Clan References in The Stewarts of Appin by John H.J.Stewart

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Kyle MacLea
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Clan References in The Stewarts of Appin by John H.J.Stewart

Post by Kyle MacLea »

In John H.J. Stewart (FSA Scot)'s 1880 The Stewarts of Appin, there is a short section about the Livingstones that I thought I would reproduce here, pp. 103-104:
"...An amicable settlement of these long pending claims was thus
arrived at, and upon terms extremely favourable to Mac Lean when com-
pared with the damages awarded by the Lords in council. It was no
doubt after friendly communications had passed between Appin and
Duart that Duncan proceeded to Mull, as his sole attendant on the
occasion was his henchman. There may perhaps have been no pre-
meditated intention on the part of the MacLeans to provoke a quarrel, but
rough jokes were passed upon the size and weight of Duncan's follower.
The chief retorted that the Appin men were not fed upon mean shell-
fish like barnacles, as the MacLeans were said to be; and seeing their
now evident purpose and his own inevitable fate, he set his back against
the rampart of the castle, and, pursuing the grim jest, declared that
before he died he would make with his dirk marks like barnacles on
many of the MacLeans. He fell, overpowered by numbers, after a
gallant resistance.

MacLea, now called Livingstone, of Bachuill in Lismore, hearing
of the death of his chief, set out for Duart Castle at night in his boat,
which was rowed by his two red-haired daughters. He scu tried all the
boats in the Port of Duart, and brought the corpse of his chief to
Lismore, in the church of which island it was buried. The tombstone
was, until lately, visible in the floor, but was covered when some altera-
tions were made in the church in 1877.

This family of Livingstone, commonly called the Barons of
Bachuill, received in early times a grant of land in Lismore, which they
still hold as keepers of the Bishop of Lismore's crozier or baculum, in
Gaelic " Bachuill Mor." The crozier was given up by them a few years
ago to the Duke of Argyll, when he granted a confirmation of their title
to their old possession. The sept of Mac Lea or Livingstone seem to
have been very anciently seated in Appin, where they have held lands
as tenants of the Stewarts, and have always followed their banner to
war. At Culloden four of the name were killed and one wounded.
Dr David Livingstone, the celebrated explorer in Africa, was of this
race, and some of his relatives still reside in Appin, Mr Livingstone at
Portnacroish being the nearest of kin. Dr David Livingstone writes of
himself, " Our great grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden, fighting
for the old line of kings ; " and it is doubtless to the baculum or
Bachuill Mor that he alludes, when he recounts that his Roman Ca-
tholic ancestors " were made Protestants by the laird coming round with
a man having a yellow staff, which would seem to have attracted more
attention than his teaching, for the new religion went long afterwards
— perhaps it does so still — by the name of ' the religion of the yellow
stick.' " "
And later on pp. 136-138:
"No records remain of Ardsheal's life before 1739, as most of the family papers were
destroyed or lost on the sacking of the house at Ardsheal on the night of the isth to i6th
December 1746, as will be afterwards related. It is known, however, that he was an
enthusiastic Jacobite, keeping up an active correspondence with the Court of the
Chevalier at Fontainebleau and Rome, and that in 1739 he received a commission as
Colonel from King James, which is still in possession of the family, and of which the
following is a copy : —

" James the Eight, By the Grace of God King of Scotland, England, France, and
Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. — To our Trusty and well-beloved Charles Stewart of
Ardsheal, Esquire, Greeting. We, reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your loyalty.
courage, aiid good conduct, Do hereby constitute and appoint you a Colonel in our
Forces, and to take your rank in our Army from the date hereof. You are therefore
carefully and diligently to Discharge the Duty and Trust of Colonel aforesaid, by doing
and performing everything belonging thereto : And We hereby Require, all and sundry,
our Forces to Respect and obey you as such, and yourself to observe and follow all such
Orders, Directions, and Commands as you shall from time to time receive from as, our
General and Commander-in-Chief of our Forces for the time being, or any other your
Superior Officer, according to the Rules and Discipline of War : In pursuance of the
Trust reposed in you, Given at our Court at Rome, This 20th Day of May 1739, In
the 38th year of Our Reign. J. R."

Charles Stewart of Ardsheal, being a man of energy and ability, and Tutor to the
Chief, who was a minor, took, together with Lochiel and Glengarry, a leading part for
years in the correspondence with Prince Charles as to his prospects of success in the
event of his coming to Scotland to assert by arms his father's right to the Crown. In
1745 Ardsheal, at the head of the Appin regiment, joined Prince Charles Edward at Low
Bridge in the Great Glen. In a narrative, written apparently soon after 1746, Andrew
Henderson says : " The Stewarts of Appin, ever zealous for the royal cause, joined the
Chevalier under Stewart of Ardsheal, a gentleman of good parts, though misapplied."
Lord Elcho, one of the attainted lords, says in his account of the campaign, that Stewart
of Ardsheal was one of the Council who met with Prince Charles every morning.

In a memorandum as to the Highland clans, sent to the King of France when he was
computing the chances of the success of an expedition to Scotland, and the number of
men who would take the field in support of the Royal Stuarts, we find the following :—
"The Stewarts of Appin and M'Naughtons have still been loyal to the Kings Charies I. and
II., and King James VII., and were in the fields for them. They may raise, of very good
men, 500." The Appin regiment seems generally to have been a little over 300 men,
including those of the name of Stewart, and their retainers who occupied crofts under them
in Appin, chiefly of the names of M'Coll, Carmichael, M'Combich, M'Innes, M'Lea or
Livingstone, M'Intyre, and M'Cormack or Buchanan. Their staunch allies the M'Larens
also sent a contingent, which formed a valuable part of the regiment. In a " Life of the
Duke of Cumberiand " they are only stated at zoo strong when they marched southward
from Edinburgh. This, however, is a low estimate, as in no other account are they put
at so small a number. In the list of Prince Charles' troops in November 1745, are " the
Appin men, 360, under Stewart of Ardsheal."

At the battle of Preston Pans, on 21st September 1745, the Camerons formed the
extreme left of the Highland army. Next to them, and opposed to Lascelles' regiment,
were the Stewarts of Appin, supported by 120 of their neighbours and hereditary friends
the Macdonalds of Glencoe, whose chief was brother-in-law to Ardsheal. The Camerons
and Stewarts were drawn up somewhat in advance of the clans on their right, and were
thus the first to encounter the enemy. They were opposed to Sir John Cope's artillery,
which they captured, Stewart of Invemahyle taking prisoner Colonel Whitefoord after he
had fired off five of the six field pieces with his own hand. Four officers of Prince
Charles' army were killed, and amongst them was " Captain Robert Stewart of Ardsheal's
battalion."

On the 20th December 1745, Macpherson of Clunie wrote to a friend, describing the
engagement of the rear of the Highland army with. the Duke of Cumberland's troops at
Clifton three days previously. He says that the Duke took them by surprise, accompanied
by more than 3000 horse, and " when he appeared there happened to be no more of our
army at hand than Glengarry's, Stewart of Appin's, and my own regiment. Glengarry's
regiment was planted at the back of a stone wall on our right, the Appin regiment in the
centre, and mine on the left, lining a hedge." The Duke's troops were repulsed with
considerable loss, the Stewarts, Clunie says, coming off without the loss of a man.

At the battle of Falkirk, 17th January 1746, the Appin men, 300 in number, were in
the centre of the first line, according to Charles' History, but Home's sketch of the field,
which is more likely to be correct, places them on the extreme left, next the Camerons.
They were one of the few regiments charged by Hawley's dragoons, whom they decisively
repulsed. Ardsheal was one of the chiefs who, after a Council of War on the 29th
January, signed a recommendation to Prince Charles to continue his retreat to the north
from Falkirk.

At the battle of Culloden, i6th April 1746, the first line of the Highland army,
enumerating from right to left, consisted of the Athole men, the Camerons, Stewarts of
Appin, Frasers, M'Intoshes, Maclachlans, Macleans, Roy Stewart's regiment, Farquhar-
son's, Clanranald, Keppoch, and Glengarry. The position assigned to the Macdonalds on
the left, instead of on the right, an honour which they claimed to be theirs by hereditary
right, contributed greatly to the loss of this battle, as the pride of the haughty clan was
deeply wounded. The right wing — the Athole, Lochiel, and Appin regiments — were
opposed by Barrel's and Monro's regiments, which were supported on the left flank by
cavalry, and on the right by artillery ; Woolf's and Blakeney's regiments being drawn up
in two lines in rear of the interval between Monro's and Burrell's. All accounts of the
battle state that the regiments on the right of the Prince's army rushed to the attack with
heroic valour. The Historical Geography of the Clans of Scotland says that Lord George
Murray on the right, seeing that his division could be restrained no longer, ordered them
to advance, which they did with a shout. In spite of the shower of grape shot which met
their advance, the clansmen pressed on, and broke through Monro's and Barrel's
regiments, capturing two cannon. Not content with this, they continued their advance
till it was checked by the second line, which was drawm up as if to repel cavalry, the first
rank kneeling, the second stooping over the first, and the third standing upright. Such a
destructive fire was poured upon the Highlanders, that their advance was checked, and
the survivors compelled to retire ; but so determined had been the attack, and so vigorous
and effective the repulse, that the Highlanders were found, when the strife was over,
heaped on each other three and four deep.

One, who signs himself "An Eye Witness to most of the Facts," writing in 1748,
says : " Those on the right (Stewarts and Camerons), with their glittering swords, ran
swiftly on the cannon, making a dreadful huzza, and crying, ' Run ye dogs.' They broke
between the grenadiers of Barrel and Monroe, who had given them fire when at the
muzzles of their guns. When within two yards of the cannon they received a discharge
of cartridge shot, while those who crowded into the opening made by the havoc received
a full fire from the centre of Bligh's. They who survived possessed themselves of the
cannon, and attacked the regiments sword in hand ; but Wolf's and Fleming's wheeled to
the left of Barrel's, with Bligh's and Semple's, and made such a continued fire on their
front and flank, that nearly all the right wing which broke in were killed or wounded."
In his account of the battle of Culloden, the desperate valour of the clans moved Lord
Mahon out of his usual composure to an unwonted swell of sympathetic eloquence.
" Nowhere," he says, " not by their forefathers at Bannockbum, not by themselves at
Preston and Falkirk, not in after years, when discipline had raised and refined the valour
of their sons, not on the shores of the Nile, not on that other field of victory, where their
gallant chief, with a prophetic shroud (it is their own superstition) high on his breast,
addressed to them only these three words, ' Highlanders, remember Egypt ^ — not in those
hours of triumph and glory was displayed a more firm and resolute bravery than now in
this defeat of Culloden." But for the unfortunate affront to the numerous and gallant
clan of the Macdonalds in placing them on the left wing, in place of on the right, an
honour which they have claimed since the battle of Bannockbum, the disastrous defeat
might have been a victory. Charles puts the number of the Appin regiment at Culloden
at 300, and Chambers says they suffered more than any other of the Highland clans.
Andrew Henderson writes " that the regiments " — those from Athole, Appin, and Lochiel,
— " opposed to Barrel and Monroe broke through the first line with irresistible fury, but
received a terrible discharge from cannon ; they possessed themselves of the guns, but
it was impossible to hold them, and being attacked in the flank, they had to retreat."
The regimental colour borne by the Stewarts of Appin at Culloden is still in the possession
of the head of the Ballachelish branch of the family. It is of light blue silk, with a yellow
saltire, or cross of St Andrew, the dimensions being 5 feet hoist, with a fly of 6 feet 7
inches. Its gallant bearer, one of the Ardsheal family, was killed, and the banner is
stained with his blood. It bears the marks of having been torn from the colour staff,
which accords with MTan's account that, when the standard-bearer was slain, one of the
corps, called Mac an t-Iedh, from Morven, tore it from the staff, and wrapping it round
his body, made good his retreat from the field. The banner thus escaped the fate of those
of twelve Highland clans, which were taken at Culloden, and burned at the Market Cross
of Edinburgh on the 6th June following."
(Mac an t-ledh being another way of saying MacOnlea, or MacLea)

Note that in the Appendix to this book, which lists the casualties of the Appin Regiment at Culloden, lists the Maclarens among the "Commoners" of the regiment along with all the other Clans despite their ancient relationship with the Stewarts.

By the way here is a reference to the Battle of Pinkie which we have previously discussed:
"In 1547, Somerset, the Protector of England, renewed the proposal
of marriage between Edward VI. and Queen Mary, and marched an
army of 18,000 men into Scotland to compel the compliance of the
Scots. In the battle of Pinkie, which ensued on the loth September of
that year, the Stewarts of Appin bore their part, the regiment being
commanded by Donald-nan-ord, second of Invernahyle, Alan Stewart
being then an old man, and his eldest son Duncan dead, while his
grandson John, who succeeded him, was still a minor.

Alan Stewart married a daughter of Cameron of Lochiel, by
whom he had five sons, all of whom accompanied their father to the
field of Flodden.

They were : —
I. Duncan.
: 2. John : of whom the first Stewarts of Strathgarry. Page
152.
3. DuGALD : of whom Achnacone. Page 153.
4. James: of whom Fasnacloich. Page 155.

5. Alexander: of whom Invernahyle. Page 165.

Alan seems to have died, at a very advanced age, about or soon
after the year 1562.

Duncan Stewart, fourth of Appin, appears to have predeceased
his father before the battle of Pinkie in 1547, as we find the clan led
on that occasion, as above mentioned, by the Tutor. He was certainly
dead before 1562, as we find that in that year Alan Stewart of Appin
resigned the lands in Lismore, held by him from Campbell of
Glenorchy, for the purpose of having them re-granted to John Stewart,
his grandson, the liferent of them, however, being reserved to Alan.
Duncan married Jonet Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntly, who
had obtained the neighbouring territory of Lochaber. In 1558 John
Campbell of Calder, Commendator of Ardchattan Priory, granted to
Jonet Gordon, Lady of Appin, in consideration of payments by her for
repairing the church and monastery, the two merk lands of Yriskay and
Dyrremeanach for a yearly payment of £4 Scots, and in 1562 she
resigned these lands to John Campbell, the natural son of the
Commendator. "
We debated whether the Clan was there or not.... http://www.clanmclea.co.uk/forum/show-m ... sp?ID=1281

Given the Appin Stewarts fighting at that Battle, it could very well be the Clan *was* there.

Just archiving the material here for posterity.

Good information!

Kyle=
Kyle S. MacLea
Clan Society Life Member; DNA Project Co-Admin
New Hampshire, USA
kyle -dot- maclea -at- gmail -dot- com
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Kyle MacLea
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Re: Clan References in The Stewarts of Appin by John H.J.Stewart

Post by Kyle MacLea »

PS I have a PDF of this book if anyone wants it.

Kyle=
Kyle S. MacLea
Clan Society Life Member; DNA Project Co-Admin
New Hampshire, USA
kyle -dot- maclea -at- gmail -dot- com
Canadian Livingstone
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Re: Clan References in The Stewarts of Appin by John H.J.Stewart

Post by Canadian Livingstone »

Hi Kyle,

It is a great book isnt it? Thanks for sorting through it and piecing that together for us. It is probably the only book dedicated to the APpin Stewarts that give us quite a bit detail regarding the Appin Stewarts throughout the Rebellion of 1745. I noticed that bit about the Appin Stewarts at the Battle of Pinkie also in my reading of the book. I would agree that is quite possible then assuming that some our Clan were tenants or had an alliance with the Appin Stewarts in the 1500's. There is info that we fought alongside our neighbours the MacDougalls of Dunollie in the 1500's but it could well have that some Mcdunleas of Appin and Ballachulish for example would almost certainly have joined ranks with the Appin Stewarts and fought at the Battle of Pinkie.

regards,

Donald
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Re: Clan References in The Stewarts of Appin by John H.J.Stewart

Post by Bachuil »

Remember this was written by a Stewart and has many errors. Don't forget the evidence: Appin means the Abbey Lands!! We were and still are the hereditary abbots.
The Baron of Bachuil,
Coarb of St Moluag
Chief of MacLea
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Re: Clan References in The Stewarts of Appin by John H.J.Stewart

Post by Kyle MacLea »

That is something that we can't emphasize enough. If Appin Lands mean Abbey Lands, then of course the Abbott would be a significant figure in those lands!

Something we need to emphasize and really share the history of our Clan and its influences on Argyll and beyond!

Kyle=
Kyle S. MacLea
Clan Society Life Member; DNA Project Co-Admin
New Hampshire, USA
kyle -dot- maclea -at- gmail -dot- com
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