Tag Archives: Lord George Murray

Blair Atholl Castle

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Those of you who know me, also know that I have a bit of a thing about 1745 and the Jacobite march to Derby – not to mention all those blue plaques announcing where the Stewart prince reseted his head. One of my heroes, it certainly isn’t the prince, is Lord George Murray. George was the sixth son of the 1st Duke of Atholl. He had taken the oath of allegiance to George II in 1739 having been pardoned for his part in the 1715 rising. When the prince arrived in Perth, Murray joined the prince. It wasn’t anything new. The Murray family and the earls of Atholl had been loyal to the Stewart cause throughout the seventeenth century. And let’s face it, after the deposition of James VII/II it was impossible to be loyal to two monarch, so there was some strategic ill health and geographical shenanigans to ensure that everyone- with a crown on their head- was as happy as possible. Even so, the 1st Duke, was careful to maintain his loyalty to the Hanoverians.

The eldest son of the duke had been killed at the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709. The new heir, William, Marquess of Tullibardine, was attained for his part in the 1715 Jacobite rising, took part in the 1719 rising and spent the next 25 years in exile. He would be one of the seven men who accompanied Bonnie Prince Charlie back to Scotland in 1745. By then he had lived a life of poverty and ill health. He was captured in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden and died in the Tower of London.

The third son of the duke, James, inherited his brother’s title after William was attainted and would eventually become the duke. He was with the Duke of Cumberland’s army when it arrived in Edinburgh at the beginning of 1746. He ordered his tenants to join the Hanoverian colours. When he died he was succeed by his nephew, John, the son of Lord George Murray – brother number 6. Charles Murray was also a Jacobite and there had been another George who died during his first year.

Like many Scots, Lord George Murray had been well educated before joining the army in the Low Countries. Given that the Wars of the Spanish Succession were underway there was no need for him to become a mercenary despite his chosen career as a professional soldier. The duke had avoided taking part in the 1715 rising and his heir also fought on behalf of the Hanoverians (the family knew how to balance on a political tightrope). But Murray joined the Jacobite cause along with two other brothers having spent time in London – all three strictly forbidden in writing from joining the Stewart cause. After the rising he did not return to Scotland until 1739. His brother, Tullibardine, remained at the side of the Old Pretender.

When Bonnie Prince Charlie arrived in Scotland in 1745, Murray joined with his former cause, and with his brother, once again. He became one of the army’s key commanders and is held responsible for the victory at Prestonpans against John Cope in September. It was George who planned the route from Scotland through Carlisle and the North-West of England despite the fact that he did not agree with the prince’s plan to invade England. And it was George who advised that the army should retreat from Derby recognising that there was little support for the Stuart cause in England – something that Charles never forgave him, even though he defeated an army at Falkirk in January 1746 and had protected the rearguard of the Jacobite column during the retreat from Derby back to Scotland. The prince had not wholly trusted him from the start of the campaign and blamed his losses on Murray.

He was opposed to the battle that took place at Culloden, recognising that it was poorly located. He commanded the right wing during the battle. The day afterwards he resigned from the army, wrote to Charles and after going into hiding went into exile. He never came home again. He was presented to James VIII/III in March 1747 in Rome and granted a pension. His wife, Amelia, joined him. When his brother, the Duke of Atholl died in 1764, despite the attainder against George, his son was allowed to inherit the dukedom.

And that leads us to the castle. And as you might expect in a family divided in its loyalties the fate of the castle was not a straight forward one. Duke James left the castle to join with the Hanoverians. William, who should have been the duke but wasn’t because he’d been attainted, arrived with Bonnie Prince Charlie (much awkwardness all around) but after what in modern parlance can only be described as a photo opportunity they all left and the various tenants of the duke breathed a huge sigh of relief. So far so good.

Now jump to 1746. The castle is garrisoned by Hanoverians – well it would be. The official duke was loyal to the government. On 16 March 1746 Lord George Murray turned up and besieged his childhood home., He wrote to his elder brother, William, the Jacobite duke, apologising about the fact that he intended to blow it to smithereens and destroy all the family portraits – to which William replied that despite the loss of the pictures he, being loyal to the Stuart cause, was not concerned. The garrison held out until 2 April when George was forced to withdraw, leaving the family portraits in tact and some lead from various forms of artillery in the roof timbers. Inevitably the prince wa snot pleased that George had not secured his old family home. On 16th April the Jacobites lost the Battle of Culloden.

George spent the next 8 months on the run before turning up in Europe. The Old Pretender welcomed him but the Bonnie Prince avoided the man he blamed for the failure of the rising. The prince’s viewpoint was somewhat in disagreement with Murray’s aide de camp – James the Chevalier de Johnstone who wrote:

Had Prince Charles slept during the whole of the expedition, and allowed Lord George to act for him, there is every reason for supposing he would have found the crown of Great Britain on his head when he awoke.

Murray was joined by his wife while his own eldest son, John , was raised by his brother, Duke James. The duke repaired the castle but made it less likely to be used defensively – new windows made it less of a fort and more of a manor house. John Murray married his cousin Charlotte reuniting the family split by civil conflict and ensuring that John was able to inherit the dukedom by right of his wife who became Baroness Strange (in her own right) as well as monarch of the Isle of Man. It was by vote of the House of Lords that John was identified as the rightful heir to the dukedom, not withstanding his father’s attainder.

Duke James had intended that his elder daughter, Jean, would marry his nephew – however, she had no intention of marrying her cousin and eloped with John Lindsay, Lord Crawford in 1747 from Edinburgh to marry at Berwick, when she was 17 years old. She died less than a year after her marriage. Charlotte and John Murray would go on to have nine children. My favourite fact about the 4th Duke of Atholl is that he planted his estates with larch trees- some of the seeds fired from a cannon. He hoped to sell the timber to the navy as well as using it himself for a range of purposes including furniture making.

The castle contains Bonnie Dundee’s armour (worn the day he was shot at Killiecrankie); Bonnie Prince Charlies gloves, glasses and compass and Lord George Murray’s white cockade indicating his support for the prince. I will also be posting at some point about the 8th Duke and his wife Katherine Ramsay who was a remarkable lady.

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Bonnie Prince Charlie demands new shoes.

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bonnie prince charlieHaving waved farewell to Colonel Francis Townley the Mancunian newly made Governor of Carlisle and the 380/390 men who remained with him Bonnie Prince Charlie exited Carlisle via Scotch Gate and crossed the bridge over the River Eden. Lord George Murray’s men awaited him at Stanwix.

From there the Jacobites marched eight miles to the Scottish border – into what had been the Debatable Lands.  At Longtown they needed to cross the River Esk.  It should have been a shallow crossing place.  As it was the river was if not in full spate very close to it.  Cavalry were sent down river to rescue anyone that got swept away and then the soldiers formed up into lines of twelve, locked arms and made their way across with suitable gaps between the parties of twelve men.  Apparently they all made it, although Hanoverian press claimed that several camp followers and jacobite women drowned as they  made the attempt – this it appears was propaganda.

Once the army had made dry land the pipers struck up and the whole army danced – from joy at being back on home soil and more practically because they needed to dry out.

This event spawned yet another heroic ballad entitled The Hundred Pipers.  It was written by Lady Nairn and she seems to have become slightly confused about the chronology  as in the ballad the Scots danced their way into England rather than out of it.

The army now split into two columns.  One led by Lord George Murray headed in the direction of Ecclefechan whilst the other containing his princeliness headed off in the direction of Dumfries via Annan.  This was perhaps to make it seem as though there was a bigger army than there actually was.

The people of Annandale weren’t terribly happy to see the Jacobites not least because they’d stolen from them when the army was heading south. In Dumfries Charlie levied a fine of £2000 and demanded 1,000 pairs of shoes within twenty-four hours.  Highlanders were actually stopping people in the streets and taking their shoes from them.  To make matters worse there weren’t 1,000 pairs of shoes in the district.  The best they could manage having raided all the cobblers in the area was 255 pairs. Andrew Crosbie of Holm and Walter Riddell of Glenriddell were carried away the next morning as hostages to ensure that the full £2000 was paid.  It was only when the Jacobites reached Glasgow – anther place that wasn’t overly pleased to see them- that the money was forthcoming and they were allowed to go home.

 

Johnson Beattie, David. (1928) Prince Charlie and the Borderland. Carlisle: Charles Thurnam and Sons

Bonnie Prince Charlie – retreat.

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000106_hartington_exterior_001.jpgThe Jacobites left Derby on the 6th December but William Augustus (the duke of Cumberland) didn’t get the information until the next day.  He set off in hot pursuit hoping to catch Charles on English soil.  Meanwhile the Jacobites headed back the way that they came with brief interludes for making local legends.  For reasons best known to himself and the original story teller Bonnie Prince Charlie  allegedly diverted off the main road at Ashbourne for a quick jaunt around the White Peak – he also allegedly stayed in Hartington where he took a mistress – one night stand might be a more apt description- who died presumably from love and who continues to haunt Hartington Hall waiting for her prince to return, pictured above.  Far more likely is the tale of the landlord of the Royal Oak by the River Dove who failed to part with his horse when the Jacobites demanded it and was shot for his pains.

Anyway, as Cumberland pursued the Jacobites north, General Wade who’d made it all the way to Yorkshire headed towards Lancashire in a bid to cut the Jacobite army off – clearly not a resounding success. Cumberland also wrote a sternly worded note to the local magistrates of Cheshire telling them it was their duty to slow the Jacobites down so that he could catch up with them.  It would appear that many magistrates nailed their letterboxes shut or suddenly found they had pressing engagements elsewhere not least because in the aftermath of the Jacobite army heading south many of the local militias had been disbanded having been palpably useless during the Jacobite advance. Oates makes the point that there wasn’t a Cheshire militia because the focus had been on building Chester’s defensive strength. By the 16th December Cumberland was in Preston and not amused by the fact that the citizens of the North West of England had failed to intercept the Jacobites.

There were the occasional skirmishes.  In Macclesfield one Jacobite was shot dead and in Manchester loyalists threw clods of earth at the retreating army but swiftly ran away themselves when the rear guard took exception to their treatment.

By the time the Jacobites arrived in Westmorland and Cumbria (to avoid confusion with the duke) the situation had changed.  The retreating army was less chivalrous than it had been on its march south.  The men who made up its parts were now looting and pillaging – they were becoming steadily more desperate. The regular army was catching up – as Bonnie Prince Charlie got up in the morning and rode off his hosts barely had time to change the bed sheets (if indeed they did) before the duke of Cumberland arrived looking for a bed for the night!

The advance party of Jacobites arrived in Kendal on the 14th December.  It was market day.  There were scuffles. A Jacobite was killed and in the exchange of gunfire that followed so was a Kendal cobbler.  In total four men died that day. The Jacobite advance party headed for Penrith via Shap and Orton.  The country was alight as it had been in the days of the border reivers with beacons being lit to warn of the Jacobite approach and skirmishes between the Scots and rural Cumbrians.

By now Cumberland was writing to those in authority demanding that they tear up roads and fell trees to stop the Jacobites in their tracks. The road from Kendal to Shap was broken.  With this information and the speed of the retreat its no wonder that horses fell in their traces on the pull up the hills over Shap. On the  16th December, the main  part of the army was at Shap. However, the rear guard commanded by Lord George Murray was delayed because of the difficulty of moving the wagons and what artillery they did have.  Many of the wagons broke or were simply too heavy to haul up the road.  Smaller carts had to be requisitioned and the contents of the wagons redistributed. The remnants of a cart and a horse skeleton would be found in a ravine demonstrating the difficulties of transport in the eighteenth century.  Every delay saw Cumberland drawing closer.

DSC_0077-54.jpgclifton war grave49.jpg It was at Clifton,outside Penrith that Cumberland’s advance party clashed with the Jacobite rearguard who had been ordered to conceal themselves behind two hedges.  It was the 18 December and was to be the last battle on English soil.  As the sunset the two sides met and both sides claimed victory – whilst the Redcoats retained the field the Scots could very justifiably argue that their retreat had not been impeded. The St Cuthbert’s Church, Clifton contains a memorial to the men of Bland’s regiment who fell during the skirmish and there is a roadside memorial to the battle.  Cumberland stayed the night at Townend Cottage.

A site known as the Rebel’s Tree in Clifton was where 15 Jacobites were thought to have been buried but an archeological dig preluding a housing development failed to uncover their grave although it did yield rather a lot of musket balls.  The archeological report noted that the railway embankment could have destroyed the graves or that the bodies lay within the restricted 20m zone around the tree which is protected not only because of its links with the battle but because it was also the local hanging tree.

On the morning of the 19th December the Jacobites were back in Carlisle and the recruits of the Manchester Regiment were having to decide whether to continue with the army or disperse and go home.  Cumberland would arrive outside Carlisle’s gates on the 21st December. Carlisle found itself under siege but this time, unlike so many in the past – the Scots were inside the city gates rather than outside.

Oates, Jonathan D. (2006) The Jacobite Invasion of 1745 in North West England. Lancaster: Lancaster University

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The Jacobite advance.

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bonnie prince chalrie derby38.JPGAs the Jacobites marched south via Lancaster the Hanoverians in the form of the Lancashire Militia and the Liverpool Blues marched into action – which meant breaking bridges.  The bridge over the Mersey at Warrington was demolished as were several others but by the time the order came to demolish the bridge at Stockport it was too late.  The Blues hurried off to join the garrison at Chester and Liverpudlians heaved a sigh of collective relief as the Jacobites headed for Manchester and Manchester’s magistrates promptly left.  There was something of an exodus prior to their arrival.  Such was the state of concern that Oates records that families packed their belongings and their families onboard boats in Liverpool ready to sail in the event of the army turning its attention in their direction.  Not everyone felt the same about the Stuart cause apparently two fiddlers played the Jacobites into Preston – though Preston a town with a reputation of jacobite sympathies didn’t offer up many in the way of recruits.

Once they arrived in Manchester on the 29th November 1745 the Jacobites set about having the bridge at Crossford repaired, food to be foraged for and Prince Charles declared regent.

The perennial problem of recruitment remained. Eight men had joined in Preston.  At Ormskirk the story was a bit different in that there was more popular support but it appeared that although Prince Charles had well wishers none wished to pick up a weapon in his cause.  This was disappointing as Lancashire had the reputation for being Catholic in outlook.  Oates observes that there was little correspondence between the Catholic Church in England and the Stuart court, ironically based in Rome, as the Stuarts didn’t wish the English to think of them as being a Catholic faction.  Ultimately a Manchester Regiment of Jacobites was formed. Charles took this as a good sign – his officers felt that two hundred men didn’t constitute a popular uprising nor for that matter did they come solely from Manchester.  They came from all over the north of England. They were in the command of Colonel Francis Towneley who had seen service in the French army.  The regiment was inspected on the 30th November.  When Towneley was tried for treason in London in 1746 he claimed that as a veteran of the french army he should be treated as a prisoner of war.  His plea was not admitted.

The Jacobites left Manchester with their new recruits on the 1st of December 1745.  They continued south via Macclesfield and Leek where they arrived on 3rd December- it is said that the Jacobites sharpened their swords on the tombstones of St Edward’s Church. The vicar’s wife either died from fright or gave the prince a flea in his ear depending on which story you chose to believe.From there it was a hop, skip and a jump to Ashbourne and Derby.

Meanwhile Cumberland decided that the prince was heading for Wales based on a feint that Lord George Murray made at Congleton so marched his forces from Lichfield to Stone south of Stoke where he waited to give battle – and was presumably very irritated when it didn’t happen. Murray’s manoeuvre meant that the Jacobites were able to march into Derby unopposed on 4th December with between six  and nine thousand men depending on the source.  The newly formed Derbyshire regiment commanded by the Duke of Devonshire having decided that discretion was the better part of valour and scarpered to Retford.  Bonnie Prince Charlie feeling that he was on a roll made arrangements for the capture of Swarkestone Bridge which was the only one crossing the Trent between Burton and Nottingham.

There was a meeting in Exeter House on the 5th December.  There are 125 miles between Derby and London – another week would have seen the army in England’s capital. However, it was decided that the army would return to Scotland  as it risked being surrounded with Wade and Cumberland’s men coming around behind them and another force to their south.  There was also the lack of support from the English for the Jacobite cause and in addition to which the Scots were a bit restive about the fact that the french were supposed to be offering assistance and so far there had been not so much as a hint of french boots on the ground.   Lord George Murray was very clear as to his concerns.

The final straw may have come in the form of Dudley Bradstreet who presented himself in Derby as a Jacobite but who was really a spy working for Cumberland – he “let slip’ that there were 9,000 men in Northampton on the Hanoverian side.  There weren’t but there wasn’t any way of checking.

So on the 6th of December Ashbourne once again played host to Bonnie Prince Charlie and his very cross army because whilst the officers didn’t fancy being pinned on three sides the men themselves were keen for a fight.

Oates, Jonathan D. (2006) The Jacobite Invasion of 1745 in Northwest England. Lancaster: lancaster University

 

The grocer and Bonnie Prince Charlie

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bonnie prince charlie.jpgBonnie Prince Charlie’s entry to Carlisle on a white horse followed by the declaration of his father as James III at the foot of the market cross all seems very straight forward but as with much to do with the rebellion of 1745 an element of farce is never far away.

Charles was based at Blackhall but heard that Wade was moving from Newcastle to intercept him, so the prince shifted to Brampton where he stayed in what is now known as Prince Charlie’s House on High Cross Street. It has a blue plaque.  In Carlisle the deputy mayor had a rush of blood to the head at the Jacobite departure. Thomas Pattinson wrote a niftily worded note to the government  and the London Gazette to the effect that Carlisle had routed the enemy and that it had outdone Edinburgh – he also managed to infer that it was all thanks to him.

Unfortunately for Pattinson the Jacobites returned the following day and behaved in a most unchivalrous way by turning the locals into human shields.  Pattinson surrendered and offered up two thousand pounds if the Scots would promise not to ransack the place.  This happened on the 15th of November as you may recall from my previous post.

Inside the castle, Captain Durand took an audit of their situation. Durand had received a letter on the 10th November from Wade saying that he probably wouldn’t arrive in Carlisle in time.  The castle was not what it had once been- it was likened at one point in its history to a ‘chicken coop,’ the militia refused to fight and the castle was garrisoned by the elderly and the infirm. Prior to the rebellion extra groups had been requested but this had been turned down on the grounds that it would have cost too much money.  Fifty pounds could have halted the Jacobites in their tracks – medieval monarchs were well aware of the importance of Carlisle as a strategic key to the kingdom.  The knowledge had been lost and in November 1745 the Scots were able to take advantage of the situation even though they didn’t have much in the way of canon.  The castle surrendered the next day and after the rebellion Durrand was court-martialled but acquitted. In addition to being hobbled by the state the Government had left Carlisle in there was the small matter of the Jacobites forcing local women and children to walk ahead of them rather preventing Durand from firing the castle guns.  The city folk were also quite keen that the castle surrender asap because the Scots refused to accept the town’s surrender without the castle.

Meanwhile all was not well in the Scottish camp.  Lord George Murray had not been impressed by Prince Charles’ failure to rotate troups according to Riding so resigned his commission. It was symptomatic of the difficulty that Charles would increasingly face as the Jacobites travelled further south.  His men were not a cohesive body and prone to their own jealousies and agendas.  The Duke of Perth also resigned his commission whilst the Jacobites were in Carlisle added to which there was dissension amongst Charles’ advisers about whether they should advance further into England or return to Scotland.  The main problem seems to have been the lack of support – folk were not flocking to the Stuart colours – only two notable Cumbrian gentlemen arrived to swell their numbers, though once the Jacobites arrived in Lancashire which was more Catholic the numbers of recruits rose.  I should add that whilst the 1715 uprising had been almost entirely Catholic in flavour the 1745 rebels were Catholic, Episcopalian and there were even some Presbyterians amongst their number it was simply that not many people wanted the Stuarts back including some of those who’d merrily been drinking toasts to the ‘king over the water.’

Ultimately Colonel John Hamilton was left in charge of Carlisle’s Jacobite garrison with a hundred men and Sir John Arbuthnot who was named governor of Carlisle whilst the prince and the rest of the army headed down the A6 towards Penrith where the prince spent the night in what is now the George Hotel but which was then known as the George and Dragon; Kendal on November 20th where the mayor promised not to resist (but didn’t manage an entire song about it).  The Jacobites remained in Kendal for forty eight hours.  The prince stayed in a house on Strickland Gate (yes- there is a plaque- there are plaques all over the countryside from Carlisle to Derby based on Bonnie Prince Charlie’s pronouncements and sleeping habits) and the Angel Inn gained a legend that a child was saved from certain death at the hands of a Jacobite by the appearance of a helpful angel. Part of the reason for the decision to continue south was that the fall of Carlisle in the aftermath of Prestonpans and the fall of Edinburgh gave Prince Charles the prestige of victory.

Tomorrow’s post will take the Jacobites south to their fateful meeting at Exeter House  in Derby and the decision to turn back at a point where had they but known it London was in a state of chaos.  The Jacobites would be back in Kendal on the 13 December 1745 and they would be back in Carlisle by the 19th December with William Augutus better known as the Duke of Cumberland in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile the deputy mayor of Carlisle had become the topic of a ballad – and it wasn’t terribly flattering:

O Pattison ! ohon ! ohon !

Thou wonder of a Mayor !
Thou blest thy lot thou wert no Scot

And blustered like a player.

What hast thou done with sword or gun

To baffle the Pretender ?
Of mouldy cheese and bacon-grease

Thou much more fit defender.

front of brass and brain of ass

With heart of hare compounded,
How are thy boasts repaid with costs

And all thy pride confounded 

Thou need’st not rave lest Scotland crave

Thy kindred or thy favour ;
Thy wretched race can give no grace,

No glory thy behaviour.

 

The reference to cheese and bacon grease is made because Pattinson was actually a grocer and whether it was fair is another matter entirely as much of our understanding of the period comes from a source personally hostile to the deputy mayor.

Riding, Jacqueline. (2015) Jacobites: A New History of the ’45 Rebellion London:Bloomsbury Publishing

“Carlisle in ballad and story. A lecture delivered before the Carlisle Scientific and Literary Society, on October 31st, 1911; and … to the Cumberland and Westmorland Association of London, on February 21st, 1912“