Freemasonry in the North East of Scotland during the Jacobite Uprising of 1745 to 1746

Published in QCCC Volume 29 in 2016

Bro Iain D. McIntosh

This is Part Two

Jacobite Occupation of Dundee

On 4 September a party of MacDonalds under Keppoch and Clanranald entered Dun¬dee and, proceeding to the harbour, forcibly took possession of two ships lying there, which were said to contain arms and ammunition. These were commandeered and sent up to Perth where Prince Charles had the main army. Three days later on 7 September Col Sir James Kinloch of Kinloch with about 300 Angus men entered Dundee and took possession of the town. Sir James Kinloch of Kinloch in the County of Perth (A James Kinloch-Nevay, Esq is named in the Lodge of Dundee subscription List of c.1737), who married Elizabeth Nevay, died in 1744. His son was also James Kinloch. In 1737 he would have been just James Kinloch-Nevay Esq, adding the surname of his mother ‘Nevay’ (a parish in Angus). When his father died he succeeded to the baronetcy and became Sir James Kinloch of Kinloch. (N.B. The Kinloch baronetcy in Perthshire is distinct from the Kinloch baronetcy of Gilmerton in Edinburgh.) This show of force by the Jacobites did not impress the Presbyterian clergy or some of the town council, for on King George’s birthday a riot ensued. When order was re-imposed the Jacobites took care to keep the town under the guard of Kinloch’s battalion. However, while there he managed to recruit another 300+ men from Dundee and the surrounding areas for Ogilvie’s regiment, and of course the town was on the main route through which supplies from Montrose and other ports passed on their way to the Jacobite Army.

Sir James Kinloch, in the name of the ‘old pretender’, King James III, appointed David Fotheringham as the Jacobite governor. He seized all the arms, ammunition, and other military stores, stocked in and around the town. He also gathered other types of supplies and food from the surrounding countryside. Sir John Wedderburn of Blackness acted as a collector of cess (land taxes) to finance the Prince’s army. Sir John is listed as being in both Ogilvie’s regiment and Lord Elcho’s cavalry. Sir John Wedderburn was hung, drawn, and quartered at Southwick for his part in the uprising. His son John Wedderburn of Blackness, a member of the Lodge of Dundee, was a Captain in Ogilvie’s regiment; he escaped to America. When supply ships arrived from France into Montrose on 25 November it was proclaimed that every house should testify their joy by illuminating their windows with candles, or be subject to a fine of £20 Scots. Those who did not had their doors burst open and the houses of the ‘established’ Presbyterian ministers had their windows stoned or even shot at.

The occupation by Jacobite forces ended on 14 January, when they left the town, summoned by the Prince to Falkirk for the impending battle against General Hawley’s government forces. After that battle the men of Ogilvy’s regiment joined in the general retreat up into the Highlands and ultimately to the moor of Culloden. It is said that after Culloden the survivors of Ogilvy’s regiment retreated in good order and made their way back over the mountains down into the Angus lands and then quietly dispersed. Lord David Ogilvie escaped to France and became a General in the French Army. The council and Baillies of Dundee hastened up to Montrose on 22 February to pay their respects to the Duke of Cumberland, and on 6 June they conferred a burgess ticket on him. This was then followed on 23 August by an illuminated scroll in a gold box, made in Edinburgh.

The Dundee Lodges

Documentary evidence for Dundee lodges is quite sparse and the Masonic situation regarding these lodges is fragmentary and at times confusing. There are a few scattered remnants of the Minutes of the original Lodge of Dundee, but also a good selection of Minutes of the ‘Mason Trade’ of Dundee. The two lodges that exist today, Operative and Ancient, have no records or Minutes dating earlier than 1786. The details of their 1745 charters, with the founding names of the main office-bearers listed, are all that remain. However, the fragments which do exist give a perspective of the divided loyalties and do show a split within the membership of the lodge. There were two or maybe even three lodges in Dundee at that time. First the two still in existence today: Lodges Operative and Ancient, the former seemingly composed of operative masons, the other of a more mixed section of the community.

The charter of confirmation for Lodge Operative was granted on 6 February 1745, and the main officers named on it were David Stewart Master, Andrew Auchterloney and James Smart Wardens, William Robertson Treasurer, and John Smart Secretary. These men are all listed as being working, operative Masons in Dundee. None of these men are listed as being Jacobites. However, two Ochterlonys are listed in the muster rolls as Jacobites: a certain John Ouchterloney, working mason in Dundee was in Ogilvie’s regiment, and Peter Auchterloney, a merchant in Dundee in the Lifeguards. Maybe they were either brothers or cousins of the warden Andrew Auchterloney; they were members of the Lodge of Dundee and are also recorded as members of the ‘Mason Trade’ of Dundee. The charter of Lodge Ancient is dated 2 May 1745, with George Kirkcaldy as Master, Peter Smyth and George Pattullo as Wardens and James Yeaman as Secretary. George Pattullo, the Senior Warden, was a Jacobite and is listed as a Standard Bearer in Ogilvie’s regiment. Also a Henry Patullo, merchant from Dundee, is recorded as being a Muster Master for the Jacobite Army: he may have been a relative of George Pattullo, but that needs to be proved.

None of the other main office-bearers are listed as Jacobites. However, James Yeaman, the Secretary, was a Dundee Baillie and Dean of Guild. After the uprising Yeaman bought Affleck Castle on the outskirts of Monikie from the government. That estate had been seized from its owner, Thomas Reid, who was an assessor of the Dundee Guildry. Reid was a Jacobite and subsequently lost his lands and property. Therefore, it can reasonably be assumed that James Yeaman was a Presbyterian and on the government side. An interesting piece of information which has been uncovered in the Grand Lodge archives is the ‘Chartulary List of Lodges’ which details subscribing members of the Dundee Kilwinning Lodge. I am sincerely grateful to Bro. Robert Cooper, Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Library and Museum, for making this document avail¬able to me. It is only in the Grand Lodge of Scotland archives that the Dundee Lodge is given this name. In all other records stored in the Dundee Archives the lodge is documented as ‘The Lodge of Dundee.’ The document also has an addition in pencil of the word ‘Old’ to its title ‘Dundee Kilwinning’ by someone in Grand Lodge. It could mean that it is referring to the old, original Lodge of Dundee, which has documented records going back to the original Lady Luge of Dundee, first mentioned in 1536.

Having researched intensively into the early original Lodge of Dundee, my feelings tend towards the conclusion that during the years 1737 to 1745 the Lodge of Dundee started to fragment into different parts, either through social divisions (i.e. operatives and non-operatives vying for control), or even political divisions (Hanoverian & Jacobite), or possibly both. As this realignment was taking place with two ‘different’ lodges applying to Grand Lodge for charters in 1745, this ‘realignment’ was abruptly brought to an end by the 1745-46 uprising.

The List

Old Dundee Kilwinning Lodge.

The most surprising name in the list is that of James Drummond, the 3rd Duke of Perth, a Catholic and one of the main leaders of the Jacobite army, a Lieutenant General. He died aboard a ship when fleeing after Culloden. He also is listed as the first Master of Lodge St Michael at Crieff. Of the forty-seven men listed, about sixteen were ‘out’ during the 1745 uprising and this could highlight the divided nature of Dundee towards the uprising.

"The John Wedderburn the younger of Blackness, named in the list, succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1744 and became Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness. This Sir John Wedderburn collected taxes for the Jacobite cause in Angus and Perth and suffered execution in Southwark. Another man mentioned in the Lodge of Dundee list was ‘Ballindean’ he was Robert Fotheringham of Ballydean (Ballindean) a relative of David Fotheringham Jacobite governor of Dundee. The Ballindean estate was later acquired by the Wedderburn family in the 1770’s".

Some other names in the list as being Jacobites are:

1. Thomas Blair of Glasclune, a Lt Colonel Ogilvie’s Regiment and also a Lt Col in the Atholl Brigade.
   
2. Alexander Watson, Listed as Jacobite Deputy Governor of Dundee.
   
3. Peter Auchterlony, Soldier Elcho’s and Balmerino’s Lifeguards.
   
4. James Kinloch Nevay, As mentioned above, he could be the same future Sir James Kinloch of Kinloch, Lt Colonel, (2nd Ogilvie’s Regiment). Thomas Haliburton - Cavalry, Starthallan’s Perthshire Horse.

Another three names which crop up in the list and are also of particular interest are those of Lord John Colville the Master, the Hon. Alexander Colville, listed as ‘collector of His Majesty’s customs’ and the Hon. George Colville, Physician in Dundee. According to the Colville family records the Hon. John, the 6th Lord Colville, died in 1741 and was succeeded by the Hon. Alexander as the 7th Lord Colville. Also, from contemporary historical records the Hon. Alexander, the 7th Lord Colville, was a Captain in the Royal Navy in 1744 and commanded a fifty-gun frigate, called HMS Leopard; he eventually became a Commodore and distinguished himself by using his squadron in the breaking of a French blockade of Quebec in 1759.

However, it was possible he was appointed as a collector of customs in Dundee in about 1737 for a short period, as it was a common practice in those days to appoint Royal Navy officers as customs collectors during spells between commands. Also, mentioned in the Dundee Kilwinning list is the Hon. George Colville, a Physician in Dundee. In the muster roll of The Atholl Brigade, (which was a Jacobite unit) there is also listed an Hon. Dr George Colville from Dundee as being their Physician. Whether they are one and the same needs to be clarified.

To confuse things a bit further, another family member, the Hon. Charles Colville, fought on the government side at Culloden and commanded part of the 21st regiment of Foot, The Royal Scots Fusiliers. Obviously, the Colville connections to the Dundee Kilwinning Lodge need a lot more research.

Arbroath, Brechin & Montrose

These towns were at the very heart of a strongly Episcopalian/Jacobite supporting countryside with four lodges, St Thomas in Arbroath, St Ninian in Brechin and two lodges in Montrose.

Arbroath

St Thomas of Aberbrothock, Chartered 1 Dec 1740
According to the History of Lodge St Thomas there was a documented Minute for St John’s Day (27 Dec) 1744. Then there is a gap in the Minutes which resume again on St John’s Day (27 Dec) 1748 and opens with the words:

"By reason of the troubles that of late happened in the County there has not been any regular meeting of the Lodge of St Thomas of Arbroath held since St John’s Day 1744."

The Minutes go on to document the election of office-bearers, mentioning a certain Patrick Wallace. There were two individuals named Patrick Wallace, a father and a son, both members of the Arbroath lodge. The father was the Provost of Arbroath at that time and he declared Arbroath for the Jacobites. He was also appointed Jacobite deputy governor of the town. His son, also named Patrick, was a Baillie and a merchant in the town; he is listed in the muster roll as being an officer in Ogilvie’s regiment. After capture he spent a period in the Tower of London and was only released as the result of an appeal by his friends in Arbroath, who also had to stand surety for him. Considering the fate of many who were captured after Culloden he was very lucky to have been able to return to Arbroath.

Arbroath was a strong Jacobite, Episcopalian town, although much smaller than Montrose with a population of about 1500–2000. The town recruited two companies for the Prince’s army, and this contribution must have represented a high proportion of the able-bodied male population of the town. So, it must have included some lodge members.

Montrose

The Montrose Minutes are extremely interesting. Montrose with a population of about three and a half to four thousand people is described as a prosperous town and port:
the houses are of stone and very like those in Flanders often with their gable ends towards the street. Numbers of genteel families, independent of any trade reside there as a place of agreeable retreat, and numbers keep their own carriages, these people are principally of the Church of England (Episcopalians).

Montrose was a town of first importance to the Jacobite cause, for it had a large and active following and it was also the main port for bringing in troops and military supplies from France. It too recruited two full companies for the Prince’s army.
The harbour channel was deep reaching six fathoms three days before the spring tides, the breadth, scarcely a quarter of a mile but the basin instantly expands into a large circle of considerable diameter, but unfortunately most of it is dry at low water except where the South Esk forms its channel in which vessels of 60 tons will float even at the lowest ebb.

From September 1745 the difficult task of blockading this port and the other ports along the coastline fell to a Royal Navy squadron under Rear Admiral John Byng, who normally held his main concentration off Montrose. He also assigned other ships to patrol off Peterhead, and Aberdeen, between Stonehaven and Buchanness, and between Red­head and the mouth of the Tay. During stormy weather the flotilla was frequently blown ashore and during times like this the supply ships from France managed to get in.

During such a time, between 9 and 19 October 1745, French ships succeeded in landing valuable consignments of gold, arms, artillery and specialist personnel, includ­ing an artillery officer, Col James Grant of Lally’s regiment. He was an officer in the French army and Prince Charles’s ‘Master of Ordinance’. Some ships also managed to get into Stonehaven and Peterhead.

 On 16 November 1745 the Royal Navy sloop Hazard anchored in the channel of the South Esk off Ferryden, on the far side of the channel that led to the basin. The captain’s purpose was to ‘protect His Majesty’s good subjects in the town of Montrose’. It is reported that he installed a certain John Cumming, the Excise Supervisor, as a puppet administrator of the town. He also seized some cannons that the Jacobites had installed in a battery on the Ferryden side and these were put on a merchant ship for safe-keeping.

This incident caught the attention of the Jacobite deputy governor of Brechin, Captain David Ferrier, an officer in Lord Ogilvie’s regiment. Ferrier marched his 200 troops to Montrose, and, according to one account, threw John Cumming and his supporters into jail. He then went to the water’s edge where, with his piper playing constantly, he dared the Master and crew of the Hazard to come ashore. Of course, they declined, but it seems their cabin boy deserted and joined the Jacobites!

A few days later on 24 November, under cover of a violent but rather useful storm, a French frigate,La Renommee, reached Montrose, grounded just south of Ferryden and disembarked 150 troops, mostly from the Royal Ecossaise and three picquets of Irish troops from Dillon’s, Lally’s, and Roth’s regiments.

They also unloaded a number of cannons, two 18-pounders, two 12-pounders and two 9-pounders. Two batteries were established on the Ferryden side, and Captain Ferrier managed to recover the other captured cannons which were established on the Montrose side at Dial or Horologe Hill, near the site of the later Hill Street. From here they opened fire and the Royal Navy ship was trapped; her rigging was torn to pieces by cannon fire. They surrendered and the ship became a prize ship under the control of the Jacobites and was re-named Le Prince Charles.

On 26 November a second frigate La Fine, bearing Lord John Drummond and several hundred more of the Royal Ecossais, landed on the open beach at Montrose near Scurdyness. The ship was attacked on the 27th by HMS Milford. The La Fine became entombed in the scaup bank which was dredged in 1875.

The former Royal Navy ship the Hazard was put under the command of a very tough Franco-Irish frigate Captain, Richard Talbot, and was used by the Jacobites to run supplies between French and Scottish ports. It was later trapped in the Pentland Firth by the 24-gun frigate HMS Sheerness at an inlet off the Kyle of Tongue; the Captain had to ground the ship, they were eventually taken prisoner and the gold recovered.

Altogether Montrose figured so prominently in the rising that the Duke of Cumberland considered landing a small marine force to capture the town and so cut the rebels off from their supplies from France. Admiral Byng was not too sure about this option but agreed that Montrose was the only port on the whole east coast from Inverness to the river Tay that was capable of protecting the French ships from assaults by the Royal Navy.

However, with the retreat by Prince Charles and the Jacobite army into the Highlands and ultimately to Culloden, things soon changed, and the Jacobites abandoned Montrose on 2 Feb 1746. Nine days later Admiral Byng sent fifty marines ashore to take possession of the town, and just after that the Bailies of Dundee rushed up to pay their allegiance to King George and Cumberland. Later on the 24 March, Cumberland, who now had his army encamped in Aberdeen, sent a detachment of 300 men down to take possession of Montrose. This force included a company of the government Royal Scots Fusiliers (21st Regiment of Foot) who were also instructed to subdue and pacify the rebel countryside of Angus, the Mearns and into the glens, which they did, burning Episcopalian meeting houses and other properties of supporters and chasing and arresting rebels.

With all this activity going on in the town, there can be little doubt that the members of the lodge were involved. A lot of Montrose men fought for Prince Charles and suffered in the consequences.

The Montrose Lodges

In 1745 there were two lodges in the town. First there was the old Lodge of Montrose, which had evolved out of the town’s incorporation of operative masons. They have minutes from 1716 to 1748 and a line of Past Masters for that same period. The Master in 1745 was a Robert Dunbar.

Secondly, in about March 1745 another lodge in Montrose applied for a charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The name they chose was ‘The Masonic Lodge Entitled Montrose Kilwinning’ and the Master was named as John Cumming, Supervisor of Excise. This was the same John Cumming, Excise Officer in Montrose, as previously mentioned.

The Minutes of both lodges are contained in one book, The Lodge of Montrose, from the start of the book covering 1716 to 1748. Then somewhere in the middle the writing changes to the minutes of the new lodge, the Lodge Entitled Montrose Kilwinning, with Minutes from February 1745 up to St John’s Day, 27 Dec 1745. The Minute Book then changes in 1748 when the lodges decide to come together and form just the one lodge for Montrose, and thus the present Lodge Montrose Kilwinning No. 15 that we have in existence today was formed. The Minutes are very interesting for the period of the uprising.

On 5 August 1745 the Montrose Lodge Entitled Kilwinning received a deputation of four members from the ‘neighbouring Lodge of Arbroath’, a visit not recorded in the Arbroath Minutes. One of the visitors was David Wallace, possibly a member of the family of Patrick Wallace, the Provost of Arbroath, and a member of Lodge St Thomas. However, this needs to be proved. Prince Charles had landed on Eriskay in July and then would raise his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August, so, with Montrose being an important port, this news could already have been known. It is intriguing to speculate on what was being discussed within the lodge, but as there is no record of what was discussed, we shall never know.

On 27 December 1745 it is recorded in the Minutes of the Lodge of Montrose that they had initiated Patrick Newgion and Edward Newgion, of Deallond’s regiment. This was Dillon’s regiment, part of the French contribution to the uprising, comprising the Irish Picquets and the Ecossais Royal that had probably landed the previous month from either the La Renommée or the La Fine.

According to the muster rolls, a Patrick Neugent is listed as being a Quartermaster in FitzJames’s Horse (Cavalry). He was taken prisoner at Culloden and banished. Edward Neugent is listed as a captain in Dillon’s regiment.49 He was also taken prisoner at Culloden, but discharged, and I think these are the same men who were initiated into the Montrose Lodge.

On that same day, 27 December, and recorded in the Minutes of the other lodge, Entitled Montrose Kilwinning, and chaired by the Master, Bro. John Cumming, the Supervisor of Excise in Montrose, were other military men attending the lodge: Major Kennedy, Capt. McRae and a Capt. Burch, but of which regiment there is no mention in the Minutes. However, as the town was very much under the control of the Jacobite forces they were most likely to be from the Irish regiments.

In the muster roll for the Irish Picquets a Major Kennedy is documented as being an uncle to Cameron of Locheil and is listed in Buckley’s regiment. He too was taken pris­oner at Culloden, but also discharged. There is also a Lieutenant McRae, listed with the Irish Picquets, but as being in Spanish service. The man named as Captain Burch could be either Captain Richard Burke of Dillon’s regiment, also taken prisoner at Culloden, or Captain John Burke of Clare’s regiment also made a prisoner at Culloden.

Dillon’s regiment along with Lally’s, Berwicks, Rooths, Bulkley’s Clare’ etc. were listed as the Irish Picquets, part of the Irish Brigade, a brigade of the French Army com­posed of Irish and Scots exiles who remained strongly attached to the Jacobite cause, taking part in the risings of both 1715 and 1745. Several companies of infantry and one squadron of cavalry fought at Culloden. Alongside them was a regiment of Royal Scots (Royal Ecossais) which had been raised in 1744 in French service. Many other exiled Jacobites in the French army were captured en-route to Scotland in late 1745 and in early 1746. One prominent figure was Charles Radcliffe, titular 5th Earl of Derwentwater, a captain in Dillon’s regiment, who was executed in London in 1746. The Irish Piquets and the Ecossais Royale were placed under the command of Lord John Drummond.

John Cumming, the Master of Kilwinning Lodge, seems to have been playing both sides. When the Hanoverians took possession of the town they drew up parallel lists of informants and of thirty-one prominent Jacobites who came under suspicion. Cumming had the distinction of appearing on both lists, because it is reported by the authorities that ‘tho’ a rougue, he may yet be usuful.’ In the middle of November, he was appointed as the Government governor by the Captain of the Royal Navy Sloop Hazard and was subsequently arrested and put in jail by the Jacobites from Brechin. However, he is mentioned in the lodge Minutes as presiding over the lodge on 27 December, obviously no longer in jail, and at a meeting which Irish French Jacobite officers were attending. It is also reported that local Whigs of the time (government supporters) protested in vain that he had been ‘hand in glove with the Jacobites and the French’.

Also among the list of Jacobite supporters that the government were interested in were David Carnegie, the Laird of Craigo, and John Scott, the Jacobite governor of Montrose; both those names appear in the membership list of Montrose Kilwinning. Indeed, John Scott signed the Minute at which two members of the Irish Picquets were initiated.52 David Carnegie was a Jacobite Cavalry officer. Another member of the Montrose lodges was George Carnegie, who was a captain in Lord Elcho’s cavalry. He was the son of Sir James Carnegie of Pittarow, also a member of the lodge but who is not a Jacobite supporter; he was in fact on the Hanoverian side and fought with the Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy in early 1745, and then at Culloden.

Brechin

Lodge St. Ninian was in existence from about 1714 but did not come under the jurisdic­tion of Grand Lodge until it applied for a charter in 1756. There is no mention in their historical records of what was happening to the lodge and its members, or as to their thoughts and reactions to the 1745 uprising. Brechin, like Montrose and Arbroath, was in the very heart of a strongly Jacobite countryside. It played host to a large contingent of Lord Ogilvie’s regiment under the command of Captain David Ferrier, and many Brechin men joined Ogilvie’s regiment.
Cumberland himself, after he and his army had passed through the area on his way up to Aberdeen, complained to Scotland’s Lord Justice Clerk about the rebelliousness of the whole of the Angus countryside, and claimed that behind his back they were still raising men for Prince Charlie. He comments on ‘a wicked scene of confusion and mischief’, and there is also mentions of ‘those madmen around Brechin.’53 According to the list of Angus Jacobites there were approximately 100 Brechin men fighting for Prince Charlie. Probably some of these were members of St. Ninian’s Lodge.

Aberdeen.

Aberdeen was a prosperous town and had two colleges. In some respects, it was similar to Dundee with regard to its support of the Jacobite cause. It is said that ‘the temper of Aberdeen was uncertain’, with Old Aberdeen being definitely hostile to the Jacobites. But like Dundee there were local lairds who were strongly Episcopalian and Jacobite.

Aberdeen was the port used by Sir John Cope when he marched his government troops from Inverness to ship them down to Dunbar for the battle of Prestonpans, and it is also reported that he carried off the town’s arms, in case the rebels should get them. This of course left the town unarmed when on 15 September James Moir, the laird of Stoneywood, who had an estate near Dyce just outside the town, entered the town to take it on behalf of the Jacobites. It is said that he was accompanied by some street porters and bankrupted merchants. The well effected people in the town seemed only to make jest of Stoneywood and his procession, and the magistrates found it convenient to overlook it, but as the townspeople had no arms this small band soon became masters of the town.
However, in a short time Stoneywood managed to recruit a small battalion from Aberdeen.

Lord Lewis Gordon was appointed Lord Lieutenant of the counties of Aberdeen and Banff, and Governor of the city of Aberdeen; he then appointed William Moir of Lonmay to be deputy-lieutenant and governor of the city of Aberdeen. Thus, Lord Lewis was empowered to hold the counties of Aberdeen and Banff, and the city of Aberdeen, to collect taxes and to raise men.58 Lonmay is a village and parish in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire. William Moir was also distantly related to James Moir, Laird of Stoneywood.

Accordingly, the provost and town council were ordered to make payment to us or to William Moir, our deputy-governor of the town, for the service of His Royal Highness, before the 12th of December, 1745, of the sum of £2847 16s, being the amount of His Majesty’s subsidy, free of all charges, payable out of the town of Aberdeen, from Martinmass, 1744, to Martinmass, 1745, as appears from the taxation book.

The citizens had to pay this sum under the penalty of military execution. The city also had to equip its proportion of armed men—one man for each £100 of valued rent, or pay a sum of £5 in lieu of each man, also under the penalty of military execution. For this demand the authorities made an arrangement with Moir, the deputy-governor of the town, to pay £1000.

Lord Lewis Gordon was the third son of Alexander Gordon, 2nd Duke of Gordon and brother to Cosimo, 3rd Duke of Gordon. He had been an officer in the Royal Navy and raised a regiment of two battalions for the Stuart cause and was said to be ‘a very fine-looking young man, with a remarkable mild and characteristic expression of intel­ligence in his face. His countenance also betokened warm feeling and earnestness.’1 He joined the rising of 1745 and entered into it with the utmost zeal and enthusiasm. He endeavoured to persuade his brother, the Duke of Gordon, to join the rising, but in this he failed; the Duke declined to join Prince Charles, or to contribute anything to the Jacobite exchequer. Nevertheless the example and energy of Lord Lewis induced many of the Duke’s tenantry to join the rising.

Another Aberdeen merchant and a laird in the Mearns, Alexander Bannerman of Elsick, greatly assisted the Jacobites with the landing of French troops and obtaining horses to transport ammunition and supplies. It is also reported that he kept close com­pany with the French and other rebel officers. He also recruited about 160 men from the Mearns and Johnshaven for his regiment,62 and he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of the Mearns. The early history and records of the Lodge of Aberdeen mention Sir Alex­ander Bannerman of Elsick as being a Past Master of the Lodge.

On 22 Feb 1746 a French ship landed 130 men of FitzJames’s cavalry. On 23 February the Jacobite forces left Aberdeen. When the Duke of Cumberland and his army arrived in Aberdeen on 27 February 1746, ‘a loyal and apprehensive crowd applauded the Duke as he entered’. The Lord Justice Clerk in Edinburgh counselled moderation in the deal­ings with Aberdeen, but Cumberland was unimpressed, and on coming to the town he immediately stopped all the non-jurat ministers, and very soon after ordered their meeting houses and the mass houses to be destroyed.

This was done in both town and country as the army marched through it, and indeed ‘none were surprised at this piece of discipline, as these houses were not only illegal, but had in fact proved such nurseries of rebellion.’

He and his main force remained in the town and kept it under heavy military occu­pation. The ‘impressive pile of Gordon’s hospital’ had remained empty ever since it was built in 1732 as a refuge of the children of poor townspeople. It now sprang to life as ‘Fort Cumberland’, surrounded with palisaded earthworks and garrisoned by 200 men, thus securing Aberdeen against the followers of Gordon of Glenbucket, who was even now ‘lurking’ in the hinterland.

Cumberland’s quarters were with a Mr Thomson in the ‘Guestrow’, and it is said the Duke and his staff helped themselves to his coal, ale, spirits and the milk of the house cow, and that they ‘committed atrocities on the table and bed linen’. Nearby in the house of Mrs Gordon of Hallhead Lt General Hawley took the lady’s china ‘because it is pretty’, and all her clothes except those on her back, ‘though for what or whom he wanted them is a little obscure’.

They stayed in Aberdeen until the beginning of April, when Cumberland and the main part of the army headed towards Inverness and Culloden. After Culloden on 1 August the troops in Aberdeen were encouraged to treat the place as a captured town, and the officers of Fleming’s 36th Regiment stationed there insulted the townspeople and encouraged their troops to riot when they smashed the windows of more than two hundred homes that had failed to display candles in honour of the birthday of King George.

As yet I have not been able to research into the Aberdeen records to find out if other members of the Aberdeen Lodge were involved on the Jacobite side, apart from Alexander Bannerman of Elsick: this is a project for the future.
The History of the Lodge of Aberdeen states: ‘The years 1745-1746. By reason of the troublous times in the country, the Lodge affairs were in some disorder and their funds not properly looked after.’

Inverness

Throughout most of the uprising Inverness was under the control of John Campbell, the Earl of Louden, a Hanoverian supporter. He, along with local loyal Hanoverian clansmen, held the town until February 1746, when Prince Charles, along with a large part of the Jacobite Army, reached the area. They first encamped at Moy Hall, just seven miles south of Inverness. This was the seat of the Mackintosh clan, the chief of which, Aeneas, had taken service with King George, but his wife, Lady (Colonel) Anne, was a Jacobite supporter and effectively the leader of the clan. On 16 February Lord Louden, with 1500 men of the ‘independent companies’ and the 64th Highlanders, slipped out of Inverness to surprise Charles at Moy. Charles was warned of the attack and countered it. Louden found himself being deserted by some of the Mackenzies and the other companies in the rear; this retreat of Loudon’s army became known as the ‘Rout of Moy’. Loudon and his army fled across the Dornoch Firth and left Inverness and the old Fort George in the hands of the Jacobites.

In the Minutes of St Johns Old Kilwinning Lodge there is reference to men of the lodge being involved with the ‘Independent Companies’. The lodge Minutes report a meeting on 20 December 1745 ‘when very few of their members attended on account of the present disturbance and several members being joined to the independent companies.’

Prince Charles and the Jacobite army took Inverness and the old Fort George on 21 February 1746. The final battle fought on British soil, that of Culloden, was fought on 16 April 1746, when the hopes of a Stuart restoration ended. What happened after has been indelibly implanted in the Scottish folk memory; the carnage and treatment of the Jacobite injured on the battlefield and the treatment of prisoners was sickening, but this paled into insignificance with the systematic process of murder, mutilation and brutality inflicted on the escaping Jacobites, and all across the Highlands in the aftermath. Lord Roseberry, Liberal Prime Minister in 1894, summed it up bleakly:

No blacker, bloodier page will be found in the history of any country than that which records the atrocities against a brave but vanquished enemy perpetrated at the command of and under the eyes of a British Monarch’s son.’
On the road from Culloden to Inverness the Hanoverian dragoons slaughtered fugitive clansmen, and innocent byestanders alike, men, women and children. Everyone in Highland clothing was assumed to be a rebel; and every rebel deserved to die.

There were two lodges in Inverness at that time: St John’s Old Kilwinning Lodge (1638 to the present) and St Andrew’s Kilwinning Lodge (1735 to 1837). The Lodge St Andrew’s Kilwinning lost their records when Cumberland’s troops stole them, and the new Minutes do not start until January 1747, when they report:

Inverness, 6th January 1747 at John Baithe’s house

Daniel Barbour of Aldourie, Master
Collector Colville - late master
‘The Lodge being constitute according to the usual solemnities received James Farquharson of Invercauld Esq, an itinerant brother in the rank of an entered prentice, as a member of this Lodge.
The distress and confusion which have happened in the country having interrupted any meeting of this Lodge since St John’s day 1745, when the said Daniel Bairbour was chosen Master. The members did enquire at their Treasurer for their charter, records, jewels, utensils & Cash; and he reported to them that when the D. (Duke) of Cumberland and the army came to this place, the room of his house which was also our Lodge, became the guard room of the orderly sergeants; and that all their particulars mentioned were destroyed or carried off, except the charter which he saved by accident & which he laid before the Lodge.

The Lodge thinking of this with concern as a calamity and loss which they cannot remeid (sic) did proceed to elect the proper officers for this year, and the said Daniel Barbour, Master, did name Collector Colville as his successor, who was unanimously approven of and congratulated, and the new master having named Evan Baillie, Senior Warden; Wm Chisolm, Junior Warden; John Taylor, Treasurer & Wm Baillie, Clerk, the same was agreed to, - Nemine Contradicete.
Lieut Alexander Mackenzie, Wm Baillie & Jas Baillie all of Drumlanrigg’s regiment on their petition to be admitted as prentice members of this Lodge, were by unani­mous consent, solemnly admitted and entered accordingly.

Thereafter the members agreed that a select number of gentlemen & ladies be invited here to pass the evening & dance, Friday next at six o’clock
N.B. the three admitted brethren paid 7/6 each and Brother Farquharson the dues of this Lodge 5/- - In all £1 7/6.
Sig – Alex Colville, Master

What is also interesting in this minute is the mention of Collector Colville and then his signature as Alex Colville, Master. Referring back to the Lodge of Old Dundee Kil­winning subscription list of 1737, an Alexander Colville is also mentioned there, and recorded as Collector of His Majesty’s Custom. Can they be the same person? The men­tion of Alexander Colville as ‘Collector Colville’ is intriguing. The Dundee Kilwinning Lists of c.1737 mentions ‘the Hon Alexander Colville, Collector of His Majesty’s Custom’. Also named is Right Hon. John, Lord Colville, as the Master in 1737. The history of the Colville family says that when John, 7th Lord Colville of Culross, died in 1741, he was succeeded by the Hon. Alexander Colville as the 8th Lord Colville. Alexander was born in Dundee in 1717 and would have been 24 when he succeeded to the title. The family history also records that he joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1732 aged fifteen.

The dating of the Dundee Lodge list is possibly 1737 and records Alexander as being Collector of Customs at that time. His family history then goes on to say that he was present with the Royal Navy at the attacks on Portobello (1739) and Cartagena (1741). He was given command of HMS Leopard in 1740. He was appointed Captain in 1757 ofHMS Northumberland and went on to become Commander in Chief (Vice Admiral) of His Majesty’s Ships and Vessels in North America from 1757 to 1762. But is he the same person as the Alexander Colville, Collector in Inverness in 1746?
The Minutes of St John’s Inverness Old Kilwinning Lodge open with the following Minute:

Inverness Old Kilwinning Lodge 24 June 1746
“In a full and perfect Lodge of the Brethren Duncan Fraser, master presiding with the wardens and other officers of the Lodge being the quarterly communication held upon St John Baptist’s day. The former communication upon Lady Day not being kept on account of the disorders of the times”.

As in the case of St Andrew’s Lodge, the Minutes also record the initiation of soldiers of the government army into the lodge.

29 Sept 1746, - Inverness the 29 Sept 1746 Old Kilwinning Lodge. In a full and perfect Lodge of the Brethren Archibald Graham Depute Master held upon St Michael’s day. That Day, James Mainners (Manners?) Sergeant in the honourable General Blakeney’s regiment was upon his petition and . . . By Brother Coloquhoan (sic) was admitted an entered apprentice and brother of this Lodge . . .
Sig Archibald Fraser D.M.

And again, for 5 January 1747:

Francis Caulfield, Ensign in the Hon Gen Blakeney’s regiment, Thomas Cooper, Sergeant in the same regiment, and John Fraser, lawful son of Alex Fraser, present Treas­urer were passed fellow crafts and raised master masons. Having paid the dues to the Lodge.

In looking through the membership lists of Inverness St John’s Lodge, one dated from 1738 and the other dated 1747, it is evident that some of the members were on the Jacobite side, particularly some McGillvarys, McBeans and Macintoshes who appear on the Jacobite muster roll for Lady Macintosh’s regiment. Some of these were killed at Culloden. Many names on the 1738 list are conspicuously missing from the 1747 list.

Conclusion.

It is evident that men who were Freemasons were involved on the Jacobite side. How­ever, as to involvement of the lodges as a whole, or the Grand Lodge of Scotland itself, this cannot be proved, as Minutes do not exist to tell us what was discussed or what was decided within the individual lodges. During this research I have also identified some Freemasons who were not Jacobites and were active supporters of the government Hanoverian side. Those identified are as follows: -

1. Sir James Carnegie of Pitarrow, Member of the Lodge of Montrose. He fought with the Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy in 1745 and was also on the Duke’s side at Culloden. However, his younger brother, George, fought on the side of the Jacobites.
2. George Drummond, a Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Lodge of Edinburgh and a future Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland (1752-1753). George Drummond was also Lord Provost of Edinburgh for various years from 1725 to 1763.
3. Hon Alexander Colville, Lodge of Dundee. Supervisor of Excise a future Vice Admiral Royal Navy.
   
4. Alexander Duncan, Provost of Dundee. As previously mentioned.
   
5. James, Lord Boyd (later 15th Earl of Errol) Lodge St John (Falkirk), Grand Master of Scotland (1751-52) Fought at Culloden with Duke of Cumberland (against his father the Earl of Kilmarnock). The three sons of the Earl of Kilmarnock were elected into office: James, Lord Boyd, as Master (1749-53), the Hon. Charles Boyd as Senior Warden and the Hon. William Boyd as Junior Warden.

What I have tried to prove with this research is that when the north-east of Scotland lodges and their members were caught up in the events of 1745–1746, they and their members were at the very heart of the mainScottish support for the Jacobite cause, for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Stuart restoration, and many paid the sacrifice for that support in the loss of estates, transportation to the colonies, exile and in their lives.

Much research still needs to be done in this complex subject and to understand the situation regarding Freemasonry and the Jacobite cause during the entire period from the Glorious Revolution, when James II was replaced by William of Orange in 1688, to the final end of the Jacobite period, when Prince Charles Edward Stuart died in 1788.

The years 1745-746 were only nine to ten years after the founding of The Grand Lodge of Scotland, a body that was still very much in its infancy with the control and regulation of the lodges. Communication and transport around the country was very slow and very difficult, so that many lodges were still very much independent and autonomous in their workings and in how the members ran their own lodges. Many still did not recognise Grand Lodge and went their own way, like the Lodge in Glamis which was in existence from 1738 to 1744 and only restarted with a Grand Lodge charter in 1765. Similarly, Lodge St Ninian in Brechin, in existence from maybe before 1714, only applied for a charter in 1755.
But there is evidence at that time of an intention and desire by lodges to come under the control and protection of Grand Lodge.

This intention was laid out in the words of the resolution of the Montrose Masons in January 1745, ‘to become a branch of Grand Lodge . . . and thus benefit from the advantages that would accrue and give their indigent brethren a right to their charity.’

Culloden destroyed for ever the attempts and hopes of the Stuarts to re-claim the British throne, after the reprisals of the redcoats throughout the highlands and Jacobite supporting counties, including Angus and Aberdeenshire. The country eventually settled down, and within a generation there was the birth of the British Empire.

The Scottish Enlightenment was taking place, the Agricultural and Industrial Revo­lutions were on the near horizon, the old way of life was changing rapidly and being swept away. The new partnership of Scottish and English society was now moving into the days of Empire where the fighting qualities of the Highland Scottish soldiers were harnessed and recruited to carve out the new Empire.

The lodges ‘went quiet’, understandably so, some not re-emerging until two or three years after the end of the uprising. This is patently obvious from the gaps in the Minutes. The repressions did not end with Culloden, as the hunt for Jacobites went on for quite some time, even in Aberdeenshire and Angus. It has to be assumed that the members of the lodges who did support the uprising and joined the Jacobite army and were on the losing side were either dead, imprisoned, or transported to the Caribbean and the North American colonies, as many hundreds were. The lucky ones had escaped to the continent, some possibly, like young Patrick Wallace of Arbroath, quietly merged back into their communities and were just lying quiet until the time was right for the lodges to re-emerge.

But the balance, the emphasis and structure within the lodges had now probably changed, with the survivors no doubt being of a more pragmatic and realistic view. The hopes of the Stuarts were finished and gone, the remaining members probably more Presbyterian than the pre-1745 membership. This seems to be borne out in the Montrose and Inverness membership lists, both pre and post-Culloden, where there is a noticeable disappearance of certain members. This aspect still needs some more research and re-appraisal. It is the surviving brethren who eventually restarted the lodges, and the lodges did re-form: of that there is no doubt. We are testimony to that fact.

Back to Part 1

©Research by Iain D. McIntosh, 2014