participation a word later) and 
 Douglas with Claverhouse in the prisoners' execution, 
 which, he asserts, was ' without Legal Tryal or Sentence.' 
 The incident of Bibles withheld and of refusal of time for 
 prayer also has his authority.^ Obviously Shields and 
 Walker jointly inspire the epitaph upon the gravestone 
 of the five victims at Mauchline. It runs : — 
 
 'Bloody Dumbarton, Douglas, and Dundee, 
 Moved by the Devil and the Laird of Lee, 
 Dragg'd these five men to Death v^ith gun and sword, 
 Not jiuffering them to Pray, nor Read God's Word ; 
 Ouning the Work of God was all their Crime. 
 The Eighty-Five was a Saint Killing Time.' ^ 
 
 It already appears that Defoe's story is not true, so far 
 as it places upon Claverhouse the sole responsibility for 
 the death of the five men at Mauchline on 6th May 1685. 
 One may further undermine the silly fable. It is alleged 
 by Defoe and Walker that they were condemned without 
 
 ^ See above, p. 202. 
 
 2 A Short Memorial, p. 34. 
 
 ^ Thomson, Martyr Graves, p. 163. It may be noted that the name of 
 the fifth sufferer is given as 'John Bruning'; and that the inscription 
 was copied in 1830 from 'the old decayed tombstone.'
 
 206 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 trial.^ Is this the case ? Wodrow himself prints a docu- 
 ment in disproof of it, so far at least as Gillies and Bryce 
 are concerned. It is the summons to them ' to compear 
 before lieutenant-general Drummond, commissioner of 
 justiciary, within the tolbooth or court place of Mauchlin, 
 this fifth of May, to answer to your indictment.' A jury 
 was panelled from among the soldiery, Wodrow states, 
 and the five men were sentenced to be hanged 'at the 
 town-end of Mauchlin, May (jth.' No coffins nor death- 
 clothes were allowed them, 'but the soldiers and two 
 country men made a liole in the earth near by, and 
 cast them all together in it.' - 
 
 The Mauchline tragedy is a dismal picture of martial 
 law in the guise of legal forms. Claverhouse's biographer 
 is happily concerned only to dissociate Claverhouse from 
 it. To do so is easy. The men were condemned under a 
 commission of justiciary. Their judges were Drummond, 
 and possibly Douglas and Lockhart of Lee, who were his 
 deputes. Dumbarton, whom the epitaph mentions as one 
 of the judges,^ had nothing to do with the sentence. 
 Claverhouse was not qualified to sit upon the court. 
 John Browning,* in fact, is the only link that connects 
 him with the case. If the John Bruning executed at 
 Mauchline was the man made prisoner at Priesthill five 
 days earlier, Claverhouse's share in the tragedy is that he 
 
 ^ Their epitaph makes the same statement : ' Here lies the Bodies of 
 Peter Gillies, John Bryce, Thomas Young, William Fiddison, & John 
 Bruning, Who Were Apprehended and Hanged without Trial at Mauch- 
 line, Anno 1685' (Thomson, Martyr Graves, p. 161). 
 
 - Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 246. 
 
 2 On 9tli May 1685 Dumbarton was iu London awaiting instructions to 
 proceed to Scotland. See above, p. 193. 
 
 •* In the fugitive roll of 1684, under Galston parish, there appears the 
 name of 'John Browning younger in Riccarton.' If he was John Brown's 
 nephew, the following entry adds a detail to the family history: 'John 
 Browning elder in Riccarton in Ayrshire ' among the ' Fugitives for 
 rebellion and treasonable crimes, since November 1683' (Wodrow, 
 vol, iv. pp. 18, 28).
 
 THE NEW KEIGN 207 
 
 handed over for trial by a competent authority a suspicious 
 character whom he was not empowered to judge himself. 
 If the two Brownings were different persons, Claverhouse 
 was not connected with the case at all. In either event 
 Defoe's accusation must be relegated to the limbo of 
 discredited fables, 
 
 Claverhouse's movements in the early part of May 1685, 
 and the persistence with which the Highland troops, 
 summoned in anticipation of trouble from Argyll, are 
 associated with him, suggest that Claverhouse and his 
 regiment were joined with them in a comprehensive 
 patrolling movement over a district already disaffected, 
 and likely to give fresh trouble if rumours of Argyll's 
 projected appeal to arms proved accurate. From Les- 
 mahagow he had ridden to Muirkirk on the 1st of the 
 month. On the 3rd he was at Galston, and clearly con- 
 templated immediate marching orders. On the 10th he 
 was far southward in Dumfriesshire, and added another 
 to the roll of the victims whose epitaphs stand in false 
 testimony against him. The case is that of Andrew 
 Hislop.^ Wodrow records the details of it, and his account 
 coincides uneasily with the traditional picture of ' Bluidy 
 Clavers.' Hislop, according to Wodrow,^ was but a youth. 
 He lived with his mother, ' a very honest religious woman.' 
 
 1 At Craighaugli, in Eskdaleinuir, Hislop was shot and buried. His 
 epitaph states : — 
 
 ' Here lyes Andrew Hislop 
 Martyr shot dead upon 
 This place by Sir James 
 Johnston of Westerhall 
 And John Graham of C 
 laverhouse for adheri- 
 ng to the word of God 
 Christ's kingly govern- 
 meut in his House and 
 the covenanted work of 
 Reformation against tyran- 
 ny, perjury and prelacy.' 
 
 (Thomson, Martyr Graves, p. 453.) 
 
 2 Vol. iv. p. 249.
 
 208 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 She and her household had been guilty of resetting 'one 
 of" the suffering people,' who died in her house and was 
 buried ' in the fields near by ' her house. The grave was 
 discovered by Sir James Johnston of Westerhall, a neigh- 
 bouring laird, to whom a commission of justiciary had 
 been granted as one of Douglas's deputes on 27th March 
 1685.^ He traced the body to the house which had shel- 
 tered it, pulled it down and turned out the woman and 
 her children ' to the fields.' The crime of reset was 
 specifically mentioned for condign punishment both in 
 Douglas's commission of justiciary (27th March 1685) and 
 in that of Drummond (21st April 1685).2 On 10th May 
 Claverhouse, who had just arrived in the district, came 
 upon Andrew Hislop ' in the fields.' Had Hislop refused 
 to accept the Abjuration Oath when offered to him, his 
 fate would have been that of John Brown of Priesthill. 
 He was dealt with, however, as Claverhouse had dealt with 
 John Browning. He handed him over to Westerhall, who 
 had the power of justiciary which Claverhouse lacked. 
 Westerhall used it as Drummond and his deputes had used 
 theirs at Mauchline. Hislop was tried and condemned to 
 death. He had already been dealt with by Westerhall for 
 reset. There is no evidence of further offence committed 
 by him. Of his earlier punishment Claverhouse perhaps 
 was ignorant. Certainly a second and extreme penalty 
 was grossly unjust. That fact, rather than his 'reflections' 
 upon John Brown's death, as Wodrow suggests, inspired 
 Claverhouse's protest : ' The blood of this poor man be 
 upon you, Westerhall, I am free of it.' Wodrow offers 
 details curiously reminiscent of John Brown's execution. 
 Claverhouse, he asserts, ordered ' a highland gentleman ' 
 to carry out the death-sentence. The officer refused, 
 ' and drawing off his men at some distance, swore he 
 would fight Claverhouse and his dragoons before he did it,' 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 207. ^ Ihid., vol. iv. pp. 207, 209.
 
 THE NEW REIGN 209 
 
 Claverhoiise thereupon ordered up a firing party of his 
 own regiment, and Hislop met his fate.^ 
 
 Claverhouse's conduct is in keeping Avith his real rather 
 than his traditional character. Finding Hislop lurking 
 in the open, he had sent him to the proper authority for 
 examination. Westerhall found that the lad had been 
 already dealt with by himself. Hislop was able to purge 
 himself of the suspicion which had caused his second 
 arrest. Where one died 'justly,' as Claverhouse had told 
 Queensberr}^ he had no scruple. Of callous disregard for 
 human life there is no trace in him. Hislop's death was 
 neither just nor judicious, and Claverhouse protested to 
 the limit of his duty.^ 
 
 The last instance of a summary execution conducted by 
 
 Claverhouse, of which record exists, is the case of Matthew 
 
 Meiklewrath. The date of his death is nowhere stated. 
 
 In the churchyard of Colmonell, a Carrick village, a stone 
 
 bears the following inscription : — 
 
 * I Matthew Mcllwraith in this parish of Colmonell 
 By bloody Claverhouse I fell 
 Who did command that I should die 
 For owning Covenanted presbytery. 
 My Blood a Witness still doth stand 
 'Gainst all defections in this land.'^ 
 
 1 Alexander Shields (Shoi't 3Iemorial, p. 37) records the event thus : 'Sir 
 James Johnstoun of Westerhall caused apprehend Andrew Hislop in the 
 parish of Hutton in Anandale, delivered him up to Claverhouse, and never 
 rested till he got him shot by Claverhouse his Troupers ; Claverhouse 
 would have delayed it, but Westerhall was so urgent, that Claverhouse 
 was heard say. This Mans blood shall be upon Westerhall. May 1685.' 
 
 ^ The author of The DesiJOt's Champion (p. 218) points out that an 
 asserted murder of three men near Glasgow, attributed to Claverhouse, on 
 11th May 1685, is disproved by the fact that Claverhouse on that date Avas 
 in Eskdalemuir. The drowning of the Wigton martyrs also occurred on 
 11th May 1685. In regard to that crime it is not even necessary for Claver- 
 house to prove an alibi. His name is not connected with it even by such 
 contemporary or quasi-contemporary writers as Shields, Defoe, or Wodrow. 
 Nor was he indirectly and through delegated authority connected with it. 
 His commission as Sheriff of Wigton had lapsed with Charles the Second's 
 death, and had not been renewed. As to his brother David, who is de- 
 scribed as Sheriff of Galloway in some accounts of the tragedy-, I have 
 pointed out already that he held no such commission on the date of 
 the tragedy. ^ Thomson, Martyr Graces, p. 323. 
 
 O
 
 210 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 or Meikle wrath, beyond his death and the circumstances 
 of it, nothing is known.^ Wodrow does not mention him. 
 Alexander Shields says no more than that Claverhouse 
 ' authorised his Troop to kill Matthew Mckelurath, with- 
 out any Examination.' ^ Defoe elaborates the incident 
 with characteristic imaginativeness. Riding through 
 Colmonell, Claverhouse, he asserts, ' saw a Man run 
 hastily cross the Street before his Troop, and as he might 
 suppose, did it to escape from or avoid them, tho' as the 
 People of the Place related it, the poor Man had no 
 Apprehensions of them, but as he [Claverhouse] took all 
 Occasions for his bloody design, he commanded his Men 
 to shoot this Person, without so much as Examining him, 
 or asking who he was.' ^ It is permissible to point out 
 that if Meiklewrath was shot without a question being 
 addressed to him, his epitaph somewhat generously inter- 
 prets the significance of his death. It is, however, not 
 only the discrepancy between the epitaph and the other 
 accounts which renders it impossible to entertain the 
 assertion that Meiklewrath was shot at sight and without 
 a question being addressed to him. The cases of John 
 Browning and Andrew Hislop indicate in the clearest 
 manner Claverhouse's practice. The epitaph's ascription 
 of Meiklewrath's death to his ' owning Covenanted presby- 
 tery ' is, in the light of those two cases, tantamount to an 
 admission that he was ofiered and refused the Oath of 
 Abjuration. His case stands with that of John Brown. 
 
 Such is the record of Claverhouse's alleged ' murders.' 
 In a critical period, the executant of savage laws, and 
 in the eye of tradition the most unprincipled executant 
 of them, the tale of Claverhouse's enormities is reduced. 
 
 1 In the fugitive roll of 1684 (Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 20) the name of 
 ' Gilbert Mackilwraith in Dalwharroch ' appears under Colmonell parish. 
 '^ Short Memoricd, p. 35. He adds the date 'Anno 1685.' 
 ^ Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, p. 251.
 
 THE NEW REIGN 211 
 
 upon examination, to the meanest residuum. The propor- 
 tions of it lay Wodrow under the gravest suspicion of 
 exasfOferation as to the character and dimensions of a 
 persecution in which the share of its alleged arch-Nero is 
 demonstrably so infinitely less than that traditionally 
 and unwarrantably assigned to him. Every charge against 
 Claverhouse, culled from every source of authority, has 
 been examined, and the result is as follows: — In the 
 exercise of the plenary power of life and death vested in 
 him he took two lives, and no more. In regard to one of 
 them — John Brown of Priesthill — the evidence is positive 
 to the fact that his victim was lawfully, though summarily, 
 executed. In regard to the second — Matthew Meikle- 
 wrath — the evidence, though less clear, weighs to the 
 conclusion that Claverhouse took a life legally forfeit for 
 refusal to accept the test of loyalty which the Govern- 
 ment, in the interests of public order and safety, thought 
 fit to require. As a subordinate, executing the orders of 
 an authority whose command he was not competent to 
 disobey, and only after a formal, though ineffectual pro- 
 test, Claverhouse took one life, and one life onl}', that of 
 Andrew Hislop. Two of these cases, and probably the 
 third, occurred at a time when the Government faced not 
 only a virtual rebellion lately declared from within, but 
 also an imminent expansion of it with Argyll's landing. 
 Of an earlier period are the remaining death-penalties 
 exacted by Claverhouse. The five men — to enlarge their 
 numbers to the utmost figure — shot at Bridge of Dee in 
 December 1684, died under circumstances which abso- 
 lutely justified their pursuer in dealing with them as 
 persons in overt rebellion against their sovereign. Two 
 more men, partners with the five, and equally under the 
 implication of overt rebellion, were reserved for trial by a 
 tribunal legally established, and by that tribunal were 
 legally condemned.
 
 212 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 It appears, then, that the number of lives taken by 
 Claverhouse in a period of the severest political crisis was 
 precisely ten.^ In the case of eight of these ten Claver- 
 house stands exonerated, either by the circumstances of 
 their condemnation,- or by the circumstances under which 
 they met their death,^ from the charge of arbitrary, cold- 
 blooded, or vindictive blood-letting. Tavo cases alone 
 stand, in which, upon his oAvn initiative, Claverhouse 
 exacted the death-penalty. In one of them absolutely, in 
 the second of them with almost equal certainty, Claver- 
 house was no more than the agent in the carrying out of 
 a sentence to which its victims were legally and knowably 
 liable. The traditional Claverhouse of Wodrow, Howie, 
 Defoe, and their unquestioning modern disciple, Macaulay, 
 is familiar. ' Murdered by Bloody Clavers ' is the con- 
 ventional epitaph of rebel martyrs in whose death he had 
 no particle of share. ' Bloody ' in disposition he was not. 
 ' Bloody ' in execution he was not. Of the refinement of 
 cruelty which condemned the Wigton martyrs to a linger- 
 ing death there is in Claverhouse not a trace.* The con- 
 clusion is insistent, that had he died plain John Graham 
 of Claverhouse, and not Viscount of Dundee, the one 
 
 1 If the number of those killed at Bridge of Dee was only four, the 
 total number of persons whose death Claverhouse directly or indirectly 
 caused was nine. 
 
 - i.e. the two prisoners captured at Bridge of Dee, and Andrew Hislop. 
 
 ^ i.e. the four or five men shot in the pursuit at Bridge of Dee. 
 
 ■* With Grierson of Lag, whom evidence associates with the Wigton 
 outrage, Claverhouse was brought into relation on at least one occasion. 
 John Bell of Whiteside, the stepson of Lord Kenmure, had been shot by 
 Lag in February 1685 (Robert Simpson, Gltanimjn amomj tlie Moimtains, 
 p. 373). Some time after, Kenmure confronted Lag at Kirkcudbright. 
 The two men nearly came to blows, and Claverliouse, who was present, 
 parted them. The inn at which they met is said to have been standing 
 in 1841 (Agnew, Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloivar/, vol. ii. p. 147. See 
 Alexander Fergusson, The Laird of Lag, p. 47). Hhields (Short Memorial, 
 p. 37) states that Lag had under his orders ' a part of Claverhouses Troop ' 
 at the time of John Bell's death. Bell's grave is in Anwoth churchyard. 
 See his epitaph in A Cloud of Witnesses, p. 387.
 
 THE NEW REIGN 213 
 
 availing personality in Scotland in militant sympathy 
 with the discredited policy of a Despot whose Champion 
 he was, ' Bloody ' Clavers had never been created to con- 
 found ' Bonnie ' Dundee, and the tombstones of murdered 
 martyrs had been purer for lack of the conventional libel 
 of him.i 
 
 On 20th May 1685 Argyll arrived at Campbell town. 
 Sir John Cochrane, Claverhouse's relative by marriage, 
 was with him. Argyll's Declaration, and the reasons 
 which impelled him to seek the overthrow of the Govern- 
 ment, were ' publickly read with sound of trumpet ' on the 
 same day.^ The brief rebellion stood proclaimed. Dum- 
 barton had already been appointed to cope with it. On 
 18th May, two days before Argyll's proclamation, Claver- 
 house was commissioned a brigadier of the horse and 
 foot.^ His rival, Douglas, received similar promotion. 
 Queensberry's influence, however, secured him a narrow 
 but useful margin of seniority. Moray had gained him 
 that advantage after a sharp tussle with both Melfort and 
 the King. The two commissions, he wrote to Queens- 
 
 ' The author of The Despofs Chamqnon, who was the first to make an 
 exhaustive inquiry into Claverhouse's alleged atrocities, enumerates the 
 grand recorded total of them as thirty-three. An examination of her list 
 brings out the following suggestive facts. Seven cases are duplicates of 
 others scheduled in the list, which reduces the total to twenty-six. Five 
 more of them can be eliminated on the simple ground that Claverhouse 
 was not in the locality on the date of their alleged occurrence (11th May 
 1685). That reduces the total to twenty-one. Six of the ' murders ' were 
 ordained by tribunals on which Claverhouse had no seat, and the sen- 
 tences were not carried out by him (Graham of Galloway and the Mauch- 
 line sufferers). That reduces the list to fifteen. Four cases are those of 
 nameless martyrs whom the Ordnance Gazetteer declares to have been shot 
 at Birkhill, on apparently the vaguest evidence. The list of attested or 
 arguable cases is thus reduced to eleven. In one of them (Auchinleck) 
 Defoe's accusation is flatly contradicted by Wodrow. Of the remaining 
 ten, whose lives alone lie at Clavei house's door, two only were killed 
 under circumstances •which might justify the application of the term 
 'murder.' Both of them were summary executions, ccmducted in the 
 manner which the law enjoined. 
 
 2 Journal of the Hon. John Erskine of Oarnock, Scut. Hist. Soc, p. 118. 
 
 •^ Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. ix. fol. 525.
 
 214 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 berry on 18th May, had been signed that afternoon, and 
 ' ar sent hear uithe by L'' Charles Murray.' The King 
 had designed to commission Claverhouse brigadier of the 
 horse, and Douglas of the foot. Moray objected that 
 Claverhouse in that case would be superior to Douglas. 
 Melfort saw no reason why Douglas should not submit to 
 a lesser position, except that he had the advantage of 
 being Queensberry's brother. Moray backed Douglas as a 
 man of more experience. Melfort replied that Claver- 
 house had served the King longer in Scotland. 'Wee 
 uear verry hot on the matter,' wrote Moray : ' By this 
 tym I flung from him [Melfort], and uent streight to the 
 King, and represented the cace : he followed and came to 
 us, but the King changed his mind, and orderd him to 
 draw bothe the commissions bothe for hors and foot, and 
 your brother's two days date befor the other, by uhich his 
 comand is clire befor the other.' ^ 
 
 Claverhouse watched from a distance the brief and ill- 
 managed effort which ended with Argyll's capture and 
 execution. The chief duty entrusted to him was the 
 guarding of the Borders, to prevent communications be- 
 tween Argyll and Monmouth's adherents in England.^ 
 His headquarters appear to have been at Selkirk.^ On 
 23rd May 1685 the Council gave him carte blanche to 
 ' propose what you judge expedient, and wTite it to the 
 Earl of Dumbarton.' Lieutenant-General Drummond and 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Bucclench and Qveanshtrry MSS., vol. ii. p. 69. 
 On 16th May 16S5 Moray had told Queensberry that the commissions 
 which the King designed for Claverhouse and Douglas were ' to lye in 
 your Grace's hands, to be made uss of, in cace of any rebellion, and not 
 otheruays ' {ibid., p. 68). As a further sign of Claverhouse's recovering 
 influence after a period of obscuration, it may be noticed that on 13th 
 May 168.5 he had been appointed by the Estates a Commissioner of Supply 
 for Forfarshire (Acts of the Parlt. Scot., vol. viii. p. 4G8). 
 
 ^ The Memoirs of 1/14, ed. Jeuner, p. 15. 
 
 2 Fountainhall, Historical Observes, p. 165. Wodrow (vol. iv. pp. 
 255-56) gives an account of Claverhouse's activity at this crisis.
 
 THE NEW REIGN 215 
 
 Douglas were at or near Ayr, he was informed. The 
 militia were to rendezvous at Linlithgow, and to be posted 
 at Glasgow. Atholl was in Argyllshire, and Gordon at 
 the head of Lochness. ' We hear,' they added, ' that 
 about thirty horsemen came over the Border, and returned 
 in a few hours.' The Deputy-Governor of Carlisle was to 
 correspond with him.^ Claverhouse's recommendations 
 are unfortunately not extant. But his movements do not 
 support the conclusion that he deemed his continuous 
 presence near the Border necessary. The Lords of the 
 Articles, to meet Argyll's Declaration and the sympathy 
 it might evoke in persons already disaffected, had already 
 (21st May 1685) drafted an Act 'for taking the oath of 
 alledgeance and asserting the royall prerogative.' - The 
 execution of it was added to Claverhouse's responsibilities. 
 On 6th June 1685 he was at Kirkconnel in Nithsdale, 
 enforcing it.^ He had arrived there from Ayr,* whither 
 he had proceeded probably to confer with Drummond. 
 Dalmellington fell in his route, and there also he obliged 
 the inhabitants to ' purge themselves of reset and con- 
 verse with rebels.' ^ From Kirkconnel he passed over 
 
 1 Quoted in Napiei', vol, iii. p. 460. Dumbarton's commission as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief had been produced at Council on 22nd May 1685. Dal- 
 ziel was joined in nominal command with him {ibid.). 
 
 2 Hisf. MSS. Comm. Eept. xv., pt, viii. p. 121. 
 
 •" Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 329, Claverhouse, he asserts, ' apprehended 
 multitudes both men and women , , . caused many to swear never to 
 lift arms against king James vii. under pretext of religion ; and with 
 others they went further, and obliged them to swear, that if they were 
 taken by a contrary party, they should use all endeavours by night or 
 day, even to the hazard of their lives, to leave them and inform the 
 commanders of the king's forces, or the next magistrate, of the numbers 
 and the strength of these on the other side. ' 
 
 ■' This appears from his letter to Queensberry of 16th June 1685, 
 quoted below. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 329. Wodrow also mentions the case of James 
 Brown of ' Coidter,' whom Claverhouse condemned to death, but delayed 
 his execution upon the intercession of the 'laird of Coulterallers.' 
 Brown was carried ' to the English border,' Wodrow states, and eventu- 
 ally escaped from the Tulbooth of Selkirk. ' Coulter ' I take to be
 
 216 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Queensberiy's Drumlanrig property. In the past the 
 district had been riddled with disaft'ection. Sanquhar lay 
 between the Castle and Kirkconnel. The Enterkin lay 
 south of it. Claverhouse found its spirit unchanged.^ 
 Queensberry, still in a cavilling mood, seized eagerly 
 upon a report of Claverhouse's severity to his tenants at 
 Sanquhar to complain to Dumbarton. ' That I had no 
 dessein to make great search there, any body may judge,' 
 Claverhouse wrote from Johnstone in Annandale on 16th 
 June 1685.^ ' I came not from Air till after eleven in the 
 fornoon, and went to Bellagen with fourty heritors ^ again 
 night. The Sanquair is just in the road, and I used these 
 men I mett accidentily on the road better then ever I 
 used any in these circumstances, and I may saively say, 
 that, as I shall answer to God, if they had been lieving 
 on my ground I could not have forborn drawing my 
 sword and knoking them doun. Houever, I am glaid I 
 have recaiued my Lord Dumbarton's orders anent your 
 Graces tenents, which I shall most punctually obey, tho 
 I may say they wer saif as any in Scotland befor.' ^ A 
 
 Culter, near Symington, in Lanarkshire. Wodrow states that Claver- 
 house, when at Dalmellington, was on his march ' from Gallowaj^ to Ayr.' 
 The converse appears to be the fact. 
 
 1 Chxverhouse's experience during his march through this district, on 
 which he writes to Queensberry on 16th June 1685, connects itself with 
 a ' vouched instance ' of his crueltj^, according to Wodrow (vol. iv. 
 p. 256), at the village of Closeburn, which lay on his route to Johnstone. 
 Wodrow avers that Claverhouse visited a house there, and obtained 
 information from the child of its tenant, a ' country man,' by shooting a 
 pistol ' very near his head.' As the ' whole family ' had had time to fly 
 from the soldiers, of whose approach, Wodrow admits, they were warned, 
 it is not easy to understand why the boy, of eight or nine years, should 
 have been left behind in the house. 
 
 ' Hist. 2ISS. Gomm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 293. 
 
 ^ i.e. militia. Claverhouse's own regiment, or, at least, four troops of 
 it, was under Dumbarton's command [Hist. JISS. Comm. Bucdeuch and 
 Qtieensberry MSS., vol. ii. p. 82). 
 
 ■* Elsewhere in the letter Claverhouse complains of the Earl of Annan- 
 dale for disarranging his plans 'for the gaird of the Border.' *I am 
 unwilling to shok any body that serves the King in such a time,' he adds,
 
 THE NEW REIGN 217 
 
 fortnight later, Argyll's rebellion having reached its 
 abortive climax in the interval, Claverhoiise wrote again, 
 the last letter in his long and illuminating correspondence 
 with Queensberry. The letter is dated from ' Thorles- 
 hope,' 8rd July 1685.^ A few days later he returned to 
 Edinburgh, where Argyll had already suffered on the old 
 charge on which Claverhouse and his fellow-jurors had 
 found him guilty over three years before. 
 
 Claverhouse took his seat in Council, for the first time 
 since his readmission to it, on 16th July 1685." With 
 strange coincidence, Hugh Mackay of Scourie was ad- 
 mitted to that body a week later.^ Both men were for 
 the moment identified with the same cause. Both had 
 helped to stem the opening crisis of James's reign. The 
 final catastrophe of it found Claverhouse still under the 
 same banner, and Scourie his defeated yet victorious foe 
 at Killiecrankie. 
 
 The remaining months of the first year of the new 
 reign passed with little incident in Claverhouse's life. 
 
 * tho I think it not just that my lord or any other should think to exclud 
 the rest of the forces from doing their deuty in any pairt they ar co- 
 rn and ed too.' 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Gomm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 293. The letter describes 
 the steps he had taken to apply the movables of rebels to the mainten- 
 ance of the forces, in obedience to the Council's directions. 
 
 2 Privy Council Acta (MS. ) Feb.— Dec. 1685, fol. 105. Wodrow declares 
 (vol. iv. p. 256) that after Argyll was taken, Claverhouse ' went into 
 Edinburgh to the council, and boasted of the mighty feats he had done 
 in the south.' There is not a line or entry in the Acta to support the 
 statement. Queensberry, to whom the royal letter readmitting Claver- 
 house to the Council had been delivered, was not unnaturally disinclined 
 to communicate an honour wliicli implied a rebuff to himself. On 1st 
 June 1685 Moray informed him that the King was willing that Claver- 
 house's appointment should be made known through the Lord Chancellor 
 
 * in the ordinary uay ' [Hint. MSS. Comm. Bucchuch and Queensberry 
 MSS., vol. ii. p. 73). On 20th June 1685, accordingly, the King's letter 
 of 11th May 1685, calling Claverhouse to the Council, was registered in 
 the Council's minutes [Acta, fol. 83). 
 
 ^ Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 341. Mackay had been summoned from Holland 
 to confront Monmouth's rebellion lately ended at Sedgemoor.
 
 21S JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 His appearances in Council were infrequent.^ Once only 
 he is discovered at Dudhope.^ The inference is that his 
 military duties still claimed him, though there is no record 
 of them. He was still anxious for permission to proceed 
 to London to complete his justification with James.^ His 
 desire to do so was possibly not entirely unconnected with 
 Dalziel's imminent death. The old man died in August 
 1685, and Lieutenant-General William Drummond of 
 Cromlix received the vacant command on the following 
 26th November.^ Lesser rewards marked James's regard 
 for his restored favourite. In December 1685 he at length 
 was granted permission to present himself at Court. 
 Queensberry was there also, already estranged from the 
 more daring policy which his success over Argyll and 
 Monmouth had emboldened James to plan. Claverhouse 
 had his advantage from the fact. On 10th December 
 1685 Queensberry was ordered to disgorge the sum he 
 had exacted from Claverhouse a few months before. It 
 amounted to £596 sterling.'' Perth wrote to Hamilton 
 from London on the same day : ^ ' But what grates his 
 [Queensberry's] soul the most, is that Claverhouse has 
 gott back that monye he caused him pay when in the 
 hight of his picque, which my brother [Melfort] has 
 calculate so as to bear anual rent upon anual rent, and 
 
 ^ Claverhouse is on the sederunt of Council only on 16th and 20th July, 
 15th and 24th October, and 19th November 1685 {Pi-ivy Council Acta). 
 
 '■^ On 17th November 1685 he witnesses the baptism of ' John, son of 
 Magister HenrieScrymsour, Parson of Dundie, and Mrs. Jean Alexander,' 
 at Dundee (Millar, Roll of Eminent Burgesses of Dundee, p. 168). 
 
 3 Moray writes to that effect on 4th August 1685, adding that he hopes 
 to prevent it (Hist. J/AS'. Comm. Buccleuch and Qvetnsherry MtSS., vol. ii. 
 p. 02). 
 
 ■* Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 341. 
 
 ^ Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. x. fol. 249. 
 
 8 Hist. 2ISS. Comm. Rejit. xi., pt. vi. p. 169. Fountainhall writes 
 {Historical Observes, p. 240): 'To load the Hy Treasurer, Claverhouse 
 and Balcarhouse ware sent for to London, and the King was so ill satis- 
 fied with what the Treasurer had exacted of Claveris, that he ordained 
 the Treasurer to repay it. '
 
 THE NEW REIGN 219 
 
 the Treasurer is to pay it upon sight of the precept.' ^ 
 Eleven days later (21st December 1685) the style of ' His 
 Majesty's Own Regiment of Horse ' was conferred upon 
 Claverhouse's regiment.^ On Christmas Eve (24th 
 December 1685) he arrived at Edinburgh. Perth and 
 Balcarres returned with him.^ His restoration to royal 
 favour was complete. 
 
 * In a list of fees and pensions granted and signed at Whitehall, 31st 
 October 1685, ' with additional persons since,' Claverhouse's name appears 
 {Col. State Papers, Domestic, Feb. 1689— April 1690, p. .S84). 
 
 2 Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. x. fol. 285. 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Chronological Noises, p. 154.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 PROVOST OF DUNDEE 
 
 From his return to Scotland in December 1685 to the 
 autumn campaign of 1688 in England, there is a lengthy 
 gap in the record of Claverhouse's life which his bio- 
 grapher can barely fill.^ The fact proclaims it the 
 single domestic interlude of considerable duration in his 
 strenuous life. He is traceable occasionally in Council. 
 He pays a short visit to England, and seemingly intro- 
 duces his wife to her sovereign. But mainly he is 
 discernible at Dudhope, the seat of his authority as 
 Constable and — a jurisdiction added within the period — 
 Provost of Dundee. 
 
 The overthrow of Argyll and Monmouth tempted James 
 to embark on a policy in favour of his co-religionists 
 which might be deemed praiseworthy if a broad spirit 
 of toleration could be read into it. Some there were, like 
 Perth, who hastened to ingratiate themselves with the 
 King by embracing the King's religion. Claverhouse 
 found loyalty to his sovereign not incompatible with 
 loyalty to the religion which he had been taught to 
 profess. ' I am as much concerned in the protestant 
 religion as any man,' he assured Cluny Macpherson, when 
 the Clans were up in 1689, 'and will doe my indevors to 
 
 ^ Napier, for instance, records only three incidents in Claverhouse's 
 life in this period — a single appearance in Council, his appointment to 
 the Provostship of Dundee, and his promotion as major-general. 
 220
 
 PROVOST OF DUNDEE 221 
 
 see it secured.' ^ As tlie King's policy progressed, lie 
 found himself strongly opposed to the wisdom of it, but 
 equally assured that the King's advisers rather than the 
 King himself were responsible for the error of it. Melfort 
 he regarded as James's Buckingham. He wrote candidly 
 to him a few weeks before Killiecrankie : ' You know 
 what the Church of England is in England ; and, both 
 there and here, they generally say that the King of hiin- 
 self is not disposed to push matters of religion, or force 
 people to do things they scrupled in conscience ; but that 
 3^ou, to gain favour with these of that religion, had proved 
 and prevailed with him, contrary to his inclination, to do 
 what he did, which has given his enemies occasion to 
 destroy him and the monarchy.' ' I am obliged to tell 
 you,' he added, ' that if the people take umbrage as to 
 their religion, it will be, notwithstanding of all the foreign 
 aid, a long war."' The letter clearly marks his aloofness 
 from a policy whose catastrophe found him still loyal 
 though disapproving. His attitude towards it is hinted 
 in Perth's reluctant admission to the Cardinal of Norfolk : 
 ' Others here would have us believe they are our friends, 
 who really are our more dangerous enemies, especially 
 some in the army, the hundredth man in which is not a 
 Catholic, and we have scarce any officers of that persua- 
 sion.' ^ 
 
 An incident in Council on 16th February 1686 expresses 
 the spirit of the new regime and the measure of Claver- 
 house's acquiescence in it. A sermon had lately been 
 preached in the High Kirk, Edinburgh, by the Rev. 
 James Canaries, D.D., minister of Selkirk. The character 
 
 ^ Gleanings from the Charter Chest at Cluny Castle, ed. Alexander Mac- 
 pherson, No. 2, p. 21. 
 
 - Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 361. The letter is dated 
 27th June 1689. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Conim. Stuart Pajjers, vol. i. p. 30. The letter is dated 
 3rd Feb. 1688.
 
 222 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 of it is sufficiently suggested by its title — Rome's Addi- 
 tions to Christianity, shewn to he inconsistent with the 
 true design of so spiritual a religion} If, as Fountainhall 
 declares, its author was ' lately Popish,' his public denun- 
 ciation of the religion he had abjured would attract the 
 greater attention. The publication of the sermon attests 
 its popularity. At the meeting of Privy Council on 16th 
 February, Perth called attention to it as a ' seditious 
 sermon.' Canaries, so Fountainhall declares, had ' given 
 his opinion freely against Popery, that no man without 
 renuncing his sence and reason can imbrace sundry of 
 ther articles.' To disagree with the principles of the 
 Church of Rome was one thing. To publicly denounce 
 it as a religion credible only by renunciation of sense and 
 reason was tantamount to an assertion that James, who 
 publicly professed it, was devoid of either. The muzzling 
 of the pulpit was, after all, one of the many consequences 
 which the incongruous association of a Roman Catholic 
 sovereign with a rigidly Protestant constitution entailed. 
 Claverhouse was perhaps barely conscious of the incon- 
 gruity, but an open attack upon the King's religion was 
 to him intolerable in its savour of disloyalty. He there- 
 fore added his word to Perth's in favour of condemnation. 
 The proposal was received, however, in ' deep silence,' and 
 was for the moment withdrawn. Canaries was ultimately 
 suspended.^ 
 
 In the new trend of the King's policy in Scotland 
 Queensberr}^, by virtue of his antagonism to it and of 
 his high position, was an obstacle to be removed. He had 
 returned deeply chagrined from his visit to Court on 
 29th December 1685.^ A week after the Canaries episode 
 
 1 A copy of it is in the British Museum. It was published at Edin- 
 burgh in 1686. 
 
 2 Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 708. 
 
 3 Jlnd. , p. 688.
 
 PROVOST OF DUNDEE 223 
 
 (23rd February 1686) he received a polite but emphatic 
 letter of dismissal from James. The King' announced his 
 intention to put the Trcasurj^ into Commission, and to 
 give the Duke of Gordon, a Roman Catholic, the com- 
 mand of the Castle of Edinburgh. ' Nothing but my 
 being satisfied,' the King assured him, 'upon long and 
 mature consideration, that it is absolutely necessary for 
 the good of my service' could have induced James to 
 take such a step. That ' the world ' might see that he 
 acted upon no other motive, James appointed Queens- 
 berry to the Presidency of the Council, placed him upon 
 the Commission of the Treasury, and continued him on 
 the Secret Committee of the Council.^ Queensberry's 
 bitterness was augmented by the fact that upon the new 
 Commission of the Treasury he had Ciaverhouse as a 
 colleague.^ 
 
 Meanwhile the cry of ' No Popery ' gathered increasing 
 strength. In January 1686 the Countess of Perth Avas 
 insulted by a baker's boy on her way from Mass in 
 Edinburgh. The boy was sentenced, and a riot ensued.^ 
 Canaries' public protest had followed. Hard on the heels 
 of it, Sir Robert Sibbald, a convert to Roman Catholicism 
 and, as the populace judged, the agent in Perth's con- 
 version, received the unwelcome attention of ' the Rable.' 
 His room was broken into and searched by a band of 
 eager Protestants, who threatened to ' Rathillet ' him — an 
 expressive phrase ! The timely appearance of Lieutenant- 
 General Drummond and Ciaverhouse in the former's 
 coach, in which they conveyed him to the shelter of 
 
 ' Quoted in Napier, vol. iii. p. -468. The King's letter appointing the 
 Duke of Gordon Captain and Constable of Edinburgh Castle was read in 
 Council on 11th March 1686, when Gordon was ' admitted without any 
 oath, being a Papist ' (Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. p. 713). 
 
 -' Hist. MSS. Comm. Eept. x., pt. i. p. 95. The warrant was dated 
 27th March 1686, and was signed the following 14th May. 
 
 ^ Napier, vol. iii. p. 467.
 
 224 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Holyrood, saved Sir Robert from an awkward predica- 
 ment.^ On 4tli March 1686 the Council approved an 
 extended report of ' the late Rablc against the mass ' for 
 submission to the King. Fountainhall hints an under- 
 lying intrigue, whose motive was ' to load Collonel Douglas, 
 Queensberry's brother, as negligent, and to get admirable 
 Grame of Claverhouse in his place.' ^ If such was its 
 object the intrigue failed in result. Not until 20th 
 September 1686 did Claverhouse receive an augmenta- 
 tion of his military rank. On that date he was commis- 
 sioned major-general on the Scottish establishment,^ and 
 was granted a pension of £200 sterling yearly ' during 
 pleasure.'* Only eight years before, almost to a day, he 
 had received his commission as captain ! 
 
 For the next few months, while James's philo-Catholic 
 policy ran its course,^ Claverhouse is traceable mainly at 
 Dudhope. A curious minute of 7th October 1686 pre- 
 sents him a considerable claimant upon the accommoda- 
 tion of Dundee's Church. ' The Provest, baillies, and 
 counsell of the said burgh,' the minute runs, 'haveing 
 formerly at Major-Generall John Grahame of Claverhouse, 
 
 ^ Maidment, Analeeta Scotica, first series, p. 153. 
 
 '•^ Fountainhall, Chronological Notes, p. 166. Fountainhall records an 
 assault by Graham of Duntrune, whom he describes as Claverhouse's 
 chamberlain, upon a neighbour whose corn he had trodden down while 
 hunting. Duntrune was ordered to be imprisoned on 22nd June 1686, 
 but was soon after liberated (ibid., pp. 186, 187). 
 
 ^ Wan-ani Book, Scotland, vol. xi. fol. 340. The original commission 
 is among the Duntrune MSS. 
 
 •* Ibid., vol. xi. fol. 341. The docquet of the warrant for the pension 
 is dated 20t!i September 1686. 
 
 ^ Fountainhall {Chronological Notes, p. 202) mentions the arrival on 
 23rd November 1686 of a 'yacht' at Leith, ' with a Popish Altar, Vest- 
 ments, etc., for the Popish Chappel in the Abbey.' On 30th November 
 
 1686 the Abbej' chapel was consecrated (ibid., p. 202), and on 12th July 
 
 1687 it was claimed by James ' as the chapell belonging to his palace,' 
 though it was counter-claimed as the ' mensall and patrimonial church 
 of the Bishoprick of Edinburgh.' This, adds Fountainhall, was 'the 
 first Protestant church taken away from us, and was also the last ' 
 (ibid., p. 221).
 
 PROVOST OF DUNDEE 225 
 
 constable of Dundee, his desyre, by their Act of Counsell 
 granted him the use of the first two pewes of the gildries 
 seat in the old Church, And now finding the same not 
 sufficient to accomodat his familie, desyres he may lyke- 
 wayes have the use of the thrid pew yrof, which the 
 Counsell hes also granted him. And if he desyres to 
 have it any wayes altered or changed, they ordaine the 
 Deane of Gild to causs doe the same on the gildries 
 expensis.'^ Claverhouse's establishment must have been 
 considerable. For the next four months the record of 
 him is blank, or almost so.^ His interests clearly centred 
 upon Dudhope and his Constableship. On 12th February 
 1687 the sum of two thousand merks Scots was assigned 
 to him, levied upon a tax upon ' Ale, Beer, French and 
 Spanish Wines, in favour of the Burgh of Dundee.' ^ In 
 the following June Fotheringham of Powrie involved him 
 in a lawsuit, in which he averred that as Constable and 
 Chief Magistrate of Dundee, Claverhouse had discharged 
 ' the Fischers in the mercat ' of Dundee, as well as his 
 own tenants, from paying the toll which Powrie claimed 
 from fishing - boats gathering bait, or anchoring at, or 
 passing by Broughty Castle.^ His appointment as First 
 Magistrate of Dundee, with the royal injunction to accord 
 him ' the precedency and first Honours . . . befor the 
 Provost,' strengthened Claverhouse's control of the local 
 jurisdiction.^ 
 
 1 MS. Minutes of the Town Coxmcil of Dundee. I owe this transcript 
 to Mr. A. H. Millar's kindness. 
 
 2 On 8th November 16S6 Fountainhall (Chronological Notes, p. 198) 
 mentions liim upon an inquest which established ' Madam Brisbane ' as 
 ' heir of line and tailzie ' to her nephew, Lord Napier. A few days earlier 
 (4th November 1686) Claverhouse, as owner of the forfeited estate of 
 French, was the pursuer in an action for the recovery of a debt due to 
 it (Fountainhall, Hifitorical Notices, vol. ii. p. 757). 
 
 ^ Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. xi. fol. 614. 
 
 ■* The case is reported in Fountainhall, Historical Notices, vol. ii. pp. 
 798, 811. 
 
 ^ Charters, Writs, and Public Documents of the Royal Burgh of Dundee,
 
 226 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Meanwhile matters of larger import had claimed Claver- 
 house's attention. James had been compelled to face the 
 fact that toleration for his co-religionists was impracti- 
 cable unless it were conjoined with a similar offer of 
 liberty to those, equally aloof from the Establishment, 
 whom his policy had aimed at repressing. A compre- 
 hensive measure of toleration, so James unadvisedly 
 believed, would in Scotland as in England bribe the 
 Protestant stalwarts into interested acquiescence. The 
 policy is an ample example of undiscerning opportunism. 
 In Scotland it had its adherents, Claverhouse among 
 them. The fact proclaims his undeviating and narrow 
 allegiance to the standards of Cavalier loyalism which 
 the Revolution rudely disturbed. On 18th February 1687 
 James's proclamation of Toleration was published at Edin- 
 burgh. On the following 2-ith February Claverhouse, 
 among other members of Council, signified to the King 
 his approval of it.^ 
 
 In the summer of 1687 Claverhouse paid his penulti- 
 mate visit to England. The fact that Balcarres accom- 
 panied him, and Fountainhall's record of the circumstance,^ 
 mark the business which called him thither of a public 
 nature. He set out from Edinburgh on 27th June, and 
 his wife, seemingly, accompanied him. They returned to 
 Scotland late in the following November. George Foulis 
 Primrose of Dunipace, on his way to London, came across 
 them on the road. His account-book bears the mysterious 
 entry : ' Item — to the lady Clovers for lace.' ^ The capture 
 
 p. 109. The Act of Privy Council, dated 17th June 1686, proceeded upon 
 a royal letter, dated 19th March 1686. The letter enjoined, ' That in 
 all time comeing the Constable of Dundee, and his successoures in that 
 office, be the first Magistrat of the said Burgh.' 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iv. pp. 420, 423. The Duke of Hamilton and the Earls 
 of Dundonald and Panniure refused to sign the Council's letter. 
 
 * Chronological Notes, p. 217. 
 
 '' John C. Gibson, The Lands and Lairds of Dunipace, p. 27. The 
 entry is under the date 25th November 1687. On 21st November 1687 
 his account-book notes : ' Item — for dj'et night before cleverhous cam up.'
 
 PROVOST OF DUNDEE 227 
 
 of James Ken wick, the last of the Cameronian leaders, 
 followed shortly upon Claverhouse's return from England. 
 On <Stli February 1G88 he was indicted for denial of the 
 King's authority, for preaching that it was unlawful to 
 pay cess to the King, and for summoning his hearers to 
 come armed to conventicles. Claverhouse was cited as 
 a witness against him. On 17th February 1688 he Avas 
 executed.! 
 
 Claverhouse's visit to London bore fruit in the following 
 spring. The muzzling of the Corporations in times of 
 crisis was a measure of precaution peculiar to neither 
 political party. Claverhouse, already Constable, was to 
 exercise in another office that control over the Burgh 
 of Dundee which the King's provocative policy entailed. 
 On 15th March 1688 a royal letter was read in Privy 
 Council notifying his appointment as Provost of Dundee 
 Balcarres was ordered to instal him.^ The King's letter 
 was acted upon without delay. On 27th March 1688 
 Balcarres presented it to the Town Council of Dundee, 
 and Claverhouse was formally installed as Provost.^ It 
 is among the fictions of local history that his tenure of 
 the Constableship was marked by excessive harshness, 
 and that a similar exercise of his functions as Provost 
 made Dundee a rallying-point for his opponents in 1689.* 
 Between the municipality of Dundee and the Constable 
 there was indeed traditional jealousy, but there is not a 
 
 1 Wodrow, vol. iv. pp. 44G, 448, 452. 
 
 '^ Fountainhall, His/oriccd Notices, vol. ii. p. 860. It may be noted 
 that in his Chronological Notes (p. 250) Fountainhall dates the receipt of 
 the King's letter as 13th March 1686. 
 
 In the Privy Seal, English Register (vol. iv. fol. 272) the gift to Claver- 
 house is i-egistei-cd, 16th March 1688, of the ship called the James of 
 Dundee, Avhich had fallen to the King ' through the said ship her being 
 built in Gottenljcrry and nocht in our kingdom of Scotland,' and ' being 
 fraughted with unfree merchant goods and wairs.' 
 
 ^ MS. Minutes of the Town Council of Dundee. 
 
 ■* See Charters, Writs, and Public Documents of the Royal Burgh of 
 Dundee, p. 108.
 
 228 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 tittle of evidence that Claverhouse aggravated it. As 
 Provost he took a small part, though greater than has 
 been supposed, in the affairs of the municipality. In all 
 he presided over the meetings of its Council on seven 
 occasions within a period of eleven months.^ 
 
 Wodrow essays to prove that Claverhouse's administra- 
 tion as Constable or Provost of Dundee was in harsh con- 
 travention of the recent grant of toleration. * Though a 
 liberty was granted to presbyterians/ he writes,^ 'yet in 
 many places all methods were taken to hinder the benefit 
 of it. I have some instances of this in the town of 
 Dundee, where Claverhouse was either provost, or assumed 
 to himself the chief management of that town.' But the 
 instances cited by Wodrow fail to support his accusation. 
 The first case is that of Alexander Auchmoutie. Late in 
 1687, or early in 1688, Claverhouse is alleged to have 
 ' forcibly stopped ' him from preaching in Dundee, ' upon 
 pretext that his name was not given up to the magistrates.' 
 Wodrow avers that that had been done, and yet, ' Next 
 Lord's day, when Mr Auchmoutie was preaching, Claver- 
 house forced five of the townsmen presently to give bond, 
 under the penalty of five thousand merks, to produce 
 Mr Auchmoutie before the privy council; which they 
 did.' In the result, Wodrow declares, Auchmoutie 'was 
 decerned to preach no more at Dundee, without any 
 reason given, and directly contrary to the proclamation 
 for liberty.' ^ Wodrow is ingenuous. If, as he declares, 
 Auchmoutie's name and the place he designed to preach 
 in had been notified to the authorities, his position was 
 
 ' The MS. Minutes of the Town Council show tliat Claverliouse, having 
 been installed on 27th March 1688, presided as Provost on the following 
 29th and 31st March, 9th April, 9th August, and 4th September. There 
 ensued a long interval, during which Claverhouse was campaigning in 
 England. On his return to Scotland he pi'esided as Provost on 24th and 
 27th February 1689. 
 
 - Vol. iv. p. 455. ^ Vol. iv. p. 455.
 
 PROVOST OF DUNDEE 229 
 
 correct. But the edict of Toleration required a further 
 assurance, ' that nothing be preached or taught among 
 them, which may any ways tend to alienate the hearts 
 of our people from us or our government.' On this 
 point Wodrow is significantly silent. His second case 
 shows Claverhouse's alleged victim a suspected contra- 
 vener of the condition. Auchmoutic may certainly be 
 regarded as equally so. 
 
 Wodrow's second illustration of Claverhouse's high- 
 handedness at Dundee is the case of Alexander Orrock. 
 He had preached at Dundee on two occasions in the year 
 1688, and Claverhouse, ' resolving to be rid of him, prevailed 
 with two persons ' to give information to the magistrates, 
 that Orrock had called the King an idolater. Wodrow 
 avers that had Orrock's hearers been called, ' they would 
 have with one mouth declared' that Orrock had merely 
 uttered the prayer, ' That the Lord would purge the king 
 from heart idols.' The fact that he was inhibited by the 
 Privy Council from preaching in Dundee only, is proof 
 that the most sinister interpretation of his prayer was not 
 pressed against him. So far as Claverhouse is concerned, 
 the incident merely presents him as careful to insist 
 that the bargain was held to, which gave toleration to 
 the Presbyterians in the exercise of their religion in return 
 for their equal toleration of the King's. 
 
 The third instance mentioned by Wodrow is the case of 
 Thomas Cobham. In May 1688 he had come to Dundee. 
 He lodged with a cousin, in whose house he conducted 
 family worship. He was charged with holding a con- 
 venticle without proper notice, and on 23rd May he was 
 apprehended and brought before the senior Bailie and 
 acting Provost.^ Upon his assurance that he had done 
 no more than conduct family prayers, he was released on 
 bail. The following day, however, the four Bailies of the 
 
 ^ Wodrow calls him James Mein. His name was James Man.
 
 230 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 town met, and found the information laid against Cobham 
 to be ' false' His bail was returned, and upon the legal 
 notification being given, he was allowed to preach. He 
 did so on the following Sunday. On the Saturday there- 
 after he was again summoned before the magistrates, who 
 required him to give bail before permission to preach 
 could be accorded him. Upon his refusal to do so he was 
 sent to prison. On 19th June 1688 bail was at length 
 offered. The magistrates refused to accept it, and on 
 2nd July 1688 the Treasurer and officers of the town con- 
 ducted Cobham to Fife, ' where Clavcrhouse had ordered 
 six troopers to receive him,' who ' guarded him into Edin- 
 burgh.' He was brought before the Council, and ' when 
 nothing appeared against him,' says Wodrow, ' he was 
 liberate.' ^ In regard to Cobham, it is only necessary to 
 point out that the proceedmgs of the magistrates at 
 Dundee took place in Claverhouse's absence. Between 
 9th April and 9th August 1688 his name is not found 
 on the sederunt of the Town Council. That body, on 
 12th May 1688, expressly held over a matter of import- 
 ance 'till the provost come home.' He was still absent 
 a fortnight later, when the senior Bailie presided in his 
 place. In other words, Claverhouse's connection with this 
 particular illustration of his alleged resolve to override 
 the conditions of Toleration, amounts to the furnishing of 
 an escort for a prisoner whom, in his absence, the town's 
 competent authorities had judged worthy of examination 
 at Edinburgh, where Claverhouse then was. 
 
 The absence of Claverhouse from Dudhope in May and 
 
 ^ It may be inferred that if the evidence against Cobham was at all 
 damning, Claverhouse's influence could have secured at least a moderate 
 coudemnation, such as that meted out to Orrock. Fountainhall {Chron- 
 ological Notes, p. 259) mentions a case in June 1688 in which Claverhouse's 
 influence is said to have secured a verdict for his brother-in-law, the 
 Earl of Dundonald, in a suit between him and the magistrates of Paisley, 
 at that time before the Council.
 
 PROVOST OF DUNDEE 231 
 
 June 1688 is amply explained by the character of the 
 public duties entrusted to him at that time. On 4th May 
 his appointment upon the Commission of the Treasury was 
 continued for another year.^ He was present in Privy 
 Council on 15th May when the King's so-called Foiu'th 
 Indulgence was received and ordered to be proclaimed.^ 
 Ten days later (26th May) he was appointed to act upon 
 a Council of Trade 'for considering and regulating all 
 matters and things relating to the improvement and 
 advancement of the Trade and Commerce ' of Scotland.^ 
 On the following 14th June, upon the birth of James's 
 son, the ' old Mr. Melancholy ' of a later da}^ Claverhouse 
 was among the members of Council who ordained an 
 Act of Thanksgiving for ' so extraordinary a mercy ' as 
 the birth of ' this hopeful prince.' ^ That event, pro- 
 mising as it did to perpetuate a system detestable to 
 both nations, focussed the minds of both upon instant 
 overthrow of it. In Edinburgh increasing murmurs nega- 
 tived the Council's official thanksgiving, and Claverhouse 
 and Douglas, says Wodrow, conducted ' a most violent 
 search.' ^ In September 1688 the storm, long threatened, 
 burst. Claverhouse had barely returned to Dudhope,*' 
 early in the month, before the summons came to the last 
 warfare of his life, whose end was Killiecrankie. 
 
 * Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. xiii. fol. 3. 
 2 Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 441 
 
 " Warrant Bool:, Scotland, vol. xiii. fol. 104. 
 
 * Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 441. 
 ■' Ibid., vol. iv. p. 4(32. 
 
 " He presided at the meeting of the Town Council of Dundee on 4th 
 September 1688 {JifS. Minutes).
 
 CHAPTER Xll 
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 
 
 Upon the threshold of the Revohition, ' that adorable 
 and never-to-be-forgotten step of divine providence/ as 
 Wodrow terms it,^ the authorities in Scotland were in- 
 clined to adopt defensive rather than aggressive tactics ; 
 to maintain the home army to overawe Scotland rather 
 than to adventure it upon an English campaign. Nearly 
 fifty years before, old Alexander Leslie had faced a similar 
 crisis when, in 1645, with Montrose in his rear, and in 
 spite of the urgent call of his ally, he was diffident to 
 advance his army far from the point where Scotland's 
 particular interests most imperatively demanded its pre- 
 sence. His reluctant participation in the English cam- 
 paign had involved Scotland in a danger which was 
 tardily surmounted at Philiphaugh.^ When the catas- 
 trophe of the Revolution was complete, and James a 
 self-doomed exile, the despatch of the Scottish forces to 
 England in 1688 was pointed to as a decisive error of 
 judgment. Balcarres gave the criticism,^ but his autho- 
 rity, one may believe, was Claverhouse himself. So much 
 may be said. The despatch of the Scottish establishment 
 availed not one whit to stem William's advance from the 
 West. And had that force been retained in Scotland, 
 Claverhouse would have had at his disposal something 
 more than the handful of troopers who rode with him 
 
 1 Vol. iv. p. 463. 
 
 - See my Life of Alexander Leslie, chap. ix. passim. 
 
 ^ See below, p. 234. 
 232
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 288 
 
 from England, to stiffen the Clans in the final bout at 
 Killiecrankie. 
 
 Rumours of William's preparations in Holland led the 
 Scottish Council to publish (18th September 1688) a 
 proclamation calling out the militia of Edinburgh, the 
 Lothians, Fife and Kinross, Forfar and the Merse, and 
 ordering the preparation of the customary beacons, to be 
 fired ' how soon they see any considerable number of ships 
 appearing on the coasts of this kingdom.' ^ A few days 
 later a royal letter ^ reached the Council regarding the 
 disposal of the standing forces of the kingdom : ' Whereas 
 it imports our Service much, that our Standing fforces of 
 that Kingdome lie in as narrow a Compass, and as near 
 the Borders of England as they can conveniently lie, Wee 
 have thought fit to require you forthwith to bring all our 
 Standing Forces into the Louthians and Marches that they 
 may be read}^ to receive such further Orders as Wee shall 
 think fit to send to them from time to time. The Garri- 
 sons are to remaine as they now are. And that Wee may 
 have a further fforce in case of necessity, you are immedi- 
 ately to raise the Militia, of which you are to draw out 
 one third part of the best, and to keep them together 
 about Stirling and the adjacent places.' 
 
 The King's letter had barely reached Scotland before 
 another and more urgent order was despatched : ' Whereas 
 Wee have certain information,' it ran,^ ' that the vast pre- 
 parations they are making in Holland are intended to 
 invade in a hostile manner this our Kingdome of England, 
 Wee have thought fit to order and require you immediatly 
 upon the sight hereof to order and command all our 
 Standing fforces of that our ancient Kingdome, excepting 
 
 1 See the proclamation in Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 463. 
 
 2 Warrant Booh, Scotland, vol. xiii. fol. 243. The letter is dated 24th 
 September 16'88. 
 
 3 Ibid., vol. xiii. fol. 284. It is dated 27th September 16S8, and is 
 countersigned by Melfort.
 
 234 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOIISE 
 
 the ordinary Garrisons of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dun- 
 barton Castles, to march to Carlisle in our Kingdome of 
 England, and from thence to Chester with all the con- 
 venient diligence that is possible, and that if any Parties 
 of floot be distant from the Body of our Army, you are 
 to order them to be mounted by the Country upon Hors- 
 back from Shire to Shire till they shall arrive at that 
 place upon the Border in the way to Carlisle which you 
 shall judge most convenient for the generall Rendezvous 
 of all our said fforces.' ^ 
 
 The Council hastened to fulfil the urgent orders from 
 Whitehall. On 28th September a proclamation was put 
 forth announcing William's anticipated invasion. On 1st 
 October an order was issued forbidding any to leave the 
 kingdom without licence. The militia was called out two 
 days later (3rd October).^ But the King's latest instruc- 
 tion, commanding the despatch of the standing forces to 
 England, had the Council's reluctant sanction. It was 
 ' the unanimous advice ' of that body, Balcarres averred at 
 a later period, that the Scottish forces should be moved 
 to the Border, or at furthest to the north of England. 
 Instead of following that advice, he asserted, ' the Earl of 
 M[elfor]t wrote down an Order, not subscribed by your 
 Majesty, but only in your Majesty's Name, ordering, That 
 the Army should immediately March, and that if any of 
 your Servants were afraid to stay behind, they might go 
 along with the Army.' ' With a sorrowful Heart,' he con- 
 
 1 On the same date orders were issued for the removal of the magazine 
 from Edinburgh to Stirling Castle, and for the officers of Dunmore's regi- 
 ment to rejoin their commands. On 1st October 1688 James Cathcart 
 of Carbiestoun was commissioned Chief Commissary of Musters, and 
 on the same date joint instructions were issued to him and Andrew 
 Middleton of Pitgarvie, Muster Master General (ibid., vol. xiii. fol. 285, 
 287, 288, 289). 
 
 '^ The three proclamations are in the Register House MS. Warrant 
 Bool: The War^-ant Book elsewhere quoted in these pages is in the 
 Record Office. The militia proclamation of 3rd October 1C88 is printed 
 by Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 466.
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 235 
 
 eludes, 'your Majesty's Orders were obeyed, for the Con- 
 sequences were too evident.' ^ Whatever was the strength 
 of the Council's forebodings, it acquiesced in the King's 
 commands, and on 8rd October 1688 informed him that 
 the army had already commenced its march, with ' Pay 
 for the Month of October instant out of Your Majesties 
 Thesaury.' The letter had Claverhouse's signature.^ 
 
 Early in the first week of October 1688 the Scottish 
 force began its march to Carlisle. In number it was 
 under three thousand — one thousand nine hundred and 
 ninety-five foot; eight hundred and forty-one cavahy. 
 The infantry comprised two regiments — Douglas's Foot 
 Guards, now the Scots Guards, and Colonel Thomas 
 Buchan's regiment, now the Twenty-first of the Line 
 (Royal Scots Fusiliers). The cavalry included Lord 
 George Livingstone's troop of Life Guards, Claverhouse's 
 regiment, three hundred and fifty-seven strong, and the 
 Earl of Dunmore's regiment of dragoons, now known as 
 the Scots Greys.3 Douglas, as lieutenant-general, was in 
 command. 
 
 Marching in dirty weather, Douglas reached Moffat late 
 on 6th October 1688. An express from Carlisle had 
 brought him orders to march to Preston, along the oft- 
 trodden Jacobite route, and there to await orders. His 
 
 1 Colin, Earl of Balcarres, An Account of the Affairs of Scotland relat- 
 ing to the Revolution in 168S, as sent to the late King James II. lohen in 
 France (Lond. 1714), p. 29. Balcarres, Tarbat, and James's other agents 
 ill Scotland had, in fact, concerted a plan Mhich would have concentrated 
 the regular army at York, and tliereby have secured both Scotland and 
 the north of England. The scheme is alleged to have been (plashed by 
 Melfort. See Lord Lindsay, Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 157. 
 
 2 The London Gazette, 4th-8th October 1688. 
 
 ^ Dalton, English Army Lists, vol. ii. p. 210. The Earl of Dunmore, 
 already mentioned in these pages as Lord Charles Murray, had succeeded 
 to the command of the Scots Grej's upon the death of Dalziel. In most 
 accounts Colonel John Wauchope's regiment is inaccurately given as 
 accompanying Douglas into England. His regiment was in French pay, 
 and had nothing to do with the Scottish establishment. For its 2)ersonnel 
 see Dalton, vol. ii. p. 153.
 
 2.Sri JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 ammunition- train, so far, had not arrived,^ and his 
 advance was possibly delayed.^ Four days later (10th 
 October) he was within a day's march of Penrith, and 
 received new and disconcerting orders. ' I'm now in haste 
 going from this place,' he wrote to his brother,^ ' having 
 just now got orders to send all the horse and dragoons to 
 York, which accordingly I do by Major-General Graham. 
 I march myself with the foot there, as Dumbarton writes 
 to me ; but the King's letter mentions not that I go any 
 farther than Preston. How to reconcile the orders I know 
 not ; but be as it will, I shall do my best ; though I never 
 did see this practised before, to send away all the horse, 
 and leave two regiments of foot^ open to the insults of 
 foreigners, who are expected to land horse and dragoons.' 
 The next morning (11th October) the cavalry, under 
 Claverhouse's command, marched for York. ' He will be 
 there speedily,' Douglas informed Queensberry,^ ' and if 
 there be anything ado, I fancy to have share among the 
 first.' He had not yet gauged the weakness of James's 
 cause, and his loyalty was still sound. Before the end of 
 the month Claverhouse and Douglas, with the troops 
 under their command, were quartered in and round the 
 capital.^ 
 
 1 Douglas to Queensberry, 7th October 1688, in Napier, vol. iii. p. 475. 
 
 2 Creichton's chronology of the march [Sidft's Works, ed. Scott, vol. x. 
 p. 166) if? not reliable. The army, according to his acconnt, crossed the 
 Tweed on 1st October, and marched from Carlisle on 2nd October. 
 Claverhouse marched from Carlisle to York on that date, he declares, 
 and reached York on 6th or 7th October. He accuses Douglas of making 
 a slow advance ' on purpose that the prince of Orange might land before 
 the king's forces should grow strong enough to oppose him.' The accusa- 
 tion is pi'obably founded upon Douglas's later conduct. 
 
 3 Douglas to Queensberry, 10th October 1688, in Napier, vol. iii. p. 476. 
 The letter is dated from ' Aleson Bank.' 
 
 * This may be noted in further disproof of the statement, generally 
 made, that a third regiment, Waiichope's, was with Douglas. 
 
 ^ Douglas to Queensberry, 11th October 1688, in Napier, vol. iii. p. 476. 
 The letter is dated from Penrith. 
 
 ^ According to Creichton (Siviffs Works, vol. x. p. 167), they reached
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 237 
 
 Meanwhile William's fleet was under weigh. One of 
 England's monotonously opportune * Protestant winds ' 
 carried the fleet in safety down the Channel early in the 
 first week of November. On the 5th William landed in 
 Torbay. Mackay and the Scots Brigade were with him.^ 
 The Scottish Privy Council was informed on the same day 
 (5th November) of the appearance of the Dutch fleet on 
 the coast, with the comforting assurance that the troops 
 which it carried were not numerous.^ 
 
 It was in the very crisis of James's fate that Claverhouse 
 had the crowning reward of loyalty whose most zealous 
 service was yet to come. His arrival in London with his 
 regiment had brought him once more into the circle of a 
 Court whose dependents were sitting loosely, adaptable 
 to the event of the crisis. One misreads Claverhouse's 
 character strangely if his presence failed to bring a 
 breath of resolution into that doubt-weighted atmosphere. 
 Difiidence, when his interests were at stake, was not in his 
 character, but the occasion was barely opportune for the 
 pressing of reward. The timing of it may stand to the 
 credit of the King who conferred it. On 12th November 
 1688 Claverhouse was raised to the Scottish peerage by 
 the title Viscount of Dundee and Lord Graham of Claver- 
 house. The warrant ordaining the issue of letters patent 
 tersely but adequately founded his peerage upon ' the 
 many good and eminent Services rendered both to his 
 Majesty and his dearest Roy all Brother King Charles the 
 Second (of ever blessed memory) by his right trusty and 
 welbeloved Councellor Major Generall John Graham of 
 
 London about 25th October, which seems a reasonable date. They were 
 certainly there before 1st November, on which date they received their 
 marching orders. Claverhouse's regiment was then quartered with 
 Livingstone's Life Guards at Westminster, the Tower Hamlets, and 
 Minories (Dalton, Eivjliah Army Lints, vol. ii. p. 210). 
 
 ^ Ferguson, Scots Brigade, vol. i. p. 566. 
 
 - Warrant Boole, Scotland, vol. xiii. fol. 326.
 
 238 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Clavcrlioiise in the scvcrall Offices and Stations of publick 
 Trust as well civill as niilitaiy in which he has been em- 
 ployed for many years past; Together with his constant 
 Loyalty and firm adherence (upon all occasions) to the 
 true interests of the Crown.' ^ The ' true interests ' of the 
 Crown ! and James was on the brink of irredeemable 
 exile. 
 
 William, meanwhile, remained inactive at Exeter. 
 James's army took position at Salisbury, barring the 
 road to the capital. The Scottish regiments, which had 
 received their marching orders on 1st November, joined it 
 there. On the 17th James left London to direct the 
 timorous campaign.^ He reached Salisbury two days 
 later (19th November) and took up his quarters in the 
 Bishop's Palace.^ The sequel is familiar : a melting 
 army; its officers secretly intriguing with, and now 
 openly joining the enemy. With increasing encourage- 
 ment William marched from Exeter. His advanced 
 guard was already at Wincanton, when James, irresolute 
 and desponding, withdrew himself from Salisbury out of 
 danger. On 25th November his army fell back upon 
 
 1 Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. xiii. fol. 345. The original patent is 
 among the Duntrune MSS. Upon the back of it is written: ' Sealed at 
 Edinburgh the Nynteiut day of November 1688.' It styles Claver- 
 house ' Vicecomes de Duudie et Dominus Grahame de Claverhouse.' The 
 jieerage was conferred upon him with remainder to the heirs male of his 
 body, whom failing, to his other heirs male. After his death his title 
 was forfeited, but his titular lionour passed to his son, and then to his 
 brother David, after whose death, circ. 1700, it passed to the Duntrune 
 branch of the family. Inasmuch as the exiled Jacobite Court did not 
 recognise the de facto Government in England, or the lapse of titles 
 declared forfeit by it, it is the more extraordinary to find James iii., on 
 2.5th January 1706, informing Giovanni Battista Gualterio of his creation 
 as Earl of Dundee {Hid. MSS. Comm. Stuart Papers, vol. i. p. 204. See 
 ibid., p. xciii.. Introduction). Less curiously, the idea of the title as a 
 Whig creation seems to have been mooted. At Edinburgh, on 15th 
 March 1690, it was rumoured that Lieutcnant-General Douglas, Claver- 
 house's old rival, was created Earl of Dundee [An Account of the Pro- 
 ceedings of the Meeting of the Estates in Scotland, No. 95, p. 208). 
 
 - The London Gazette, No. 2401. '^ Ibid., No. 2402.
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 239 
 
 Reading.! On the following day (26th November), the 
 Gazette announced, the King's return to Whitehall ' in 
 perfect Health.' ^ 
 
 With dismay Dundee had watched James's futile war- 
 fare, and the treachery which contributed to make it so. 
 Keeping the Scottish cavalry in a body, he marched them 
 to Reading to await further orders.^ If an early tradi- 
 tion may be believed, he already despaired of success in 
 England under existing conditions. He advised the King, 
 the army chaplain Merer writes, to adopt one of three 
 alternatives — to give William battle, to see him personally, 
 or ' to make his way into Scotland, upon the Coldness he 
 observed in the English Army and Nation.' * But James 
 was in no mood for hazardous experiments. Upon 8th 
 December, an alarm of William's advance from Salisbury 
 caused Feversham to retire from Reading to Twyford.^ 
 On the following day (9th December) the Queen and 
 infant Prince were sent to France and safety.^ James 
 was already resolved upon a similar course. On the 10th 
 he sent Feversham word of his determination to leave the 
 kingdom, and bade him disband the army.'^ Feversham 
 
 ^ The History of the Desertion, liy ' a Person of Quality ' (Lond. 1689), 
 p. 82. James's explanation of his retreat is, that some of his troops had 
 not yet come up, among them, Dunmore's dragoons {Lift of James tlie 
 Second, ed. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 222). 
 
 2 The London Gazette, No. 2405. It announced also that ' a Tost 
 will go and come every day between London and Reading till farther 
 Order.' 
 
 ^ Creichton (Swift's Works, vol. x. p. 168) says that the Duko of Ber- 
 wick's regiment was also jjlaced under his orders. 
 
 ■* A Short Accoxmt of Scotland (Lond. 1702), p. 96. Morer adds the less 
 credible statement, that in England, Dundee ' was like to have com- 
 manded as Eldest Major-General, but that the English OflScers with the 
 same Commissions would not bear it.' 
 
 ^ History of the Desertion, p. 85. 
 
 ^ Life of James the Second, ed. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 246. The party 
 included the Queen, the Prince and his nurse, and ' two or three persons 
 more.' The statement in the Grameid (p. 4.3) that James committed the 
 care of his wife and child to Dundee is not accurate. 
 
 ■^ Life of James the Second, ed. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 250.
 
 240 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 obeyed his instructions forthwith (lltli December).^ In 
 the small-hours of the same morning (lltli December) 
 James furtively crossed the Thames to Vauxhall, on his 
 way to the coast.^ 
 
 James's flight was the sorry climax to an adventure 
 which had drawn the Scottish regiments many days' 
 march from their Borders to take part in n fiasco. With 
 the evaporation of Feversham's army, Dundee led the 
 cavalry under his command to Watford, north of London 
 and off the lino of William's advance, to await events.^ 
 Thence he rej^aired to London. Two months before, when 
 the Scottish forces were drawn to England, James had 
 formed an inner Committee of the Scottish Council, to 
 'meet secretly to discourse and treat of such Affairs as 
 cannot conveniently be digested amongst a great number.' 
 Perth, the Archbishop of Glasgow, Atholl, Balcarres, and 
 Tarbat were placed upon it.'* Sir George Lockhart of 
 Carnwath was added to it a few days lator.^ Letters, 
 seemingly from one or other of them, had followed Dundee 
 to England, representing in hopeless tones the state of 
 the King's interest in the sister kingdom. ' Our forses 
 here ' [Scotland], wrote one, ' will doe use noe good, not 
 that they are not better leit thean could be expected, but 
 
 1 History of the Desertion, p. 98. 
 
 ^ Life of James the Second, ed. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 251. James states 
 that he had no one with him but Sir Edward Hales, the latter's Quarter- 
 master, and a guide. 
 
 3 This is the one credible fact which emerges from Creichton's account 
 (Swift's Works, vol. x. p. 169). His story, dictated years afterwards, and 
 furbished by Swift, presents him a trusted emissary of Dundee and the 
 other commanders, who, he declares, learned through him Feversham's 
 intention to disband. His story of Dundee, Livingstone, and Dumbarton 
 ' falling into tears ' at the news rests upon a similar plane of improbability. 
 On the other hand, his assertion that William sent ordei's to Dundee to 
 remain at Watford, with the assurance that ' upon my honour none in my 
 army shall touch you,' is probable. 
 
 ^ Warra7it Book, Scotland, vol. xiii. fol. 299. Their appointment is 
 dated 6th October 1688. 
 
 ' Ibid., fol. 306. His appointment is dated 18th October 1688.
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 241 
 
 their hearts are not with use, and wee have noc offisers.' 
 ' Signior/ a second opened curiously, ' I alwyse fortold 
 that the King and his ministers wold ruine them selvs for 
 hoping to gaine a securitie which was worth the trusting 
 to. . . . For God's sake entreat L. Melfort at last to know 
 his friends from his enimies, at least from neuters. I 
 wonder wee trust our militia or gentry, for both will faile 
 us and turn in great numbers, and the countrey is so 
 picqut at the expence and trouble that they will reveng 
 themselvs that way.' ^ 
 
 So soon as James's flight was known, Balcarres, the 
 agent of the Secret Committee, hastened to convene 
 ' the managers of the Episcopal party.' He had arrived 
 in the capital on 11th or 12th December, and 'hearing 
 the unhappy News' of the King's flight, thought it 
 ' reasonable to desire the Advice of all other Councellors 
 who were there.' The meeting took place on the 13th. 
 Dundee was present. Hamilton, whose defection was 
 suspected and imminent, lent his ' lodgings ' for the con- 
 ference. What passed at it is briefly reported. Hamilton 
 demanded the production of the letter to James from the 
 Secret Committee, of which Balcarres was the bearer, 
 Balcarres refused, shrewdly gauging Hamilton's motive in 
 requiring it. High words passed. Hamilton lost his temper, 
 and Dundee, seemingly, bore the brunt of it.^ Three days 
 later the situation unexpectedly changed. James's attempt 
 to escape had been balked when success seemed within his 
 grasp. With discreet and official reticence the Gazette 
 announced: 'Whitehall, Decemb. 16, His Majesty re- 
 turned hither this Evening in very good Health.' ^ 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Bept. xi., pt. vii. p. 23. Both letters are in a 
 parcel of Scottish letters ' taken at York.' Neither is signed nor dated. 
 
 - Balcarres, An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 50. 
 
 ^ The London Gazette, No. 2410. The' 16th December was a Sunday. 
 James returned to Whitehall 'about Five in the Evening' (Hintory of the 
 Desertion, p. 100). 
 
 Q
 
 242 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Upon the morrow (17Lh December) of the King's return, 
 Balcarres and Dundee hastened to Whitehall to seek an 
 audience.^ An officer who joined them informed the 
 King ' that most of his generals and colonels of his 
 guards' had met that morning and had commissioned 
 him to assure the King that it was not too late to strike 
 an effective blow for him. The army, though disbanded, 
 was in or round London, and ' if he would order them to 
 beat their drums, they were confident twenty thousand 
 men could be got together before the end of next day.' 
 James gauged the position more accurately. ' My Lord,' 
 he replied, 'I know you to be my friend, sincere and 
 honourable; the men who sent you are not so, and I 
 expect nothing from them.' He invited Dundee and 
 Balcarres to walk, and they passed out with him into 
 the Mall. How came it, he asked bitterly, that they, un- 
 like the rest, had not forsaken him ? Balcarres protested 
 his enduring loyalty. Dundee ' made the strongest pro- 
 fessions of duty.' ' I see you are the men I always took 
 you to be,' James rejoined; 'you shall know all my 
 intentions. I can no longer remain here but as a cipher, 
 or be a prisoner to the Prince of Orange, and you know 
 there is but a small distance between the prisons and the 
 graves of kings ; therefore I go for France immediately ; 
 when there, you shall have my instructions — you, Lord 
 Balcarres, shall have a commission to manage my civil 
 affairs, and you, Lord Dundee, to command my troops 
 in Scotland.' ^ 
 
 ^ According to .Creichton (Swift's Workfi, vol. x. p. 170), news of James's 
 return to Whitehall reached Watford about two hours before that event 
 had taken place ! Apart from that slip, his statement that Dundee rode 
 up at once to London from Watford is very improbable. I imagine 
 rather, that between the 13th and 16th he was in close consultation 
 with the party managers in London. Macaulay, it may be noted, 
 accepts Creichton as a trustworthy authority upon Dundee's movements 
 at this crisis. 
 
 2 This account is taken from the MS. memoirs of Balcarres's son, James,
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 243 
 
 Almost at the moment when James was conversing 
 with Balcarres and Dundee, William of Orange arrived 
 (l7th December) at Zion House, the guest of the Countess of 
 Northumberland.^ His movements were shrewdly timed. 
 James's voluntary withdrawal was the stake he played 
 for, and he won it. Early on the 18th James left 
 Whitehall for ever, and proceeded down the river to- 
 wards Rochester ' in his own Barge, attended by the 
 Earl of Arran, and some few others.' ^ About noon on 
 the same day William rode to St. James's, and took up 
 his quarters in the Palace.^ On its military side the 
 Revolution was accomplished. 
 
 The scattered details of James's army were still in the 
 field. An order appointing their quarters had been 
 issued in the brief interval between James's return from 
 Faversham on 16th December and his final departure from 
 Whitehall on the 18th.* On 21st December the order was 
 repeated b)'' William's authority, and officers and rank- 
 and-file alike were bidden to repair to the quarters 
 assigned to them.^ James, meanwhile, had arrived at 
 
 Earl of Balcarres, quoted in Lindsay, Lwes of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 162. 
 The information was undoubtedly communicated to his son by Balcarres 
 himself, and though certain details, some of which I have omitted, seem 
 somewhat apocryphal, there is no reason to question the general accuracy 
 of the story. 
 
 1 Sir Patrick Hume's Diary, quoted in George Rose, Observations on the 
 historical Work of the late Right Honorahle Charles James Fox, App. No. 
 9, p. Ixxix. William came from Windsor, where he had arrived on the 
 afternoon of 14th December {History of the Desertion, p. 97). 
 
 - History of the Desertion, p. 104. 
 
 ^ Sir Patrick Hume's Diary, in Rose, Observations, App. No. 9, p. 
 Ixxix. The three regiments of the Scots Brigade from Holland took up 
 their quarters in Southwark on the same date (Ferguson, Scots Brigade, 
 vol. i. p. 567). 
 
 4 The London Gazette, No. 2411. 
 
 5 Tbid., No. 2412. The following were the quarters assigned to the 
 Scottish regiments: — Livingstone's Life Guards, Bicester; Dundee's 
 regiment, Abingdon ; Dunmore's dragoons, Islip ; Douglas's regiment, 
 Thame ; the regiment ' late of Col. Bochan,' Witney. The Scottish 
 regiments, it will be observed, were drawn round Oxford.
 
 244 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Rochester on 19th December.^ In the early hours of 
 23rd December he set out towards Dover and embarked 
 for France. A familiar but untenable story, detailed to 
 Carte the historian, presents Dundee at the final leave- 
 taking, insistent to the last on the folly of flight, the 
 certainty of success if the position were resolutely faced. 
 One David Middleton is even declared to have overheard 
 the conversation, and James's magnanimous reply : ' I 
 believe it might be done; but it would cause a civil 
 war, and I would not do so much mischief to the English 
 nation, which I love, and doubt not but my people will 
 soon come to their senses again.' ^ The platitude stamps 
 the story apocryphal. But the Grameid is held to support 
 the tradition : 
 
 ' Gramo 
 Tristis et ilia dies, qua castris ire Stuartum 
 Viderat armatum, quaque hunc conspexit inermem 
 Furtivae dare terga fugae, vectumque biremi 
 Exigua patriae linquentem littora terrae.'^ 
 
 The incident, if like Dundee's escort of the Queen and 
 Prince, it has foundations deeper than Philip's imagina- 
 tion, is more applicable to James's departure from White- 
 hall in his barge on 18th December than to his departure 
 from Dover in a sea-going vessel on the 23rd. Dundee 
 was certainly not a dejected spectator of James's departure 
 on the 23rd. The King mentions several persons who 
 visited him at Rochester. Dundee's name is not among 
 them. The source of the tradition may be traced, per- 
 haps, to the fact that Major Ranald Graham, of the Earl 
 of Bath's regiment quartered at Rochester, is particularly 
 mentioned in the King's autobiography as a sympathiser at 
 
 ^ Life of James the Second, ed. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 268. 
 
 2 Biscoe, Earls of Middleton. p. 162. 
 
 ■' Grameid, p. 43. Canon Murdoch translates the passage : ' Sad to 
 the Graham was the day when he beheld the King, now armed in his 
 camp, anon unarmed, turning his back in flight, and secretly, in a two- 
 oared boat, leaving the paternal shores.'
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 245 
 
 this crisis.^ The presence of Dundee, to whom the King 
 had so recently confided his military interests in Scot- 
 land, would have been in the last degree indiscreet. 
 His present rule was to wait and watch, unobtrusively 
 and observantly, prompt to act when need or opportunity 
 compelled. 
 
 As the situation developed, as William's intention to 
 seat himself upon the throne, and the acquiescence of 
 all but the extreme Jacobites, became evident, Dundee 
 faced the alternatives of either falling into line with the 
 majority, or of seeking an assurance that he would be 
 left unmolested in passive opposition. The first was not 
 in his character. The second was a simple measure of 
 precaution. Ho was already a marked man. Upon 
 James's final departure the managers of the Scottish 
 Jacobites met constantly at the Ship Tavern in St. 
 James's Street. Anticipating the vengeance of the 
 victorious Whigs, it was proposed to limit its action by 
 offering up five of the defeated faction for public ostracisnj. 
 Dundee and Balcarres were of the number. The proposal 
 was conveyed to William, who rejected it with character- 
 istic shrewdness, ' being resolved to put no Body in 
 Despair, till once he knew how they intended to behave 
 for his Interest,' Balcarres, who was known to William, 
 and indeed was connected with him by marriage, waited 
 on the Prince.'-^ William expressed his assurance of 
 Balcarres's support at the forthcoming Convention.^ 
 
 * TAfe of James the Second, ed. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 268. The author of 
 The Des2)ot's Champion (p. 240) traces the assumption that Duudee had 
 accompanied the King to Rochester ' to the presence of anotiier Grahame 
 descended of the Nether by line — James's private secretary.' She accepts, 
 however (p. 240), Carte's story of Dundee's visit to the King on his last 
 day in England. 
 
 " Balcarres, An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 49. 
 
 ^ This detail suggests that the interview took place subsequent to 5th 
 February 1689, on which date summons to the Convention were issued, 
 or, at least, not earlier than 14th January, on which date the Scottish
 
 24G JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Balcarrcs answered frankly : ' he could have no hand in 
 turning out his King, who had been a kind master to 
 him, although imprudent in many things.' William 
 thrice sounded Balcarres on the subject, and failing to 
 move him, ' at last told him to beware how he behaved 
 himself, for, if he transgressed the law, he should be left 
 to it.' 1 
 
 Dundee assumed an uncompromising attitude from the 
 outset. On 7th January 1689 the Scottish notables in 
 London met William at St. James's. He desired their 
 advice as to the course to be pursued by him in Scotland. 
 They gave their answer a week later (14th January). It 
 was signed by about thirty peers and eighty commoners, 
 and advised the summoning of a Convention at Edin- 
 burgh on the following 14th March. William was 
 invited to take upon himself the administration of the 
 kingdom in the meanwhile." From these traffickings 
 Dundee held aloof.^ The danger of his position he re- 
 cognised. Prudence demanded that, without pledging 
 his future action, he should sound William's intentions 
 towards himself. He employed Gilbert Burnet, his 
 connection by marriage, for the purpose. Burnet's 
 
 nobility had advised William to call one. The inference is that William's 
 interview with Balcarres and Dundee was inspired by their aloofness 
 from the other Scottish peers in London in the meetings between that 
 body and William on 7th and 14th January. 
 
 ^ The memoirs of James, Earl of Balcarres, quoted in Lindsay, Lixxs of 
 the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 1G2. 
 
 2 History of the Desertion, pp. 119, 120. 
 
 ^ John Oldmixon, who was born in 1673, and was therefore Dundee's 
 contemporary, whose sympathies were opposed to the cause which 
 Dundee represeated, declares specitically (Afemoirs of North-Britain, p. 
 C6) that Dundee ' did not joyn with the other Scots Lords, in their 
 Addresses to the Prince of Orange,' but ' declar'd on all Occasions that 
 he design'd to go Home and live privately, and submit to what Govern- 
 ment the States of that Kingdom should agree to.' Dundee undoubtedly 
 had hopes that Scotland might, with the assistance he could anticipate 
 from France, be kept true to the Stewarts. That he pledged himself in 
 advance to accept the Revolution if the Estates endorsed it, as Oldmixon 
 states, is contradicted by Burnet's account of his attitude at this crisis.
 
 VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE 247 
 
 concise account of his mediation suffices to confound 
 Macaulay's unprincipled version of it. Dundee 'em- 
 ployed me,' Burnet writes, ' to carry messages from him 
 to the King, to know what security he might expect, if 
 he should go and live in Scotland without owning his 
 Government. The King said, if he would live peaceably, 
 and at home, he would protect him. To this he answered, 
 that unless he were forced to it, he would live quietly.' ^ 
 The meaning of this is clear to conviction. Dundee 
 approached William not as a penitent, but as one whose 
 hostility was patent and avowed. William met him in 
 the spirit in which he had already rejected the proposal 
 of ostracism. With no prevision of Dundee as a second 
 Montrose, he was content to leave one who ventured to 
 assert himself an irreconcilable, to be tutored to surrender 
 by the inexpugnable position which common prudence 
 should daunt him to attack. Dundee, on his part, gave 
 no pledge of acquiescence, and was not required to give 
 it. He undertook to 'live quietly,' that is, not to disturb 
 the new regime, 'unless he were forced.' He kept his 
 promise to the letter.^ 
 
 Nothing further could be done in England. Dundee, 
 with his fellow peers, received William's summons to the 
 
 1 Burnet, History of my own Time, cd. 1753, vol. iii. p. 29. Macaulay, 
 who aii'ects to found liis account on Burnet, distorts Burnet thus : ' Dundee 
 seems to have been less ingenuous [than Balcarres]. He employed the 
 mediation of Burnet, opened a negotiation with Saint James's, declared 
 himself willing to acquiesce in the new order of things, obtained from 
 William a promise of protection, and proniisc<l in return to live peace- 
 ably.' Macaulay adds the Lzre.s of the Lindsays to Burnet as his 
 authority. But that work states (vol. ii. p. 163) that William was no 
 more successful with Dundee than with Balcarres ! The example is 
 typical of Macaulay's method. 
 
 '■^ In support of Burnet, and in disproof of Macaulay, Morer's version of 
 Dundee's communication with William may be quoted : 'On the King's 
 departure, he apply'd himself to the Prince [of Orange], with whom he 
 was too free in declaring his Thoughts, and therefore could expect no 
 kind Reception. Upon this he retired' [Short Account of Scotland, 
 p. 97).
 
 248 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVEKHOUSE 
 
 forthcoming Convention at Edinburgh.^ With Balcarres 
 he returned to Scotland, ' the first that came down ' from 
 London.^ Dundee's own troop of his regiment was his 
 escort.^ Dudhope, where an anxious wife awaited him, 
 was his goal. He had played a part in a national crisis. 
 He resumed briefly a more parochial role. On 24th 
 February 1689 he presided as Provost over the Town 
 Council of Dundee.* Summons to a wider stage was 
 imminent. 
 
 ^ It is dated 5th February 1689, and is among the Duntnme MSS. 
 ^ Balcarres, An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 58. 
 ^ Swift's Works, vol. x. p. 174. See Napier, vol. iii. p. 492. 
 * MS. Minutes of the Tonm Council of Dundee. Three days later (27th 
 February 16"89)'Dundee presided for the last time as Provost.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE CONVENTION 
 
 *To the Lords of Convention, 'twas Clavers who spoke, 
 Ere the King's crown go down, there are crowns to be broke, 
 So each cavalier, who loves honour and me, 
 Let him follow the bonnet of bonuie Dundee.' ^ 
 
 Scott's stirring lines conjure up a ftimiliar picture. But 
 Dundee was no fire-eating enthusiast. He had returned 
 from England assured that for the moment in that 
 kingdom James's cause Avas hopeless. In Scotland the 
 position was more open. But he had promised, if Burnet 
 may be trusted, to ' live quietly,' to acquiesce passively in 
 a fait accompli provided he and his party were not the 
 objects of a Whig vendetta. But to found his bold stroke 
 for James and loyalty upon the breach of that condition, 
 would be to represent him and his actions inadequately. 
 Even Burnet does not assert that he had undertaken to 
 conform irrevocably to a settlement, his opposition to 
 which he did not conceal. The King over the water still 
 had unbroken claim upon his service, and he was free to 
 give it if the claim was made. For the moment his 
 course of action depended upon James, and upon the 
 
 ^ It has long since been pointed out by a writer in Notes and Queriea 
 (first scries, vol. ii. p. 171) that the term ' bonnic Dundee' belongs by 
 prescriptive right to the town and not to the Viscount. The writer 
 (piotes a verse of an old song as sung circ. 1800 : 
 
 ' whar gat ye that hauers-meal bauuock. 
 My bonny young Lassie, now tell it to me ? ' 
 
 ' I got it frac a sodger laddie, 
 
 Between Saint Johnstone and bounie Diuidcu.' 
 
 249
 
 250 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 attitude of the Whigs toward those who were the late 
 King's avowed partisans. In that spirit Dundee 
 approached the Convention. 
 
 At Dudhope Dundee lingered to the last moment.^ 
 His Avife was about to become the mother of a son who 
 briefly bore his title. On 12th or 13th March 1689 he 
 rode towards Edinburgh and the crisis of his career. The 
 Convention opened its momentous session on the 14th. 
 Dundee was present, and signed the roU.^ The Estates 
 met under conditions which threatened at any moment to 
 fire the blaze of civil war. The Duke of Gordon, whom 
 Dundee and Balcarres, a few weeks before, had induced to 
 remain at his post,^ menaced the city with the guns of the 
 Castle. The wynds and alleys of the town concealed 
 bands of * wild Western Whigs ' ready at a nod to fall 
 upon their discredited oppressors. A more reliable force 
 was on its way to replace the dispersed or muzzled estab- 
 lishment which Dundee had left behind him in England.'* 
 On 13th March the three regiments of the Scots Brigade, 
 which had been quartered in Southwark since William 
 entered London, began their embarkation for Leith. 
 Hugh Mackay of Scourie, 'very indisposed for such an 
 expedition, not being recovered of a great sickness wherby 
 he had been attacked shortly after his landing in Eng- 
 land,' accompanied them in command.^ 
 
 ^ He signs a document at Dudhope on 11th i\Iarch 1689 {Charters, 
 Wfits, and Public Documents of the Royal Burgh of Dundte, p. 114). 
 
 '•^ Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 4. 
 
 ^ Balcarres, An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 58. 
 
 * Douglas and other commanders had accepted the Revolution. Duu- 
 morc's dragoons (the Scots Oreys), among whom, however, there was a 
 not inconsiderable minority of loyalists, were employed against Dundee 
 in the Highland campaign. For the revolt of Dumbarton's regiment at 
 Ipswich in March 1689 and its declaration in favour of James, see 
 Commons^ Journals, vol. x. p. 49. 
 
 ^ Ferguson, Scots Brigade, vol. i. p. 482 ; Memoirs of the War carried 
 on in Scotland and Ireland, 1689-1691, by ISIajor-General Hugh Mackay 
 (Bann. Club), p. 4. His instructions are in ihid. , p. 221. Burnet calls him 
 ' the piousest man J ever knew, in a military way ' (Oion Time, vol. iii. p. 36).
 
 THE CONVENTION 251 
 
 The first day's (14tli March) proceedings of the Conven- 
 tion ^ revealed the numerical superiority of the Whigs. 
 In the voting for the election of a President, the Duke of 
 Hamilton was appointed by a majority of fifteen over the 
 Marquis of Atlioll. The latter had lately been one of 
 James's Secret Committee. His conduct in the present 
 crisis indicates a judicious resolution to keep in with both 
 parties. The Convention passed forthwith to an 'over- 
 ture for the securitie of the meeting from insults and 
 tumults.' The Castle was the chief menace, and the Earls 
 of Lothian and Tweeddale were sent to demand its 
 delivery. They carried a promise of exoneration to 
 Gordon and his co-religionists in it. Gordon demanded 
 and was given the promise in writing, and returned an 
 undertaking to surrender upon conditions. Balcarres and 
 Dundee immediately (14th March) despatched a messenger 
 to remind the Duke of his engagement to them. 
 Gordon, however, stood by his resolution. He was 
 determined to surrender, he sent answer, unless he had 
 a written statement 'that it was of absolute Necessity 
 for your [James's] Aft'airs not to yield ' the Castle. 
 What Gordon required, in fact, was a guarantee that 
 James's adherents contemplated active measures. To 
 hold the Castle otherwise would be a Quixotic act of 
 self-immolation. Dundee and Balcarres hurried to 
 send him the assurance he demanded. In the small- 
 hours of the next day (15th March) Dundee himself 
 got access to the Castle, and ' confirmed ' Gordon ' abso- 
 lutely in his Resolution of keeping it out.' He com- 
 municated to him also the first hint of the intention 
 of the King's friends to dissociate themselves from the 
 
 1 Tho account here given of the proceedings of tlie Convention is 
 derived from a MS. in the Advocates' Library (33. 7. 8.) entitled The 
 Minutes of the Convention of Eslaten of the Kingdome of /Scotland liolden alt 
 Edinburgh 14th March 1689. See the minutes printed in vol. ix. of Arta 
 Parlt. Scot.
 
 252 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Convention, and to summon a meeting in opposition to 
 it at Stirling.^ 
 
 Dundee's conversation with Gordon conveyed a resolve 
 which so far was unofficial. An agreement to hold a 
 rival Convention at Stirling was not arrived at by the 
 party managers until IGth March 1689,^ and it was never 
 carried into effect. But the contemplation of such a step 
 by one who had undertaken to live quietly unless he was 
 ' forced ' has easy explanation. James was already, with 
 French troops, in Ireland (12th March), and though the 
 news had not yet reached Edinburgh, it was expected. 
 Communications from the King to Dundee, Balcarres, and 
 those on whose loyalty he could count, were also on their 
 way. In such a crisis Dundee's action was already deter- 
 mined. Personal reasons alike impelled him. Edinburgh 
 was filled Avith violent partisans of the Whig notables.^ 
 Brought thither from districts in which Dundee had been 
 most active, they waited greedily for the opportunity to 
 strike at their oppressor. Dundee was doubly ' forced ' to 
 abandon a passive role. 
 
 At ten o'clock on the morning of 15th March the Con- 
 vention assembled to receive Gordon's reply to yesterday's 
 message. ' I am wiling to comply with the Commission 
 I received be the Earles of Lowthian and Twadale,' he 
 wrote. He demanded a general indemnity for himself 
 and the garrison as a condition of his surrender. The 
 Convention debated his letter, and resolved to offer him 
 
 ' Balcarres, An Account of the Affair a of Scotland, pp. 64-66. 
 
 '^ Ibid., p. 66. 
 
 ^ ' Some Days before the Convention sat down, the Duke of 
 H[ainilto]n and other Western Lords and Centlemen brought publiokly 
 into Town several Companies of Foot and Quartered them in the City, 
 besides great numbers that they keeped hid iu Cellers and Houses below 
 the Ground, which never appeared until some Days after the Conven- 
 tion was begun' (Balcarres, An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, 
 p. 59). The general truth of this statement is amplj^ confirmed. See 
 below, p. 253.
 
 THE CONVENTION 253 
 
 safe-conduct ' to attend the meeting to facilitat ' a treaty. 
 A third time Lothian and Tweeddale journeyed up the 
 Castle's steep ascent, and hastened back with Gordon's 
 unexpected withdrawal of his offer to surrender. Dundee, 
 in fact, had preceded the two Earls by a few hours up the 
 Castle road. He now intervened in the debate and pro- 
 duced a letter in which the Duke offered to meet the 
 objection to himself as a Roman Catholic by surrendering 
 the Captaincy of the Castle to the Earl of Airlie, a 
 Protestant. Airlie had been one of Dundee's troop 
 captains, a man, no doubt, on whom he could better rely 
 than the nervous Gordon, For that reason among others, 
 it may be, ' the overture [was] not agried to.' In place of 
 it the heralds, with their attendants, were bidden ' to 
 summond the Duke of Gordon and other papists in the 
 Castle of Edinburgh to remove themselvis therfrom im- 
 mediatly on paine of treason.' Proclamation was also 
 made ' discharging the leidges to converse with, abbet or 
 assist the Duke or any others under his command,' and a 
 reward was offered to the Protestant members of the 
 garrison, ' in caice they secure the castell and dispossess 
 the Duke and other papists thereof.' The second day of 
 the Convention reached its close. 
 
 Before the Convention resumed on the 16th, Dundee 
 had definite warning that his life was threatened.^ 
 Burnet affects to scoff at a danger of which Dundee was 
 prompt to take advantage.^ But the reality of it is 
 beyond dispute. On the first day of the Convention, that 
 body had under consideration a proclamation ordering the 
 
 ^ Balcarres (An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 67) says that 
 'just as the Convention was sitting down,' Dundee received information 
 of a plot to assassinate Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh and himself, 
 and was assured that if the necessary warrant could be obtained, his in- 
 formant would ' instantly carry ' him to the house where the plotters 
 were. The refusal of the Convention to meddle in the matter, Balcarres 
 adds, made Dundee ' press yet the more to be gone then before. ' 
 
 2 History of my own Time, ed. 1753, vol. iii. p. 30.
 
 254 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 removal from Edinburgh of ' siich persons as are not con- 
 cerned as members or their servants in the meeting, nor 
 as Inhabitants and traders in and about Edinburgh.' It 
 was again under consideration on the 15th, but no conchi- 
 sion was arrived at.^ Admittedly there were in the city 
 during the Convention ' a set of men,' as Alexander Reid 
 describes them, ' commonly called the rabble,' who ' were 
 received into it in a warlike posture, and guarded the men 
 who might be in hazard.' ^ With some exaggeration 
 Dundee's earliest biographer declares that ' no man that 
 had served King Charles the Second or King James's 
 reigns, was safe in the streets.' ^ Dundee at least was a 
 marked man. Sir George Mackenzie was warned that he 
 ctlso was in danger. So soon as the Convention met (16th 
 March), a motion was ' urged and largely spoken to ' by 
 Mackenzie, 'for securitie of the members.' Information 
 that two men had been heard to say they would ' use the 
 persons of the Lords Dundee and Rosshaugh as they have 
 formerly used them,' was communicated by the President. 
 James Binnie, a dyer, was summoned to support the in- 
 formation. He declared ' that he heard two men yester- 
 day in his oun houss in Edinburgh say, they resolved to 
 
 ' Minutes of the Convention, fol. 4, 7. 
 
 - Life of Alexander Reid [1646-1706], 3rd edit. p. 53. See Shields, A 
 Short Memorial, p. 40. This Cameronian guard was drawn principally 
 from Glasgow (Thomas Carter, Historical Record of the Cameronian 
 Regiment, p. 2). It was not dismissed until 28th March 1689, after 
 having been employed to begin the siege of the Castle pending Mackay's 
 arrival (An Account of the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Estates in 
 Scotland, Lond. 1689, p. 22). The Whig or Cameronian guard is stated 
 to have been under the command of ' Daniel Ker, brother to Kersland ' 
 {Memoirs of Locheill, p. 235). 
 
 ^ Memoirs of 1714, p. 16. Gilbert Rule, on the other extreme, asserts 
 that Dundee, in order 'to surprize and seize the Convention,' had 
 ' secretly got together, of King James's disbanded Souldiers and others, 
 about 2000 Strangers in Edinburgh ; which occasioned those in the West 
 to gather as many into Edinburgh to oppose them, and secure the Con- 
 vention' [A Vindication of the Church of Scotland, Edin. and Lond. 1691, 
 p. 9).
 
 THE CONVENTION 255 
 
 use these dogs as tliey were used by them, after asking 
 for the lodgings of these two Lords, ading that they 
 should not escape them, though it was not to be done fore 
 some nights.' The subject aroused but languid interest, 
 and the Convention passed to other business. 
 
 A report from the Committee of Elections, and a state- 
 ment that the Duke of Gordon had been seen ' betuixt 
 nyn and ten acloak yesternight betwixt the Cross and the 
 Luckenbooths,' in a hackney-coach, ' with two flambous 
 and six footmen,' having been considered, the rival parties 
 ranged themselves for battle on a matter of greater 
 moment. ' Then a Letter brought into the meeting and 
 offered to there consideration be one Mr, Craun,' the 
 Minutes of Convention record laconically.^ The letter 
 was from James. A motion, that a report 'anent the 
 Election for the toun of Pearth be first considered ' was 
 voted and carried in the affirmative ! The Perth election 
 being disposed of, motion was made to consider the King's 
 letter. Hamilton countered with information that the Earl 
 of Leven had brought a letter from the Prince of Orange, 
 ' and offered it might be read lykways.' Debate ensued as 
 to which of the letters should be read first. It was voted 
 ' most convenient ' to give priority to William's, ' in regard 
 it could not desolve the meeting, as the other could doe.' 
 Lord Sinclair alone protested, ' that his hearing the said 
 Letter and thereafter siting in the meeting might not 
 Import any acknowledgment of his ouning a forraigne 
 authoritie against his alleadgiance.' From Dundee, and 
 for due reason, not a word. A motion followed, that 
 ' notwithstanding of what is contained in his Majesties 
 
 ^ In The History of the Aifaires of Scotland, Lond. 1690 (p. 63), the 
 bearer of the letter is described as ' one Crane, who went under the 
 Notion of a servant to the late Queen in France.' In October 1701 a 
 ' Mr. Crane ' had a warrant to be a Gentleman Usher of the Privy 
 Chamber in the Household of Queen Mary {Hist. MSS. Comm. Stuart 
 Papers, vol. i. p. 164),
 
 256 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 [James's] letter, this meeting should not dissolve, but sitt 
 wntill the religion, laws, liberties and properties of the 
 Kingdome be secured.' Dundee supported the motion.^ 
 That he did so, Professor Hume Brown declares, is 'a 
 stain on his scutcheon.' ^ The conclusion is not obvious. 
 Dundee had every reason to believe that James's letter was 
 innocent of the menace which the Convention feared. He 
 anticipated that it would prove the lessons of the past to 
 have been laid to heart, and that its moderate tone would 
 relieve the Convention from the alternative, irksome to 
 many, of declaring the crown forfeited. For the letter, 
 he had every reason to suppose, was modelled upon a draft 
 of his own composition, at least with his sanction, which 
 David Lindsay had carried to deliver personally into 
 James's hands a few weeks before. It was therefore with 
 consternation and dismay that Dundee listened to a com- 
 munication that proved James heedless or ignorant of the 
 advice tendered him." So soon as the Convention ad- 
 journed, the party managers met to discuss their plans. 
 It was resolved to ' quell ' the Convention, and to summon 
 
 1 See the list of signatories in Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 8. 
 
 2 History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 442. 
 
 2 A piece of information, overlooked by previous writers, has enabled 
 me to explain Dundee's attitude towards James's letter. Sir John 
 Maclean, circ. 170.3, giving information to Lord Leven regarding the 
 Jacobite plot of that year, mentions David Lindsay as ' the man who 
 carry'd the draucht of a letter prepared by the Lord Dundee and others 
 for the late King James to sigiie and send to the convention of estats, 
 with ordors to deliver it to non but King James himself ; but was 
 deluded by Lord Melfort, who prepared a differant leter and 
 supp[ressed] this. He [Sir John Maclean] says this story he had from 
 my Lord Dundee himself (Fraser, The Melvilles and the Leslies, vol. iii. 
 p. 235). Maclean is supported by the memoir of Balcarres's son, which 
 mentions David Lindsay as the bearer of despatches to James from 
 Dundee and Balcarres at London (Lindsay, Lives of the Lhidsays, 
 vol. ii. p. 163). For David Lindsay's employment at James's Court, see 
 Hist. MSS. Comm. Stuart Pajiers, vol. i. pp. 106, 119, 172. He returned 
 to Scotland under favour of Queen Anne's Act of Grace (Terry, Chevalier 
 de St. George, p. 30). 
 
 James's letter to the Convention, dated from on board the St. Michael, 
 1st March 1689, is printed in Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 10.
 
 THE CONVENTION 257 
 
 in the King's name a rival body to meet at Stirling.^ 
 Dundee insisted upon instant action. 
 
 Sunday passed without incident. The morrow, Monday, 
 18th March, was appointed for the Jacobite exodus. 
 Balcarres was pledged. Atholl Avas pledged. Neither 
 stirred at Dundee's summons, Balcarres condemns Atholl, 
 whose ' heart failed.' He had begged a day's delay. It was 
 agreed to, with a resolution to attend the Convention once 
 more, ' the better to cover our Design of going away.' 
 Monday dawned. No hint of AthoU's indecision had 
 reached Dundee. At about ten in the morning, just as 
 Balcarres, Atholl, and the rest, were setting out to ' the 
 House,' Dundee rode up with a cavalcade of two or three 
 score, and hearing of the new plan, was ' mightily sur- 
 priz'd.' He was urged to fall in with it, and refused — ' an 
 appointment with some to go with him ' was his reason.^ 
 So he rode away, a fraction of his own troop at his back.^ 
 Down Leith Wynd they clattered, skirted the North Loch, 
 and wheeling leftward, reined up at the foot of the Castle's 
 western front.'^ A sign from the battlements had called 
 the halt.'' Hidden from the town by the ragged escarp- 
 ment, Dundee clambered up the rock's steep face.^ A 
 
 1 Balcarres, An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 66. 
 
 - Ihicl, pp. 68, 69. 
 
 ^ A letter from Edinburgh states : ' On Muntlay last my lord Dundie 
 went out of the touue with great auger and conveined ane number of 40 
 or .50 horses weill mounted, haveing bein trouperis in his owue troupe 
 formerlie' (Book of the, Thanes of Caivdo); Spalding Club, p. 381). See 
 Dundee's letter below, p. 261, whence it appears that those who accom- 
 panied him had their own following. 
 
 •* Memoirs of 1714, p. 16. Tradition has it, that as he rode, some one 
 asked him whither he was going. ' Wherever the spirit of Montrose shall 
 direct me,' was his answer (Dalrymple, Memoirs of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, vol. i. pt. i. p. 287). 
 
 ^ Tliat Gordon invited the parley is stated both by Balhald}', who met 
 Dundee a few hours later {Memoirs of Locheill, p. 235), and by Balcarres 
 [An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 69). 
 
 ^ The author of The Desjjofs Chamj/ion (p. 2o8) regards this as an im- 
 probable, if not an impossible achievement. There is no doubt that 
 
 R
 
 25S JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 hurried conversation, an injunction to Gordon to liold the 
 Castle at all hazards,^ and Dundee was again at the head 
 of his men, galloping westwards towards Linlithgow.^ 
 
 News of the exploit broke in upon the Convention, 
 where, by odd coincidence, a proposal to remove beyond 
 the range of Gordon's cannon was under discussion. 
 Leven was bidden ' to beat Drums ' and prevent a sally 
 from the Castle. Ijord Montgomerie came in with further 
 news : Dundee had been seen ' going towards the Queens- 
 ferrie.' The Convention took prompt measures, and sent 
 an express after the fugitive commanding his return. 
 Major Hugh Buntine carried the summons,^ but missing 
 
 Duudee achieved it. The Memoirs of 1714 (p. 16) state that he ' went by 
 himself up to the castle wall.' Oldmixon {Memoirs of North- Britain, p. 
 43) places the interview at ' the Postern-Gate of the Castle. ' The message 
 carried forthwith to the assembled Convention was to the effect that 
 Dundee had been seen conversing with Gordon ' over the castell wall ' 
 (Minutes of the Convention, fol. 16). As to the difficulty of the feat, 
 the present writer found it a comparatively easy and short climb to the 
 postern at which, as recorded by the tablet above it, the interview took 
 place. There seems to be no particular reason to suppose that the rock 
 was more rugged and less screened by sheltering brushwood in 1689 than 
 it is now. 
 
 ^ On 16th March Gordon had written to the Earl of Tweeddale to ask 
 him for an interview, assuring him that ' what I have to communicat shall 
 not be disagriable' {Minutes of the Convention, fol. 10). 
 
 ^ Memoirs of 1714, p. 16. The letter already quoted states : ' My 
 Lord Lithcow and the Laird of Langtoune with severall others followed 
 him that same night' {Thanes of Cawdor, p. 382). The Lord Linlithgow 
 here mentioned was George Livingstone, afterwards fourth Earl of Lin- 
 lithgow, whose father (d. 1690) had been major-general of the forces in 
 Scotland in 1679. He himself had marched into England with his troop 
 of the Life Guards. Napier (vol. iii. p. 505) names him as ' the only 
 nobleman who went with ' Dundee. Dundee's letter (see below, p. 261) 
 makes it clear that Livingstone and others accompanied him, but in the 
 light of the letter quoted above, it seems probable that Livingstone did 
 not ride out of Edinburgh with him. 
 
 ^ Buntine 's name is not mentioned in the MS. Minutes of the Conven- 
 tion, where the messenger is merely called 'a macer.' In the contempo- 
 rary Account of the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Estates in Scotland 
 (No. 2, p. 14) ' a Major with 80 Horse' is named as appointed to pursue 
 Dundee. Balcarres's account (in Napier, vol. iii. p. 513) mentions Buntine 
 by name. It is, however, possible that Buntine did not follow Dundee 
 until 19th March.
 
 THE CONVENTION 259 
 
 his quarry, left the citation at the house ' quhair he was 
 informed the Lord Dundee did lodge att Linlithgow.' So 
 he reported to the Convention the following day.^ The 
 Estates (19th March) already had new information : 
 Dundee had left Linlithgow : Stirling was believed to be 
 his goal. The levies of West and Mid-Lothian were called 
 out. Dundee and Livingstone were summoned to return 
 to Edinburgh within twenty-four hours. The magistrates 
 of Stirling were bidden (20th March) ' to scale the persone 
 of the Lord Dundee,' Livingstone, and those with them in 
 arms.2 But the order was futile. Dundee was already 
 safe behind the walls of Dudhope. 
 
 From Linlithgow, where he spent the night of the 18th, 
 Dundee had ridden on towards Stirling. Mar held the 
 Castle, but stood aloof? The town itself, warned of 
 yesterday's events, was prepared to dispute an entrance.* 
 Passing the Forth at Stirling Bridge,^ Dundee rode on to 
 Dunblane. Drummond of Balhaldy met him there. 
 Ever since James's flight the veteran Lochiel had been 
 
 1 Minutes of Convention, fol. 28. Creichton's senile garrulity is re- 
 sponsible for the statement that Buntine overtook Dundee, and that the 
 latter frightened him back to Edinburgh with the threat, that otherwise 
 ' he would send him back to his masters in a pair of blaukets ' ( Works of 
 Swift, vol. X. p. 178). Bun tine's want of success in his mission probably 
 fathered the idea that he was, as Creichton imagines, not anxious to 
 execute it. Tlie Grameid (p. 44) calls him ' the sluggish Buntine ' {pi(jer 
 Buntinus) and 'that pitiful veteran ' {vetus iste). Buntine certainly con- 
 veyed to his employers no impression of insincerity. On 24th April 1689 
 he was appointed General Muster-Master of the forces to be raised by the 
 Estates [An Account of the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Estates in 
 Scotland, No. 16, p. 45). 
 
 2 Minutes of the Convention, fol. 23, 29. The following item in the 
 town's accounts relates to the order to the Stirling magistrates to appre- 
 hend Dundee : ' Item, to ane post that cam frae Edinburgh with ane lyne 
 from the provest to the rest of the magistratis to apprehend Dundie, 
 £2. 8. 0.' [Records of the Royal Burgh of Stirling, p. 333). Dundee, it 
 may be remembered, was a burgess of Stirling. 
 
 ^ Balcarres mentions AthoU, Mar, and Annandale as having 'joined 
 the other party ' (Napier, vol. iii. p. 513). 
 •* An Account of the Proceedings, etc., No. 3, p. 15. 
 ^ Memoirs of 1714, p. 17.
 
 260 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 active among tlie Clans, the one reliable asset in every 
 Jacobite venture. A Montrose was wanting, and here, in 
 Dundee, was the timely promise of him. Balhaldy had 
 news of Lochiel's Highland confederacy to impart. Dun- 
 dee listened greedily, and next day rode homeward to 
 Dudhope, ' confirmed in his designs.' ^ The ' spirit of 
 Montrose ' clearly beckoned him. 
 
 Balcarres at a later time judged it necessary to defend 
 Dundee from the charge of precipitancy. Not a line 
 sanctioning resort to arms had reached him from James. 
 His party was divided and irresolute. Mar and Annan- 
 dale had gone over. AthoU faced both ways. Gordon 
 was unreliable. Balcarres, not yet in prison, was on the 
 threshold of it. Hamilton and the Convention sat seem- 
 ingly impregnable. Mackay and part of the Scots Brigade 
 arrived at Leith on 24th March. The remainder followed 
 on the 28th. ' Through a Prospective ' Mackay was 
 already scanning the Castle's defences. On the same 
 day (28th March) he was commissioned Commander-in- 
 Chief under the Estates.^ In view of the discouraging 
 situation, so Balcarres avers, Dundee would not have 
 stirred without James's orders, had he not been ' obliged 
 to save himself from a Party that came to apprehend 
 him.'^ Since he rode from Edinburgh on the 18th, his 
 seclusion at Dudhope had tempted the wildest rumours. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Locheill, p. 235. 
 
 '^ Gi'eat Xews from the Convention in Scotland, Edin. 2Sth March 1689. 
 Mackay's earliest measures were, to put a garrison into Stirling Castle ; 
 to ' cut oil' Edinburgh Castle ' from intelligence and provisions ' ; and to 
 recruit his regiments. See Mackay, Memoirs of the War carried on in 
 Scotland and Ireland, pp. 5-7. 
 
 The forces at Mackay's disposal were at first only his Scots Brigade 
 from Holland, some eleven hundred strong, Leven's new regiment, levied 
 by the Convention, and a body of horse. Mr. Ferguson [Scots Brigade, 
 vol. i. p. 482) holds that the recent recruiting of the Scots Brigade, with 
 ' the sudden change in their composition,' was responsible for their failure 
 ' to exhibit at Killiecrankie the stubborn endurance worthy of their 
 foreign laurels.' 
 
 ^ An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 79.
 
 THE CONVENTION 261 
 
 He had gone to the West ; had been refused a pass to 
 Ireland ; had ' certainly gone to the North,' ' more for fear 
 than for any other reason.' ^ A more discerning news- 
 monger at length hit upon the truth : ' We hear no more 
 of the Viscount Dundee since his withdrawing, but that 
 he lives peaceably at his own House; it beeing indeed but 
 vain for that Party to think of attempting any thing 
 against the whole Nation.' ^ At Dudhope Dundee re- 
 mained, and there the summons, which hurried him to 
 action, tardily found him. Its bearer had been seven 
 days upon his trail.^ Dundee despatched him with his 
 reply to Hamilton : * 
 
 DuDHOP, 3farch 27, 1689. 
 May it please Your Grace, 
 
 The coming of an herauld and trumpeter to 
 summon a man to lay down arms, that is living in peace at 
 home, seems to me a very extraordinary thing, and, I suppose, 
 will do so to all that hears of it. While I attended the Con- 
 vention at Edinburgh, I complained often of many people's 
 being in arms without authority, which was notoriously known 
 to be true, even the wild hill men ; and no summons to lay 
 down arms under pain of treason being given them, I thought 
 it unsafe for me to remain longer among them. And because 
 some few of my friends did me the favour to convey me out of 
 the reach of these murderers, and that ray Lord Levingston 
 and several other officers took occasion to come away at the 
 same time, this must be called being in arms. We did not 
 exceed the number allowed by the Meeting of Estates : my lord 
 Levingstone and I might have had each of us ten ; and four or 
 five officers that were in company might have had a certain 
 number allowed them ; which being, it will be found we ex- 
 ceeded not. I am sure it is far short of the number my Lord 
 
 ^ An Account of the Proceedings of the Meetimj of the Estates in Scotland, 
 pp. 15, 16, 19. 
 
 2 Great Newsfrom the Convention in Scotland, 2Sth March 1(589. 
 
 •■' He had received his instructions on 19th March to cite Dundee and 
 Livingstone to return to Edinburgh within twenty-four hours. Upon his 
 return to Edinburgh on 28th March with their replies he was ordered to 
 explain the cause of his delay (Minutes of the Convention, fol. 23, 48). 
 
 * Smythe, Letters of John Orahame of Claverhouse, p. 32.
 
 262 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOIISE 
 
 Lome was seen to march with.^ And, tho I had gone awaj^ 
 with some more than ordinary, who can blame me, when designs 
 of murdering me was made appear 1 Besides, it is known to 
 every body, that l)cfore we came within sixteen miles of this, 
 my Lord Lcvingston went off to his brother, my Lord Strath- 
 moir's house ; and most of the officers, and several of the com- 
 pany, went to their respective homes or relations ; and if any 
 of them did me the favour to come along with me, must that be 
 called being in arms ? Sure, when your Grace represents this 
 to the Meeting of the States, they will discharge such a ground- 
 less pursuit, and think my appearance before them unnecessary. 
 Besides, tho' it were necessary for me to go and attend the 
 Meeting, I cannot come with freedom and safety, because I am 
 informed there are men of war and foreign troops in the passage ; 
 and, till I know what they are, and what are their orders, the 
 Meeting cannot blame me for not eoming. Then, my Lord, 
 seeing the summons has proceeded on a groundless story, I 
 hope the Meeting of States will think it unreasonable I should 
 leave my wife in the condition she is in. If there be any body 
 that, notwithstanding of all that is said, think I ought to 
 appear, I beg the favour of a delay till my wife is brought to 
 bed ; and, in the meantime, I will either give secui'ity or paroll 
 not to disturb the peace. Seeing this pursuit is so groundless, 
 and so reasonable things offered, and the Meeting composed of 
 prudent men and men of honour, and your Grace presiding in 
 it, I have no reason to fear farther trouble. — I am, May it 
 please your Grace, 
 
 Your most humble servant, 
 
 DUNDIE. 
 
 1 beg your Grace will cause read this to the Meeting, because 
 it is all the defence I have made. I sent another to your Grace 
 from Dumblein, with the reasons of my leaving Edinburgh. I 
 know not if it be come to your hands.^ 
 
 For His Grace the Duke of Hamilton. 
 
 The letter is ingenuous. Upon the facts its defence is 
 sound. But, given the opportunity, the harmless tail that 
 
 ^ This refers, presumably, to a force of Argyllshire Highlanders which 
 was brought to Edinburgh before Mackay's arrival. See his Memoirs of 
 the War, p. 4. 
 
 2 The letter, unfortunately, has not been found.
 
 THE CONVENTION 263 
 
 had followed its chief from Edinburgh would swell to the 
 proportions of an array. On 28th March, Hamilton com- 
 municated Dundee's ' defence ' to the Estates. It was 
 ' considered,' but no action was taken upon it.^ On the 
 30th it was again read, and judgment was passed : ' Foras- 
 much as John viscount of Dundee being cited be warrand 
 of the meeting of the Estates to lay doune his armes under 
 the pain of treasone and to appear befor them to answear 
 for his Corresponding with the Duke of Gordoun ^ after 
 he was intercomuned And the herald who cited him and 
 the witnesses to the Executione haveing upon oath verified 
 the Execution of the charge given to the said viscount, 
 And he being thryce called in the house, and at the great 
 Door, and not appearing, The meeting of Estates Doe 
 declair the said viscount of Dundee fugitive and rebell. 
 And ordaines the heraulds with sound of trumpet to 
 Denunce him at the mercat cross of the head brugh of 
 the shire of Forffar wher he lives.' ^ 
 
 Declared fugitive and a rebel, the Convention drove 
 Dundee prematurely into revolt. Three months later 
 (27th June) he made his plaint to Melfort : ' I had neither 
 commission, money, nor ammunition. . , . But I wonder, 
 above all things, that in three months I never heard from 
 you.'^ True, on 29th March 1689, James had signed at 
 Dublin Castle a commission to him as lieutenant-general 
 ' to command all such forces as can be raised there [in 
 Scotland], and to command likewise such as we shall 
 send from this to your assistance.' •'"' But the promised 
 
 1 Minutes of Convention, fol. 48. 
 
 2 On 18th March 1689. 
 
 ^ Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 24. The Estates called out the militia 
 south of Tayon the same date (ibicL, p. 25). 
 
 •* See his letter in Macplierson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 362. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Buccleuch and Queensherry MSS., vol. ii. pt. i. 
 p. 39. Forgetful, it would appear, that Dundee already held that rank, 
 a commission to him as major-general was dated on the same day [ibid., 
 p. 39). James wrote to Balcarres on the same date, declaring his resolu-
 
 264. JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 assistance did not arrive. The commission was inter- 
 ceptod.i It was not until 22nd June/ a few weeks before 
 his death, that Dundee received any communication from 
 the King for whom he had worked single-handed, marking 
 time, as it were, maintaining at least the appearance of 
 a cause, until the King's plans ripened to the longed-for 
 campaign. 
 
 tion to come to Scotland as soon as possible, and his intention to send 
 over a force of five thousand men [ibid., p. 38). A letter of similar tenor 
 was also written to Dundee, and on the same date. It carried the assur- 
 ance : ' if it shall pleas God to give success, to our just cause, wee will let 
 the antient cavallier pairty know that wee are the only true basis that 
 monarchy can rest upon in Scotland ' {Hist. MSS. Comm. Hejit. xi., pt. vi. 
 p. 178). 
 
 1 It and the documents mentioned in the above note fell into the hands 
 of the Government shortly before 16th April {Bucdeuch and Qiiecnsberry 
 MSS., vol. ii. pt. i. p. 43). Hamilton forwarded them to William on 
 17th April 1689, and in view of their nature, pushed on the settlement of 
 the Crown (Ilist. irSS. Comm. Rej^t. xi., pt. vi. p. 176). 
 
 ^ See his letter of 27th June to Melfort.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 
 
 Thirty years of heedless misrule had brought inevitable 
 catastrophe. With unflinching directness the Convention 
 declared the throne vacant on 4th April 1689, and offered 
 it to William and Mary a week later.^ Ere they accepted 
 it, Dundee was in the saddle. He had tarried to see his 
 wife a mother, and to name the boy James. ' Mr. David 
 Graham, brother german to my Lord, and Major Will 
 Graham ' sponsored the infant at the font.^ But Montrose 
 was his real godfather. His father was soon far away, 
 treading the path, with happier climax, of him whose 
 name was also his son's. 
 
 It is a brave picture, coloured lavishly, that Philip 
 gives in the Grameid of Dundee's defiant challenge to 
 William. Dundee Law was the scene of it. Dudhope 
 and its pleasant orchards lay beneath ; Dundee, its citizens 
 
 1 Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. pp. 33, 37. 
 
 2 ' James Grahame son lawful! to my Lord Dundie ' was baptized on 
 9th April 1689. The entry is in the MS. Register of Mains Parish. He 
 died shortly before 3rd December 1689 {An Account of the Proceedings of 
 the Meeting of the Estates, No. 77, p. 172). Lady Dundee, Rara sui sexus 
 et nostri rarior raew Gloria, as James Philip calls her, was already de- 
 livered when Dundee set forth (Grameid, p. 48). The fact that David 
 Graham and Major William Graham were at Dudhope on 9th April 
 supports the conclusion that Dundee had not yet raised the standard. A 
 puzzling entry in the Register of Dundee births makes Dundee and his 
 wife present as witnesses at a baptism on 9th May 1689. The entry is 
 quoted in Millar, Eminent Burgesses (p. 168), and I have verified its 
 accuracy. But Dundee was in Badenoch on 9th May. I conjecture that 
 ' May ' was entered in the Register by mistake for ' April,' the more so 
 since 9th April was also the date of Dundee's son's baptism. 
 
 266
 
 2f)6 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 agog and wondering at their terrific Provost, lower still. 
 On the height above, the relics of his troop around hira, 
 Dundee, in scarlet uniform, ^ raised the royal standard.^ 
 Then, with a backward glance towards Dudhope, he 
 swept across the Sidlaws to his earlier home, Glenogilvic. 
 Three days he halted there, aAvaiting news of Mackay's 
 movements.^ On the third his scouts brought warn- 
 ing of Sir Thomas Livingstone's approach. Livingstone's 
 was a ' misluct design ' ; for Dundee rode out of Glen- 
 ogilvie ' the day before Sir Thomas came out of his 
 quarter.' Mackay himself prepared to take the field, and 
 sent the Master of Forbes northward to watch the Govern- 
 ment's interests.* Dundee was already on his way thither. 
 Ice-covered torrents, snow-clad hills, rocky defiles, tangled 
 woods, tempest, lightning-flash, delayed him not, writes 
 Philip, in hexameters of wild poetic medley. Through 
 Kirriemuir, covering Montrose's ground, over the North 
 Esk, over Cairn o' Mount, the cavalcade sped until the 
 Dee lay before them. Breasting their steeds to its swift 
 current, they rode past Kincardine O'Neil,^ onward to the 
 Don, and crossing it, passed through Clatt, along the 
 
 ^ Tyrioque innignis in ostro {Grameid, p. 48). 
 
 "^ The date of this event, the ceremouiousuess of which Philip un- 
 doubtedly exaggerates, I am not able to determine. That it was later 
 tlian 9th April I have already suggested. Canon Murdoch places it 
 between 12th and 15th April {Grameld, p. 46). On the other hand, 
 Hamilton reported to the Convention on Sth April ' several Rumours 
 concerning the Viscount of Dundee his gathering men in the North ' (An 
 Account of the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Estates, No. 10, p. 29). 
 They were probably rumours and nothing more. Having regard to the 
 date of Dundee's arrival at Keith (see below, p. 267), I incline to hold 
 that he left Dudhope on lOth or 17th April. 
 
 ^ Soles at tres cunctantur in arce Vallis Ogilvianae [GrameUl, p. 49). 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 8. ^Mackay dates Livingstone's 
 attempt to surprise Dundee as ' towards the 20th of April.' The phrase 
 is too vague for determination of the accurate chronology of Dundee's 
 movements. 
 
 ^ Inde pe-T Oneali villam, quo nomine dicta est Carnea jam Regis 
 (Grameid, p. 50). As Canon Murdoch remarks: 'The Poet's skill in 
 rendering the name into Latin deserves more praise than his etymology.'
 
 JoW-ISartaolooww &■ Co-
 
 ml
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 267 
 
 Bogie Water, and so to Keith. The date was 21st April.^ 
 Two or three days' hard galloping lay between them and 
 Glenogilvie.^ On the morrow the troop was again in the 
 saddle, still treading Montrose's track. The Spey was 
 passed at Fochabers. Gordon Castle, where Dimfermlinc 
 was ready to join at a summons, was left behind, ^ Thence 
 past Elgin, not without well-wishers,'* and so to rest 
 ' 'mid Forres' sweet meadows.' ^ 
 
 The motive of Dundee's hasty ride was twofold. His 
 resources were no match for Mackay, and prudence coun- 
 selled withdrawal. An army had to be raised, the lairds 
 of the north, the Clans in the west, to be sounded. His 
 position at Forres gave him easy retreat to the Highlands 
 if need arose. Meanwhile, he was eagerly sounding the 
 chiefs. To the Laird of Mackintosh, his kinsman, he 
 wrote from Coxton, near Elgin, on 24th April. He had 
 written to him only two days before in similar strain ; 
 ' yet having the occasion of this bearer,' he explained his 
 pertinacity, ' I am so concerned that you make no wrong 
 step to the prejudice of j^our family, or to your own 
 dishonour, I would not forbear to mind yon of the just 
 cause the King has, or the objections you have to him, 
 
 ^ The date is fixed by a letter written by Dundee at Keith on 21st 
 April [Letters and State Pa2)ers chiefly addrensed to George, Earl of Mel- 
 ville, Bann. Club, p. 13). The editor suggests that it was written to 
 Lord Murray. It was, however, addressed to James, Earl of Dunferm- 
 line. See below, p. 268. 
 
 ^ From Glenogilvie to Keith the distance, as the crow flies, is less than 
 seventy miles, and the north road is fairly direct. It is clear from 
 Philip's account that Dundee travelled rapidly. Two days, or at the 
 most three, would be occupied in the journey. Dundee must have set 
 out from Glenogilvie, in that case, on 19th or 20th April. As Philip says 
 he remained three days at Glenogilvie, Dundee would appear to have left 
 Dudhope on 16th or 17th April. 
 
 ^ et pulchram pinnis sublmiihus arcem Gordoveam, et celsas post terr/a 
 relinqnimiis aedes [Grameid, p. f)!). 
 
 ■* The Provost and two Bailies of Elgin were summoned before the 
 Estates in May 1689 (Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 86). 
 
 " Tandem inter dulccs Forressae insedimus ayros (Grameid, p. 51).
 
 268 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 and the happy occasion you have now by declaring for 
 the King to oblige him and all honest men in such 
 manner.' 1 His messenger carried appeals elsewhere to 
 Highland loyalty. They bore fruit later. Meanwhile he 
 gained one important recruit. From CoUithie, approach- 
 ing Keith, he had written to Dunfermline, the Duke of 
 Gordon's brother-in-law, his agent in the present crisis. 
 The Earl was at Castle Gordon, and hastened to assure 
 Dundee by letter of his co-operation ; * which I was 
 extreamly glaid to see,' Dundee wrote in answer ; ^ ' not 
 that I could dout your lordships forwardness for the 
 kings service, but was extreamly pleased that I should 
 have the hapiness to concert with you these affaires, that 
 concerns us all so much. There is no body in this 
 contrey, both on your oun acount and the Duke of 
 Gordons, so proper to influence it.' For the moment 
 Dunfermline beat for recruits. He joined a few days 
 later, when Dundee's rush towards Mackay was ended, 
 and he was once more upon the Spey.^ 
 
 One looks southward to Mackay. Rumours that 
 Dundee had passed over to Ireland were still persistent.* 
 
 ' Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, Letters of Two Centuries, p. 119. Dundee 
 signs himself ' your affectionate cousin.' Mr. Mackintosh explains that 
 the laird's mother was Magdalene Graham of Edzell. 
 
 2 Fraser, The Melvilles and the Leslies, vol. ii. p. 103. Dundee men- 
 tions Major Graham, his son's godfather, as his messenger. The letter 
 is dated from CoUithie on 21st April 1689. In a later letter from Keith 
 on the same day, Dundee promised to send Major Graham to wait on 
 Dunfermline at Castle Gordon on the 22nd [Letters chiefly addressed to 
 George, Earl of Melville, p. 13). 
 
 ■'* Illlc pr'aecipitem Spejae prope fluminis undam \ Fermelodunus adest, 
 stipattis robore gentis | Gordoniae, socia armaferens, atque agmina jungens 
 {Grameid, p. 53). 
 
 In the Proelixbm Gillicrankianum : Cantilena, Dunfermline is thus 
 described : — 
 
 Nohilis ap2Mruit Fermilodunensis, 
 Gujus in rehclles stringebatur ensis ; 
 Nohilis et sanguine, nobilior i-irtute, 
 Regi devotissimus intus et in cute. 
 
 ^ See a newsletter of 30th April in Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xii., 
 pt. vii. p. 239.
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 269 
 
 Mackay was better informed. His fate was to be that 
 of Cope in a later campaign, but he avoided Cope's 
 blunders. Cope, with an army in being before him in 
 1745, allowed it to get between him and the capital. 
 Mackay, confronted with an army in the making, resolved 
 to crush it in that stage ; at least, to trouble the birth 
 of it. But Mackay failed to take count of the accidents. 
 He set out to make a demonstration, and found himself 
 involved in a harassing campaign. ' Your Grace knowes,' 
 he wrote to Hamilton later with saddening experience, 
 ' that I was resolved to stay but a fortnights away, having 
 no other thought at that tyme, then to put the Lord 
 Dundie from forming a party in the Duke of Gordon's 
 countreys.' ^ His plan at the outset, as his Memoirs 
 unfold it,2 was simple and orthodox — ' to hinder the 
 growth of the disaffected,^ and chase Dundee, if he durst 
 not venture in action with him, out of those places where 
 he expected most junction, and so at least train things 
 till the recruits and levies were pretty far advanced.' ^ 
 But Mackay's plan was not obedient to the restrictions 
 which he sought to impose upon it. Indeed, his luck was 
 execrable. The Laird of Grant, whom he counted on to 
 head off Dundee from access to Moray, neither showed 
 diligence nor followed directions. The Earl of Mar, told 
 off to watch the Highlands of Aberdeenshire, died in- 
 opportunely. Atholl, whose country held the passes from 
 the West, sat on the fence, while his servitors held his 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 235. The letter is dated from 
 Elgin on 27th June 1689. ^ ji^i^i^ ^ -^^ 
 
 ' Mackay numbers Dundee's followers as only sixty or seventy horse, 
 'of his former regiment,' when he rode from Glenogilvie {ibid., p. 6). 
 That estimate is probably correct. 
 
 * It has aieady (p. 260) been stated that recruiting for the regiments of 
 the Scots Brigade commenced upon their arrival in Scotland, and that 
 the Convention sanctioned the raising of other forces. The Estates on 
 18th April 1689 sanctioned a levy of horse in the several shires (Act's 
 Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 47).
 
 270 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 stronghold for the enemy.^ Disappointed in his heu- 
 tenants, and abandoning the viewing of Edinburgh Castle 
 through ' prospcctives,' Mackay left that obstinate fortress 
 to others' handling, and advanced his available forces to 
 Dundee, resolved to follow and crush his enemy. His 
 numbers were not considerable. His infantry clogged his 
 movements. All told, he mustered under five hundred. 
 Colchester's horse gave him one hundred and twenty. 
 The Scots Brigade furnished two hundred. The residue 
 was found in Sir Thomas Livingstone's dragoons, once old 
 Tom Dalziers.2 
 
 Mackay set out from Dundee on 29th April.^ He left 
 behind him there two troops of Livingstone's dragoons, ' to 
 keep the province of Angus in awe, which was very dis- 
 affected.' ^ His choice of them was unhappy. Their 
 commander, Lieutenant-Colonel William Livingstone, was 
 
 1 Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 10. 
 
 - Ihid., p 12. Richard, Viscount Colchester, had been attached to the 
 4th troop of English Life Guards, which had been disbanded on 17th 
 January 1689 (Dalton, vol. ii. p. 118). At the present time he was in 
 command of a regiment of horse, consisting of six troops [ibid., vol. iii. 
 p. 22). Sir Thomas Livingstone had been commissioned, on 31st December 
 1688, Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Dragoons- — the Scots Greys — in 
 the room of the Earl of Dunmore (Dalton, vol. ii. p. 248). Of this regi- 
 ment Mackay took with him from Dundee about one hundred and thirty 
 (Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 120). 
 
 ^ Mackay gives no dates. From his narrative, howevei-, it appears 
 that lie reached Elgin on the fourth day of his march, and on the day 
 following Dundee's junction with Keppoch at Inverness. The latter 
 event took place on 1st May. Mackay therefore arrived at Elgin on 2nd 
 May, and left Dundee on 29th April. This chronology agrees with a 
 statement in an Edinburgh newsletter of 30th April : ' Major General 
 Mackay is gone North with a strong Detachment, to reduce the Viscount 
 of Dundee and his Adherents, who have fled to the Duke of Gorden's 
 County ; he [Dundee] hopes to find assistance there, as a sinking man lays 
 hold on every twig ; however the Laird of Grant and all that County are 
 in Arms to oppose and seize him and his Troop' [An Account of the Pro- 
 ceedings of the Meeting of the Estates, No. 17, p. 48). 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 12. The punctuation of the passage 
 is obviously defective. Corrected, it states that Mackay took with him 
 four troops of dragoons, ' leaving the other troops [of the regiment] at 
 Dundee, with Lieutenant-Colonel Livingston.'
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 271 
 
 ready, given the chance, to join his old comrade. Lady 
 Dundee, still at Dudhope, did her utmost to forward the 
 plot.i The evening of 29th April found Mackay at 
 Brechin, with an advanced party at the North Esk bridge 
 to keep open the morrow's route. On the 30th he 
 marched to Fettercairn, his numbers lessened by eighty 
 of Colchester's horse, ' all sore backed and in disorder,' 
 whom he left behind at Brechin. At the end of the 
 day's march he had news of his enemy on his front, a few 
 miles distant.'^ 
 
 Livingstone's dragoons, rather than Mackay, was the 
 quarry that had brought Dundee back on his recent 
 track. His object, like Mackay's, was to gain time, and 
 not to hazard a ruffle. He was in no condition even to 
 confront the modest force which Mackay had at his back. 
 The dragoons at Dundee promised to redress the balance, 
 and he came in quest of them.^ Retracing his route 
 southward across the Don and the Dee, Dundee on 29th 
 April halted his troop on Cairn o' Mount, across whose 
 height the north road climbs. On the 30th Mackay's 
 advanced guard swung into Fettercairn, proclaiming the 
 main body's approach.* Dundee waited no longer. By 
 the time Mackay's main body marched into Fettercairn, 
 he had vanished; northward or westward no one knew. 
 Mackay called a halt and scouted for tidings, despatching 
 
 ^ Lady Uundee married Livingstone as her second husband (see above, 
 p. 160). For her share in the plot to bring over the troops at Dundee to 
 her husband, see Creichton's story in Swiff s Works, vol. x. p. 179. 
 
 ^ Mackay, ALemoirs of the War, pp. 11, 12. 
 
 ^ Philip [Grameid, p. 51) explains Dundee's motive in leaving Forres : — 
 
 ' Jam vero auxilium sperdbat ah hoste paralum, 
 Et svM jam profugas sub signa redire cohortes 
 Scotiyenwn cupiebat.' 
 
 * The advanced party was commanded Ijy Mackay's nephew, Major 
 Mackay (Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 12). Mackay had expected 
 to take Dundee unawares at Fettercairn. His plan, he suggests, was 
 defeated by ' a certain officer going to levie a company in the north,' who 
 gave Dundee warning of Mackay's march.
 
 272 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 'several poor countrymen, with money in hand (and a 
 promise of more at their return, Avith sure intelligence), 
 upon country horses after him.' Northward towards 
 Strachan and the Dec no trace of Dundee ; none west- 
 ward at Kincardine O'Neil. At Birse, yet further west- 
 ward, they came on the track of him, heading, as it 
 seemed, for Braemar, the Spital of Glenshee, and so to 
 the Lowlands.^ 
 
 Dundee's westward flight was no more than a ruse. He 
 held Mackay inactive until he had learnt the trick of it. 
 Galloping over rough country, Dundee made the Dee at 
 Birse, crossed it, and on, still westward, to Aboyne. Thence 
 he wheeled northward, traversed ' the woods and mountains 
 of Cromar,' crossed the Don at Kildrummy, and passing 
 Druminnor, struck the Bogie valley, and cried a halt 
 under the shelter of Huntly Castle.^ At sunrise on the 
 morrow (1st May) he was again in the saddle. Cheated of 
 the hope of reinforcement in the south, the chance of it 
 offered opportunely at Inverness. Thither he rode. At 
 Gordon Castle Dunfermline joined him with near sixty 
 horse.^ With the timely reinforcement he rode on, 
 through Elgin and Forres, past Darnaway Castle, past 
 Auldearn, with its memories of Montrose, and on by 
 Ardersier to Inverness.'^ He passed, had he known it, the 
 last battlefield of the cause he strove for, Culloden field. 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 13. 
 
 2 Orameid, p. 52. The bivouac on the night of 30th April Philip de- 
 scribes as pulchramque ad Bcgi Jlumina vallem. Canon Murdoch interprets 
 this to mean Huntly Castle, probably correctly. Druminnor was the 
 residence of Lord Forbes. The Master of Forbes was a strong supporter 
 of the Government. Hence Philip calls his house racuatn Forhesi ignohilis 
 arcem. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Locheill, p. 235. A witness in the process of forfeiture 
 against Dunfermline deposed that ' he sawe the person who wes called 
 the Earle of Dumfermline joyne with the Viscount of Dundie in armes 
 at the Boig of Geich ' (Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 57). Gordon 
 Castle is known as the Bog of Gight. 
 
 ■* Orameid, p, 53.
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 273 
 
 Inverness, at the moment when Dundee reached it, was 
 subject to an experience characteristic of a time and a 
 country in which the King's law still barely ran. Coll Mac- 
 donald of Keppoch Avas the disturber. Dundee's letters 
 to the Clans had received a response. On his way north- 
 ward from Cairn o'Mount Lochiel sent him new assurances 
 of his zeal, and an invitation to Lochaber. Keppoch, with 
 seven or eight hundred of his name and others, was 
 despatched to act as escort.^ He reached Inverness on 
 28th April."^ But Keppoch had a little quarrel of his 
 own to settle with Inverness and its neighbours, the 
 Mackintoshes, and seized the opportunity to pursue it. 
 Mackintosh booty already cumbered his camp when he 
 appeared before Inverness and demanded a ransom.^ For 
 three days he blustered and threatened. On the fourth 
 
 1 Memoirs of Lockeill, pp. 236, 237. Balhaldy describes Keppoch as 
 ' a gentleman of good understanding, of great cunning, and much attached 
 to King James, but indulgeing himself in too great libertys with respect 
 to those with whom he was att variance. ' 
 
 ^ '28th Aprille 1689. That day sermon preached be Mr Gilbert 
 Marshall in the forenoone at the Cross, and that l)y reason Cole M'donald 
 was about the town boasting to com in with his whole force, consisting 
 of 8 ore 900 men, to plunder the toun. Afternoone, Mr [Hector] Mac- 
 kenzie preached as aforsaid, all the citizens being necessitate to stand in 
 a posture off Defence ' {Inverness Kirk-Session Records, ed. Alexander 
 Mitchell, p. 8). Macaulay's account of this event and of the weather- 
 beaten wall which alone kept Keppoch at bay is familiar. Mr. Kenneth 
 MacDonald, Town Clerk of Inverness, has kindly placed at my disposal 
 his notes on Jacobite Inverness, whence it appears that Inverness did not 
 possess a town-wall. A rude palisade there was. Keppoch lay outside 
 it 'between the Castle-hill and the Crowm,' Mr. MacDonald conjectures. 
 Mackay {Memoirs of the War, p. 14) expressly calls Inverness ' but an 
 open country toun.' 
 
 ' According to the Memoirs of 1714 (p. 17) Keppoch complained of 
 certain ' unneighbourly practices of the town of Inverness, and the Mac- 
 kintoshes, against Keappoch's people, when he and his brother were in 
 Ireland with King James.' In a letter written to Melfort in Ireland, 
 received by him on 7th July 1689, Keppoch"s force is described as consist- 
 ing of seven hundred men, ' the most part volunteers.' ' They plundered,' 
 the letter adds, ' M'Intosh's lands and the neighbourliood ; which 
 M'Intosh, in a manner, deserved, because the viscount had written 
 twice to liim, to declare for the King, and had got no return' (Macpherson, 
 Original Papers, vol. i. p. 353). 
 
 S
 
 274 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 (1st May) Dundee rode into his camp. The town's 
 magistrates were ah'eady there endeavouring to strike a 
 bargain. At their request Dundee intervened, pledged 
 repayment w^hen the King had his own again, and saw 
 the rekictant officials return to Inverness to raise the 
 money.^ Keppoch was richer next day by £2700 — Scots ! ^ 
 Dundee viewed his conduct with extreme displeasure, and 
 expostulated ' in very sharp terms ' ; telling him ' that 
 such courses were extreamly injurious to the King's in- 
 terest, and that instead of acquireing the character of a 
 patriot, he would be looked on as a common robber, and 
 the enemy of mankind.' ^ Dundee had not mastered the 
 Highland code, and his lecture for the moment cost 
 him an ally. He had warned the Elgin magistrates to 
 prepare provisions for his augmented force for the morrow 
 of his arrival at Inverness (2nd May).^ But Keppoch re- 
 
 ^ The Memoirs of 1714, p. 17. The author, with considerable exaggera- 
 tion, says that Dundee ' showed himself so generous a peace-maker, that 
 he gave his bond for the money.' The letter already' quoted (Macpherson, 
 Original Papers, vol. i. p. 358) puts the transaction thus : Dundee ' told 
 he would give his bond that, at the King's return, (sinco they had not 
 yet declared the prince of Orange King), they should have their money 
 repaid them.' 
 
 That the Inverness officials were in Keppoch's camp on Dundee's arrival 
 appears from the Grameid, p. 55. 
 
 ^ The 3IS. Minutes of the Town Council of Inverness show that the money 
 to buy off Keppoch was subscribed by the inhabitants. A minute of 23rd 
 September 1689 records the refusal of the Privy Council to reimburse the 
 town cither for the money paid to Keppoch on ' the 2nd day of May last,' 
 or for the expenses incurred later under Mackay's direction in strengthen- 
 ing the town's defences. On 22nd September 1690 the Town Council 
 received a statement of the sums which had been received on the first 
 account. The statement specified £2700 Scots * Given by the Magistrates 
 to Coll Macdonald to prevent the burning of the town.' The names 
 of those who contributed to the fund are recorded in a minute of 
 29th September 1690. I am indebted to the Town Clerk of Inverness, 
 Mr. Kenneth MacDoiiald, for these notes. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Locheill, p. 237. 
 
 ■* Mackaj', Memoirs of the War,]}. 14. In the Lifeof Lient.-Gen. Hugh 
 Machay of Scoury, by John Mackay of Rockfield (p. 26), the author 
 regards Dundee's letter to the Elgin magistrates as a ruse to divert 
 Mackay from what was Dundee's real intention, namelj', to march into
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 275 
 
 fused to stir an inch to meet Mackay's rapid advance. 
 Like the Highlanders after Falkirk in the '45, he thought 
 only to deposit his loot. So he turned homeward to his 
 own valleys, leaving Dundee in anger and disappointment 
 behind him to face Mackay and his dogged pursuit.^ 
 
 Since Dundee vanished from Cairn o' Mount on 30th 
 April, Mackay, after a momentary check, had recovered 
 the trail and plodded on steadily in pm-suit. Marching 
 through the night of the 30th he passed the Dee at Kin- 
 cardine O'Neil. The Master of Forbes, b}^ whose empty 
 house Dundee had ridden a few hours earlier, joined him 
 next day with ' the matter of 40 gentlemen of his name 
 on horse,' and a few hundred country levies of such un- 
 promising material that Mackay was obliged to dismiss 
 them. Hastening on, Mackay ended the day's march 
 (1st May) at Strathbogic. Next day he advanced towards 
 the Spey, and learning Dundee's intention to be at Elgin 
 that night,^ resolved to be there before him. He marched 
 with such expedition, ' that the 200 old foot he had with 
 him kept the horse and dragoons at the trott.' Elgin he 
 reached before nightfall (2nd May), posted his guards, 
 and resolved to halt there till he should be reinforced. 
 An express was already on its way to Brechin to summon 
 the eighty horse he had left there. He looked, vainly 
 it proved, for strong and enthusiastic levies from the 
 heritors of Moray ,^ 
 
 Lochaber to organise a rebellion. I doubt the accuracy of that view. 
 The futility of such a scheme is best observed in the fact that Mackay 
 hastened his movements towards Elgin. Dundee undoubtedly meant to 
 fight, and had Keppoch followed him, it would have gone liardly with 
 Mackay. 
 
 ^ Keppoch's force consisted partly of Camerous, and it was averred 
 that they would not follow Dundee without Lochiel's consent (Macpherson, 
 Orifjival Papers, vol. i. p. 35.3). 
 
 '■' The Elgin magistrates informed Mackay of the fact. They had no 
 mind to receive ' such hungry guests ' as Keppoch's following. 
 
 2 Mackay, Memoirs of the War, pp. 13-15. Mackay expresses himself 
 as fully alive to the hazard of his advance to Elgin. But he judged, that
 
 276 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 For a few days the rival forces — Dundee near Inverness, 
 Mackay at Elgin — watched each other inactive. Dundee 
 had little hope of reinforcements, and received none, 
 though his presence sharpened division between Whig 
 and Tory in Inverness.^ Mackay had better fortune. 
 Colchester's ' sore - backed ' horse from Brechin joined 
 him. The Laird of Grant paid him a flying visit, and 
 was despatched to his own country ' to have the men 
 thereof in arms.' On 8th May he felt himself strong 
 enough to advance upon Inverness.^ At Forres he had 
 news of Dundee's retreat, and unopposed made Inverness 
 his headquarters.^ 
 
 Dundee so far had made the utmost of resources so 
 slender, that Mackay only terms him 'the enemy' upon 
 his imminent junction with Keppoch. The King's cause 
 had not filled a couple of hundred saddles. Keppoch, 
 gorged with plunder, had gone homeward to digest. 
 Mackay's advance had shut the door upon promising 
 recruits at Dundee. Edinburgh newsmongers wagged 
 knowing heads at the seeming conclusion of a sill}^ 
 venture. Dundee had dispersed his part}^ London 
 readers were assured. Finding ' that the countrey would 
 not joyn with him, but resolved to seize him and his 
 Troop,' he had written to Mackay his offer to capitulate, 
 
 if he fell back, Dundee would ' render himself master of Inuerness, as 
 ■well as of Elgin, with the provinces of Murray, Ross and Caithness, which 
 were mostly affected to that part}', beside the affront and disadvantage it 
 would be to the government to be so early upon the defensive. ' 
 
 1 This seems to be the interpretation of the following minute: 'May 5th, 
 1689 [Sunday]. No sermon, and that by reason of our Confusions' 
 {Inverness Kirk-Session Becords, p. 8). 
 
 '^ Mackay writes to the Viscount of Tarbat from Elgin on 8th May 
 1689: 'This day I march to Fores, and so to Invernesse.' He reported 
 that 'the mater of seven or eight hundert of the Macdonalds' had joined 
 Dundee, and added, ' if they stay, I doubt not but wee shall have som 
 action, but I apprehend they will betake them to the hills ' (Fraser, Earls 
 of Cromartie, vol. i. p. 62). 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 16.
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 277 
 
 and 'in the mean time he absconds with one or two 
 Servants ' ! ^ The news was barely bruited in the London 
 coffee-houses before the subject of it was giving alarming 
 proof of his vitality. 
 
 From Inverness, on 8th May,'^ Dmidec rode southward 
 through Stratherrick to Invergarry Castle, Prince Charles's 
 route from the fatal field of CuUoden, Doubling back, he 
 bivouacked for the night at Killcumin, the site of Fort 
 Augustus. Next day (9th May) he traversed the Pass of 
 Corryarrack, dropped down to the Spey, crossed it near 
 Cluny Castle, and traversed Glen Truim to a night's 
 shelter at the ' humble hearth ' of Presmuckerach.^ He 
 was in the Macpherson country, and among Avell-wishers.* 
 Before he resumed the march his summons was sent forth 
 to the Clans, bidding them rendezvous on 18th May. The 
 season was opportune for campaigning. The chiefs, or 
 many of them, were eager. The need was instant to 
 disappoint Mackay's design to quell the rising before 
 James could reinforce it from Ireland. Such were his 
 reasons. Added to them was ' the disposition of the low 
 
 ^ Aji Account of the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Estates, No. 18, 
 p. 50. 
 
 2 The letter to Melfort already quoted dates Dundee's departure as 
 ' towards the 8th of May ' (Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. .353). 
 A letter of the Provost of Perth, which was communicated to the Com- 
 mittee of Estates on 12th May, states that Dundee had ' come from 
 Inuernes on Wednesday last,' i.e. 8th May (Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. 
 App. p. 19). That date is certainly correct. Dundee was admittedly 
 at Dunkcld on 10th May, and the Oranuid (p. 57) is positive as 
 to his having halted at Killcumin for one night (8th May) after 
 leaving Inverness, and again at Presmuckerach (9th May). The third 
 day (lOtli May) brought him through Blair to Dunkeld. His de- 
 parture from Inverness on 8th May is also confirmed l)y Mackay's 
 movements, 
 
 ^ Grameid, pp. 56, 57. At the farm of Presmuckerach Dundee was the 
 guest of Malcolm Macpherson, forester in Badenoch to the Gordon family 
 (Fraser-Mackintosh, Letters of Two Centuries, p. 119). 
 
 * According to Balhaldy, Dundee ' found the Macphersons of Badenoch 
 very keen and hearty in their inclinations for that service' [BTemoirs of 
 Lochedl, p. 288).
 
 278 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 countries for the King.' ^ The last was a doubtful asset. 
 Dundee wont to prove it. 
 
 Dundee rose from Presmuckerach on the morning of 
 10th May. Skirting the Garry, riding through 'dense 
 woods of hazel/ he reached Blair Castle. Not a man 
 withstood him, to Mackay's despair. Thence, through 
 Killiecrankie's pass, little recking the tragedy to be 
 enacted there a few weeks hence, his troop clattered 
 into Dunkeld. A spoil of money and arms rewarded the 
 sudden raid.2 Men and horses snatched hasty refresh- 
 ment, in readiness for the next pounce.^ At nightfall 
 (10th May) Dundee rode out of Dunkeld, crossed the 
 Tay,^ and felt his way through the darkness towards 
 Perth. Two miles from the town^ he called a halt, 
 selected volunteers, and crept towards the slumbering 
 town.'^ The Earl of Perth's chamberlain, Thomas Crichton, 
 
 ^ See the letter to Melfort in Macplierson, Original Papers, vol. i. 
 p. 354. Canon Murdoch (Grameid, p. 58) dates the summons from 
 Presmuckerach as probably issued on 6th or 7th May. Its date M'as 
 clearly 9th or 10th May, probably the former. 
 
 - Grameid, pp. 58, 59. The money and arms had been collected 
 for the new Government's service. An officer of the Perthshire militia 
 seems to have been roughly handled, but sine sawjuine. 
 
 "' Dundee appears to have been entertained by John Hamilton, Bishop 
 of Dunkeld. See Hi^it. MSS. Comm. Btpt. xiv., pt. iii. p. 117. 
 
 "* Philip says that he crossed ftr vada caeca Tai [Grameid, p. 59). 
 As Canon Murdoch remarks, this may mean either that the fords were 
 hidden by deep water, or that Dundee selected some less known ford 
 than that ordinarily used. The former seems the more pnjbable explana- 
 tion of the passage. 
 
 ^ ad lapidem ab urhe secundum [Grameid, p. 59). 
 
 ^ Philip [Grameid, p. 59) says that the select party numbered twenty. 
 According to a letter written on 11th May 1689 to Lord John Murray, 
 AthoU's eldest son, Dundee entered Perth with ' about 80 or 90 hors ' 
 (Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xii., pt. viii. p. 37). The Provost of Perth, 
 who sent immediate news to Edinburgh of the event, gives Dundee 
 'about 120 Horse, or thereby' [An Account of the Proceedings of the 
 Meeting of the Estates, No. 23, p. 03). Lieutenant James Colt, who was 
 among those whom Dundee made prisoners at Perth, says that his num- 
 bers were ' about 70 horse ' [Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 54). As 
 evidence, Colt's statement is certainly the most reliable, and the context 
 suggests that the number was that of Dundee's total force. It coincides
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 279 
 
 acted as guide/ Between two and three in the morning 
 (11th May) the daring band was within the town.^ 
 William Blair of Blair and Lieutenant Robert Pollock, 
 officers of the new Government's levies, were rudely 
 tumbled from their beds.^ Dundee, it is said, drily 
 countered Blair's protest : ' You take prisoners for the 
 Prince of Orange, and we take prisoners for King James, 
 and there's an end of it.'* Forty horses and a part of 
 the recently collected public cess made up the loot.^ 
 On private money Dundee would not lay a finger.*^ By 
 eleven in the morning'^ the work was done. With his 
 
 with Mackay's estimate of his strength when he began the campaign. 
 But Dunfermline had brought him about sixty recruits, which would 
 bring his total strength to about the Provost of Perth's figure. The 
 conclusion is, that either Dundee had only his original following with 
 him on this expedition, or that they formed his select party, while 
 Dunfermline's troop awaited the event outside Perth. In the latter 
 alternative Philip's figures would appear to be underestimated, and with 
 the object of magnifying the daring of the deed. 
 
 ^ He was captured on 7th June 1G89, and was charged with having 
 been very active on 11th May ' in guyding, informing or directing quhair 
 Sir Colin Campbells horses antl the other gentlemens horses were in toun, 
 that the Viscount and his men seized on and tooke away' (Hist. MSS. 
 Comm. Bept. xv. , pt. ix. p. 188). 
 
 - The Provost of Perth's letter (see above) states that Dundee ' came 
 to Pearth by two a clock in the morning.' Another letter of the same 
 date says that Dundee entered the town ' this day, be 3 in the morning ' 
 {Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xii., pt. viii. p. 37). 
 
 ^ Orameid, p. 60. Blair is descriljed as somno stertetitem alto. For 
 Pollock, see Canon Murdoch's note, Grameid, p. 61. Blair, Pollock, and 
 the other prisoners taken at Perth were later sent by Dundee to Mull. 
 Blair died at Duart Castle, whither he had been removed after the 
 engagement at Dunkeld (ihid.). Balcarres was oflered his liberty if he 
 prevailed with Dundee to procure Blair's release. See Letters chiefly 
 addressed to George, Earl of Melville, pp. 92, 141. 
 
 ■* Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 54. 
 
 ^ An Account of the Proceedings of the Estates, No. 23, p. 63. 
 
 " ' When he surprized Perth, he suffered not the least Violence or 
 Damage to be done the Town ; and finding 500^. in the Collector of the 
 Revenues Room, besides what belong'd to the King, he did not touch it, 
 but said, he intended to rob no Man ; tho' what was the Crowns he 
 thought he might make bold with, seeing what he was then doing was 
 surely to serve his Master' (Morer, Short Account, p. 99). 
 
 ^ An Account of the Proceedings, etc., No. 23, p. 63.
 
 280 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 prisoners, the captured remounts, and the King's money 
 jingHng at his saddle-bow, Dundee departed as suddenly 
 as he came. 
 
 With elation Dundee joined his waiting troops. In 
 the galloping activity of the last few weeks he had 
 traversed a route consecrated by the memory of an 
 earlier Graham. Alford, Auldearn, Invergarry had 
 awakened memories of the first Grameid. Tippermuir 
 was hard by. It was the memory of Montrose that he 
 invoked before he led his men onward.^ Dundee was his 
 objective. Crossing the river, he rode for Scone,^ and 
 dined with Lord Stormont, to that nobleman's discomfort 
 hereafter.^ At Stobhall, the Earl of Perth's seat, he 
 called another halt. On the following day (12th May) 
 his troop, making Cargill their centre, levied King 
 William's cess for King James's benefit throughout the 
 surrounding country.'* At nightfall Dimdee made ready 
 for his next and sudden move. Then through the dark- 
 ness he rode past Coupar, Meigle, and the Kirk of Eassic.^ 
 
 ^ See the Grameid, p. 62. Philip also states that Dundee's men cut 
 off derisively the 7nala aurea fi'om the captured standard-poles. The 
 gilt balls would suggest an orange, and hence, probably, their treatment. 
 
 - Philip's account {Grameid, p. 62) is somewhat difiicult to follow. It 
 appears, however, to mean that Dundee formed his troops in two detach- 
 ments, one under an officer whom Philip calls f/enerosus miles — Lord 
 Dunfermline probably — and the other under his own leadership. Canon 
 Murdoch conjectures that Dundee sent forward his troops while he 
 lingered at Scone. Another explanation would be that he despatched 
 part of his force with the spoils of Perth back to the Highlands, and 
 himself proceeded to complete the object of his expedition. 
 
 ^ Stormont hastened to explain to the Committee of Estates that 
 Dundee had 'forced his Dinner from him.' Sir John Murray of Drum- 
 cairn and the Laird of Scotstarvet were also his guests on the occasion. 
 All of them were summoned to appear before the Committee to explain 
 their conduct [An Account of the Proceedings, etc., No. 23, p. 63). 
 
 "* Grameid, p. 63. At Stobhall, David Halylmrton of Pitcur and 
 Major James Middleton visited Dundee. See Colt's evidence in Acts 
 Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 55. 
 
 ^ Philip {Grameid, p. 64) calls it fanum Colassie. Canon Murdoch's 
 interpretation, which I have adopted, would certainly seem to be the 
 correct one.
 
 IN THE TRACK OF MONTROSE 281 
 
 Morning (13th May) found him at Glamis.^ As at Car- 
 gill, horses, money, and arms were impounded in the 
 King's name. Early in the afternoon he breasted the 
 Sidlaws towards Dundee. Halyburton brought him 
 reinforcement on the way.^ 
 
 At five o'clock in the afternoon (13th May) Dundee 
 beheld its Viscount's troops approaching.^ Livingstone's 
 dragoons were behind its walls. On the height above, 
 Dundee* waited eagerly for them to join him, and waited 
 in vain. The walls were guarded, the gates were closed. 
 The Viscount, as he rode the circuit of the town's defences, 
 could discover no means of ingress.^ Livingstone was 
 ready to join hands with him. Livingstone's colleague, 
 Captain Balfour, the more obstinately kept within the 
 gates.*^ Sullenly Dundee withdrew at nightfall and made 
 
 ^ Canon Murdoch (Grameid, p. 64) remarks: 'I am informed that 
 there is no documentary evidence at Glamis of this visit, but the legend 
 of the place is that the Lord Strathmore of the day rode over the hills 
 with Claverhouse fi'om Glamis ' to Dundee. 
 
 ^ Philip (Grameid, j). 65) speaks of him as iwjens agmen a<jen», and adds 
 the names of FuUerton of FuUerton and one named ' Ventou ' to the list 
 of recruits. But it is clear from Lieutenant Colt's GYidQwce {Acts Parlt. 
 Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 54) that Halyburtou's imjena agnwn amounted to 
 only 'ten or twelve' men. Canon Murdoch conjectures that Philip's 
 ' Venton,' whom Napier identified as Ronton of Renton, was more pro- 
 bably a Fenton of Ogil {Grameid, p. 159). 
 
 ^ An Account of the Proceedings, etc., No. 23, '[}. 64. 
 
 ■* Philip {Grameid, p. 6tJ) particularly mentions him as having 'breast- 
 plate and back-piece (jf strength, and a helmet under a covering of black 
 fur.' Lieut. Colt {Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 54) also mentions 
 that Dundee wore his armour. 
 
 ^ Philip gives a highly coloured account, which it would not be wise to 
 follow literally. The figliting at the commencement of the affair was no 
 more than the driving in of the garrison's scouts. Dundee lost one of his 
 troopers while spying out the state of the town's defences. When he 
 rode off, a small body appears to have followed him, probably to observe 
 his motions. That is the sum of what hai)pcned. Local ti'aditiou, I 
 believe, holds that Dundee fired part of the town's suburbs. There is 
 not a shred of documentary evidence in proof of it ; not a word of it, for 
 instance, in the letter which was at once transmitted to Edinburgh by the 
 Dundee magistrates. 
 
 '' Dundee attril)utcd his failure to gain over Livingstone's troop to 
 Captain Balfour's influence (Maophersou, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 351).
 
 282 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 for Glcnogilvie. The next day (14th May) he started on 
 his return to the Highlands.^ His wife and child perhaps 
 were at Glenogilvie. He took farewell of them for ever.^ 
 
 Andrew, Lord RoUo, was also in Dundee. He got there in the nick of 
 time, and narrowly escaped capture by Dundee {Hist. MSS. Covim. Rept. 
 xiv. , pt. iii. p. 117). 
 
 ^ Lieutenant Colt testifies to Dundee being at Coupar Angus on 14th 
 May. Haly burton of Pitcur was with him [Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. 
 App. p. 55). His route lay thence to Dunkeld, and along the north bank 
 of the Tay and Strath Appin, passing Menzies, Comrie, and Garth 
 Castles. Skirting the north shore of Loch Raunoch, he struck over to 
 Loch Treig, and so to Glenroy. See his itinerary in the Grameul, p. 74, 
 and Canon Murdoch's discriminating elucidation of it. Philip's account 
 shows clearly that the march consumed three days. The first day took 
 Dundee to Loch Rannoch (14th May) ; the second to Loch Treig (15th 
 May). He arrived in Glenroy, therefore, on IGtli May, two days before 
 the rendezvous which he had ordered from Presmuckerach. 
 
 - The Memoirs of 1714 (p. 18) state that he 'went to his own house, 
 Diddup, two miles from Dundee, and tarryed two nights witli his lady.' 
 The error regarding Dudhopc, and the length of his stay, docs not 
 lessen the probability that the ground fact is true, and that Lady 
 Dundee was at Glenogilvie. On the other hand, Philip states that she 
 took her last farewell of her husband when he set out from Dudhopc in 
 April.
 
 CHAPTEK XV 
 
 WITH THE CLANS 
 
 Dundee's meteoric raid had been brilliant in the daring 
 of it rather than effective in result. His appeal to the 
 Lowlands had brought him less than a score of recruits, 
 remounts for a troop, and a dole of money wherewith to 
 clinch the loyalty of the Clans. Stewartism was mori- 
 bund save in the Highlands. With the Psalmist, its 
 exiled royalties, during the following half-century of 
 Jacobite etfort, could declare, 'help cometh from the 
 hills.' To the authorities, however, Dundee's appearance 
 in the Lowlands had carried considerable alarm. The 
 affair at Perth, as an inhabitant remarked, was certain to 
 ' make a great noyse.' ^ The demonstration at Dundee 
 increased it. By six o'clock on the morning of the morrow 
 (14th May) of that event the Committee of Estates met 
 in anxious session. Berkeley's dragoons - and Hastings's 
 foot regiment,^ which were believed to be already at 
 Berwick, were summoned to the capital. Sir John Lanier, 
 whom Mackay had left in the south in command, was 
 directed to call up two more regiments. And Colonel 
 Balfour was ordered to transport two hundred of his 
 
 ' Ghronicles of the Atholl and Tullibardine Families, collected and 
 arranged by John, seventh Duke of Atholl, vol. i. p. 277. 
 
 '■^ The Princess's Ilegitnent of Dragoons, now the 4th Dragoons, Colonel 
 the Hon. John Berkeley, afterwards Viscount Fitzhardinge (Daltou, vol. 
 ii. p. 128). 
 
 ^ The 13th Regiment of Foot (So.nersetshire Light Infantry), Colonel 
 Ferdinando Hastings (ibid., vol. iii. p. 6). 
 
 283
 
 284 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 regiment ^ that afternoon to Burntisland ' to prosecute 
 such orders as upon intelligence you shall direct to 
 thena.'^ Dundee's return to the Highlands on the 
 same day cheated Balfour's force of anticipated service. 
 
 Meanwhile at Inverness, Mackay, whose position was 
 curiously similar to Cope's in the '45, was isolated but 
 not inactive. He had strengthened the palisade,^ re- 
 viewed three hundred ' well armed and resolved men ' 
 whom the town furnished, and was indefatigable, but 
 hardly successful, in his summons to the neighbouring 
 Mackenzies and Erasers to join him. He found them 
 ' partly disaffected, and partly irresolute and indift'erent, 
 and all of them more apparent to joyn against than with 
 him.'* With the more distant chiefs he was also in 
 correspondence. Lochiel did not trouble to answer his 
 letters. Glengarry drily recommended to him ' the 
 example of General Monck to imitate.' ^ He had no 
 better success with Cluny Macpherson.^ Mackintosh, 
 appealed to by both sides, sat judiciously on the fence. 
 His neighbours for the most part followed his example. 
 
 1 Colonel John Balfour had succeeded to the command of Colonel 
 Thomas Buchan's regiment, now known as the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 
 upon the latter's adherence to James (Dalton, vol. ii. p. 218). 
 
 2 Acts Farlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 23. 
 
 ■' Among the town's archives there is ' Aue Accompt of Money debursed 
 be the Town of Inverness be the command of Major General Mackay and 
 the other Governors commanding there, commencing from the 10th day 
 of May to the 4th September '89.' The account enumerates the following 
 items: 'For leading of carts fail to the fortifications and trenches,' 
 £301. 7. 10 ; 'For timber to the barricades or fortifications,' £251. 13. 2 ; 
 ' For iron work, including great bands of the turnpikes and their locks 
 with spikes, nails, etc.,' £24-3. 5. 10; ' Tu carpentcis for making tlie 
 barricades and turnpikes,' £244. 4. 
 
 '' Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 17. 
 
 '^ Ibid., p. 19. Accordiug to Balhaldy, Lochiel brought the letters to 
 Dundee unopened, and 'begged that he would be pleased to dictate the 
 answers' (Memoirs of Locheill, p. 240). 
 
 ^ Mackay writes to Cluny on fitli and 21st May 1689. See Gleanings 
 from tlic Charter Chest at Cluny Castle, ed. Alexander Macpherson, No. 2, 
 p. 29.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 285 
 
 Mackay reluctantly admitted the Laird of Grant his one 
 reliable coadjutor.^ 
 
 In these circumstances Mackay, 'judging that not only 
 his reputation, but the interest of the service would greatly 
 suffer if he should return south without leaving that 
 country [Inverness and the North] in a more settled 
 condition,' summoned Colonel Ramsay from Edinburgh to 
 march with six hundred of the Scots Brigade, whose 
 recruiting he judged to be now complete. Ramsay's 
 instructions were to march through Atholl and Badenoch. 
 Mackay undertook to effect a junction with him in the 
 latter country.- On 18th May Ramsay was at Leith 
 ready to transport his force to Burntisland. The alarm 
 was suddenly raised that the French fleet had entered the 
 Forth. Inquiry proved that the squadron consisted only 
 of a number of Dutch hshing-boats.^ Providence, ' whose 
 directions are above our reach,' Mackay commented, had 
 brought them there very inopportunely. Ramsay's 
 passage was delayed for two or three days, until the 
 absurd scare had subsided.* On 22nd May he began 
 his timorous march from Perth.'' Dundee had traversed 
 the country not many days before, and Ramsay found 
 the demeanour of the Atholl men threatening. Never- 
 theless, on the third day's march (24th May), he was still 
 confident of his ability to get througli Badenoch, and sent 
 an express forward to say so. Within a few hours he had 
 changed his mind. No message from Mackay had reached 
 him. The Clans were already out. The march through 
 Badenoch seemed hazardous. In the crisis of his irre- 
 solution an express, who had been detained by Dundee's 
 
 1 Mejnoirs of Locheifl, p. 240. 
 '^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 17. 
 
 ' Letters chiefly addressed to George, Earl of Melville, p. 20. 
 * Mackaj', Memoirs of the War, p. 18. 
 
 ^ Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 86. Hamilton writes on 24th May to 
 Mackay to say that Ramsay had left Perth on 'Wednesday last,'
 
 286 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 well-wishers in Atholl, brought a verbal message from 
 Maokay — his despatch was long since in Dundee's hands 
 — authorising, so Ramsay gathered, his retreat towards 
 Perth, and his attempt of a less dangerous route, should 
 circumstances compel such a step. Ramsay hesitated no 
 longer, and on 25th May retraced his course.^ 
 
 Ramsay's despatch, indicating his resolution to advance, 
 reached Jilackay at Inverness on the evening of 25th May. 
 No hint came to him of Ramsa3^'s later resolution. Early 
 the next morning (26th May) Mackay set out for the 
 rendezvous. Inverness he left under the command of 
 David Ross of Balnagown.^ The force accompanying 
 him was under six hundred and fifty strong, and in- 
 cluded about one hundred of Colchester's horse, one 
 hundred and forty of Livingstone's dragoons, some two 
 hundred infantry of the Scots Brigade, and two hundred 
 of Lord Reay's and Balnagown's Highlanders. His com- 
 missariat contained provisions for a two days' march. A 
 longer absence was beyond his anticipation. Thus 
 equipped, Mackay set out for Badenoch, traversing the 
 high-road through Moy towards Carrbridge.^ At or 
 near the latter place alarming news reached him from 
 
 1 Mackay, Memoirs of the War, pp. 20, 123. According to Balhaldy, 
 Ramsay blew up his ammuuition. He is clearly inaccurate in his state- 
 ment that Dundee pursued Ramsav ' many miles ' (Memoirs of Locheill, 
 p. 240). In an account of his uiarch and i-etreat, Ramsay, while in 
 Atholl, is said to have observed 'one in Dundee's Livery,' whatever that 
 means, and to have inefi'octually demanded his surrender [An Account, of 
 the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Estates, No. 28, p. 73). 
 
 2 Mackay's orders to Balnagown are dated 25th May 1689, and are 
 printed in Antiquarian Notes (first series), by Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, 
 p. 65. Balnagown was ordered to relieve the guard at 4 a.m. on the 2Gth. 
 According to Mackay, Balnagown had three or four hundred men to 
 garrison Inverness. Lords Strathnaver and Rae sent in another two 
 hundred [Memoirs of the War, p. 21). 
 
 3 Mackay does not mention Carrbridge hy name. He had marched, he 
 says, ' half way to Badenoch ' when news of Ramsay's retreat reached 
 him. Canon Murdoch's suggestion (Grameicl, p. 112) that Mackay was 
 then at or near Carrbridge seems reasonable.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 287 
 
 the garrison at Rutliven. An express from its command- 
 ing officer informed him that Ramsay had retreated, and 
 that Dundee was again in the field. Mackay's position 
 was difficult. On the loyalty of the North he counted 
 moderately, and the recapture of Inverness would ad- 
 mittedly carry serious consequences. To return there 
 might avert that disaster. But retreat, he rightly 
 judged, would leave Dundee free to roam at will over a 
 friendly tract between himself and the capital. He there- 
 fore resolved to abandon Inverness and to transfer his 
 force to the Spey, where he would be in touch with 
 succours from the south, and haply head off Dundee 
 from the Gordon country, ' which was his nearest help.' 
 Sending a despatch to Inverness with news of his resolve, 
 and a promise to return if necessity arose, Mackay resumed 
 his march eastward, and plodding on through the night, 
 found himself next morning (27th May) in ' the plains of 
 Strathspey, betwixt Dundee and the low country.' ^ 
 
 Dundee had arrived in Glenroy on 16th May,^ two days 
 in advance of the appointed rendezvous. Lochiel received 
 him ' with all imaginable honour and respect.' ^ Encamped 
 by the Roy, his men chafed somewhat at the rigours of the 
 climate, the coarseness of their food. They were gnawed 
 by a compelling hunger which 'would have overthrown the 
 Trojan walls without a contest ' ! ^ As the 18th approached 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, pp. 21-24. Canon Murdoch, inter- 
 preting a statement of Philip (Grameid, p. 112), supposes that Mackay 
 retreated from about Carrbridge to Culnakyle. But since Mackay, on his 
 own statement, only halted after a twenty-four hours' march, he must 
 have reached a spot much further eastward. It is more proljable, since 
 the Laird of Grant was with him, and ' to cover the Laird of Grants 
 interest' was one of his objects, that he halted on 27th May at or ne;;r 
 Grautown. 
 
 '•^ See above, p. 284. 
 
 3 Memoirs of LocheiU, p. 239. Balhaldy adds that Lochiel furnished 
 Dundee with a house about one mile distant from his own. The Grcwieid 
 (p. 91) clearly states that Dundee encamped on the Roy,and that he shared 
 tlie privations of his men. •* Orameid, p. 91.
 
 288 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 the chiefs began to appear. First to arrive was Alastair 
 Dubh Macdonell, younger of Glengarry.^ He brought 
 between tAvo and three hundred of his Clan.^ Macdonald 
 of Morar followed, ' a very honest gentleman,' with nearly 
 two hundred of the Clanranald Macdonalds. The Stewarts 
 of Appin and Macdonalds of Glencoc added a similar 
 number. Keppoch, Dundee's recent lecture forgotten, 
 brought two hundred of his Clan. The Camerons, led by 
 Sir Ewen, contributed six hundred.^ In time-honoured 
 ritual the assembled chiefs pledged a mutual 'band,' 
 and Dundee bade them to be ready to advance 'when 
 the seventh morning has brought back the light.' Then, 
 ' the dark night having hid the day with gloomy wing,' 
 in Philip's phrase, Dundee despatched a messenger to 
 Ireland to report his hopes and actions, and to urge the 
 King himself to head his cause.^ 
 
 A week of inaction followed the ceremony of 18th May. 
 
 1 Pliilip calls him Gloria Grampladumque decor {Qramdd, p. 96). 
 Balhaldy also gives him a noble character. See Memoirs of Locheill, 
 p. 261. 
 
 2 Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 354. The letter to Melfoi t, 
 printed by Macpherson, says that Glengarry ' kept the day punctually, 
 with betwixt 2 and 300 men, who on all occasions shews himself a man of 
 honour, sense, and integrity.' Lieutenant Colt confirms the Grameid as 
 to Glengarry being the first to join Lochiel and Dundee. He estimates 
 Glengarry's force, however, at about five hundred men [Acts Parlt. Scot., 
 vol. ix. App. p. 55). That, in fact, was the strength of the Clan both in 
 the '15 and the '45 (Terry, Chevalier de Si. George, p. 380). 
 
 ■^ Macpherson, ibid. Allan Macdonald of Clanranald was about sixteen 
 years of age, and was under the tutorship of Donald Macdonald of Ben- 
 becula (see Canon Murdoch's note in Grameid, p. 125). Clanranald was 
 killed at Sheriffmuir. Robert Stewart of Appin was also a lad at this 
 time, but left college to join his Clan, which had come out under the 
 leadership of his tutor, John Stewart of Ardsheil (ibid. , p. 142). Lieu- 
 tenant Colt puts Appin's strength at about one hundred and thirty, 
 and Glencoe's at about two hundred {Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. 
 p. 55). 
 
 ^ Grameid, pp. 104-106. Philip names Dundee's messenger Dennis 
 M'Swyne. But, as Canon Murdoch remarks, M'Swyne had been sent 
 to Ireland in April and had not returned by 27th June. Balhaldy 
 (Memoirs of Locheill, p. 239) also speaks of a letter sent to James at this 
 time.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 289 
 
 Dundee employed it in drilling his troops.^ The fiery 
 cross brought in more of the Clans, and on 25th May 
 Dundee reviewed his host on the plain of Mucomir.^ 
 Philip vastly exaggerates the array, though he bore 
 the standard past which the army marched.^ Glen- 
 garry, heading three hundred of his Clan, led the van. 
 His brother folloAved with one hundred more> Red- 
 striped plaids, a sword, spear, and embossed shield were 
 the Clan's accoutrements. Then came one hundred Mac- 
 donalds of Glencoe, ' Titanic of mould, giant-like in 
 strength.' Their fated chief, Alastair Macdonald, led 
 them, fierce of mien, his beard parting to the breeze, 
 towering above the line.'^ Next deployed five hundred 
 Macdonalds of Sleat, led by their chief, Sir Donald 
 Macdonald.^' The 3'outhful Clanranald followed ' with 
 
 1 Philip's vigorous picture, as translated by Canon Murdoch (Grameid, 
 p. 110), is as follows: — 'With him [Dundee] there is no pampering of 
 himself, no sluggish ease or luxury, no listless sleep, but practising for 
 the battle, ho reviews his troops, and turns out his foaming squadrons on 
 the plain. He deploys his compact columns, and wheels them again into 
 formation, displaying the image of the future battle on the heavy and 
 dusty plain. Mounted on horseback, he teaches the toilsome task of 
 Mars, and how to meet the fire of the enemy, and the heavy charge of 
 swift cavalry, and how to charge by horse and foot.' One suspects that 
 Dundee's Lowland cavalry alone regarded with enthusiasm his lessons in 
 military science. 
 
 2 Philip calls the place Dalcomera, and Canon Murdoch remarks 
 (Grameid, p. 120) that the plain was familiar to the Clans as a battle- 
 ground. Balhaldy calls it Dalmacommcr, adding that it was near 
 Lochiel's house in Lochaber {Memoirs of Locheill, p. 234). The place 
 appears on the Ordnance Map as Mucomir, and is on the north bank of 
 the Spean, close to its outflow into Loch Lochy. 
 
 ^ His account is on pp. 122-164 of the Grameid. It is not reliable, for 
 many of those he mentions as present did not join Dundee at this period. 
 I am greatly indebted to Canon Miirdoch's identification of the persons 
 mentioned Ijy Philip. 
 
 ^ The Macdonells seemingly had been reinforced since tiie 18th. 
 
 ^ Balhaldy describes him as ' of the biggest size' (Memoirs of Loch ill, 
 p. 321). 
 
 ^ Balhaldy (ibid., p, 248) gives him about seven hundred men. Tliat, 
 in fact, was the strength of his Clan in 1745. In 1715 it was computed at 
 one thousand. See my Chevalier de St. George, p. 380. As a fact, Sir 
 Donald had not joined when Dundee returned to Lochaber in June. 
 
 T
 
 290 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 his whole clan.' ^ Then came the intractable Keppoch 
 and his twin brothers, leading two hundred of their 
 name, armed indifferently with axes, 'javelins,' clubs, 
 and muskets. Such was the Macdonald contingent, 
 claiming the pride of place, whose denial found them 
 muttering, apprehensive, on Culloden field half a century 
 later.2 
 
 Sir Ewen Cameron led the second ' battle.' His life's 
 span almost covered the gamut of Jacobite venture. Mon- 
 trose was the hero of his youth. Sheriftmuir was a 
 memory of his dotage. He died in the year (1719) of the 
 abortive rising at Glenshiel. Mounted on a grey steed, 
 his son^ and son-in-law* by his side, he led past one 
 thousand of his name.^ Cadets of his house were with 
 him, MacMartin, Tannachy,^ John Cameron of Glendes- 
 sary,'^ and, joined in comradeship, the Macgregors,^ Cowals, 
 Gibbons or MacGibbons, and Macnabs of the Lennox. 
 Next came the Macleans, Sir John Maclean of Duart, who 
 was 'out' in '15, Maclean of Torloisk, Maclean of Coll, 
 
 ^ On the ISth Clanrauald's Clan had been less than two hundred strong. 
 The strength of his Clan in 1745 was seven hundred ; in 1715, one thou- 
 sand {Chevalier de St. George, p. 380). Clanranald did not join until after 
 Dundee's return to Lochaber from Edinglassie. 
 
 2 Philip describes the Macdonells and Macdoualds as forming one 
 battalion of twenty companies. Upon the numbers he gives, rating the 
 Clanranalds at only two hundred, the total sti-ength of the ' battalion ' 
 was fourteen hundred. 
 
 3 John Cameron. He was 'out 'in '15, and died in France in 1747. 
 His son Donald was the 'gentle Lochiel' of the '45. 
 
 4 Alexander Drummond of Balhaldy. Canon Murdoch conjectures 
 that his son, William Drummond or Macgregor, the author of Lochiel's 
 memoirs, is identical with the well-known Jacobite agent in 1744-45. 
 
 5 That was the estimated strength of his Clan in 1715. On 18th May 
 1689 he had under him only six hundred men. 
 
 " ' I have been unable to identify this hero,' Canon Murdoch 
 remarks. 
 
 ■^ Lieutenant-Colonel of Lochiel's regiment (Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. 
 App. p. 55). 
 
 ^ Philip's phrase is Lonochaea tribiis. Canon Murdoch takes this to 
 mean the Lennox septs.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 291 
 
 with one thousand of their name Ijehind them.^ Robert 
 Stewart of Appin and his tutor, John Stewart of Ardsheil, 
 brought two hundred. Macneil of Barra followed on foot, 
 panting under the weight of a huge battle-axe.- Next 
 came Macleods from Raasa ; '^ Fraser of Foyers with the 
 men of Stratherrick ; John Grant of Glenmoriston,* Mac- 
 nachtan of Dunderaw, Alexander Macalister of Loupe, 
 and with him, Maclachlan. Laments and Dougals 
 brought up the rear.^ 
 
 Rumours of movements among the Clans had reached 
 the capital and were complacently discounted. Dundee, 
 said one newsletter, was 'skipping from one Hill to 
 another, like Wildfire, which at last will vanish of it self 
 for want of fuel' ' Like an Incendiary,' declared another, 
 he was in the Highlands ' to inflame that cold Countrey ; 
 yet he finds small encouragement : The Natives there, 
 according to their old Custom, flock to him in great 
 Numbers, not to serve him, but to serve Themselves, by 
 stealing his Baggage, and such other Booty as they can 
 lay hold on ; then they forsake Him and his weary Troops, 
 which are not able to folloAV them. Their Horses are so 
 jaded with constant Travel, and fainted for want of Food, 
 that they are altogether useless. Most expect, that the 
 Viscount and his Men will hasten to Ireland for Self- 
 preservation.' The Clans, said another, ' are not to be 
 regarded, for it has been, and is the fashion of that People 
 
 ^ The strength of the Clan was one thousand in 1715. It had dropped 
 to five hundred in 1745 [Chevalier de St. George, p. 380). Lieutenant 
 Colt puts its strength on this occasion at six hundred. 
 
 " Philip does not give his strength. In 1715 the Clan furnished one 
 hundred and twenty warriors [Checalitr de St. George, p. 380). 
 
 ^ The Macleods had not joined when Dundee returned to Lochaber in 
 the middle of June. 
 
 * The strength of his Clan was one hundred in 1715 and 1745. 
 
 •'' I have quoted Philip's figures, but, as will appear, neither are his 
 numbers reliable, nor were all the Clans he mentions present at this stage 
 of the campaign.
 
 292 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 to run together for a day or two, in hope of Spoil ; and if 
 they get it, they then run away Avith it, as they did lately 
 with Dundee's Baggage ; and if they get it not, they stay 
 no longer for it.' ^ Mackay, on the spot, held other views 
 of the situation. 
 
 With a force of less than two thousand men ^ Dundee 
 set out from Mucomir on the morning of 26th May. 
 Mackay had marched from Inverness a few hours earlier.^ 
 A wearisome three weeks of ineffectual marching and 
 counter-marching lay before him. Advancing along Glen- 
 spean and skirting Loch Laggan, Dundee reached Garve- 
 more and crossed the Spey. Moving along its left or 
 northern bank, he passed Cluny, summoning the chief to 
 arms, and thence to the old Castle of Raitts,* where on 
 
 1 An Account of the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Edates, No. 25, 
 p. 68 ; No. 26, p. 69. 
 
 ^ Philip's account of the Highland force is not reliable. Dundee's actual 
 strength at this period is detailed in the letter received by Melfort on 
 7th July (Macpherson, Original Pa2)ers, vol. i. p. 354). It states that 
 Dundee marched with betM'een two and three hundred Glengarry Mac- 
 donells, nearly two hundred Clanianald Macdonalds, nearly tM'o hundred 
 from Appin and Glencoe, six hundred Camerons, and two hundred Mac- 
 donalds of Keppoch — a total of about fifteen hundred. This tallies with 
 the statement in the Memoira q/1714 (p. 18), that Dundee's strength was 
 fifteen hundred foot and two hundred horse. In the Memoirs of Locheill 
 (p 240), Dundee's strength on 25th May is put at about eighteen hundred. 
 
 ^ Philip's account (Grameid, pp. 164, 167) is clear to tlie fact that no 
 advance was made from Mucomir on the 25th, and that Dundee marched 
 towards midday on the 26th. Mackay, however (Memoirs of the War, 
 p. 22), states that Dundee marched out of Lochaber on the night of the 
 25th and was at Garvemore next morning. On this point I take Philip 
 to be correct. 
 
 * Grameid, pp. 167-169. Dundee had written to Cluny on 19th May 
 1689 : ' I will not desyr you to apear in amies untill such time as j'ou see 
 us in body able to preserve you, which I hop in God you shall in a feu 
 days see' [Gleanings from the Cluny Charier Chest, No. 2, p. 21). The 
 exposed position of Cluny's country made caiitiou necessary. ' The 
 Macphersons took no decided steps in this campaign,' Canon Murdoch 
 remarks. According to The Loyall Dissuasive (p. 212), two hundred Mac- 
 phersons joined Dundee early in June. Canon Murdoch finds no evidence 
 to support the statement. 
 
 Mr. Macpherson [Gleanings, etc., p. 7) says that the old Castle of 
 Raitts stood upon the site of the present mansion-house of Balavil, on the 
 north side of the Spey, within three miles of Kingussie.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 293 
 
 29th May the anniversaiy of the Restoration was cele- 
 brated with some ceremony.^ Across the river lay the 
 Castle of Ruthven. Mackay had put a garrison of sixty 
 men into it under Captain John Forbes, a ' brisk young 
 man/ soon after his arrival at Inverness.^ Dundee sent to 
 demand its surrender, and commanded Keppoch to enforce 
 it. Without prospect of relief, Forbes surrendered upon 
 terms, and marched out, leaving the castle a blazing ruin 
 behind him— Keppoch's handiwork.^ 
 
 Meanwhile Mackay, recovered from his first panic, 
 crept back cautiously towards his adversary. His superi- 
 ority in cavalry, an easy retreat behind him, justified 
 some hazard, he concluded. On 30th May* he found 
 himself within two miles of Dundee, who had marched 
 from Raitts the previous (29th May) night. Reconnoitring, 
 he found Dundee ' lay round about with a wood, and a 
 marish within the wood, as in a double trench.' The posi- 
 tion was not assailable, but Mackay advanced to within a 
 mile of it, challenging attack. Failing to tempt his 
 enemy he withdrew, in the afternoon, four miles down the 
 valley to Alvie, where he despatched orders to Berkeley's 
 dragoons at Forfar and Leslie's foot ^ at Coupar Angus to 
 
 ^ Philip {Grameid, p. 171) pictures Dundee in scarlet uniform and 
 olive-crowned, quaffing the King's health round a blazing bonfire ! 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 30. 
 
 ^ Gramf.id, pp. 173-176; i\fe7noirs of LocheiU, p. 241 ; Mackay, AFemoirs 
 of the War, p. 30. Philip's account declares that Forbes held out for 
 three days. This does not appear elsewhere. Forbes probably sur- 
 rendered on the day he was summoned, for he joined Mackay on 2nd 
 June. See below, p. 207. 
 
 ■* The date is conjectural, but, I think, correct. Philip's account 
 shows that Dundee marched from Paitts through the night of the 29th. 
 Mackay's shows that Dundee was stationary throughout the day on 
 which ho came in touch with him. Philip's narrative further shows that 
 on the 30th an alarm of Mackay's approach was raised. Both mention 
 Lochiel's conduct in tlic affair, Mackay affirming that he fled at the 
 alarm, Philip explaining that he wheeled to the rear to meet the rumoured 
 advance of the enemy in that direction. 
 
 ^ Sir James Leslie, or Lesley, had succeeded Colonel Kirke in the com- 
 mand of The Queen Dowager's Regiment of Foot, now the Second of the 
 liine. The regiment had served at Scdgemoor (Dalton, vol. ii. p. 25).
 
 204 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 join him by way of Cairn o' Mount, and thence continued 
 his retreat to Cuhiakyle, where he established his main 
 body.^ 
 
 Dundee bivouacked on the morning of 30th May, 
 ignorant of Mackay's nearness. An alarm had been 
 raised during the night-march from Raitts, but his scouts 
 had failed to locate the cnemy.^ The affair took place, 
 probably, in the neighbourhood of Kincraig, and after a 
 halt, Dundee moved on, Mackay but a few hours in front 
 of him. At Alvie^ his advanced party came up with 
 
 1 Ma^ckny, Memoirs of the ITrtr-, pp. 24-27. Lieutenant-Colonel Living- 
 stone had already received orders to bring up his two troops of dragoons 
 from Dundee. 
 
 - Dundee's panic, as Mackay reports it, bears another aspect in Philip's 
 account [Grameid, p. 176). A messenger, says Philip, brought in news 
 that the enemj' were on their front and rear. Dundee and Lochiel 
 wheeled about to face the threatened attack. David Graham and some 
 of the foot were despatched to ' a rising ground, with a dense girdle of 
 wood surrounding it' — a phrase very similar to jSIackay's description of 
 Dundee's camp. Scouts failed to locate the enemy. The affair probal^ly 
 took place in the small-hours of the 30th, when Dundee was ending his 
 night-march. Recovered from the alarm, Dundee presumably bivouacked, 
 and did not advance on Alvie until the afternoon. Bj' that time Mackay 
 had withdrawn. 
 
 A very curious expansion of Mackay's story was reported in a news- 
 letter f lom Edinburgh on 4th June 16S9 : ' \Ye have also the joyful 
 News, That Major-General Mackay, with 8000 {sic] Horse and Foot, 
 approached Dundee's Quarters, there being only a mile distance between 
 them : Major-General Macka}' sent a Trumpeter to Dundee, to let him 
 know. That he was ready to fight liim when he pleased ; to which Dundee 
 answered. That he would fight him the next morning earh' ; whereupon 
 Major-General Mackay prepared all things for the Battel ; but Dundee 
 appeared not at the time appointed, having in the night-time retired to 
 a neighbour Wood among Mosses and Rocks almost inaccessible to single 
 Men, much less to such a considerable Army as is necessary to follow 
 him ' [An Account of the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Estates, No. 28, 
 p. 74). Two days later the same correspondent (ibid., No. 29, p. 76) 
 assured his readers that Dundee was ' perfectly blocked up ' in the wood, 
 and that Mackaj' magnanimously designed to force a surrender 'without 
 the Effusion of Blood ' ! 
 
 •' Philip's account of this position leads Mr. Macpherson [Gleanings from 
 the Cluny Charter Chest, No. 2, p. 10) to locate it at ' the outlet from 
 Loch Alvie to the river Spey, now ci-ossed by a stone bridge, within two 
 or three hundred yards from the present inn of Lynwilg.'
 
 WITH THE CLANS 295 
 
 Mackay's rearguard, or possibly a rearguard post. Dun- 
 dee hurried forward at the iiews.^ But under cover of 
 night (30th May) Mackay's detachment withdrew,^ and 
 joined his main body. 
 
 For three days Mackay remained unmolested at Culna- 
 kyle.^ His position Avas a good one. The SjDcy was in his 
 rear. The Nethy secured his right. Abcrnethy Forest 
 was on his front. And Avithin these ' avenues ' a ' pretty 
 spacious plain ' offered good ground for cavalry should he 
 be attacked. His ally, the Laird of Grant, furnished ' as 
 much housing as could cover ' his infantry. Mackay kept 
 his force in readiness for instant action ; the horse bridled 
 
 ^ He was at the time west of Dalraddy. Dunachton, Mackintosh's 
 castle, was in his rear. Dundee saw it in flames as he rode towards 
 Alvic. Keppoch had set fire to it on his way from Ruthven (Gramtid, 
 p. 179). Keppoch had a grudge of some standing against Mackintosh. 
 Mackintosh, having obtained letters of fire and sword, had taken pos- 
 session of Keppoch's house. But on 3rd August 1688 Keppoch routed 
 Mackintosh at Mulroy. The Council proceeded with vigour against 
 Keppoch, and he was forced to fly. Now he had opportunity for revenge, 
 and used it (see The Loyall Dissuasive, ed. Canon Murdoch, pp. xlvii- 
 xlviii). 
 
 Keppoch's well-known name ' Coll of the Cows ' was given him by 
 Dundee, because, says Lieutenant Colt, Keppoch 'found them out when 
 they wer driven to the hills out of the way' [Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. 
 App. p. 56). Yov his conduct at Dunachton Dundee soundly rated him 
 (]\[emoirs of Locheill, p. 243). 
 
 ^ Mackay has no word of this episode. Philip's remark, that Alvie 
 was abandoned at midnight, entirely harmonises with Mackay's account 
 of his movements. According to his account it was four o'clock in the 
 afternoon (30tli May) when he withdrew from near Dundee's camp to 
 Alvie. Philip [Grameid, p. 181) says that he (or his rearguard) aban- 
 doned Alvie at midnight. Balhaldy {Memoirs of Locheill, p. 240) con- 
 firms this view of the situation. Dundee on his march down Spej'side, 
 he says, found it ' impossible to come up with him [Mackay] till it was 
 dark night, and the next morning he was out of his reach.' The letter 
 to Melfort, already quoted (Macplierson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 355), 
 says that Dundee, relieved by Ramsay's reti-eat, ' resolved to engage 
 M'Kaj'. But so soon as he heard of the march towards him, he dislodged 
 in the night.' The Alvie incident would seem to be clearly proved. 
 
 ■' He did not continue his retreat until 2nd June. The chronology 
 suggested by Canon Murdoch in his notes to the Grameid iov this part of 
 the campaign is incorrect. The fact is not surprising, since neither 
 Philip nor Mackay gives any dates.
 
 296 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 and saddled at night; outposts on every lino of approach ; 
 scouts reporting ' every two hours at least.' He received 
 also welcome reinforcement : the two troops of dragoons 
 from Dundee joined him immediately upon his arrival at 
 Culnakyle. They proved a doubtful asset. Mackay was 
 not long in ignorance of the treacherous disposition of 
 some of their officers. Two days after their arrival his 
 suspicions were aroused.^ A couple of deserters from 
 Dundee were brought into camp. Mackay was inclined 
 to regard them as spies, and questioned them closely. 
 One of them, lately a sergeant in Wauchope's regiment, 
 thereupon desired to speak privately with the General. 
 Mackay assented, and the man assured him that the 
 greater number of Livingstone's officers were plotting to 
 carry over the regiment to Dundee ; that Dundee was 
 sure of them, though for the present he regarded them as 
 ' more useful to him where they were ' ; and that he had 
 observed Dundee reading letters from his wife ' to the 
 same purpose.' Mackay put the two men under guard, 
 and consulted Sir Thomas Livingstone as to the demeanour 
 of his regiment. Livingstone was of opinion that the rank 
 and file were in ignorance of the plot, but admitted that 
 the conduct of their officers had roused his suspicions, 
 particularly since the arrival of the two troops from 
 Dundee. Mackay gave it bluntly as his opinion that they 
 were 'rogues.' For the moment he was not in a position 
 to act upon it. He resolved to remain at Culnakyle, at 
 least until the enemy drew nearer.^ He was not for 
 long left in peace. 
 
 From Alvie, meanwhile, Dundee had advanced in 
 leisurely pursuit.^ On 31st May, seemingly, he crossed 
 
 1 If the dragoons reached Ciihiakyle on 30th May — the earliest possible 
 date— Mackay 's suspicions of their loyalty were first aroused on 1st June. 
 
 '^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, pp. 27-29. 
 
 •^ There is no means of accurately dating Dundee's march between his 
 appearance at Alvie on 30th May and his getting into touch with INIackay
 
 WITH THE CLANS 297 
 
 the Spey near Kinakyle,^ and on 1st June felt his way 
 warily past the dense woodlands of Abernethy. In the 
 course of his march he learned that the dragoons from 
 Dundee were already in Mackay's camp, and that their 
 officers only awaited a fitting opportunity to desert to 
 him. His informant was one Provincial, or Provensal, a 
 sergeant of the Scots Dragoons, Lieutenant- Colonel Liv- 
 ingstone's servant.- Provensal returned the following day, 
 and, unfortunately for the plot, he and his companion 
 were observed. Captain Forbes, who had recently sur- 
 rendered Ruthven Castle, had been carried through Dun- 
 dee's camp, and ' being licentiated,' was sent on to Mackay 
 on the morning of 2nd June. A mile from Dundee's 
 camp he met two men. One of them, afterwards iden- 
 tified as Provensal, wearing a blue uniform, challenged 
 him. Forbes replied, Vive le Roi Guillaume. The other 
 explained that he was scouting for intelligence. Forbes 
 warned him of his danger, and hurried on towards Culna- 
 kyle, where he informed Mackay of the circumstance, 
 and also of the preparations for an immediate advance 
 which he had observed in Dundee's camp." 
 
 Forbes's information was disturbing."^ On the heels of 
 it scouts brought in intelligence that Dundee's force was 
 already in motion. Mackay had no alternative to retreat. 
 
 beyund Balvenie on .3rd June. His route, however, is clearly expressed 
 in the Grameid, p. 182. 
 
 1 flumina Sjiejae Transnieat ad Goili dictum de nomine cam2nim. Canon 
 Murdoch identifies the ford as Kinakyle. 
 
 2 Proceedings of Court- Martial held at Oulnaki/le, 8th June 1689, in An 
 Account of the Proceedings of the Meeting of the Estates, No. 47, p. 111. 
 For Provensal, see Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 240. 
 
 " Mackay, Memoirs, jjp. 30, 34. Balhaldy {Memoirs of LocheiU, p. 241) 
 gives a version, to some extent an incorrect one, of Provensal's visit to 
 Dundee. According to Balhaldy, Dundee was informed that Mackay 
 designed to attack him, though he was ignorant of his whereabouts. 
 Dundee was therefore urged to surprise Mackay that night, and sent an 
 answer promising to act on the information. 
 
 ^ It is somewhat difficult to understand how Dundee could have allowed 
 Forbes to join Mackay, if he designed to keep his movements secret.
 
 298 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Save the Scots Dragoons no reinforcements had reached 
 him, and they were clearly unreliable. He was regretful 
 to leave Grant's country at Dundee's mercy ; but retreat 
 was inevitable, and Grant concurred. He delayed his 
 march until nightfall (2nd June) in order that the dark- 
 ness might obscure the direction of his retreat.^ Dundee 
 was but three miles in his rear when he left Culnakyle. 
 Marching through the night, the suspected dragoons 
 heading the line, he passed through Cromdale, over the 
 Avon near Ballindalloch Castle, and past Craigellachie. 
 Not until Balvenie was reached (3rd June) did he deem 
 it safe to pause. Scouts brought intelligence that Dundee 
 was well in the rear. Mackay sent back a party of 
 dragoons to confirm the intelligence. By five in the 
 afternoon they had not returned. Alarmed at the fact, 
 Mackay ordered the retreat to be continued, and 'not- 
 withstanding both ofiicers and souldiers grumbled, he 
 would not stay till they had given their horse corn, and 
 till the souldiers had got some bread baked.' His im- 
 patience was justified. He had passed a river a mile from 
 camp, and was less than a mile beyond it, when Sir 
 Thomas Livingstone, who was in the rear, observed the 
 enemy advancing to the camping-ground Mackay had so 
 recently abandoned, and to the ford by which he had 
 crossed.- Sending Sir Thomas forward to lead on the 
 main body, Mackay, with fifty or sixty horse, and as many 
 more with Avhich the Master of Forbes there joined him, 
 rode to an eminence to observe Dundee's movements. 
 
 1 Mackay, as he explains, had three avenues of retreat open to him ; 
 one to Inverness ; another through Strathdon and Glenlivet to join his 
 expected reinforcements ; the third along the Spey. He chose the last. 
 
 - Having regard to the direction of Mackay's retreat, there is little 
 question that the ' little river ' he mentions was the Fiddich. He would 
 cross it where Ford Mill is marked on the Ordnance Map. Continuing 
 his march along its left or eastern bank, Scant Hill and Wood of Tulloch 
 would be on his left flank. From one of its ridges, no doubt, he watched 
 Dundee's approach to the ford wliich he had so lately crossed.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 299 
 
 Major Mackay took his station on another height, whence 
 ' he coukl get a nearer and more just view ' of the enemy. 
 Conckiding that Mackay intended to stand, Dundee 
 halted, formed in battle formation, crossed the river, and 
 drew up on its eastern side. It Avas after sunset when 
 the Clans began to advance. Supposing that his main 
 body was by now two miles ahead, Mackay gave the 
 order to follow them. His nephew lingered behind, intent 
 upon Dundee's movements. Following in the rear of the 
 General, he observed on a hill to his left a party of horse. 
 In the twilight he took them to be Dundee's cavalr}^ 
 They proved to be the dragoons whom Mackay had sent 
 out for intelligence that morning. The sergeant in com- 
 mand of them was Provensal, Captain Forbes's ' man in 
 blue.' ' Very ill pleased with his nephew for staying 
 behind him,' Mackay continued his retreat. By four in 
 the morning (4th June) he called a halt far down Strath- 
 bogie, and after a short rest advanced three miles further 
 to Suie Hill, on the high-road between Clatt and Tully- 
 nessle.^ 
 
 Since the evening of 2nd June Dundee had pressed 
 closely upon Mackay. Darkness alone cheated him of 
 his prey at Balvenie.^ His earlier arrival had been anti- 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, pp. 30-34. 
 
 2 In the letter to Melfort the following account is given of the event : 
 ' The Viscount pursued him [Mackay] four days ; and, by an unexpected 
 way, came in sight of him an hour before the sun set [3rd June], and 
 pursued them so close, that parties of tlie Highlanders were within shot 
 of the rear-guard, close to the main body, and dark night came on ; save 
 which, nothing could have saved them, in all human probability ' (Mac- 
 pherson, Original Pa2)trti, vol. i. p. 355). ^&\\\al(\y {Memoirs of Lodieill, 
 p. 242) says that Dundee came in sight of Mackay about four in the 
 afternoon, but that it was eleven at night before he could come up with 
 him. He states tliat Dundee marched ' up Glenlivet and turned doun 
 Strathdown.' Philip also describes Dundee as marching through 'the 
 winding Glenlivet.' It seems clear that Dundee crossed Glenlivet and 
 came up to Balvenie through Glenrinues, the ' unexpected way ' of which 
 the letter above speaks. Dundee's motive would be to licad off Mackay 
 from the Lowlands. That this was his route is the more probable, seeing 
 he returned by it.
 
 300 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 cipated by his friends the dragoon officers,^ the full 
 measure of whose treachery was still concealed from their 
 General. Following in the track of Mackay, Dundee 
 advanced as far as Edinglassie (4th June) and called a 
 halt. To venture farther upon ground favourable to 
 Mackay's cavalry was hazardous. A suspicion that 
 Mackay's hasty flight was designed to draw a preciiDitate 
 and, in the result, possibly a fatal contest with superior 
 numbers also suggested caution. Dundee resolved to 
 await events.- 
 
 The relative position of the two forces was, in fact, 
 upon the point of reversal. Dundee had driven an 
 inferior force before him down the Spey, Mackay was 
 now to have the satisfaction of chasing him back again. 
 At Suie Hill, at noon on 4th June, Colonel Berkeley 
 joined him with three hundred dragoons. At six in the 
 evening Sir James Leslie brought up his foot, six or 
 seven hundred strong. Mackay's horse found scanty 
 forage, his men were hungry and unsatisfied. But Mac- 
 kay was deaf to appeals for delay. Near midnight (4th 
 June) his augmented column was once more on the 
 move, fronting the enemy at Edinglassie. In the hope 
 of coming upon him unawares, Mackay marched in a 
 body, and refrained from throwing out advanced parties 
 at any considerable distance. But his caution was again 
 defeated by the treacherous dragoons. The ubiquitous 
 
 ^ At the court-martial held by Mackay at Culnakyle on 8tli June, John 
 Conncll, a trooper in the dragoons, gave evidence that on 4th June he 
 had been sent by two of his troop officers, Captain Murray and Lieutenant 
 Murray, to inform Dundee that had he come up in time the night before 
 (.3rd June), ' they believed he should have had the most part of the 
 Regiment of Scotch-Dragoons on his side ' {An Account of the Proceedings, 
 etc., No. 47, p. 111). 
 
 2 Grameid, p. 197. According to the letter to Melfort : ' The ground 
 was dangerous, and the march had been long ; so that the viscount 
 thought not fit to follow further, being within three miles of Strathbogy, 
 a plain country, where the horse and dragoons had too much advantage 
 of the Highlanders ' (Macplierson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 355).
 
 WITH THE CLANS 801 
 
 Provensal and another had been sent back to Edinglassie 
 so soon as Mackay had received his reinforcements, and 
 his resohition to meet Dundee was known.^ They carried 
 other and disturbing news winch the newly arrived troops 
 from the south had brought. The Duke of Berwick was 
 reported to have been made prisoner ; an attempted land- 
 ing from Ireland had been frustrated.^ Dundee did not 
 pause upon the intelligence. The rigours of the campaign 
 had already made inroads upon his health,^ and now that 
 Mackay was vastly superior in cavalry, to give him battle 
 at Edinglassie would imperil his whole scheme of nursing 
 his resources until the expected succour from Ireland 
 should arrive. Dundee therefore gave the order to retreat, 
 alleging the need to join the contingents of the more 
 distant Clans, which were already on their way. Marching 
 throughout 5th June he did not pause until he was back 
 in Cromdale.* 
 
 ^ Mackay, M^^.moirs of the War, p. 36 ; The Journal of Major General 
 Mackay's March, dated from Alford, 9 June 1689, in An Account of 
 the Proceedings, etc., No. 31, p. 80 ; ibid., No. 47, p. 111. 
 
 ^ The letter to Melfort, in Macpherson, Original Pajnrs, vol. i. p. 356. 
 According to Balhaldy (Memoirs of Locheill, p. 243) Dundee was at 
 dinner when he received the news. As a fact, the news must have 
 i"eached him very early in the morning. 
 
 ^ On 13th June 1689 Mackay writes to Hamilton that Dundee was said 
 to be ' sick of a flux. ' One of the prisoners taken by Mackay at Edin- 
 glassie also reported that Dundee was unwell. A newsletter of 22nd 
 June 1689, from the North, stated that ' the great and constant Fatigues, 
 with many other Hardships and Inconveniencies he hath gone through in 
 his unsuccessful Rebellious Campagn, hath reduced his Body to a low 
 and wretched state ' (An Accowit of the Proceedings, etc., No. 34, p. 86). 
 Commenting on the disorderly character of his retreat from Edinglassie, 
 the letter to Melfort remarks : ' The viscount fell sick ' (Macpherson, 
 Original Papers, vol. i. p. 356). 
 
 ■* Mcmoir-s of LocheiU, p. 243. The letter to Melfort, describing the first 
 day's march as ' a long march,' adds that ' the Highlanders, thinking 
 themselves masters, grew very disorderly, and plundered, without dis- 
 tinction, wherever they came' (Macpherson, ibid.). Philip (Grameid, 
 p. 206) traces Dundee's retreat along the Fiddich, past Auchindoune 
 Castle, through the Oiceni cam2tum, which Canon Murdoch identifies as 
 Glenavon, and thence across the Livet to Cromdale. Philip makes much 
 of a night alarm, caused by a flock of sheep, after the day's march was over.
 
 302 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Meanwhile Mackay, some eight miles short of Edin- 
 glassie, had learnt of Dundee's retreat. Sir George 
 Gordon of Edinglassie, who accompanied Mackay, Major 
 Mackay and others rode forward. They found Edin- 
 glassie House in ruins. In the woods about it they 
 made important captures of stragglers whom Dundee's 
 rapid retreat had left behind. With them also were a 
 couple of Livingstone's dragoons. The time had come to 
 crush the conspiracy in which the officers of that regiment 
 had been engaged. The captive dragoons confessed their 
 part in it. Their fellow-prisoners incriminated Provensal. 
 Mackay hesitated no longer. On his arrival at Edin- 
 glassie he arrested Lieutenant-Colonel Livingstone and his 
 associates.^ About four in the afternoon he continued his 
 march to Balvenie, and halted for the night.^ 
 
 After the long march of the 5th, Dundee made a short 
 march on 6th June to Abernethy.^ Mackay advanced 
 
 ' The officers arrested, in addition to Livingstone, were Captain Living- 
 stone, Captain Murray, Lieutenant Murray, and Captain-Lieutenant 
 Creichton. Tliey were court-martialled at Culnakyle on 8tli June, and 
 reached Edinburgh and were committed to prison on 22nd June (An 
 Account of the Proceedings, etc., pp. 80, 83, 111). Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Livingstone seems not to have been an active instigator of the plot (Mackay, 
 Memoirs of the Wcn\ p. 244; Letters chiefly addressed to George, Earl of Mel- 
 ville, p. 182). Sir John Dalrymple, writing on 25th .July 1689, pleaded for 
 Livingstone, whose exchange for Blair of Blair had been suggested. He 
 advised that undue severity should not be u.sed, on the ground that 'we hav 
 not yett heard of great severitys on the other syd.' He suggested that 
 ' Provinciall, a papist, who was the most guilty,' might ' serve for an 
 example ' [ibid., p. 194). Creichton complacently records (iSioift's Works, 
 vol. X. p. 182) that Dundee wrote to Hamilton to threaten that ' if (to 
 use his own homely expression) tliey touched a hair of his [Creichton's] tail, 
 lie would cut the laird of Blair, and the laird of Pollock, joint by joint, 
 and would send their limbs in hampers to the Council.' The story 
 is of value merely as an indication of Creichton's desire to represent his 
 own importance. 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 37 ; An Account of the Proceedings, 
 etc.. No. ::.l, p. 80. 
 
 ■' Orameid, p. 209. The letter to Melfort (Macpherson, Original 
 Papers, vol. i. p. 356) says that on the second and third days of the 
 retreat from Edinglassie ' tire viscount did not march six miles in all.' 
 The fact was partlj' due to Dundee's illness, partly to the plundering
 
 WITH THE CLANS 303 
 
 close on his rear to Culnakyle on the same day.^ On 
 the following night ^ (7th June) Sir Thomas Livingstone 
 came unexpectedly upon a party of Macleans seeking 
 Dundee's camp. The party, led by Hector Maclean, 
 younger of Lochbuy, had been foraging for meal when 
 Livingstone discovered them. The Macleans were march- 
 ing in an extended column. Some fled at Livingstone's 
 onslaught. A hundred or so of them kept together, 
 and gaining the foot of a neighbouring hill, held their 
 assailants at bay until the morning (8th June), when 
 with a charge they broke through the ring of foes and 
 gained the camp, whence Dundee had already advanced 
 to meet them.^ While Mackay was engaged in the court- 
 
 habits of the Clans. An officer with Mackay, who computed Dundee's 
 numbers as not exceeding two thousand men, including three troops of 
 horse under Dundee, Dunfermline, and Pitcur, numbering one liundred 
 and twenty, added that ' the Baggage Horse and their Plunder did make 
 a great show' (An Account of the Proceedings, etc., No. 31, p. 80). 
 
 1 Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 38. 
 
 '^ From the letter to Melfort, the Knockbrecht incident clearly took 
 place on the evening or night of the third day's march from Edinglassie. 
 
 ^ Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 356. According to this 
 account Maclean's casualties were 'not above four,' while his assailants 
 lost their captain, lieutenant, and eleven more. In another account 
 {ibid., p. ^QO) Maclean is said to have lost five men, and his assailants 
 their two officers and fifteen men. According to Mackay (Memoirs, 
 p. 38), he captured eighty or one hundred of the Macleans. His own 
 losses were ' a captain of Barcklay's regiment, with six dragoons of both 
 the regiments killed, aud some wounded.' The Grameld (p. 213) gives 
 the captain's name as Owinstone, of Richborough. Elsewhere, in a letter 
 of intellig.^nce to the Queen, dated loth December 1689 (Macpherson, 
 ihid., p. 368), his name is given as Waine. His name, in fact, was 
 Anthony Ovington. See Dalton, vol. ii. pp. 12, 128. 
 
 The scene of the engagement cannot clearly be determined. The only 
 clues are in Ballialdy, who calls the liill Knockbrecht (Memoirs of 
 Locheill, p. 244), and Mackay's account, which describes Maclean as 
 being ' on the other side of the river.' Canon Murdoch supposes Mackay 
 to mean the Spey. But I am inclined to think that Mackay refers to the 
 Nethy. It lay between Mackay at Culnakyle and Dundee's camp. 
 Knockbrecht, the hill where Maclean made his stand, is not upon the 
 Ordnance Map. But its locality is perhaps indicated by Robreck, 
 which lies north-west of Boat of Garten, on the fringe of Abernethy 
 Forest.
 
 804 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 martial upon the dragoon officers (8tli June), Dundee 
 continued his retreat to Ruthven, where he learned that 
 Colonel Ramsay, once deterred, had on the second 
 attempt succeeded in passing Badenoch to Inverness.^ 
 As they neared their own country the Clans slipped away 
 with their booty. Dundee pressed for an advance to 
 Rannoch, where he could take ' strong ground near the 
 low countries.' But the ' Lochaber men were going 
 away every night by fortys and fiftys, with droves of 
 cattle, and finding all the rest loaden with plunder of 
 Grant's lands, and others would needs go home,' Dundee 
 abandoned his project, and continued his retreat to 
 Lochaber.^ He halted at Keppoch on the way thither, 
 and on 11th June returned to his old quarters near 
 Glonroy, his host Lochiel declaring that ' while there was 
 a cow in Lochaber, neither he nor his men should want.' ^ 
 Mackay, still plodding in his rear, was joined by Ramsay, 
 and followed to the fringe of Lochaber. Finding the 
 Highlanders dispersed he withdrew to Inverness, ' where 
 he staid the matter of a forthnight, to see if the ennemy 
 would undertake an}' thing further, and to settle the 
 
 1 Macphersoii, Original Pcqiers, vol. i. p. 357. Ramsay had left Blair 
 on his way to Inverness before 4th June (Mackay, Memoirs of the War, 
 p. 223). 
 
 2 Macpherson, Orvjinal Papers, vol. i. p. 357. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Locheill, p. 247. For the date 11th June, I rely on a 
 letter of intelligence to James, dated (as IMacpherson prints it, vol. i. 
 p. 359) 'the 4th June.' It announces that reinforcements had 'just 
 now ' arrived in Badenoch, and had met Dundee ' on his way to Lochaber.' 
 As Di;ndee on 4th June was on the other side of Scotland, the proper 
 date of the letter is obviously not 'the 4th June.' Its true date is 
 indicated by its reference to the Knockbrecht incident as having occurred 
 ' three days ago.' As the Knockbrecht incident occurred on the 7th, the 
 above letter was dated on the 9th or 10th. The former seems the more 
 probable ; a ' ix.' might easily be mistaken for a ' iv.' Dundee, I suggest, 
 was at Ruthven on the night of the 8th ; he spent two nights at Keppoch, 
 according to Balhaldy. On the 11th, if my suggestion is tenable, he 
 would be back in Glenroy. Lieutenant Colt, who returned to Lochaber 
 with him, was sent prisoner to Mull about 10th June (Acts Parlt. Scot., 
 vol. ix., App. p. 55).
 
 WITH THE CLANS 305 
 
 necessary orders.' ^ The first round of the campaign was 
 over, and inconckisive. ^ 
 
 Until almost the eve of Killiecrankie Dundee remained 
 in Lochabor, nursing the Clans, expectant of help from 
 Ireland, and, so far as his letters reveal him, fortified by 
 a boundless optimism and assurance that the cause he 
 represented was the cause that would triumph. Though 
 the Clans which had accompanied him to Edingiassie had 
 for the most part disbanded, the nucleus of an army was 
 still round him. Sir Alexander Maclean and four hundred 
 of his name had joined Dundee on his return to Lochaber. 
 They, with the three troops of horse, were kept by Dundee 
 with him 'until news from his Majesty' should arrive, 
 and another rendezvous for the Clans be appointed.^ 
 Newsmongers at Edinburgh reported him starving in 
 Lochaber, or predicted his imminent capture by Highland 
 
 1 Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 40. He had returned to Inverness 
 before 14th June (ibid., p. 230). Several despatches not printed in his 
 Memoirs are calendared in Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xi., pt. vi. pp. 179- 
 180. 
 
 In regard to his disposal of tlie troops with him, Wackay, about 9th 
 June, had sent Colchester's horse, escorting Livingstone and tlie other 
 dragoon officers, from Culnakyle to the south to join the rest of the regi- 
 ment. After Dundee's retreat into Lochaber, Mackay sent Berkeley's 
 regiment to iStrathbogie, Ramsay with the two hundred of the Scots 
 Brigade to Elgin, and took with himself to Inverness Leslie's infantry 
 regiment, two hundred of Leven's and one hundred of Hastings's regi- 
 ments (both of which had been brought ujj by Ramsay), Livingstone's 
 dragoons, and the two hundred Highlanders who had been with him on 
 the Spey (Mackay, Memoirn, p. 40). The Earl of Leven's regiment had 
 been quite recently levied. It was called, and continued until 1782 to be 
 denominated, 'The Edinburgh Regiment.' It is now the Twenty-fifth 
 of the Line. The MS. record of the regiment is preserved in the War 
 Office. 
 
 '^ The Government had gained one success. On 13th June 1689 the 
 Duke of Gordon surrendered Edinburgh Castle. 
 
 ■' Macpherson, OrujlncU Papers, vol. i. p. 359. Balhaldy states, that a 
 few days after Dundee's return to Lochaber, Sir Donald Macdonald of 
 Sleat with about seven hundred, and the Captain of Clanranald with 
 about six hundred men arrived (Memoirs of Locheill, p. 248). Clanranald 
 had in fact arrived by 23rd June, but Sir Donald was still expected on 
 that date. 
 
 U
 
 306 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 chiefs who had sworn to bring him in dead or aHve!^ 
 Dundee awaited patiently the snnnnons to further 
 service, drilled his men,- and tactfully composed such 
 differences as arose from time to time among his quarrel- 
 some allies.^ 
 
 At length on 22udJune a much belated communication 
 from James in Ireland reached Dundee/* Instantly he 
 prepared to take the field. The Laird of Macleod, who 
 had not yet come out, had an immediate summons from 
 him. His letter '^ affords a complete insight into the 
 position as it presented itself to him, and the resources 
 wherewith he hoped to cope with it. ' Glengaire [Glen- 
 garry] gave me ane account of the substance of a letter 
 he receaved from yow,' he wrote : ' I shall only tell yow, 
 that if yow heasten not to land your men, I am of opinion 
 yow will have litle occasion to do the King great service ; 
 for if he land in the wesst of Scotland, yow will come too 
 late, as I believe yow will thienk yourself by the news I 
 have to tell yow.' Mackay had withdrawn his troops to 
 Edinburgh, he continued ; the French were ready to 
 throw forces into England or Ireland; Londonderry, 
 whose siege had so far detained the King, was upon the 
 point of surrender. ' The King,' therefore, ' being thus 
 master by sea and land, hath nothing to do but bring 
 over his army, which many people fancy is landed 
 alraidy in the west. He will have litle to oppose him 
 
 1 Hint. MSS. Oomm. Rept. xii.,pt. vii. pp. 246, 247. Dundee was not 
 alone in furnishing material for iiction. On 7th June 1689 it was gravely 
 reported in London that Mackay had killed ' a French gentleman in a 
 duel and absconds for it ' ! (ibid., p. 244). 
 
 - Balhaldy {Mtmoirs of Locheill, p. 252) avers that Dundee abandoned 
 his proposal to exercise the Clans in military tactics in deference to 
 Lochiel's opposition. 
 
 ^ See ibid., p. 252, for an incident which threatened to embroil the 
 Camerons and Macdonells. 
 
 * Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 360. Hay was the bearer. 
 
 ^ Smythe, Letttrs of John Grahame of Claverhouse, p. 38. It is dated 
 from Moy, in Lochaber, 23rd June 1689.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 307 
 
 there, and probably will march towards England; so that 
 we who are in the graitest readiness will have ado to 
 join him. I have rcccavcd b}^ Mr. Hay a commission of 
 Lievtennent General, which miscairicd by Breidy.^ I 
 have also receavcd a double of a letter miscairied by 
 Breidy to mo, and a new letter, dated the 18 of May, 
 both of which arc so kind, that I am asham'd to tell. 
 He [James] counts for great services, which I am con- 
 scious to myself that 1 have hardly done my deutie. He 
 promises not only to mc, but to all that will join, such 
 marks of favour as after ages shall see what honour and 
 advantage there is in being loyall. He sayes, in express 
 terms, that his favours shall vy with our loyalty. He 
 hath, by the same letters, given full power of Councell 
 to such councellers here, as shall be joined in the King's 
 service, and given us power, with the rest of his freends, 
 to meet in a Convention, by his authority, to counteract 
 the mock Convention at Edin'', whom he hath declaired 
 trai tours, and comanded all his loyall subjects to make 
 warr against them ; in obedience to which, I have called 
 all the clannes. Captain of Glenrannald is near us these 
 severall dayes ; the Laird of Baro 2 is there ^ with his men. 
 I aui persuaded Sir Donald [Macdonald of Sleat] is there 
 by this. M'Clean * lands in Morven to-morrow certainly. 
 Apen, Glenco, Lochell, Glengaire, Keppock, are all raidy. 
 Sir Alex'' [Maclean] and Largo ^ have been here with 
 there men all this while with me, so that I hope we will 
 
 ^ See above, p. 264. 
 
 - Macneil of Barra. 
 
 ^ i.e. at the place appointed for the rendezvous. Writing to Mackay 
 from Inverness on 25th June 1689, David Ross of Balnagowu reported 
 that ' from severall certane hands it is confirmed that the morn being 
 Thursday [27th June] ther is ane generall randevoze ... to hold at 
 Invergerrie' (Fraser, The Melvilles and Leslies, vol. ii. p. 113). 
 
 ^ Sir John Maclean of Duart. Philip's account, already quoted, 
 erroneously represents him as being with Dundee during the Edinglassie 
 campaign. 
 
 ■' Alexander Macdonald of Largo.
 
 308 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 go out of Jjocbabor about tbrc tbousand. Yow may 
 judge what we will gett in Strathbarig, Badenock,^ Atbol, 
 MaiT, and tbo Duke of Gordon's lands, besides the loyall 
 shires of ]>anif, Aberdeen, Merns, Angus, Pearth, and 
 Stirling. I hope we will bo masters of the north, as the 
 King's army will be of the south.' ' Now,' he conchided, 
 ' I have layd the whole business bcibryow, yow Avill easily 
 know what is iitt for yow to do.' Such was the phm ; 
 the Clans in Scotland, James in England, France assisting, 
 were to drive back ' our ironical Dutch saviour,' as another 
 Jacobite called William, to the land whence he had come. 
 Dundee contributed an effort, James not a whit, to the 
 joint project. 
 
 To Macnachtan of Dunderaw Dundee wrote in similar 
 strain.^ His lands lay dangerously near the Campbells, 
 ' It will be hard for you to rease your regiments,' Dundee 
 admitted ; ' houever doe j^our best, a man that has good 
 will will fynd ways. So I desyr you will gate ready, as 
 soon as you can, all your name foUouers and kyndly men, 
 wherever they ar, and march them this way. Concert 
 with Makdougell that you may come togither, and then 
 Apen may come with you. Lait me know when you 
 hear any newes. I have received letters by tuo different 
 expresses from Yrland ; all goes there to our wish, only 
 Darie ^ has been obstinat, but it is over befor nou, which 
 is the only reason we have not had forces from theme. 
 My lord Melfort says that befor his come to my hands. 
 
 ^ As to the Macphersons, Cluny wrote to Mackay on 25th June 1689, 
 professing his attachment to the Protestant interest, but stating that he 
 was — conveniently— indisposed and unable to ride (Fraser, The Mdvilles 
 and Leslies, vol. ii. p. 114). On 7th July 1689 an express reached Edin- 
 burgh from the North bearing information that Dundee had summoned 
 Cluny to join him under threat of destroying his country (A^i Account of 
 the Proceedings, etc., No. 37, p. 92). 
 
 - British Museum, Addd. MSS. 12,068, fol. 137. The letter is dated 
 from Loeheil, 28th June 1689. 
 
 •^ Londonderry.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 809 
 
 tho dated the 1 of June, relief will come to us ; so if you 
 be vexed b}'' your nighboors, it is on confort it will not be 
 long.' 
 
 To Melfort, taking advantage of Hay's return, Dundee 
 wrote in a different strain : ^ — 
 
 MoY, IN LocHABER, June '27th, 1689. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I was not a little surprized to find, by yours, that 
 my name has been made use of, for carrying on designs against 
 you. Mr. Carleton ^ is extremely in the wrong, if he says I gave 
 him any commission to the King, or warrant to say any thing 
 to him, in my name. Earl Bredalbin sent him to me, with a 
 credential, which he desired me to burn so soon as I had read 
 it. I had never seen the man in the face before, nor heard of 
 him. He was not two hours in my company ; and, when he 
 gave me account of his pretended business to Ireland, I disliked 
 most of it, as I signified to you, by M'Swyne; nor did I give 
 him so much as a line with him, that I remember. I leave you 
 to judge, if it be probable, that I would intrust myself so far to 
 any in such circumstances, as to employ him in so nice and 
 dangerous a point as that is, of accusing so great a man, and so 
 much my friend as you are, to the King. If I had any such 
 design, I would rather have trusted myself to the King, and 
 written frankly to himself. I will assure you, all my endeavours 
 to lay you aside were only to yourself. I thought myself bound 
 in duty to the King and friendship to you, not to dissemble to 
 you the circumstances you stand in with the generality of this 
 country and many in the neighbouring. Your merit and rising 
 fortune has raised envy ; your favour with the King is crime 
 enough with his enemies, and I am feared, even with his 
 
 ^ Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 360. Burnet fully confirms 
 the attitude towards Melfort and his policy which is indicated in Dundee's 
 letter. Dundee, he writes {History of My Otni Time, vol. iii. p. 36), 
 ' sent several Messengers over to Ireland, pressing King James to come, 
 either to the North of England, or to Scotland. But, at the same time 
 he desired, that he would not bring the Lord Melfort over with him, or 
 employ him more in Scotch Business ; and that he [James] would be con- 
 tented with the exercise of his own Religion. It may be easily supposed, 
 that all this went against the grain M'ith King James, and that the Lord 
 Melfort disparaged all the Earl [sic] of Dundee's undertakings.' 
 
 '^ Thomas Carleton writes to Breadalbane from Dublin on ISlh .June 
 1689. See Eraser, Melollles and Leslies, vol. ii. p. 108.
 
 310 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERH0U8E 
 
 aml)itious friends, -which I am sure can never be imagined to 
 be one with me : for I can never have any pretensions in your 
 way.^ Besides, you have contributed to all the considerable 
 steps of my fortune; but I must tell you, that besides these 
 generals, there are many pretend to have received disobligations 
 from 3^ou, and others, no doubt, with design on your employ- 
 ment; yet the most universal pretext is, the great hand you 
 had in carrying on matters of religion, as they say, to the ruin 
 of the King and country. I must tell you, I heard a great 
 resentment against 3'ou, for advising the giving the bulls for 
 the bishops, and I am feared they themselves believe it. You 
 know what the Church of England is in England ; and, both 
 there and here, they generally say, that the King of himself is 
 not disposed to push matters of religion, or force people to do 
 things they sci'upled in conscience ; but that you, to gain favour 
 with these of that religion, had proved and prevailed with him, 
 contrary to his inclination to do what he did, which has given 
 his enemies occasion to destroy him and the monarchy. This 
 being, as I assure you it is, however unjust, the general opinion 
 of these nations, I thought, in prudence, for your own sake as 
 well as the King's, you would have thought it best to seem to 
 be out of business for a time ; that the King's business might 
 go the smoother, and all pretext be taken away for rebellion ; 
 and this only, in case the King find difficulties in his affairs : for 
 I am obliged to tell you, that if the people take umbrage as to 
 their religion, it will be, notwithstanding of all the foreign aid, 
 a long Avar. But I think you may come over ; and, when you 
 have seen the state of affairs in the place, and spoke with every 
 body, you may think what will be best for you to do. You 
 desire me to recommend a proper man to be secretary. You 
 know it is hard to do. But, if you really resolve not to seem 
 to meddle, I would, were I you, advise the King to employ one, 
 to be turned out when things altered, [which] would not much 
 disoblige, or could have no consequence. But I think I have 
 said enough, if not too much of this. 
 
 My lord, I have given the King, in general, account of things 
 here; but to you I will be more particular. As to myself, I 
 have sent you it at lai^ge.- You may by it understand a little 
 
 1 i.e. to the Secretaryship of State. 
 
 - This is certainly the long letter of intelligence, received by Melfort 
 on 7th July 1C89, printed by Macpherson (vol. i. p. 352), ■which has Ijecn 
 referreil to already.
 
 WITH THE CLANS 311 
 
 of the state of the country. You will see there, when I had a 
 seen advantage, I endeavoured to profit on it ; but, on the other 
 hand, shunned to hazard any thing, for fear of a ruffle : for the 
 least of that would have discouraged all. I thought, if I could 
 gain time, and keep up a figure of a party, without loss, it was 
 my best, till we got assistance, which the enemy got from 
 England every day. I have told the King, I had neither com- 
 mission, money, nor ammunition. My brother-in-law, Albar,^ 
 and my wife found ways to get credit. For my own, nobody 
 durst pay to a traitor. I was extremely surprised, when I saw 
 Mr. Drummond, the advocate, in Highland habit, come up to 
 Lochaber to me, and gave account, that the Queen had sent 
 2000Z. sterling to London, to be paid to me for the King's 
 service, and that two more was a coming. I did not think the 
 Queen had known any thing of our affairs. I received a very 
 obliging letter from her, with Mr. Grain ; ^ but I know no way 
 to make a return. However, when the money comes, I shall 
 keep count of it, and employ it right. But I am feard, it will 
 be hard to bring it from Edinburgh. "When we came first out, 
 I had but fifty pound of powder ; more I could not get ; all the 
 great towns and sea-ports were in rebellion, and had seized the 
 powder and would sell none. But I had one advantage, the 
 highlanders will not fire above once, and then take to the broad- 
 sword. But I wonder, above all things, that, in three months, 
 I never heard from you, seeing by Mr. Hay I had so earnestly 
 recommended it to you, and told of this way by Inverlochie, as 
 sure, if you would not have sent expresses, we thought you 
 would, at least, have hastened the despatch of these we sent. 
 M'Swyne has now 1)ecn away near two months, and we know 
 not if the coast be clear or not. However, I have adventured 
 to advise Mr. Hay to return streight, and not go farther in the 
 country. It would have been impossible for him to get through 
 to Edinburgh ; but there was no need. He came not here until 
 the 2 2d, and they^ surrendered on the 13th. It was not Mr. 
 Hay's fault, he was so long a coming ; for there has been two 
 English men of war and the Glasgow frigates* amongst the 
 
 ^ Dundee's sister, Anne, inarried, about 1060, Robert Young of 
 Auldbar. 
 
 - He had also brought over James's letter to the Convention. See 
 above, p. 255. 
 
 2 The Duke of Gordon and garrison of Edinburgh Castle. 
 
 * On 13th April 1689 Captain William Hamilton of Ladyland and
 
 812 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 islands, till of late. For the rest of the letters, I undertook to 
 get them delivered. Most of the persons to whom they are 
 directed are either put under bond, or in prison, or gone out of 
 the kingdom. The advocate ^ is gone to England, a very honest 
 man, firm beyond belief ; and Athol is gone too,^ who did not 
 know what to do. Earl Hume, who is very frank, is taken 
 prisoner to Edinl^urgh ; but will be let out, on security. Earl 
 Bredalbin keeps close in a strong house he has, and pretends 
 the gout. Earl Errol stays at home ; so does Aberdeen. Earl 
 Marshal is at Edinburgh ; but does not meddle. Earl Lauder- 
 dale is right, and at home. The bishops, I know not where they 
 are. They are now the kirk invisible. I will be forced to open 
 the letter, and send copies attested to them, and keep the 
 original, till I can find out our primate. The poor ministers 
 are sorely oppressed over all. They generally stand right. 
 Duke Queensberry was present at the cross, when their new 
 mock King was proclaimed ; and, I hear, voted for him, tho' 
 not for the throne vacant. His brother, the lieutenant general, 
 some say, is made an Earl.^ He has come down to Edinburgh, 
 and is gone up again. He is the old man, and has abused me 
 strangely ; for he swore to me to make amends. 
 
 Tarbat is a great villain. Besides Avhat he has done at 
 Edinburgh, he has endeavoured to seduce Locheil, by offers of 
 money, which is imder his hand. He is now gone up to secure 
 his faction, Avhich is melting."* The two Dalrymples and 
 others against Skelmurly, Polwart, Cardross, Ross, and others, 
 now joined with that worthy prince, duke Hamilton. 
 M[arquis] Douglas is now a great knave, as well as beast, as is 
 Glencairne, Morton and Eglinton ; and even Cassills is gone 
 
 Captain John Brown of Irvine were commissioned to command two 
 frigates to cruise on the west coast (Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 44). One 
 of the frigates was named the Pelican (ibid., p. 53). 
 
 1 Sir George Mackenzie. 
 
 ^ The Marchioness writes from Bath on 13th July 1689: 'Since my 
 Lord pumped his head, there is falln so sad a defluxion in one ej-e, j'^ 
 since Saturday last he has not bin able to looke up, eat, drink, or sleep ' 
 {Chronicles of the Afholl and Tullihardine Families, vol. i. p. 285). 
 
 ■' In March 1690 Lieut. -General Douglas's creation as Earl of Dundee 
 was rumoured (CaJ. State Pa2^ers, Dom. 1689-1690, p. .521). 
 
 * On or about 30th May 1689 Mackay had reported unfavourably on 
 Tarbat's disposition (Memoirs of the War, p. 232). On 1st June 1689 
 Hamilton reports the Council's resolution to apprehend Tarbat, and also 
 Lord Lovat, whom Mackay had also complained of (ibid., p. 223).
 
 WITH THE CLANS 313 
 
 astray, misled by Gibby.^ Panmure keeps rigbt, and at home ; 
 so does Strathmore, Soi;thesk and Kinnaird. Old Airly is at 
 Edinburgh, under caution ; so is Balcarras and Dunmore. 
 Stormont is declared fugitive, for not appearing. All these will 
 break out, and many more, when the King lands, or any from 
 him. Most of the gentry on this side the Forth, and many on 
 the other, will do so too. But they suffer mightily in the mean 
 time, and will be forced to submit, if there be not relief sent 
 very soon. The Duke of Gordon, they say, wanted nothing for 
 holding out, but hopes of relief. Earl of Dumfermling stays 
 constantlj'- with me, and so does lord Dunkell,- Pitcur, and 
 many other gentlemen, who really deserve well, for they suffer 
 great hardships. When the troops land, there must be blank 
 commissions sent for horse and foot for them, and others that 
 will join. There must be a commission of justiciary, to judge 
 all but landed men ; for there would be examples made of some 
 that cannot be judged by a council of war. They take our 
 people and hang them up, by their new sheriffs, when they find 
 them straggling. 
 
 My lord, I have given my opinion to the King concerning the 
 landing. I would first have a good party sent over to Inver- 
 lochie, about 5000 or 6000, as you have conveniency of boats ; 
 of which, as many horse as conveniently can. About 600 or 
 800 would do well ; but rather more ; for had I had horse, for 
 all that yet appeared, I would not have feared them. Inver- 
 lochie is safe landing, far from the enemy, and one may chuse, 
 from thence, to go to Murray by Inverness, or to Angus by 
 Athol, or to Perth by Glencoe, and all tolerable ways. The only 
 ill is, the passage is long by sea and inconvenient, because of 
 the island ; but, in this season, that is not to be feared. So 
 soon as the boats return, let them ferry over as many more foot 
 as they think fit to the Point of Kintyre, which will soon be 
 done ; and then the King has all the boats for his own landing. 
 I should march towards Kintyre, and meet, at the Neck of 
 Tarbitt, the foot, and so march to raise the country, and then 
 towards the passes of Forth to meet the King, where I doubt 
 not but we would be numerous. I have done all I can to make 
 them believe the King will land altogether in the West, on 
 purpose to draw their troops from the North, that we may the 
 
 Bishop Gilbert Bnriiet. 
 
 James Galloway, third Baron of Dunkeld.
 
 314 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 easicv raise the country, if the landing be here. I have said so, 
 and written it to every body ; and particularly, I sent some 
 proclamations to my lady Errol, and wrote to her to that pur- 
 pose, which was intercepted and carried to Edinburgh, and my 
 lady taken prisoner. I believe it has taken the effect I 
 designed ; for the forces are marched out of Kintyre, and I am 
 just now informed, M, G. M'Kay is gone from Inverness by 
 Murray towards Edinbuigh. I know not what troops he has 
 taken with him as yet ; but it is thought, he will take the horse 
 and dragoons, except a few, and most of the standing forces ; 
 which, if he do, it will be a rare occasion for landing here, and 
 for raising the country. Then, when they hear of that, they will 
 draAv this Avay, which will again favour the King's landing. 
 Some think Ely a convenient place for landing, because you 
 have choice of what side, and the enemy cannot be on both : 
 others think the nearer Galloway the better, because the rebels 
 will have far to march before they can trouble you : others 
 think Kirkcudbright, or thereabouts, because of that sea for 
 ships, and that it is near England. Nobody expects any land- 
 ing here now, because it is thought you Avill alter the design, it 
 having been discovered ; and to friends and all, I give out I do 
 not expect any. So I am extremely of opinion, this would be 
 an extreme proper place, unless you be so strong that you need 
 not care where to land. The truth is, I do not admire their 
 mettle. The landing of troops will confound them terribly. I 
 
 had almost forgot to tell you that P , as they say, 
 
 has written to his Scotch Council, telling them he will not have 
 his trooj)s any more harrassed follo^\ing me through the hills ; ^ 
 but orders them to draAv to the west, where, he says, a great 
 army is to land ; and, at the same time, gives them accounts, 
 that eight sail of men of war is coming from Brest, with 15,000 
 men on board. He knows not whether they are designed for 
 England or Ireland. I beg you will send an express, before 
 whatever you do, that I may know how to take my measures ; 
 and, if the express that comes knows nothing, I am sure it 
 shall not be discovered for me. I have told Mr. Hay nothing of 
 this proposal, nor no man. If there come any party this 
 way, I beg you, send us ammunition, and three or four thousand 
 arms of different sorts, some horse, some foot. I have just now 
 received a confirmation of M'Kay's going South, and that he 
 
 ^ Lord Melville communicated William's instruction to this effect to 
 Mackay on 4th June 1US9 [Gal. State Papers, Dom., 1689-1690, p. 135).
 
 WITH THE CLANS 315 
 
 takes with him all the horse and dragoons, and all the standing 
 foot; by which I conclude, certainly, they are preparing against 
 the landing in the West. I entreat to hear from you as soon 
 as possible ; and am, in the old manner, most sincerely, for all 
 Carleton can say, My Lord, your most humble and faithful 
 servant, Dundie. 
 
 Some important conclusions are obvious from Dundee's 
 letter. His antipathy to the philo-CathoIic policy of Mel- 
 fort was profound. His conviction that James's interests 
 demanded a withdrawal alike of the policy and of the 
 Minister whom public opinion identified as the inspirer of 
 it, was equally so. That he believed James in a position 
 to send him considerable succours is equally clear. That, 
 in the endeavour to enlist the Clans, ho had exaggerated 
 the probability of James's arrival from Ireland, is not less 
 patent. None the less he counted with certainty upon 
 James's ability to send him such a reinforcement, in 
 cavalry at least, as should relieve him, in the wider cam- 
 paign now imminent, of the disadvantages under which 
 he had conducted the smaller venture against Mack ay 
 towards Edinglassie. The ink was barely dry before he 
 sat down to drive home, in another letter, the points upon 
 which he was most insistent : — ^ 
 
 [28th June 1689.] 
 
 My Lord, — 
 
 After Mr. Hay was dispatched I was informed, that Achtera 
 and major Farchar's son were landed, so sent and stopt Mr. 
 Hay and came down here to know what news they brought. I 
 am very glad to hear by your lordship's, that the King's affairs 
 prosper so well and that Derry will soon be ours. But I hear 
 it was not on Monday last. I know not what the matter is ; 
 but I Avould think Mackay's going south and the troops draAving 
 back from Kintyre towards Edinburgh Avould import some 
 alarm they have got. I have so often written over all that 
 Derry was ours, that now, say what I like, they hardly believe, 
 
 1 Maopherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 36(3. The letter is not 
 dated, but it is endorsed ' My Lord Dundee's letter, June 28, 1689. '
 
 31C JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 and when I talk of relief out of Ireland, they laugh at it, 
 though I believe ere long they will find it earnest, and then our 
 enem3^'!=i confusion will be great. As to the places of landing, I 
 am still of the same mind. For the number I must leave to 
 the conveniency you have. The only inconveniency of the 
 delay is, that the honest suffer extremely in the low countrj^s in 
 the time, and I dare not go down for want of horse, and in 
 part, for fear of plundering all, and so making enemys, having 
 no pay. I wonder you send no ammunition, were it but 4 or 5 
 barrells. For we have not 20 pound. As to yourself, I have 
 told you freely my opinion, and am still of the same mind. 
 You desire I may tell you your faults. I use to see none in 
 my friends, and for to tell you what others find when I do not 
 believe them, were to lose time. But I must tell you many of 
 them who complained of you, have carried themselves so, that 
 what they say deserves not much to 1)e noticed. However, 
 they have poisoned the generality with prejudice against you, 
 and England will, I am afraid, be uneasier to you than Scot- 
 land. It is the unjustest thing in the world, that not being 
 popular must l^e an argument to be laid aside by the King. I 
 do really think it were hard for the King to do it ; but glorious 
 for you, if once you be convinced that the necessity of the 
 King's affairs requires it, to do it of yourself and beg it of 
 him. But this only, as I said in my last, in case of great diffi- 
 culties, and in the way I advised, which I think the King will 
 not refuse you ; I mean as to filling up of the place ; for the 
 King may have enemys, some by your continuing ; but he may 
 put in one who may ruin all, which I am sure, if he gave it to 
 some that pretends, it would I am afraid certainly fall out. I 
 wonder you could have the least thought that I Avould concert 
 with any body against you, having parted so good friends. I 
 spoke not to Dunmore since he came from London. I mind not 
 I spoke of you to Bredalbine. I remember when I was 
 endeavouring to make friends for the King in the country and 
 in the convention, many did tell me, that there would be no 
 living if you returned ; so when no arguments for you could 
 prevail, I have, may be, to smooth them, said, that if all were 
 well, you would be prevailed with not to meddle any more. I 
 would have written letters of encouragement to all the King 
 has written to from yourself, and assured them of your friend- 
 ship and satisfied them of your real designs of living and 
 letting live every one in their own way in matters of religion,
 
 WITH THE CLANS 317 
 
 which would mightily allay, I think, as to Scotland, and let 
 them see you do favours to cavaliers and to Protestants. For 
 some steps, that may be you was forced to make in favours of 
 these ungrate beasts the Presbyterians, you gave unhappy 
 umbrage to both the other, but they were fools ; for never will 
 they get one whose family, education, and inclination, is so 
 cavalier. They long at the King's restoration to have a 
 Lauderdale to destroy Middleton and poor sullering cavaliers. 
 Let not this be their plague. I am sure you shall be sure of 
 all my endeavours for to bring the minds of people to reason. 
 If you will allow, I will say, that though you come to see the 
 King once landed, you design not to stay, unless you think that 
 you may unbolden your enemys. I give my humble service to 
 my lady, and am, My Lord, your most humble and faithful 
 servant, Dundie. 
 
 Dundee's standpoint at this supreme crisis is clear. In 
 the light of it Killiecrankie becomes a desperate, isolated, 
 venture, whose result, had he lived to witness his victory, 
 Dundee could hardly have estimated as contributing in 
 great degree to the victory of the cause. For the present 
 he awaited the promised, and, as they proved, inadequate 
 succours. His adversaries, fully informed upon his 
 probable action, took immediate steps to counter his 
 anticipated movements. On 5th July the Earl of Argyll 
 was commissioned to raise his country, to harry the Clans 
 whom Dundee might enlist in his cause. ^ From the 
 North, equally, Dundee had warning. Sutherland from 
 Inverness, backed by Lord Strathnaver, advised him to 
 abandon a hopeless cause.^ Dundee, undaunted, replied 
 to the latter : " ' I am sorry your lordship should be so far 
 
 ' Hist. 3fSS. Comm. Rej^t. x., pt. i. p. 39 ; Letters chiejly addressed to 
 George, Earl of Melville, p. 135; An Account of the Proceedings, etc.. 
 No. 34, p. 86. 
 
 '^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. ii., p. 178. 
 
 ^ Frasei', Sutherland Book, vol. ii. p. 42. The letter is dated ' Strouan 
 [in Lochaber], July 15, 1689.' Napier, throughout this part of his narra- 
 tive, incorrectly supposes Dundee to have been quartered with Robertson 
 of Struan, not far from Blair.
 
 318 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 abused as to think that tlicrc is any shadou of apearance 
 of stability in this ncwe structure of goverment these 
 men have framed to themselves. They made you, I dout 
 not, believe that Darie was relieved 3 weeks agoe, by 
 printed acounts, and I can asseur you it never was, and 
 nou is taken.i They told you the Inglish ileet and 
 Dutch wer mesters at sea. I knou for certain the French 
 is, and in the Chanel ; in testimony wherof they have 
 defeated our Scots fleet ; for as they came alongst, they 
 fell on the tuo frigats, killed the captains, and seised the 
 ships, and broglit the men prisoners to Mull. They 
 tell you Sliomberg is going to Yrland, to carry the war 
 thither. I asseur you the king has landed a considerable 
 body of forces here, and Avill land himself amongst our 
 friends in the west, whom I am sorry for, very soon. So, 
 my lord, having given you a clear and treu prospect of 
 affaires, which I am feared amongst your folks you ar not 
 used with, I leave you to judge if I or you, your family or 
 myn, be most in denger.' Dundee's assurance was incor- 
 rigible, or consummately feigned. 
 
 ^ Dundee is misinformed. Uerry was relieved after his own death.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 
 
 Dundee's mind contemplated a wide and irresistible 
 campaign. ' All the world will be with us, blissed be 
 God ' was the burden of perhaps the last letter he wrote. 
 That Londonderry had fallen, that James's ships were 
 turned towards England, that France was roused to 
 serious effort, he believed, at least averred, to the end. 
 Letters insistent upon an assured victory flowed from his 
 prolific pen. Friendly chiefs were encouraged, the more 
 backward were lectured into loyalty. His optimism was 
 strengthened by the knowledge that James had learned 
 the unwisdom of his earlier courses ; that Melfort Avas 
 discredited, and an over-riding Roman policy discarded. 
 Death struck him down on the threshold of a prospect 
 which broadened hopefully before him. The wide cam- 
 paign was not set, its armies not in place. His OAvn death 
 pricked the bubble. 
 
 Dundee made the first step towards Killiecrankie on 
 9th July 1689, when he ordered Patrick Steuart of Bal- 
 lechin to hold Blair Castle for the King.^ The Marquis 
 was sagaciously at Bath 'pumping his head.' His son, 
 Murray, was on the spot, and active in the Government's 
 interest. To Dundee it was vital that Atholl, linking 
 friendly Badenoch to the Low country, should remain in 
 friendly hands. Ballechin easily gained access to the 
 
 ' Chronicles of the Atholl and TuUibardine Families, vol. i. p. 294. Bal- 
 lechin's fox-mal commission was not dated until 2181 July 1689. See 
 Napier, vol. iii. p. 617. 
 
 319
 
 320 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Castle on the plea of strengthening the garrison, and at 
 once acted in accordance with Dundee's commission.^ 
 The neighbouring lairds were bidden to second him. ' I 
 am sure the King is just at the landing,' Dundee wrote to 
 two of them on 10th July.'- ' The enemie knows this, and 
 arc now designing, I hear, to make a last endeavor, being 
 in despair to prosper if the King land.' Pitcur would 
 direct them to a rendezvous. ' You need not haue the 
 least aprehension,' Dundee assured them ; ' I will bring 
 such a body of men to your imediat assistance as will 
 confound all the enemies dares apear. ... I am resolved 
 that whoeuer refuses, in any part of the kingdom, to 
 joyn the Kings standard, at my call, who have his 
 Maiesties commission and authoritie to make war, I will 
 hold them as traitors, and treat them as enemies.' 
 
 Three days after giving Ballechin his orders, Dundee 
 received the modest reinforcement which the King, whose 
 strength he trumpeted so confidently, alone could send 
 him. On 12th July Colonel Alexander Cannon arrived 
 at Duart in Mull.^ He had received a warrant on 1st 
 July to embark at Belfast or Carrickfergus 'upon our 
 fregats commanded by Sieur Du Quesne,' and upon his 
 arrival in Scotland to place himself under Dundee's 
 orders.* Du Quesne sailed from Carrickfergus on 10th 
 
 1 Ghronicles of the Atholl and Tullihardine Families, vol. i. p. 286. 
 Before 5th June 1689 Murray had put a garrison of twenty-five men into 
 Blair Castle, and had arranged for a similar number 'to run in on the first 
 advertisement of any armies approaching' {ibid., p. 282. See Letters 
 chiefly addressed to Georye, Earl of Mi-lville, p. 40.) 
 
 - Chronicles of the Atholl and Tidlihardine Families, vol. i. p. 284. 
 The letter is dated from Strone in Lochaber, 10th July 1689. It was 
 addressed to Leonard Robertson of Straloch and John Robertson of 
 Bleatoun. The former of them informed Lord John Murray on 14th July 
 1689 that '300 hundreds [sic] of Kintyrmen and hilanders come yeiste 
 night to Blair Atholl and joyned Pitcurr, who lyet there with his 
 associats ' {ibid. ). 
 
 •* GleauiiKjsfrom the Charti^r Chest at Cluny Castle, No. 2, p. 22. 
 
 * Fi'aser, 77te Melvilles and the Leslies, vol. ii. p, 33.
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 321 
 
 July, and during the short passage, fell in Avith and captured 
 the Pelican, frigate, and her consort, after an engagement 
 in which both their captains were killed.^ Cannon landed 
 one regiment, seventy-four ofKcers, and thirty-five barrels 
 of powder, ball, match, and flints.^ Between 14th and 
 18th July he joined Dundee in Glenroy.^ 
 
 It may be doubted whether Dundee viewed with satis- 
 faction aught but the ammunition which Cannon's arrival 
 added to his scanty store."^ But Cannon Avas a clear if 
 tardy mark of James's interest, and Dundee made the 
 most of it. On 14th July he sent the ncAvs to Cluny, 
 adding : ' So, with the assistance of Almighty God we will 
 noAV in a verie short time see our Gracious King restored 
 to the Throne of his Ancestors.' A postscript hinted the 
 consequences of backwardness in service : ' Sir, this I 
 wryt to you to be comunicat to all the gentrey of Bade- 
 noch, so call them togither; for from the head to the 
 foot I Avill spair non that joyns not. The gentrey must 
 
 ^ Macphersoii, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 214. 
 
 2 Gleanings from the Charter Chest at Clvny Castle, No. 2, p. 2.3. 
 Hamilton, on 13th July, sent a ' flying packet ' with the news to Melville 
 at London [Letters chiefly addressed to George, Earl of Melville, p. 170). 
 
 ■' This appears from the letters of Dundee to Cluny on these dates. 
 See below. ' An Account of Dundees Officers after they went to France' 
 is printed in Mr. -Tenner's edition of the Memoirs of 1714, p. 73. 
 
 In The Loyall Dissuasive (p. liv.), a letter from Cannon to Cluny, dated 
 ' Dunan, July 4th 1689,' is printed. The date is certainly incorrect. As 
 to 'Dunan,' Canon Murdoch suggests that it is a copyist's mistake for 
 Strone. I suggest that Dunart is intended. Cannon's opening sentence 
 seems to imply that Dundee was then with him. Dundee was at Stmne 
 on 14th and 18th July. He may have ridden to meet Cannon in the 
 interval. On 20th July Argyll reported Dundee to be at Inverlochy 
 {Hist. MSS. Com. Rept. xi., pt. vi. p. 183). He had probably met Cannon 
 there a few days before. He was at Strone on 20th July. 
 
 •* Balhaldy (Memoirs of Locheill, p. 257) contemptuously dismisses 
 Cannon's I'einforcement as consisting of ' three hundred new-raised, 
 naked, undisciplined Irishmen ; which had this bad effect, that the Clans, 
 who had been made believe they were to be supported by a powerfull 
 army from Ireland, with arms, ammunition, and all other provisions, saw 
 themselves miserably dissappoynted.' He adds, that Cannon loitered so 
 long in Mull that two of the transports which had brought him over were 
 captured by the enemy. 
 
 X
 
 322 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 march themselves, and I expect 400 men, and no expenses 
 will be allowed. Mcintosh, Grants, and all must come 
 out.' ^ Cluny, sitting uneasily between the devil and the 
 deep sea, was pertinaciously wooed. On 18th July 
 Dundee tackled him again : ' I have a letter all writen 
 with the King's oun hand, asseuring me of mor assistance 
 imediatly, and he is just ready to land; the french 
 fleet having bate the dutch and keeped the inglish in. 
 The french have 15,000 men aboard and 30,000 camped 
 at Dunkerk waiting only if the King has use for them.' 
 'All mankynd almost,' he added, ' nou beggsour asistance, 
 and you will see a great apearance. All behynd you ar 
 here saive M'cklowd, who is coming. E[arl] Seaforth is 
 to land in his oun contrey, and has undertaken to rease 
 3 regiments. I dessein to march on Saturday or Munday.^ 
 I would not have delayed so long had it not been that 
 the Yrish forces could not conveniently cross from Mull 
 because of the great wynds. I expect you will have all 
 your contrey in armes on munday, and I shall send you 
 word where to j oyn us. Nobody offers to sit my sumonds, 
 so I expect that you will not. . . . This I desyr you will 
 comunicat to the rest of the gentry of the contrey ; and 
 befor Sundays night, lait me have your positive answer 
 in wryt, not by proxie, and that signed, or I will not 
 notice it.' ^ 
 
 Meanwhile the situation was developing to a crisis 
 around Blair Castle. Before the end of May, Lord John 
 Murray had met the Atlioll vassals and had ordered them 
 ' to live peaceably and join with non without orders.' * 
 Ballechin's mutinous conduct was most untimely. With- 
 
 ^ Gleanings from the Charter Chest of Cluny Castle, No. 2, p. 22. The 
 letter is dated from Strone in Lochaber. 
 
 '- 20th or 22nd July. 
 
 •' Gleanings from the Charter Chest of Cluny Castle, No. 2, p. 23. The 
 letter is dated from Strone in Lochaber. 
 
 '* Chronicles of the Families of Atlioll and Tiillibardine, vol. i. p. 281,
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 323 
 
 out questioning Murray's integrity, BuUechin's action 
 at least imposed upon him a less cryptic attitude than 
 might otherwise have served the interests of his family.^ 
 For the moment he faced the fact that the men of Atholl, 
 encouraged by Ballechin, were ' like to break out.' Again 
 he betook himself to them.^ At Pitlochry a letter from 
 Ballechin awaited him.^ ' I crave pardone,' he wrote, 
 ' that I cannot waitt upon your Lordship at Pitlochrie, 
 for I have receaved orders from his Majestie's Livetenant 
 to deffend this place for his Majestie's service, quhilk I 
 resolve, God willing, to doe . . . My Lord, I doe not doubt 
 but your Lordship will maik up the breach, and declair 
 for K[ing] J[ames], quhilk I hope in God will preserve 
 your anciant and most nobell Feamallie.' Murray judged 
 himself the better authority upon his family's interests, 
 and proceeding to Blair, closely invested the Castle with 
 such forces as his influence rallied round him;* Dundee's 
 approach a week later drove him from the siege of his 
 own home. 
 
 Dundee retained a vivid recollection of Atholl's timo- 
 rous Jacobitism. His son he affected to believe less 
 irresolute, or judged a brave front available to convert a 
 
 ' The letters of Murray and his wife in tlie Chronicles of the Families 
 of Atholl and TuUibardine strongly siipport the view that he was working 
 for the Government. Mackay, who is never diffident to point out the 
 half-hearted support which contributed to his own want of success, ex- 
 presses himself (Memoirs of the War, p. 48) as satisfied of Murray's 
 integrity. His opinion was strengthened by the fact that Murray was 
 Hamilton's son-in-law, and that he was not ' of some yeai's living in very 
 good understanding with the Marquis his father, of whom at this time 
 the General had no favourable opinion.' 
 
 ^ Letters chiefly mldressed to Oeorye, Earl of Melville, p. 224. 
 
 2 Chronicles of the Families of Atholl and Tidlibardine, vol. i. p. 286. It 
 is dated from Blair Castle, 17th July 1689. In Hist. MSS. Com. Rept. 
 xii. , pt. viii. p. 40, the letter is wrougl}' dated 27th July. 
 
 ■* Chronicles of the Families of Atholl and TuUibardine , vol. i. p. 287. 
 See Murray's report of his conduct to Melville, dated 1st August 1689, in 
 Letters chiefly addressed to George, Earl of ^Lelville, p. 222, The Memoirs 
 of Locheill (p. 255) give a quite uujustidable account of Murray's conduct 
 a,t this crisis.
 
 324 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 halt-lieartcd enemy into a convinced ally. On 19tli July 
 he wrote to him. The letter is illuminating. To Cluny 
 Dundee had appealed on the score of numerical odds. 
 Through Murray he touched the Marquis on a broader 
 issue. He wrote : ^ — 
 
 Stroan, Juhj 19, 1689. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I was very glaid to hear that yovf had appo3'nted a 
 randevous of the Atholl men at Blair, knowing as I doe from 
 your Lordships oune mouth your principles, and considering 
 your educatione and the loyaltie of your people, I ame per- 
 suaded your appearance is in obedience to his Majesties com- 
 mands by the letter I sent yow,- which is the reasone why I 
 give yow the trouble of this line, desiring that wee may meet, 
 and concert what is fittest to be done for the good of our 
 country and service of our lawfull King. I doubt hot your 
 Lordship knows that it hath pleased his Majestic to give me 
 the command of his forces in this natione till his aryvall, and 
 he is forced to putt in my hands many other trusts for want of 
 other persones, many of his loyall subjects being imprisoned, or 
 fled, or out of the Avay, so as he cannot know their inclinations. 
 Your Lordship is happy that is at liberty, and on the head of 
 so considerable a body of loyall men ; by declairing openly for 
 the liberty of your country, and the lawfull right of your un- 
 doubted sovereigne, you may acquyre to yourself and family 
 great honours and rewairds, and the everlasting blissing of 
 Almighty God, which is above all. Yow are wiser then to 
 thinke, tho yow were of other principles, that the Atholl men 
 can be, conterary to their inclinatione, ever induced to fight 
 against their King, no more then D[uke] Hamilton, were he 
 never so loyall, could think to make his Streven and Lish- 
 
 1 Smythe, Letters of JoJm Grahame of Clarerhouise, p. 71. 
 
 2 On 11th June 1689 Murray forwarded to Melville a letter which he 
 had received from Dundee, with the comment : ' As to the first article 
 my Lord Dundee alledges in his letter, I doe remember I did say some- 
 thing to that purpose, but it was before I came home from England, 
 since which time I never saw him ; but as to the other part he alledges 
 he heard I had said, (that if I saw the King or his orders, I would hazard 
 all,) [it] is absolutely fals, for I am sure I said nothing like it' (Letters 
 chiefly addressed to Geoi-ge, Earl of Melville, p. 54), The letter is signed 
 ' J. Murray.' The editor calls the writer Lord James Murray.
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 325 
 
 mahaygoe men be for the King, notwithstanding all the power 
 and interest he hes in that country. 
 
 I see nothing can hinder or scare any persone from serving 
 the King in this occasione, unless it be that they think the 
 people hes right to dethrone the King, and sett up ane other, 
 which I ame sure a man of your sense can never be so fare foold 
 as to believe. To satisfie the people as to their consiences, hes 
 he not given his royall promise, in his declaratione, that he 
 will secure the Protestant religion as by law established,^ and 
 put them in possessione of all their priviledges they have at any 
 time enjoj^ed since the restoratione of King Charles the Second, 
 which should satisfie the Episcopall and Caveleer party 1 He 
 promises to all other dissenters liberty of conscience, which 
 ought to please the Presbitereans ; and, in generall, he says he 
 will secure our religione in Parliament to the satisfactione of 
 his people. This he hes in reitterated letters under his hand 
 and seall assured me of, and given me warrant in his name to 
 signifie so much to all his loving subjects. E[arl] of Melfort 
 hes written to me, fully signefeing his reall intentions to that 
 purpose, which, may be, yow will have more to doe to believe ; 
 but, I will assure yow, it is true. His Majestic, in his declara- 
 tions and his letters to me, as to our liberties and properties, 
 says no less. I ame persuaded every thing will be done to the 
 content of all reasonable men in the next Parliament, which 
 will be so soon as the King in safety can hold it. Much of this 
 was offered by Brydies letters, but keept up by these, who 
 desyred not that the people should be satisfyed, but were 
 resolved to dethrone their King at any rate. I pray God 
 forgive them. 
 
 My Lord, if there be any thing more that yow think needfull 
 the King should grant to satisfie his people, I begg yow may 
 let me know of it, for he wants advyce and informatione, as yet, 
 of things and tempers of men here. The indemnitie the King 
 promises by his proclamatione seems very gracious, and of great 
 extent ; nobody is excepted, except such as are come from Hol- 
 land, who are supposed to be chiefly concerned in this usurpa- 
 tione, and these who votted to dethrone the King and gett up 
 ane other in his place ; for my oune part, knowing the prosper- 
 ous eonditione the Kings affairs were in, I would wonder he is 
 so condescending, considering the great provocations he hes 
 
 ^ See James's letter quoted in Napier, vol. iii. p. 615.
 
 326 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 gote, but that he cannot alter the claimant^ temper that hes 
 ever been found in the family, and hes emicnently appeared in 
 his persone. Tho I have no warrant to say any thing further 
 that he will doe that way, in particular, yet, in the generall, I 
 ame desired to get advyce to him from his friends here, to whom 
 the circumstances of personcs arc better knowne than to them 
 who are beyond sea, how to draw ane indemnety, such as may 
 be exact, and satisfeing to all honest men as to the exceptions. 
 This is not done for want of the opinione of your Lordship and 
 others of your quality and capacity ; I now desyre it of yow in 
 the Kings name, and assure yow that your proposalls, eather in 
 the generall for the good of tho natione, or in favour of any par- 
 ticular persone, shall be seconded by me with all the little 
 interest I have ; for knowing yow so well, I need not fear yow 
 will offer any thing uiu'casonable. Now is the time these things 
 ought to be treatted ; for, if once the King enter on the head 
 of a royall and alreddy victorious army, and insurections 
 appear on all hands, and invasions on every side, there will be 
 no more place for treating, but for fighting. 
 
 I know ther are many persons of quality, and particularly 
 my L. Marques of Atholl, who is aprehensive of my L. Melforts 
 ministry, and for their satisfaction in that point, tho he hes 
 solemnly declaired he will never remember past quarrels, bot 
 enter on a new score, and live well with all the world, I have 
 represented to him how much he hes the misfortune to be mis- 
 liked, and, for that reasone, what hurt hes being at the helme 
 may doe to the Kings affaires ; he asuers me the King will not 
 pairt with him, but, however, that he is resolved to leave him 
 against his will, if he see that his presence is any way pre- 
 judicial!, and that with joy, he says, in good earnest, he would 
 resigne his office of Secretarie for Scotland to any honest man, 
 and bids me give him advyce, and this by three different letters, 
 and I know that all I have written to him on that head was seen 
 by the King himself. I ame sure it will be brought about. I 
 know these things some months agoe would have satisfeid all 
 that is good for any thing in this natione. My Lord, considder 
 if it be better to harken to these things in time, which is all we 
 can ask, then let the King enter the conqueist, which in all 
 humane probabilety he will assuredly doe. 
 
 As I writt now to your Lo : so I have done to all others I 
 
 ' i.e. clement.
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 827 
 
 can reach with letters. I am sui'c whatever evill befall the 
 country, the King is innocent, and I have clone my deuty. 
 I need tell yow no news ; yow know all better then I doe, who 
 cbvell in deserts ; yet I can tell yow that the Frensh fleet con- 
 sists of 80 capitall ships, and is at sea with 10 fire-ships and 400 
 tenders ; that the Dutch, who designed against them, are beat 
 back with loss ; that the English dare not appeir ; that the 
 French have 15,000 of the old troops aboord to land in Ireland 
 or Brittane ; that ther are 3000 more campt at Dunkirk, waiting 
 for our Kings service ; that the King is now maistcr of all 
 Ireland, and hcs ane army of 6000 men in good order rady to 
 transport ; that Shomberg knows not where to goe for defence 
 of England, and is not thinking of Ireland for all hcs being said. 
 In a letter all written with the Kings oune hand, I know we 
 are imediatly to be releived. The Parliaments of England and 
 Scotland are by the ears, and both nations in a flame. Use the 
 time. I ame, my Lord, your most humble servant, 
 
 DUNDIE. 
 
 From France we are asuered by good hands, that now is the 
 time the Kings friends will declair openly, and their fleet 
 is out. 
 
 Foi' the Lord Murray. 
 
 Melfort's effacement and James's tardy disavowal of a 
 pliilo-Catholic policy, in Dundee's view, planted the King's 
 standard upon the stronghold of his opponents. ' The 
 King is innocent,' was an axiom of his rigid Toryism. 
 His error was his inability to discern the Revolution's true 
 significance. In explosive climax the nation had parted 
 with the standards of mediaeval monarchism. There is a 
 limit to pardon, and the Stewarts had exceeded it. James's 
 admission of error, his promise to let bygones be by- 
 gones, the bait of an exhaustive indemnity, availed nothing. 
 Murray was the wiser, Dundee the more engaging in the 
 glamour of devoted, albeit unnescient, self-sacrifice. 
 
 James's proffered moderation was not matched by 
 Dundee's enemies. Cannon's arrival with reinforcements, 
 the persistent rumours, of which Dundee was the busiest 
 disseminator, of French fleets and auxiliaries, did not
 
 328 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 obscure the fact that Dundee himself was the real centre 
 of disturbance. On 18th July proclamation was made of 
 an offer of eighteen thousand merks Scots for Dundee's 
 bod}^ ' dead or alive.' ^ The appeal was to the cupidity of 
 the Clans.2 It fell inoperative as a more generous bait for 
 James's grandson over half a century later. Ignorant or 
 contemptuous of the proclamation, Dundee continued his 
 fevered correspondence. ' It is nou no mor time to look 
 on when all your nighboors ar ingadged,' he wrote to 
 Cluny on 20th July ^ : ' I asseur you it will prove your 
 uter ruin if you doe ; so you will doe well to drawe to 
 armes or be looked on as rebelles. If you sit this 
 Sumonds you shall not be often troubled with mor letters 
 from me, so I desyr a positive answer.' ' For Gods cause 
 doe now what you ought,' he admonished Murray at the 
 same time.^ 
 
 Dundee was clearly of opinion that Murray only waited 
 for an opening to declare himself The men with him 
 were considerable.^ Reinforcements were urgently needed. 
 The prestige alone of Murray's co-operation might go far 
 to stiffen the other waverers to loyalty. Dundee con- 
 tinued to ply him with letters which Murray left un- 
 answered, a fact which did not shake Dundee's conviction, 
 that if it were made easy for him, Murray would come 
 over. The rendezvous of the Clans had not yet arrived.^ 
 But as early as 18th July Dundee had made up his mind 
 
 ^ An Account of the Proceedings of the Estates, No. 41, p. 100. 
 
 2 See a letter of Sir John Dalrj'inple in Letters chiefly addressed to 
 George, Earl of Melville, p. 193. Dalrymple gives the sum of the reward 
 as '20,000^8. ster.' 
 
 ^ Gleanings from the Charter Chest of Cluny Castle, No. 2, p. 24. The 
 letter is dated from Strone, in Lochaber. Another letter to Cluny, un- 
 dated, is in ihid., p. 24. 
 
 * Smythe, Letters of John Grahame of Claverhouse, p. 78. 
 
 ^ He is stated to have had twelve hundred men with him (Balhaldy, 
 Memoirs of Locheill, p. 255). The number is probably exaggerated. 
 
 ^ Ihid. , p. 258. Balhaldy says that 28th or 29th July was appointed 
 for the rendezvous.
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 329 
 
 to move.^ On 22nd July he wrote to Clun}^ bidding him 
 ' cause provisions conie in again to morons night near to 
 the place of Clunie, for fiveteen hunder men for two dayes.' 
 Dundee added: ' In answer to 3'ours, 3^ow and your friends 
 are to meet me tomorows night (without faill) at Garva.' ^ 
 By the night of 23rd July Dundee Avas in Badenoch,^ and 
 on or near the highway to Blair Atholl. He found leisure 
 to again approach Murray. Clearly he wished him to 
 understand that an advance towards him gave oppor- 
 tunity to come out in his true colours. ' I have thought 
 fitt to venture this line more to yow/ he wrote,* ' to let 
 yow know that it was no distrust of your Lop. made me 
 take possession of the Castle of Blair, but that I heard the 
 rebells designed to require yow to deliver it up to them, 
 which would have forced yow to declare before the time I 
 thought yow designed. I thought it would oblige yow, to 
 save yow from that lotche^ of either delivering up, or 
 declairing; and for Ballachen, knowing him to be very 
 loyall, I forced him to it, by requyring him in the Kings 
 name to do it. If, after all I have said in my former 
 letters and this, I gette no return, my Lord, I most acknow- 
 ledge I will be very sorry for your saike.' Dundee waited 
 a day for Murray's answer. Receiving none, he on the 
 
 ^ See above, p. 322. It is usually stated that Duudee marched pre- 
 maturely because Mackay threatened Blair Atholl. So far as his march to 
 Blair on 26th July is concerned, this is true. But so far as his movements 
 between 23rd and 25th June are concerned, I am inclined to hold that 
 Dundee contemplated a union witli Murray, whom he undoubtedly 
 believed to be willing to join him, and that that was his motive for 
 marching before all his levies were ready. 
 
 - Gleanings from the Charter Chest of Gluny Castle, No. 2, p. 25. The 
 letter is dated from Strone. The fifteen hundred mentioned by Dundee 
 were exclusive of ' the rest of our men [who] are provided.' 
 
 ■■' His letter to Cluny of 22nd July is the last he dates from Strone. 
 His letters to Murray on 23rd and 25th July designedly, no doubt, do not 
 reveal his whereabouts. 
 
 "* Smythe, Letters of John Grahame of Claverhouse, p. 79. The letter is 
 headed simply ' July 23, 1689.' 
 
 » ? Idchet^.
 
 330 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 25th addressed him for the last time : ^ ' I have written 
 often to your Lop. and not only desired yow to declare 
 for the King, but endeavoured by reasons to convince yow 
 that now is the proper time, which the state of affairs may 
 easily shoAv yow ; to all which I have never had any return 
 from yow, by word nor writ, tho I can tell yow there is 
 none of the nation has used me so, and I have tryed all 
 that have not already joyned Major Gen. Mackay, on this 
 said Tay, who have any command of men; yet, that 
 I may leave nothing untryed that may free me from 
 blame of what may fall out, I have sent these gentlemen 
 to wait on your Lo : and receive your positive answer.' 
 Major William Graham and Gilbert Ramsay carried the 
 message.^ They returned convinced that Murray was 
 hand and glove with Mackay, with whom, in fact, he 
 was communicating regarding the reduction of Blair.^ 
 They brought back yet more serious tidings : Mackay 
 was already at Perth : Blair was in peril : succour 
 imperative. Within a few hours of their return Dundee 
 began his last march.* 
 
 1 Smj^the, Letters of John Grahame of Claverhouse, p. 80. 
 
 - Memoirs of LocheiU, p. 257. Balhaldy states that Graham and 
 Ramsay communicated to Murray's men the purport of their message, 
 and that the men of Atholl thereupon, ' without further ceremony, run to 
 the river of Tumble, which was near them, filled their bonnets with 
 water, and drank King James his health with many loud huzzas and 
 acclamations, aud so deserted liira in a full body.' The story is not true. 
 Murray kept his men together until the 26th, when he retreated with 
 them towards Mackay. 
 
 Gilliert Ramsay, Avho was killed at Killiecrankie, was a lawyer who 
 quitted his profession to join Dundee {Memoirs of Locheill, p. 280). 
 
 a See below, p. 332. 
 
 •* Though I have no authority for these statements, I have no doubt 
 whatever that it was the report of Graham and Ramsay as to Mackay's 
 movements which compelled Dundee to march immediately from Badenoch 
 to Blair on the 26th, on the eve of Killiecrankie. Dundee's biographers 
 are very chaotic in their account of his movements in the week or so pre- 
 ceding Killiecrankie. It is, however, quite certain that he did not move 
 from Badenoch until 26th July, and that from 24th to 25th July he was 
 in the neighbourhood of Cluny, having marched from Lochaber on 23rd
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 331 
 
 The sudden summons to action found Dundee barely 
 prepared to answer it. The tale of the Clans was not 
 complete. Even Lochiel had not his full strength.^ Under 
 two thousand strona^.^ Dundee marched out of Badenoch 
 early on 26tli July. At Breakachy he signed a bond in 
 Cluny's favour for six hundred and fifty-nine merks.^ 
 Cluny seemingly was willing to purchase an extension of 
 his irresolute attitude. Before nightfall Dundee halted 
 three miles short of Blair. Murray did not await his 
 coming, withdrew his men from round the castle, and 
 retired to Moulin through the Pass of Killiecrankie, leav- 
 ing one hundred of his men to hold it against pursuit.^ 
 Dundee rode on to Blair on the news of his retreat, and 
 thence despatched the last letter of his busy pen. To 
 Cluny he addressed it. He told him of Murray's retreat, 
 of desertions among the Atholl men. Others would join 
 him on the morrow, he declared. ' So, if you have a 
 mynd to preserve yourself and save the King,' he con- 
 tinued, ' be in armes to morou, that when the letter comes 
 
 July. The author of the Memoirs of 1714, in his Preface, asserts that 
 Dundee ' took the sacrament in the Church of England two days before 
 he was killed.' The author of The Despot's Champion (p. 297), falling into 
 Napier's error, supposes that Dundee was then with Robertson of 
 Struan, and that ' a solemn religious service in preparation for imminent 
 battle ' was held. On the contrary, Dundee was not at Struan on the 
 25th, and on that date he was hardly contemplating ' imminent battle.' 
 But of Dundee's sincere devotion to Episcopacy there is no question. A 
 more feasible tradition is that in 1715 the Earl of Mar listened to a 
 sermon which its author had preached before Dundee a few days before 
 Killiecrankie. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Locheill, p. 256. Balhaldy is probably accurate as to 
 Lochiel's anxiety to follow with the rest of his Clan, and Dundee's insist- 
 ence upon his accompanying him. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 256 ; Memoirs of 1714, p. 19. 
 
 * Charles Eraser-Mackintosh, Letters of Two Centuries, p. 107. Mr. 
 Mackintosh is in error in describing this as ' perhaps the last paper 
 signed by Dundee.' A letter to Cluny, dated from Blair Castle some 
 hours later, is extant. 
 
 ^ Letters chiefly addressed to George, Earl of Melville, p. 225 ; Chronicles 
 of the Families of Atholl and Tullibardine, vol. i. p. 297.
 
 332 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 you may be here in a day. All the world will be Avith us, 
 blissed bo God.' ^ 
 
 The story turns to Mackay. Leaving Inverness about 
 20th June- he had reached Edinburgh on 12th July.^ 
 Ten days or so later he again took the lield.* His original 
 intention had been to join Argjdl, but Murray's report 
 of the demeanour of his men, and Ballechin's seizure of 
 Blair Castle, made him resolve ' to take the country of 
 Atholl in his way to Lochaber.'^ On 24th July he was 
 at Stirling, and ordered four petards to be sent forward 
 for the siege of Blair Castle.^ Next day (25th July) he 
 advanced to Perth. Here a despatch from Murray awaited 
 him, urging him to choose another route to Lochaber than 
 that through Atholl. Murray undertook to account for 
 Ballechin. Mackay sent his answer : so long as Blair 
 held out, through Atholl he would go. As to Ballechin, 
 ' your Lordship can freely cause tell him,' he added, ' that 
 if he oblidge me to goe out of my way, and to hinder 
 my march, I shall cause hang him at the gate, for his 
 Rebellion now, as well as what he did before, by im- 
 prisoning my messengers and sending my Letters to 
 the Ennemy,' "^ Murray probably found means to inform 
 
 ^ Gleanings from the Charter Chest of Ghiny Castle, p. 25. The letter is 
 dated from Blair Castle, 26th July 1689. Cluny had clearly given bond 
 to come out. He had barely received Dundee's letter before Killiecrankie 
 was f(jught. 
 
 - Mackay left Livingstone's and Leslie's regiments, and detachments of 
 Hastings's and Leven's regiments, at Liverness. He marched south with 
 eight hundred of the Scots Brigade, and Berkeley's dragoons (Mackay, 
 Mevioirs of the War, p. 237). For his march, see ibid., p. 41. 
 
 ^ Letters chiefly addressed to Georrje, Earl of Melville,^. 170. 
 
 ■* See his Memoirs, p. 245. He appears to have marched on 22nd July. 
 Ho exaggerates his stay in Edinburgh to ' above three weeks,' and attri- 
 butes the delay to the tardiness of the authorities in providing him with 
 provisions for the march. 
 
 " Ibid., p. 46. 8 /7,,v^,^ pp_ 45^ 246. 
 
 ■^ Chronicles of the Families of Atholl and Tullibardine, vol. i. p. 296. 
 Another letter to Murray, from some one whom he had employed to 
 support his request to Mackay to keep out of Atholl, reported to him
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 333 
 
 Ballechin of the fate in store for him. Dundee's envoys, 
 then ill his camp, no doubt heard of it, and galloped back 
 to report the news. Mackay advanced to Dunkeld on 
 the 26th. He left Perth in the morning incredulous of 
 rumours of his enemy's approach.^ Close on midnight 
 he had news of Dundee's sudden appearance at Blair, and 
 of Murray's withdrawal. He sent back instant orders to 
 Murray to hold the Pass of Killiecrankie ' till I be with 
 you, which, God willing,' he promised ' shall be tomorrow 
 in the forenoon.'^ 
 
 Early on the fatal morrow, 27th July, Mackay marched 
 from Dunkeld towards the Pass of Killiecrankie. Murray 
 met him at Pitlochry. He reported that the greater 
 number of his men had gone off to remove their cattle 
 from Dundee's thieving Clans. From Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Lawder,^ whom he had sent on to hold the Pass, Mackay 
 learnt that the Pass was open, and Dundee not yet in 
 sight. After a two hours' halt, Mackay, about noon, 
 ordered the advance to be resumed.* Some two and a 
 half miles from Pitlochry the valley closes in abruptly. 
 Lofty tree-clad slopes on either side fall sheer to the 
 level of the rock-hewn bed of the yellow stream and its 
 churning sepia pools, seemingly forming a cul de sac ; 
 Ben Vrackie's blue summit forbidding egress to a ventur- 
 ing host. Soon the dense slopes of the Garry's right 
 bank drop to lesser height, the roadway winds sharply to 
 the left, and the broadening valley opens out towards 
 
 Mackay's determination, 'that if your lordship wer not ther on the head 
 of your men, or in the least he wer oposed, he wold burn it from the on 
 end to the wther' (Hist. MSS. Comm. Rejit. xii., pt. viii. p. 40). 
 
 1 See his letter of 26th July 1689 in Hist. MSS. Comm. Bejjt. vi., p. 700. 
 
 2 Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 49 ; Chronicles of the Families of 
 Atholl and Tullihardine, vol. i. p. 299. 
 
 ^ For Lieutenant-Colonel (Jeorge Lawder, see Ferguson, Scots Bri<jade, 
 vol. i. passim. 
 
 * Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 49. Murray was instructed to re- 
 main where he was, and to await the issue of the engagement [Chronicles 
 of the Families of Atholl and 'Ihdlihardine, vol. i. p. 299).
 
 384 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Blair, where Allt Girnaig plashes downward to the Garry 
 at Killiecrankie.^ Mackay threaded the defile without 
 molestation, and cautiously.^ Three regiments of in- 
 fantry headed the column — Balfour's, Ramsay's, and 
 Kenmure's.^ Lord Belhaven's troop of horse'* followed. 
 Next came the Earl of Leven's infantry, followed by 
 Mackay's own regiment of the Scots Brigade, commanded 
 by his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel James Mackay. The 
 baggage-horses, upwards of twelve hundred, toiled behind, 
 escorted by the Earl of Annandale's troop of horse ^ and 
 Hastings's infantry. 
 
 Issuing from the Pass at the spot where the Girnaig 
 joins the Garry, Mackay, advancing ahead of his baggage 
 
 ^ It must be remembered that in 1689 the road through the Pass was 
 much more difficult and much nearer to the level of the river than it is at 
 tlie present time. Balhaldy {Memoirs of Locheill, p. 258) describes it as 
 a ' narrow patli, where three men witli great difficiilty could walk abreast.' 
 See also Pennant, Tour in Scotland, 3rd edit. (1774), vol. i. p. 105. 
 
 2 Tradition lias it that as Mackay's column threaded the Pass, one 
 Ian Ban Beg MacRaa fired across the stream and killed a trooper. A well 
 called Fuaran n truj)ar marks the spot where he fell (Chambers, History 
 of the Rebellions in Scotland under tlie Viscount of Dundee and the Earl of 
 Mar, ed. 1829, p. 82). Another tradition records that Mackay left at the 
 Killiecraukie end of the Pass a force of cavalry, which was overwhelmed 
 upon his defeat. Men and horses are said to have fallen pell-mell into 
 the ravine. The spot is known as The Troopers' Den (Notes and Queries, 
 fifth series, vol. ii. p. 145). 
 
 ^ The first two were regiments of the Scots Brigade from Holland. 
 Their commanders were Colonel Bartholomew Balfour and Colonel George 
 Bamsay (see Ferguson, Scots Brigade, vol. i. passiin). Lord Kenmure's 
 regiment, like the Laird of Grant's, was raised at this crisis, and was 
 reduced after Cromdale in 1690. The regiment was styled ' The Viscount 
 of Kenmure's Regiment of Foot.' Kenmure's commission bears date 19th 
 April 1689 (Dalton, vol. iii. pp. 8, 92, 94). 
 
 '' .John Hamilton, second Baron Belhaveu, was on 19th April 1689 com- 
 missioned to command one of several troops of horse raised at this crisis 
 (Dalton, vol. iii. p. 38). 
 
 s Annandale was not present with them. He and Lord Ross, both of 
 whom had held commissions in Dundee's regiment, pleaded their duties 
 as members of the Estates, and were reluctantly excused by Mackay 
 from active service [Memoirs of the War, p. 246). Annandale's troop 
 and commission were of similar character and date to Belhaven's. See 
 note above.
 
 bald Constable A Co.Ltd.
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 335 
 
 and its escort, halted on the level ground between Urrard 
 House and the Garry,^ to await his baggage and ' to dis- 
 tribute a communication to the forces.' Meanwhile he 
 sent forward Lieutenant-Colonel Lawder, with Belhaven's 
 troop and the two hundred fusiliers with which he had 
 held the Pass on the previous night, to reconnoitre along 
 the high - road to Blair, whence he expected Dundee 
 to appear. Advanced to the rising ground towards 
 Aldclune," Lawder sent back word of the appearance 
 of 'some partys ' advancing towards him from the direc- 
 tion of Blair. Mackay galloped forward at the news, 
 observed 'some small partys of the ennemy, the matter 
 of a short mile, marching slowly along the foot of a hill 
 which lay towards Blair,' concluded they were Dundee's 
 advanced party, and sent back a hasty order to Balfour 
 to advance the foot. His message had barely reached its 
 destination before Mackay detected the actual direction 
 of attack. 
 
 Dundee knew his Highlanders as well as Lord George 
 Murray at Prestonpans in the '45. ' Even a haggis, God 
 bless her ! ' could charge down hill. Dundee had no mind 
 to lose an advantage. With a force containing a mere 
 sprinkling of cavalry, the Clans and their traditional tactics 
 were of chief consideration. A council of war, held that 
 morning upon the news of Mackay 's advance, had resolved 
 
 ^ I am following Mackay's own minute account. He describes the spot 
 as ' a field of corn along the side of the river.' Without question it was 
 upon the levels bounded by the steep and wcjoded ascent to Urrard House 
 on the north, and the Garry on the south. It is quite inaccurately 
 marked on the Ordnance Map as the site of the battle. On the accom- 
 panying map it is shown as the site of ' Claverhouse's Stone.' 
 
 - Mackay describes the spot as ' some hundreds of paces [from his 
 halting-place around ' Claverhouse's Stone '] upon an hill towards the 
 way from whence he expected the ennemj' might appear. ' The spot was 
 certainly the slight eminence a little short of Aldclune on the accom- 
 panying map, where a rough track leaves the high-road on the right 
 (facing Blair) towards Lcttoch. The figure 413 on the map marks the 
 spot and its elevation.
 
 336 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 to give battle, in spite of the incompleteness of the Clan- 
 levies.^ Dundee at once put his army in motion. Avoid- 
 ing the level highway towards Mackay and the Pass, he 
 led his men over the Tilt, past Lude, where Prince Charles 
 had hospitable entertainment in the last Jacobite venture, 
 and over the hills, proclaiming his presence to Mackay as 
 he dropped down to the valley between Clunemore and 
 Clunebeg.^ Mackay, still with Lawder on the convenient 
 eminence near Aldclune, first observed 'some bodies' of 
 the Clans ' marching down an high hill, within a quarter 
 of a mile to the place where he stood,' and immediately 
 after, ' the gross of their body.' Instantly he detected his 
 imminent peril, should the Highlanders gain the crest of 
 the ascent at whose foot his own forces lay.^ Galloping 
 back to the troops, Mackay ordered a half-turn to the 
 right,* and carried his whole force up the slope and 
 through the ' trees and shrubs ' of Urrard to what, from 
 the valley below, appeared to be the ridge of the valley's 
 lowest rise. The farm of Lettoch rested on the right, the 
 woods and marshy ground skirting the highway were on 
 the left of him as he halted after his oblique ascent.^ 
 
 1 Balhaldy (Memoirs of Locheill, pp. 258-265) gives a long account of the 
 council's deliberation. The one fact that can be safely accepted is, that 
 Dundee's insistence upon the necessity to engage Mackay was endorsed 
 by the chiefs. 
 
 - See the map. The Duke of AthoU {Chronicles of the Families of 
 Atholl and Tullihardine, vol. i. p. 300) supports this view of Dundee's 
 march to Killiecrankie. 
 
 3 Mackay's phrase is : ' fearing that thej' should take possession of an 
 eminence just above the ground where our forces halted on, of a steep 
 and difficult ascent, full of trees and shrubs, and within a carabin shot 
 of the place whereon we stood.' His description exactly fits the wooded 
 bank on which Urrard House stands. 
 
 * Mackay calls the movement 'a Quart de Conversion to the right.' 
 
 ^ By the kindness of Mr. Aubrey K. Alston Stewart of Urrard, I 
 was enabled to make an examination of the locality of the battlefield. 
 Mackay's very minute topography leaves me no room to doubt that the 
 sites which hitherto have been accepted for the battle are wrong. To 
 deal with them shortly : Macaulay imagined that the battle was fought 
 in the field where ' Claverhou.se's Stone ' is marked upon the accompanying
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 387 
 
 He found before liiiii ' a ground fair enough to receive 
 the ennemy, but not to attack them ' ; for as he ascended 
 to the ridge, a higher one unfolded itself within distance 
 of ' a short musket shot.' The footpath from Tomgoulach 
 to Torvuilt and Clunebeg marks it roughly. On it Mackay 
 found his enemy awaiting him.^ 
 
 map. That site has the sanction of the Ordnance Map of 1900. The 
 most cursory reading of Mackay's narrative is sufficient to prove that that 
 was the spot on whicli Mackay halted, and not that on which the battle 
 was fought. The second site is immediately above Urrard House. It is 
 equally untenable. In the first place (since the fact is absolutely proved 
 by Mackay's and other accounts, that Urrard House was in his rear), it 
 implies that Mackay fought with a 'steep and difficult ascent' in his 
 immediate rear, a most hazardous position. In the second place, and it 
 is very clear to one who traverses the ground, there is not between 
 Urrard House and the topmost ridge of the hills above it any lower 
 ridge which, from tlie valley below, could suggest itself as commanding 
 the position. INIackay is definite upon this point. The ridge he made 
 for, he says, seemed to be the highest ridge of the valley's bottom slope ; 
 but upon reaching it he found Dundee drawn up upon a yet higher one. 
 Mackay, again, is very definite in his description of the position of his 
 left, and from it there is no room to doubt that his left rested upon 
 the boggy and wooded ground between Aldclune and Haugh of Urrard. 
 This second site, however, is that whicli Napier adopts, and it is fair to 
 say that a brief nai'rative by Donald M'Bane (quoted in Napier, vol. iii. 
 p. 724) seems to support his conclusion. That this position was not that 
 on which the battle was fought is clear upon the grounds I have already 
 given. Briefly, no commander would have dreamed of taking his troops 
 up to the height of Creag Eallaich, nor could Dundee have operated from 
 such a precipitous slope. And further, other than Creag Eallaicli there 
 is no commanding ridge above Urrard whicli would attract Mackay's 
 attention from below. The commanding ridge for which he made was, 
 in fact, the hill-line which, viewed from the high-road, runs from Lettoch 
 farm towards Aldclune. Not until one reaches it is it apparent that a 
 yet higher slope, through which Allt Chluain's small burn runs, com- 
 mands the Lettoch ridge. So Mackay found. The centre of the actual 
 site of the battle is therefore found on a line drawn from Lettoch direct 
 through Low Mains to Aldclune. The line itself, with approximate 
 correctness, displays the frontage of the two armies. 
 
 1 Mackay states that Dundee ' had his back to a very high hill, which 
 is the ordinary maxim of Highlanders, who never fight against regular 
 forces upon any thing of equal terms, -without a sure retreat at their 
 back, particularly if their eiinemies be provided of horse' [Mtinoirs of 
 the War, p. 51). In a short narrative which JNlackay dated at Strathbogie 
 on 17th August 1689, he describes Dundee's position as on 'a rysing of a 
 hill, above which, and betwixt it and a great hill at his back, Dundie 
 
 Y
 
 338 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Mackay took position from the left in tlie order in 
 which his regiments had marched through the Pass. 
 Lawder and two hundred fusiliers were on the extreme 
 left.^ Next to them, in order, were Balfour's and Ramsay's 
 regiments of the Scots Brigade," Kcnmure's, Levcn's, and 
 Mackay 's, commanded by his brother. Hastings's regi- 
 ment, which had followed through the Pass in rear of 
 the baggage, came up as Mackay was forming his troops, 
 and fell into position on the extreme right. With his 
 troops aligned Mackay found them numerically unable to 
 contain the position which Dundee's sudden appearance 
 had compelled him to adopt.^ With an eye to his 
 ultimate retreat, and anxious lest Dundee might slip 
 past him above Urrard and towards Faskally,* Mackay 
 took a hazardous, and in the event, a disastrous step. 
 Breaking his infantry into half- battalions, he brought 
 the three rearmost ranks of each into the extended line ; 
 prolonged his whole front towards the right, leaving an 
 interval between each half-battalion, and a considerable 
 interval between Kenmure's and Leven's regiments on 
 the centre. Behind this central gap he placed his two 
 troops of horse, Belhaven's supporting Kenmure on the left 
 centre, Annandale's Leven on the right. His extended 
 line, three deep throughout the length of it, offered a 
 matchboard resistance to the impetus of the traditional 
 
 had place eneugh to range his men.' The 'great hill' was certainly 
 that on whose eastern slope Clunebeg and Cliuiemore lie. Dundee had 
 marched over it, and would naturally hold to it as the direction of a 
 possible retreat. 
 
 ' 'On a little hill wreathed with trees.' One can almost identify this 
 with the hill, already referred to, from which Mackay had observed 
 Dundee's approach. 
 
 - Mackay speaks of ' the edge of the wood which was on Balfour's 
 left.' 
 
 •' He describes his position as ' a plaine capable to containe more troupes 
 then I had ' (Memoirs, p. 264). 
 
 ■* Mackay was imminently expecting reinforcements from Perth. See 
 his Memoirs, p. 54.
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 339 
 
 Highland assault.^ Dundee, as he watched the formation, 
 must have marked his enemy doomed.- 
 
 Mackay's position precluded him from attacking. 
 Dundee held that advantage, and used it to adapt his 
 assault to the formation which Mackay offered. He met 
 Mackay's extension of his line by enlarging the intervals 
 between the Clan regiments. Thereby their density and 
 the force of their impact were maintained. Each regiment 
 was directed to engage a particular unit in the line opposed 
 to it. Like Mackay, Dundee was nervous lest his wings 
 should be outflanked ; hence the centre of Mackay's line, 
 where Leven's regiment stood, had no part of Dundee's 
 force directly oj)posite to it.^ On the extreme right* of 
 his line, fronting Brigadier Balfour, Dundee placed the 
 Macleans under Sir John Maclean of Duart. Cannon's 
 Irish contingent was on their left. The Clanranald 
 Macdonalds and Glengarry's Clan'^ completed, from 
 
 ^ See Mackay, Mernolrs of the War, p. 52. 
 
 " Mackay's formation had its critics. Burnet remarks : ' Many blamed 
 Mackay for drawing up his army as he did ; others justified him ; but 
 success failed him ' {History of my own Time : Supplement, p. 325). Colonel 
 David Stewart (Sketches of the Highlanders of Scotland, Edin. 18'22, vol. i. 
 p. 66) records the tradition that Mackay remarked to Lochiel's second 
 son, who was with him, ' Here is your father with his wild savages ; how 
 would you like to be with him?' Cameron replied, 'It signifies little, 
 what I would like ; but I recommend it to you to be prepared, or perhaps 
 my father and his wild savages may be nearer to you before niglit than 
 you would like.' The stoi-y bears an element of improbability. But it 
 carries the criticism of one who, if in fact he was present, would be able 
 to judge the danger of Mackay's formation. 
 
 '■' Memoirs of Loclieill, p. 260. It may be noticed also, that about the 
 centre of Mackay's line ' there was a boggy ground, which, on a sudden, 
 could not without hazard of bogging be galloped ' {Memoirs of the War, 
 p. 53). 
 
 ■* The authority for Dundee's order of l)attle is the letter of 15th 
 December 1689 to the Queen, in Macpherson, Original Papers, \t.A. i. p. 
 369. It may be noticed that the letter descriljes all save tlie Macleans 
 and Macdonalds on the e.xtreme wings as forming the main battle. 
 
 '•' The Grants of Glenmoriston, under John Grant, younger of Glen- 
 moriston, were i)resent {Proelium Gillicrankiaiium) and fought in 
 Glengarry's battalion. See Grameid, i). 150.
 
 340 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 right to left, the infantry on the right wing. On the 
 extreme left of the line were the Macdonalds of Sleat.^ 
 Next to them was a mixed battalion under Sir Alexander 
 Maclean." On the loft centre, facing Mackay's own regi- 
 ment,^ were the Camerons under Lochiel. Dundee him- 
 self, with the few horse he had, was on the left.'* 
 
 The battle of Killiecrankie, in the deliberation which 
 marked its preliminaries, followed the traditional practice 
 of war in the seventeenth century.^ Two hours and more 
 wore slowly away,*^ and Mackay became impatient. Dun- 
 dee's intention, he apprehended, was to postpone assault 
 till nightfall, when twilight would add ' fright and dis- 
 order' to the terrors of a Highland charge. Mackay 
 resolved to provoke an engagement, and opened fire 
 with his three ' little leather field-pieces.' ^ Their fire 
 proved galling. The Highlanders clamoured for close 
 quarters. But the sun beat down full in their faces, and 
 Dundee held them in. A desultory fusillade beguiled 
 the weary waiting.^ An attempt of the Camerons to seize 
 
 ^ The Proelium Gillicrankianum mentions Sir Donald Macdonald of 
 Sleat, and the Macdoiiahls of Keppoch and Glencoe. It may be noticed 
 that the Macdonalds were here in the position they so bitterly resented 
 at Culloden. 
 
 - Presumably this battalion included the Macneils of Barra and Stuarts 
 Appin, both of whom are mentioned as present in the Prodiuni Gilli- 
 crankianum. ^ Memoirs of Locheill, p. 271. 
 
 ■* Balhaldy states that Sir William Wallace of Craigie, upon James's 
 commission, had taken over the command of the cavalry that morning, 
 much to Dundee's dissatisfaction {ibid., p. 268). For Dundee's position 
 in the line see below, p. 350. 
 
 ■' See Firth, CromwelVa Army, p. 100. 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 264. 
 
 '' Ibid., p. 54. Mackay adds, that the guns 'proved of little use, 
 because the carriages being made too high to be more conveniently 
 carried, broke with the third firing.' 
 
 ^ Mackajr, particularly, was a mark for the Highland guns (jifemoirs, 
 p. 55). There is a tradition that Lochiel, being asked which side would 
 win, deolai'ed that victory would rest with the side that first spilled 
 blood. John Grant, younger of Cilenmoriston, heard the remark and 
 drew one of his Clan's attention to an officer on a white horse who rode 
 out from Mackay's line. The man fired, and the officer fell, shot through 
 the heart (William Mackay, Urquhart and Glenmoriston, p. 201).
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 341 
 
 some houses on their front as cover for their marksmen 
 was defeated by Mackay's own regiment, a detachment of 
 which drove in the Camerons on their main body.^ They 
 were barely back within their lines I efore Dundee gave 
 the signal. The time was half an hour lefore sunset.^ 
 
 Words, the fewest, clog the rapid action of the battle. 
 Ajfflavit Delia ! Mackay, the ' piousest ' soldier known to 
 Gilbert Burnet, wrote the battle in a sentence : ' The wicked 
 flee when no man pursueth.' An eerie howl from High- 
 land throats, a maddening rush, guns cocked, silent till 
 at barrel's-point ^ the bullets crashed thunder-hail into 
 the three-deep line. Then, guns discarded, claymores 
 out, the yelling line, shearing to its right by reason 
 of the declivity, dashed unequally upon the doomed 
 battalions. The Macdonalds, on the higher ground, bore 
 down Mackay's own regiment, leaving Hastings's standing. 
 The Camerons, leaving the right of Leven's intact, broke 
 his left or centremost division. The wave of threatening 
 destruction swept on with gathering impact towards 
 Mackay's left on the lower slope. Balfour's fled without 
 a shot. Half of Ramsay's — the leftward — did no more. 
 Lawder, on the extreme left, joined the stampede. Pell- 
 
 ^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 55. The incident is also mentioned 
 by Balhaldy. He asserts that the Camerons occupied the house or 
 houses in order to forestall a similar step on the part of Mackay (Memoirn 
 of Locheill, p. 266). 
 
 It is appropriate to point out that the so-called entrenchments which 
 the Highlanders are said to have thrown up on the hill above Urrard are 
 demonstrably apocryphal. There was no need to entrench ; to do so 
 was foreign to Higldand tactics ; and there is not a word in contemporary 
 narratives to support the idea. 
 
 " Mackay, Memoirs, p. 55. Balhaldy gives the hour as, 'the sun being 
 near its close' (Memoirs of Locheill, p. 267). In an account of the 
 campaign, dated 15th December 16S9, written to the Queen in France, 
 Dundee is said to have given the signal to attack ' about 8 o'clock ' 
 (Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 369). 
 
 3 Memoirs of Locheill, p. 267. One detects here, perhaps, the ex- 
 perience Dundee had gained from a study of Montrose's battles, especially 
 Auldearn. See Firth, CromiveU's Army, p. 13.3.
 
 342 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 mell through the Haiigh and woods of Urrard followed the 
 mad pursuit. ' In the twinkling of an e3^e ' pursued and 
 pursuer were out of sight. Mackay on the upward slope, 
 Leven's half-battalion and Hastings's regiment still around 
 him, had called on his cavalry to flank the onrush of 
 Cainerons and Macdonalds. Belhaven's troop wheeled out, 
 only to fall back on Kenmure's and carry it with it off the 
 field. Annandale's, higher up the brae, followed suit.^ 
 Mackay did not yet despair. Some of Leven's and most 
 of Hastings's were intact. Stragglers from other regiments 
 fell in. Insistent messages called back the runaways. 
 But to no purpose. In the gloaming Mackay led off all 
 that remained of his army, crossed the Garry at the ford, 
 and plodded through the night, plagued with the in- 
 scrutability of defeat, and timorous of Dundee on his 
 heels.2 
 
 ' Sir John Dalrymple, writing on 2Sth July 1689, asserts Annandale's 
 troop to have made ' the first disturbance' (Le^/ers chiefly addressed to 
 George, Earl of Melville, p. 205). 
 
 - See Mackay's account in his Memoirs, pp. 55-60, 264. The significant 
 fact in the battle has been missed, I think, by previous writers, largely 
 because they were wedded to the wrong site. The fact is, that the High- 
 landers, charging over ground which sloped on their right downward to 
 the valley, found themselves drawn naturally in that direction. Hence 
 Hastings's, on Mackay's extreme right, was practically untouched, but 
 Mackay's, next to it, was blown out of the line. Hence, also, half of 
 Leven's escaped the impact. Mackay's left, which, on his own admission, 
 hardly stood, fled for the reason that the Highland charge, drawn towards 
 it by the declivity, seemed to threaten it with well-nigh the full force of 
 the Clans. This conclusion becomes positive when it is borne in mind that 
 thougli the Camerons fronted Mackay's own regiment when originally 
 drawn up, it was the Macdonalds on their left who routed that regiment. 
 
 The stand made by Leven's and Hastings's is confirmed in Memoirs of 
 Locheill, p. 269 ; Balhaldy adds (p. 270) that Leven retreated to a house, 
 clearly Urrard. But Mackay states positively that though he thought of 
 establishing himself there, he decided not to do so (Memoirs, p. 58). 
 
 The numbers engaged in the battle are very variously estimated. In 
 the letter of intelligence to the Queen (Macpherson, Orii/inal Papers, 
 vol. i. p. 369) Dundee's strength is given, probably accurately, as two 
 thousand five hundred foot and one troop of horse. In a letter from 
 Edinburgh, dated 30th July 1689, written apparently by one of his 
 officers, Mackay's strength is given as four thousand foot, besides his two
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 343 
 
 And Dundee ? He had charged at the head of his 
 handful of horse. Dunfermhne saw him as they galloped 
 into the battle smoke, waving on his men, exultant of 
 victory. Downward past Urrard the breathless gallop 
 continued. But Dundee no longer headed it. The last 
 desperate volley of Mackay's own regiment before it fled 
 brought him reeling from the saddle.^ They found him 
 dying when the night had settled down over the gory 
 field. '^ He asked how the day went. ' Well for the King ; 
 but I 'm sorry for your Lordship,' was the answer. ' 'Tis 
 the less matter for me,' he replied, ' seeing the day goes 
 well for my master.' ^ The shriek of carnage came back- 
 ward from the Pass as they watched the last moments of 
 him Avhose death robbed the cause he loved of victory. 
 The end came soon."^ Highland plaids were his winding- 
 troops of horse {3IS. Record of the 25th Regiment, in the War Office). In 
 other accounts the numbers rise to as much as six thousand on both sides. 
 But the numbers given above are probably correct. 
 
 The mortality of the battle is not easy to determine. Balhaldy states 
 that Dundee lost nearly one-third of his total force, i.e. about six hundred, 
 according to his figures. The Camcrons, he admits, lost one hundred and 
 twenty, chiefly as the result of Loven's flank fire {Memoirs of Locheill, 
 pp. 268, 271). Of his chief officers Mackay lost only his brother, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Mackay, and Brigadier Balfour. On the side of 
 Dundee, Halyburton of Pitcur, Gilbert Ramsay, Donald ISIacdonoll, 
 Olcugarry's brother, and John Macdonald of Largo are particularly 
 mentioned (Memoirs of 1714, p. 21). 
 1 See Appendix ii. 
 
 '■^ According to BalhaMy, it was Dunfermline who found him [Memoirs 
 of Locheill, p. 269). 
 
 " One Johnston, who caught Dundee when he fell, was the man who 
 answered Dundee's question [Actn Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 56). It 
 became a tradition, however, that Halyburton of Pitcur gave him the 
 news he asked for, and had his answer (Morer, Short Accoiint, p. 99). 
 According to Mackay, Pitcur was shot by the same volley that wounded 
 Dundee. According to Balhaldy, Pitcur was shot while he and others 
 were removing Dundee from the range of Leven's regiment, which was 
 still on the field (Memoirn of Locheill, p. 269). 
 
 ^ By 3rd August 1689 authentic news of Dundee's death and its details 
 had reached Edinburgh. Among them was the fact that he did not 
 survive the action four hours (An Account of the Prooedings, etc.. No. 
 45, p. 108). The tradition that he sent a dispatch to James is dealt with 
 in Appendix in.
 
 344 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 sheet as they carried him to Blair,^ There they buried 
 him.2 And there he rests,'^ heedless of the ruin of his 
 nearest and dearest ; ^ heedless of Cronidale and its 
 
 ^ Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 57. Balcarres states that on the 
 day following the battle, an officer found upon the ground where Dundee 
 fell ' a bundle of Papers and Commissions which he had about him,' 
 adding, that ' those who stripped him thought them but of small Concern ' 
 {An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 108). In the Bannatyne 
 volume of Dundee's letters (p. 83) the editor states that the copy of 
 Balcarres's ^cfOiHid in tlie Libi'ary of Christ Church, Oxford, bears a MS. 
 note stating that the writer of it had conversed with one who saw Dundee's 
 body lying naked on the field after the battle, and helped to carry it away 
 wrapped in a plaid. This is both incredible and is indirectly controverted 
 by the evidence of James Malcolm, who testified that he had seen Dundee 
 'lying dead' of his wounds at Killiecrankie [Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. 
 App. p. 58). Had he seen the body stripped and naked he could hardly 
 have omitted to say so. The groundwork upon which the iinhappy 
 tradition has been reared is, I think, very easily exposed. See the 
 following note. 
 
 - See Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. pp. 56, 59. The date of his hasty 
 interment was 29th July (An Account of the Proceedings, etc.. No. 44, p. 
 106). Early in the following September, Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchin- 
 breck was at Blair, and found the bodies of Dundee and Pitcur ' lying in 
 an Isle of the Church of Blair, and not yet interr'd, but wrapt up in 
 coarse Linen Cloth, in very ordinary Coffins, where any body that pleases 
 may see them.' Some of Mackay's officers, who returned with him from 
 Blair to Edinburgh on 7th September 1689, 'had the curiosity to see and 
 view the Corps of the late Lord Dundee, which they found lying in a 
 Vault in one of the Isles of the Church' (ihid.. No. 54, p. 126; No. 56, 
 p. 129). It is clear, I think, that the tradition of his body having been 
 rifled on the field of battle was chiefly, if not wholly, founded upon the 
 interpretation which Mackay's officers gave of the hasty measures which 
 had been taken to prepare Dundee's body for burial. 
 
 On the bicentenary of Killiecrankie in 1889 the Duke of Atholl placed 
 a tablet to Dundee's memory upon the wall of the ruined Church of St. 
 Bride at Old Blair. 
 
 •^ A statement, which found its way into guide-books, that Dundee's 
 body was translated from Blair to Old Deer, is quite witliout foundation. 
 See The Despot's Chamjnon, p. 322. 
 
 ^ Upon Dundee's death his title and estates devolved upon his son 
 James. He was only three months old, and during his lifetime his 
 estates were left undisturbed. He died, however, late in November or 
 early in December 1689 (An Account of the Proceedings, etc.. No. 77, p. 
 172), and was succeeded by his uncle, David Graham. David Graham had 
 on r2th May 1689 been summoned to appear before the Committee of 
 Estates (ibid., No. 23, p. 63). He had failed to comply, and had 
 remained in arms after his brother's death. About 1st September 1689 
 he had been taken prisoner while engaged in defending Struan House
 
 KILLIECRANKIE 345 
 
 greater catastrophe ;^ sleeping with the exultant message 
 to Cluny his last tidings from earth to the after-world : 
 * All the world will be with us, blissed be God ; ' bearing 
 with him his apologia, ' The King is innocent, and I 
 have done ray duty.' As he lived, so he died, bathed in 
 the glamour of ideals fast setting to decline, the last ex- 
 pression of his century's reckless Stewartism — 
 
 ' Montrosio novus exoritur de pulvere phoenix, 
 Virtutis simul, et imtrii cognominis hmresJ ^ 
 
 against Mackay's forces (ibid., No. 54, p. 126). He was imprisoned in 
 Edinburgh Castle, but was released, upon an exchange of prisoners, 
 about 3rd December 1689 [ibid.. No. 77, p. 171). His nephew, thesecond 
 Viscount, died at the same time. As a declared rebel the Government 
 took immediate steps against the new inheritor of Dundee's honours. On 
 3rd January 1690 an Order of Council sequestrated his rents and those of 
 others who had been in arms {ibid., No. 85, p. 187). On 2nd May 1690 
 a process of treason was raised against him (Acts Parlt. Scot., vol. ix. p. 
 112), and on 14th July 1690 sentence of forfeiture was pronounced (ibid., 
 App. p. 61). The Claverhouse properties were bestowed on the Marquis 
 of Douglas. The titular Viscounty of Dundee passed to the Grahams of 
 Duntrune. 
 
 ^ The surprise of the Highlanders at Cromdale on 1st May 1690 brought 
 the campaign which Dundee had planned to its conclusion. 
 
 2 Orameid, p. 40.
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 claverhouse's regiment 
 
 The nucleus of 'His Majesty's Regiment of Horse,' to the 
 command of which Claverhouse was commissioned on 25th 
 December 1682, was found in the three independent troops 
 which had been raised in 1678, of which Claverhouse, the Earl 
 of Home, and the Earl of Airlie had been commissioned captains 
 on 23rd September 1678. Each troop consisted of five officers 
 (captain, lieutenant, cornet, quartermaster, three corporals, two 
 trumpets), and sixty rank and file. The pay of each troop per 
 diem amounted to <£7, 13s.^ A fourth troop was raised to com- 
 plete the regiment, probably early in 1683, and it was given 
 (commission dated 25th December 1682) to the Earl of Bal- 
 carres. It numbered only fifty rank and file, and its pay 
 amounted to £6, 16s. 4d. per diem.- Regarding Claverhouse's 
 pay as colonel, the Earl of Moray writes from Whitehall to 
 Queensberry on 3rd February 1683: 'His Highness hes also 
 moved the Kinge that Claverous should haue a Collonell's pay,' 
 and that the aide-major, marshal, and quartermaster of Dalziel's 
 dragoons — the Scots Greys— should be discharged, 'and ther 
 pay applyed for Claverous, who is to haue the same pye as Coll. 
 that the Gennerall [Dalziel] hes as Coll. of the dragoons.'^ A 
 daily allowance of 13s. 8d. was ordered to be paid him,' which, 
 with his pay as captain, gave him <£1, 7s. 8d. per diem, or (reckon- 
 ing twenty-eight days to the month) £464, 16s. per annum. 
 
 Upon the regiment's formation, Claverhouse himself and the 
 Earl of Balcarres received the command of two of the four 
 troops. The remaining two were conferred upon Lord Ross of 
 Hawkhead ^ and Adam Urquhart of Meldrum (commissions 
 
 ' See above, p. 38. - Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. vii. fol. 4S0. 
 
 " Hi'it. j\ISS. C'otnin, Report on the Manuscripts at Drumlanrhi Castle, 
 vol. ii. p. 22. ' Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. vii. fol. 537. 
 
 •'' Ross desired appointment as Claverhonsc's lieutenant-colonel. The 
 Duke of York writes to Queensberry un 27t]i March 1683 to declare that 
 346
 
 APPENDIX I 347 
 
 dated respectively 26th December 1682 and 27th December 
 1682), The personnel of the four troops was as follows : — ^ 
 
 Claverhouse's Troop.- Ross's Troop/' 
 
 Captain Colonel John Graham. William Lord Ross. 
 
 Lieutenant Andrew Bruce of Earlshall. Sir Mark Carse. 
 
 Cornet Willi;im Graham. Sir Adam Blair. 
 
 Qxiartermaster David Graham. David Home. 
 
 Meldri;m's Troop."* Balcarres's Troop.'' 
 
 Captain Adam Urquhart of Meldrum. The Earl of Balcarres. 
 
 Lieutenant Sir Francis Ruthven. David Bruce of Clackmannan. 
 
 Cornet Sir James Douglas of Kelhead.'' 
 
 Quartermaster John Lindsay. 
 
 Robert Graham of Morphie was commissioned aide-major on 
 21st May 1683.7 On 21st February 1684 Claverhouse's brother, 
 David, was promoted cornet in his own troop,^ and his cpiarter- 
 mastership was conferred (commission dated 23rd February 
 1684) on James Kinnaird.^ The officers of the troop were not 
 
 Ross's desire could not be entertained, ' there being to be no such officer 
 amongst the horse, in any of his Majesty's kingdoms.' If Ross had a 
 mind to be major, York undertook to move the King in his behalf (Hist. 
 MSS. Comm. Bept. xv., pt. viii. p. 185). On 10th April 1683 Claverhouse 
 writes to Queensberry (ibid., p. 279) : ' The Deuk told me j^esterday that 
 you hade recomended my Lord Ross for to be Lievetenent Coll. to my regi- 
 ment. ... I fynd the Deuk will be content he be Major, and I did not 
 at all opose it, because recomended by your Lordship ; tho I have some 
 raison to take a litle unkyndly in my friend, my Lord Ross, that he 
 should indevor any alteration in the regiment without lating me knou it.' 
 ^ Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. vii. fol. 481-96. 
 ^ The commissions are all dated 25th December 1682. 
 " The commissions are all dated 26t]i December 1682. 
 ^ The commissions are all dated 27th December 1682. 
 ^ The commissions are all dated 28th December 1682. 
 " Sir James Douglas did not accept tlie commission. See Hist. MSS. 
 Comm. Re2)t. xv. , pt. viii. p. 275. 
 
 ^ Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. viii. fol. 72. Claverhouse writes to 
 Queensberry on 12th April 1683 : ' I fynd the Deuk thinks Meldrum most 
 propre to be Major, Init will not condeshend to put him over ane older 
 Captain's [i.e. Ross's] head, that is a man of quality : tho I indevored to 
 perswad him to it. In these things it is hard to impose upon him. 
 Wherfor, I told him it would bo best to lait it alon all togither, that we 
 may see if tyme can bring it about. I knou not well what he will doe in 
 it, but I supose he may take advyce ' (Hist. J^ISS. Comm. Bept. xv., pt. 
 viii. p. 280). 
 
 ^ War7-ant Book, Scotland, vol. viii. fol. 278. 
 » Ibid., vol. viii. fol. 279.
 
 348 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 changed during the remainder of Charles the Second's reign. ^ 
 After the accession of James the Second, the commissions of 
 Claverhouse, AndrcAV Bruce of Earlshall, David Graham, and 
 James Kinnaird, as colonel, captain-lieutenant, cornet, and 
 quartermaster, were renewed (commissions dated 30th March 
 1685).2 
 
 The regiment early in the new reign received a mark of royal 
 favour. A letter of 21st December 1685 under the royal sign- 
 manual ordered it to be designated henceforth ' His Majesty's 
 Own Regiment of Horse.' The addition of a surgeon, mate, 
 and farrier to each troop was sanctioned at the same time.^ On 
 15th July 1684 the Earl of Drumlanrig's commission as lieu- 
 tenant-colonel of the regiment was before the Privy Council at 
 Edinburgh.* On .30th March 1685 his commission was renewed. 
 
 Throughout James the Second's reign the officers of Claver- 
 house's troop remained unchanged. In 1688 the 'personnel of 
 the regiment was as follows : — -^ 
 
 Captains. Lkiiienants. Cornets. 
 
 John Graham of Claver- Andrew Bruce, Capt.- David Graham, 
 
 house. Col., 1st Aug. Lt., 1st. Aug. 1683. 29th May 1684. 
 
 1683. 
 Earl of Drumlanrig, Lt.- Francis Cricliton." James Nasmyth. 
 
 Col.,' 14th Aug. 1685. 
 Sir Charles Murray, 
 
 Major, 18th April, 
 
 1687.^ 
 
 ^ The establishment for the pay of the standing forces in Scotland 
 under the royal sign-manual, dated 16th June 1684, is printed in the 
 Miscellany of the Maitland Club, vol. iii. p. 73. In the Warrant Bool-, 
 Scotland (vol. v. fol. 331-72), under date 6th December 1679, there is an 
 ' Abridgement of the Military Discipline ' appointed for the Scottish 
 establishment. 
 
 - Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. ix. fol. 361, 362, 363, 364. 
 
 3 Ibid., vol. X. fol. 285. 
 
 ^ Fountainhall, Historical Observes, p. 133. In August 1684 Claver- 
 house's regiment mustered two hundred and lifty strong {Hist. MSS. 
 Comm. jRept. x., pt. i. p. 135). 
 
 ' Dalton, English Army Lists, vol. ii. p. 211. The dates attached to 
 the names are not the dates of appointment, but of their earliest entry 
 on the muster-roll, 
 
 •* His commission — probably a renewal — is dated 30th March 1685 
 ( Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. ix. fol. 364). 
 
 "^ On 29th November 1688 Sir Charles Murray was commissioned lieu- 
 tenant-colonel in the room of Drumlanrig, and succeeded to his troop 
 (ibid., vol. xiii. fol. 367).
 
 APPENDIX I 349 
 
 Captains. Lieutenaids. Cornets, 
 
 Earl of Airlie,! 5th Aug. William Graham.2 SirWilliani Keitb.3 
 
 1685. 31st July 1683. 
 
 Sir William Wallace, Sir Mark Carse[? Kerr],* Charles Ross. ^ 
 
 7th April, 1687. 16th Aug. 1683. 
 
 Colin, Earl of Balcarrcs,''' David Bruce of Clack- James Fletcher. 
 
 27th July 1683. mannan.^ 
 
 Lord William Douglas," James Stewart. William Douglas. 
 
 5th Feb. 1685. 
 
 Aide-Major Robert Grahaui,^ 29th May 1684. 
 Quartermaster James Kinnaird," 29th May 1684. 
 Sxirgeon Roderick Mackenzie. 
 
 The service of the regiment in the brief camjaaign against 
 William of Orange in 1688 has been dealt with in its place. 
 After the accession of AVilliam and Mary, the regiment was 
 struck off" the establishment. i*' 
 
 ' Oil 18th October 16S8 William, Earl of Annandale, was commissioned 
 captain in the room of Airlie {ibid., vol. xiii. fol. 309). Airlie had got the 
 troop command about November 1684, on the death of Meldrum. York 
 writes on IStli November 1684 : 'I heare that Meldrum is dead, and Earle 
 of Earley is to haue that troup againe, which he has very earnestly 
 desired ; and indeed it was but resonable, he hauing never desired to part 
 with it' (Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. xv., pt. viii. p. 211). Airlie had been 
 given one of the three original troojjs raised in 1678. 
 
 - On 7th December 1688 William Graham (who had been Claverhouse's 
 troop cornet after Drumclog) was commissioned major upon Murray's 
 promotion to the lieutenant-colonelcy (ibid., vol. xiii. fol. 389). 
 
 ■* Sir William Keith was commissioned lieutenant (on William 
 Graham's promotion) on 7th December 1688 (ibid., vol. xiii. fol. 390), 
 and on the same date Robert Young was commissioned cornet in his 
 place (ibid., vol. xiii. fol. 391). 
 
 ■* His commission dated fr(jm 26th December 1682. See above, p. 347. 
 
 ^ On 1st December 1688 John Cleland and George Holmes were 
 commissioned respectively cornet and quartermaster to Wallace's troop 
 (Wdrrant Book, Scotland, vol. xiii. fol. 380, 381). 
 
 " Their commissions were dated 28th December 1682. See above, 
 p. 347. 
 
 ^ On 18th November 1684 the Duke of York writes to Queensberry : 
 ' Your sonn's commission for a new troupe shall be sent downe to you, so 
 sone as you send to me the names of those you would have to be his lieu- 
 tenant and cornett. ' It appears also from the letter that Lieutenant 
 Stewart was late of Dumbarton's regiment (Hist. 3IS8. Comm. Rept. xv., 
 pt. viii. p. 211). 
 
 * His commission was dated 21st May 1683. See above, p. 347. 
 
 ■' His commission was dated 23rd February 1684. See above, p. 347. 
 Henry Graham was commissioned quartermaster of Claverhouse's troop 
 on 23rd June 1688 {Warrant Book, Scotland, vol. xiii. fol. 158). 
 
 '" Dalton, Emjlisli Army Lists, vol. ii. p. 211.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 Dundee's death at killiecrankie 
 
 Upon the manner of Dnnclee's death there is a mass of conflict- 
 ing evidence. But there is unanimity upon one important 
 point. He was put out of action by a wound that proved fatal 
 at the very commencement of the ]mttle. The clearest evidence 
 to this fact is a letter from James to Cannon, dated 30th 
 November 1689 : 'We need not therefore exhort you to cour- 
 adge, or loyaltie, which if you had not been very steaddy in, 
 the loss you had in your General, at the verie entrance into 
 action . . . were enough to baffle you.' ^ Creichton's state- 
 ments are of the barest credibility when unsupported. On this 
 point, however, his evidence supports the information upon 
 which James wrote. Creichton states that Dundee was ' killed 
 by a random shot, at the beginning of the action : yet his men 
 discovered not his fall, till they had obtained the victory.' - 
 Two days after the Ijattle Thomas Stewart of Stenton writes 
 to Lord Murray : ' My Lord Dundie vas shot dead one the head 
 of his horse.' ^ That Dundee ' charged in person, upon the head 
 of the horse,' is confirmed by the letter of intelligence to Queen 
 Mary, dated 15th December 1689.^ Mackay's statement is: 
 ' Dundee with his hors, wheeling to our right, came upon the 
 battaillon of my regement, by whose fire, according to their 
 own confession, both Dundie, Pitkur, one Ramsay, and others 
 were killed at the first onset.''' Mackay's statement finds 
 
 1 Letters cJutJly addre'ssed to George, Earl of Melville, p. 333. 
 
 " Works of Swift, ed. Scott, vol. x. p. 184. 
 
 ^ Chronicles of the Families of Atholl and TidWiardine, vol. i. p. 304. 
 
 ■* Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. i. p. 370. 
 
 ^ Memoirs vf the War, p. 265. If it be remembered that Mackay's 
 regiment was next to Hastings's on the extreme right of Mackay's line, it 
 seems clear that Dundee placed his small force of cavalry on the left of 
 his line, and probably on the right of the Macdonalds, in order to sweep 
 up, as it were, wliat remained of the enemy after the Highlanders' charge.
 
 APPENDIX II 351 
 
 curious confirnication. Within a fortnight of Dundee's death, 
 Mackay's brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Mackay, Avas stated to 
 have been ' the man that gave Dundee his passport to heaven 
 or hell' 1 
 
 So much is clear : Dundee, riding on the flank of the Mac- 
 donalds, correcting the oblique and right-ward trend of his army's 
 attack, crossed the zone of fire from Mackay's own regiment, 
 and fell even before victory had declared itself against Mackay's 
 left. 
 
 The next point to consider is the nature of the Avound which 
 caused his death. The evidence hitherto available is absolutely 
 contradictory. According to Balhaldy, Dundee Avas shot ' about 
 two hand's-breadth within his armour, on the lower part of his 
 left side."^ According to Balcarres, he was shot 'in his Right 
 Side, immediately below his Armour. '^ Dundee's breastplate is 
 preserved at Blair Castle. It shows a shot-hole ' right through 
 the centre ' ! The breastplate would he the most trustworthy 
 witness if the shot-hole could pass muster. In fact, it cannot. 
 The Duke of Atholl states that traditionally the shot-hole was 
 manufactured by the carpenter of the fourth Duke, 'presumably 
 to improve its warlike appearance.''* The admission is im- 
 portant; for if the breastplate at Blair is really Dundee's, and 
 
 His wheel to the left, which Mackay describes, was designed to .si;ppoit 
 his left, somewhat isolated by the rightward trend of the Highland attack. 
 Elsewhere in his narrative (p. 55) Mackay speaks of Dundee's cavalry 
 being with the Macdonalds (on the left of the Highland line) in the 
 attack upon Mackay's right. Balhaldy describes the cavalry as posted on 
 the centre, next to the Camerons (Memoirs of Locheill, p. 266). But his 
 authority is certainly not to be preferred to Mackay. The letter to the 
 Queen already quoted merely describes the horse as helping to form the 
 main body. But, as I have pointed out, the writer includes every regi- 
 ment save those on the extreme wings in this term. That letter also 
 says that Dundee was shot ' while he was riding to help the confusion he 
 observed in the left wing, occasioned by the gallant resistance of Colonel 
 Hastings's regiment ' to the Macdonalds (Macpherson, Original Papers, 
 vol. i. p. 370). This version I take to be accurate, and it confirms 
 Mackay's account of Dundee's movements. According to Balhaldy, Sir 
 William Wallace did not follow Dundee, but led those wlio followed him 
 to the left, that is, towards Hastings's regiment. Balhaldy's implication 
 that Dundee took a riglitward course is certainly not accurate. 
 
 ' Hist. MSS. Comm. Rejit. xii., pt. vii. p. 255. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Locheill, p. 269. 
 
 ^ An Account of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 105. 
 
 •* Chronicles of the Families of Atholl and Ttdlibardine, vol. i. p. 30J.
 
 352 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 if the shot-hole in it is of artificial character, then is it estab- 
 lished that Dundee was shot neither in his right side, nor in his 
 left, nor in his breast. Of the genuineness of the breastplate at 
 Blair there appears to be no question ; while the circumstances 
 under which it was recovered in themselves disprove the tradi- 
 tion that Dundee's body was spoiled after death on the field of 
 battle. About the year 1794 Dundee's grave in Old Blair 
 Church was disturbed b}" a gravedigger. Portions of Dundee's 
 armour were found, and were sold by the gravedigger to some 
 travelling tinkers. General Robertson of Lude recovered a 
 part of Dundee's helmet.^ The cuirass or breastplate was 
 obtained by the Duke of Atholl.^ 
 
 There is said to be yet another article of Dundee's clothing 
 in existence to witness to the manner of his death. ' In Penny- 
 cuik house,' writes Sir Walter Scott, 'is preserved the bufF-coat, 
 which he [Dundee] 'wore at the battle of Killicrankie. The 
 fatal shot-hole is under the arm-pit.'^ That Dundee 'put on a 
 Sad-colour'd Coat over his Armour ' for the battle, ' tho' he 
 appear 'd in Red all the jNIorning,' is stated by Thomas Morer.^ 
 But in point of fact the bufF-coat at Penicuik did not belong to 
 Dundee, and was not worn by him at Killiecrankie ! It belonged 
 to General Monck, and its authenticity is attested by a note on 
 it, dated 1656, by the then proprietor of Penicuik. Nor has it 
 a shot-hole under the arm-pit. In fact, there is not a bullet- 
 mark upon it ! ^ How Sir Walter blundered into such an error 
 passes comprehension. 
 
 The character of the evidence supporting a body wound may 
 be summarised as follows. Balhaldy's and Balcarres's state- 
 ments, mutually contradictory, are both disproved by the 
 absence of a shot-hole on either side of the Blair breastplate. 
 The shot-hole which that relic shows in the centre cannot be 
 accepted unsupported as evidence, in view of the taint of artifi- 
 cial manufacture which rests upon it. The bufF-coat at Penicuik 
 is not Dundee's, and even if it were, it would stand in evidence 
 of the fact that Dundee was not shot in the body. 
 
 ^ Scottish National Mtmorials, p. 118. 
 
 - Diet. Nat. Biog., Art. 'John Graham of Claverhouse ' ; Notes and 
 Queries, ninth series, vol. ix. p. 252. 
 
 ^ Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 245. 
 
 ■• Short Account, p. 99. 
 
 ^ I am indebted to Sir George Clerk, of Penicuik, for his kind response 
 to my inquiries upon this matter.
 
 APPENDIX II 353 
 
 How, then, was Dundee killed ? On 7th September 1689 
 Mackay and some of his officers returned to Edinburgh from 
 Blair Castle. They reported that they had viewed Dundee's 
 body, 'which by undeniable Marks they knew to be his,' lying 
 in a coffin in the vault of Old Blair Church, and that 'the 
 Mortal Wound he received, and of Avhich soon dy'd, was by a 
 Shot in his left Eye.' ^ That Dundee's body was then viewable 
 in its coffin in the vault is confirmed by Sir Duncan Campbell, 
 who had also seen it." There was no motive for misrepresenta- 
 tion as to the nature of the wound of which Dundee died. And 
 a shot in the left eye is entirely compatible with Dundee's 
 position, as described by Mackay, when he received his wound. 
 It explains the absence of any authenticated shot-hole in his 
 armour. It may be stated, therefore, with conviction, that the 
 shot which brought Dundee down at the very commencement 
 of the battle Avas neither in the left, the right, nor the centre of 
 his body, but in his left eye. 
 
 A further point demands notice. There is a persistent 
 tradition that at Killiecrankie Dundee was the victim of foul 
 play. The details which embody the tradition are demonstrably 
 inaccurate ; but the tradition remains. The story that Dundee 
 was shot by Lieutenant-Colonel Livingstone, whom Dundee's 
 widow afterwards married, is disproved with ridiculous ease ; 
 for Livingstone was not at Killiecrankie. The tradition that he 
 was shot from the windows of Urrard House is as easily under- 
 mined by its variance with the authoritative facts of the battle.^ 
 But some ground for believing that foul play Avas at Avork 
 remains, and it has curious, but inconclusive, support. That a 
 reward of eighteen thousand merks Avas offered on 18th July 
 1 689 for Dundee's body, dead or alive, has already been stated. 
 One day earlier (17th July) King William's Secretary of State, 
 the Eai'l of Nottingham, Avrote to General Mackay to recom- 
 
 ' An Account of the Proceedings, etc., No. 56, p. 129. 
 
 - See above, p. 344. 
 
 ^ Urrard House, as I have shown, was Avell to the rear of the battle. 
 The mound in Urrard grounds to which Dundee's charger is said to haA'e 
 borne its dead master must be as sceptically received as the so-called 
 ' Claverhousc's Stone ' below, on Mackay's camping-ground, as the scene 
 of Dundee's death. A letter from the then proprietor of Urrard, dated 
 * Rinrorie, 6 of August 1689,' proves that the Atholl Highlanders 
 regarded him as no friend to them. .See Chronicles of the Families of 
 Atholl and Tidlibardine, a^oI. i. p. 310. 
 
 Z
 
 354 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 mend to him Thomas Theaker and Captain George Theaker as 
 persons who had formed ' a design, which they believe they 
 can compass, of surprising and seizing Dundee, which would be 
 a very good service, and acceptable to his Majesty.'^ Thomas 
 Theaker fell out of the plot, but on 19th July Captain George 
 Theaker and William Warner had passes to proceed from 
 London to Edinburgh. ^ What they did in Scotland unfortun- 
 ately cannot be determined. But on 21st October 1689 Not- 
 tingham described them as 'the persons who . . . went into 
 Scotland, where they did the King very good service, of which 
 the Duke of Hamilton has told the King.' ^ That these men 
 came to Scotland to earn the reward is fairly clear. That they 
 accomplished some service of sufficient distinction to merit a 
 special report of it from the High Commissioner to the King 
 is also established. What service could these two unknown 
 persons render in Scotland other than of the treacherous 
 character which admittedly brought them thither 1 If it was 
 of the nature which, in view of the whole circumstances of the 
 case, is at least possible, their service would remain a closely 
 guarded official secret. But some suspicion might gradually 
 arise. In that case it might easily connect itself with the 
 innocent Livingstone, whose marriage with Lady Dundee offered 
 at least a lodgment for scandal, rather than with the actual 
 perpetrators, who having joined Dundee's small troop of horse 
 on the eve of battle, used their opportunity to make certain 
 that he would, victorious or defeated, never trouble their 
 employers again. 
 
 1 C'al State Papers, Dom., 1689-1690, p. 188. 
 
 - Ibid., p. 191. 
 
 ^ rind., p. 296. On 22iid October 1689 the two men had passes to pro- 
 ceed from Chester to Ireland (ibid., p. 299). Thomas Theaker is possibly 
 the person who in 1692 was commissioned ensign in Colonel Samuel 
 Venner's Regiment of Foot (Dalton, vol. iii p. 268). George Theaker's 
 name does not appear in the commission registers of the period. A 
 William Warner appears as a captain in Colonel Ferdinando Hastings's 
 regiment in 1692 [Gal. State Papers, Dom., 1691-1692, p. 335).
 
 APPENDIX III 
 
 Dundee's alleged letter to king james 
 announcing his victory 
 
 Among James Macpherson's Original Pajnrs, published in 1775, 
 there are printed ^ two documents which have been the subject 
 of considerable discussion. The first is a speech which Dundee 
 is alleged to have addressed to his army before the Battle of 
 Killiecrankie. The second is a letter which Dundee is alleged 
 to have despatched to James in Ireland before he succumbed to 
 his wounds. Macaulay, with characteristic impetuosity, did not 
 hesitate to accuse Macpherson of 'as impudent a forgery as 
 Fingal.' Mr. George Smythe, who reprinted the suspected 
 documents in 1826 in the Bannatyne volume of Dundee's letters, 
 had already given Macaulay a lead as to the character of them. 
 Napier, however, was able to adduce evidence in complete dis- 
 proof of Macaulay's charge of forgery against Macpherson, and 
 with a whoop of victory pinned his faith to the genuineness 
 of the documents which Macpherson had copied and printed. 
 From Napier's time opinion has rested in a condition of be- 
 wilderment. It is the purpose of this note to show that 
 Macaulay's scepticism was fully justified, and that Napier's 
 defence of Macpherson was equally so — an apparent contradic- 
 tion which the conclusion will resolve. 
 
 The original manuscript from which Macpherson printed his 
 version of Dundee's alleged speech and letter is in the Bodleian, 
 in one of Carte's miscellaneous volumes of MSS. (vol. 130, 
 fol. 322). That the manuscript which Macpherson printed was 
 contemporary with Killiecrankie admits of no question. The 
 Rev. W. D Macray, who has watched and aided the controversy 
 on this question since Macaulay's challenge and Napier's counter- 
 challenge, kindly answered a question from me as follows : ' As 
 I communicated to Mr. Mark Napier many years ago, the paper 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 370. 
 
 355
 
 356 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 is written by a contemporary hand, upon a quarto half-slieet of 
 paper, without any note or endorsement whatever.' Mr. Firth, 
 Regius Professor of History in the University, was so good 
 as to give me his conclusions upon the contemporary nature 
 of the manuscript which Macpherson utilised. 'There is no 
 possible ground for the theory that Macpherson forged it,' he 
 writes : * It is written on two sides of a loose sheet of quarto 
 paper, in a late 1 7th or early 1 8th century hand. There is no 
 indication of date on the MS. Macpherson has printed it 
 fairly accurately, with the exception of the headlines.' 
 
 So much is clear. Macpherson in 1775 printed in good faith, 
 and with every reason to believe them genuine, a manuscript 
 speech and letter of Dundee, in a contemporary hand, which he 
 found among other papers of the period which his volume in- 
 cludes. Napier triumphs so far. But the further question arises. 
 What is the authority of the document which Macpherson 
 adopted and printed as genuine 1 It is possible to answer con- 
 clusively. While Macpherson's other papers are genuine re- 
 prints of authentic documents, the contemporary manuscript of 
 Dundee's speech to his army and his letter to King James is 
 nothing more than a manuscript copy of a broadside printed in 
 London within a few days of Killiecrankie, of no authority 
 whatever, published in order to counteract the early rumours of 
 Dundee's death and, as that event portended, the destruction of 
 Jacobite hopes in the United Kingdom. 
 
 The news of Dundee's death only leaked out after a con- 
 siderable interval. Lord James Murray, who was at Tullymet 
 on 28th July, heard a rumour to that effect, it is true, and con- 
 veyed the news to his brother. ^ But on the same day (28th 
 July) Hamilton at Edinburgh was sending to Melville his 
 ' humble opinion, that his Majestie must first beat Dundie and 
 secuir this kingdom or he attempt any other thing.' Sir 
 William Lockhart, writing to Melville on the following day 
 (29th July), anticipated Dundee's appearance at Stirling on the 
 morrow.^ On the 30th, however, Mackay, who was then at 
 Stirling, received certain intelligence of Dundee's death, and 
 
 1 HiM. MSS. Comm. Re2)t. xii., pt. viii. p. 41. Lord James had 
 written to Dundee in some anxiety regarding the fate of his father's 
 papers at Blair. A letter, seemingly to the Marchioness, on 7th August 
 1689 (ibid., p. 43), states that the papers had been buried. It gives a 
 pitiable account of the state of the Castle. 
 
 '^ Mackay, Memoirs of the War, pp. 249, 253.
 
 APPENDIX III 357 
 
 sent it on to Hamilton at Edinliurgh.^ Hamilton at once 
 (30th July) wrote to Melville : ' This morning wee got neus 
 that helped to comfort us again, for I see letters this morning 
 to my Lord Murray from sure hands, that Dundie was killed in 
 the action.' 2 In London the first news of Killiecrankie had 
 been coupled with the intelligence that Mackay was killed. On 
 2nd August rumours of Dundee's death were Imzzed abroad.^ 
 The news came like a thunder-clap upon his well-wishers in the 
 capital. Sir John Dalrymple aptly phrased their dismay. 
 'Dundee's death,' he wrote to Melville, ' will look liker another 
 action than a part of the same.'"^ William, it is said, paid his 
 enemy the compliment of declaring the war ended with his 
 death. -^ 
 
 It was after the exhilaration caused by the earliest accounts 
 of Killiecrankie that the London Jacobites heard of the fatal 
 price at which the victory had been bought. The key to their 
 attitude, and a guide to the steps they took to counteract the 
 disastrous tidings, is found in a letter from Sir Adam Blair, at 
 that time a prisoner in the Gatehouse, Westminster, to an 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Kept, xi., pt. vi. p. ISO. 
 
 - Mackay, Memoirs of the War, p. 257. Melville replied on 5th 
 August 1689 : ' I apx'ehend Dundee's death will bridle a litle his partj''s 
 joy and retard ther progress ' (Fraser, The Melvilles and Leslies, vol. ii. 
 p. 142). ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. Rtpt. xii., pt. vii. p. 253. 
 
 ■* Letters chiejlif addressed to George, Earl of Melville, p. 215. 
 
 ' Dalrymple, Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 59. 
 King James's testimony to Dundee's worth is found in a letter to Sir 
 Donald Macdonald of Slcat, dated from Dublin on 30th November 1689 : 
 ' We cannot sufficiently express how much we are afHicted at the news 
 of the Viscount Dundee's death, and next the loss of so brave a man, 
 what is sinseable to us is the opportunity wo lose by it of rewarding his 
 services by putting personal marks of our favour upon him ; but since we 
 cannot do that, we will largely gratify his family when it shall please 
 God to put it in our power to do justice to merit ' {Cal. State Papers, 
 Dom., 1689-1690, p. 338). There is no evidence that James attempted 
 to fulfil his promise. It is true that Douglas's Peerage makes the state- 
 ment that James the Third and Eighth conferred the Thistle upon David 
 Graham. The person thus honoured, however, was not David Graham, 
 but Giovanni Battista Gualterio, brother of Cardinal Gualterio, on whom 
 about November 1705 James conferred the Earldom of Dundee, and on 
 whom in May 1708 he conferred the Order of St. Andrew {Stuart Papers 
 at Windsor, Hist. MSS. Comm., vol. i. pp. 204, 225; see llie Jacobite 
 Peerage, p. 46). Gualterio's ennoblement as Earl of Dundee in 1705 is 
 the only satisfactory evidence available as to the date of David Graham's 
 death. He was in France in ^lay 1692 (nee ibid. , vol. i. p. 74 ; Bucdeuch 
 and Queensberry MSS., vol. ii. pt. i. p. 293).
 
 358 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Edinburgh correspondent. The letter is dated 3rd August 
 1689, the day following the receipt in London of the news of 
 Dundee's death. ' We have an account of Dundies defateing 
 Mackay,' he wrote ; ' and to satisfy the minds of people heir, 
 who are att present very ixneasie, they give it out that Dundie 
 is killed, which his friends heir are not apt to believe.' ^ In 
 other words, having regard to the tardiness with which the 
 information had been conveyed, the London Jacobites were of 
 opinion that the Government had in its own interests promul- 
 gated information which it knew to be false. The party- 
 managers were equal to the occasion, and within a short time 
 of the publication of the Government's intelligence, a broadside 
 was prepared and circulated among the ' honest,' which, with 
 magnificent audacity, negatived the Government's declaration 
 that Dundee had died in the action, by publishing, Avithout 
 comment, a letter from his own pen which proved him alive and 
 confident, albeit wounded — an artistic touch, which met the 
 official pronouncement half-way. To give an added air of 
 veracity to the production, Dundee's speech to his army before 
 the battle was concocted and published. The broadside 
 appeared as follows : — ^ 
 
 The Lord of D UNDEE^s S2)eech to his Soldiers before the late Battle 
 in SCOTLAND, and his LETTER to King JAMES after the 
 VICTORY.^ 
 
 July 27th, 1689. 
 GENTLEMEN,^ 
 
 X OU are come hither to-^ Day to Fight, and that in the best 
 of Causes ; for it is" the Battle'' of your King, of* your Religion, and 
 
 ^ Letters chiefly addressed to Gtorge, Earl of Melville, p. 234. 
 
 - The broadside is in the possession of Mr. F. L. Mawdesley, Fulford 
 Cottage, Dormans Park, Surrey. He purchased it when it appeared 
 some months ago in the catalogue of a London antiquary, and most 
 kindly sent it to me to inspect. His copy, to the best of my knowledge, 
 is the sole survivor of the many that must have been printed. It is 
 of folio size, and very clean and fresh. Both speech and letter are 
 printed on one side. With a view to determining whether the MS. copy 
 in the Bodleian is a transcript of the broadside, or the rough proof from 
 which the broadside was printed, I have collated it with the MS. copy in 
 the Bodleian. I owe thanks to Professor Firth and Mr. Macray for 
 their help in this. 
 
 ' In the Bodleian MS. the heading is simply : ' The Lord Dundees 
 Speech before the Battle.' ^ The MS. has ' Gent.' 
 
 5 ' this ' in the MS. « ' tis ' in the MS. 
 
 ■? ' Batle ' in the MS. » ' of ' is omitted in the MS.
 
 APPENDIX III 359 
 
 oP your Countrey, iigainst the Foulest o{^ Usurpations and Rebellions ; 
 Havinj/ ^ therefore so good a Cause in your hands, I doubt not but it 
 will ■* Inspire you with an equal Courage to maintain it ; For there is 
 no Proportion betwixt Loyalty and Treason, nor should there be any 
 between * the Valour of good Subjects and Traytors. Remember that 
 to Day begins the Fate of your King, your Religion, and your Coixntrey. 
 Behave your selves therefore like true Scotch-Men, and let us Redeem 
 by this Action^ the Credit of our*' Nation, that is laid low by the 
 Treachery'^ and Gowardize oi some of our Countrey-uien ; In which I 
 Ask nothing of you that you shall not see me do before you ; And if 
 any of us shall happen to fall upon this Occasion, we shall have the 
 Comfort^ of Dying in our Duty, and as becomes true Men of 
 Honour^ and Conscience ; And such of us as shall Out-live and Win 
 the Battle, ^^ shall have the Retoarcl of a Gracious King, and the Praise 
 of all Good Men. In God's Name then, let us go on, and let this be 
 your Word, King James and the Glmrch of Scotland, which God long 
 Preserve. 
 
 The Lord of DUNDEE'S LETTER to King JAMES after the 
 VICTOR V.^^ 
 SIR, 
 
 IT has pleased God to give your Forces a great Victory over the 
 Rebels, in which 3 Fourths ^^ of them are fallen under the Weight of 
 our Swords. I might say much of the Action if I had not had the 
 Honour to Command in it ; But out ^^ of 5000 Men, which was the best 
 Computation I could make of the Rebels, it is^^ certain there cannot 
 have escap'd ^^ us above 1200 i''; and of our Body that Consisted of near 
 600L) Men," we have not lost full out 000. This Absolute Victory made 
 us Blasters of the Field and the Enemy's ^^ Baggage, which I gave to 
 your Soldiers, who to do them all Right, both Officers and Common Men, 
 Highlanders, Luwlanders,^^ and Irish, behaved themselves with an equal 
 Gallantry to what I ever^*' saw in the hottest Battles Fought abroad 
 by Disciplin'd Armies, and this Machay's old Soldiers felt in this 
 Occasion. I cannot^' now Sir be more particular, but take leave to 
 
 ^ ' of is omitted in the MS. ^ ' and having ' in the MS. 
 
 3 ' twill ' in the MS. •* ' betwixt ' in the MS. 
 ^ ' let us by this action redeem ' in the MS. 
 
 ^ ' this ' in the MS. "^ ' treacheries ' iu the MS. 
 
 s ' honour ' in the MS. " ' valour ' in the MS. 
 " ' Batle ' in the ^NIS. 
 
 " ' Lord Dundees letter to K. James after the fight ' in the MS. 
 
 12 «3-4ths' in the MS. i^ ' out' is omitted in the MS. 
 
 " ' tis ' in the MS. ^-^ ' escaped ' in the MS. 
 ^^ ' men ' is added in the MS. 
 
 1'' The sentence, 'and of our Body . . . Men,' is omitted iu the MS. 
 
 18 « Enemies ' in the MS. ^^ ' Highlands, Lowlands ' in the MS. 
 
 2" ' ever I ' in the MS. '^^ ' can not ' iu the MS.
 
 360 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Assure your Majesty,'^ the Kingdom is generally disposed to your 
 Service, and impatiently waits ^ your Coming, and this Siiccess will 
 bring in the rest of the Nobility and Gentry, having had all their 
 Assurances for it, except the Notorious Rebels; And therefore Sir, 
 for God's Sake hasten to ^ us, tho it be but ^ with such another Detach- 
 ment of your Irish Forces as you sent us before, especially of Horse and 
 Dragoons, and you will Crown our beginnings with a Conipleat Success, 
 and Your Self with an Entire Possession of Your Ancient and Heredi- 
 tary Kingdom of Scotland. 
 
 My Wounds forbid me to Enlarge to Your Majesty '' at this time, 
 tho' they tell me, they are not Mortal ; However Sir, I beseech Your 
 Majesty^ to believe that I shall Live and Die Entirely'' 
 
 Yours, DUNDEE. 
 
 July 28, 1689.' 
 
 FINIS 
 
 Any doubt of the spuriousness of the iibove letter is removed 
 by the fact that Dundee is made to estimate his numbers at 
 Killiecrankie at nearly three times their actual strength. For 
 that reason, it may be, the manv^script copy of the broadside 
 which found its way to Ireland and the Bodleian omitted so 
 glaring an error. But for that omission the spurious character 
 of the document which Macpherson printed might earlier have 
 been proved. When and how the manuscript found its way 
 among Nairn's papers cannot be traced. But it is not difficult 
 to conclude that it was sent either as a curiosity of political 
 audacity, or, more probably, as an indication of the party's 
 vitality in London. In either case, the manuscript's derivation 
 from the broadside is clear. In other words, the letter and 
 speech published by Macpherson, which Napier and others 
 endorsed as genuine on the evidence of the contemporary 
 character of the manuscript from which they were printed, are 
 deprived of their authority. For the puzzling manuscript is 
 
 1 * Majestic ' in the MS. - ' wait for ' in the MS. 
 
 3 ' assist ' in the MS. ■* ' but ' is omitted in the MS, 
 
 '^ ' Majestic ' in the MS. 
 
 '' The MS. has ' whether I live ur die I am entirely.' 
 
 '' The date is omitted in the MS.
 
 APPENDIX III 361 
 
 now demonstrated to be a rough transcript of a Jacobite broad- 
 side published shortly after Killicrankie with the object of 
 cojifuting the first news of Dundee's death. ^ 
 
 1 The idea had occurred to me that the Bodleian manuscript was itself 
 the ' copy ' from which the broadside was printed. A collation of the 
 two texts clearly demonstrates, I think, that the writer of the manu- 
 script had the broadside before him. His shortening of the headlines, the 
 employment of ' tis ' and ' twill ' for 'it is ' and ' it will,' of ' 3-4ths ' for 
 '3 Fourths,' and other contractions and omissions, clearly point to this 
 conclusion. 
 
 News of the battle at Killiecrankie was carried to James in Ireland by 
 Major James Middleton (Acta Purlt. Scot., vol. ix. App. p. 55). The 
 letters he l)ore were probably signed by Dunfermline. See '/'he DesjjoCs 
 Cham2)lon (p. 322), quoting a letter from the Master of Stair, dated 2nd 
 August 1689.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Aberdeen, George, Earl of, 103, 
 111,113, 115,116, 117, 120,124, 
 125, 127, 129, 132, 133, 134, 
 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 
 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 
 149, 150, 151, 154, 155, 158, 
 165, 183, 189, 312. 
 
 Aberdeen, University of, 8. 
 
 Abernethy, 302. 
 
 Abingdon, 243. 
 
 Abjuration Oath, 171, 173, 190, 
 194, 197, 198, 199, 201, 202. 
 
 Aboyne, 272. 
 
 Achenreoch, 140. 
 
 Achtera, 315. 
 
 Aguew, Sir Andrew, of Lochnaw, 
 103. 
 
 Airdrie, 70. 
 
 Airds Moss, engagement at, 89. 
 
 Airlie, James, Earl of, 37, 181, 
 253, 313, 346, 349. See Regi- 
 ments. 
 
 Alexander, Jean, 218. 
 
 Allegiance, Oath of, 215. 
 
 Alvie, 293, 294, 295, 296. 
 
 Angus. See Forfar. 
 
 Annan, 141. 
 
 Annandale, William, Earl of, 216, 
 259, 260, 334, 349. See Regi- 
 ments. 
 
 Annandale, 39, 41, 49, 89, 103, 104, 
 110, 167. 
 
 Anwotb, 212. 
 
 Ardersier, 272. 
 
 Ardoch, 177. 
 
 Argyll, Archibald, Earl of, 100, 
 152, 194, 201, 204, 213, 214, 
 217. 
 
 Duke of, 262, 317, 321, 
 
 332. 
 
 Argyllshire, 215, 262. 
 
 Arlington, Henry, Earl of, 20. 
 
 Ath, 24. 
 
 362 
 
 AthoU, John, Marquis of, 35, 215, 
 240, 251, 252, 259, 260, 269, 
 312, 319, 323, 326. 
 
 Auchencloy, 177, 178. 
 
 Aiichindoune Castle, 301. 
 
 Auchinleck, Robert, 196. 
 
 William, 196, 213. 
 
 Auchmoutie, Alexander, 228. 
 
 Auldearn, 272, 341. 
 
 Ayr, 83, 136, 140, 144, 215. 
 
 Ayrshire, 41, 44, 83, 112, 144, 
 145, 147, 165, 166, 191. 
 
 Baillie, Robert, of Jerviswood, 
 
 183. 
 Balcarres, Colin, Earl of, 146, 165, 
 
 181, 184, 218, 219, 226, 227, 
 
 232, 234, 235, 240, 241, 242, 
 
 245, 246, 248, 250, 251, 256, 
 
 257, 260, 263, 279, 313, 346, 
 
 349. 
 
 James, Earl of, 242. 
 
 Balfour, Colonel Bartholomew, 334, 
 
 335, 339, 343. 
 
 Sir David, of Forret, 1 36. 
 
 John, of Kinloch, 84. 
 
 Colonel John, 283, 284. See 
 
 Regiments, Twenty-first of the 
 
 Line. 
 
 Captain, 281. 
 
 Ballagan, 147. 
 
 Ballantine, Sir William, 26. 
 
 Ballantrae, 44. 
 
 Ballargus, 2, 5, 126. 
 
 Ballindalloch Castle, 298. 
 
 Balnamoon, Laird of, 13. 
 
 Balvenie, 298, 299, 302, 
 
 Banner, the ' bluidy,' 58. 
 
 Bass Rock, 108. 
 
 Bath, 312. 
 
 Bathgate, 174. 
 
 Belhaven, John, Lord, 334, 335. 
 
 See Regiments.
 
 INDEX 
 
 363 
 
 Bell, John, of Whiteside, 212. 
 Bellasize, Sir Henry, 24. 
 Berkeley, Colonel John, 283, 293, 
 
 300. /S'ee Regiments, Princess's 
 
 Regiment. 
 Bernardi, Major John, 20, 24. 
 Berwick, James, Duke of, 239, 
 
 301. 
 Berwick, 68. 
 Berwickshire, 41, 69. 
 BetOD, David, Cardinal, 2, 123. 
 ' Beuly ' Bog, 68. 
 Bicester, 243. 
 'Bile,' the, 112, 113. 
 'Bille,' the, 112. 
 Binche, 19. 
 Binnie, James, 251. 
 Binning. See Browning. 
 Birkhill, 213. 
 Birse, 272. 
 
 Blackader, John, 73, 75. 
 Blackburn, 69, 70, 174. 
 Black Loch, 161, 165, 167. 
 Blackwood, 164. 
 Blair, Sir Adam, 347, 357. 
 
 William, of Blair, 279, 302. 
 
 Castle, 278, 319, 320, 322, 
 
 323, 324, 329, 331, 332, 333, 
 
 344, 353, 356. 
 
 Church of Old, 344, 352. 
 
 Blessing, The, 100. 
 
 Blythe, CajDtain, 57. 
 
 Boag. See Bogue. 
 
 Bog of Gight, 272. 
 
 Bogue, William, 138, 170. 
 
 Boick. See Bogue. 
 
 ' Bond of Peace,' the, 168. 
 
 Bonnybridge, 63. 
 
 Bothwell Bridge, 64, 67, 70. 
 
 battle of, 69 et seq., 97. 
 
 Boyce, Mr., 19. 
 
 Breadalbane, John, Earl of, 37, 
 
 309, 312. 
 Breakachy, 331. 
 Brechin, 271. 
 Breidy, Mr., 307, 325. 
 Bridge of Dee, 176, 211, 212. 
 Brisbane, Margaret, Baroness 
 
 Napier, 225. 
 Broughty Castle, 225. 
 Brounen. See Browning. 
 Brown, James, 215. 
 John, of Priesthill, 192, 197, 
 
 211. 
 Captain John, of Irvine, 312. 
 
 Brown, Captain, 65. 
 
 Brownen. See Browning. 
 
 Browning, John, 197, 200, 202, 
 204, 205, 206, 210. 
 
 lirowulee, Thomas, of Torfoot, 53, 
 54, 55, 78. 
 
 Broxburn, 69. 
 
 Bruce, Andrew, of Earlshall, 41, 
 45, 89, 99, 164, 178, 347, 348. 
 
 David, of Clackmannan, 347, 
 
 349. 
 
 Bruning. See Browning. 
 
 Bryce, John, 204, 206. 
 
 Buchau, Lieut. -Colonel Thomas, 
 145, 146, 147, 162, 163, 164, 
 165, 235, 284. See Regiments, 
 Twenty-lirst of the Line. 
 
 Bulstrode, Sir Richard, 20. 
 
 Buntine, Major Hugh, 258, 259. 
 
 Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salis- 
 bury, 8, 246, 313. 
 
 Burntisland, 100, 168, 285. 
 
 Cabeljauw, Major, 29, 31. 
 
 Cairn o' Mount, 266, 271. 
 
 Cairn Table, 163, 164, 198. 
 
 Caithness, Earl of. See Breadal- 
 bane, Earl of. 
 
 Caithness, 276. 
 
 Calder, 174. 
 
 Water, 59. 
 
 Cameron, Donald, of Lochiel, 290. 
 
 Sir Ewen, of Lochiel, 259, 
 
 273, 275, 284, 287, 288, 290, 
 292, 304, 306, 307, 312, 331, 
 339, 340, 341, 342, 343. 
 
 John, of (ilendessary, 290, 
 
 of Lochiel, 290. 
 
 Rev. Richard, 89. 
 
 Campbell, Sir Colin, 279. 
 
 Sir Duncan, of Auchinbreck, 
 
 344, 353. 
 
 Campbelltown, 213. 
 
 Campsie, 139. 
 
 Canaries, Dr. James, 221. 
 
 Cannon, Colonel Alexander, 12, 
 320, 321, 339, 350. 
 
 Capernaum, 58. 
 
 Cardross, Henry, Lord, 312. 
 
 Cargill, Rev. Donald, 73, 89, 95, 
 102, 135. 
 
 Cargill, 280. 
 
 Carleton, Captain George, 20, 24. 
 
 Thomas, 309. 
 
 Carlisle, 215, 234, 235.
 
 364 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Carluke, 204. 
 Carraichell, Mr., 174. 
 Carnegie, James, 148. 
 
 Lady Jean, 3. 
 
 Carrbridge, 28(5, 267. 
 
 Carrick, 49, 84, 110. 
 
 Carrickfergus, 820. 
 
 Carse [? Kerr], Sir Mark, 347, 
 
 349. 
 Caraphairn, 175, 176, 177. 
 Carte, Thomas, 244. 
 Cassel, battle of, 30, 32. 
 Cassillis, John, Earl of, 312. 
 Castlemilk, 40. 
 Cathcart, James, of Carbiestoiin, 
 
 234. 
 Cathkin, 59. 
 Charleroi, 30, 32. 
 Charles ii.. King, 15, 16, 88, 124, 
 
 136, 149, 151, 187. 
 Chester, 234. 
 
 Clare, Gilbert, Earl of, 20. 
 Clatt, 266. 
 Claverhouse, 1, 2, 5, 7, 126. 
 
 Barns of, 123, 126. 
 
 'Castle,' 122, 123, 125, 126. 
 
 Claypotts Castle, 123, 126. 
 Cleland, James, 70. 
 
 Cornet John, 349. 
 
 Lieut. -Colonel William, 55, 
 
 58, 59. 
 
 —— Captain, 146. 
 
 Closeburu, 216. 
 
 Cluny Castle, 277, 292, 329, 330. 
 
 Clydesdale, 112, 117, 146, 147, 165, 
 
 168. 
 Cobham, Thomas, 229. 
 Cochrane, Lady Grizel, 158. 
 
 Hon. Jean, Viscoiintess of 
 
 Dundee, 3, 7, 126, 154, 156, 158, 
 159, 160, 161, 162, 164, 226, 
 265, 271, 282, 353. 
 
 John, Lord, 155, 157, 158. 
 
 Sir John, of Ochilltree, 145, 
 
 155, 156, 213. 
 
 William, Lord, 154. 
 
 Colchester, Richard, Viscount, 270, 
 
 271, 276. See Regiments. 
 Coldwakening, 58. 
 Colinton, Lord. See Foulis, Sir 
 
 James. 
 Collithie, 268. 
 Colmonell, 209, 210. 
 Colt, Lieut. James, 278, 304. 
 Colyear, Sir Alexander, 26. 
 
 Cond6, Louis, Prince of, 18, 19, 20, 
 
 24, 30. 
 Conuell, John, 300. 
 Conventicles, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 
 
 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 87, 96, 103, 
 
 104, 105, 114, 135, 146, 161, 165, 
 
 167, 194, 195, 198, 227. 
 Conway, Edward, Earl of, 101. 
 Corryarrack, Pass of, 277. 
 Coulterallers, Laird of, 215. 
 Coupar Angus, 280, 282, 293. 
 Courts of Justiciarjr, 87, 136, 167, 
 
 184. 
 Cowals, 290. 
 Coxton, 267. 
 Craigellachie, 298. 
 Craighaugh, 207. 
 Crane, Mr., 255, 311. 
 Crawford, Corporal, 57. 
 Creichton, Captain John, 198, 240, 
 
 302. 
 Crewburn, 52. 
 Crichton, Lieut. Francis, 348. 
 
 Thomas, 278. 
 
 Cromdale, 298, 301, 345. 
 Crook Inn, 112. 
 Crossmichael, 172, 176. 
 Culnakyle, 287, 294, 295, 296, 297, 
 
 298, 300, 302, 303, 305. 
 Culter, 215. 
 Cumliernauld, 46. 
 Cumnock, 143, 163. 
 Cuper, Mr., 40. 
 
 Dalcomera. See Mucomir. 
 Dalmacommer. See Mucomir. 
 Dalmellington, 162, 164, 166, 215, 
 Dalraddy, 295. 
 Dairy, 176, 177. 
 
 Dalrymple, Sir .James, 113, 114, 
 312. 
 
 Sir John, 104, 113, 114, 115, 
 
 116, 117, 118, 169, 302, 312, 
 328, 342, 357. 
 
 Lady, 116. 
 
 Dalziel, Sir Robert, 176. 
 
 Lieut. -General Thomas, of 
 
 Binns, 55, 75, 78, 8.3, 88, 89, 103, 
 112, 131, 132, 136, 142, 143, 145, 
 146, 147, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 
 181, 218, 346. See Regiments, 
 Royal Regiment of Dragoons 
 (Scots Greys). 
 
 Darnaway Castle, 272. 
 Dempster, Thomas, 9
 
 INDEX 
 
 365 
 
 Dendermonde, 24. 
 Dougals, 291. 
 
 Douglas, Lord George. See Dum- 
 barton, George, Earl of. 
 
 James, Marquis of, 6, 312, 
 
 345. 
 
 Sir James, of Kelhead, 347. 
 
 Lieut. -General James, 181, 
 
 182, 184, 190, 196, 198, 204, 205, 
 206, 208, 213, 214, 215, 224, 235, 
 236, 238, 250, 312. 
 
 Rev. James, 53. 
 
 Cornet William, 181, 349. 
 
 Lord William, 178, 180, 181, 
 
 349. 
 Douglas, 82, 166. 
 Dover, Treaty of, 15. 
 Drumclog, engagement at, 52 et seq., 
 
 86. 
 Druminnor, 272. 
 Drumlanrig, James, Earl of, 165, 
 
 167, 180, 181, 348. 
 Drummond, Alexander, of Balhaldy, 
 
 259, 290. 
 
 Lord George, 184. 
 
 (Macgregor), William, of Bal- 
 haldy, 290. 
 Lieut. -General William, of 
 
 Cromlix, 198, 204, 205, 206, 208, 
 
 214, 215, 218, 223. 
 
 Mr., 311. 
 
 Duart Castle, 279, 320. 
 Dublin Castle, 263, 357. 
 Dudhope, John, Viscount, 123. 
 Castle, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 
 
 127, 129, 131, 132, 148, 149, 151, 
 
 152, 164, 166, 188, 218, 224, 225, 
 
 231, 248, 250, 259, 260, 261, 265, 
 
 282. 
 Dumbarton, George, Earl of, 15, 
 
 193, 205, 206, 214, 216, 240, 
 
 250. 
 
 Castle, 234. 
 
 Dumbartonshire, 41. 
 
 Dumfries, 39, 40, 4.3, 49, 105, 110, 
 
 112, 116, 121, 136, 140, 141, 147, 
 
 164, 167, 168. 
 Dumfriesshire, 39, 41, 60, 83, 87, 
 
 89, 104, 167, 207. 
 Dunachton Castle, 295. 
 Dunan, 321. 
 Dunart, .321. 
 Dunbar, 90. 
 Dunblane, 259. 
 Dundas, William, 9, 10. 
 
 Dundee, James, Viscount of, 238, 
 344. 
 
 Jean, Viscountess of. See 
 
 Cochrane, Hon. Jean. 
 
 John, Viscount of. See 
 
 Graham, John, of Olaverhouse. 
 
 John, Earl of, 123, 
 
 Constableship of, 124, 125, 
 
 129, 131, 1.32, 148, 149, 151, 152, 
 153, 167, 225, 227. 
 
 Jacobite Earldom of, 238. 
 
 Earldom of, 312. 
 
 Dundee, 7, 152, 153, 107, 188, 218, 
 224, 225, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 
 248, 249, 265, 266, 270, 281, 
 294. 
 
 Dundonald, William, Earl of, 154, 
 156, 157, 158. 
 
 Dunfermline, James, Earl of, 267, 
 268, 272, 279, 280, 303, 313, 
 361. 
 
 Dunkeld, James, Lord, 313. 
 
 Dunkeld, 278, 282, 333. 
 
 Dunmore, Charles, Earl of, 214, 
 235, 239, 270, 313. See Regi- 
 ments, Royal Regiment of Dra- 
 goons (Scots Greys). 
 
 Rachel, 188. 
 
 Dunscore, 39. 
 
 Du Quesne, Sieur, 320. 
 
 Eassie, 280. 
 
 Easter Brigton, 6. 
 
 Edinburgh'^ 60, 63, 64, 68, 69, 82, 
 
 83, 89, 90, 9.5, 109, 110, 111, 
 
 112, 132, 136, 142, 144, 161, 
 
 168, 169, 174, 189, 192, 217, 
 
 219, 223, 226, 233, 285, 306, 
 
 311, 312, 313, 314, 332. 
 Castle, 223, 234, 250, 251, 
 
 252, 253, 257, 258, 260, 270, 
 
 305, 311, 345. 
 Edinglassie, 300, 301, 302. 
 Eglinton, Alexander, Earl of, 81, 
 
 312. 
 Elephant, the first, in Scotland, 117. 
 Elgin, 267, 270, 272, 274, 275, 
 
 276, 305. 
 Enghien, 27, 30. 
 Enterkin Pass, 164, 165. 
 Epitaphs of the ' martyrs,' 83, 137, 
 
 139, 172, 177, 178, 199, 205, 
 
 206, 207, 209. 
 Errol, Catherine, Countess of, 125, 
 
 314.
 
 366 
 
 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Errol, John, Earl of, 312. 
 
 Eskflalemuir, 207. 
 
 Estates of Scotland, proceedings of 
 
 the, 37, 96, 194, 214, 245, 250- 
 
 263, 204, 283. 
 Exeter, 238. 
 
 Falconer, Sir David, 162 
 Falkirk, 49, 63. 
 Farquharson, Major, 315. 
 Faskally, 338. 
 Faversham, 243. 
 
 Feiiton, , of Ogil, 2S1. 
 
 Fenwick, Sir John, 28. 
 Perguson, Robert, 177, 178. 
 Fergusson, William, of Kaitloch, 
 
 74. 
 Fettercairn, 271. 
 Feversham, Louis, Earl of, 70, 239, 
 
 240. 
 Fiddich, 298, 301. 
 Fiddison. See Finneson. 
 Fife and Kinross, 41, 60, 69, 116, 
 
 143, 184, 233. 
 
 Finlay, , of Leshmahagow, 58. 
 
 Finneson, William, 204, 206. 
 
 Fintry Castle, 1, 4. 
 
 Fitzhardinge, John, Viscount, 283. 
 
 Fletcher, Cornet James, 349. 
 
 Fochabers, 267. 
 
 Forbes, Alexander, Lord, 272. 
 
 Captain John, 293, 297. 
 
 Master of, 266, 272, 275, 298. 
 
 Ford Mill, 298. 
 
 Forfar, 293. 
 
 Forfarshire, 13, 69, 214, 233. 
 
 Forres, 267, 272, 276. 
 
 Forth, river, 68. 
 
 Fotheringham, Mariot, of Powrie, 
 
 2. 
 
 of Powrie, 225. 
 
 Foulis, Sir James, of Colinton, 111, 
 
 136. 
 Fountainhall, Lord, 117. 
 Fowler, John, 72. 
 France, Scottish regiments in the 
 
 service of, 15. 
 Franche <J!omte, 19. 
 Eraser of Foyers, 291. 
 Freuch, 95, 96, 101, 106, 121, 185, 
 
 186, 188, 225. 
 Fullerton, , of Fullerton, 281. 
 
 Galashiels, 50. 
 Gala Water, 68. 
 
 Galdiuoch, 96. 
 
 Galloway, 71, 72, 73, 83, 103, 105, 
 
 107, 111, 113, 117, 129, 1.35, 
 
 142, 147, 166, 168, 184, 185, 
 
 190, 198. 
 Gallows, the Whig, at Bothwell 
 
 Bridge, 82. 
 Galston, 83, 196, 198, 206, 207. 
 Garvemore, 292, .329. 
 Gaw, GeiUis, 123, 126. 
 Ghent, 24. 
 Gibbons, 290. 
 Gillies, Peter, 204, 206. 
 Glamis Castle, 262, 281. 
 Glasgow, 50, 51, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 
 
 65,66, 67, 72, 73, 136, 137, 139, 
 
 140, 161, 215. 
 
 Archbishop of, 240. 
 
 Glenavon, 301. 
 
 Glencairn, John, Earl of, 312. 
 
 Glencairn, 178. 
 
 Glenlivet, 299, .301. 
 
 Glenluce, Heritable Bailie of, 113. 
 
 Glenogilvie, 2, 5, 13, 37, 97, 123, 
 
 126, 159, 266, 267, 282. 
 Glenrinnes, 299. 
 Glenroy, 282, 2S7, 304, 321. 
 Glenspean, 292. 
 Gordon, Sir Alexander, of Earlston, 
 
 145. 
 George, Duke of, 128, 215, 
 
 223, 250, 251, 252, 253, 255, 
 
 257, 258, 260, 263, 268, 305, 
 
 311, 313. 
 
 Sir George, of Edinglassie, 
 
 302. 
 
 Sir Ludovick, of Gordons- 
 town, 154. 
 
 Castle, 267, 268, 272. 
 
 Graham, Anne, of Claverhouse, 3. 
 David, of Claverhouse, 3, 8, 
 
 38, 90, 95, 99, 133, 181, 183, 
 
 189, 198, 209, 238, 265, 294, 
 
 344, 347, 34S, .'^57. 
 
 David, of Duntrune, 7, 148. 
 
 George, of Claverhouse, 2. 
 
 Helen, 45, 46, 48, 90, 91, 92, 
 
 95, 97, 98, 99, 101, 154. 
 
 Henry, 349. 
 
 Colonel Henry, 29. 
 
 James, Viscount of Dundee, 
 
 265, 282. 
 
 Sir .James, 45, 47, 48, 91, 93. 
 
 James, of Duntrune, 3, 28, 
 
 224.
 
 INDEX 
 
 367 
 
 Graham, Quartermaster James, 38. 
 
 Graham, John, of Claverhonse, 2, 
 126. 
 
 John, of Claverhonse, 2, 120. 
 
 John, of Claverhouse, 2, 126. 
 
 John, of Claverhouse, ancestry 
 
 of, I et seq. ; his father, 2 ; his 
 mother, 8 ; brother and sisters 
 of, 3 ; date of his birth, 5 ; in- 
 fefted in lands of Easter Brigton, 
 6 ; served heir to his father, 7 ; 
 receives the freedom of Dundee, 
 ib. ; placed under ward of his 
 uncle, ih.; enters St. Andrews, 8 ; 
 date of his matriculation, 9 ; 
 graduates Master of Arts, 10 ; 
 character of his university studies, 
 1 1 ; his gifts as a letter-writer, 
 ib. ; probably ignorant of Gaelic, 
 12; appointed J. P. for Forfar- 
 shire, 13 ; enters French service 
 as a volunteer, 14 ; possibly 
 junior lieutenant in Lockhart's 
 regiment, 16; probable service in 
 France, ib. ; enters the service of 
 Holland, 17, 19; at the battle of 
 SenetFe, 20 ; his conduct thereat, 
 21 ; asserted rescue of William 
 of Orange by, ib. ; William's 
 alleged ingratitude to, 25 ; his 
 asserted rivalry with David 
 Colyear, 26 ; and with Mackay 
 of Scourie, ib. ; returns to .Scot- 
 land, 27 ; sails for Holland, 2S ; 
 at the siege of Maastricht, ib. ; 
 promoted captain, 29 ; resigns his 
 commission, 31 ; his motive for 
 the step, ib. ; secures York's 
 patronage, 34 ; refuses a com- 
 mission under Montrose, 35 ; has 
 permission to ' go off the King- 
 dom,' 36 ; returns to Scotland, 
 37 ; served heir in certain pro- 
 perties, ib. ; appointed a commis- 
 sioner by the Estates, ib. ; com- 
 missioned captain of a troop of 
 horse, 38 ; Dumfries and Annan- 
 dale assigned as his quarters, 39; 
 reports his proceedings, ib. ; 
 destroys a conventicle, 40 ; 
 appointed Sheriff-depute of Dum- 
 fries, etc., 41 ; account of his 
 proceedings, 43 ; instructions to, 
 44 ; his proposed marriage to 
 Helen Graham, 45 ; writes to 
 
 Menteith on the matter, 46 ; 
 recommended by Menteith, 47 ; 
 projjoses for Helen Graham's 
 hand, 48 ; reports the disturbed 
 state of the country, 49 ; escorts 
 arms and ammunition from Dum- 
 fries, 50; at Glasgow, 51 ; in 
 pursuit of Robert Hamilton, ib. ; 
 at Strathaven, 52 ; engagement 
 at Drumclog, 53 ; his cornet's 
 death, 5G ; reports his defeat to 
 Linlithgow, 59 ; defends Glas- 
 gow against the Whigs' attack, 
 61; joins Linlithgow at Bonny- 
 bridge, 63 ; said to have opposed 
 Linlithgow's resolution to re- 
 treat, 64 ; his alleged exploit at 
 ' Beuly Bog,' 68 ; advances to 
 Bothwell Bridge, 69 ; pursues 
 the routed Whigs, 78 ; his con- 
 duct in the battle, 79 ; in pursuit 
 at Ayr, S3 ; called to London, 
 84 ; tradition of his association 
 with Monmouth's disgrace, ib. ; 
 his principles, 85 ; his religious 
 convictions, 86 ; love of horse- 
 flesh, ib.; returns to Scotland, 89; 
 his portrait painted by Lely, ib. ; 
 returns so England, 90 ; rejected 
 as a suitor for Helen Graham's 
 hand, 91 ; exposes the conduct 
 of his rival, Montrose, ib. ; his 
 moral character, 93 ; watches 
 Menteith 's interests at Court, 94; 
 probable visit to France, 95 ; in 
 attendance on York, ib. ; pro- 
 bably accompanies York to Scot- 
 land, 96 ; granted the forfeited 
 estate of Macdougall of French, 
 ib. ; his tenure of Glenogilvie 
 converted to taxed ward, 97 ; 
 his proposal for Helen Graham's 
 hand conditionally accepted, ib. ; 
 begs Menteith's good offices, 99 ; 
 receives the freedom of Stirling, 
 (7>. ; nearly shipwrecked in the 
 Forth, 100; on the jury at 
 Argyll's trial, ib. ; Helen Graham 
 marries elsewhere, 101 ; ap- 
 pointed Sheriff of Wigton, 103; 
 his instructions, 104 ; unfolds 
 his policy, 105 ; requires rein- 
 forcements, 107, 109; effective- 
 ness of his policy, 110 ; thanked 
 by Privy Council, 112; his advice
 
 368 
 
 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 required iu Ayr and Lanark, ib. ; 
 his narrow escape at Crook Inn, 
 ih.; dispute with the Dalrymples, 
 113; his action approved by 
 Council, 117; promoted colonel 
 of a new-formed regiment, 119; 
 fresh instructions of Council to, 
 120; proceeds to England, 121 ; 
 at Court, 124; desires to acquire 
 Dudhope Castle and the Con- 
 stableship of Dundee, 125 ; advo- 
 cates Queensberry's claim for a 
 dukedom, 127 ; his surprising 
 influence in high quarters, 129 ; 
 reports his methods in Galloway 
 to the Committee of Council, ib.; 
 his failure to advance Queens- 
 berry's interests, 130 ; obtains 
 leave to purchase Dudhope, 131 ; 
 appointed a Privy Councillor, 
 132; returns to Scotland, 133; 
 sworn of the Privy Council, 135 ; 
 opposed to an Indulgence, ib.; 
 appointed to act u2)ou a circuit 
 Court of Justiciary, 136 ; his 
 report of its proceedings, 137; 
 urges the extreme ])enalty in the 
 case of William Bogue, 138 ; his 
 service in connection with the 
 Rye House Plot, 141, 145; his 
 strained relations with Aberdeen 
 and Dalziel, 142; desires leave 
 to go to London, 144 ; his views 
 on the Junto, ib.; recommended 
 for the command of the troojis in 
 Ayi'shire, 145 ; calls on Dalziel 
 for orders, 146; his proceedings 
 in Ayrshire and Galloway, 147 ; 
 liis purchase of Dudhope delayed, 
 148 ; Aberdeen and Lauderdale 
 misrepresent him at Court, 149 ; 
 is anxious to go to London, 150 ; 
 sues Lauderdale for the purchase 
 of Dudhope, 151 ; his right of 
 purchase allowed, 152 ; Dundee 
 protests against his powers as 
 constable, 153 ; his projected 
 marriage to Hon. Jean Cochrane, 
 154 ; his marriage contract 
 signed at Paisley, 158 ; his wife's 
 tragic history, 160 ; his wedding- 
 day, 161 ; called to pursue a 
 conventicle, 162 ; takes his wife 
 to Dudhope, 164 ; appointed on 
 the Committee for Public Affairs, 
 
 165 ; service in Ayrshire and 
 Clydesdale, ib.; acts on a circuit 
 Court of Justiciary, 167; adverse 
 influences at work against him, 
 169; approves of strenuous 
 measures to meet Renwick's 
 Declaration, 171 ; his alleged 
 murder of William Graham, 172 ; 
 his encounter at Bridge of Dee, 
 176; quarrels with Queensbei'ry, 
 180 ; rivalry with Queensberry's 
 brother, 181 ; is admonished by 
 James, 184; on Court of Justi- 
 ciary in Fifeshire, ib.; Queens- 
 berry proposes to sue for recovery 
 of fines levied by, 185; James 
 sanctions Queensberry's proposal, 
 186 ; signs proclamation of 
 James vii.'s accession, 187 ; 
 ordered to account for fines 
 levied by him, 189; his commis- 
 sion as Sheriff of Wigton not 
 renewed, 190; removed from the 
 Privy Council, 191 ; refuses to 
 make terms with Queensborry, 
 ib.; James refuses him permission 
 to come to Court, 192; reinstated 
 on the Privy Council, 193 ; 
 reports the case of John Brown 
 of Priesthill, 197; his treatment 
 of John Brown's nephew, 202 ; his 
 connection with the Mauchline 
 executions, 203 ; the case of 
 Andrew Hislop, 207 ; the case of 
 Matthew Meiklewrath, 209 ; his 
 conduct in the ' Killing Time ' 
 examined, 210 ; commissioned 
 brigadier, 213; his service during 
 Argyll's rebellion, 214; Queens- 
 berry complains of his treatment 
 of the Sanquhar tenants, 216 ; 
 resumes his seat in Privy Council, 
 217 ; visits the Court, and re- 
 covers the fines exacted by 
 Queensberry, 218; his regiment's 
 title augmented, 219 ; opposed to 
 James's philo - Catholic policy, 
 221 ; advocates the prosecution 
 of Dr. Canaries, 222 ; placed on 
 the Treasury Commission, 224 ; 
 promoted major - general, ib. ; 
 appointed first magistrate of 
 Dundee, 225 ; a])proves James's 
 proclamation of Toleration, 226 ; 
 visits England, ib. ; installed
 
 INDEX 
 
 369 
 
 Provost of Dundee, 227 ; his 
 conduct as Provost, 228 ; on the 
 Commission of Treasury and 
 Committee of Trade and Com- 
 merce, 231 ; marches with his 
 regiment into England, 235 ; 
 ordered to York with the cavalry, 
 236 ; quartered in London, ih. ; 
 created Viscount of Dundee, 237; 
 joins the campaign against 
 William of Orange, 238 ; retreats 
 to Reading with the cavalry, 
 239 ; said to have advised James 
 to proceed to Scotland, ib.; with- 
 draws his force to Watford, 240 ; 
 confers with his party in Lon- 
 don, 241 ; interviews James, 242 ; 
 wrongly stated to have visited 
 James on the eve of his depar- 
 ture from England, 244 ; his 
 relations with William, 246 ; 
 returns to Scotland, 248 ; attends 
 the Convention at Edinburgh, 
 249 ; urges Gordon to hold the 
 Castle, 251 ; informs the Conven- 
 tion of Gordon's willingness to 
 surrender his captaincy to Airlie, 
 253 ; learns that his life is 
 threatened, ih. ; dismayed at the 
 tone of James's letter to the 
 Convention, 256 ; interviews 
 Gordon, and rides fi'om Edin- 
 burgh, 257 ; meets Balhaldy at 
 Dunblane, 259 ; replies to Hamil- 
 ton's summons to return, 261 ; 
 proclaimed a rebel, 263 ; birth of 
 his sou, 265 ; withdraws from 
 Dudhope to Forres, 266 ; sum- 
 mons the Clans, 267 ; Dunferm- 
 line ready to join him, 268 ; 
 Mackay's plan of campaign, 269 ; 
 Dundee returns towards Dud- 
 hope, 271 ; rides to Inverness to 
 join Keppoch, 272 ; mediates 
 between Keppoch and the Inver- 
 ness magistrates, 274 ; retreats 
 to Presmuckerach, 277 ; sum- 
 mons the Clans to assemble, ib. ; 
 raids Dunkeld, 278 ; surprises 
 Perth, 279 ; rides on to Glamis, 
 ■J80 ; appears before Dundee, 
 281 ; retires to Glenroy, 282 ; 
 entertained by Lochiel, 287 ; the 
 Clans assemble, 288 ; reviews his 
 forces, 289 ; marches from 
 
 Mucomir, 292 ; Mackay retreats 
 before him, 293 ; comes into 
 touch with Mackay at Alvie, 
 294 ; in communication with 
 Livingstone's dragoons, 296 ; ad- 
 vances from Alvie, 297 ; comes 
 up with Mackay at Balvenie, 
 298 ; halts at Edinglassie, 300 ; 
 retreats to Cromdale, 301 ; to 
 Abernethy, 303 ; retires to 
 Lochaber, 304 ; has a communi- 
 cation from James, 306 ; receives 
 a lieutenant-general's commission, 
 307 ; his plans, 308 ; advises 
 Melfort to resign the Secretary- 
 ship), 309 ; describes the attitude 
 of the Scottish nobility, 312 ; his 
 plans for the King's landing, 313; 
 his optimism, 318 ; orders Balle- 
 chin to hold Blair Castle, 319 ; 
 receives reinforcements from 
 Ireland, 320 ; summons Cluny, 
 321 ; endeavours to enlist Lord 
 John Murray, 324 ; a reward 
 offered for his apprehension, 328; 
 advances into Badenoch, 329 ; 
 hears of Mackay's march, 330 ; 
 marches to Blair, 331 ; engages 
 Mackay at Killiecrankie, 335 ; 
 his death, 343, 350 ; his dead 
 body viewed at Blair, 344 ; note 
 on his regiment, 346 ; his breast- 
 plate at Blair, 351 ; his asserted 
 buff-coat at Penicuik, 352 ; sus- 
 picion of treachery at Killie- 
 crankie, 354 ; his alleged letter 
 to James after Killiecrankie, 355; 
 first news of his death in Edin- 
 burgh, 356 ; and in London, 357; 
 his alleged speech to his army at 
 Killiecrankie, 358 ; text of his 
 alleged letter to James, 359. See 
 Regiments. 
 Graham, John, of Claverhouse, 
 Letters of, 27, 39, 40, 43, 44, 
 46, 48, 49, 50, 55, 59, 60, 85, 91, 
 94, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104, 
 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 
 113, 114, 115, 116, 120, 124, 
 125, 127, 130, 131, 132, 135, 
 137, 138, 141, 142, 144, 146, 
 147, 149, 150, 155, 156, 158, 
 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 
 168, 169, 176, 183, 185, 188, 
 192, 196, 216, 217, 220, 221, 
 
 2A
 
 370 
 
 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 261, 262, 263, 267, 268, 288,1 
 306, 308, 309, 315, 317, 320, 321, 1 
 322, 32i, 328, 329, 331, 347. 
 
 Graham (Giajme), John, of Inch- 
 brakie, 36. 
 
 Lady Magdalene, 2, 3, 123. 
 
 Magdalene, of Claverhouse, 4. 
 
 Magdalene, of Edzell, 268. 
 
 (Gramme), Patrick, of luch- 
 
 brakie (?), 36. 
 
 Major Ranald, 244. 
 
 Sir Robert, of Morphie, 4. 
 
 Robert, of Morphie, 347, 349. 
 
 Robert, of Strathcarrou and 
 
 Fintry, 1, 2. 
 
 Cornet Robert, 38, 56. 
 
 William, of Claverhouse, 2, 
 
 126. 
 William, of Claverhouse 
 
 (father of Dundee), 2, 3, 4, 5, 7. 
 Sir William, of Claverhouse, 
 
 2, 126. 
 William, Lord of, 1. 
 
 Major William, 56, 90, 265, 
 
 268, 330, 347, 349. 
 
 William, tailor in Cross- 
 
 michael, 172, 176, 213. 
 
 of Monorgan, 35. 
 
 of Netherby, 245. 
 
 Colonel, 29. 
 
 Lady, 91, 93, 97, 98, 99, 101. 
 
 Grahams of Claverhouse, ancestry 
 
 of, 1. 
 Grant, John, yr. of Glenmoriston, 
 
 291, 339, 340. 
 Laird of, 269, 276, 285, 287, 
 
 295, 298, 334. 
 Grave, siege of, 24, 26. 
 Greenridge, Thomas, 65, 77. 
 Greg, Thomas, 110. 
 Grier, John, 178. 
 Grierson, John, 177. 
 
 Sir Robert, of Lag, 41, 86, 
 
 212. 
 
 Gualterio, Giovanni Battista, 238, 
 357. 
 
 Hackston, David, of Rathillet, 42, 
 
 72, 89. 
 Haddingtonshire, 41. 
 Hales, Sir Edward, 240. 
 
 Mr., Governor of Chelsea 
 
 Hospital, 19. 
 
 Hall, Henry, of Haugh-head, 72. 
 Halyburton, David, of Pitcur, 280, 
 
 281, 282, 303, 313, 320 343, 
 
 344, 350. 
 Halyburton, Magdalene, 3. 
 Hamilton, William, Duke of, 106, 
 
 137, 140, 155, 193, 218, 226, 
 
 241, 251, 252, 261, 263, 264, 
 
 266, 269, 285, 301, 312, 321, 
 
 323, 324, 354, 356, 357. 
 
 John, Bishop of Dunkeld, 278. 
 
 Sir Robert, 50, 51, 54, 58, 61, 
 
 66, 67, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 89. 
 
 Lady Susann, 155. 
 
 Captain William, of Lady- 
 land, 311. 
 Hamilton, 51, 61, 62, 64, 65, 67, 70, 
 
 78, 137, 255. 
 Hastings, Colonel Ferdinando, 283. 
 
 See Regiments, Somerset Light 
 
 Infantry. 
 Hatton, Lord. See Lauderdale 
 
 Charles, Earl of. 
 Hay, Mr., 307, 309,311, 315. 
 Herron, William, 175. 
 Hislop, Andrew, 207, 209, 210, 
 
 211, 212, 
 Holmes, George, 349. 
 Holyrood Abbey, 224. 
 Home, David, 347. 
 James, Earl of, 37, 62, 69, 
 
 312, 346. See Regiments. 
 Hume, David, 74, 75. 
 
 Sir Patrick, of Polwarth, 312. 
 
 Hunter, Robert, 178. 
 Huntly Castle, 272. 
 Hutton, 209. 
 
 Inchbelly, 137. 
 
 Indemnity, proclamations of, 87, 
 
 88, 96, 135, 194, 200, 231. 
 Inglis, Captain John, 37, 39, 162. 
 Invergarry Castle, 277, 307. 
 Inverlochy, 311, 313, 321. 
 Inverness, 272, 273, 274, 276, 277, 
 
 284, 286, 287, 292, 304, 305, 
 
 314, 317, 332. 
 I})swich, 250. 
 Irongray, 110. 
 Islip, 243. 
 
 Jambs vil, King, 160, 187, 189, 
 191, 192, 193, 194, 214, 218, 
 220, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 
 242, 243, 244, 252, 255, 256, 
 263, 288, 306, 309, 315, 322, 
 324, 326, 327, 350, 357, 361.
 
 INDEX 
 
 371 
 
 James Frauds Stewart, Prince, 231, 
 
 238, 230, 357. 
 James, the, 227. 
 Jedburgh, 136, 141. 
 Johnston, Sir James, of \Vester- 
 
 hall, 207, 208, 209. 
 Johnstone, 216. 
 Junto, the, 144, 147. 
 
 Kaitluch, 147. 
 
 Keith, Sir William, 349. 
 
 Keith, 267, 268. 
 
 Keumure, Alexander, Viscount, 
 
 103, 178, 212, 334. See Regi- 
 ments. 
 Kenmure, 113, 147. 
 Keunoway, Thomas, 174, 194. 
 Keppoch, 304. 
 
 Ker, Daniel, of Kerslaud, 254. 
 Kerr [? Carse], Sir Mark, 347, 349. 
 Kilbride, 49, 65, 162, 164. 
 Kildrummy, 272. 
 Killcumin, 277. 
 Killiecrankie, battle of, 335. 
 
 Pass of, 278, 331, 333. 
 
 Kilmarnock, 163. 
 
 Kilsyth, William, Viscount. See 
 
 Livingstone, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 
 William. 
 Kilsyth, 63, 64, 161. 
 Kinakyle, 297. 
 Kincardine, Lord of. See Graham, 
 
 Lord of. 
 
 O'Neil, 266, 275. 
 
 Kincraig, 294. 
 King, Rev. John, 51, 58. 
 Kingston, Alexander, Viscount, 37. 
 Kinnaird, James, 347, 348, 349. 
 
 George, Lord, 313. 
 
 Kirkconnel, 215. 
 
 Kirkcudbright, 107, 109, 135, 167, 
 
 168, 174, 176, 177, 178, 212. 
 Kirkcudbrightshire, 41, 44, 87, 89, 
 
 104, 110, 167. 
 Kirke, Colonel Percy, 293. 
 Kirkhill Park, 69. 
 Kirkintilloch, 64. 
 Kirriemuir, 266. 
 Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 89. 
 Knockbrecht, 303, 304. 
 Kypes Rig, 65. 
 
 Lamonts, 291. 
 Lanark, 48, 102. 
 Lanarkshire, 41, 51, 112, 116. 
 
 Langholm, 141. 
 
 Langton, Laird of, 258. 
 
 Lanier, Sir John, 12, 283. See 
 
 Regiments, Queen's Regiment of 
 
 Horse. 
 Larbert, 63. 
 Lauderdale, Charles, Earl of, 111, 
 
 123, 124, 128, 131, 132, 14S, 
 
 149, 151, 152, 169. 
 
 Elizabeth, Duchess of, 124. 
 
 John, Duke of, 38, 50, 68, 77, 
 
 82, HI, 124, 128. 
 Richard, Earl of. See Mait- 
 
 land. Lord Richard. 
 Lawburrows, letters of, 168. 
 Lawder, Lieut.-Colonel George, 333, 
 
 335, 336, 338, 341. 
 Leith, 13, 68, 100, 110, 224, 260, 
 
 285. 
 Lely, Sir Peter, 89. 
 Lennox, 72, 73. 
 Leslie, Rev. Charles, 11. 
 David, 76. 
 
 Sir James, 293, 300. -S'ee 
 
 Regiments, The Queen's Regi- 
 ment. 
 
 Lesmahagow, 48, 58, 137, 207. 
 
 Letham House, 52. 
 
 Leven, Alexander, Earl of, 10, 232. 
 
 David, Earl of, 255, 305. 
 
 See Regiments, Edinburgh Regi- 
 ment, 
 
 Limburg, 27. 
 Lindsay, David, 256. 
 
 John, 347. 
 
 Linlithgow, George, Earl of, 15, 39, 
 
 40, 43, 44, 49, 50, 59, 60, 62, 63, 
 
 64, 69, 70, 77, 79, 84, 111, 143, 
 
 181. 
 Linlithgow, 215, 259. 
 Linlithgowshire, 41. 
 Livingston, 174. 
 Livingstone, George, Lord, 77, 143, 
 
 235, 240, 258, 259, 261, 262. 
 
 Sir Thomas, 266, 270, 296, 
 
 298, 303. See Regiments, Royal 
 Regiment of Dragoons (Scots 
 Greys). 
 
 Lieut.-Colonel William, 160, 
 
 270, 271, 281, 294, 297, 302, 
 305, 353, 354. 
 
 Captain, 302. 
 
 Loch Eil, 308. 
 Loch Laggan, 292. 
 Lochness, 215.
 
 .372 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Loch Rauuocli, 2S2. 
 Loch Treig, 282. 
 
 Lockhart, Cromwell, of Lee, 204, 
 205, 20o. 
 
 Sir George, of C;irnwath, 240. 
 
 Sir George, 117, 109. 
 
 Sir John, of Castlehill, 130. 
 
 Sir William, 15. 
 
 Sir William, 350. 
 
 Loudouderry, 306, 308, 315, 318. 
 
 Lothiau, Robert, Earl of, 251, 253. 
 
 Lothians, 69, 233, 259. 
 
 Loudoun Hill, 52, 198. 
 
 Louis XIV., King, 15. 
 
 Louvain, 27. 
 
 Lovat, Hugh, Lord, 312. 
 
 Lundiu, Laird of, 82. 
 
 Lynwilg, 294. 
 
 Maastricht, 10, 28. 
 
 Macalister, Alexander, of Loupe, 
 
 291. 
 M'Bane, Donald, 337. 
 
 McClorg, , a smith, 109. 
 
 Macdonald, Alastair, of Glencue, 
 
 288, 289, 292, 307, 340. 
 Alexander, of Largo, 307. 
 
 Allan, of Clanranald, 288, 
 
 289, 290, 292, 305, 307, 339. 
 
 Coll, of Keppooh, 273, 274, 
 
 288, 290, 292, 293, 295, 307, 
 340. 
 
 Sir Donald, of Sleat, 289, 
 
 305, 307, 340, 357. 
 
 Donald, of Beubecula, 288. 
 
 John, of Largo, 343. 
 
 of Morar, 288. 
 
 Maodonell, Alastair Dubh, younger 
 
 of Glengarry, 288, 289. 
 • Donald, of Glengarry, 343. 
 
 Ranald, of Glengarry, 284, 
 
 292, 306, 307, 339. 
 Macdougall, Patrick, of Freuch, 95, 
 
 96. 
 
 Laird of, 308. 
 
 Macgeorge, William, 168. 
 
 MacGibbons, 290. 
 
 Macgregors, 290. 
 
 Machermore, 147. 
 
 Mackay, Lieut.-General Hugh, of 
 Scourie, 17, 24, 26, 27, 29, 217, 
 237, 250, 260, 266, 269, 270, 271, 
 272, 275, 284, 285, 280, 287, 292, 
 
 293, 294, 295, 2915, 297, 298, 299, 
 300, 301, 302, 304, 305, 306, 312, 
 
 314, 323, 330, 332, 333, 334, 335, 
 
 330, 337, 338, 340, 341, 342, 353, 
 
 356, 357. 
 Mackay, Lieut. -Colonel James, 334, 
 
 343, 351. 
 
 Major, 271, 299, 302. 
 
 Mackculloch, Cai)tain, 74. 
 Mackenzie, Colin, 150, 158. 
 
 Sir George, of Rosehaugh, 
 
 115, 117, 136, 137, 150, 253, 
 254, 312. 
 
 George. See Tarbat, George, 
 
 Viscount. 
 
 Rev. Hector, 273. 
 
 Roderick, 349. 
 
 Mackilwraith, Gilbert, 210, 
 Mackintosh, Laird of, 267, 273, 
 
 284, 295. 
 Maclachlan, Laird of, 291. 
 Maclean, Sir Alexander, 305, 307, 
 
 340. 
 Hector, younger of Lochbuy, 
 
 303. 
 Sir John, of Duart, 290, 307, 
 
 339. 
 
 Sir John, 256. 
 
 of Coll, 290. 
 
 of Torloisk, 290. 
 
 Macleod, Laird of, 306. 
 
 Macleods of Raasa, 291. 
 
 MacMartins, 290. 
 
 Macmichael, James, 175, 177, 178. 
 
 Macmichan. See Macmichael. 
 
 Macmillan, William, 168. 
 
 Macnabs, 290. 
 
 Macnachtanof Dunderaw, 291, 308. 
 
 Macneil of Barra, 291, 340. 
 
 Macpherson, Duncan, of Cluny, 
 
 220, 284, 292, 308, 321, 322, 
 
 328, 329,331, 332. 
 
 — Malcolm, 277- 
 M'Swyne, Dennis, 288, 309. 
 M'Wherrie, John, 137. 
 Magus Muir, 49. 
 
 Maine, Major, 75, 81. 
 
 Mains Castle, 1 . 
 
 Maitland, John, 153. 
 
 Lord Richard, 115, 132, 136, 
 
 138, 140, 148, 150, 151, 152. 
 
 Captain, 111. 
 
 Malcolm, James, 344. 
 
 Man, Bailie James, 229, 230. 
 
 Mar, Charles, Earl of, 37, 68, 259, 
 
 260, 269. 
 John, Earl of, 331.
 
 INDEX 
 
 373 
 
 Mariemout, 19. 
 
 Marisclial, George, Earl, 312. 
 
 Marlborough, John, Duke of, 16, 24. 
 
 Marshall, Rev. Gilbert, 27^^. 
 
 Martin, William, 168. 
 
 Mary of Modena, Queen, 160, 239, 
 
 255, 311, 339. 
 Maubeuge, 27. 
 Mauchline, 163, 166, 203, 204, 205, 
 
 206,213. 
 Maxwell, Charles, 168. 
 
 Sir Robert, 104. 
 
 Maybole, 143. 
 
 Meigle, 280. 
 
 Meiklewrath, Matthew, 209, 211. 
 
 Melfort, John, Earl of, 149, 150, 
 
 181, 182, 184, 186, 187, 188, 
 
 189, 191, 213, 214, 221, 234, 
 
 235, 256, 263, 308, 309, 315, 
 
 325, 326, 327. 
 Melville, George, Earl of, 314, 356, 
 
 357. 
 Memoirs of the Lord Viscormt 
 
 Dundee (1114), 11. 
 Menteith, William, Earl of, 45, 46, 
 
 47, 48, 90, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 
 
 99, 100, 101, 112. 
 Menzies, Colonel James, 37. 
 Middleton, Andrew, of Pitgarvie, 
 
 234. 
 
 Charles, Earl of, 127, 128, 
 
 129, 1.32, 144, 150. 
 
 David, 244. 
 
 Major James, 280, 361. 
 
 Milngavie, 51. 
 
 MinnigaflF, 84, 109, HI, 147, 
 
 Mint, Master of, 123, 124, 128, 
 
 131, 132. 
 Mitchell, James, 175. 
 
 — Robert, 175. 
 Moflfat, 39, 110, 141, 235. 
 Monck, General George, 123, 352. 
 Monk, Captain Thomas, 24. 
 Monkland, Old, 67. 
 Monmouth, James, Duke of, 15, 16, 
 
 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74,75,70, 
 
 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 87, 
 
 88, 141, 217. 
 Montgomery, Henry, Viscount, 
 
 258. 
 Montrose, James, first Marijuis of, 
 
 12, 14. 
 James, third Marquis of, 31, 
 
 34, 35, 45, 50, 51, 91, 92, 93, 94, 
 
 98, 100. 
 
 Moray, Alexander, Earl of, 126, 
 132, 141, 151, 154, 182, 191, 
 192, 193, 213, 214, 217, 218, 
 346. 
 
 Morayshire, 276. 
 
 Morer, Rev. Thomas, 12. 
 
 Morgan, Captain John, 24. 
 
 Morton, James, Earl of, 312. 
 
 Moulin, 331. 
 
 Moy, 306. 
 
 Mucomir, 289, 292. 
 
 Mugdock Castle, 50, 51. 
 
 Muiravonside, 204. 
 
 Muirhead, 69. 
 
 Muirkirk, 164, 199, 207. 
 
 Mairside, 204. 
 
 Mull, 279. 
 
 Mulroy, 295. 
 
 Murdock, Mr., 74, 75. 
 
 Murray, Lord Charles. See Dun- 
 more, Charles, Earl of. 
 
 Sir Charles, 348. 
 
 Sir James, of Skirling, 204. 
 
 Lord James, 356. 
 
 John, Lord, 267, 278, 319, 
 
 320, 322, 323, 324, .328, 329, 330, 
 331, 332, 333, 350, 357. 
 
 Sir John, of Drumcairn, 
 
 280. 
 
 Captain, 300, 302. 
 
 Lieutenant, 300, 302. 
 
 Lieutenant, 198. 
 
 Napier, Thomas, Lord, 225. 
 
 Nasmyth, Cornet James, 348. 
 
 Navailles, Due de, 19. 
 
 New Dundee, barony of, 153. 
 
 New Galloway, 104, 106, 110. 
 
 NewGlenluce, 113, 114. 
 
 Newmarket, 124. 
 
 Newmilns, 82, 162, 166, 197, 198, 
 202. 
 
 Nimmo, James, 174. 
 
 James, 71. 
 
 Nisbet, Sergeant James, 58. 
 
 Nithsdale, Robert, Earl of, 87. 
 
 Nithsdale, 83, 90, 110. 
 
 Nivelles, 18, 19, 27. 
 
 Norfolk, Cardinal of, 221. 
 
 Northesk, David, Earl of, 3. 
 
 David, Earl of, 6, 7. 
 
 John, Earl of, 2. 
 
 Northumberland, Elizabeth, Coun- 
 tess of, 243. 
 
 Nottingham, Daniel, Earl of, 353.
 
 374 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 OCIIILLTBEE, 1G6. 
 
 Ogletborp, Major Theophilus, 69, 
 
 70, 73, 76, 77, 78, SI. 
 Old Deer, 344. 
 Old Mortality, 54, 56, 57, 65, 75, 
 
 78. 
 Orleans, Due d', 30. 
 OiTock, Alexander, 220. 
 Oudenarde, 24. 
 
 Oviugton, Captain Anthony, 303. 
 Owinstone. See Ovington. 
 
 Paisley, 158, 161, 162, 163. 
 
 Panmure, James, Earl of, 226, 313. 
 
 Patersou, Ca]»tain John, 41. 
 
 Sir William, 138. 
 
 Peden, Alexander, 201. 
 
 Roger, 175. 
 
 Pedzen. See Peden. 
 
 Pelican, the, 312, 321. 
 
 Penicuik, 352. 
 
 Pentland Eising, the, 13, 66. 
 
 Perth, James, Earl of, 136, 165, 
 169, 170, 183, 195, 218, 219, 220, 
 221, 222, 223, 240, 276, 280. 
 
 Mary, Countess of, 223. 
 
 Perth, 2, 255, 278, 279, 283, 285, 
 286, 330, 332, 333, 338. 
 
 Perthshire, 41, 69. 
 
 Peterborough, Henry, Earl of, 34. 
 
 Philip, James, of Almerieclose, 21, 
 2.3, 289. 
 
 Pierson, flev. Peter, 175, 177, 194. 
 
 Pieton, river, 18. 
 
 Pitlochry, 323, 333. 
 
 Pollock, Lieutenant Eobert, 279. 
 
 Portmore, David, Earl of, 19, 25, 26. 
 
 Portpatrick, 44. 
 
 Postmaster-General of Scotland, 36. 
 
 Presmuckerach, 277, 278. 
 
 Preston, 235. 
 
 Priestfield. See Priesthill. 
 
 Priesthill, 199, 200. 
 
 Primrose, George Foulis, of Duni- 
 pace, 226. 
 
 Privy Council (Scotland), 36, 38, 
 41, 44, 50, 60, 64, 68, 69, 76, 78, 
 79, 82, 8.3, 87, 88, 89, 90, 102, 
 103, 105,111,112, 114,115, 116, 
 117, 120, 130, 132, 135, 144, 145, 
 152, 165, 167, 171, 173, 174, 176, 
 182, 190, 191, 192, 193, 197, 200, 
 214, 215, 217, 218, 221, 222, 224, 
 226, 227, 229, 230, 231, 233, 234, 
 235, 237, 240, 295, .345, 348. 
 
 Provensal, Sergeant, 297, 299, 301, 
 
 302. 
 Public Aflfairs, Committee of, 40, 
 
 165. 
 
 Qdakegnon, 23. 
 
 Queensberry, William, Duke of, 41, 
 45, 48, 87, 103, 104, 106, 108, 
 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 
 116, 120, 124, 126, 127, 128, 130, 
 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 141, 
 142, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150, 154, 
 155, 156, 158, 165, 166, 167, 168, 
 169, 175, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 
 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 
 193, 194, 196, 213, 216, 217, 218, 
 222, 236, 312, 346, 347, 349. 
 
 Eattts Castle, 292, 293, 294. 
 Ramsay, Colonel George, 334. 
 
 Gilbert, 330, 343, 350. 
 
 Colonel, 285, 286, 287, 295, 
 
 304, 305. 
 Eawdon, Captain, 101. 
 Reading, 239. 
 Eeay, George, Lord, 286. 
 Regiments — 
 
 Airlie's (Earl of) cavalry troop, 
 
 37, 346. 
 Annandale's (Earl of) cavaliy 
 
 troop, 334, 338, 342. 
 Bath's (Earl of) regiment, 244. 
 Belhaven's (Lord) cavalry troop, 
 
 334, 335, 338, 342. 
 Claverhouse's cavalry troop, 38, 
 51, 53, 248. 
 
 regiment. See His Majesty's 
 
 Own Eegiment. 
 Colchester's (Eichard, Viscount) 
 Horse, 270, 271, 276, 286, 305. 
 Dragoon Guards, 1st (King's). 
 See Queen's Regiment of Horse. 
 Dragoon Guards (4th). See Prin- 
 cess's Regiment. 
 Dragoons, 2nd (Royal Scots 
 Greys). See Royal Regiment 
 of Dragoons. 
 Edinburgh Regiment (Twenty- 
 fifth of the Line), 305, 332, 
 .334. 338, 339, 341, 342. 
 Foot Guards (Scots Guards), 37, 
 
 181, 235, 24.3. 
 Highlanders, 37, 77, 204, 305. 
 His Majesty's Own Regiment of 
 Horse (Claverhouse's), 119,181
 
 INDEX 
 
 375 
 
 183, 184, 216, 219, 235, 237, 
 
 243, 346. 
 His Royal Highness's Regiment 
 
 of Horse, 34, 36. 
 Home's (Earl of) cavalry troop, 
 
 37, 62, 69, 346. 
 Kenmure's (Earl of) Regiment of 
 
 Foot, 334, 338, 342. 
 King's Own Scottish Borderers. 
 
 See Edinburgh Regiment. 
 Life Guard of Horse, 35, 37, 51, 
 
 146, 235, 237, 243. 
 Lockhart's (Sir William), 15, 16. 
 Lothian Regiment. See Royal 
 
 Scots. 
 Mar's (Earl of) infantry, 37. -S'ee 
 
 Twenty-first of the Line. 
 Militia, 68, 69, 82, 233, 234, 263. 
 New Royal English, 15. 
 Princess's Regiment (4th Dragoon 
 
 Guards), 283, 293, 300, 303, 
 
 305, 332. 
 Queen Dowager's Regiment of 
 
 Foot (The Queen's), 293, 300, 
 
 305, 332. 
 Queen's. See Queen Dowager's. 
 Queen's Regiment of Horse (1st 
 
 (King's) Dragoon Guards), 12. 
 Roscommon's (Earl of), 15. 
 Royal English, 15. 
 Royal Irish Dragoons. See Prin- 
 cess's Regiment. 
 Royal Regiment of Dragoons 
 
 (English), 70. 
 Royal Regiment of Dragoons 
 
 (Scots Greys), 234, 235, 239, 
 
 243, 250, 270, 271, 281, 286, 
 
 296, 297, 298, 300, 302, 305, 
 
 332, 346. 
 Royal Scots, 15. 
 
 Royal Scots Fusiliers. «S'ee Twenty- 
 first of the Line. 
 Royal Scots Greys. See Royal 
 
 Regiment of Dragoons. 
 Royal West. See Queen Dow- 
 ager's. 
 Scots Brigade in Dutch service, 
 
 237, 24,3, 250, 260, 269, 270, 
 
 286, .305, 332, 334, 338, 341. 
 Scots Guards. See Foot Guards. 
 Second of the Line. 'S'ee Queen 
 
 Dowager's. 
 Somersetshire Light Infantry, 
 
 283, 305, 332, 334, 338, 341, 
 
 342, 354. 
 
 Surrey. See Queen Dowager's. 
 
 Thirteenth Foot. See Somerset- 
 shire Light Infantry. 
 
 Twenty-fifth of the Line. See 
 Edinburgh Regiment. 
 
 Twenty-first of the Line (Royal 
 Scots Fusiliers), 37, 145, 235, 
 243, 284. 
 
 Wauchope's (Colonel John), 235, 
 29G. 
 
 York's. See His Royal Highnesss. 
 Renfrewshire, 41, 51, 147, 166. 
 
 Renton, , of Renton, 281. 
 
 RenM'ick, Rev. James, 171, 198, 
 
 227. 
 Renwick's Declaration, 171, 173, 
 
 174, 177, 179, 193, 201. 
 Riccarton, 206. 
 Richmond, Andrew, 83. 
 Robertson, Alexander, of Struan, 
 
 160, 317, 331. 
 
 John, of Bleatoun, 320. 
 
 Leonard, of Straloch, 320. 
 
 Patrick, 9, 10. 
 
 Rochester, 244. 
 
 Roermond, 27. 
 
 RoUo, Andrew, Lord, 282. 
 
 Rooke, Major-General, 19. 
 
 Roscommon, Wentworth, Earl of, 
 
 15. 
 Ross, Alexander, 72. 
 Cornet Charles, 349. 
 
 David, of Balnagown, 286, 
 
 307. 
 
 , George, Lord, 50, 51, 59, 60, 
 
 61, 62, 63, 10.3, 158. 
 
 William, Lord, 50, 68, 145, 
 
 146, 147, 158, 162, 164, 312, 
 334, 346, 347. 
 
 Ross-shire, 276. 
 
 Rothes, John, Earl of, 84, 111. 
 
 Margaret, Countess of, 92. 
 
 Roxburghshire, 41. 
 
 Rullion Green, 13. 
 
 Russell, James, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57. 
 
 Rutherglen, 50, 51, 66, 102. 
 
 Declaration, the, 51, 102. 
 
 Ruthven, Sir Francis, 347. 
 
 Castle, 287, 29.3, 297, 304. 
 
 Rye House Plot, 141, 145. 
 
 St. Andrews, University of, 8, 10, 
 St. Ghislain, 23. 
 St. Omer, 30. 
 Salisbury, 238, 239.
 
 376 
 
 JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE 
 
 Sanquhar, 89, 164, 216. 
 
 Declaration, the, 89, 102. 
 
 Savage, Captain Philip, 24. 
 
 Scant Hill, 298. 
 
 Schomberg, Frederick, Duke of, 
 
 .•518, 327. 
 Scone, 280. 
 
 Scotstarvet, Laird of, 280. 
 Scrymgeour, Henry, 218. 
 
 Sir James, 1. 
 
 John, 218. 
 
 Matilda, 1, 2. 
 
 Seaforth, Kenneth, Earl of, 322. 
 Sedgemoor, 12, 217, 293. 
 Selkirk, 214, 221. 
 Seneffe, battle of, 19, 32. 
 Sharp, Archbishop James, 12, 49, 
 
 74, 84, 194. 
 
 Sir William, 149. 
 
 Shawhead Moor, 70. 
 
 Sheriffs - depute, nominated by 
 
 Privy Council, 41, 44. 
 Shotts, Kirk of, 69. 
 Sibbald, Sir Robert, 223. 
 Sinclair, Henry, Lord, 255. 
 Skelmorlie, Laird of, 312. 
 Skelton, Colonel Bevil, 15. 
 Smith, James, 137. 
 Robert, of Dunscore, 39, 71, 
 
 74. 
 
 of Glencairn, 178. 
 
 Solemn League and Covenant, 43, 
 
 102. 
 Southeak, Charles, Earl of, 313. 
 Stair, Master of, 361. 
 Steuart, Patrick, of Ballechin, 319, 
 
 323, .329, 332, 333. 
 
 Thomas, of Grandtully, 27, 
 
 28. 
 
 Stewart, Archibald, 174. 
 
 178. 
 
 Duncan, 174, 194. 
 
 Lieut. James, 349. 
 
 John, of Ardsheil, 288, 291. 
 
 Lady Mary, 1. 
 
 Robert, of Appin, 288, 291, 
 
 292, 307, 308, 340. 
 
 177, 178. 
 
 Thomas, of Stenton, 350. 
 
 Stirling, 40, 63, 64, 68, 69, 99, 136, 
 252, 259, 332, 356. 
 
 Castle, 125, 234, 259, 260. 
 
 Stirlingshire, 41, 72. 
 Stobhall, 280. 
 Stoueykirk, 96. 
 
 Stormont, David, Viscount, 40, 
 
 280, 313. 
 Strachan, Captain John, 37, 141, 
 
 164, 167. 
 Stranraer, 105, 109, 140. 
 Strathaven, 52, 57, 58, 59, 61, 05, 
 
 82, 103, 164, 166, 198. 
 Strathbogie, 275, 299, 300, 305, 
 
 337. 
 Strathdon, 299. 
 Stratherrick, 291. 
 Strathmore, Patrick, Earl of, 281, 
 
 313. 
 Strathnaver, John, Lord, 286, 317. 
 Strone, 317, 320, 321, 322, 328, 
 
 329. 
 Struan, 317, 331, 344. 
 Struthers, Colonel, 141. 
 Succession, Act of, 96, 102. 
 Suie Hill, 299, 300. 
 Sutherland, George, Earl of, 317. 
 ' Sweet Singers,' the, 95. 
 Swineabbey, 174. 
 
 Tannachy, 290. 
 
 Tarbat, George, Viscount, 128, 235, 
 
 240, 276, 312. 
 Taylor, Jeremy, Bishop of Down 
 
 and Connor, 9. 
 Test Act, the, 96, 100, 102, 103, 
 
 113, 137, 138, 139, 140. 
 Teviotdale, 49, 60, 112. 
 Thame, 243. 
 Theaker, Captain George, 354. 
 
 Thomas, 354. 
 
 Thorleshope, 217. 
 
 Toleration, proclamation of, 226, 
 
 229. 
 ToUcross Moor, 62, 66. 
 Tongland, Heritable Regality of, 
 
 103, 178. 
 Torbay, 237. 
 
 Torfoot. See Brownlee, Thomas. 
 Trade, Council of, 231. 
 Tulloch, Wood of, 298. 
 Tunbridge Wells, 124. 
 Turnbvill, Andrew, 72. 
 Turner, Sir James, 103. 
 Tweeddale, John, Earl of, 135, 251, 
 
 25.3, 258. 
 Twyford, 239. 
 
 Ure, James, of Shargarton, 66, 71, 
 
 73, 78.
 
 INDEX 
 
 377 
 
 Urquhart, Adam, of Meldrum, 346, | 
 
 347, 349. 
 Urrard House, 335, 336, 337, 341, 
 
 342, 353. 
 Utrecht, 160. 
 
 Valenciennes, 24. 
 Vane, 8ir Walter, 20. 
 Venner, Colonel Samuel, 354. 
 Mr., 19. 
 
 Waink, Captain, 303. 
 Walkinshaw, , of Harrowtield, 
 
 161. 
 Wallace, Sir William, of Craigie, 
 
 340, 349. 
 Warnei', Wiliam, 354. 
 Watford, 240, 242. 
 Wauchope, Colonel John, 235. 
 Wedderburn, Jean, 188. 
 
 John, 188. 
 
 Weir, Thomas, 58, 77 (?). 
 
 Welch, Rev. John, 43, 49, 66, 67, 
 
 70, 110. 
 West Calder, 204. 
 Wharry, John, 137. 
 Wigton, 108, 167, 168. 
 Heritable Sheriffdom of, 103, 
 
 104, 133, 185, 190, 198, 
 
 209. 
 Wigton martyrs, the, 209. 
 Wigtonshire, 41, 44,49,89, 114, 167. 
 William iii., King, 16, chap. ii. 
 
 passim, 34, 233, 234, 237, 238, 
 
 239, 240, 243, 245, 246, 247, 
 
 255, 263, 264. 
 Wincanton, 238. 
 Witt, John de, 16. 
 
 York, 236. 
 
 James, Duke of, 31, 34, 35, 
 
 38, 68, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, 
 90, 93, 94, 95, 96, 102, 103, 109, 
 111, 115, 124, 128, 130, 131, 
 136, 141, 144, 146, 149, 150, 
 155, 156, 157, 175, 180, 182, 
 183, 184, 186, 346, 347, 349. 
 See James vii., King. 
 
 Mary, Duchess of, 88, 89. 
 
 See Mary of Modena. 
 
 Young, James (' Scribbie '), 52. 
 
 Cornet Robert, 349. 
 
 Robert, of Auldbar, 4, 311. 
 
 Thomas, 204, 206. 
 
 ZiON House, 243. 
 
 Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty 
 at the Edinburgh University Press
 
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