Clan Lochiel

“ Lochiel was a reformer within his clan. The gallant Keppoch had forsworn the predatory habits which, in 1689, made his people threaten Inverness. Of Scothouse we shall hear the most excellent report. Now, it cannot be by a mere fortuitous coincidence that all the Highland traitors, James Mohr, Old Lovat, Glengarry, Barisdale, and some others, come precisely from the homes of cattle thieves, and from a factitious hothouse of old clan ideas; from the Macgregor country, Knoydart, the worst part of Lochaber, and Rannoch. ”

“ The clan Cameron, being the actual occupants of the soil, offered a sturdy resistance to the intruder; John Maclean, the second laird of Coll, who had held the estate for some time by force, was at length slain by them in Lochaber; and Allan, the son of Donald Dhu, having acknowledged himself a vassal of the Lord of Lochalsh, received in return a promise of support against all who pretended to dispute his right, and was thus enabled to acquire the estates of Locharkaig and Lochiel, from the latter of which his descendants have taken their territorial denomination. ”

“ Having been left an orphan, he was brought up till his 18th year under the care of the Marquis of Argyle, who, endeavouring to instil into him the unsavoury principles of the Covenanters, put him to school at Inverary under the guardianship of a gentleman of his own principles. “But young Lochiel preferred the sports of the field to the labours of the school,” and Argyle finding him totally intractable and utterly disgusted with covenanting principles, allowed him to return to Lochaber, to head his clan in the 18th year of his age. ”

“ The two chiefs met at Perth, and it was agreed that the dispute should be settled amicably at a meeting on the ground in question. On the appointed day Lochiel started early, accompanied by a single henchman and his piper, Donald Breac of Muirshiorlaich. On the way, however, he met an old woman—Gorm’uil Mhor of Moy—who warned him emphatically not to proceed further without more attendants:—“Go back, Ewen of Lochiel, go back! Take along with thee three score and five of the best men of thy name and clan. If their aid is required it is well to have them to appeal to, if not, so much the better. ”

“ Shortly after the accession of Charles II., Lauchlan Mackintosh, to enforce his claims to the disputed lands of Glenluy and Locharkaig against Cameron of Lochiel, raised his clan, and, assisted by the Macphersons, marched to Lochaber with 1500 men. He was met by Lochiel with 1200 men, of whom 300 were Macgregors. About 300 were armed with bows. ”

“ Whisky shops were everywhere; here men sauntered and drank. Plunder was habitual; a captain of a ‘Watch’ like Barisdale was at once thief and thief-taker. ‘They live like lairds, and die like loons,’ says Franck, speaking not of all the Highlands (as Macaulay quotes him) , but chiefly of Lochaber. ‘Upon this fund’—blackmail—the Captain ‘employed one half the thieves to recover lost cattle, and the other half of them to steal.’ Lochiel laboured to reform his clan in this respect. ”

“ The defection of the Fassiferns gave the place of second in command, or Lieutenant of the clan, to Cameron of Earrachd (Alan's father) . The clan turned out 600, but these were considerably augmented a few days afterwards. After a spirited address from the chief (the "gentle Lochiel") , the first march of that eventful movement commenced with pipers playing and banners flying, wending their way with steady demeanour and elastic step up Glen Loy, and over the hills that separated them from Glenfinnan. ”

“ In the neighbourhood of Loch Sloi a tract of woods, nearly twenty miles in extent, was consumed for the same purpose; and at a later period a considerable part of the forests adjoining to Lochiel was laid waste by the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell, in their attempts to subdue the Clan Cameron. Nothing of late years has tended more to the destruction of the small woods than the pasturage of sheep. ”

“ At one time the son and successor of John Garbh occupied Lochiel by force, but was killed in a conflict with the Camerons at Corpach, in the reign of James III. His infant son would also have been put to death, had the boy not been saved by the Macgillonies or Macalonichs, a tribe of Lochaber that generally followed the clan Cameron. This youth, subsequently known as John Abrach Maclean of Coll, was the representative of the family in 1493, and from him was adopted the patronymic appellation of Maclean Abrach, by which the lairds of Coll were ever after distinguished. ”

“ The Seventy-First did not leave many behind as settlers, and the reference to it here is only permissible as illustrating the high character of the Clan, of which the Seventy-Eighth, which left its quota of settlers behind, formed an important part. General Simon Fraser's intimate connection with Canada, as commanding officer of Fraser's Highlanders (1757) , and in other interesting respects, may suffice as a reason why a good anecdote of him may be here related. When the Seventy-First mustered at Glasgow, Lochiel was absent, being ill at London. ”

“ On the death in 1680, without male issue, of his relative Æneas Macdonell of Glengarry, lord Macdonell and Aros, he succeeded to the estate of Glengarry, but not to the peerage, which became extinct. With four hundred of his clan he joined Graham of Claverhouse at Lochaber in 1689. Next to Lochiel he was personally the most notable of the highland chiefs who took part in the rising. ”

“ Here and at Carnoch, as at Fasnacloich, Acharn, and Ballachulish, Allan Breck was much at home among his cousins.
From Loch Leven north to Fort William, with its English garrison, all is a Cameron country. Campbell of Glenure was an outpost of Whiggery and Campbells, in a land of loyal Stewarts, [Pg 81] Camerons, and Macdonalds or MacIans of Glencoe. Of the Camerons, the gentle Lochiel had died in France; his son, a boy, was abroad; the interests of the clan were represented by Cameron of Fassifern, Lochiel's uncle, living a few miles west by north of Fort William. ”

“ The MS. has "Yield they alone who fear to die." Scott says: "I have not ventured to render this duel so savagely desperate as that of the celebrated Sir Ewan of Lochiel, chief of the clan Cameron, called, from his sable complexion, Ewan Dhu. He was the last man in Scotland who maintained the royal cause during the great Civil War, and his constant incursions rendered him a very unpleasant neighbor to the republican garrison at Inverlochy, now Fort William. The governor of the fort detached a party of three hundred men to lay waste Lochiel's possessions and cut down his trees ”

“ See French treasure Lochgarry, in a thievish confederacy, 104; accused of treachery, 114; handling French treasure, 140; wadsetter of Old Glengarry’s lands of Cullachy, 210-212; possessions forfeited to the Crown, 211; in Edinburgh with Pickle, 240, cited, 86, 153, 172, 188, 190, 232, 235, 290, 291, 292, 294 Lochiel (head of the Cameron clan) , extracts from Macleod of Skye a promise to raise his clan, 77; believes every man of honour should rise, 81; determines to wage guerilla war after Culloden, 86; clan relationships, 147 ”

“ If my commander were one of these savage chiefs, whom we treat as barbarians, and I had said to him: 'Spare this house, for it belongs to my friends. I was a wanderer and a fugitive, and they took me in and gave me a father and a brother,' the Indian chief would have answered: 'It is well; spare your friends; it is only the viper that stings the bosom that has warmed it.'
"I have always lived in the hope," went on Lochiel, "of one day rejoining my Canadian friends, whom I love to-day more than ever, if that were possible. ”

“ Beware of the English, beware of a government ever alive to the interests of its colonies, which it identifies with the interests of the empire; beware of a nation which has the tenacity of the bull-dog. If the conquest of Canada is necessary to her she will never swerve from her purpose or count the sacrifice. Witness my unhappy country."
"Bah!" cried Uncle Raoul, "the Scotch, indeed!"
Lochiel began to laugh.
"Gently, my dear Uncle Raoul," said "the good gentleman"; "and, to make use of your favorite maxim when you are collecting the rents, let us render unto Cæsar that which is Cæsar's. ”

“ Lochie [Pg 355] l," continued he, "who my father has often told me was our firmest friend, may stay at home, and learn from the newspapers the fate of his Prince; and so shall every man over whom nature or fortune hath given me any power." Such was the singular conversation on the result of which depended peace or war; for it is a point agreed among the Highlanders, that if Lochiel had persisted in his refusal to take arms, the other chiefs would not have joined the standard without him, and the spark of rebellion must have instantly expired. ”

“ He and his cousin, Macpherson of Cluny, were at this time hiding among the recesses of Benalder. The road to Inverness ran by within a few miles, and at a little distance lay Lord Loudoun's camp, but so great was the devotion of the clansmen, so admirable their caution and secrecy, that the English commander had not the slightest suspicion that the two most important Jacobite fugitives had for three months been in hiding so near to him. [101] Lochiel had been wounded in the feet at Culloden, and his lameness as well as his dangerous position prevented his going to look for the Prince. ”

“ Is it, indeed, Jules D'Haberville, bravest of the brave, whose bleeding body I see them dragging over the Plains of Abraham? Is it, indeed, his blood135 that crimsons the last glorious field of my country? Woe! Woe! Woe!"
"This poor woman moves my heart strangely," said Lochiel, as she was disappearing in the thicket.
The creature heard him. She returned once more, folded her arms, turned upon him a gaze of calm bitterness, and said:
"Keep your pity for yourself, Archibald de Lochiel. The family fool has no need of your pity! Keep your pity for yourself and for your friends! ”

“ In the battle of Killiecrankie, the charge of the Camerons and Highlanders led by Lochiel was irresistible, and contributed largely to the attainment 384of the victory. It so happened (not uncommon in those civil wars) on this occasion that the second son of Lochiel commanded a company in the opposing army of King William. Attached to the staff of General Mackay, that commander, on viewing the array and position of the Highlanders, remarked to the young Lochiel—“There,” said he, “is your father with his wild savages; how would you like to be with him?” ”

“ Acting upon principles of the purest disinterestedness, Lochiel was opposed to every proposal which might seem to imply an abandonment of the cause which he had espoused, and when informed by Charles that an application had been made to the French court for a regiment to Lord Ogilvy, he told him that he disapproved of it, as such an application might make the court of France regard the affairs of [743] the exiled family to be more desperate than they really were, and might prevent them from granting a body of troops for a new expedition. ”

“ About two o’clock next morning they scrambled up a hill on the north side of Glencanna, and sending off two of their number to forage for provisions, they waited two days in a neighbouring shieling for the return of their messenger from Pollew. The express arrived, and brought notice that a French ship had been upon the coast, and had landed two gentlemen, who had gone to Lochiel’s country in quest of the prince. In expectation of meeting these gentlemen, Charles resolved to retrace his steps. ”

“ Acting in the same loyal spirit, Lochiel kept his men constantly on the alert, and ready to move wherever their service might be required. In 1654, he joined Glencairn with a strong body, to oppose Generals Monk and Morgan, who had marched into the Highlands. Lochiel being opposed to Morgan, a brave and enterprising officer, was often hard pressed, and sometimes nearly overpowered; but his courage and presence of mind, which never forsook him, enabled the intrepid chief to extricate himself from all difficulties. ”

“ This was Prince Charles, who evinced for Lochiel a regard, and displayed a degree of confidence in his fidelity, which were amply merited by the tried affection of the chieftain. For nearly three months Lochiel remained ignorant of the fate of Charles, until the joyful tidings were brought of his being safe at Loch-Arkeg. Lochiel was at Ben Aulder, a hill of great circumference in Badenoch, when he received this intelligence from one of his tenants named Macpherson, who was sent by Cameron of Clunes to find out Lochiel and Clunie, and to inform them that their young master was safe. ”

“ The late Colonel Maclean of Ardgour, who attained a great age, with intellect clear and unimpaired, and who was most particular and exact in all his statistics, has repeatedly assured us that, in his younger days, say a hundred years ago, fifty thousand pounds worth of herring used to be captured annually in Lochiel alone. ”

“ Like ocean weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore,
Lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains,
While the kindling of life in his bosom remains,
Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low,
With his back to the field and his feet to the foe!
And leaving in battle no blot on his name,
Look proudly to heaven from the deathbed of fame.
NOTES.—Lochiel was a brave and influential Highland chieftain. He espoused the cause of Charles Stuart, called the Pretender, who claimed the British throne. ”