Donald was a Drover (cattleman) and a land owner in Invernenty. He was also very close and good friends with the Appin Stewarts. The relationship between the MacLarens and the Appin Stewarts goes back for centuries after a marriage that united the two families.
Many of you may be familiar with the story, Outlander. If you are, you might see a correlation between Jamie Frazer and our own Donald MacLaren. Donald, also known as Donald Mòr or Donald the Drover was a staunch supporter of the Jacobite cause and served as a Captain in the Appin Regiment of the Jacobite army in 1745-46. Like Jamie, and several other men who served at Culloden, MacLaren was injured during the battle, captured, escaped and hid out in the remote hills near his home in Invernenty (Balquhidder) as he waited for a pardon from the King.
We can’t be sure of MacLaren’s reasoning for joining the Jacobite army, there was a wide variety of reasons why men and women supported the return of a Stuart to the throne. Many were unhappy with economic and social affairs in the country, some were unhappy at the presence of a foreign, non-English speaking king as ruler, others simply believed that Charles Stuart was the rightful king. But it possible that MacLaren, with a group of his tenants, responded to a call to arms by Lord George Murray who wrote to him in the early part of 1746.
But unlike Outlander which portrayed the Jacobite army, at least Jamie’s part of it, as untrained farmers leaving us with the impression that the Jacobite army was a ragtag group of Highlanders charging blindly into battle. The truth was quite the contrary. The majority of the army, by the time they reached Culloden were well trained and armed with cannon, cavalry and foot soldiers. What they didn’t have, though, was enough food and clothing.
At Culloden, the Appin Regiment was assigned to the centre front line immediately to the left of Lord George Murray’s Atholl Brigade. They were not alone in this position but in the company of the Frazers, MacIntoshes and several other clans. After weathering a substantial cannon barrage, the order to charge was finally given and the MacIntoshes led the way with the Appin Regiment and the others close at their heels. Donald, then, was very much in the thick of things leading his men into battle.
It’s not known how he left the field at Culloden, although records do show that he suffered an injury during the course of the battle. So it was likely he would have been helped off the field by his fellow soldiers which probably saved his life. And it was likely his injury was to a leg or foot as he is reported to have been seen on horseback leading men back toward Balquhidder. This certainly could point to an injury sufficient to prevent him from walking. Injury notwithstanding, he made it to Balquhidder and disappeared. And it was a good thing that he did!
King George was determined to make examples of anyone found to be involved in any way with the uprising. After all, the Jacobites had risen some 30 years before and a couple of times before that. This time, though, they were far more of a serious threat and he decided enough was enough.
As a result, the commander of his forces, the Duke of Cumberland, was dead set to capture and prosecute anyone even remotely suspected of supporting the Jacobite movement. His patrols raided homes of suspected Jacobites, confiscating property and belongings, throwing people into the streets. Anyone who so much as raised a toast to Prince Charles or had said something positive about the uprising was arrested. Neighbours turned in neighbours or people they didn’t like. Landlords were required to provide listings of all their tenants and any involvement or possible involvement by those people in the Jacobite movement. Worse yet, there were priests under the control of Cumberland and his agents who made lists and noted which of their parishioners they believed to be a Jacobite or had political leanings in that direction. There were spies everywhere!!
Thankfully, Donald managed to avoid all of these pitfalls and, at some point after his wounds had healed sufficiently he made his way some 14 miles or so to an area called Leny. There he took refuge in a cottage with a few other Jacobite soldiers consisting of a couple of other officers including a Stewart and a few regular soldiers. It’s something of a mystery as to how or why he wound up there. Could he have been part of a party planning to regroup and fight again? It’s possible. Or perhaps it was simply a good place to hide where the likelihood of discovery was remote.
In any event, eventually he was found and taken into custody. There is a very interesting account of his capture and arrest from The History of the Rebellion in 1745 and 1746 from the Scots Magazine ( written in 1755). Look a little ways down to the sentence that begins “And on the 15th, feven….”. You will see where I’ve highlighted MacLaren’s name a little farther along.
But here is where things get a little muddy. Culloden happened on April 16, 1746. As we see in that short rendition of his capture and the prison records which follow below, Donald was not picked up and arrested until three months later in the middle of July. How the Perthshire Militia found the men is unknown but certainly, with so many people working behind the scenes, so-to-speak to search out and identify Jacobite participants, it wouldn’t be amiss to assume someone reported them.
Unfortunately, although recovered from injuries at Culloden he, once again, suffered an injury during the course of the short skirmish with the Militia; this time to his thigh. Because prison records show he was treated twice for his injury, we might speculate at this point that he probably wasn’t in the best of condition when he was incarcerated. Add to that the travel time from Leny to Stirling, under constant stress of being transported to jail knowing it would likely end in his death, and, well, it must have been a miserable journey for him.
But it also raises some questions: When did they leave for Stirling? The skirmish with the Militia wasn’t long and some records suggest the Militia came upon the cottage in the morning. So the question becomes did they leave with their prisoners the same day? If so it meant they would have spent three to four hours on the road covering 16 miles or thereabouts with wounds of varying severity. But that doesn’t tally with the prison records which show he wasn’t incarcerated until July 20th.
At any rate, the first image below is the head of the page of Stirling prison records giving you the date, the location, the time and the name of the doctor. The date you see in the first image, Feb. 3, 1746 is the date the gaoler started the page and covers several subsequent dates.
You’ll notice that several words in the sentence are capitalised which we wouldn’t see written this way today: “Different”, “Regiment”, “Rebels” for example. During the 18th century people often capitalised words within a sentence to emphasise them.
The doctor noted, in most cases, the cause of the injury or condition requiring treatment and his charges for that treatment. In Donald’s case, he simply says it was a wound in the thigh, no cause listed. The ‘Do’ that you see there simply means ‘ditto’. Notice the date to the left of his name, July 20 – the date of his intake to the prison. So he was treated twice on the same day he arrived.
As I mentioned, after his capture by the Perthshire Militia he was taken to Stirling Castle to be held as a prisoner until his disposition could be determined. As an officer he would most certainly be tried and executed for high treason. So the future did not look good for him. In this arrest record written by the gaoler we’re given the names of all the men arrested with him, by whom they were captured, the date they were brought into custody and their condition (all wounded).
You’ll notice in this record that the gaoler gives the date they were received into custody as July 20th which, as I said, does not tally with the date given in the rendition of his actual capture at Leny on July 15th. In fact, the entry could be interpreted to mean that the prisoners were taken to Stirling the same day they were captured by the Militia! Because of that, I would surmise that the Perthshire Militia either picked him up on the 19th and arrived at the gaol in the morning on July 20th or he was captured and transported the same day (20th) to gaol. Thus the date is mis-stated in the document we saw earlier or there are roughly 5 days unaccounted for in the transport of these prisoners.
Donald was held at Stirling for several months. Finally, on September 3rd, after, presumably, he had an opportunity to recover from his wounds, Donald and another man by the name of King were moved from Stirling Castle to Carlisle as you see in the image below.
It was during this journey to Carlisle that Donald made his escape and was never recaptured. There are a couple of versions of this escape which, for the most part, are similar but do vary in how he loosened himself from his guards. A 1755 issue of Scotts Magazine relates Donald’s escape as: “when being carried towards Carlisle, strapped to a dragoon, he cut the strap, threw himself over a cliff and escaped.”
This version suggests that he managed to find a way to free himself which seems a bit unlikely although not impossible. Logically, if we look at it from the standpoint of the Crown, he was a very valuable prisoner – an officer in the Rebel army and thus his death would have been a wonderful way to provide an example to all who might consider another uprising. So, that, in connection with the information that he was not riding on his own but bound to a dragoon, would suggest they wanted to make sure he got to trial in Carlisle. And considering how difficult it might have been to lay his hands on a weapon sufficient to cut straps and then do so without the dragoon noticing and stopping the process, well, it just seems pretty unlikely this is what happened.
There is however, another version, which seems far more reasonable to me. It suggests that he asked to relieve himself, was released from his bonds to do so and escaped.
By whatever method, he did escape near Moffat about halfway between Stirling and Carlisle. Wrapping himself in his plaid and tumbling down a ravine called Devil’s Beef Tub, he disappeared into the mist with the dragoons firing somewhat blindly in the hopes of hitting him. Fortunately, they missed and Donald made good his escape.
The Order Book of the Appin Regiment from 11th October 1745 to 18th January 1746. 1(C. Stewart Henderson (ed), pg. 168) This is a book that provides information gleaned from the Appin Regiment Order Book on the movements of the regiment during the stated dates and was written in 1746. It gives an interesting summary of Donald’s escape:
Donald MacLaren of East Invernentie, Balquhidder. Wounded at Culloden. He was again wounded and taken prisoner in the Braes of Leny on 19th July 1746. He was imprisoned in Stirling and Edinburgh. While being taken under escort to Carlisle he escaped; when passing the Devil’s Beef Tub near Moffat “Strapped to a dragoon, he cut the strap, threw himself over the cliff and escaped.” Under cover of mist he concealed himself with a turf on his head. He is said to have remained there for some days before making his way back to Balquihidder where he lived in hiding and disguised as a woman until the Act of Indemnity.”
But this passage demonstrates how difficult it can be to trace events. This dates his capture to July 19th which may or may not tally with the prison records as we saw. Further, I have found no recorded evidence that he was ever held in Edinburgh, assuming this references the gaol in Edinburgh and not some other location, which might validate this contention.
The next part of the story, which I have also been unable to confirm although it’s certainly possible, tells that after tumbling down the ravine, he headed north, spent a night in the Crook Inn and eventually returned to Balquhidder. This particular story, if nothing else, is just that, a good story as the author tells us there was also a ‘party’ of soldiers residing at the inn and that he was able to keep himself unknown to them. Must have made for a very uncomfortable night for Donald!
In any event, after returning to Invernenty, he signed over his lands in 1748 to his friend Dugald Stewart and so lost ownership and control over all his property. There is a bit more to this than simply relinquishing his property in the hopes it would not be confiscated or, as some sources suggest, in payment of debt. But we’ll look into that in another article when we pick up the story of his son James, something of a prequel to Art Lowe’s excellent article from the last newsletter.
We can’t say with 100% certainty that his pardon was part of the The 1747 Act of Grace as his name wasn’t specifically mentioned as having received a pardon in any of the records. However, that Act was considered to be a general pardon of participants charged with treason. I think we can safely assume, and it is an unsupported assumption, that Donald was one of those receiving a pardon at that time.
I can’t help but admire Donald the Drover. To go through battle after battle, facing a barrage of cannon fire and still charging in leading his men, to be injured and escaped just to be injured again and captured must have taken remarkable bravery.
- 1(C. Stewart Henderson (ed), pg. 168)
The various stories about Donald are fascinating.
Important, in my mind, is that they were all influenced by the British who wanted neither to appear incapable/incompetent or allow Scots to honor their heroes. I’ve always believed they exerted in heavy hand in spreading the claim that Donald disguised himself as a woman to elude capture, directly assaulting his manhood. While sounding as if he did so for years, it seems ridiculously impractical that he could have managed such a ruse for more than a few hours.