Part 38
"He then observed how far the prejudices of education and wrong notions of infancy are apt to carry people from the paths of their ancestors: he discoursed as pertinently on several of our neighbouring families as I could do, upon which I told him I was surprised at his so perfect knowledge of our families in England; his answer was, that from his infancy he had made it his business to acquire the knowledge of the laws, customs, and families of his country, so that he might not be reported a stranger when the Almighty pleased to call him thither. These and the like discourses held until word was brought that dinner was served; we endeavoured all we could to withdraw, but there was no possibility for it after he had made us this compliment, "I assure you, Gentlemen, I shall never be for straining man's inclinations; however, our grandfathers, who were worthy people, dined, and I hope there can be no fault found that we do the same." There is every day a regular table of ten or twelve covers well served, unto which some of the qualified persons of his court, or travellers, are invited: it is supplied with English and French cooking, French and Italian wines; but I took notice that the Pretender eat only of the English dishes, and made his dinner of roast-beef, and what we call Devonshire-pie: he also prefers our March beer, which he has from Leghorn, to the best wines: at the dessert, he drinks his glass of champagne very heartily, and to do him justice, he is as free and cheerful at his table as any man I know; he spoke much in favour of our English ladies, and said he was persuaded he had not many enemies among them; then he carried a health to them. The Princess with a smiling countenance took up the matter, and said, "I think then, Sir, it would be but just that I drink to the cavaliers." Sometime after, the Pretender begun a health to the prosperity of all friends in England, which he addressed to me. I took the freedom to reply, that as I presumed he meant his own friends, he would not take it ill that I meant mine. "I assure you, Sir," said he, "that the friends you mean can have no great share of prosperity till they become mine, therefore, here's prosperity to yours and mine." After we had eat and drank very heartily, the Princess told us we must go see her son, which could not be refused; he is really a fine promising child, and is attended by English women, mostly Protestants, which the Princess observed to us, saying, that as she believed he was to live and die among Protestants, she thought fit to have him brought up by their hands; and that in the country where she was born, there was no other distinction but that of honour and dishonour. These women, and particularly two Londoners, kept such a racket about us to make us kiss the young Pretender's hand that to get clear of them as soon as we could, we were forced to comply: the Princess laughed very heartily, and told us that she did not question but the day would come that we should not be sorry to have made so early an acquaintance with her son. I thought myself under a necessity of making her the compliment, that being hers, he could not miss being good and happy. On the next post day, we went, as commonly the English gentlemen here do, to the Pretender's house for news. He had received a great many letters, and after perusing them he told us that there was no great prospect of amendment in the affairs of England; that the Secret Committee and several other honest men were taking abundance of pains to find out the cause of the nation's destruction, which knowledge, when attained to, would avail only to give the more concern to the public without procuring relief; for that the authors would find means to be above the reach of the common course of justice: he bemoaned the misfortune of England groaning under a load of debts, and the severe hardships contracted and imposed to support foreign interests: he lamented the ill-treatment and disregard of the ancient nobility; and said it gave him great trouble to see the interest of the nation abandoned to the direction of a new set of people, who must at any rate enrich themselves by the spoil of their country: "some may imagine," continued he, "that these calamities are not displeasing to me, because they may, in some measure, turn to my advantage; I renounce all such unworthy thoughts.""[423]
FOOTNOTE:
[423] The rest of the letter not being material, is omitted.
No. II.--THE PEDIGREE OF THE DERWENTWATER FAMILY. (_See Page 513._)
Francis Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Derwentwater; died 1696;===Catherine Fenwick. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+-+-+-+--------+-+-+-+ | | | | | | | | | Francis, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater; === Lady Mary Tudor; born 1673; Four sons; Four born ----; married 1687; died 1705. | mar. three times; died 1726. whose fates daughters. | are unknown. | +-------------------------------+---------+------------------------------------+ | | | | James, 3rd Earl===Anna Maria Francis; Charles === Charlotte, Countess of Mary === Mr. Derwentwater; | Webb; no Radcliffe;| Newburgh, in her own Tudor. | Petre, beheaded 1716; | born 1693; issue. beheaded | right, the descendants | of aged 26. | mar. 1712; 1746, | of her daughter in her | Belhouse. | died 1723. aged 53. | first husband, Thomas | | | Clifford, being born No surviving issue. | | aliens do not succeed. | | She died 1755. +---------------+ | | | | John, died Anne === Robert James, | unmarried, Radcliffe; | 8th Lord Petre; | about 1730. born 1713 | born 1713; | mar. 1732; | mar. 1732; | died 1760. | died 1742. +-----------------------+-----------+ | | | | | James Bartholomew,===Miss James; Mary; born===Francis +----------------------+ 4th Earl Newburgh; | Kemp. no issue; ----; mar. | Eyre, of | born 1725-6; mar. | died 1788. 1755; died | Hassop Robert, 9th Lord === Anne Howard; 1749; died 1786. | 1798. | Petre; b. 1733; | born 1742; | | mar. 1762; | mar. 1762; +------------+ | died 1801. | died 1787. | | | Anthony, === Miss Webb; | +---------------------------------+ 5th Earl | now | | | Newburgh; | living, | Robert, 10th === Mary Howard; Other b. ----; | 1846. +----------------------------+ Lord Petre; | born 1767; Issue. mar. 17--; | | | born 1763; | mar. 1786; died 1814. | Francis Eyre,===Miss Gladwin. Other mar. 1786; | died 1843. | 6th Earl | issue. died 1809. | No issue. Newburgh; | | born 1762; | +----------------------+ mar. 1787; | | | died 1827. | William, 11th, and Other | present, Lord issue. +----------------------+------------------+-+-+ Petre. | | | | | Thomas Eyre, 7th Earl Francis Eyre, 8th, Three Newburgh; born 1790; and present, Earl daughters. mar. 1817; died 1833. Newburgh. No issue.
No. III.
The following address affords a curious specimen of the subtlety of Lord Lovat, and the mode usually adopted by him of cajoling his clan. It was copied by Alexander Macdonald, Esq., from an old process, in which it was produced before the Court of Session, and it is preserved in the Register House, Edinburgh; the signature, date, and address are, holographs of Lord Lovat.
THE HONOURABLE THE GENTLEMEN OF THE NAME OF FRASER.
My dear Friends,
Since, by all appearances, this is the last time of my life I shall have occasion to write to you, I being now very ill of a dangerous fever, I do declare to you before God, before whom I must apear, and all of us at the great day of Judgement, that I loved you all, I mean you and all the rest of my kindred and family who are for the standing of their chief and name; and, as I loved you, so I loved all my faithful Commons in general more than I did my own life or health, or comfort, or satisfaction; and God to whom I must answer, knows that my greatest desire and the greatest happiness I proposed to myself under heaven was, to make you all live happy and make my poor Commons flourish; and that it was my constant principle to think myself mutch hapier with a hundred pounds and see you all live well at your ease about mee than have ten thousand pounds a year, and see you in want or misery. I did faithfully desire and resolve to make up, and put at their ease Allexander Fraser of Topatry, and James Fraser of Castle Ladders and their familys; and whatever disputs might ever be betwixt them and me which our mutual hot temper occasioned, joyned with the malice and calomny of both our ennemies, I take God to witness, I loved those two brave men as I did my own life for their great zeal and fidelity they showed for their chief and kindred; I did likewise resolve to support the families of Struy Foyers and Culdithels families, and to the lasting praise of Culdithel and his familie. I never knew himself to sarwe from his faithfull zeal for his chief and kindred, nor none of his familie, for which I hope God will bless him and them and their posterity. I did likewise desyring to make my poor Commons live at their ease and have them always well clothed and well armed after the Highland maner, and not to suffer them to wear low country cloths, but make them live like their forefathers with the use of their arms, that they might always be in condition to defend themselves against their ennemies, and to do service to their friends, especially to the great Duke of Argile, and to his worthy brother the Earl of Illay, and to that glorious and noble famyly who were always our constant and faithful friends; and I conjure you and all honest Frasers to be zealous and faithfull friends and servants to the family of Argile and their friends, whilst a Campbell and a Fraser subsists. If it be God's will that for the punishment of my great and many sins and the sins of my kindred, I should now depart this life before I put these just and good resolutions in execution; yet I hope that God in his mercy will inspire you and all honest Frasers to stand by and be faithfull to my cousin Inverlahie and the other heirs male of my family, and to venture your lives and fortunes to put him or my nearest heirs male named in my Testament written by John Jacks, in the full possession of the estate and honours of my forefathers, which is the onely way to preserve you from the wicked designs of the family of Tarbat and Glengary joyned to the family of Athol: and you may depend upon it, and you and your posterity will see it and find it, that if you do not keep stedfast to your chief, I mean the heir male of my famyly; but weakly or falsely for little private interest and views abandon your duty to your name, and suffer a pretended heiresse, and her Mackenzie children to possess your country and the true right of the heirs male, they will certainly in les than an age chasse you all by slight and might, as well Gentlemen, as Commons, out of your native country, which will be possessed by the Mackenzies and the Mackdonalls, and you will be, like the miserable unnatural Jews, scattered, and vagabonds throughout the unhappy kingdom of Scotland, and the poor wifes and children that remains of the name, without a head or protection when they are told the traditions of their familie will be cursing from their hearts the persons and memory of those unnaturall cowardly knavish men, who sold and abandoned their chief, their name, their birthright, and their country, for a false and foolish present gain, even as the most of Scots' people curs this day those who sold them and their country to the English by the fatal union, which I hope will not last long.
I make my earnest and dying prayers to God Almighty, that he may, in his mercy, thro the merits of Christ Jesus, save you and all my poor people, whom I always found honest and zealous to me and their duty, from that blindness of heart that will inevitably bring those ruins and disgraces upon you and your posterity; and I pray that Almighty and Mercifull God, who has often miraculously saved my family and name from utter ruin, may give you the spirit of courage, of zeal, and of fidelity, that you owe to your chief, to your name, to your selves, to your children, and to your country; and may the most mercifull, and adorable Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, save all your souls eternally, throu the blood of Christ Jesus, our Blessed Lord and Saviour, to whom I heartily recommende you.
I desire that this letter may be kept in a box, at Beaufort, or Maniack, and read once a-year by the heir male, or a principale gentleman of the name, to all honest Frasers that will continue faithfull to the duty I have enjoined in this above-written letter, to whom, with you and all honest Frasers, and my other friends, I leave my tender and affectionat blessing, and bid you my kind, and last farewell.
LOVAT.
London, the 5 of Aprile, 1718.
Not being able to write myself, I did dictat the above letter to the little French boy, that's my servant. It contains the most sincere sentiments of my heart; and if it touch my kindred in reading of it, as it did me while I dictat it, I am sure it will have a good effect, which are my earnest prayers to God.
IV.
Allusion having been made often, in the course of these memoirs, to the process of "serving oneself heir" to an estate, in Scotland: the following document,[424] shewing the form of such a process, may not be deemed uninteresting.
Claim for William Maxwell, Esq. of Carruchan, who served heir-male in general of Robert, Fourth Earl of Nithisdale.
"Honourable persons and good men of Inquest: I, William Maxwell, of Carruchan, who was son of Captain Maxwell of Carruchan, who was son of Alexander Maxwell, of Yark and Terraughty, who was son of the Honourable James Maxwell, of Breckonside, immediate younger brother of John, third Earl of Nithisdale, who was father of Robert, fourth Earl of Nithisdale, say unto your wisdoms, that the said Maxwell of Nithisdale, nephews of my great-great-great-grandfather, died in the faith and peace of our Sovereign Lord the King then reigning, and that I am nearest and lawful heir male in general to the said Robert, fourth Earl of Nithisdale, the nephew of my great-great-great-grandfather, and that I am of lawful age. Therefore I beseech your wisdoms to serve and cognesce me nearest and lawful heir male in general to the said deceased Robert, fourth Earl of Nithisdale, and cause your clerk of the Court to return my service to your Majesty's Chancery. Under my seal,
"According to justice and your wisdom's answer, &c. &c."
FOOTNOTE:
[424] I am indebted for a copy of this process to Sir John Maxwell, Bart. Pollok.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note: The following errors in the original have been corrected.
Contents page - page number for Flora McDonald changed from 294 to 310
Page 20 - no footnote marker for second footnote
Page 88 - missing quotation mark added before (that is to say,
Page 95 - missing quotation mark added after of the heather. Vestiarum Scoticum changed to Vestiarium Scoticum
Page 98 - extra quotation mark removed from after retreat to the Prince.
Page 109 - extra quotation mark removed from after in a few days.
Page 116 - missing quotation mark added before was pretty well filled
Page 155 - Charles had carefuly changed to Charles had carefully
Page 195 - missing quotation mark added About the same time
Page 218 - missing quotation mark added after (1751), and before for my wife
Page 242 - recal the slow changed to recall the slow
Page 263 - missing quotation mark added after light from Heaven.
Page 287 - extra quotation mark removed from before The Duke of Perth marched
Page 301 - Roman Carholic changed to Roman Catholic
Page 305 - extra quotation mark removed from after Antwerpiae jacet.
Page 350 - extra comma removed from after know who might
Page 382 - missing quotation mark added after Earls of Kilmarnock.
Page 387 - extra quotation mark removed from after Linlithgow, and Calendar;
Page 408 - recal of Arthur changed to recall of Arthur
Page 422 - removed unnecessary apostrophe from after giving their Lordships
Page 431 - missing quotation mark added before would as soon be hanged
Page 436 - and exexempt changed to and exempt Craufurland Castle, Kilmarnock changed to Craufurdland Castle, Kilmarnock
Page 438 - missing quotation mark added after receiving a remedy.
Page 442 - inquired Mr. Forster, changed to inquired Mr. Foster,
Page 443 - missing quotation mark added after Lord Balmerino's execution.
Page 450 - missing quotation mark added before is one of antiquity
Page 474 - missing quotation mark added before I now, with my
Page 476 - missing quotation mark added before I put him in mind
Page 477 - missing quotation mark added before His agreeable look
Page 488 - missing quotation mark added after designs for London. Adieu!
Page 491 - missing volume number in footnote inserted.
Page 496 - where at the highest changed to were at the highest
Page 504 - Willian Pitt, Esq. changed to William Pitt, Esq.
Page 510 - was a a report changed to was a report
Page 518 - missing quotation mark added before He then observed
Page 520 - missing quotation mark added after such unworthy thoughts."