"Glenmoriston of the Past"

Dissatisfaction with the existing Hanoverian regime was, by the end of the seventeenth century, growing throughout Scotland. It may be that political and commercial interests south of the Border was as much to blame for this growing resentment as King William himself but the Roman Catholics in both countries were still hoping for the return of the Stuarts. In fact the situation had become so explosive that the Parliaments of both Scotland and England after hearing the opinions of their commissioners appointed to report on the situation agreed to their union in the year 1707. Several different parties were of course against the union on both sides of the Border and in Scotland many of those who had been in favour of it at the start changed their minds when they found that, to put it briefly, their English counterparts regarded the Union as a "merger" rather than a "partnership". History certainly does repeat itself.

Daniel Defoe who had been one of the commissioners appointed by the English Parliament; in his publication "A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain" gives a fair account of Scotland's just grievances particularly as regards the adverse and growing effect on her export trade as a result of the Union but he considered that if the ruling classes in the North would turn their attention more to commerce and industry all would be well in the long run. Incidentally Defoe asserted that the people in the North of Scotland knew so little of religion, or of the customs of the Christians, that the Sabbath meant nothing to them, He considered that the £1,000 donated annually by His Majesty for the Propagation of Christian knowledge in the Highlands was money well spent on the "poor abandoned creatures" whose only knowledge of "superior things" had been taught by the "Popish clergy who to do them justice have shown more charity than those whose work it had been". The writer will give an account of Church matters in Glenmoriston in a later chapter.

On the death in the year 1714 of King William, Prince George, Elector of Hanover was proclaimed King George I of Great Britain. He immediately dismissed Tory Ministers who might have Stuart sympathies, strengthened his armed forces as an uprising seemed imminent. Unfortunately for the Jacobites - Jacobus being the Latin name for James - England's war with France had come to an end with the Treaty of Utrecht in the year 1713 after which the ruler of France, the Regent Orleans was willing to help them in any way. This more than anything else doomed the Jacobite cause to failure. However their plans were made, for three simultaneous risings in the south, west and north of England also in Scotland. The Government thanks to good Intelligence nipped in the bud the two attempted English risings but John Erskine, 11th Earl of Mar, in August 1715 raised the standard of Prince James Francis Edward at Braemar. He had at first been a supporter of the 1707 Act of Union an elected representative Peer in the House of Lords but in 1713 had been one of those to support a motion to repeal the Act.

Mar arranged a hunting party to which he had invited likely supporters including Glengarry and, it is said, Glenmoriston who was sent into Argyle with 500 men in order to raise recruits. Mar with his main force set up his headquarters in Perth, his first objective being to capture the castles of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton; in other words the gateways to the south. In this he failed. The Government forces in Scotland were under the command of John Duke of Argyle, a soldier of great experience and distinction who had held the post of Lieutenant General under the Duke of Marlborough in his campaign on the Continent. On the other side the leadership seems to have been mediocre. With the exception of Brigadier Mackintosh of Borlum, an experienced officer who had captured Inverness Castle. The writer will not attempt to describe the confused and inconclusive fighting that went on both sides of the Border, but on the 13 th of November 1715 the Jacobite force which had marched into England surrendered at Preston and on the same date the main opposing forces under Argyle and Mar fought an inconclusive battle on Sheriffmuir, near Dunblane "There is some say that we wan, some say that they wan" and although the casualties on the Government side were heavier, Argyle had won a strategic victory.

The Jacobite leaders, hearing that the Duke of Sutherland had recaptured Inverness and that substantial Government reinforcements were expected, approached Argyle in order to negotiate surrender terms. The Duke was in some ways sympathetic towards the grievances of his opponents but his attitude only made the Government suspicious of his motives and insisted they wanted a complete surrender. Prince James the proclaimed Jacobite King arrived at last, landed on the 22 nd of December with six attendants. He found a dispirited army at Perth and his own melancholy bearing did not help matters. He was soon persuaded to return to the Continent and the Rising of 1715 came to an end after Mar had retreated to Montrose burning numerous villages en route in the hope of impeding Argyle's advance.

During the 1715 Rising, the Keppoch Macdonalds with a force of three hundred men had seized the opportunity to raid Glen Urquhart and carry off large quantities of booty in the absence of the able-bodied men who were fighting for the Jacobite cause. Such was life in those days. Brigadier Grant wrote from Strathspey vowing vengeance against those of his tenants in Glen Urquhart who had participated in the rising stating in his letter to his brother George the 'I will prosecute them and endeavor to make an example of them so that future ages shall stand in awe of following their steps'. There seems to-be some doubt however as to whether the Brigadier really meant what he said as his subsequent visit to Glen Urquhart was not so disastrous as his offending tenants might have expected. Glenmoriston was himself guilty of having joined the Insurrection and along with the Chisholm and Glengarry was obliged by act to stand and be adjudged attainted of High Treason if they did not surrender themselves for trial on or before the 1 st of June 1716. Glengary surrender and was pardoned presumably having paid a substantial fine but there is no record of the circumstances. The other two parties held out and as a result forfeited their estates.

Invermoriston House was put to the flames by Government troops, the family Title Deeds and all other records being destroyed in consequence. Iain a' Chragain was on the run once again until the general amnesty in 1717 made it safe for him to appear again in public. It is said that one of his hideouts was in the small cave in the rock face overhanging the river Moriston at the Dundreggan Falls. Glenmoriston with the other estates came under the management of the Forfeited Estates Commissioners who had a difficult task. The old Laird's tenants in many cases refused to pay their week's rents and it was found that most of the lands were in the occupancy of near relations under rights which it was difficult to set aside. For instance Glenmoriston's, wife, daughter of Sir Cameron of Lochiel was tenant of Invermoriston Home Farm and Bhlairaidh in virtue of some right granted to her before the rising. To further complicate matters much of the land was held under 'wadset', an old Scottish form of mortgage. Sir Patrick Strachan, surveyor general for the Commissioners came north in the year 1718 to enquire into the question of Glenmoriston and its rental. He prudently held his court at Muirtown rather than in Glenmoriston, and it was then established that the total annual value of the whole estate amounted to only £691 (Scots) or £53 Sterling.

In the following year a small Spanish force, in what appears to have been the last invasion of Great Britain, landed in Loch Duich but were soon defeated by Government troops from Inverness in the Pass of Glenshiel. They had been joined by a local contingent of Macraes who apparently took to the hill leaving the unfortunate Spaniards to their fate. The Jacobite hopes over the unfortunate expedition were therefore short lived. The Forfeited Estates Commissioners then appointed two resolute Whigs as factors for their responsibilities in the Chisholm, Seaforth and Glenmoriston lands. They were William Ross ex-Provost of Tain and his brother Robert. For a start they sent demand notices for payment of overdue rents, a reasonable procedure, but as these brought no response the two factors set out on the 13 th of September 1721 from Inverness escorted by a company of the Royal Regiment of North British Fusiliers and arrived at Invermoriston 'after some adventures'. There they set up an impromptu court, the brothers William and Robert acting as Judge and Prosecutor respectively. A few only of the Glenmoriston tenants and wadsetters turned up, some admitted liability while others excused themselves by swearing that the rents had been paid for the years in question, 1715-1721, to the old Laird in some cases under pressure.          

Patrick, the second of Glenmoriston, had watched the proceedings and when the two factors with their escort moved on with the intention of conducting similar proceedings in the forfeited estates of Strathglass and Kintail, he took a short cut over the hill to warn Donald Murchison, Seaforth's factor of what was in store. Murchison had military experience in the 1715 Rising, and with some three hundred men including Patrick Grant set off to intercept the approaching factors with their Fusilier escort. This they did in the wilds of Glen Affric, the Government factors having first visited Strathglass. In the skirmish that followed William Ross, his son Walter and several others were wounded before they retraced their steps. Sad to say Walter died en route to Inverness and was buried in Beauly. In the subsequent Enquiries witnesses gave the names of those they had recognised in Murchison's party, Patrick Grant being named among them, but strangely enough no proceedings were taken.

The Government, after the 1715 Rising, took several wise steps both to prevent a recurrence and strengthen law and order in the Highlands. In the year 1725 an Act was passed commanding that the 'the Stewart clans be disarmed'. In the following year General Wade started work on his network of roads designed to link up the Government forts at garrisons at strategic points throughout the Highlands. These works took eleven years to complete. The survey for the routes of these roads was carried out by a General Roy whose maps are preserved in Edinburgh. On them are marked the habitations, with dots in red ink, giving some idea of the distribution of the population of Glenmoriston and elsewhere along the route of the proposed roads. In the year 1739, the six Independent Company of Highlanders were formed by Royal Command into one regiment. Needless to say they came from the clans reputed to be loyal to the House of Hanover and included the Grants of Strathspey. The original companies which had been formed to police the Highlands were known as the 'Black Watch' on account of their sombre tartan, which was in contrast to that of the regular troops, the 'Redcoats'. Incidentally the Grant 'hunting' and the Black Watch tartans appear to be identical.

Iain a' Chragain died on the 30 th of November 1736 in his seventy ninth year. By his second wife Janet, who survived until the year 1759, he had ten sons and five daughters. Their tombstones in the Invermoriston graveyard bear suitable inscriptions. The eldest son John died unmarried in the year 1734 and in consequence his second son Patrick, already mentioned, became twelfth Laird of Glenmoriston.

The Glenmoriston men along with those of Glengarry and Strathglass surrendered their arms, at least some of them, at Fort Augustus on the 15 th of September 1725. General Wade following the example of Cromwell, placed a galley on Loch Ness. Lord Lovat’s independent company patrolled the stretch between Invermoriston and Loch Duich with the object of preventing the recurrence of cattle lifting by the clans to the west which had caused much chaos in may occasions in the past. It seems rather strange that Lovat was entrusted with this arrangement as his loyalty was doubted in Government so much that his independent company was not included in the regiment formed by Royal Command, as already mentioned, in the year 1739. Clan Fraser had never been on very good terms with the other two powerful clans concerned the Macdonalds and Camerons so perhaps the Government decided that Lovat could at least be trusted in this instance. In a deed of sale dated 3 rd December 1730, the Forfeited Estates Commission disposed of the Glenmoriston Estate to the Laird of Grant's second son Ludovic who was acting on behalf of old Glenmoriston, Iain a' Chragain.

It had been obvious from the start that the Commissioners could not derive any profits from the estates under their charge and after more than one attempt to sell these lands by public auction, the realistic alternative was to restore them, indirectly, to their original owners. In the year 1733 Ludovic conveyed the Glenmoriston Estate over to John, eldest son of Iain a' Chragain who was still under attainder but retained the superiority over certain portions.

Chapter 7