The Duke of Cumberland had a lot to lose in the Jacobite rebellion. He was the third son of George III – his father and his dynasty were at stake. At a personal level he also had something to prove. After an early start in the Army and being wounded at the Battle of Dettingen, his recent military career had been criticised with retreats being the order of the day both at the Battle of Fontenoy and later at Brussels. It was his lack of understanding of the situation and tactics that was under question.
He had been chasing the Jacobites northwards from Derby via Penrith and Carlisle. He was recalled to London to prepare for a potential French invasion. Whilst away his troops suffered a humiliating defeat from pistol fire in Falkirk Muir. This was taken badly in London.
After returning the Duke and the army spent and extended period of time in Aberdeen approximately 5 weeks. The time the army spent in Aberdeen was well spent. The tactics of withstanding the Highland charge had to be improved. Bayonets were simply no any good against troops that were running towards the lines with shields. The tactics were to be changed so that each soldier should engage, not the man running towards him, but the enemy on his immediate right, whose shield, held on the left arm, would lose its protective power.
This required absolute trust of your companion on your left and the very least will have formed a corps d’esprit. The tactic was in fact very effective in the Culloden.
Aberdeen had been occupied by the Jacobites previous to the government troops. As a result there was a question about routing potential Jacobite collaborators in the city. The duke went so far as to find out this that had lodged Jacobites during their stay. Curiously enough he did not take into accountant practices of billeting troops in the opponents home – something that he himself did.
General Hawley was billeted in the home of George Gordon of Hallhead, secretary to Lord Pitsligo. Hawley completely pillaged the entire house, and stole such items as linen, clothing, china, wine, sugar and tea worth over £600. Hawley subsequently sent these to Edinburgh and London for himself and the Duke of Cumberland. Hawley had been indicted for similar behaviour in Edinburgh during the campaign.
However when Cumberland stayed in Aberdeen he stayed in the home of Alexander Thomson, an advocate a Whig. Cumberland, in a similar fashion to Hawley, helped himself to all commodities within the house without paying for anything(1).
Nonetheless this was a case of do as I say rather than I do and in general pillaging was not allowed among the lower ranks of the Hannoverian troops. Two infantrymen were hanged for breaking into and stealing from a gentleman’s house and a third had a personal reprieve from the Duke himself (2).
So a behavioural pattern was set where it was seen that officers were allowed to ransack property they came across but the lower ranks were not. There must have been some frustration in the ranks about this where there would have been a tradition of the spoils of war.
Apart for time for training the main reason for staying in Aberdeen was the weather. It had been snowing which meant that supplies cold not be easily brought in and furthermore was the problem of fording the Spey river.
Cumberland had been given the intelligence that the Spey had been fortified and further more with et melting snow would have been unaffordable or at least slow down the army crossing it for the Jacobites to be able to lay down fire.
By early April however the snow had stopped and a cold but dry wind was blowing. This made the march to the Spey and further North possible as the fast flowing Spey had slowed to a tolerable speed.
The following account is from the Compleat History of the Rebellion by James Ray (3) and gives a clear picture of the operation. He himself recognises the weak position the troops were in when wading across the river:
From Cullen, our next Day’s March was to Fochabers, eight Miles: In the- Way thither, we pafs’d by large barren Mountains on our Left, and then come to some better Land, where we had a pleasant Prospect of our Transports and Men of War, standing in close to the Shore, who discharged some Shot at a Party of Rebel Hussars on the other Side of the Spey, which when we came in site of, we observed the Rebel Army were assembled with their White Flags displayed, making a formidable Appearance : Our Army continued their March to within Half a Mile of the River, when the Duke of Kingston’s which was the Advanced Guard stopp’d for Orders at the head of a plowed Field, above the Town of Fochabers. It was a general Rule that I observ’d during the Campaign, always when an Engagement was expected, that I fed my Horse, by which he was enabled to go through any hard Service, during the Time we halted here, I rode down the Field to a Man that was sowing Corn, who was Servant to the Duke of Gordon, and he fed my Horse. By the Time the Foot with the Cannon came up, when the Rebels set Fire so the Barracks, likewise to their Guard-House, which looked as if they did not intend to stand an Engagement; at this Time his Royal Highness gave Orders for the Duke of Kingston’s Horse to advance. Accordingly we marched through the Town of Fochabers, which consists mostly of one very long Street, where several good Houses, and People of Fashion standing looking at us, but not one Person to wish us good Success.
We again halted by the River Side (about 500 Yards above the Ford) for further Orders, (at this Time the Foot were moving down to the Right of Fochabers) which we received from the Lord Anncram, to continue our March and cross the River. I was then in my Station at the Head of the Regiment, where I very narrowly escaped being shot, for some of the Rebels fired at us across the River, kneeling and taking Sight as at Black- Bird: We entered the River with a Guide wading on Foot, to shew where the Ford lay, which was bad enough, having loose Stones at the Bottom, which made it difficult tor Man or Horse to step without falling in; the Water Belly deep and very rapid; the Ford not lying right across, we were obliged to go Midway into the River, then turn to the Right and go down it for about sixty Yards, then turn to the Left inclining upwards to the landing Place.
In this Situation had the Rebels stood us here, it might have been of bad Consequence to our Army, they having a great Advantage over us, and might have defended this important Pass a long Time, to our great loss; but they wanted to draw our Army over, and further into their Country from whence (in their Imagination) we were never to return : When we got up the Banks on the other Side of the River, the Rebels were all fled and appeared on a Hill about Haifa Mile’s Distance, from which they retreated out of Sight as we advanced : The Campbells were the next that followed us, and one of them chanced to get a Shot at a Rebel, and killed his long tail’d White Horse, on which he had rode about very briskly. Our Army sustained no Loss in crossing the River Spey, excepting a Dragoon and a Woman, who fell from a Horse and were drowned: After the Rebels, were fled out of Sight, our Foot encamped on, the North Side of the Spey, and Straw being wanting to bed the Tents, they were obliged to use Barley unthresh’d, which was very bad to lye upon; the Horse were ordered to repass the River and quarter in the Town of Fochabers, (where I had very bad Quarters) and the utmost Precaution was taken to prevent any surprize.
…..After that his Royal Highness had fortified the necessary Dispositions, he took up his Quarters at the Ministers House on the North Side of the Spey, which had been Lord John Drummonds Quarters. After we had done showering the Hills, I drank a Bottle of very good Ale there, provided at that Rebels Expence; the Gentleman of the House being overjoy’d that he had an Opportunity of disposing of it in another Manner than what it was intended for.
On the other side of the river the attack came as a surprise. The story goes (4) that The Duke of Perth, Lord John Drummond, Roy Stuart were sitting very securely after breakfast in the Manse, when a local man crossed the Spey and told them that the Enzie was all in a ‘vermine of Red Quites.’ However they were skeptical that when thy went to look for themselves they commented that they were only muck heaps. The local man however said that could be the case but “he never saw Muck heaps moving before”.
If the Jacobite army and stayed and fought the outcome of the rising could have been very different. It was a major military blunder to not attack the Hanoverian troops while they were crossing the Spey. The Jacobites had 2,000 troops on the other side of the Spey. However in March, O’Sullivan had reconnoitred the Spey and had declared it undefensable as there were several fords and it would take a large force of Jacobites to defend it. His argument was that a large army could not live off the land around the Spey. This was a major mistake.
However as Frank McFlynn has pointed out a small group could have indeed inflicted sever damage to armies as the fords zig-zagged across the Spey. Reinforcements could have been quickly brought up. It would appear as though O’Sullivan’s advice was heeded by the Prince as he refused to give Lord Drummond artillery that would have been very effective for the masses of troops both waiting to ford the river and actually when fording the river. It would also have helped to counter the artillery that the Government troops also had supporting them.
Furthermore the Jacobite troops that could have supported the defence were not in Speymouth but were in Grant country trying to “persuade” them to come out in favour of the Prince. This was perhaps an optimistic view – the threat at hand was Cumberland and it should have been obvious that at some stage. as soon as the weather permitted, he would cross the Spey. basically then this was a catalogue of errors: poor military judgement that led to a lack of artillery, troops in the wrong place at the wrong time. A story of a death untold.
The Hannoverian troops then systematically plundered the land North of the Spey. The Dukes own biographer (5) recognised this fact:
It is a proof of the solicitude the Duke had for the country-people at this time, that, after the river had been crossed, and the soldiers, erroneously believing the whole population north of the Spey to be rebels, had seized the sheep and cattle, he caused restitution to be made, and gave the minister of the parish £50 to be divided among the owners, and directed him if that was insufficient to demand whatever was required. His orders in Aberdeenshire and earlier had strictly limited the seizures by his soldiers to the cattle and forage only of rebels; other effects were to be dealt with by the common law.
A secondary source (6) corroborates this story:
The Soldiers had got a notion that all on the other side Spey were rank Rebels, and so immediately seized a number of the sheep and other cattle as soon as they got over. But as the case was quite otherways and the people of that Parish had been longing for the Army as their deliverers, on the minister’s representing this, and what had happened, to his Royal Highness, he immediately ordered all to be restored that could be got unkilled, and gave the minister £50 Ster. to divide among the people for their loss, and if that did not do it directed him to demand whatever would, and it should be ordered.
In fact the actions were extremely widespread and continued well away from the Spey and were assessed as being GBP 310 (see Loggie Family Petition). The extent that the looting went on was much more than simply getting un-threshed Bere and a few sheep. There were also cattle, horses, farm equipment and corn. By so doing the tenants including the Loggies were unable to pay their rents the following year. The 50 guineas fell very short of the full amount. Although the largest losses are those in the area immediately after the crossing, in Redhall, from geographical spread it would appear as no counter order to the plundering was ever made. Perhaps after a victory that was unexpected the fruits of war were finally plundered by the government troops.
Given the subsequent treatment by the Hannovarian troops in the Highlands and indeed the rest of Scotland over the following months it seems frankly pretty brave of the tenants to make the request in March 1747, when the petition was sent, but also shows the extent of the problem for them and also their innocence.
There is also evidence that the Baron Braco also sent letters (7) trying to help his tenants reclaim the money. He too would have been hurt if his tenants did not have the money or goods to pay the rent. In a letter (8) from Sir E. Fawkener, St James’s Square, London, to Henry Pelham dated 21 Jan. 1748 there is still discussion going on with out being resolved almost two years later.
In the acclaimed work Prisoners of the ’45 (9) there appears to be just one prisoner from Speymouth namely Peter Taylor. This was probably family related to Patrick Taylor who in the Kirk sessions was a recognised Catholic. Several rebel soldiers were buried in both Essil and Dipple.
- Forbes, R., Paton, H., Blaikie, W. and Forbes, R. (1897). Itinerary of Prince Charles Edward Stuart from his landing in Scotland July, 1745 to his departure in September, 1746. Edinburgh: Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable for the Scottish History Society. ↩
- M. Hughes, A plain narrative or journal of the late rebellion begun in 1745: describing its progress in Scotland, and England, till the full and glorious defeat at Culloden (London, 1747), 31; J. Marchant, The history of the present rebellion, 375. ↩
- Ray, J. (1754). A compleat history of the rebellion. York: Printed for the author, in the year. ↩
- Blaikie, Walter Biggar. Origins of the Forty-Five, and Other Papers Relating to That Rising. 1916. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013. ↩
- Charteris, Evan Edward. William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, His Early Life and Times (1721-1748). 1913. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013. 260-1. Print. ↩
- Blaikie, Walter Biggar. Origins of the Forty-Five, and Other Papers Relating to That Rising. 1916. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013. 160-1. Print. ↩
- Ne C 1838/2 – Letter from William Duff, Baron Braco later 1st Earl of Fife, Edinburgh Scotland, to Henry Pelham; 14 Mar. 1747 ↩
- Ne C 412 – comments on Lord Braco’s application on behalf of his tenants ↩
- Seton, B. and Arnot, J. (1928). The prisoners of the ’45. Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. Constable Ltd. for the Scottish History Society. ↩
