by John Prebble
GLENLYON'S BATTALION COMPANY AND DRUMMOND'S GRENADIERS
THE last surviving Muster Rolls of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment previous to the Massacre, are for October 1691. Since the names of the private soldiers varied little from month to month, it is more than probable that those who follow were present in Glencoe in February 1692. Lieutenant Millan and Ensign Campbell of Glenlyon's company had been replaced by Lindsay and Lundie. Apart from Drummond, there is no information about the grenadier officers, but it is unlikely that the company would have marched without them.
Stirling, 23 October 1691. Mustered there for Robert Campbell of Glenlyon his company of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot – the Captain, Lieutenant, Ensign, 2 Sergeants, 3 Corporals, 2 Drummers, 57 Sentinels.
Captain: Robert Campbell of Glenlyon
Lieutenant: John Millan
Ensign: John Campbell
Sergeant: Robert Barber
Sergeant: James Hendrie
Drummer: Mungo Dalyell
Drummer: Cuthbert Hunter
Corporal: Archibald Campbell
Corporal: James Macphail
Corporal: Duncan Kennedy
Sentinels:
Alexander, John
Blair, Archibald
Bruntfield, Thomas
Campbell, Archibald, elder
Campbell, Archibald, younger
Campbell, Donald, elder
Campbell, Donald, younger
Campbell, Duncan
Campbell, George
Campbell, James
Dumbar, John
Dyatt, Hugh
Fergusson, John
George, John
Gray, Archibald
MacCallom, John
MacCalloume, Donald, elder
MacCalloume, Donald, younger
MacCallum, Duncan, elder
MacCallum, Duncan, younger
MacCallum, Malcolm
MacChessag, Archibald
MacClewan, Donald
MacClewan, John
MacClewan, Malcolm
MacDiarmid, John
MacDugald, John
MacEacher, —
MacHinbin (?), Martin
Macintyre, Patrick
MacIvackeder (?), —
MacIvor, David
MacKechirn, Patrick
MacKenthor (Macintyre?), John
Mackinlay, John
Mackinlayroy, Duncan, elder
Mackinlayroy, Duncan, younger
Maclean, Archibald
MacNachton, Duncan
MacNicolas, John
MacPholl, Duncan, elder
MacPholl, Duncan, younger
Macray, Adam
Milne, Alexander
Morrison, Archibald
Nicoll, Gillies
O'Breyan, Terence
Patrick, Robert
Robertson, Donald
Robertson, Duncan
Robertson, Ludovick
Scott, Thomas
Sinclair Archibald
Sinclair, Malcolm
Stewart, John
Tillery, Walter
Turner, John
Stirling, 23 October 1691. Mustered there for Thomas Drummond his company of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot – the Captain, 2 Lieutenants, 3 Sergeants, 3 Corporals, 2 Drummers, 57 Sentinels.
Captain: Thomas Drummond
Lieutenant: John Kilpatrick
Lieutenant: Robert Campbell
Sergeant: Walter Purdie
Sergeant: Walter Buchanan
Sergeant: Walter Bruss
Drummer: John Mitchell
Drummer: George Lyon
Corporal: Lauchlan Sinclair
Corporal: William Ross
Corporal: James Mackinlay
Sentinels:
Alam, William
Alexander, Adam
Black, Duncan
Blair, Donald
Brown, William
Buchanan, Patrick
Campbell, Archibald
Campbell, John
Campbell, Malcolm
Carmichael, Walter
Dawson, George
Duncan, William
Duncanson, Duncan
Erroll, John
Fergusson, Donald
Fergusson, John
Fisher, Donald
Forester, Alexander
Fraser, James
Graham, Richard
Grey, Patrick
Grey, Rorie
Hossack, William
Howatt, John
Jameson, Hugh
Johnston, William
Kerr, James
Lamont, Walter
Loudon, Abraham
MacArter, Donald
MacCallum, Gilbert
MacEadam, John
MacElbrid, Hugh
MacEwan, John
MacFarland, Walter
MacFinn, Donald
MacIntailer, Donald
MacKellar, Duncan
MacKellar, Patrick
MacKellar, William
Maclean, Hugh
MacNeill, Thomas
MacNickoll, Archibald
MacNish, Duncan
MacRie, John
MacSimon, Donald
MacVurich, Neil
Monss, John
Morrison, Duncan
Muirhead, James
Mulliken, John
Scott, John
Sim, David
Smith, Neil
Taylor, John
Taylor, Thomas
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I AM greatly indebted to the many people who have made this book possible. Mostly they are the men and women of Scotland, Highland and Lowland, who always make me feel welcome, and whose pride of race is complemented by courtesy and hospitality. I love their country, I return to it with delight, and I am glad that I can record some of its history. Among those who have given me advice and guidance I would particularly like to acknowledge my gratitude to the following:
Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, for his hospitality, the freedom of his family's papers at Inveraray, and his knowledge of his clan. Sir William Arbuckle, for making his own great knowledge of the subject available to me, and for his unflagging interest in my work. John Imrie, of the Scottish Record Office, who unknowingly saved me from the mistakes of my own enthusiasm. Dr James Robertson-Justice, a bonnet laird of Sutherland, for his friendship and his truly Highland welcome. J. R. Ker for particular advice on avenues of research. J. D. MacAlpin, the Warden of the National Trust property in Glencoe. Donald J. MacDonald, of the Clan Donald Society of Edinburgh. Mrs Jean MacDonald Clarke, a descendant of MacIain. Miss Edith MacGregor of Fort William. John MacInnes, of the School of Scottish Studies, for his literal translation of the Muck Bard's verses, and the direction of my interest to Murdoch Matheson. Thomas I. Rae, of the National Library of Scotland, for his generous assistance. W. A. Thorburn, of the Scottish United Services Museum, Edinburgh Castle, whose advice is always invaluable. And also, the staffs of the British Museum Reading Room, the London Library, the Public Record Office, the Scottish Record Office, and the Coulsdon and Purley Public Libraries.
Finally, my special thanks are once again due to my friends Iain Cameron Taylor and Rory Mackay.
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE Report of the Commission of Inquiry is still the main source for this or any book on the subject. It first appeared in print in 1703, in a pamphlet called The Massacre of Glencoe, being a true narrative of the Barbarous Murther of the Glenco-men in the Highlands of Scotland, by way of military execution, on the 13th Feb. 1692. It was printed, published and sold by the bookseller B. Bragg, at the sign of the Blue Ball in Ave-Mary-lane, London. Prefixed to it was an anonymous letter from Edinburgh, in which the writer said that he had hoped the matter could be forgotten, but since the printer had assured him that a full account was both necessary and longed for, he was glad to supply it.
Until now, it has been generally believed that the manuscript ori
ginal of the Report, signed by the members of the Commission and sent to King William, was long ago lost. The claim that it was missing was first made in 1845 by the editor of The Maitland Club's Papers Illustrative of the Political Conditions of the Highlands of Scotland from the Year 1689 to 1696. Subsequently there were melodramatic speculations on whether or not it had been deliberately destroyed.
However, the original manuscript of the Report not only exists, but is easily accessible. It is in the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, in King William's Chest 15, Number 84. Bragg's version is an almost exact copy of it, and differs in matters of spelling only, and here and there an omitted phrase. I have used the manuscript for the purpose of this book. I have been unable to find the depositions of the witnesses, which were sent with the Report to London, but I have no doubt that they, too, exist somewhere.
The Maitland Club's Highland Papers (above) contain most of the relevant documents that are important, but they give only the skeleton of the story, and the flesh has to be found elsewhere, in the Breadalbane and the Barcaldine Papers, in the Tweeddale and the Leven and Melville Papers. All these are in the Scottish Record Office or the National Library of Scotland. The Breadalbane and the Barcaldine Papers are of particular importance for the picture they give of Grey John, and the light they throw on his real or imagined responsibility for the Massacre. I think they rightly prove that, whatever his many faults, he has taken more blame than he deserved. William Gillies' book In Famed Breadalbane, published in 1938, is the best account likely to be published on Breadalbane and Glen Lyon. His sources were principally the Breadalbane and Barcaldine Papers.
John Hill's history and character, his part in the affair, have been pieced together from his letters and from letters to him. These are scattered through many manuscript and published papers – Culloden, Tweeddale, Melville, Menzies, Annandale and Breadalbane Papers. There is much about him, perhaps, that will never be known now, but what we do know is to the old man's credit.
The Argyll Papers at Inveraray Castle were a valuable source of information, and had hitherto not been consulted on the subject of Glencoe. The most important discovery among them was the 9th Earl of Argyll's memorandum on the ‘slaughter’ committed by MacIain and his tacksman of Achtriachtan. The charge that MacIain had killed some of his people who offended him had not before been substantiated, and was usually disbelieved by Clan Donald's sympathizers. But this single sheet of paper in the Inverary archives is now an important piece of evidence.
The strong-room below Inveraray Castle also contains some fascinating material on the early years of the Argyll Regiment. Some of the Muster Rolls of the Regiment are in the Scottish Record Office and the Public Record Office, and a skeletal account of its service was published in 1906 by Lt-Col. Robert Mackenzie Holden in the Scottish Historical Review. Brief references to its service in Flanders are also to be found in Dalton's History of the British Standing Army, 1660–1700. But I could find no information of how this first Highland regiment was clothed and armed until I saw the indents and receipts at Inveraray. These papers also include the sad story of Quarter-master MacUre's imprisonment for debt, and the similar fate later of Duncanson.
The Glencoe MacDonalds' long history as cattle-thieves and troublesome raiders is well documented in the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland.
Finally, there is the valley of Glencoe itself. When one brings knowledge to it, it gives understanding.
MANUSCRIPTS
Argvll Papers
Inveraray Castle
Balhaldie MSS.
National Library of Scotland
Barcaldine Papers
Scottish Record Office
Bighouse Papers
Scottish Record Office
Breadalbane Papers
Scottish Record Office
Burnet MSS., Harl. Coll.
British Museum
Choice Collection of Several Scots Miscellanie and Modern Poems (c. 1713)
National Library of Scotland
Cromartie MSS., Letters IV
Cromartie Muniments
Culloden Papers
National Library of Scotland
Inverawe Papers
National Library of Scotland
James Johnston's Letter Book
Scottish Record Office
John MacGregor MSS.
Scottish Record Office
Leven and Melville Papers
Scottish Record Office
Misc. MSS. 2671
National Library of Scotland
Misc. MSS. 3134 f. 12
National Library of Scotland
Regimental Rolls 1689–91
Scottish Record Office
Regimental Rolls 1691–8
Public Record Office
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1691–5 (MSS. and typescript)
Scottish Record Office
State Papers (Dom). Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Glencoe. King William's Chest 15 No. 84
Public Record Office
Tweeddale or Yester Papers
National Library of Scotland
PUBLISHED PAPERS
An Account of the Depredations committed on the Clan Campbell and their followers during the years 1685 and 1686. A Report drawn up by Ewing of Bernice, 1690. Edited by Alexander Kincaid. Edinburgh, 1816.
An Account of the Proceedings of the Estates in Scotland, 1689–90. Edited by E. W. M. Balfour-Melville. Scottish History Society, Edinburgh, 1954–5.
Annals and Correspondence of the Viscount and the 1st and 2nd Earls of Stair. Edited by John Murray Graham. 1875.
The Annandale Family Book, edited by Sir William Fraser. Edin-burgh, 1874.
Calendar of State Papers, 1689–96.
Culloden Papers, 1625–1748, 1815.
More Culloden Papers, 1626–1704, Edited by Duncan Warrand, 1923.
The Dewar Manuscripts, Volume I. Scottish West Highland Folk Tales, collected originally in Gaelic by John Dewar for the 8th Duke of Argyll, translated into English by Hector Maclean of Islay, edited by the Rev. John MacKechnie. Glasgow, 1964.
Historical Manuscripts Commission Reports, 15, Appendix Part IX.
Howell's State Trials, Vol. XIII. Thomas Bayley Howell, 1809–15.
Judiciary Reports of Argyll and the Isles, 1664–1705. The Stair Society, 1949.
Leven and Melville Papers, letters, etc., addressed to George, Earl of Melville, Secretary of State for Scotland, 1689–91. Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1843.
Original Papers containing the Secret History of Great Britain from the restoration to the Accession of George 1. Edited by James Macpherson, 1775.
Papers illustrative of the Political Condition of the Highlands of Scotland from the year 1689 to 1696. Maitland Club, Glasgow, 1945 (Also known briefly as ‘Highland Papers’.)
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1681–91.
Somers Tracts, John Baron Somers. London, 1748.
JOURNALS
Blackwood's Edinburgh Review, Volume LXXXVI, July, 1859.
Notes and Queries, Second Series, Vol. VIII, July-December, 1859.
The Scottish Historical Review, Volume III, 1906, ‘The First Highland Regiment, the Argyllshire Highlanders’, by Lt-Col. Robert Mackenzie Holden.
Volume XVI, 1916, ‘The Revolution Government in the Highlands’, by Audrey Cunningham.
Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Volume XLI, 1953. ‘Gleanings from the Dornie Manuscripts’, by Angus Matheson, M.A.
MEMOIRS
Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, 1681–92, Vols. I and II, by Sir John Dalrymple of Cranstoun, 1771.
Memoirs of Hugh Mackay. Maitland Club, Glasgow, 1833
Memoirs of Secret Services, by John Macky, London, 1733.
Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, edited by John Drummond. Edinburgh, 1842.
CLAN AND FAMILY HISTORIES, ETC.
MacDonald
The Clan Donald, by Angus J. MacDonald and Archibal
d M. MacDonald. 3 Volumes. 1896–1904.
The MacDonells of Keppoch and Gargavach, by Josephine M. Mac-Donell of Keppoch. Glasgow, 1931.
Historical and Genealogical Account of the Clan or Family of MacDonald, from Somerled to the present period, etc., by Hector MacDonald Buchanan. Edinburgh, 1819.
History of the MacDonalds of Clanranald, by Alexander Mackenzie, 1881.
History of the MacDonalds and Lords of the Isles, by Alexander Mackenzie, 1881.
Campbell
The Argyll Papers, 1640–1723, edited by James Maidment. Edinburgh, 1834.
The Black Book of Taymouth, edited by Cosmo Innes. Bannatyne Club, 1855.
The Book of Garth and Fortingall, by Duncan Campbell, 1888.
Glenlyon, some historical reasons why Campbell of Glenlyon and the Earl of Breadalbane hated the MacDonalds of Glencoe, by Duncan Campbell, 1912.
In Famed Breadalbane, by William A. Gillies, 1938.
The Lairds of Glenlyon: historical sketches of Appin, Glenlyon and Breadalbane, by Duncan Campbell, 1886.
The Lairds and Lands of Loch Tayside, by John Christie, 1892.
Dalrymple
Genealogical Account of the Dalrymples of Stair, Earls of Stair, by the Hon. New Hamilton Dalrymple, 1909.
The Life of John, 2nd Earl of Stair, by A. Henderson, 1759.
Memoirs of Sir James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair, by A. J. G. Mackay, 1873.
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
ATHOLL, Katharine, Duchess of. A Military History of Perthshire, 1660–1902. 1908.
BUCHAN, John. The Massacre of Glencoe. 1933.
BURTON, John Hill. History of Scotland, 1689–1748, Vol. I. 1853.
CAMPBELL, Donald. A Treatise on the Language, Poetry, and Music of the Highland Clans. 1862.
CAMPBELL, J. L. and THOMPSON, Derick. Edward Lhuyd in the Scottish Highlands, 1699–1700. 1963.
CUNNINGHAM, Audrey. The Loyal Clans. 1932.