Better is the Proud Plaid

From Reason to Revolution series
Warfare 1721-1815
www.helion.co.uklpublished-by-helion/reason-to- revolution -1721-181S.html
The 'From Reason to Revolution' series covers the period of military
history 1721-1815, an era in which fortress-based strategy and linear
battles gave way to the nation-in-arms and the beginnings of total war.
This era saw the evolution and growth of light troops of all arms, and
of increasingly flexible command systems to cope with the growing
armies fielded by nations able to mobilise far greater proportions of their
manpower than ever before. Many of these developments were fired by
the great political upheavals of the era, with revolutions in America and France bringing about
social change which in turn fed back into the military sphere as whole nations readied themselves
for war. Only in the closing years of the period, as the reactionary powers began to regain the
upper hand, did a military synthesis of the best of the old and the new become possible.
The series will examine the military and naval history of the period in a greater degree of detail
than has hitherto been attempted, and has a very wide brief, with the intention of covering all
aspects from the battles, campaigns, logistics, and tactics, to the personalities, armies, uniforms,
and equipment.
Jenn Scott is a living historian, researcher, and writer based in Edinburgh where she works as
Secretary and Archivist for the Stewart Society. She is primarily interested in the period from the
Wars of the Roses to the Jacobite Risings, and is actively involved in the interpretation, promotion
and protection of Scottish battlefields. She has spent 20 years developing her understanding and
knowledge of the clothes and material culture of the past. Jenn studied politics at the University of
Edinburgh and has an MA in Heritage from University of Surrey.
Bruno Mugnai was born in Florence in 1962 and still lives there with Silvia, Chiara and Eugenio.
Active for years as a historical researcher, writer and illustrator, he has published several titles
for publishers such as the Historical Office of the Italian Army, Rivista Medicea and Soldiershop,
concerning a number of periods and geographical areas of his interest, including the ancient
Italian states, central and eastern Europe in 16th, 17th and 18th century, and South America after
the Conquest. As an illustrator he has collaborated with important Italian and foreign specialists.
Bruno is a Rugby Football Union enthusiast, who still believes in an Italian Grand Slam in the Six
Nations Tournament.
Submissions
The publishers would be pleased to receive submissions for this series. Please contact series editor Andrew
Bamford via email (andrewbamford18@gmail.com). or in writing to Helion & Company Limited, Unit 8
Amherst Business Centre, Budbrooke Road, Warwick, CV34 SWE
Better is the Proud Plaid
The Clothing, Weapons, and Accoutrements
of the Jacobites in the /45
Jenn Scott
Helion & Company
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Published by Helion & Company 2018
Designed and typeset by Mach 3 Solutions Ltd (www.mach3solutions.co.uk)
Cover designed by Paul Hewitt, Battlefield Design (www.battlefield-design.co.uk)
Printed by Henry Ling Limited, Dorchester
Text © Jenn Scott 2018
Cover: 'The Jacobite Army enters Edinburgh; original artwork by Peter Dennis,
© Helion & Company 2018
Uniform plates by Bruno Mugnai, © Helion & Company 2018; other images as credited
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission
for the use of copyright material. The author and publisher apologise for any errors or omissions in
this work, and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future
reprints or editions of this book.
ISBN 978-1-911628-16-3
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For
Frances Scott without whom none of this would
have been possible or even likely
iii
Contents
Introduction
A Time Line of the 1745 Rising
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
The Highland Army?
In Arms and Highland Dress: The Highland Division
His Black Hat, Bordered and Cockaded: The Lowland Division
Other Units in the Army
Very Indifferently Armed
Accoutrements
An Assembly of Harlequins
Stripped of Our Arms
Notes on the Plates
Bibliography
vii
ix
13
22
34
41
46
61
66
72
77
80
v
Introduction
The clothing, weapons and accoutrements of the Jacobites is a broad subject
- I perhaps did not realise how broad when I decided to write this book
initially - and of interest for several reasons.
Firstly, because much of the material culture associated with the Jacobites
is simply pleasing to look at. Although we sometimes like to think of them
being untouched by the burgeoning consumer revolution that was happening
in the 18th century, this is not true, and it shows in their things: some
beautiful and some frankly a bit kitsch, but all help to shed light on them
as people and their cause. The Jacobites were perhaps the first revolutionary
movement which coincided with the beginnings of the commercial world as
we know it. They consumed their politics in quite modern ways with badges,
tartan dresses, and garters with mottoes, as well fighting across Scotland
and England. Much of what they did had to be coded - it is impossible to
advertise clearly a movement that intends the overthrow of the state until it
steps forward to do just that.
Secondly, because of what it tells us about the nature of the Highland
Army and the people who fought and died for the Prince.
Lastly, the way that the Jacobites presented themselves helped to shape
our understanding of Scotland and what it means to be Scottish ever since.
Throughout the book I have mostly tried to call anyone I refer to by their
contemporary titles unless that makes it too confusing - there are quite a few
people with very similar names. However, I made the deliberate decision to
call the Jacobite claimant to the throne James VIII and III and his son Prince
Charles Edward Stuart and not any other title.
I have generally kept the original spelling in any quotations and put an
English translation in brackets after any Gaelic or French. Any errors in
translation are mine, as are all other errors. I have tried to do the same with
items of clothing except where doing so would cause unnecessary. The two
armies I have chosen to refer to as the Jacobite or 'Highland' Army and the
British Army.
I would like to thank my editor Andrew Bamford for his help and
patience; the Stewart Society for their generosity in allowing me the use of
their library; staff in the National Library of Scotland and National Museum
of Scotland for their help; my mum, to whom this book is dedicated, and
my daughter, Katherine, for their patience in listening to me talk about
vii
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
Jacobites and pretty much nothing else for six months; John Thompson (still
no werewolves though sorry!) and Arran Johnston for their help, advice and
encouragement while I have been writing this. Also Peter Dennis for his
vivid cover illustration and Bruno Mungai for the pictures inside the book.
Jenn Scott
Edinburgh, July 2018
viii
A Time Line of the 1745 Rising
1745
5 July
9 July
25 July
19 August
20 August
27 August
29 August
3 September
16 September
17 September
21 September
7 October
Prince Charles Edward Stuart left Belle Isle and sailed for
Scotland.
A Sea fight between the ships LElisabeth and HMS Lion.
The Prince landed at Loch nan Uamh, Arisaig on the west
coast of Scotland.
The Jacobite standard was raised at Glenfinnan, at the head
of Loch Shiei.
British Army forces marched north from Stirling to
counter the southward march of the Jacobite army.
The Appin Regiment commanded by Charles Stewart
of Ardshiel, and the MacDonalds of Glencoe under
Alexander Mac Don aid of Glencoe joined the Jacobite
army at Aberchalder, at the North end of Loch Oich,
bringing the total Jacobite strength up to some 2,000 men.
This is probably the real beginning of the Jacobite army, at
this point the army was still largely Highland in character
something that would change over the course of the
Risings.
An unsuccessful attack by the Jacobites on the
Government-held Ruthven Barracks.
Jacobite Army in Perth. James VIII proclaimed as King by
Prince Charles.
Canter of Coltbrig where Jacobite forces routed British
Army dragoons on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
The Jacobite army captured Edinburgh but failed to take
the Castle. Prince Charles Edward Stuart took up residence
in Holyrood House. The Jacobite army was in and around
Edinburgh. Sir John Cope and his army arrived by ship off
Dunbar.
The British Army under John Cope were surprised and
defeated by the Jacobites in the Battle of Prestonpans.
First French blockade runner unloaded 2,500 guns at
Montrose.
ix
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
31 October
8 November
10-14 November
20 November
24 November
26 November
29 November
4 December
6 December
18 December
20 December
21-30 December
23 December
1746
7- 8 January
8-31 January
17 January
1 February
11 February
16 February
18 February
21 February
25 February
3-5 March
10-31 March
20 March
20 March-2 April
26 March
12 April
15 April
16 April
x
The Highland Army, which by this time had been joined
by many recruits from the lowlands and the east coast of
Scotland, marched south from Edinburgh with some hope
of English Jacobites rising and more French support.
The Jacobites crossed the Scottish Border and spent their
first night on English soil.
The Siege of Carlisle. The garrison surrendered to the
Jacobites.
The Jacobite Army moved south from Carlisle.
First French troops landed at Montrose.
Lord John Drummond and the Royal Ecossois landed at
Montrose.
The Jacobites entered Manchester.
Highland Army entered Derby.
The Prince and the Highland army retreated from Derby
since there had been no wholesale rising of English
Jacobites or further support from France.
The skirmish at Clifton - the last battle on English soil. The
Jacobites defeated the British army troops.
The Jacobites crossed the border back to Scotland.
Defence of Carlisle, Jacobite garrison surrendered.
Jacobite victory at Inverurie, Aberdeenshire.
The Siege of Stirling, the town surrendered to the Jacobites
but the castle held out.
The Siege of Stirling Castle.
Jacobite victory at Falkirk Muir against the British Army
led by General Hawley.
The Jacobites retreated north.
Ruthven Barracks surrendered to Glenbucket, Jacobite
commander.
The 'Rout of Moy'; a failed attempt to capture the Prince.
Jacobites captured Inverness.
A squadron of Fitzjames Cavalry landed in Aberdeen.
A Picquet of Regiment Berwick landed at Peterhead.
The Siege of Fort Augustus, the garrison surrendered.
The Siege of Blair Castle.
The skirmish at Keith.
Unsuccessful Jacobite siege of Fort William.
Picquet of Berwick's captured with £12,000 in gold.
British army crossed River Spey, a rear guard action at
Nairn.
Cromartie's brigade was ambushed at Embo. The night
march and unsuccessful attempt to attack the British camp.
The Battle of Culloden.
20 April
14 May
18 June
18 August
20 September
Jacobites, including Lord George Murray, fugitives from
Culloden and whole parties who had missed the battle and
met at Ruthven Barracks, dispersed on receiving a note
from Prince Charles Edward Stuart 'Let every man seek his
safety in the best way he can:
The Prince and his companions reached Coradale, in
South Uist, and stayed there for three weeks, until news
arrived that British troops were closing in them.
Flora MacDonald met Prince Charles Edward Stuart in
Skye and persuaded him to wear women's clothes as part of
an escape plan.
Jacobite lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino were executed
for treason on Tower Hill.
To escape capture in Scotland, Prince Charles Edward
Stuart sailed from Loch nan Uamh to safety in France
aboard the I:Heureux.
xi
1
The Highland Army?
Eileadh's cocard, geal,
A' marsal gun airstealle 'm Prionnsa;
Le 'n claidhibh 's le 'n sgiathaibh,
Air am breacadh gu ciatach,
Le 'n dagachaibh iaruinn le 'n cuinnsear;
s
Mire-chatha'nan aodainn,
Roinn, falluinn, us faobhar,
Gu claignean a sgaoileadh us rumpuill.
With plaid and white cockade
Marching unwearied with the Prince
With swords and with shields beautifully carved,
With pistols of iron and daggers;
Battle-lust in their visage,
Swords, spears, mantles ready
For splitting asunder of bodies I
'A popish Italian prince with the oddest crue Britain cowld produce came
all with plaids, bagpips and bair buttocks, from the Prince to the bagage
man: This vivid, if idiosyncratic description of the Jacobite army entering
Edinburgh in 1745 wearing Highland dress written by Pat rick Crichton in
the Woodhouslee MS is how the propaganda at the time portrayed them
and subsequently the way that they have come to be seen. A tartan clad,
anachronistic Highland army fighting for an unavoidably doomed Jacobite
cause. Anti-Jacobite propaganda in the 1740s depicted Scots and Jacobites
as poorly dressed, unable even to work out how to use the toilet, and liceridden ready to attack peaceful England at the drop of a hat. l Many 20th and
2lst century depictions differ little from this. They frequently portray illdisciplined, hairy Jacobites, who are all Highlanders, wearing mud coloured
tartan in their filthy shirt sleeves during a winter campaign, and, if armed at
Bm.mac/ladh Eile Do Na Gaidhei/- Alexander MacDonald.
See G. Pentland. "'We Speak for the Ready": Images of Scots in Political Prints, 1707-1832'.
The Scottish Historical Rel·iell". Volume Xc. I: No. 229: 2011,64-95, M. Piltock. The Myth of
(he Highland Clans, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2015). p.37.
13
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
Sawney in the Boghouse
(1745) Sawney was a generic
nickname for a Scotsman. This
print from 1745 produced
as anti-Jacobite propaganda
shows a filthy, hairy Highland
soldier in a plaid straddling
a seat in a public out-house,
with one leg down each hole.
The message being that the
Jacobites and, by implication,
the Scots were so far from
civilisation that they could not
even use a toilet. (An ne SK
Brown Military Collection)
all, carrying only swords and Lochaber axes. It is though, the clothing of the
Stuart army, particularly the tartan, which has caused the tenacious idea that
all Jacobites were Scottish and more specifically Highlanders. 3
Lord President Forbes in 1746 wrote that the Highlands were 'that large
Tract of Mountainous Ground, to the Northwards of the Forth, and the Tay,
where the Natives speak the Irish Language',~ he therefore, missed out large
areas ofland in this description where a considerable proportion of the army,
at least post -Prestonpans, was in fact drawn from. This definitely challenges
the case for the Jacobite Army being a Highland one since recent research has
identified much of the active support for the Jacobites in Scotland as coming
from areas such as Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, and Moray: men from these
parts of Scotland would not have identified themselves as Highlanders, Many
of these men were also non-juring Episcopalians (men who had not taken an
3
4
14
A. Quye. & H. Cheape. 'Rediscovering the Arisaid', Costllme. 42: 1,2013, pp.I-20.
From a memorandum written in 1746 quoted in Pittock, Myth p.38.
THE HIGHLAND ARMY?
oath of loyalty to the King) rather than Catholics; however, that did not tick
the contemporary propaganda boxes as well as Catholicism which had since
the beginning of the 17th century been considered to be the enemy within.
The number of men in the Jacobite Army which left Edinburgh in October
for England was estimated by contemporary observers at approximately 5,000
men of whom under half were clansmen, and the numbers and proportion
of lowland troops would increase during the campaign. In October 1745,
Commissary Bissett wrote that 'Of the above number of 5000 rebells I
compute two thirds to be real highlanders and one third lowlanders, altho'
they are putting themselves in highland dress like the others'.s Eventually,
though, there were approximately twice this number under arms.
Despite the reality of where the men for the Jacobite Army came from,
the Jacobite force was regularly described in even in their own despatches
as a 'Highland Army' and it is as such that they are still remembered for
the most part in popular memory. So, although not all of the men in the
Highland army were Highlanders, nor did they all speak Gaelic or live in the
Highlands, many of them wore Highland clothes during the campaign or
had at least adopted some aspects of Highland dress. The use of what we (and
they) would see as Highland imagery and the idea of the Highlander as the
true patriot, or rebel depending on the observer, began as early as the 1680s
with the first Jacobite Risings - as early as 1689, Lowlanders such as 'Mr
Drummond, the advocate' attached to Dundee's army wore the 'Highland
habit' - but its apogee was reached in the '45. It is this that has led people to
assume that the army was 'Highland' and after the Rising this meant that the
burden of punishment fell more heavily on the Highlands than elsewhere
when in fact support for the Jacobites was spread throughout Scotland.
When Lord Lewis Gordon imposed a tax or cess on Aberdeen, he stated
that able bodied men with sufficient 'Highland clothes, plaid and arms'
for King James's army would be accepted in lieu of the money.6 Alexander
Mac Don aid described the Jacobites' flowing tartan plaid (breacan-an jheilidh
an cuaich) in contrast to the soldiers in the British army with their 'cota
grand'de 'n mhadur ruadhlAd bhileach dhubh us cocard innt'ISgoiltear i mar
chal me 'n cluais' [ugly coat of red/ his black hat, bordered and cockaded/Split
like a cabbage round his ears).;
Charles Edward Stuart and his commanders were perfectly aware that in
fact they had men in their army from all over Scotland as well as some from
Ireland, France, and England; they were using the easily identifiable image
and clothing of the Highlands to create an identity and a uniform for an army
that had neither. Although they used the image of the Highlander to clothe
a large part of the army, the army itself was not very Highland in character
particularly after Prestonpans. It was in many ways a conventional European
6
7
Commissary Bissell to Duke William. dated 31 October 1745. in J. Stewart-Murray. Duke of
Alholl. Chronicles o/the Atholl and Tullibardine Families (Edinburgh: Ballantyne Press, 1908).
VoUl1. p.48.
1. Ray. A Compleat History of the Rebellion/rom itsjirst rise in 1745. to its total suppression at
the glorious Bailie o/Culloden, in April 1746 (Manchester: J Jackson. 1749), p.202.
Oran Do 'n phrionnsa - Alexander MacDonald.
15
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
18th century army with horse, foot, guns, and a staff - much like the army it
was fighting, in fact.
It was during the latter part of the 17th century, that the idea of tartan,
and Highland dress - the Highland short coat (cOt). The short coat was
worn over a belted plaid without restricting the use of the upper part of
the plaid, the plaid and trews, as well the knitted blue bonnet - began to
be specifically associated with the Stuart cause. By the 1715 Rising, many
of the men in the Jacobite army were dressed in what were called Highland
clothes by observers, most likely a plaid and a blue bonnet, regardless of
their place of origin. For example, James Murray had two bonnets, plaids
and trews in his luggage lodged at Aberdeen in 1715. The Earl of Mar's army
at Perth in October 1715 was described as 'betwixt 3 and 4,000 foot all in
Highland cloaths tho' mostly Lowland men'.8 It is likely that James himself
wore Highland dress whilst in Scotland during this campaign however this
is not depicted contemporaneously. At the same time, all Scots began to be
stereotyped in English popular culture as tartan wearers. By the time of the
1745 Rising, tartan had become symbolic of the Highlands, Gaelic culture
and, certainly to those south of the border, all ofScotland. 9
Tartan was not, in the mid -18th century, a recognisable symbol of clan
or local associations although it does appear that some patterns were more
common in specific areas. It was a cloth commonly made from a long wool
worsted yarn in a 2/2 twill. A 2/2 twill has two warp threads - these are
threads which are stretched longwise on a loom, crossing the two weft
threads which are woven horizontally through the warp this then which
forms a diagonal pattern. The tartan was of often quite bright, frequently red,
with distinctive checks. Tartans were worn mixed and matched in the same
outfit e.g. the coat in one pattern, the plain or trews in another and so on,
to suit the taste of the wearer, their budget, and, in certain instances, their
political allegiance. Several portraits exist from this time that appear to show
that some members of lowland elite had adopted tartan as a mark of their
politics. By the 1770s the weavers Wilsons of Bannockburn were offering
tartan in different weights, and there is some evidence of this even in the' 45,
the act of Proscription includes a reference to 'stuff' being used for pi aiding stuff was in the words of Or Johnson's dictionary 'thinner and flightier'. 'Stuff'
was used quite frequently for cheaper plaids and blankets. 10
The government engineer, Edmund Burt, in his Letters from a Gentleman
in the North written in the 1730s, describes Highlanders wearing their plaids
as a cloak but he also said that many people elsewhere in Britain believed that
wearing a plaid allowed Highlanders to steal and thieve. A similar opinion to
that held by the Reverend Morer in 1692 when he said that the Highlanders
used their plaids to cover stolen booty. It was presumably this sort of attitude
that made some of the Highland gentry in the early to mid-18th century
8 Pittock. Myth pp.39-40.
9 See Pentland. "'We Speak for the Ready"', pp.64-95.
10 V. Coltman, 'Party-Coloured Plaid? Portraits of Eighteenth-Century Scots in Tartan', Textile
History. 41 :2, 2013, pp.182-216, R. Nicholson, 'From Ramsay's Flora MacDollaldto Raebum's
MacNab: The Use of Tartan as a Symbol of Identity'. Textile History. 36:2. 2013. pp.146-167.
16
THE HIGHLAND ARMY?
reluctant to wear Highland clothes, preferring the Lowland norms of dress
when not at home: for the gentry in Scotland this meant much like elite
clothes in England. Household accounts show that many men had both
'lowland' clothes - sombre coloured stockings, breeches, long coats and
waistcoats, fine lace, wigs, and tricorns or cocked hats as they were called at
the time - as well the brightly coloured plaid and trews of the Highland elite.
The knitted wool bonnet - often but not always blue, worn flat on the head and tartan were worn by non-elite men throughout Scotland. There was also
a smaller plaid worn by many in the Lowlands, frequently of duller colours,
but not as a belted plaid. Scott describes it in one of his letters later as:
Maud or Low Country plaid. It is a long piece of cloth about a yard wide wrap'd
loosely round the waist like a scarf and from thence brought across the breast
and the end thrown over the left shoulder where it hangs loose something like a
Spanish Cloak. It is not of Tartan but of the natural colour of the wool with a very
small black check which gives it a greyish look'd. 11
Highland dress within Gaelic culture at this time was seen as a mark ofloyalty
to traditional values along with which often went an adherence to the Stuart
monarchy. Burt describes witnessing the women of a clan take great offense
upon seeing one of their local gentry going about dressed in a Lowland-style
outfit. Burt describes his conversation with the Highland gentleman about
the incident in this way: 'I asked him wherein he had offended them? Upon
this Question he laughed and told me [... ] that their Reproach was, that he
could not be contented with the Garb of his Ancestors, but was degenerated
into a Lowlander, and condescended to follow their unmanly Fashions: 12
However the Highlands were not in fact full of warriors armed to the teeth
waiting for the opportunity to fight for the House ofStuart. The disarming of
the Highlands after the previous Risings had been reasonably effective and so
it would be wrong to imagine that every highlander particularly the ordinary
ones had access to many arms. Although many elite men did retain arms and
as Margaret MacDonald wrote when Prince Charles Edward Stuart came to
Scotland in 1745 'Gach diuc is baran lA' caitheamh an fleilidhl Le sgeith 's le
claidheamh (Each duke and baron/Were parading in a plaid/With shield and
broadsword]Y
It must be said that although the adoption of Highland clothing by
many people, especially after the Act of Union in 1707, in the 1715 Rising,
and during and after the '45 was an explicitly political act, particularly
by Lowlanders and English Jacobites like Sir John Hynde-Cotton from
Cambridgeshire whose splendid brightly coloured suit of tartan trews and
jacket can now be seen in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Many, in fact most, Highlanders had always worn Highland clothes and
tartan and until joining the Jacobite army did not do so as any kind of political
W. Panington. (ed.) The Pril'Ole Le/ler hook of Sir WaIler Sco/l (London: Hodder & Stoughton.
1930). p.379.
12 E. Bun,. Le/lersjinm Ihe Norlh oflhe Scolland (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1998), pp.191-192.
13 An I-Eideadh Gaidhelllach - Margaret Campbell.
11
17
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
statement, particularly since some of the men were not in the Highland army
of their own volition and had instead been forced out as part of a feudal levy
or were paid to come out instead of someone else, so called 'county' men.
Most of the army, except for the troops in French service and the soldiers
who had deserted from the British Army, wore some tartan and many of
them wore Highland clothes. Indeed, even some of the French officers seem
have rejected the red coats of their Irish Brigade regiments and adopted the
Highland habit as it was safer than the red coats of their regiments since they
were too much like the uniforms of the British army and led to the other
Jacobites trying to attack them.
Looking at the extant portraiture of Highlanders and others in Highland
dress in the late-17th and early- to mid-18th centuries shows a few things;
firstly, that the wearing of mixed tartans was the custom in the period
preceding the 1745 Rising; secondly, that there is no discernible evidence of
clan tartans - there are some tartans from the period that have subsequently
become identified with a clan but these do not seem to have been so at the
time and the setts of all the tartans portrayed are different to those of modern
tartans, often but not exclusively larger. None of the contemporary Gaelic
poetry mentions clan tartans and none of the accounts of the Rising written at
the time describe the tartan clad army - who, of course, were not all clansmen
in any case - as being dressed in a way that showed their clan allegiance. An
advert in the Edinburgh Gazette in 1745 offered tartans in assorted colours,
not clans or names. Finally, many of names and associations that we now
have for specific setts arise from the codification of patterns that took place
post the repeal of the Disarming Act in 1783.1~
In 1740, the Duke of Perth gave Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his
brother Henry two sets of Highland dress. It was really this gift that begins
the Prince's public association with tartan and Scottish symbolism. Jacobite
propaganda from before this date was more likely to emphasise the British
nature of the Stuarts which became more important the longer they remained
in exile. Charles' father, James, was always depicted as a conventional
European monarch, sometimes wearing the Order of the Thistle if a picture
were intended for Scottish audience, but there was no hint of tartan or
Highland dress. In contrast, in 1741, Charles was seen wearing the Highland
dress, 'a Scotch Highlanders habit with a bonnet, target and broadsword', to
a Carnival ball in Rome. The Prince was also given by the Duke of Perth
'une paire de beaux pistoles, ornee de flames dor, un poignard et un bouclier
a la Montagnard' [a beautiful pair of pistols, decorated with gilded flames,
a dagger, and a Highland shieldlY The gifts were intended as more than
dressing up clothes or make believe, the intention was to present Charles as
one of 'those who have right to wear that kind of garb: So these clothes were
14 B. Seton. "Dress of the Jacobite Anny: The Highland Habit'. The Scollish Historical Rel·iell'.
Vo!. 25, No. I ~O, 1928, pp.270-28I.
15 D, Forsyth, (ed.), Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite.I', (Glasgow: National Museum of
Scotland. 2017), pp.81 & 97.
18
THE HIGHLAND ARMY?
those of a Highland chief - trews, an embroidered short coat and waistcoat
and a plaid - intended to present Charles as the chief of chiefs.16
In 1745, Charles wore tartan and Highland dress on many occasions
during the campaign, by which time it was so strongly associated with
him that anti-Jacobite prints produced in London used it as shorthand for
identifying him and his followers. It is ironic that the first images of Prince
Charles Edward Stuart in tartan were done by those whom he was fighting.
In Edinburgh, the engraver Richard Cooper made a print of Charles based
on a figure from a print depicting four of the Highlanders punished during
the mutiny of the Black Watch in 1743.
In 18th century poetry and song, the Highland laddie with a blue bonnet
and belted plaid was often used to embody the virtues of bravery and loyalty,
it seems unlikely that the Prince was unaware of this idea, given that much of
his dress whilst in Scotland played to it.
The bonniest lad that eer I saw,
Bonny laddie, highland laddie
Wore a plaid and fu' braw
On his head a bonnet blue
His royal heart was firm and true"
A contemporary observer, Andrew Henderson, describes Charles as being
'clad as an ordinary Captain in a coarse Plaid and blue Bonnet, his boots
and knees were much fouled'. IS When the Prince arrived at Perth he entered
the town on a captured horse wearing a suit of tartan trimmed with gold
lace. By Edinburgh, he had a short coat of tartan, a blue sash with gold, red
small clothes (that is to say breeches and a waistcoat), a blue velvet bonnet
trimmed with gold lace, a pair of military boots, and a white satin cockade.
Andrew Henderson says that his hair was red but that he wore a 'pale Peruke'.
Charles wore the same outfit to enter Carlisle in November 1745 and during
the entry to Manchester. However, interestingly, he chose to be painted by
Allan Ramsay while in Scotland not in Highland dress but wearing a lilac
velvet coat with silver lace (although it is possible that the coat was originally
purple or red, and the colour seen in Ramsay's portrait has faded}and a gold
waistcoat, wearing the Garter Star and a fashionable white wig. 19 There is,
however a description of him in October 1746 at public reception by Louis
XV where he wore a rose-coloured velvet coat and a gold brocade waistcoat
which sounds remarkably similar.
There is no evidence that the Prince wore a kilt or a belted plaid by itself
before he was on the run after Culloden, so during the greater part of his time
in Scotland he wore trews, a short coat, and sometimes a plaid as did many
16 R. Nicholson. Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Making 0/a Myth (London: Associated University
Press. 2002). p.13 7.
17 W. Donaldson. The Jacohite Song (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press. 1988). p.61.
18 Quoted in J. Riding. Jacohites A New History 0/ the '45 Rehellion. (London: Bloomsbury
2016). p.158.
19 Forsyth, (ed). Bonnie Prince. p.130.
19
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
of his officers. Before Prestonpans he is described as being clothed in a plain
Highland Habit and blue bonnet. However, after Culloden he is described
by Hugh MacDonald of Baleshare as wearing 'a tartan short coat & vest of
the same, got from Lady Clanranald, a short kilt, tartan hose and Highland
brogues: This was presumably so that he fitted in with the common people of
the area who would not be wearing trews.
However, Charles was careful not to appear dressed in Highland clothes
all the time, clearly aiming to appeal to the broadest of the public who were
after all his potential subjects, presumably why had himself painted as a
European Prince rather than a purely Scottish one while in Edinburgh by
Ramsay. In Edinburgh, he was seen abroad in a blue grogam (mixed woolsilk fabric) coat trimmed with gold lace, a red waistcoat and breeches - in
fact very much like his own lifeguard in their blue coats with red cuffs which
are likely to have been provided by the French since there is no evidence
that they were made up in Edinburgh or elsewhere. He, like many others
with his army, wore a cocked hat with a white cockade, although its gold lace
trimming was less common. He also wore the Garter Star as he was wearing
lowland clothes, whereas he wore the Order of the Thistle with Highland
clothes, and a sword with a silver basket hilt, probably the one he had been
given by the Duke of Perth in 1740. 20
Tartan accessories for Jacobite sympathisers became more common
around this time: ladies with Jacobite leanings dressed in tartan riding habits,
men and women wore Jacobite garters with mottos embroidered on such as
'our Prince is brave'; bed hangings, curtains, shoes, and various other items
were all made from tartan. Some items which sound remarkably like some
of the more kitsch offerings from the souvenir shops on Princes Street now
were already in evidence: for example, Archibald Stew art, Lord Provost of
Edinburgh, supposedly gave Charles a snuffbox with a tartan clad man on
it (Charles Edward's own snuff box had a picture of his great grandfather,
Charles I - perhaps appropriately the last Scottish-born Stuart); a Jacobite
recruiter wore tartan ribbons and needle cases, patch-boxes, and pincushions
were produced with Jacobite mottos. 21
The English Jacobite regiment raised to support the Prince in the north
west, the Manchester Regiment, appeared on parade with 'each officer ...
in a plaid waistcoat and a white cockade; furthermore, Colonel Townley,
as commanding officer in a tartan sash lined with white silk'.22 The Prince's
Lifeguard wore tartan belts. In other words, tartan was a uniform or livery as
well as an expression of identity.
Tartan was certainly seen as a uniform rather than traditional or national
dress when it came to the gathering of evidence after the '45, when numerous
prisoners were described as dressed in tartan clothes or Highland dress and
this was accepted as proof of being part of the Jacobite or Highland army. The
20 H. Tayler (cd.), A Jacobite Miscellany: Eight original papers on the Rising 0/"/745-46 (Oxford:
The Roxburghe Club. 1948). p.37.
21 M. Pittock. Material Culture and Sedition. 161i1i-/761i: Treacherous Objects, Secret Places.
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2013) p.87.
22 Piltock. Myth. p.41.
20
THE HIGHLAND ARMY?
evidence given by Alexander Law, a Brechin
innkeeper, at Whitehall in August 1746,
stated, for example, that James Lindsay 'wore
Cloaths' and that 'Buchannan was dress'd
at that time in Highland Habit: Menzies, a
merchant in Perth, recalled that he observed
John Dow and Kempie, servants to Lords
Nairn and Gask, respectively, 'attending their
Masters Kempie wearing a white Cockade and
done in Highland habit but did not see any of
them bearing Arms'. John Crichton, assistant
to gardener John Kennedy in Drummond
and imprisoned in Perth Tolbooth by July
1746, was sworn against by his fellow servant
gardener Ann McGrigor. Although she never
saw him take up arms she stated that she
had noticed that he was dressed in Highland
clothing and taking orders from a rebel officer.
Henry Cheap was known by four witnesses
in Perth to have been paid twelve crowns
for freely joining, some of which he used
to purchase 'a Highland habit' as part of his
uniform. Lord Balmerino tragically took this
to its logical extreme when he was executed at
Tower Hill wearing a tartan blindfold. 23
Ivory Jacobite Snuff mill
probably French circa
1715. An armed highlander
wearing· a very voluminous
linen shirt, short coat, plaid
(with pleats all the way
round), targe, claymore half
way out of his sheath, dirk
and pistol In reality it is likely
that he would also have had
a musket. (National Museums
Scotland)
23 Perth & Kinross archives B59/30172;W. Wilkinson. A compleat history of the trials of the rebel
lords in Westminster-Hall: and the rebel officers and others concerned in the rebellion in the
year 1745. lit St. Margaret :5-HiII, SOllth,,'ark. and at Carlisle and York (London: Printed for the
compiler. I 746). p.3.
21
2
In Arms and Highland Dress:
The Highland Division
Is maith thig boineid ghorm air chUl borb an cogadh,
C6ta gearr us feileadh us na sleisdean nochdte,
Dhol an ldthair cruadaii gu fuilteach, nimheil, buailteach,
A liodairt nsm fear ruadha, bhiodh an smuais 'ga fosgladh;
Neart treun nan curaidh, cur nan lann gu fulang,
Ilhiodh luchd nan cesag millte us an cinn a dhith am muineal.
Us gum bi aireamh cheann air a h-uile ball 'sa bhreaca
Splendid's the blue bonnet o'er wild locks in war-time
The short coat and the kilt, leaving the thighs naked
Going into battle, wounding, striking, rending,
Cutting down the red-coats, scattering their marrow;
The mighty strength of the heroes, putting swords unto their testing
Would Lowlanders destroy, leave their heads their necks a-lacking
For each check in their tartan a foe's head shall be severed. l
Highland Division of Prince Charles Edward Stuart & Lord George Murray
•
•
•
Camerons of Lochiel
Chisholms of Strathglass
Earl of Cromartie's Regiment
Frasers of Lovat
Gordons of Glenbucket
MacDonnells of Barrisdale
MacDonells of Glengarry
MacDonnells of Keppoch
MacDonalds of Clanranald
MacDonalds of Glencoe
Macleods of Raasay
Orall all aglwidh (/11 eididh ghallda - John MacCodrum.
22
IN ARMS AND HIGHLAND DRESS: THE HIGHLAND DIVISION
MacGregors
Lady Mackintosh's Maclachans
Mackinnons
Cluny's MacPhersons
Appin Regiment
The majority of the Highland troops of the Jacobite army were dressed very
much like their counterparts in the Independent Highland companies who
were fighting on the Government side, in a plaid, coat, waistcoat, and short
hose. Pittock describes the 'highland clan' forces as regional light infantry
militia. 2 The decision to use tartan as a uniform for the Jacobite army was
an attempt to harness the warrior reputation of the Highlanders as well as
giving an identity to the army, so much so that witness statements afterward
often describe those who took part as 'being in arms and Highland dress' as
one of the key ways of identifying them as having joined the Jacobite army.
Essentially tartan and Highland dress allowed the creation of a collective
identity for the army; to this end some of the Jacobite commanders who had
raised a regiment also bought plaids and other clothing to outfit their men.
The tartan that they wore was in a variety of different setts and they often
wore several different patterns at the same time as we can see in the portraiture
of the time including perhaps the most famous picture of the Highland Army
'An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745' by Morier - although this was not
painted during the Rising but in the 1750s - where no fewer than 22 different
tartans are worn by the 'Highlanders' depicted.) There was in fact no serious
attempt to record and notate setts in published form until the 19th century
although Martin Martin in his description of Scotland at the beginning of
the 18th century described what he called pattern sticks on which were
wound different coloured threads which followed the sequence to be woven
and so acted as a sort of visual aide-memoire. However, the evidence for them
beyond this mention is doubtful. Looking at the development of the patterns
over time it seems most likely that patterns were simply passed on from
weaver to weaver, possibly travelling along popular trade routes. The width
of cloth produced by the looms available was between 26 and 30 inches and
so in order to make the belted plaid two widths were sewn together. Plaid
was made from worsted, that is a cloth that has been spun from yarn that has
been combed rather than carded so all the fibres run in the same direction.
The finished plaiding was sold in a special ell that was approximately 38.4
inches so two thumbs breadths over the normal Scottish ell of 37 inches to
allow for shrinkage.
Duncan Ban Macintyre in his angry and bitter 'Song to the Breeks'
composed about the Disarming Act called the tartans that the Jacobite
supporters wore scarlet using the phrase, Gheibhte breacan charnaidl'S
bhiodh aird air na gunnachan. [Scarlet tartans would be got/And the guns
would be taken up]. Cheape says that that gheibhte breacan [scarlet tartans]
was a standard phrase so common was the idea that tartan was red. A
2
M. Pittock. Great Bailie.' Cul/oden (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2016). p.37.
See Pittock. Mrth. p.16. for a discussion of this painting.
23
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
'Man with rifle [sic musket] and man with
bagpipe'(1742l.ln
Scotland, pipers and
other musicians played
an important part in
Jacobite life since through
music they were able
to suggest words that
could not be said out
loud since they were
treasonous. Musicians,
such as the town piper
of Arbroath, John Sinclair,
who became the piper
for the Ogilvy Regiment
in 1745 and Aberdonian
fiddler John Shaw who
was imprisoned, took
part directly in the Rising.
(Anne S.K. Brown Military
Collection)
contemporary waulking song describes the cloth as Daithte ruadh, air thuar
na fala [Scarlet-tinted with blood's colour). It is, therefore, not an accident
that most of the surviving portraits with Highland dress from before the
1745 Rising display a range of red tartans as do many of the extant pieces of
fabric that are scattered about the museums. private collections and stately
houses of Scotland.
There has been a tendency to assume that only home-grown dyes were
used in Highland dress and that these 'native dyes' must have consisted of
materials immediately available to hand. leading to the idea that real and
authentic tartans had more muted and paler colours. This assumption of
course is partly fuelled by the actually faded colours of extant pieces which
have been exposed to sunlight or otherwise damaged in some way. However.
this romantic idea is directly contradicted by the evidence. When dyes like
indigo and the insect derived cochineal, which gave the bright blues and
reds so commonly seen in 18th century tartans. began to be more available
throughout Europe in the latter part of the 17th century. the Highlanders
like the rest of Scotland got them as soon as everybody else. The Import
Book of Dumfries records a Scots ship returning from the Netherlands
in 1688/9 carrying woad. galls. madder. alum. copperas (these last two
24
IN ARMS AND HIGHLAND DRESS: THE HIGHLAND DIVISION
are mordants which fix the dye), and brazilwood. By the end of the 17th
century manufacturers in Haddington in East Lothian, near Edinburgh,
were importing quantities of dyes such as madder, woad - both of which
could of course be grown be in Scotland just not as well, sumac (native to
southern Europe and used widely to dye leather) and galls, as well as a variety
of mordants. 4 The poet Margaret Campbell even attacked the proscription of
Highland dress after Culloden on the prosaic grounds that it would weaken
trade by reducing the amount of dyes bought by highlanders:'Tha call aig
an righ ann Mas fhiach mo bharail: Tha 'n cusmann a dhith air Gun phris air
dathan, Marsantan na rioghachd A' caoidh gun aran. [The king will be the
loser here / In my opinion: / If there is no demand for dyestuffs / He forfeits
customs, / The merchants of the land lamenting / For the lack of taxes J.
There was plenty of trade to the ports up and down the west coast of
Scotland or into Inverness and Montrose. The Inverness merchant Baillie
John Steuart brought indigo into the Highlands as well as other dyes and
the mordants used to fix the dyes in the years before the Rising. By the 17th
century the kind ofluxury items that Baillie Steuart made his living bringing
into Inverness were in the Western Isles: in 1684 indigo, cochineal, tobacco,
and spices such as mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, were found in the houses of
tacksmen. Indigo is said to have reached St. Kilda by 1700.
Chemical analysis carried out in recent years on many of the extant plaids
and fragments of cloth from the period has confirmed that the reds and blues
found in the mid-18th century tartans, were indeed, from the imported
dyes of cochineal and indigo as well as bright yellow from old fustic and
quercitron bar. Red was a significant colour within Gaelic culture, so a bright
red was important, hence the frequent description of tartan as scarlet, and, it
appears, the use of cochineal in preference to madder or any local dye which
might have given a red. Native dyes appear to have been used sometimes to
provide greens and yellows, colours that did not hold the same importance
within Gaelic culture. There were no artificial dyes until the 1860s however
these imported dyes produced vivid colours, so the Highlanders and those
dressed in Highland dress in the Jacobite army would, for the most part,
have been a bright and colourful lot in direct contrast with those dressed
in a more sombre 'lowland' fashion although the quality of the fabric and
the brightness of the dyes like many other items of dress would be dictated
by social class - the richer the person, the brighter the colours. 5 It has been
customary to think about the Highlander as blending into his landscape in
greens and browns, but this simply was not the case for most.
There is no evidence of clan tartans in the sense of one specific pattern
being the preserve of a clan - as the identifier of a chief, those of his name,
and their adherents at this time despite the claims of later writers such as
4
1. Bumett, K. Mercer, and A Quye, 'The Practice of Dyeing Wool in Scotland c. 179O---c.1840',
Folk Life, 42: 1,2003, pp.7-31, H Cheape,. 'Gheibte Breacain Chamaid ('Scarlet Tartans would
be got ... '): The re-invention of Tradition', in I. Brown (ed.), From Tartan /0 Tartanry: Seol/ish
Culture. His/ory and (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 20 I 0), pp.13-31.
A. Quye, H., Cheape, J. Bumett, E. Ferreir., A. Hulme & H. McNab, 'An Historical and
Analytical study of Red, Pink, Green and Yellow Colours in Quality 18th and Early 19th
Century Scottish Tartans', Dyes in His/ory & Archaeology, 19:2003, pp. 1-12.
25
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
Stewart of Garth. Family and clan members often wore similar patterns if for
no other reason than the local weaver would only have had so many patterns
known to them so the only variation in those options would be if they were
able to send to Glasgow or Edinburgh for cloth. Sending away for cloth was
not available as an option to the ordinary man living in the Highlands until
the commercial weavers Wilsons of Bannockburn began sending salesmen
into the Highlands in the later 1700s. Therefore, groups of people who lived
geographically close would tend to wear the same tartans or at least similar
patterns. Of course, many of the officers and others in the Jacobites army
were not Highlanders although dressed in highland dress so, unless they
already owned highland dress, they would have bought tartan from cloth
merchants such as the one who advertised tartans in various colours in 1745
in the Edinburgh Gazette. Therefore, unless buying a particular pattern, such
as it appears the officers of Ogilvy's Regiment did, they would have been able
buy whatever sett and colour took their fancy.
The men of the some of the clan regiments had plaids provided for them,
and more were bought during the campaign, therefore it is likely that the
common soldiers in a given Highland regiment would have been wearing
plaids or coats of the same or similar tartan. The officers, at least of the Ogilvy
Regiment, for example, seem to have bought the same tartan, not because it
was a clan tartan but because it was used as a livery or uniform. Even before
the '45 there are a few instances of a tartan being used much like this: the
Laird of Grant in 1704 ordered tartan for some of his men, however he did
not specify that it should be the 'Grant' tartan just that it should be red or
green, and it is possible MacDonalds may have fought at Killiecrankie in
tartan livery.
The basic item was the plaid (feilidh-mor or breacan-an-feileadh which is
literally great wrap or tartan wrap), a rectangle of cloth, usually of wool, and
frequently, but not always, woven with a tartan pattern. This was a multiuse garment, capable of serving as an enveloping outer garment by day and
a blanket by night; additional to its use as a cloak, the lower part could be
belted round the waist in pleats. Many of the common Jacobite soldiers wore
a plaid which was put on in a distinctive way. A belt was laid down and on
top of it a plaid was placed which was two lengths of cloth approximately
26 to 30 inches (66-76.2cm) wide sewn together. Length was about 5 yards
long (4.5m) although lengths of up 9 yards (8.2m) are given by some and one
Gaelic poet mentions plaids of 10 yards but that would seem to be the length
before being sewn up rather than the finished length. The plaid was folded
lengthwise into rough pleats, not the beautiful, neat pleats of the modern kilt.
There is some evidence that some later plaids may have had internal loops
and a drawstring sewn into them; however, since this would have reduced
the versatility of the garment, it seems unlikely that all would have done this
or indeed, any in 1745. It may have well been that men during the highland
revival of early 19th century did this as they were less used to wearing the
plaid on a regular basis and it is from that period that comes the only extant
example that looks like it may have loops. There are no accounts or evidence
on any extant plaids from the time of the 1745 Rising to suggest that most did
anything other than arrange the pleats on the belt and either lie down onto
26
IN ARMS AND HIGHLAND DRESS: THE HIGHLAND DIVISION
the plaid, fold the material on either side over themselves or had a servant
(many of the men did have servants, even the common soldiers) to do this
for him and then pulled the belt tight. It was in fact perfectly possible to
take the plaid off and leave it folded on the belt thus avoiding the necessity
to re-arrange every day: on campaign many soldiers simply slept in them.
As Alexander MacDonald says in the poem that this book takes its name
from 'Mo laochan jein an t-eididh A dh' fheumadh an crios ga ghlasadh:
Cuaicheineachadh eilidh, Deis eirigh gu dol air astar.'[My own little hero is
the garb/That would require the belt to fix it on/Putting the kilts into pleats]'.
On standing up or moving away from a servant there was a roughly pleated
skirt, essentially below the waist and more material above it. Described by
Lachlan MacKinnon as S math thig breacan cuachach ortlMun cuairt an
eileadh cruinn [Well does a pleated plaid become you/Draped around you
in folds]. The upper half was 'then fastened before, below the neck often
with a fork and sometimes with a bodkin or a sharpened piece of stick, so
they make pretty nearly the appearance of the poor women in London when
they bring their gowns over their heads to shelter them from the rain:" The
quality of the fastening, like many other things, was determined by the social
class. The men of St Kilda used a sharpened fulmar bone, but most men used
a stick or a piece of metal. The plaid was not fastened with a brooch as is
sometimes seen during the highland revival of the very late 18th and early
19th centuries.
The belted plaid was worn very short, much shorter than a modern kilt,
above the knee. This was too high for some contemporary observers: as Burt
rather disapprovingly wrote, 'The common habit of the ordinary highlander
is far being acceptable to the eye, with them a small part of the plaid, which
is not so large as the former, is set in folds and girt round the waist, to make
of it short petticoat that reaches half down the thigh:7 On the other hand,
Margaret Campbell who perhaps had a slightly different perspective wrote of
the Act of Proscription that Siud an sgeul tha tursachlLe iomadh fleasgachl
Nach jaicear a ghluineanlNo bac na h-iosgaidlOsain fhada chuarainlGan
cumail seasgair [The news that many fine young men/Find most depressing/
Is that their knees will not be seen/Or their thighs either/Long hose of
worsted stocking wool/To keep them cosy].8
Highland dress made many contemporary observers uncomfortable
since it subverted the 18th century norms about dress. This is quite clear
in the writings of some visitors to the Highlands in the latter part of 17th
century and into the 18th century. This was the time in which three-piece
suit was developed although the Prince's great-uncle, Charles II, is credited
with its invention in the latter part of the 17th century. Certainly, however,
the breeches, waistcoat, and coat worn by most men in Western Europe
by the mid-18th century were the precursors of the modern suit that men
wear today. Highland dress destroyed this norm with the plaid and its bright
colours as well as the line of the clothing for if Lowland fashion had any
6
7
8
Burt. Lellers. p.228.
Burt. Lellers. p.232.
An t-Eideadh Gaidhealach - Margaret Campbell.
27
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
decoration it was on the upper half of the body, on the coat and waistcoat,
which were quite frequently plain in Highland garb. Lowland clothing then
became plainer and sleeker below the waist with narrow breeches and plain
stockings - elite men in Scotland and England in particular showed their
wealth with the excellence of the cut of the clothes, and the quality of the
fabric rather than decoration or bright colours. This was not the case with
Highland clothes with the profusion of fabric and bright colours below the
waist that a plaid involved.
The plaid was quite often left off if the weather was too hot, although this
was not really a problem for most of the 1745 Rising given that that majority
of it took place in the autumn and winter, but the practice of doing so does
seem to have been reasonably common. Certainly, there were accounts of
men going into battle having thrown off their plaid wearing nothing but their
long shirts and coats: Lord George Murray described the men throwing off
their plaids during the skirmish at Clifton giving them an appearance much
like the 18th century murder victim from Arnish Moor on the Isle of Lewis
(a bog body found in the 20th century) who was found wearing long shirt
and coat but no breeches or plaid. 9
The kilt (jeileadh beag) or philabeg began to be worn in the early 18th
century. The kilt in the mid-18th century was effectively half of the plaid
sewn together. In 1740s the overlapping flat aprons characteristic of modern
kilts had not appeared as yet, so it was roughly pleated all the way round.
Lord George Murray wore one at least once during the campaign, writing: 'I
was this day in my Pheillybeg, that is to say without breeches'.1O The Prince
also wore a kilt whilst on the run. Lord George also wrote to his wife about
a 'feelybeg', as he called it, in May 1745. There is a contemporary portrait
of Alexander MacDonell of Glengarry and one of his servants where the
servant is wearing a kilt which is now in the Museum of the Isles. However,
the majority of the Jacobite soldiers in Highland dress wore the plaid since it
also acted as an extra layer of clothing, and if necessary a bed as Burt rather
scornfully wrote. Indeed, General Hawley by November 1745 attributed the
success of the Jacobites to the advantages that their clothing and way of life
gave them. In Am Breacan Uallach the plaid is described as 'Fior-chulaidh an
t-soighdeir' ['true dress of the soldier) which is'S neo-ghloiceil ri h-uchd na
caismeachd,l'S ciatac 'san adbhans thui ['and practical in the heat of battle/
Graceful in the advance, you are').
With the belted plaid the men wore tight fitting, neat short hose [osan),
also made from tartan although not generally matching the tartan of the plaid,
which came up to the calf and not the knee - thus leaving a considerable gap
between them and beginning of the plaid. Mar ghealbhradain di chosen/Le
d' ghearr- osan mu d' chalpa [Like bright salmon your legs/With short hose
round your calves). One writer in 1743 describes 'the Highlander as wearing
broad garters below the knee and no breeches: 11 'Guidheam air beul sios o'n
9
D. Wilcox. 'Scottish Late Seventeenth Century Male Clothing (Part 2): The Barrock Estate
Clothing Finds Described', Costllme. vol 51. no. I. 2017. p.28-53.
10 Pittock. Ml"th. p.40.
II Mo RlIn Geal Og - Christiana Ferguson.
28
IN ARMS AND HIGHLAND DRESS: THE HIGHLAND DIVISION
a shin e'n t-osan/Ged tha an stocainn jada us i'na cochull jarsuing/B' anns' an
t-osan rep nach biodh reis o'n t-sails o'n ghartan' [May he damned be since
our hose he lengthened/Though the stockings long, and widely as it covers/
Better the short hose, not a span [nine inches) from heel or garter').ll The
short hose was often in pictures and in other contemporary descriptions kept
up by scarlet garters about a metre long and tied with great care.
By Christmas of 1745, when the Jacobites were in Glasgow, they had
ordered another six thousand short hose so therefore it seems likely in the
latter part of the campaign many of the men would have had matching
hose. In the Pencuik sketches there is at least one soldier wearing footless
stockings, moran in Gaelic, which some poor men and women wore. Burt
described them as being like bandages wrapped round the legs. This, again,
is a credible solution for many as clearly many had walked through their hose
after a few months' service with the Jacobite army.
Contemporaries appear to have drawn no distinction for example
between the clothing of the officers of the Highland regiments such as
Lochiel's or the Appin's and their peers in the Lowland regiments like the
Edinburgh Regiment since many, if not most, of the officers wore Highland
dress during the campaign, further evidence that most of the officers were
dressed the same. There seems to have been no particular mark of rank for
Jacobite officers beyond having clothes of a finer quality and more weapons.
However, like the Prince on the march to Derby, many of them would have
worn trews (truibhais). It is important to recognise that although trews were
frequently worn by elite men partly because of the skill and tailoring needed
to make them, in general the distinction between rich and poor in the army,
like in the wider populace, was in the quality of the materials and value of
trims and accessories in addition to the excellence of the tailoring. Tailors
were one of the specialised occupations that did exist in the highlands some travelled across the highlands in the summer to visit customers.
Trews were long tight hose cut on the bias to allow for stretch and thus
movement. Martin Martin in 1703 describes trews as:
fine woven, like stockings made of cloath; some are coloured and others striped;
the latter are as well shap'd as the former, lying close to the body from the middle
downwards, and tied round with a belt above the haunches. There is a square piece
of cloth which hangs down before [this is probably a cloth purse or sporran] ... , so
that it requires more skill to make it, than the ordinary habit."
As Martin says, they were generally made from tartan which had a simpler
pattern than that used for the coat or the plaid.
From the accounts of the trials of officers at Southwark more than half are
described as wearing the Highland habit or Highland clothes. Of these officers
four at least, Major McLachlan, Captain McLeod, Colonel Farquharson, and
the Prince's staff officer, Colonel Henry Ker of Graden, would probably have
been mounted, and would have been wearing trews and long boots since
12 Orall all aghaidh all eididh ghallda - John MacCodrum.
13 J.T. Dunbar. Hi.\"I(wy of Highlalld Dress (Edinburgh: Olivcr & Boyd. 1962). p.45.
29
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
riding in a kilt or a belted plaid would be very uncomfortable (although
there is an image from the Pencuik sketches of John Gordon of Glenbucket
riding in a plaid). Farquharson was described by Allan Stewart, a sergeant
in Appin's Regiment, as wearing a short coat and trews in Inverness. In fact,
given that trews were often considered to be the mark of a gentleman it is
very likely that the majority of officers wearing Highland dress would have
worn them. Garters were often worn with trews, as in the portrait of Major
James Fraser of Castle Leathers, and were, as with the short hose, often
scarlet. In 1715, Lord James Murray had five pairs of garters in the inventory
of his luggage lodged in Aberdeen during the Rising including two pairs of
'highland garters'.
With the trews and the belted plaid in the summer the choice would be
an either/or; however, given the wintry conditions of much of the campaign
it is likely as many of the Jacobites as could would have worn both of these.
With the plaid the men wore a short coat cut to mid-hip. Like those found
in some of the bog finds, the coat could be a single colour and of fabric like
frieze. Frieze was a rough cloth often called hodden or wadmal in Scotland.
Wad mal was often undyed and was valued for the making of warm winter
clothing. This was a common choice of fabric for the short Highland coat for
working men and continued to be so until later in the century. Given this and
the relative cheapness of the cloth it seems likely that the twelve thousand
coats ordered by the Jacobites during the campaign were made from wadmal/
hodden and were either undyed, or a cheap dye colour from native dyes. If
undyed, colour varied from white to near black depending on the colour of
the fleece used and whether it was mixed: the famous hodden grey worn by
Scottish armies from the previous century was made by mixing black and
white fleeces together in the proportion of one to twelve when weaving.
The waistcoats that were generally worn underneath the short coats were
longer than the coats - four or five inches [approximately 10.1 to 12.7cm] is
given as the measurement by Burt and were frequently made from wadmal,
and so plain, or tartan. Many of the Jacobites, particularly the officers, had
coats and waistcoats made from tartan: the red and black pattern now known
as Rob Roy was a popular choice. David, Lord Ogilvy, was painted wearing
a coat made from this tartan or possibly a blue and red variation as was at
least one other officer from his regiment which raises the possibility of a bulk
purchase for the officers at least. Coloured cuffs, white, gold, or silver lace, and
velvet were also common amongst the more well off. However, since 6,000
coats were obtained in Glasgow in the December of 1745 then this raises the
probability that many of the men in the army after Christmas were wearing
matching coats. In contrast Captain McLeod's scarlet coat was described as
collared with velvet during his trial at Southwark although difficulties in his
imprisonment meant he looked quite ragged by the time he reached London.
His coat may have been similar to the tartan coat identified with the Prince
that is in the possession of the National Museums of Scotland. Thirty years
earlier, in 1715, Lord James Murray's Highland coat was lined with white silk
as was his waistcoat.
Captain Macleod was also apparently without his shirts by the time he
arrived in the south. This was a serious matter as any 18th century gentleman
30
IN ARMS AND HIGHLAND DRESS:THE HIGHLAND DIVISION
saw clean linen as a mark of gentility and contemporary inventory lists and
court records suggest that a gentleman might have owned up to 50 shirts and
expect to change his linen several times a day. While Murray did not take
quite that number on campaign in 1715 he did have 17 shirts: nine plain and
eight 'with lace at the breast: When Charles was on the run in the summer
of 1746 Lady MacDonald of Sleat gave him six of her husband's shirts which
while generous on her part does certainly suggest that her husband had quite a
number of shirts and that Charles expected to change his shirt a few times. In
the 17th century and early 18 th century shirts worn by highlanders had been
very full requiring many yards of linen like those worn in the late medieval
period which needed up to 15 or 20 yards of linen. However, by the mid-18th
century they looked much like those worn elsewhere, still voluminous but
not as generous as the ones worn earlier with the shirts being worn almost to
the knee and frequently with side splits. In Glasgow the 12,000 linen shirts
that were also ordered from the reluctant burghers there, does seem to allow
for approximately two shirts for each man.
Three regiments - Lochiel's, Glengarry's, and Ogilvy's - had grenadier
companies but there are no records to suggest that they wore anything to
differentiate themselves from others in their regiment.
In the contemporary engravings of Highland soldiers and the Jacobites
their hair was worn long in the Highland fashion, 'T'fhalt dhualach donn
lurachlMu do mhuineal an orlaghl'S e gu cama-lubach cuimir' [Your wavy
hair brown and lovely/ All arranged round your neck! In neat curly tresses ].14
The side curls were loose, but the rest of their hair was generally gathered
or clubbed at the back. A few years later the men of Black Watch during the
French and Indian war in Canada were told to wear their hair 'ten inches
below the tie, eight inches of which was then to be tied with ribbon and two
inches at the end to be formed into a curl: 15
An idea of the costs of the clothing can be obtained from a letter quoted
by Dunbar to Lord Loudoun on the Government side in early September
l746 from James Seton, an Edinburgh merchant who supplied most of his
Regiment's clothing. Sergeants' plaid cost 2/ a yard, their hose cost l/9 per
yard. The private men's plaids cost 1/2 per yard (presumably thinner fabric,
cheaper dyes). The officers of course had to provide their own and it is
interesting to note that they are listed as having: a plaid and coat, a waistcoat,
a shirt and neckcloth, brogues, hose, a bonnet, leather accoutrements which
cost 14 shillings and sixpence and a sword which was eight shillings and four
pence. 16
The royal standard raised at Glenfinnan in August 1745 was a red silk flag
with a white square in the middle Tandem triumphans [at length victorious]
on it in gold, a red and gold fringe and military tassels. However, the Prince
did not carry this with him, but one of the fourteen flags burnt in the
Grassmarket was described as 'On a staff a large plain white colour, said to
be the standard'.
14 Mo Run Geal Og - Christiana Ferguson.
15 Dunbar, History, p.181.
16 Dunbar, History, p.170.
31
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
Regimental flags were frequently saltires; the Appin Regiment's yellow
flag, one of the companies of Cromartie's Regiment may have carried a blue
colour with a saltire, and Bannerman's of Elsick's Regiment also carried a
saltire. Lord Ogilvy's Regiment had a blue with a white saltire with in the
top quadrant a white scroll with Nemo Me Impune Lacessit in black and
gold letters, above a thistle in natural colours, which still exists in Dundee
Museum although the MacDonalds of Glencoe were supposed to have
marched behind a bunch of heather tied to a pike. On 4 June 1746, 14 flags
were burnt in the Grassmarket following the Jacobite defeat at Culloden,
which were recorded on a receipt given for the by Major Hu Wentworth of
the 6th Foot on 11 May as 'Received from Lieutenant Colonel Napier the
following rebel colours':
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
On a staff a white linen colours belonging to the Farquharsons.
On a staff white linen colours Terrores Furio, [This is most likely to be
the Chisholmes]
On a staff a large plain white colour, said to be the standard
On a staff, a blue silk colour Sursum Tendo. [Possibly belonging to the
2nd battalion of Ogilvy's Regiment.]
A staff the colours tore off
The same
On a staff a white silk colour with the Stewarts Arms, 'God save King' [It
is possible that this was the flag of the Prince's lifeguard.]
On a staff a white colour in the canton St. Andrews cross. [Possibly
carried by the Bannerman of Elsick's Regiment.]
On a staff a white silk flag with a red saltire
A blew silk colours with the Lovat arms 'Sine Sanguine Victor. [These
may be those of Lovat's second-in-command, Charles Fraser of
Inverallochie.]
A white piece of silk with a bleu saltire. [ This may have been carried
by the Second Battalion of Atholl's Brigade under James Spalding
of Glenkirchie, but the Spalding arms are blue and yellow. The First
Battalion of the same brigade under Archibald Menzies of Shian are
known to have carried white colours with red saltires, from the colours
of the Menzies arms.]
Piece of blue silk with a St Andrews saltire with the motto Commit the
work to God
A red linen flag with a red saltire
One of my Lord Lovat's camp colours. [Nothing else is known about
this.]
Other flags known are:
•
32
Cameron of Lochiel's: a flag with a central green square which had the a
variant of the arms of the family these are still preserved at Auchencarry
and a red and gold striped colour, captured at Culloden but not burnt.
IN ARMS AND HIGHLAND DRESS: THE HIGHLAND DIVISION
John Gordon of Glenbucket's Regiment: white with the arms of the
Marquis of Huntly in the centre (Glenbucket was Huntly's lieutenant
colonel in the 1715 Rising and these were probably carried at Sherrifmuir).
A guidon ofGardiner's l3th Dragoons was carried by them into action at
Prestonpans and Falkirk and then captured by the Jacobites and carried
by the Lifeguards at Culloden. It bore the motto Britons strike home, a
line from a popular opera song on a green ground and was burned by
the public hangman of Edinburgh, along with all with the other Jacobite
colours.17
17 A. Annand, 'The Regimental Colour of the 2nd Bn. Lord Ogilvy's Regiment. Army of Prince
Charles Edward·. JOllrnal of the Societyfor Army Historical Research. 34( I3 7),1956, pp.12-14.
S. Reid. The Scol/ish Jacobite Army 1745-46. (Oxford: Osprey, 2012), pp.16-17.
33
3
His Black Hat, Bordered
and Cockaded: The Lowland
Division
B'fhearr [jam breacan uallach
Mu m'ghuaillibh, 's a chur fa machlais,
Na ge do gheibhinn cota
De 'n chlo as thig a Sasgunn.
Better is the proud plaid
Beneath my arms and round my shoulders,
To any coat I could get
Of the best cloth from England.'
Lowland Division of the Dukes of Perth & Atholl
•
•
•
•
Atholl Brigade
Aberdeenshire Company of Lieutenant Colonel James Crichton of
Auchengoul
Bannerman of Elsick's Battalion
Balmoral Battalion
Duke of Perth's Regiment
Farquarson of Monaltrie's Regiment
Forfarshire Regiment (Lord Ogilvy's Regiment)
John Roy Stuart's Edinburgh Regiment
Lord Lewis Gordon's Regiment
Monaltrie's Regiment
Many of the men within the Lowland regiments were also wearing Highland
clothes and tartan partly due to the bulk purchases of clothing over the
campaign, the purchases of fabric or clothing by some of those raising a
Alexander MacDonald - Am Breacan Uallach.
34
HIS BLACK HAT, BORDERED AND COCKADED:THE LOWLAND DIVISION
regiment, and others because of political conviction. Many of the men
who were loyal to the Jacobite cause showed their adherence through their
sartorial choices. Over 50 percent of the 290 commissioned officers in the
whole army actually came from Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Perth, and Dundee as
well as the other smaller towns in the Lowlands, and not from the Highlands.
However, the decision of both Prince Charles Edward and his opponents
to use Highland clothing as a propaganda tool ensured the association of
Highland dress and tartan with the cause. This of course helped to reinforce
the idea that this was a Highland army.
Further confusion is added to this as some men in the Lowland regiments
were not from the Lowlands just as some of the men in the Highland
regiments were not from the Highlands. Looking at patterns of recruitment
for example in the case of Lord Ogilvy's or the Forfarshire Regiment, of the
630 men identified as having been part of the regiment, the majority come
from Angus on the East coast, near Dundee (known as Forfarshire in the
18th century). The officers in Ogilvy's Regiment seem to have been dressed
in matching tartan, likely to be a red and blue/black pattern such as the one
which Ogilvy had himself painted in during the 45. Approximately 130 were
from Perthshire, as well as a few men from Banffshire, Fife, and Kincardine.
Similarly, the Atholl Brigade, often thought to have been largely recruited
from Perthshire, contained a sizeable proportion of men from Argyllshire.
The Duke of Perth's Regiment included, unsurprisingly, men from Perthshire,
but also quite large numbers from Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, as well as
small numbers of men from across Moray, Fife, the Southern Lowlands,
and England. Alexander McGrouther, a lieutenant in the Duke of Perth's
Regiment, was described by one witness in Carlisle as wearing 'a Highland
plaid, bonnet, white cockade and dirk' and similarly, another Perthshire man,
Patrick Butler was 'armed and in Highland dress with them [the Jacobitesp
Almost all the officers in the Lowland regiments and some of the men
wore highland clothes. Lawrence Stewart in his deposition lists at least 13
officers the majority of whom were from Perthshire and serving in Lowland
regiments, but all are described as wearing Highland dress Evidence against
many of the officers in the Lowland regiments emphasises this. There were
orders to outfit regiments like Avochie's which stated that 'all the men are
to be well cloathed, with short cloathes [a short coat and waistcoat in the
highland style], plaid, new shoes and three pairs of hose'. In the contemporary
Woodhouselee document Crichton says 'Severall of the new cocad gentlemen
[in Edinburgh so presumably Lowland volunteers] have chainged there dress
into the Highland habit'.3
In his account of the skirmish at Keith, Captain Robert Stewart of the
Edinburgh Regiment described that he threw off his plaid and desired that
everyone should do the like: therefore at least some of the men were wearing
some Highland clothes. Additionally, John Mackewan was described as
'armed and in highland garb with white cockade, as an officer in John Roy
3
Perth & Kinross Archives, 859/30172.
P. Crichton, WoodllOlIselee MS, (Edinburgh: Chambers. 1907), p.49.
35
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
Stewart's Regt. of Grantully and Strathbaan men' in witness reports. l It is
likely that as officers Stewart and Mackewan were wearing trews as many of
the officers from both Highland and Lowland regiments did.
There are plenty of account entries to be found of lowland men buying
tartan in the years preceding the Rising and tartan in many colours was
advertised for sale in Edinburgh in 1745.
However, the majority of the men in Lowland regiments wore their
normal lowland clothes with the addition of a white cockade in their
hats and sometimes a tartan sash or waistcoat: breeches, cloth coats and
waistcoats, with linen shirts and knitted woollen bonnets worn flat on the
head - 6,000 of these were part of the clothing from Glasgow in December
- or a sometimes a tricorn although slightly larger knitted bonnets seem to
have been more typical of the lowlands for plebeian men. These could be
combined with several accessories to present a respectable appearance.
Shoes with removable metal buckles or ties to fasten them - the quality and
type of which of course varied depending on class. Of course, on the march
soldiers from any army tended not to look as smart as they might on parade,
the Pencuik sketches show regular British army soldiers with un cocked hats
and the skirts of their coats unhooked; carrying packs and canteens, much
like the ones the Lord George Murray ordered for the Highland army. Shoes
with ties and lower heels or no heel at all were however more common for
Highland dress although given the number of shoes bought or obtained by
other means over the campaign this distinction was probably irrelevant after
December 1745.
Sturdy knitted worsted stockings covered the legs and neckwear was
typically a long linen stock, white most commonly, although a black stock
was worn with uniforms so some of the men would have been wearing one,
or a coloured square of coloured or checked linen: these were more common
among working men. Lord lames Murray brought '40 travelling cravats',
14 cambric cravats and another 19 cravats of various fabrics with him in
1715. Of course, as is mentioned frequently in all the descriptions, the white
cockade was worn in the hat to show allegiance to the Stuart cause. Some
of the officers wore riding coats over everything else - for example Allan
Stewart described Monaltrie 'as wearing a big blue coat at the head of his
regiment' or Lieutenant lames Stormouth of Ogilvy's Regiment who wore a
long riding coat, albeit over highland dress. s
The knee length breeches that that any man in Lowland dress wore were
made from leather, heavy linen, or wool. Leather breeches were a common
choice since they were ubiquitous in the mid-18th century. Much of the
leather for breeches was brought in from North America as Europe had
ceased to be self-sufficient in buckskin in the 16th century. Leather breeches
were practical, hard wearing and comfortable working clothes and so most
commonly worn by tradesmen and craftsmen almost like the jeans of the day
however gentlemen frequently wore them for riding - this is where the idea
of the 'Regency buck' came from, so beloved of romance novelists - so at least
4
5
36
Perth & Kinross Archives. 859/30172.
Reid. Scollish Jacohite Army, pp.59-60.
HIS BLACK HAT, BORDERED AND COCKADED:THE LOWLAND DIVISION
some of the officers and the cavalry not in Highland clothes would have been
wearing them. The breeches worn at this period, had a full seat, gathered to
a waistband and buttoned with an exposed flap. The waistband, which was
deeper at the front than the back, was normally fastened with three buttons,
which were covered with same fabric as the breeches. It could be tightened at
the centre back where there was a slit bordered with lacing holes at each side.
A strap and buckle substitute to the lacing had just started to appear on some
breeches. Their knees were covered by gartered knitted stockings which
were pulled up over the breeches. They might well have worn garters with a
Jacobite motto on such as 'our cause is just and our Prince brave' or leather
garters with a simple buckle. One bog body from late 17th century Scotland
was wearing two pairs of breeches to keep the cold out, which, given the
harsh conditions that the army found itself on their return to Scotland before
Christmas, seems a likely solution for any man that could. 6
It appears from the Pencuik sketches and other accounts that some of the
Lowland soldiers wore items associated with Highland dress; sporrans and
plaids with their breeches and coats. The sporran, which just means purse
in Gaelic, was not the enormous tassel-ridden monster of the regimental
wear of the following century but, simply, a leather purse. They were mostly
made from deer or calf skin and had a brass puzzle clasp or cantle, although
examples from the previous century do not have the cantle. Frequently the
front would be incised with a simple design, often concentric circles. The bag
generally had one central and two hinge thongs with tassels and was laced to
the clasp with thongs. They were often divided internally into smaller pockets
by leather partitions. They were not particularly large, although occasionally
they do seem to have been more bag than purse sized like the one worn by
Major Fraser of Castle Leathers, but most were big enough for some money,
a pipe or a snuff box, and other similar essentials. Plaids worn by Lowland
troops were likely to be the smaller lowland plaids approximately 3 yards
(2.75 metres) long. Plaids were not exclusive to Highland dress and were
worn throughout Scotland although it was generally only with Highland
dress that the belted plaid was worn.
Coats were frequently made from wad mal or hodden with shades of
brown or grey being the most common colours for the plebeian men followed
by blue - Charles appeared more than once in a cam let coat of blue; a fabric
that was common choice as an informal coat for gentlemen - or green as
well as 'a blue grogam coat' trimmed with gold lace.' As with other items
of clothing, the status of the wearer would show in the quality of the cloth
and the cut and expense in any trim or complementary lining or cuffs like
Prince's gold lace.
The coats of the 1740s had full pleated skirts, which contrasted with the
shorter Highland coats, and were generally stiffened with buckram to help
hold the skirts out. The full skirts of the coats had open side seams with button
6
7
J. Greene. & E. McCrum. "'Small Clothes': The Evolution or Men's Nether Garments as
Evidenced in "The Belfast Newsletter" Index 1737-1800." Eighteenth-Century Ireland / Iris an
D,j Chlllllir 5 1990: pp.153-71.
Riding, Jacobite.I·, p.178.
37
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
The Pretender. This print
c. 1750 shows the Prince in
the harlequin check which
was used frequently in antiJacobite propaganda. This
may be based on the clothes
that the Duke of Perth gave
him in 17~0 and that he wore
for a January ball in 1741 In
Rome; he has a targe at his
feet, crossed pistols, a sword
in his hand, and there has
been an attempt at depicting
a plaid - clearly by someone
who had probably never seen
one. (An ne SK Brown Military
Collection)
38
stays and a back vent which were
designed to allow them to drape over
the back of a horse, the origin of the
shape of the full skirts. Additionally,
another practical purpose was served
the side vents which allowed a sword
to pass through the coat without
damage to the coat. The button stays
stopped a sword from moving about
and controlled the movement of
the coat's skirts. These buttons also
allowed the flaps of the coat to be
turned up to display a contrasting
lining as in the blue coats turned
up with red which were probably
brought over from France and were
seen in both civilian and military
clothing since their origin was in
riding clothing. These coats were
worn by the Manchester Regiment
amongst others.
Waistcoats were made from a
variety of different fabrics - cloth,
worsted, stuff (which was really a
sort of worsted just poorer quality)
silk and linen - and in contrast to
Highland dress the waistcoats were
shorter than the coats. Some of the
men, particularly the older and
working men, would have been
wearing the slightly less fashionable sleeved waistcoat, perhaps made from
a quilted fabric, under their coats, particularly since it was winter. Many of
the officers and the 'gentlemen' volunteers wore tartan waistcoats. Waistcoats
were frequently made to match the colour of the coats worn; however white
waistcoats were also common for informal wear and in white flannel as an
under waistcoat for extra warmth, so it seems likely that many men would
have been wearing them. Like the coats the quality of the cloth and trim of
the waistcoats - the Prince had a red waistcoat trimmed with gold lace reflected the social class of owner.
The majority of the men in the Lowland regiments - the tradesmen,
merchants and farmers from places such as Edinburgh, Manchester,
Perthshire and East Lothian - like their peers in highland dress would not
worn any underwear other than their linen shirts therefore the shirts were
long, the tails were drawn together between the legs to form underwear,
as was also the case if the plaid was worn, so were changed frequently if
possible. The finer the linen, the richer, the owner of the shirt, and the more
shirts he owned and brought with him; even a labourer would own a couple
of shirts and in normal circumstances a gentleman would change his shirt
HIS BLACK HAT, BORDERED AND COCKADED:THE LOWLAND DIVISION
several times a day. Most middle-class men and above prided themselves
on personal cleanliness as a sign of good health, respectability, and virtue so
even whilst on campaign and on the march to and from Derby would have
endeavoured to change their shirts as much as possible. Although some shirts
were made of thin unbleached wool the vast majority were made of white or
unbleached linen. Those of Prince and the men about him were made from
fine Holland (the finest quality linen). They were fastened with small thread
covered buttons, generally three, and opened to about mid chest. The social
distinctions as in other items of clothing showed in the details - the fineness
of the linen, the whiteness, and the quality of the stitching. Additionally, how
the shirt was washed and pressed generally signified a gentleman's rank and
pressing was required to fit the sleeves of the shirt inside the much narrower
sleeves of a coat which would have been trickier whilst on campaign despite
the numbers of servants and camp followers that travelled with the army. An
average 18th century shirt could be as much as 60 inches (152 centimetres)
around the chest, and approximately 40 inches (101 centimetres) long.
Stockings were usually knitted out of worsted - wool spun from combed
rather than carded fleece. The knitting of stockings was a common cottage
industry and was particularly prevalent in Aberdeenshire. Black, white, and
blue were the typical colours for stockings, blue being perhaps the most
commonly seen colour among the working classes. Other colours included
brown (dark to pale), grey, and 'sheep's black' (a brownish black), 'cloth
coloured' (natural or sheep coloured wool), and speckled or 'clouded' (made
by mixing two colours).
There were some men in the Lowland regiments who would not have
been wearing either Highland dress or their normal clothes and those men
were the deserters from the British Army after Prestonpans. A witness named
Robert Bowey reported that:
On Friday last 27th Sept he was at Edinburgh and there saw about 200 soldiers
with the livery ofHM King George go down under guard to the Abby, and shortly
after saw about 40 carried away under guard ... and the remainder set at liberty,
and this deponent saw many going about at large with white cockades along with
the rebels, by reason whereof it was said that they had all initiated the Pretender
and were in his service."
Deserters, like the unfortunate Mr McKendrick who was shot for desertion,
continued to wear their uniforms with the addition of a white cockade
replacing the black government one. William Harvey, a deserter from
Lascelles's Regiment who while he continued to wear his red coat with white
facings and red laced waistcoat got rid of his cocked hat, in favour of a blue
bonnet with the ubiquitous white cockade. Many of the deserters, about 98
of them, were from Guise's Regiment who carried on wearing their red coats
turned up and faced with yellow, red breeches and waistcoats. One deserter,
Dunbar, who had been a sergeant in Sowle's Regiment, discarded his green
8
Reid, Seal/ish Jacobite Army, p.12.
39
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
faced coat for a smarter laced red coat from the notorious Major James
Lockhart of Cholmondeley's Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Falkirk, and
was hanged after Culloden still wearing it. Judging by a couple of references in
the extant Jacobite order books to 'the redcoats of Perth's' and the Edinburgh
Regiment, most if not all of them may have ended up in those regiments, and
in fact the adjutant of Perth's Regiment, John Christie, had been a sergeant in
one of Cope's regiments.
40
4
Other Units in the Army
Manchester Regiment
Lord Strathallan's Regiment
Life guards - all 'gentlemen of character' - Lord Elcho's Troop, Lord
Balmerino's Troop
Lord Kilmarnock Horse/Foot Guards
Lord Pitsligio's Horse
Hussars
Royal Ecossois
Irish Piquets - Lally, Dillon, Rooth, Berwick
Fitzjames' Horse
All gentlemen volunteers who are willing to serve His Royal Highness Charles,
Prince of Wales, Regent of Scotland and Ireland, in one of His Royal Highnesses
new raised English regiments, commonly called the Manchester Regiment, under
the command of Colonel Townley, let them repair to the Drum Head or to the
Colonel's headquarters where they shall be kindly entertained, enter into present
pay and good quarters, receive all arms and accoutrements and everything fit
to complete a gentleman soldier, and for their further encouragement, when
they arrive in London they shall receive 5 guineas each and a crown to drink his
Majesty King lames health, and, if not willing to serve any longer, they shall have
a full discharge. Every man shall be rewarded according to his merits.
God Bless King lames
The Manchester Regiment's numbers have been variously estimated at 188 to
300, although 200 to 300 seems likely. They did not all come from Manchester,
many came from all over Lancashire and other neighbouring counties to
enlist. They were led by Colonel Francis Townley, who had served in the
French army. The officers had tartan sashes and indeed Townley as Colonel
had one lined in white silk. Another officer, Mr Batteagh, was reported in
trial proceedings to have been wearing 'a scotch plaid sash lined with white
ribbon: The officers also had tartan waistcoats and laced hats. The regiment
wore blue coats turned up with red which suggests they may well have been
more of the French coats as worn by the Prince's lifeguard. They, of course,
had white cockades on their hats.
41
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
Their flag is described as having the motto; 'Liberty, Property, Church
and King' In a contemporary history of the campaign by Andrew Henderson
declares that the rank and file of the regiment were dressed in 'blue cloathes,
Hangers, a Plaid sash and white Cockade' and their appearance as they came
into Derby was described as being 'distinguished by a sash of pladd: However
at least one of their officers, James Bradshaw, is described as wearing highland
dress at his trial. 'A Highland dress, arm'd with pistols and sword and a white
cockade on his bonnet'.'
The Jacobite cavalry was not particularly strong in the 1745 Rising; at its
height there were probably 600 horse with perhaps the best units being that
of the Prince's Lifeguard and Kilmarnock's Horse. Lord Kilmarnock's troops
were later reformed as Foot Guards due to a shortage of horses in February
1746 with the addition of some smaller, weaker units such as Bannerman's.
It was not however until the latter stages of the campaign that there was a
major shortage of horses, a report from Lancaster on 13 December stated
that the cavalry 'have got more Horses than they had when they went South:
At Manchester, 180 were ordered for pressing and by this time there had
been considerable opportunities to reinforce the position in Scotland. James
Dodds the farmer at Seton Mill Mains, Haddington, stated at his trial that
his horses were all taken and he was forced out but it is more likely that his
horses were needed for the wagons captured from Cope rather than cavalry.
This was also the case in Perthshire where horses and carts were required
at the start of the campaign to ferry arms and men to where the army was.
Charles Husband, from Balbrogie, near Coupar Angus, stated that Charles
Hay, quartermaster for Ogilvy's Regiment, commandeered a number of
horses and carts from him and his neighbours to carry the baggage of the
French troops to Perth. 2 It was not until the last week in February that the
Fitzjames's Horse, who landed at Aberdeen on the 22nd, had to be given the
remaining mounts from Forbes of Pitsligo's and Kilmarnock's Horse: by that
time the Jacobite Army was retreating to the Highlands, where fresh horses
were in very short supply.
Pitsligo's Horse had approximately 248 men, gentlemen and their
servants, all of whom wore Highland dress, which since they were mounted,
would have been trews, short coats - these do not seem to have been laced
- waistcoats and riding boots. Most of the Jacobite cavalrymen wore some
kind of Highland clothing. Adam Hay, a writer in Edinburgh and a volunteer
in the regiment according to reports given at his trial, wore Highland clothes
and was armed with a broadsword.
Murray of Broughton's Hussars who only ever numbered about 70 to
80 men at most were drawn from the lowlands despite being described
as highland cavalry. Major John Baggot of Rooth's was given command
of the Hussars raised by Murray of Broughton, which were then known
subsequently known as Baggot's Hussars or seem sometimes to have been
called the Scotch Hussars. Discipline had apparently been bad enough that
2
42
J. Dates, 'The Manchester Regimenl of 1745'. Journal of the Society for Army Historical
Research 88. 354. 2010, pp.12-51.
Perth & Kinross Archives. B59/30172.
OTHER UNITS IN THE ARMY
it was thought a professional soldier was needed to keep them in line. Major
Baggot, from Limerick, was described as 'a very rough sort of man, and.
so exceedingly well fitted to command the banditti of which his corps was
composed, and to distress the country', although this was by a Whig so this
description should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt. They are described
when accompanying the Prince to Pinkie House in East Lothian at the end
of October as 'accouretd and mounted as hussars: They wore a short tartan
coat, and a tartan waistcoat, what James Ray in his History of the Rebellion
describes as a 'close Plaid waistcoat',3 longer than the jacket in the highland
style, a band of goatskin round the bonnet and a piece of the same about a
foot in length which stood out from the top of the bonnet and riding boots.
A witness at Carlisle described their hats as being 'high, rough red caps,
like pioneers', Ray calls them 'huge fur caps and adds that they have 'very
bad horses: 'They have gott gwardes in forme for the Prince and they have
a trowpe of gentlemen in huzare dress with the furred caps. long swords or
shabbers, and limber [supple] boots:~
The cavalry - including the Hussars - were among the best armed and
equipped troops in the army, with pistols in holsters on either side of the
saddle pommel, besides - if the Penicuik drawings are to believed - a rather
large hanger also (or shabberlsabre as Crichton called it) That said, by
several reports their horses were not very good at Culloden where they were
described as being on the left towards the wings.
The Lifeguards, like many of the cavalry units, consisted of two troops one commanded by Lord Elcho and another by Lord Elphinstone who became
Lord Balmerino in January 1746. The Lifeguards who were 'all gentlemen
of character: the sons of gentlemen and their servants mostly from the east
coast cities of Edinburgh and Dundee. They wore a smart long coat of 'blue
turned up with red' and a red laced waistcoat. Lord Elcho wrote that he
'raised a squadron of gentlemen, whose uniform was blue coat with a red vest
and red cuffs: The blue coats were unlaced, and they seem to have had tartan
belts. This is confirmed by a description from an English volunteer named
James Bradshaw who saw them 'dressed in long blue clothes turned up with
red, and a shoulder belt mounted with tartan', It is most likely that these were
these were gun belts rather than sword belts, since it was widespread practice
in both the British and French armies at the time for such decorated belts
to be worn by household troops: Reid suggests that they were carbine belts.
The blue coats with red were probably French as there is no mention of them
being made up while the army was at Edinburgh, this makes it likely that
they were some of the military supplies carried to Scotland on the Du Teillay.
The Derby Mercury reported that they were 'c1oath'd in blue, fac'd with red,
most of them of 'em had in scarlet waistcoats with gold lace and being likely
men to make a good appearance:
Three months after Prince Charles arrived in Scotland. several ships
arrived in Scotland having made it through the blockade with several Irish
3
4
Ray. Compleat History of the Rebellion. p.134.
A. McK. Annand. 'The Hussars of The '45'. Journal ofthe Societyfor Army Historical Research
39. no. 159. 1961. pp. 144-60.
43
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
and French officers and a composite battalion of Irish soldiers in French
service. Although the some of the ships had been taken as prizes or held back
by storms in total of about 800 men had managed to land at Montrose. Lord
John Drummond had raised nearly 600 men, mostly Scottish, for the Royal
Ecossois by August 1744, originally for the War of Austrian Succession as
part of the French army. After taking part in fighting in Flanders at numerous
sieges, 300 of the regiment joined the expeditionary force sailing on La Fine
when they were sent to support the Jacobites in Scotland. They landed at
Montrose in late November 1745. Though Drummond had expected to raise
another battalion of men in Scotland, his total numbers probably never rose
far above 400. The Royal Ecossois wore a dark blue coat lined with white
which had rouge a l'ecossoise facings and a waistcoat of the same red, with
three white buttons on the pocket and twelve white piped buttonholes down
each side of the coat and waist coat. They wore red breeches, and white
gaiters as was normal for French infantry of this period with all orders of
dress, and carried the model 1728 musket with all the associated French
leatherwork. They had a grenadier company and there is a grenadier cap
made of blue velvet and red silk in the National Museum of Scotland which
is associated with the Royal Ecossois, in the British mitre style. It has the fleur
de lys and thistle embroidered on it. It was captured abroad the L'Esperance
in November 1745, so it would seem likely that it was worn by them.
One of them was Lieutenant Charles Oliphant, a customs officer from
Aberdeen, and his uniform was described by one of the witnesses at his trial
in 1747, in which he was found guilty but pardoned on condition that he
emigrated to America: 'Prisoner wore the uniform of Lord John Drummond's
officers viz; short blue coats, red vests laced with bonnets and white cockades'.
This has sometimes been interpreted as being the uniform for the whole
regiment, but it seems more likely that like many of the other officers in
French service Oliphant had adopted Highland dress - he is in fact reported
as wearing it whilst awaiting the arrival of the regiment in November 1745
while the soldiers, certainly those recruited in France, carried on wearing
what they had been issued with. The Duke of Perth described Oliphant at
Fort Augustus as wearing highland clothes and armed with a fuzee, a light
musket or firelock most likely a model 1728, and a sword.'
Oliphant was clearly not alone in wearing highland dress as an officer,
Captain Thomas MacDermott testified that 'Many French officers got
highland clothes as a protection against the highlanders who joined us';
while another, Captain John Burke of the Regiment Clare, more explicitly
declared that 'I wore the highland habit to avoid danger in travelling in red
clothes: Evidence for the Crown showed that, while marching from Dundee
to Stirling with some French soldiers, probably men of his own regiment,
Dillon's, Nicholas Glascoe was wearing a 'short highland waistcoat and white
cockade, with pistols before him and a sword by his side: It was on this march
that Lieutenant Glascoe joined Ogilvy's second battalion as a major. Another
witness stated that when serving in that battalion he was wearing 'Highland
5
44
Athol. Chronicles. p.328.
OTHER UNITS IN THE ARMY
clothes: which, as he was a mounted officer, would have consisted of a short
tartan coat, waistcoat, and trews or breeches. fi
The most recently-raised of the Irish regiments, Lally's wore green collars,
cuffs, linings on their red coats and waistcoats, white breeches and yellow hat
lace. Dillon's, Glascoe's regiment, also wore a red coat but with no collar. They
had black cuffs with yellow buttons and yellow lace on their tricorns. They
wore three bronze buttons on the pocket. Berwick's wore the usual red coat,
white breeches and waistcoat, no collar, and silver hat lace. The soldiers of the
Regiment de Rooth wore a red coat which like Dillon's had no collar, it had
blue cuffs, and was lined with blue. They had a blue waistcoat and breeches,
and yellow lace on their hats.
A considerable number of former British soldiers were found amongst the
prisoners after Culloden. Some were serving in regiments such as the Duke
of Perth's, but many were in the ranks of the Irish Picquets; the former British
soldiers - many of who were from Guise's Regiment, continued to wear their
old uniforms for the most part and carried on wearing their red coats turned
up with yellow with yellow facings, red breeches and waistcoat. Apart from
the Jacobite white cockade, many of them carried French accoutrements and
a model 1728 firelock.
Four squadrons of Fitzjames's Horse were sent from France but only
one got through the blockade so there were around 130 men that landed in
Scotland. The remaining troopers ofFitzjames' had been in the ships Bourbon
and CharitC but unfortunately for the Jacobites these were intercepted by the
Royal Navy. The regiment's full complement of heavy cavalry horses was
taken along with three squadrons of 36 officers and 359 troopers. The Irish
troopers had mostly already fought in Italy and the Rhine and their loss was
therefore a severe blow to the possible success of the Jacobites' campaign. The
men were brought to Hull and interrogated.
They brought ashore so much of 'their horse furniture [red with green and
white striped edging) arms, breastplates and baggage' that they required nine
or ten carts and 20 pack horses to carry it all. The troopers of the Fitzjames
Regiment wore red coats with button stalls to hold back the skirts of their
coats, lined with royal blue, yellow buckskin breeches, black cocked hats
laced with silver, and beneath the coats of the troopers, a black painted iron
breast plate. The officers wore full cuirasses over their coats. Their weapons
were carbines, pistols, and straight brass-hilted swords. Their standard had
a French design of a yellow field with a central radiant sun surmounted by a
ribbon with the motto: Nee Pluribus Impar, [Not Unequal to Many). Duffy
notes that the men of Kilmarnock's Horse had to hand over some of their
mounts to ensure Fitzjames could perform as expected since their horses had
been captured.'
6
7
H. McCorry. ·Rats. Lice and Scolchmen: Scollish infantry regiments in the service of France.
1742-62'. Journal of the Socie~\'fiJr Army Historical Research. 74 (297). (1996). pp.I-38.
C. Duffy. The '45. (London: Cassell. 2003), p.438; McCorry, H., 'Rats, Lice and Scotchmen',
pp.I-38.
45
5
Very Indifferently Armed
Lasair theine nan Gall
Frasadh pheileit mu'r ceann
Mhillsiud eireachdas lann, 5 bu bheud e.
The Lowlanders' musket fire
Showered bullets round our faces
That spoiled sword fighting, more the pity'
'It should not be lawful for any person or persons within the shire of
Dunbartain, on the north side of the water of Leven, Stirling on the
north side of the river of Forth, Perth, Kincardin, Aberdeen, Inverness,
Nairn, Cromarty, Argyle, Forfar, Bamff, Sutherland, Caithness, Elgine and
Ross, to have in his or their custody, use, or bear, broad sword or target,
poignard, whinger, or durk, side pistol, gun, or other warlike weapon: [Act
of Proscription, 1747]
The traditional image of the Highland army charging down from the
heathery hills armed only with gleaming swords and the anachronistic
Lochaber axes and scythes is a very persistent myth, but it is just that - a
myth. They were too undisciplined and untrained to follow drill or fight
with a gun, so goes the myth, yet that is to misunderstand the army that
was created by the Jacobites; it was in many ways typical of 18th century
European armies and as such many of the men in it carried conventional 18th
century weapons. However, it is true that before Preston pans it was reported
that 'a company or two had each them in his hand the shaft of a pitch-fork
with the blade of a scythe fastened on it',2 and on 31 August Thomas Bisset
at Blair Castle wrote to his master that 'the Highlanders doe not yet exceed
in number 2000, and they'll scarce be so much, two thirds of which are the
poorest naked like creatures imaginable, and very indifferently armed: I do
not think one half of their guns will fire: J
2
3
46
Clann Cha/ain an /-Sroil - John Roy Stewan.
Pittock. My/h. p.168.
Athol. Chronicles. Vol.IIl. p.12.
VERY INDIFFERENTLY ARMED
At Prestonpans John Home described the Highland army - for such it
still was at that point.
About 1400 or 1500 of them were armed with firelocks and broadswords; that
their firelocks were not similar or uniform, but of all sorts and sizes, muskets,
fusees and fowling-pieces; that some of the rest had firelocks with swords, and
some of them swords without firelocks. 4
Nevertheless, there were few, if any mentions of any men carrying pitchforks
or similar after the Edinburgh City Guard armoury and the British Army
weapons were taken by the Jacobites in September 1745: the plunder from
the '400 carts' that Cope had marched with clearly made up some of the gaps
in the Jacobite arsenal. The Pencuik sketches show men armed only with
muskets and bayonets although Patrick Crichton also saw 'guns licke guns of
the 16 centurie' presumably old matchlocks. 5
There were obviously weapons carried in the ships that sailed over
with the Prince in the summer - the Du Teillay and the Elizabeth carried
between them 3,500 stands of arms, 2,400 swords, and 20 pieces of artillery.
Unfortunately for the Jacobites much of this was lost to them when the
Elizabeth had to turn back. Once the French and Spanish made it through
the naval blockade to Montrose to land some 2,500 guns and six of the socalled Swedish cannon this made a significant difference to the number of
weapons available to the Jacobites by the end of October. James Hally stated
that in October he 'saw Lord James Drummond distributing firelocks and
swords to his regiment in Crieff'.6 By then: this was the view of a British
intelligence report from Edinburgh on 29 October:
Some of them seem not to be arm'd but 'tis reported they are all to be armd out 0'
the Cargae imported at Monross [Montrose]. The rest seem all of them to be very
well armd, each having a Gun, a broad Sword, a side Pistoll & severall have each
one, two - & some three pair side and packet [pocket] pistols - besides Durks,
Target &c. It's really thought the odds of the Arms, occasion'd lately the odds of
fighting, the Regular foot having nothing but the-Gun and Bayonet to trust to
which was of ill repair [no] use to them when they were broke.;
A further six heavy cannons came on 24 November to add to the Jacobite
artillery which now included the artillery captured from Cope at Prestopans,
Duffy lists six 1.5 pounders and four mortars (two coehorn and two royal).
Artillery practice began soon after this. Coehorn mortars were useful to
the Jacobites as they were small, easy to transport, and used relatively little
powder.
Like any other European 18th century soldier the Jacobites regarded
the gun rather than the sword as their primary weapon. At the start of the
4
5
6
J. Home. The History of the Rehellion in the Year 1745 (Edinburgh: Peter Brown, 1822), p.75.
Crichton. Woodhollselee MS. p.83.
Penh & Kinross Archives, B59/30172.
Pillock. Myth, p.171.
47
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
campaign, many recruits joining the army brought a variety of fowling pieces,
blunderbusses, and other individually owned guns. Reid states that several of
Perth's Regiment had blunderbusses, enough in fact to make it a regimental
affectation at least In Avochie's Battalion there appears to have been a move
to try and equip many of the men like those in the Independent Highland
companies with 'shoulder ball gun, pistols and sword'. However sufficient
British Land Pattern firelocks were recovered from Prestonpans after Cope's
defeat to completely equip Glenbucket's, and Lord Ogilvy's Regiments, as
well as many other individual soldiers. More firelocks followed over the
next few months; a further cargo of 2,500 Spanish weapons, which shared
the same .69in calibre as the French, was landed in Barra in October or
November 1745, and a third consignment of over two thousand firelocks in
Peterhead in late January 1746. This made well over seven thousand French
and Spanish firelocks that had made it past the naval blockade in addition to
the guns recovered at Prestonpans and those that individuals had brought or
that had been provided by individual colonels for their regiments. One such
was Major James Stewart of Perth's who addition to the five pistols that he
carried also had a blunderbuss.
The idiosyncratic spelling aside Crichton provides a description of the
'Highland' army entering Edinburgh with a mixed arsenal of weapons - soon
to be replaced by the more standard British and French guns.
All these mountan officers with there troupes in rank and fyle marched from the
Parliament Closs down to surrownd the Cross, and with there bagpipes and loosie
crew they maid a large circle from the end of the Luickenboths to half way below the
Cross to the Cowrt of Gaird ... I observed there armes, they were guns of different
syses, and some of innormowows lengh, some with butts tured up lick a heren,
some tyed with puck threed to the stock, some withowt locks and some match locks,
some had swords over ther showlder instead of guns, one or two had pitchforks, and
some bits of sythes upon poles with a cleek, some old Lochaber axes.'
The Lochaber axes described here in the Woodhouslee manuscript, were
generally a long, curved blade mounted on a shaft approximately two metres
long topped with a hook. They were first recorded in 1501, as an 'old Scottish
batale ax of Loch ab er fasoun: It had been generally considered to be a weapon
of the Highland foot soldier - in the 1689 Rising many of the Jacobites
carried them and in 1715 Mar ordered 300 of them - although it was also
associated with the town guards of Aberdeen and Edinburgh as an essentially
ceremonial weapon. However, by 1745 the heavy weapons were essentially
obsolete and were probably simply discarded by anyone carrying them in
favour of something newer and better as soon as they could get their hands
on them. This is further emphasised by the fact that none of them appear to
be have been handed in during the various arms surrenders after Culloden
despite complaints that that only the rusty arms were being handed in and
all the good weapons were being kept. Were they simply discarded as useless
8
48
Crichton. Woodhou.I"elee MS. p.26.
VERY INDIFFERENTLY ARMED
once everyone had a gun, or were they hidden? Although that possibility
begs the question why hand in a gun if you could hand in a Lochaber axe?
More likely they were simply thrown away on the march when no longer
needed.
Other unexplained absences include the 'bows, spears and axes' claimed
by another observer as the weapons of the rear ranks at Edinburgh in
September 1745. It is likely that at least some of the accounts were simply
playing into the idea of the Highland army as an army of wild men armed
with swords and axes. Even in the 17th century, John Taylor, the water poet,
when travelling in the Highlands said that whilst the men carried bows
and arrows and Lochaber axes they also had arquebuses, muskets, and
dirks. By the start of the 18th century travellers wrote that the Highlanders
carried muskets and other firearms. While the image of every Highlander as
bristling with a variety of weapons was untrue for most, particularly as there
had been various attempts to disarm the highlands before the' 45: although
these were only partially successful, and largely more in areas loyal to the
Government than the Jacobites. there were fewer weapons about in 1745
than there had been in Dundee's or even Mar's time and those men who
were not Highlanders were even less likely to have their own weapons unless
they were gentlemen or aspiring to be so. While it is also untrue that the
army were armed with only Lochaber axes and some scythes, the reality was
that whilst the Highland gentlemen, tacksmen (landholders under a feudal
superior i.e. the clan chief), or officers would have had a broadsword, a pair
of metal pistols and a musket and be expected therefore to stand in the front
rank leading his men, many of the others behind were originally probably
only armed with whatever they could find until supplied with guns and other
weapons in the autumn and early winter of 1745.
Despite the 2,000 cheap broadswords that were brought over from France
aboard the du Teillay, swords do not seem to have been very common at
all among the majority of the army. This probably due in part to the fact
that swords required training and skill to be able to fight with effectively
whereas a gun did not need the same amount of training for there were no
sharpshooters in the armies of the mid-18th century. Guns were of more
use to the Jacobites, the order book of the Appin Regiment contains the
instruction on 2 November that the regiment 'will send immediately to the
park of the artillery for the arms that they want'.
The arms surrenders after Culloden might help give a picture of the
weapons and the proportions in which the Jacobites were actually carrying
the arms, although until May 1746 all weapons were also supposed to be
surrendered not only those of the Jacobites. On the battlefield of Culloden
itself and in the days subsequently, 2,320 muskets and significantly only 190
swords were taken together with 37 barrels of powder (which if the barrels
had been full would have meant approximately 8 tonnes of powder) and 22
carts of shot, a large quantity of musket cartridges and one blunderbuss. The
second line of the Jacobites at Culloden had been occupied by those 'who
have only guns: indicating that some at least of the front line were carrying
swords. but also the possession of guns (and consequently bayonets) by that
line too. On 19 April, an order was issued to the British army that said:
49
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
No officer or soldier to conceal any firelocks, fuses or broadswords, but carry
them all to the train, where they will receive half a crown for every firelock and
one shilling for every broadsword. The train to pay the same price for swords
and firelocks which will be brought in by the country People. French or Spanish
firelocks or bayonets and cartridge boxes to be delivered to Ensign Stewart of
Lascelles Regt; he is to distribute them to the Prisoners of our Army released
here!
This intriguingly seems to suggest that the British army preferred the French
or Spanish firelocks to their own or perhaps that they were making up
deficiencies in their own supplies.
On 23 April 1746 General Campbell issued an order appointing five
centres at which 'all private weapons were to be surrendered: On 5 May
1746 the Laird of Grant had 69 muskets, seven bayonets, 34 swords, four
dirks, and seven pistols surrendered to him; on 15 May, the MacDonells of
Glengarry's surrendered 65 guns (for 77 men), 26 swords, and four dirks,
while Keppoch's gave up 98 guns - one gun for each of the men - 22 swords
and a dirk. On May 16 orders were given that only 'rebel' arms were to be
collected and not those in private hands and only the gentlemen were to be
arrested. Local ministers, at Cumberland's orders were engaged in collecting
weapons and sending in lists of those who had joined the Rising or had
helped in some way. Some six weeks after Culloden, 96 people were listed as
still being under arms in Appin, the next day, more firearms were collected;
44 people at Stratherrick near Loch Ness surrendered and handed in 27
guns, three swords, six pistols, and one dirk. On the same day, 25 men of the
Inverness-shire parishes of Daviot and Dunlichty handed their weapons into
the minister, John Campbell - 10 guns, four swords, and 12 pistols.
About the same sort of time 20 men surrendered to the Earl of Loudoun
and gave up 16 guns and two swords. On May 19 the HMS Furnace came into
Arisaig landed 120 men and 'burnt the house the young Pretender lodg'd att,
with two or three villages & brought off two Prisoners' with ammunition and
arms. Captain Ferguson met with some resistance 'the hills being crouded
with Men in Armes. They had buried some barrals of powder with trains
which they sett fire too'. On 19 August, a list of material 'taken from the
Rebells' lists five brass cannons; 17 iron cannons up to 9-pounders 1,365
round shot for them, 430 muskets, 211 bayonets, 45 swords, 37 targes and
five pairs of pistols. On 31 August 1746, Lord Sempill's regiment brought 295
firelocks 45 pistols, 26 bayonets and 144 swords into Aberdeen. Surrenders
continued over a lengthy period: on 11 April 1747, almost a year after
Culloden, a further 167 muskets, 32 bayonets, and 22 swords were received
from Aberdeen. Two years after Culloden, in May 1748, two surrenders in
Aberdeenshire had 20 firelocks, six pistols, seven bayonets, the same number
of broadswords, five small swords and a hanger. It was sometimes suggested
that they only handed a few weapons or the less good ones, and there were
indeed a few arms caches such as the one traditionally supposed to be at Loch
9
50
A. Stewart. 'The Last Chief: Dougal Stewart of Appin (Died 1764), .The Scottish Historical
Re,·ie\\·. vo!. 76. no. 202, 1997. pp.203-22I.
VERY INDIFFERENTLY ARMED
Morlich near Aviemore; smaller weapons like dirks may have been hidden.
The Duke of Cumberland was certainly convinced that the Highlanders were
hiding weapons.
There also seem to have been some weapons brought into Scotland that
may never have reached the army for example the Birmingham Gazette in
June 1746 reported that:
Capt. Ferguson in the Furnace Sloop of War has found in a Cave on the West
Coast 800 Stands of Arms. 16 Barrels of Powder. and some Casks with Butter
and Brandy. all Which he carried off: They were supposed to be lodged there by
the two French Ships which were on that Coast. and wherein 'tis said the young
Pretender. with some of his Followers. were carried off.
Stands of arms as mentioned here included a firelock. bayonet. bayonet
scabbard. cartridge box. bayonet frog .. cartridge box and waist belt. The idea
being that a stand of arms was issued together since the recruit then had
everything needed to train and fight immediately essentially a complete set
for one soldier, a musket, bayonet, cartridge box and belt but sometimes, the
musket and bayonet alone. This would have meant that many of the Jacobites
had a complete set of French leather work.
The lack of pistols in the arms given up is intriguing given that far
more were held by the Jacobites than seem to have been handed in. Pittock
suggests that they were simply thrown away for lack of shot. It seems likely
that the proportions of arms surrendered reflect the proportions of the arms
that were actually held. In all these surrenders there were more firearms than
swords, overall there are five times as many firelocks as swords were recorded
as being handed in.
Imported weapons aside, the firearms used by the Jacobites were made
in Scotland but not in the Highlands, instead they were made in Dundee,
Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow as well as the east coast towns ofBrechin,
Edzell, Oldmeldrum, Elgin, and Doune. Pistols were considered essential
items for the Highland officer and cavalry. Pistols were only really effective
at short distances of less than approximately 10 yards (nine metres) and
sometimes not even then. When the Jacobite army passed through Derby,
the Duke of Cumberland's footman was captured. He might have been
killed if the 'pistol with, which a Highlander took aim at his head, had not
missed fire: They were thought to be even more unreliable when fired from
horseback. However, metal pistols were issued to all the Highland regiments
in the 18th century, although the soldiers tended to only have one each. The
soldiers from the British Government's Independent Highland Companies
wore their pistols hung by a hook from a short belt which went under the
right shoulder; an officer, who might have had two, could wear the second
pistol suspended from the first. Major James Stewart of Perth's, who had
five pistols, presumably did not use this method but it appears to have been
adopted by the majority of the men in the Jacobite army although there are a
couple of accounts of men carrying them in their pockets. Some of the pistols
carried would have been privately purchased before the start of the Rising
however some would have been issued after 'the road to Dunbar was strewed
51
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
with pistols' following the flight of the two British regiments of Dragoons
from Colt Bridge near Corstophine in what was known as the 'Canter of
Coltbridge:
The unique elements of these pistols were the scroll or ramshorn butt,
fluted barrels at the breech, and the octagonal flared muzzles. They were all
single-shot type with a flintlock firing mechanism. The barrels were generally
approximately 10 to 14 inches (25.4 to 36 centimetres) on the ramshornbutt pattern pistols. Pistols made by Buchanan of Glasgow commonly had a
somewhat larger 11 inch (28cm) barrel and half an inch (12.7mm) bore. Some
of this type of pistol have an offset butt to the left for a right-handed pistol
and vice versa for one designed for the left, the most credible explanation
for this being that it allowed the pistol to sit in the hand more comfortably
and therefore increased accuracy. This was a more frequent feature of the
ramshorn butt pistol which by 1730 had replaced the heart butt pistol as the
most common style and most representative of those carried by the Jacobites
during the '45.
Inlay was an important decorative feature, stars, rondels, diamonds,
hearts, and lines were all common. Many of the pistols made from 1725
onwards had an oval silver butt plaque on which were sometimes engraved
the initials or the crest of the owner. The ramshorn butt pistols often had a
line of inlaid silver tracing the outlines of the horns and the base of the butt.
Many of these pistols also had beautiful engravings although on some of the
cruder pistols engraving was only really found on the silver inlay, with a little
scroll-work on the cock and lock plate. The highland lock had it its own
characteristics with a laterally-acting sear passing through the lock plate.
A star shaped cock comb is generally considered to be a sign of quality in
pistols from the Jacobite period. The majority of the pistols would have been
blued although most of the surviving examples have been cleaned and so
many of the pistols that are still extant do not retain the blueing.
There are very few pictorial sources to help with determine exactly when
the basket hilt or claymore (claidheamh mar) or the back sword with only
one cutting blade (claidheamh cuil) began to be carried in the Highlands.
The word claymore was certainly used to refer to the swords at this time.
Boswell thirty years later said 'the broadsword now used, though called
the glaymore'. By 1745 the sword become very closely associated with the
image of the Highlander although as previously mentioned they were mostly
carried by officers, cavalry, and some gentlemen volunteers. The sword itself
had developed highland; or certainly Scottish, features. An 'English' guard
on a basket hilt from this era consisted mostly of the three vertical bars on
either side, the knuckle guard and the secondary connected by a pair of bars
crossing diagonally with a small circular plate. The highland guard developed
a much larger rectangular plate sometimes decorated with a rough saltire
cut out or more frequently with large heart shaped openings amongst small
circular ones. In the 'English' hilts, the rear bars or tertiary knuckle guards
sloped steeply from the pommel. In highland guards this bar was much
closer to vertical and another shorter one was added at the back. Those made
in Stirling were in general made up from circular bars while the Glasgow
ones tended to be flatter with more ribbon-like bars. Possibly the best swords
52
VERY INDIFFERENTLY ARMED
were made in Stirling at this time. Lochiel's sword probably had a Stirling hilt
but it was mounted by Colin Mitchell, in the Canongate, Edinburgh with a
figure of eight (for James VIII). The hilts were often signed, most famously by
Waiter Allan, the hilt maker from Stirling
The blade of the basket hilt, as in nearly all Scottish swords, was foreign,
imported mostly from Germany and fitted to hilts by the Scottish armourers
or sword slippers. The blade, which was approximately 24-31 inches (60-80
centimetres) long, was generally blued for about a third of its length and gilt
in places where it was signed, frequently with Andrea Ferrarra after the 16th
century swordsmith, or had an inscription like 'with this good sword thy
cause I will maintain and for thy sake 0 James will breathe each vein' which
was mentioned by Macpherson ofStrathmashie in his account of the skirmish
of Clifton. Lord Cromartie's sword was engraved with 'God preserve King
James the VIII of Scotland' on one side and 'Prosperity to Scotland and No
union' on the other. After Culloden the sword was presented to Lieutenant
General James St Clair with the erigravings modified to remove the Jacobite
references to read 'God preserve George lId of Great Britain' and 'Prosperity
to Scotland and England: \0
The most common kind of filler for the hilt at this period was a half filing
of deerskin however if the sword was made specifically for the owner then
no filler should have been required although it was sometimes used such
as the red velvet in the Prince's sword. It was the Glasgow sword slipper
or hilt maker, John Simpson who seems to have been the one who began
signing the hilt in the previous century and the second John Simpson who
was the primary hilt maker at Glasgow at the time of the Rising. From the
will of the latter, a few years after 1745, we can get an idea of the costs of the
swords; a small-sword with a silver handle like the one carried by Murray
of Broughton was valued at £27 Scots and dressing a sword cost from £1
16s. Scots. to £4 12s. Scots. It was the officers and cavalry who carried these
weapons, as demonstrated by the amounts of swords found at Culloden, and
subsequently given in at arms surrenders.
The Jacobites had access to British long and short pattern firelocks after
Preston pans where they were able to collect the discarded guns from the
field and Cope's baggage train as well as the assorted civilian guns. On 24
September, a few days after the battle of Prestonpans, Murray wrote to his
brother saying that the Jacobite army was more than capable of providing
weapons and other equipment for all their soldiers 'we have got above 1000
stand of arms more than we want at present; 2000 targes and 500 tents are
furnished by the Town [Edinburgh ... which with what we have got from
Cope's armie will serve near double our number. I I However, it is likely that by
November or December the majority of the army were using French firelocks
since this simplified the production of cartridges and shot. The design for
the French model 1717 musket had standardised the smooth bore barrel and
flintlock firing mechanism. It had a pinned barrel, similar in design of the
British Brown. The model 1717 had a single barrel band at the centre of the
10 Penny London Posr or The Morning Ad,·erriser. May 27 1746.
11 Atholl. Chronicles. p.23.
53
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
barrel, and four iron pipes which held a wooden ramrod. All of the furniture
on the gun was iron. The models 1717 and 1728 had a 46-inch {I 16.8cm)
barrels, an overall length of 62 inches (l57.48cm), weighed approximately
nine pounds (4 kg) and were of .69 calibre. The model 1728 however replaced
the pinned barrel with one held in place by three-barrel bands, which would
become standard on all subsequent French muskets. The barrel band design
was not only easier to take apart for cleaning, but was also sturdier, which was
an important consideration in bayonet combat. The lock was also revised,
with a longer frizzen spring and a slightly modified cock design. The wooden
ramrod was also replaced by an iron ramrod in 1740 so at least some of the
guns present on the Jacobite side at Falkirk and Culloden had iron ramrods.
The Land Pattern adopted in 1722 formed the basis for all subsequent
British army muskets up to the adoption of the 1853 Enfield. The model 1722
Long Land Pattern and the Short Land Pattern used by the British dragoons
had a .75 calibre (l9mm with 17.5 mm ball). The Long Land Pattern had a
barrel length of 46 inches (l16.8cm) and was the same overall length as the
French model 1728 at 62 inches (l57.48cm). It was heavier than its French
equivalent at 10.4lbs (4.7 kg). The dragoons' Short Land Pattern had a barrel
four inches (lOcm) shorter.
Some of the Jacobites wore cartridge boxes that had been supplied as
part of the stand of arms sent by the French or those captured from Cope
after Prestonpans. These were included specifically in the instructions for
collection post Culloden so there were evidently enough about to make it
worthwhile. Lord Ogilvy's Regiment were allowed 12 shots each, this was
standard issue for many continental armies although the British Army had
double this amount at least when in a conflict. Lord Ogilvy's Regiment had
strict instructions in their order book not to fire off ammunition 'in the way
that they have done: There are similar orders in the Appin order book against
wasting shot on hares which does conjure up the picture of some slightly
trigger-happy men taking pot shots at anything and everything as they went.
Some of the Jacobites also had powder flasks worn on the right hip along
with the ball bag
One powder flask maker, Marmaduke MacBeath, was out in the '45
with the Edinburgh Regiment. The quartermasters and others ordered
considerable amounts of bullets throughout the campaign, thousands
in Manchester alone. The Scottish powder horn has a very distinctive
appearance, it was generally made from cow horn which was boiled in water
and then flattened. The bottom end was sealed with wood and the top had or
brass mounts. Many were elaborately decorated and mounted in silver. They
seem to have been generally carried by gentlemen who owned their own
guns rather than the common soldier.
By 1702, the French army was equipped with socket bayonets, and the
British a year later, so all the firelocks the Jacobites carried would have had
this type of bayonet. The musket could then be loaded and fired with the
bayonet fixed. The blade was a triangular spike with deep fullers in the two
outer faces, while the inner face was angled away from the muzzle to facilitate
reloading.
54
VERY INDIFFERENTLY ARMED
Practice should have meant that that the soldiers should have been
able to fire two or three rounds per minute (in reality two was more likely)
however wooden ramrods slowed them down and all the British guns at least
still retained them due to a reluctance on the part of the those in charge to
change. However. trying to achieve this rate of fire frequently led to firing too
high. For the most part a flintlock was reasonably reliable nevertheless they
did sometimes misfire. There were several reasons for this. not least of which
could be that the flints were defective. British ones were often reckoned to be
poor. Even if the flints were good then they generally needed to be replaced
after 10-15 firings. Supply of flint was always an issue for any army.
The Jacobite supply of powder was of variable quality during the
campaign. however some was clearly good. British gunpowder was always
thought to be good. partly because Britain through India had access to a
cheap reliable source of saltpetre essential for the production of gunpowder.
French gunpowder was less powerful and more likely to lead to misfires. and
a soldier might find that instead of wounding or killing a man a spent ball
might not inflict that much damage. For example. at the start of March 1746.
367 muskets. 370 bayonets. and '32 double barrels of exceeding fine Spanish
powder' were recovered by British forces from the magazine at Corgarff
Castle where they had been lodged by Forbes of Pitsligo's men after having
been landed by a Spanish privateer at Peterhead in January. The loss of these
arms seriously affected the Jacobites. The problem with the quality of powder
became immeasurably more difficult. of course. when the gun was exposed
to direct rainfall.
In the 2005 excavation at Culloden an equal number of French and
British army musket balls were recovered suggesting that the Jacobites fired
almost twice as much shot as the Government forces. This seems to be borne
out by this account from the Newcastle Courant in May 1746:
When we saw them coming towards us in great Haste and Fury. we fired at
50 yards distance, which made hundreds fall; not withstanding they were so
numerous, that they still advanced, and were almost on us before we had loaden
again. We immediately gave them another full fire, the Front rank charged their
bayonets breast high, and the Centre and rear ranks kept a continual firing, which
in half an hour's time, routed their whole army. Only Barrel's regiment and ours
was engaged, the rebels designing to break us or flank us, but our hot was so hot,
most of us having discharged nine shot each, that they were disappointed. I'
The absolute range of the flintlock was held to be about 300 yards (about 275
metres) and really a good deal less. In reality. accuracy was poor at much over
80 yards (73 metres). It was common for firelock-armed soldiers to shoot
high at the best of times. so a sizable percentage of shots must have gone
too high. The large amount of smoke produced by a whole company firing
together made it very difficult to aim at a target. The barrels got hotter as the
guns were fired and after 20 to 30 rounds it would be impossible to hold.
12 S. Rcid. The Flintlock Musket - Brown Bess and Charlel'ille 1715-1865 (Oxford: Osprey,
2016). p.58.
55
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
Pittock argues that remnants of the Jacobite drill can be found in places
such as the Thriepland of Fingask papers where a Jacobite ritual for feeding
dogs ends with: 'Clap your left hand to your stock. and your sight to your
firelock. Make. ready. present. Cock. Snap. Fire' words that probably recall
the actual Jacobite drill from the '45 which does help to confirm the idea that
Charles had created a relatively conventional army which used a combination
of French and British tactics and drill. General Hawley issued a set of fighting
instructions to his troops shortly before they marched against the Jacobites.
advising that: When these Battalions come within a large Musket. or three
score yards [60], this front rank gives their fire. & immediately thro' down
their firelocks & come down in a cluster with their swords & targets ... The
sure way to demolish them is at 3 deep to fire hy ranks diagonally to the
Centre where they come. the rear rank first. and even that rank not to fire
till they are within 1Oor 12 paces but if the fire is given at a distance you will
probably be broke for you will never get time to load a second Cartridge. The
guns both sides were carrying were not effective at any distance. but at close
range. 21 yards (20 metres) or closer. then they could be devastatingY
The dirk. the blades of which were sometimes made from converted
swords. was a long knife with a blade from approximately a foot to one
and half feet (30 to 45 cm) long. Dirks were generally held in the left hand
but could be used in either and. when not being used. were hung on the
belt. accessible to either hand. Post-1745 examples tend to be much more
elaborate. the surviving examples from the time around the Rising are
simpler without a great deal of decoration. The wooden handles made from
native wood were often carved with Celtic style knotwork. This is probably
a revival rather than a survival of techniques. Some dirks appear to have
had a smaller knife in the side also. There were relatively few handed in after
Culloden; this was because they could be converted for legitimate domestic
purposes. Burt wrote of them:
The blade is straight and generally above a foot long, the back near an inch thick
the point of the knife goes off like a tuck, and the handle in something like a sickle.
They pretend that they can't do well without it, as being useful to them in cutting
wood, and upon many other occasions but it is a concealed mischief hid under a
plaid, ready for the secret stabbing, and in a close encounter there is no defence
against it."
At times the Jacobites had considerable amounts of artillery but throughout
the campaign they were hampered by a lack of suitable horses. which made
it difficult to transport the heavier pieces. and of trained men to operate the
cannon. In October 1745 orders were issued to the authorities in Coupar
Angus and Forfar to have 40 and 200 carts with horses respectively. ready in
two hours. along with artillery horses and billets for 60 men in Forfar. under
'pain of corporal punishment and imprisonment: 15
13 Reid, The Flintlock. pp.27-29.
14 Burt. Lel/er... p.174.
15 Perth and Kinross Archives. B59/30172.
56
VERY INDIFFERENTLY ARMED
British infantry drill, c. 1745 (1745). Through the campaign the Jacobite army sought to improve their drill
using a mix of British and French drill. Lord Ogilvy ordered that the Serjeants be careful to cause the men
to keep their weapons clean and qualify themselves for learning the men their exercise. John Webster, a
Chelsea pensioner, taught the 'rebels the exercise of the firelock'. There were others who had served in the
independent Highland companies such as Cluny Macpherson who might have been expected to know
something about drill. (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection)
57
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
According to Colonel Grant, one of the professional artillery men with
the Jacobites, their artillery was made up of 'thirteen pieces, six whereof were
taken from Sir John Cope, six 4-pounders that came from France, and one
piece that was brought from Blair of Atholl'.16 At times during the campaign
they had more than this but the demands of an army on the move meant
that they were not always able to take it with them. Cope's guns were brass
1 Yz-pounder curricle guns, called that because the barrel was mounted on a
flat-bottomed curricle whose shafts doubled as the trail. The 4-pounders were
also known as 'Swedish' guns, not because they were Swedish but because
they were experimental iron-barrelled guns, inspired by the light artillery
used by the influential 17th century Swedish tactician Gustavus Adolphus.
Unfortunately, these guns had also been rejected by the French authorities
for being too complicated and difficult to manufacture. The last, described
as an 'octagon' when it was found abandoned at Carlisle, must have been an
old brass piece dating back to the sixteenth century. Despite this the Jacobite
artillery was rumoured to be strong early on and was therefore of concern to
Government agents - they had 'six brass cannon of 4 pounders which they
say will fire 11 times in a minutes' as the report went from Dalkeith at the
end of October 1745.
On 1 November the Prince rode to the palace of Dalkeith. He viewed the
cannon now brought together in the park by the Palace. An observer noted
that:
Seven thereof are French guns, 4 pounders each of brass and the other six (the
gallopers) are taken from Sir John Cope. One of the seven saw fired ten times
in less than two minutes, the gunners were all French men, about a dozen in
number and engineers of the same nation ... There were a vast number of boxes
of different sizes lying about the Palace court, out of which I saw great numbers
of French Fuzees [muskets], and swords with brass hilts and short crooked blades
with new belts disturbed among the men, who were mostly of Duke of Perth's
Lord Ogilvy's and Glenbucket's regiment. Many of the boxes contained cannon
balls, musket bullets, biscuits and cheese, and besides there were a good many
barrels of gunpowder. 17
On 24 November, the La Renommee brought a delivery of two 18-pounders,
two 12-pounders, and 9-pounders into Montrose harbour. 'As well as a
number of the ship's cannon [probably swivel guns] which were formed
into a shore battery'. The London Gazette on 3 December 1745 said' We have
Advice, that at Four this Morning, the Pretender's Son entered Derby with
450 Horse, and 5300 Foot. -The rest, with the Artillery and Baggage, were
then at Ashbourne but set forward this Evening for DerbY: Thirteen guns
had gone south with the army - the six 'Swedish' cannon and the six brass
1Yz pounders captured from Cope and an iron gun in a cart. In the England
16 Pittock, Mvlh, p.175.
17 C. Duffy, Fighl for a Throne: The Jacohile 45 Reconsidered (Solihull: Helion & Co. 2015)
p.149.
58
VERY INDIFFERENTLY ARMED
the Jacobites attempted to obtain the horses that they desperately needed for
their artillery and cavalry:
You are hereby Commanded immediately to Seize and press within your Township
good and able Carriage horses with Cart Saddles and geers and to bring the same
to where the Train of Artillery & Wagons ... to where the Train of Artillery and
Waggons now lye to the number of 150 horses with proper Carriages such as
Carts &c for at least sixty of those for Carrying the above Train & other Carriages
belonging to the Army under his Royal Highness. IH
On the way to Shap some of the carts broke. Lord George Murray 'got the
men to carry to Shap a good many cannon balls: 19 On 7 January 1746, the St
lames Post gave an account of the 'Brass and iron ordnance taken in Carlisle'
and there 'Nere six brass one and half pounder guns with carriages [dearly the
ones taken from Cope 1; a brass octagon gun with carriage; three brass four
pounder guns with carriages; four brass coehorn mortars and two royals.
On 13 December, the Irish Picquets apparently had one 16-pounder gun
and another smaller gun with them; unfortunately, there was no report of
its poundage. On 23 January 1746, the army had two brass 16-pounders
presumably the same ones that the Piquets had used, two 12-pounders and
four 8-pounders, in Glasgow. After Falkirk in January 1746, the Jacobites
seized the wagons in the Government supply train and picked up a
Auguslin Heckel. 'The Battle
of Culloden: April 16th 1746'
(1746). This contemporary
print of Culloden shows the
huge amount of fire power
that was deployed on both
sides at the battle. Afterwards
30 guns. 2.320 muskets 1,500
cartridges 1,019 cannon
rounds amongst other
weapons were captured and
much more was thrown away
in flight. (Anne S.K. Brown
Military Collection)
18 W. Blaikie. The Highlanders at Macclesfield in 1745', The Seal/ish Historical Re\'iev.: 6(23),
1909, pp.225-244.
19 Athol, Chronicles, p.1 06.
59
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
considerable number, probably about 600, of the discarded firelocks, British
Long land pattern mostly; six 'light pieces' of artillery; two infantry colours;
a kettle drum; gunpowder from the 28 carts -approximately 4000 pounds
(1.8 tonnes) - tents and plenty of shot and as well as three dragoon guidons. 20
As they went north after Falkirk the Jacobites took 17 small cannon,
they had left 138- and 12-pounders and 14 swivel guns at Perth. They had
hoped to use 4, 6, 8, and 9 pounders at Aberdeen and with that in mind they
were taken up the east coast; other cannons were spiked at Montrose. At
Fort William, the Jacobites were quite well supplied with artillery including
a 14- or 12-pounder, five 6-pounders, two swivel guns and several coehorn
mortars - the smallest of the standard mortars named after their Dutch
inventor. They also used 16 to 18 lb bombs, although the British army
captured or spiked a 6-pounder, three 4-pounders, and three mortars which
impeded their efforts considerably.
Colonel Grant was wounded at the siege of Fort William in March 1746
and his absence because of his wounds at Culloden the next month clearly
impacted on the effectiveness of the Jacobite artillery, as without him the
untrained gunners struggled. The British army was much more equipped
to support an artillery train. On the other hand, despite the figure normally
given for Jacobite artillery deployed at Culloden, the British Army captured
thirty guns after the battle - three 1.5-pounders, 11 3-pounders, four brass
4-pounders, four iron 4-pounders, and eight highly portable, light-weight
swivel guns. Putting the numbers together is difficult and it is very hard to
come up with any sort of total for the amount of artillery but during the
campaign, two IS-pounders, the two brass 16-pounders, one 14-pounder,
three 12-pounders, two 9-pounders, 13 S-pounders, unspecified number of
6-pounders (at least five, Pittock states), eight 4-pounders - four brass and
four iron, 11 3-pounders, six 1.5-pounders, nine mortars and 22 swivel guns
are mentioned. There may be others and some of these are possibly repeated;
added together, this would seem to give the Jacobite Army over SO cannon
and mortars in total which is rather more firepower than it is often credited
with. z,
20 Athol. Chronicles. p.12S.
21 Pittock. Ml"lh. pp.176-178.
60
6
Accoutrements
o brother Sawney, hear you the news?
Twang'em, we'll bangem and hang'em up
An army is just coming without any shoes. l
The supply of shoes seems to have been a problem for both sides. From the
start of Rising supplies of shoes, as well as targes, tents and other equipment
were ordered by the Jacobites. 'The camp at Duddeston was provided in tents
by the poor town of Edinburgh; and to reimburse all these expences of tents
shoes and broges &c. the inhabitants are taxed at 2sh. 6d. per pownd sterling
of there re all rent quhich commenced the collecting it October 7. 2 In Perth
in early September, Lord George Murray ordered that each man should be
issued with a pock - a bag or haversack so that their rations could be issued
and carried. Many of the men will also have had a simple market wallet made
from linen that they carried over their shoulder with a change of clothes
and other necessities. Those in Highland dress could use their plaids in the
same way. The Reverend Bisset remembered watching the army march out
of Aberdeen and noted that they had on their wallets and their pocks. There
are also several references in the orderly books to keeping canteens filled. Of
course, officers and gentlemen volunteers had for the most servants who had
might be expected to carry changes of clothes, shaving equipment.
Every company was supposed to have two pack horses, besides the
officers' servants with their cloak bags etc. Despite the apparent organisation
noted in orderly books, the Jacobite baggage train was mostly improvised
from carts taken from farmers and heavy wagons. Many of these struggled
with poor roads, and the weather in the winter as the Army returned over
Shap to Scotland.
In September, in Edinburgh, tents, targes, shoes, and canteens were
ordered. There were 1,000 tents big enough to hold six men although
apparently some of the highlanders did not like the tents and preferred to
sleep outside: These were then divided up between the companies. 'Also
ordered were 6000 'pans ready for their victuals: and shoes and stockings.
2
1745 version or Lillibullero.
Crichton. WoodllOlIselee .'viS. p.68.
61
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
The necessity for good footwear intensified after Edinburgh due to the nonstop marching that the Jacobites undertook throughout the winter, especially
since the Highlanders mostly wore thin pumps or brogues which did not
stand up to continuous walking on roads. Therefore, almost all the shoes
had to be replaced. Burt described their shoes as 'brogues or pumps without
heels. By the way, they cut holes in their brogues. though new made, to let
out the water: At home it was not unknown for men. and more commonly
women, to walk around barefoot; however, the demands of the march made
this very unlikely. Some poorer men wore currans: 'a kind of pumps, made
out of raw cowhide, with the hair turned outward, which being ill-made, the
wearer's foot looked something like those of a rough footed hen or pigeon.
These are called quarrants'. 3
In October 1745 Murray wrote to his brother William that he was
'extremely anxious to get the men. Herefor at present I could get them
supplied with guns, targets, tents and those who went them shoes also: On
October 10 the Order Book for Ogilvy's regiment records that the 'Captains
should make records of any that still need shoes: On 19 November. a further
307 pairs of shoes were ordered for 3s. 6d. a pair, while on 25 November;
another 300 pairs were ordered from John Sturrock in Forfar for 2s. per
pair. Still more orders went in on 3 December for an additional 97 pairs, 10
December 170 pairs were ordered for Cromartie's, at 2s. 6d. for a pair, and on
Christmas Eve a further 262 pairs of shoes were ordered. 87 pairs shoes were
ordered for the Mackintosh Battalion at £1318s. 4
A report in the London Evening Post in November 1745 stated that 'All
travellers are obliged to wear a cockade for safety. You may walk through
Edinburgh without seeing a person that belonging to the town. All the shops
are shut up, there being no such thing as Traffick unless the making of shoes
for highlanders'.
The Glasgow Corporation Minutes for the 8 September 1746 record that
the Prince demanded that Glasgow equip his army with: 6,000 short cloath
[cloth) coats, 12,000 linen shirts, 6,000 pairs of shoes and a like number of
pairs oftartan hose and blue bonnets. The Earl of Kilmarnock made provision
in his will for the shoemakers of Elgin as he had commissioned 70 pairs of
shoes for his soldiers and had not paid for them.
The shoes worn with highland dress had low heels, thin soles and tended
to be tied rather than fastened with a buckle as was common in 'lowland'
dress. They were suited to walking over rough ground but were less suited to
marching on rough roads hence the necessity for so many replacements as
the army marched.
It was the colour of the cockade. white for the Jacobites and black for
the Government, that marked their different allegiances since in many other
respects they dressed the same. In the previous century, clansmen had worn
badges in their hats or pinned to their coats to help differienate themselves
from other clans. Clan Donald and its associates wore heather, Clan
3
4
62
Bun. Lel/en. p.232.
Pittock. Myth. p.l73.
ACCOUTREMENTS
McFarlane wore the Scottish
cranberry, and the Campbells
wore the bog myrtle.
The recognised badge of the
Highland army was the white
cockade made from linen or
silk and was generally worn on
the hat. The white cockade had
been worn in the 1715 Rising as
well. The wearing of cockades
was an important mark of
identification at a time when
not all soldiers had a uniform
and even those who did could
be fighting an opposition with a
very similar one. Major Donald
MacDonell of Tiendrish when
he was captured by men from
Barrell's Regiment at the Battle
of Falkirk tried to hide himself
by saying he was one of the Government's Campbells, his white cockade was
so dirty since it had been raining heavily and it was covered.
The Government Highland companies wore a black cockade with a red
cross worn like a saltire on their bonnets. During the trials of the Jacobite
prisoners of the' 45, the wearing of the white cockade was accepted as proof
of guilt, since as one witness said 'we thought every man who wore it had
joined the rebels: Charles Allan, a cooper's servant from Leith, was described
as wearing a white cockade and fighting with the rebels. James Lindsay, a shoe
maker from Perth who was a sergeant in Lord Strathallan's Regiment, had a
white cockade with 'Nemo me impune lacesset', the Stuart motto since the
16th century, embroidered on it. Major David Stewart, brother of Ardvorlich
was seen at Dunblane dressed and armed like a rebel highlander wearing a
white cockade. Robert Anderson, a brewer, was also described as wearing a
white cockade. Oswald James, gardener at Tuilbardine who marched with
the rebel army, wore the white cockade and bore arms.
At the trial of Colonel Townsley, who commanded the Manchester
Regiment, Sir John Strange said that he wore 'a white cockade and a plaid sash
as a mark of his authority'. Counsellor Morgan from Manchester seems to
have suffered similarly as the report of his trial makes dear as he is described
as 'being seen both on foot and horseback with a sword and a white cockade'. '
The majority of troops that were wearing Highland dress also carried
a target or targe. This was notwithstanding that Murray of Broughton had
written a few years before the Rising that the act of targe making had long
been neglected and that it was difficult to find anyone acquainted with their
5
Wea ring the white cockade
was taken as proof in the trial
depositions that that a man
was a Jacobite. One w itness
sa id tha t he t hought every
man who had one ha d joined
the rebels. For exa mple, at the
trial of Major David Stewart,
brother of Ard vorl ich, part o f
the evid ence broug ht aga in st
him was that he was seen
at Dunbla ne dressed and
armed like a rebel Highlander
wearing a w hite Cockade.
Thi s could o f course work
bot h ways and a Government
sym apthi ser wear ing a white
cockade could also act as
spy in the Jacobi te camp.
(National Mu se um s Scotl and)
Anon. All authelltick lIarrati,'e of the whole proceedillgs of the court at St. Margaret:, Hill,
Southwark, ill the 1II0llths ofJUlle, Ju~, ' alld August. 1746 (London: B. Cole.1746). p.2: B. Seton.
& J.G.Amot. Prisollers of the '45 (Edinburgh : Scottish History Society. 1929). p.324.
63
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
construction. On 10 October Lord Ogilvy ordered all the officers of his
regiment to provide themselves in targets from armourers in Edinburgh.
It appears that the men in Ogilvy's Regiment at least already had targes
provided for them; however, the officers had to provide their own. This may
explain some of the pricing in Perth on 15 November 1745,120 targes were
ordered by the laird of Gask from William Lindsay, at the cost of £30 14s.
6d. sterling. On the 16 January 1746 there were orders for 242 more targes
for Strathallan and 24 'hyds leather from the tannage' which cost £16 16 s as
well 'goat skins, wood, nails' for £15 10s and 'Officers targets' at £1 the pair. 6
A targe was a small round shield about 20-27 inches (approximately 5070 centimetres) across and weighing 4.4-7.7 pounds (2-3.5 kilogrammes)
depending on whether or not the targe had metal studs. The inside of the
targe was made from two very thin layers of flat wooden board, with the
grain of each layer at right angles to the other. They were fixed together with
small wooden pegs. Most targes had their back covered with cow or goat
skin, the Prince's beautiful targe however had jaguar hide but, despite this,
was made in Scotland. 7
The padding for the targes was mostly straw and fleece beneath the
leather. The leather was fixed to the wood with brass, or in a few cases, silver,
nails, and occasionally brass plates were also fastened to the face for strength
and decoration. Some targes had centre bosses of brass, and a few of these
also had a long steel spike. Half an ell is given as the length for this, that is
18.5 inches (47 centimetres), and it screwed into a small 'puddle' oflead fixed
to the wood, under the boss. When not in use, the spike could be unscrewed
and placed in a sheath on the back of the targe and there is at least one targe
still extant in a private collection which shows this feature. There were some
steel targes: certainly in the 17th century which appear in the account books,
for example an Islay account of 1639 recorded £20 Scots as being paid for
mending of'thrie steil targes and for covering thame of lather'. Even as late
as 1745 Glenbucket carried a steel targe described by Lord George Murray
as convex and covered with painted metal. On the march to Derby, Charles
Edward was described by eyewitnesses leading on foot at the head of the
army with his targe over his shoulder.
A targe characteristically was decorated with two general patterns concentric circles, or a centre boss with lesser bosses around this. There are
a few obvious exceptions, such as a targe in Perth Museum which has a star
design. Although some targe designs appear to have been more popular than
others, there is very little to indicate that there ever were clan designs as such.
The nearest to a clan design are the four identical targes which came from the
family armoury at Castle Grant. The ones that were made up in large batches
for the men in '45 were probably less individual in design than those made
6
7
64
C. Grant. 'Glenbucket's Regiment of Foot, 1745-46', Journal of the Socie~lIor Army Historical
Research 28, no. 113. 1950. pp.31-41; C. Stewarl Henderson 'Order Book of the Appin
Regiment from 11th October 1745 to 18th January 1746'. The Stell'arts. vol IX. No 2, 1952,
p.137.
See discussion of the Prince's targe in Forsyth. (ed). Bonnie Prince Char/ie. p.86, and targes in
general in S. Maxwell, 'The Highland Targe', The Sco/lish Art Rel'iell', Special Number. (1963).
p.2-5.
ACCOUTREMENTS
before the Rising. The Prince's targe had silver mounts replacing the brass
plates and studs which decorated most targes, at the centre, a Medusa with
the spike in the mouth.
It is possible that Lord George Murray owed his life to his targe, which
was nicked with bullets during the skirmish at Clifton. Despite this many of
the men were not keen on them and by Culloden they do not seem to have
been carried by many; either having been discarded or just left in the baggage
and not retrieved. This may also account for the relative absence of them
from weapons surrenders after Cull od en. Thirty years after Culloden during
his tour of the Highlands Boswell wrote that it was impossible to see any.
65
7
An Assembly of Harlequins
The Colonels and other officers are forbid to have any wheel carriages And are
likewise forbid to suffer any women to follow their regiment but those they really
know to be married. No man whatever is to be suffered on horseback with a
woman behind him, nor any baggage horse is to mix with the ranks or among
the regiments. l
Pat rick Crichton described the entry of the army into Edinburgh.
I saw the cavillcade and all the Highland wifes along with the bagage, and 3
or 400 men as a gwarde. They crossed the Lintown rod I was walking along to
Edinburgh and I was a little alarmed to be within ther hale becaws the straglers
of all bagag men ar iregular but they were in tope spirits with the prospect of a
warme qwarters and plenty, upon the kind Lord Provosts invitation.'
There were a large number of women and children who travelled with the
army as was normal for armies of this period. They were expected to cook,
wash clothes, tend to injuries and mend. Pittock estimates that the baggage
may have been as many as 2,000 people. The Appin order book records an
order that 'Colonels will be answerable if any women be suffered in quarters
but those that are married' which implies that there were both married and
unmarried women around the army. There are at least the 56 'regimental'
women identified in The Prisoners of the '45 such as Mary Mackenzie, a
follower of Cromartie's Regiment, Margaret Shaw, spinner or Elizabeth
MacFarlane aged 30, seamstress as well as the elite women such as Lady
Ogilvy and at least fifteen children; another twelve others can be added
who were taken up with or near the Jacobite army on campaign. When the
Jacobites left the garrison in Carlisle retreating from England in December
1745, they also left behind a small community of women and children who
had travelled with them. Cumberland gave the keeper of Appleby Gaol a
2
66
B. Seton & D. Ogilvy, The Order~l' Book of Lord Ogihy\ Regimenl In lire Army of Prince
Charles Ed",ard SII/Grl. 100clobel: 1745. 1021 April. 1746. Society for Army Historical
Research (London: The Cloister Press, 1923, pp.270-281.
Crichton, Woodhol/selee MS, p.23.
AN ASSEMBLY OF HARLEQUINS
written order to imprison 63 Jacobites and the nine women who were with
them. There were also the 'two strum pots' as Lord George Murray referred to
the women who drowned as the army crossed the Esk. After the Rising some
women were transported such as Isabel Chalmers, who had been attached to
Glengarry's Regiment. These women came, like the men in the army, from
all over Scotland.
Despite reports of 150 women seen in arms, there is absolutely no
convincing evidence that this occurred at any time. A letter, ostensibly written
by Oliphant of Gask to his sister, was printed in France for distribution in
mainland Europe to raise the hopes ofJacobite sympathisers outwith Britain,
which purported to offer a detailed account of the army's progress in Scotland
and the unwavering loyalty of the people also spoke about a regiment of
women who were dressed in men's clothes to support the Prince.
Sadly, there were actually no legions of Amazons with the Prince instead
there were ordinary women with the army doing sewing, mending cleaning,
washing and cooking - and of course the 'stumpots'. These women were
dressed in the same as women from the areas in which they lived, allowing
for differences in social class, despite the images in the contemporary press
of the semi-legendary Jenny Cameron or Lady Ogilvy who drew a sword to
proclaim King James beside her husband. These latter cases were used more
to highlight the transgressive nature of the Jacobites as rebels going against
the natural order of things such as a woman with a sword than as a record of
what Jacobite women looked like.)
The most distinctive item of clothing that many highland women wore
was an arisaid (earasaid). The arisaid was worn by women as an outdoor item
of clothing. It was made from coloured, sometimes striped or tartan, cloth,
generally but not always wool (it could be silk) worn over the shoulders,
fastened with a brooch and hanging low towards the ankles. So, in other
words it was a form of plaid. Burt described it clearly:
The Plaid is the undress of the ladies, and to a genteel woman who adjusts it with
a good air, is a becoming veil. It is made of silk or worsted chequered with various
lively colours, two breadths wide, and three yards in length; it is brought over
the head and may hide or discover the face according to the wearer's fancy or
occasion: it reaches to the waist behind; one corner falls low as the ankle on one
side, and the other part in folds hangs down from the opposite arm.4
From this description it is clear that the arisaid was an outer garment. It
was three yards (approximately 2.75m) long and made from two sections of
joined cloth just like the belted plaid; as such it was the same length as the
lowland plaid and used in much the same way.
It does not by the mid-18th century seem to have been worn belted as
described by Martin Martin at the turn of the century but instead pulled over
the head as in Burt's description.
3
4
Pittock. Malerial Cullure. p.87.
A. Quye. & H. Cheape.. Rediscovering the Arisaid·. Coslllme. 42: 1.2013. pp.I-20.
67
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
Women wearing this can be seen in the drawings of the Independent
Highland companies just before the Rising and in a few of Sand by's
drawings of Edinburgh. Arisaids were often red or yellow on a pale or white
background, sometimes striped rather than tartan, and they seem to have
been fastened sometimes with a brooch. 'They are striped with green, scarlet
and other colours', said one contemporary writer although Burt described
them as chequered e.g. tartan and the women wearing them as 'an assembly
of harlequins'. It appears from dye analysis carried out relatively recently that
it was the imported dyes that gave the bright colours to arisaids; the reds/
yellows from cochineal, lac, and madder and the blues from woad and/or
indigo as in the many of the tartans from this period. 5
Elite women - Lady Ogilvy, Lady Broughton, and others who travelled
with the army -would for the most part have worn riding habits since that
was the normal travelling costume for those who could afford it. Mrs Murray
was seen at Prestonpans on horseback in hussar uniform and supposedly
with a sabre in her hand although this description was possibly intended
more to highlight the nature of the Jacobites as going against the natural
order of things rather than as an accurate reflection of what she was carrying
since the same is also said about 'Jenny' Cameron, who apparently wore :1
green riding habit with a scarlet lapel trimmed with gold, a velvet cap, and
also carried a naked sword. 6 Much in the same way as the harlequin image of
the Prince in tartan was a parody of what he and his supporters wore.'
Most of the plebeian women who travelled with the army as wives or those
who 'wash and Sew' or even 'strumpots' would have looked little different to
working class women from Inverness, Dunbar, or Appin. They wore a white
linen smock or shift and, just like the men, the possession of white linen and
ability to change often was an indicator of wealth and status - with boned
stays over the top of their linen providing a respectable silhouette. Boning
could be whalebone, straw, reeds and sometimes leather. Styles talks about
leather stays that were sometimes worn by the labouring poor, and there
is an extant pair at Killerton in England which were covered by in worsted
cloth. Coloured or striped linen petticoats sometimes quilted for warmth
and to hold their skirts out to something closer to the fashionable shape;
a linen apron often made from checked or striped fabric, generally linen,
and a short tartan or linen jacket or a simple linen or wool gown for best, as
can be seen in Sandby's pictures from Edinburgh or the stamped linen gown
that was hastily made up for the Charles Edward to be Flora MacDonald's
servant Betty Burke. It's likely that some of the poorer women's clothes
or aprons would have been made from osnaburg, a coarse linen that was
woven in Scotland, as would some of the men's shirts. Lowland women wore
linen caps as was the fashion in England. They carried their often, meagre
possessions: sewing kits and/or knitting needles and spindles, since many
of them are described knitting, sewing, or mending and spinning as well as
5
6
7
68
Quye. & Cheape, 'Rediscovering the Arisaid', pp.I-20.
Dunbar. COS/lime, p.1 0 I.
Pittock, My/h. p.89.
AN ASSEMBLY OF HARLEQUINS
any spare clothes in bundles or baskets or wrapped in blankets or arisaids. 8
Many of the army would have had to mend, or have mended by women like
Mary Mackenzie, their clothes on the march. John Anderson, a merchant in
Perth, received an order from Donald Cameron, an officer in Locheil's, for a
batch of300 yards of 'Course harne [linen cloth) ... 45 needles and 6 ounces
Thread: 9
Married highland women wore a white linen cloth tied at the back of the
head called a kertch (breid). This was supposed to be tied in three corners
symbolic of the Holy Trinity. In John MacDonald's poem, Tha Tighinn
Fodham Eirigh [I am minded to rise). The poet described women as Breid
caol an caradh crannaig orr [wearing tight pulpit-shaped kertches). Martin
described the kertch as a 'fine kerchief of linen strait [tight) about the head,
hanging down the back taper-wise: The linen was starched and pinned around
the head. Young, unmarried Highland girls wore their uncovered hair plaited
with ribbons or a fillet of coloured cloth [stiom): 'the ordinary girls wear
nothing on their heads until they are married ... except sometimes a fillet
of red or blue cloth: 10 Frequently accounts mention women going without
their knitted stockings and shoes, or least taking them off to walk about at
home but most did own them and given the cold and distances that the army
travelled it seems likely they would have worn them whilst on the march.
However, these fashions were not hard and fast and certainly many elite
women from the lowlands adopted tartan as part of their wardrobes to show
support for the cause or wore Jacobite symbols such as the dragon-fly, the
white rose, or the blackbird. I I Alternatively these symbols were incorporated
onto their clothes such as the silk dress embroidered with roses said to have
been worn by Margaret Oliphant of Gask at the Great Ball at Holyrood
after the Battle of Prestonpans, this dress can now be seen at the National
Museum of Scotland. Fans were frequently used as propaganda objects and
Jacobite ones showing Charles were handed out at Holyrood at the apogee
of his power to the young women who flocked to a ball there. Young English
Jacobite women like Elizabeth Byrom in towns and cities such as Manchester
where there were strong elements ofJacobite support also bought themselves
gowns to celebrate the victory at Prestonpans. Her gown was blue and white.
Blue was chosen as it was the colour of the Jacobite sympathisers in England
and Wales; because of the colour's association with the Virgin Mary but it was
also associated with the 'true blue Tory' who disliked all foreigners and for
the most part included the house of Hanover in that, so counted themselves
as British patriots with Jacobite sympathies. 12
White had long been a colour associated with the Stuarts - Charles I
had been known as the 'White King', the white rose had been a symbol of
the Stuarts since the exclusion crisis of 1679-82. White was associated with
Scotland both as a pun on the gaelic for Scotland, Alba, and its similarity
8
9
10
11
12
J. Styles. The Dress o{the Common People (London: Yale University Press. 2007). p 21.
Pinock. Myth. p.I72.
Dunbar. Cosll/me. pp.99-1 00.
Pinock. Material CI/ltl/re. p.22.
Pillock. Material Culture. p.74: Forsyth (ed.), Bonnie Prince Char/ie, pp.180-192.
69
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
with the latin word for white (albus). White cockades had been worn by
Jacobites in both the 1715 and 1745 Risings. Blue and white ribbons were
handed to men on the streets of Manchester to try and persuade them to join
up. The Prince on entering Perth wore a 'blue velvet bonnet, laced with silver
with a white rose in centre of the top' whereas his officers wore their white
cockades to one side. Samuel Maddox, an apprentice who had joined the
Manchester Regiment turned King's evidence and testified that Mr Deacon
'as he sat and wrote down the names of those who enlisted, he made white
and blue ribbons into favours, which he gave to the enlisted: I3
The white and tartan dresses that were worn by women who were
sympathetic to the cause and many were bought during the time that the
army was in Edinburgh. Lengths of white ribbon embroidered with the
image of a highlander with a targe, white cockade and sword are supposed to
have been given to supporters during the' 45. Before the 1715 Rising, white
gloves with liberty embroidered on them had been sold in Edinburgh. 14 In
1745, Edinburgh it was reported that 'Ladies in general, are in love with
the Pretender's Son's Person, and wear white Breast-Knots and Ribbons
in his Favour, in all their private Assemblies: 15 Lady Nairn and her three
daughters distributed white cockades in Perth in October 1745. In 1746,
Lady Mackintosh's household in Inverness-shire bought 'white riband' to
make cockades. Later that year after Culloden, 'the Jacobite gentlewomen
of Montrose got on white gowns and white roses, [and) made a procession
through the streets'. Colonel Townley of the Manchester Regiment had his
tartan sash lined with white silk. 16
James Ray, the government volunteer and writer said that 'some of the
pretty Jacobite witches chose to distinguish themselves by wearing plaid
breast knots, ribbons and garters garters tied above the knee which may
be remonstranced as being dangerous to the constitution for that above
a ladies' knee is so attracting of a quality as to endanger his Majesty good
subject: 17 Jacobite ladies in London went one better and wore green sprigs,
also a Stuart colour, covered in gold and silver leaf. Charles sometimes wore
a green ribbon instead of a white cockade; he was described on 3 September
as wearing a 'white coat, a lac'd hat with a green ribbon: 18
According, to one observer the Jacobite ladies went in a 'rage for tartan',
using it in gowns, riding clothes, bed and window curtains, shoes, and pin
cushions. In 1746, the Commander-in-Chief of Scotland after the '45, the
Earl of Albemarle, conducted a 'raid on tartan dresses' when he learned of a
plan by the ladies of Edinburgh to have a ball in honour of Prince Charles's
birthday - complete with tartan stockings and white ribbons: this turned
out to be an elaborate joke. Other smaller sartorial symbols appeared in the
form of items such as garters. These, as with the ribbons also made during
13 Anon, An authentick narratil'e of the 1I'/lOle proceedings of the court at St. Margaret \ Hill.
Southll'QI-k, in the months ofJune. Jull' and August. 1746. (London: B Cole. 1746). pp.3-5.
14 Pitlock, Material Culture, pp.74-75.
15 Pittock, Maerial Culture, p.84; Perth & Kinross Archives B59/30172.
16 Pittock, Material Culture, p.74; Perth & Kinross Archives B59/30172.
17 Ray, Compleat History, pp.184-185.
18 Pittock. Material Culture, p.23,
70
AN ASSEMBLY OF HARLEQUINS
the' 45, mirror the Prince's fortunes: Our Prince is brave, our cause is just; In
God alone we put our trust God bless the Prince who had long since a right
to the crown; then We fight in armour bright to pull usurpers down; The
Glorious at last Triumphant Prince Charles and Come let us with one heart
unite to bless the Prince for whom we fight (these last were tartan). Although
for women the audience for these garters were obviously small, but they may
have been used as way of assuring the recipient of secret communications
that the sender was in good faith. A letter sent on 2 November 1745 thanks
the sender for 'yours with the garter'. 19
What Charles Edward wore in his guise as Betty Burke gives us an idea of
what some of his female followers may have been wearing as they travelled
into England, although possibly finer than some. The Prince as Betty Burke
wore a stamped linen gown with a purple sprig design, a white linen apron,
a light coloured quilted petticoat, which would have held out the skirts of
the gown, and what is described as a mantle after the Irish fashion, made
from camlet. Camlet is a mixed wool silk cloth - the Prince himself had a
coat made from it and it was a reasonably common choice for items like
riding habits. The cloak had a large hood which helped to conceal the more
masculine aspects of his face. The gown worn by the Prince was kept and
Flora MacDonald's stepfather, Hugh MacDonald, sent a swatch of it to the
Jacobite linen manufacturer, Stewart Carmichael at Bonnyhaugh in Leith, as
a pattern to stamp other gowns from. The gown was subsequently reproduced
for sale very successfully, on Carmichael's return from imprisonment in
London after the Rising, to Jacobite women. This pattern of dress functioned
as a subtle way of communicating political sympathies amongst like-minded
women. 'Pray give my compliments to Mr. Carmichael, and tell him ifhe has
got any of Betty Burk's gowns ready he may send me 6, and I shall remit the
money by some safe hand to him: 20
A blue strip of ribbon from the Prince's garters (which according to
Bishop Forbes were French, blue velvet and covered upon one side with
white silk and fastened with buckles), a string taken from the apron of the
Prince's female disguise, and a piece of red velvet from his sword hilt were
kept in the front cover of volume four of The Lyon in Mourning, while the
shoes that he wore as Betty Burke were supposed have been used to drink
toasts from on special occasions.
19 Pittock, Material Cllltllre, p.79.
20 Letter from Dr John Bunon 10 Bishop Forbes. 24 March 24 1748, quoled in Paton (ed.), The
Lyon in MOllrning, Vol.lI, p.258.
71
8
Stripped of Our Arms
Dar armaibh gar faileadh 'sgar rusgadh.
Ma mhaitheas sinn so,
Cho luaithe ri roth,
Nitear trailleagan uile dar duthaich;
Gun lomar mar ghiadh sinn
A spionar 'sa chitsinn,
'5 gun sparrar oirnn briogais mar mhutan;
Gach aodach us tartan,
Gum feannar sinn asda,
'5 gun sparrar oirnn casag gu buirt oirnn.
And stripped of our arms and our clothing;
If this we condone,
As quick as wheel's turn
Every man of our country's enslaved;
Like a goose in the kitchen
We'll be plucked till we're naked,
And breeches thrust on us for clothing;
Our dress and our tartan
Will both be stripped from us,
And black coats forced on us to mock us.'
After the Battle of Culloden, laws were brought into force in 1747 which
fundamentally changed Highland life. An act on Heritable Jurisdictions
removed much of the chief's power since he could no longer sit in judgment
on his tenants; what were sometimes called the 'right of pit and gallows'.
Another act sought to prevent the Episcopalian non-jurist meetings since
they had provided much of the support for the Jacobites. Secondly, and
more importantly for the scope of this book, a Disarming Act was passed. It
banned anyone in the Highlands from owning or concealing weapons, hence
Brosnachadh eile do na gaildeil- Alexander MacDonald.
72
STRIPPED OF OUR ARMS
the weapons surrenders mentioned in Chapter Four. There was also a section
of the act which applied to the whole of Scotland:
No Man or Boy, within that Part of Great Britain called Scotland, other than such
as shall be employed as Officers and Soldiers in His Majesty's Forces, shall on
any Pretence whatsoever, wear or put on the Clothes commonly called Highland
Clothes [that is to say] the Plaid, Philabeg, or little kilt, Trowse, Shoulder Belts,
or any part whatsoever of what peculiarly belongs to the Highland Garb; and
that no Tartan, or party-coloured Plaid or Stuff shall be used for Great Coats, or
for Upper Coats, shall suffer imprisonment, without bail, during the space of six
months, and no longer; and being convicted for a second offence before a court of
justiciary or at the circuits, shall be liable to be transported to any of his Majesty's
plantations beyond the seas, there to remain for a space of seven years.
A few things should be noted here. Firstly, the act only applied in Scotland, so
tartan could be worn with impunity in England and elsewhere. Additionally,
nothing was done about tartan worn by gentry men or the 'maud' of the
lowlands. Secondly it did not apply to women, who could and did continue
to wear tartan. It was perfectly legal for women to be dressed head to toe in
tartan and there were, for example, very popular 'Betty Burke' tartan gowns
made in Edinburgh and sold in the late 1740s. The British Government
was not worried about women wearing tartan because despite rumours
about Jacobite ladies taking up arms during the Rising, women would not
constitute a large part of any potential new Jacobite force. Lastly, tartan
itself was not banned. Highland dress was, and the wearing of tartan as an
outer garment for men; that is to say the use of tartan in the way it had been
used by the Highland Army was banned - as a uniform or livery. The aim
was to prevent the use of tartan as a uniform by anyone except the British
Army. Cumberland certainly thought that tartan was the highlanders
'uniform. Tartan did continue to surface as means of protest and as marker
of Jacobitism.
The poet Duncan B~m Macintyre fought on the Government side in the
'45 but his 'Song to the Breeks' is written about the Disarming Act. 'N uair
dh'jhaig e sinn mar phroisanaich/Gun chlaidheamh/ gun chrios tarsuinn oirnn/
Cha n-fhaigh sinn pris nan dagachan' [Since he's left us like prisoners/Without
our dirks, without our guns/Without our belts, Without our swords/We may
not even pistols have]. The whole of the north of Scotland, in particular was
blamed - the idea of all Jacobites being Highlanders meant that everyone
in the highlands was punished regardless of their actual affiliation. Lachlan
Macpherson of Strathmashie complained in fairly straight forward terms
that 'ha chlereichan 's chan easbaigean/Chun a bharr an t- Seisein mi/Ach a
bhriogais leibideach/Nach deanadh anns na preasan clan' [It's not ministers or
bishops/That kept me off the session/But the irritating breeches/That could
make no babies in the bushes].
Portraits were not covered under the Act, and so Flora MacDonald, a
Jacobite heroine, became popular: since her portrait was definitely Jacobite
imagery but not as dangerous as images of the Prince or his father which
certainly in the years following the Rising were still unsafe to display in public
73
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
up to at least 1760. Other sitters had themselves painted in tartan either as a
challenge to the Government, which a picture like John Campbell of the Bank
may have been intended as, but other portraits may have been intended to
reclaim tartan from the rebellious Jacobites; certainly, many members of the
elite had themselves and their families painted wearing tartan and Highland
dress during the period of proscription. Tartan in this context does not seem
to have been much interest to the authorities. However plebeian men were
arrested for wearing tartan or Highland clothes at least until the end of the
1750s, and even this was inconsistently applied depending on where the
man lived so that a man in the Lowlands could be treated very differently to
someone in an area of the Highlands that was perceived to have had strong
Jacobite sympathies. 2 Not a single elite man was ever arrested for wearing
tartan clothing.
Up to the end of 1750s the Jacobites themselves produced propaganda
and items which still anticipated the active possibility of the return of the
Prince and some of his key supporters who were in exile to fight for the
cause. Charles Edward continued to be presented as a warlike Prince who
had escaped and could come back. In the post Culloden period some of the
best engravings of the Prince were produced. The display of an engraving
of the Prince in the Batchelors' Common Room at Corpus Christi College,
Oxford caused a scandal in 1754. It wasn't until 1759, that the real possibility
of a return had began to fade and at that point there was a change in the items
produced and bought by Jacobites from propaganda to nostalgia and relic.
By 1760 there were tartans for sale again in Edinburgh. The authorities
seem to have been more interested in areas that they characterised as being
particularly Jacobite which in general did not include those to the south and
east of the 'Highland line', which according to the act ran roughly from Loch
Leven to Loch Lomond. In 1751 the Aberdeen Journal reported that 'Donald
M'Donald, from the Head of Glenshee, was imprisoned for wearing the
Philabeg [kiltl, Tartan Coat, and Highland plaid: John Mackay ofStrathnaver
was sent to prison for six months in Inverness for wearing 'a short tartan coat
upon him and a highland plaid party collouried wrapt lously about him')
He claimed ignorance of the act and said he had not got any other clothing
however this was not considered to be a defence and he was sentenced to
prison for six months. Some people dyed their bright tartans brown and
continued to wear them, others just sewed up their kilts to produce a garment
that looked very much like the petticoat breeches as worn by sailors.
Sir John Campbell, 8th ofCawdor, was the MP for Nairnshire at the time
of the Disarming act. He wrote to his factor at Cawdor:
I have thought that the poor Highlanders who are distressed by wearing breeches
might be very agreeably accommodated by wearing wide trousers like seamen,
2
3
74
Examples of portraits include Allan Ramsay, Hon. Francis Charteris and his wife, Lady
Katharine Gordon, 1747-1748, and William Mosman, John Campbell, 1749. Coltman, 'PartyColoured Plaid', pp.182-216; R. Nicholson, 'From Ramsay's Flora MacDonald to Raebum's
MacNab: The Use of Tartan as a Symbol of Identity', Textile History, 36:2, 2013, pp.146-167.
Dunbar, Costume, p.54.
STRIPPED OF OUR ARMS
made of canvas or the like. Nankeen might be for the more genteel. But I would
have the cut as short as the philabeg, and then they would be almost as good and
yet be lawful.'
There is a report, dated 23rd July, 1750, by Captain Henry Patton of Guise's
Regiment which was stationed at the head of Loch Rannoch, stating:
Nothing remarkable has occur'd since my Last, entire peace being establisho quite
through the District, and I believe we shall have but little to do, before September
the usual season for stealing of Cattle. This Moment the party at Kinloch Leven
have brought me a Black belonging to Mr. Stewart of Appin, dressed in tartan
Livery, turned up with yellow; and to-morrow I send him to the nearest Justice
ofpeace. 5
This slave, called Oronoce was put in prison for 6 months for wearing tartan
livery. Assuming the description of his coat is accurate then he was wearing
'lowland' clothes since a Highland coat would not be turned up to show its
lining. Putting a slave in tartan livery does feel like a deliberate statement
rather than simply not being able to afford new clothes however it was
Oronoce who suffered. More evidence that elite men were not punished for
breaking this law.
In the 1750's the Prince was depicted on drinking glasses wearing tartan
and later little pieces of tartan worn by him achieve almost the status of
secular relics. In the 1760s the satirical character of a Scotsman on the make
from the Highlands was still described as giving up his tartan plaid and
blue bonnet for an 'English' coat and laced hat; philabeg and short hose, for
breeches and silk stockings. In the late 1760s, Thomas Pennant in Inverness
describes Highlanders as wearing the fillabeg 'a short petticoat reaching
only the knee and is a modern substitute for the lower part of the plaid:6
By the time Dr Johnston was in Scotland in the 1770s wrote that the law
by which the highlanders had been obliged to change their dress had been
obeyed however that 'the filibeg or lower garment, is still very common, and
bonnet almost universal, but their attire is such as produces, in a sufficient
degree, the effect intended by the law'.' In the 1780s after the repeal of the
Proscription Act, Wilson's of Bannockburn also began to sell tartan to the
Highlands; before this date they had sold tartan mostly to military customers
and in the lowlands. The effect of the Proscription Act, combined with
better transport which allowed more goods from the burgeoning Industrial
Revolution, meant that by the end of the century that it was uncommon for
tartan to be produced in the Highlands. Wilson's records from this time show
that numbers as opposed to names were often the preferred method of telling
patterns apart. Family or clan names were uncommon and place names
4
5
6
7
Quoted in Dunbar. Cos/ume. p.52.
J. Allardyce. His/orical Papers rela/ing /0 /he Jacobi/e Period 1699-1750 (New Spalding Club:
Aberdeen. 1895). Vol 2. p.182.
Dunbar. Cos/ume. p.56.
Dunbar. Cos/lime. p.57.
75
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
were more frequent on patterns logically enough which are today known as
district tartans. s
By the beginning of the 19th century tartan and Highland dress had
come to be seen as universally Scottish rather than Highland. The Jacobite
threat was gone, and Highland dress was most commonly associated with
the army since soldiers had been allowed to wear Highland dress throughout
the period of proscription. Tartan had become the cloth of the establishment.
It was also codified in way it never had been before, the Highland Society
of London had encouraged clan chiefs to send them a sample of the tartan
associated with their clan and this along with Wilson's responsiveness to
customer demand led to the development of clan tartans in the form we
recognise today. 9 More were developed after 1822 and the visit of King George
to Scotland which led to a revival of tartan as a fashionable fabric. Although
the Statistical Account in the 1790s carries some accounts of older people in
particular continuing to wear highland dress every day, many people had by
this time given it up. Highland dress had ceased to be in any meaningful way,
the everyday dress of the Highlands and had instead become a costume for
the whole of Scotland.
8
9
76
S. Tuckett. 'Reassessing the romance: tartan as a popular commodity. c.I770·1830·. Scollish
Historical Rel·iew. 95(2). 2016. p.82·202.
Pentland. '''We Speak for the Ready· ... pp.64-95: A. Quye et al.. 'An historical and analytical
study of red. pink. green and yellow colours in quality 18th and early 19th century Scottish
tartans'. Dyes in History & Archaeology. 19.2003. pp.I-12.
Notes on the Plates
Plate 1 Charles Edward Stuart & a Volunteer of the Prince's Lifeguard
A Prince Charles Edward Stuart
An eyewitness in Edinburgh described the Prince as 'wearing a laced blue
coat, laced red small clothes and a gold laced cocked hat with a feathers and
a white cockade' as he is depicted here. He also wears a silver hilted sword,
most probably the one he was given by the Duke of Perth in 1741 and, as
was his custom when wearing Lowland clothes, the Order of the Garter.
The Prince looks like a European prince or officer, rather than the Highland
chieftain he portrayed himself as elsewhere, or the common captain that he
often dressed as whilst on campaign as part of his careful strategy to present
himself both as the chief of chiefs and as the rightful heir to the throne of
Great Britain and Ireland.
B Volunteer, Prince's Lifeguard
This man is based on a number of accounts of the Prince's Lifeguard. Trial
depositions for an English volunteer, James Bradshaw, describe him wearing
'long blue clothes turned up with red and a shoulder belt mounted with tartan
with a white cockade' on his hat. It seems likely that the shoulder belts were
carbine belts since it was the contemporary practice to have ornamented
carbine belts in the household cavalry in both the French and British armies;
since the Prince was seeking to build a European army it is likely that he
followed this custom. The blue coats turned up with red were most likely
provided by the French since there are no accounts of them being made in
Scotland.
Plate 2 Officer and two men in Highland dress
A Highland Officer
The officer, like many of the officers in the Jacobite army, regardless of which
regiment whether Highland or Lowland, is wearing Highland clothing, He
has on a short coat, the tartan for which is based on a portrait of James Moray
of Abercairney which was painted around 1739, the warp and weft of which
is typical of tartans of the period. The coat has velvet cuffs; coloured cuffs,
77
BETTER IS THE PROUD PLAID
white, gold, or silver lace, and velvet were common amongst the officers
and elite men of the period, as can be seem with the picture of the extant
coat illustrated elsewhere. In trial depositions, Lord Macleod is described
as walking with his father in the streets of Perth, dressed in Highland habit,
turned up and collared with green velvet. The officer's plaid and trews, as
was common, do not match the other tartans that he is wearing. The sett of
his trews is much simpler than that on the jacket or the plaid. As an officer
he is carrying a basket hilted broad sword as well as a pistol and a firelock, a
Ml728
B & C Highland Soldiers
The men are wearing belted plaids, their plaids are blue in colour rather than
higher- status red and their jackets are plain cloth, probably wadmal. One of
the men's waistcoats can be seen under his coat. The large gap between the
end of their belted plaids and the beginning of their short hose can be seen.
Both men have guns with bayonets and one is carrying a pistol. Many of the
Pencuik sketches show men with bayonets fixed since they did not have any
means of carrying them other than on their guns, which represent some of
the thousands of French or Spanish firelocks that made it through the naval
blockade.
Plate 3 Manchester Regiment, Lowland Volunteer, & Camp Follower
A Manchester Regiment
Andrew Henderson described the ordinary men of the regiment at the time
as wearing blue clothes, hangers, a plaid sash, and a white cockade. These are
likely to have been the same coats probably provided by the French as worn
the Prince's lifeguards hence the red cuffs here. He wears his own clothes
underneath the coat, a pair of leather breeches, a white waistcoat, a black
linen stock, and knitted stockings. He is carrying a firelock and a hanger. In
addition to the plaid sashes that all the men appear to have worn, many of
the men in the Manchester Regiment wore plaid waistcoats. Thomas Siddal
was described in trail depositions as wearing a 'gold laced waistcoat, laced
hat and white cockade'.
B Lowland Volunteer
Many of the men from the Lowland regiments remained in their own
clothing. The volunteer here is wearing the duller colours of Lowland
clothing, brown and grey being the most common colour choices for working
men, and carrying a firelock with a bayonet. A blue knitted bonnet sits flat
on his head - Lowland bonnets were often slightly larger than Highland ones
- and he has a white Jacobite cockade as well as a tartan sash to comply with
the Prince's wishes that every member of the Jacobite army wore an item of
tartan clothing. Tartan used here as a uniform.
78
STRIPPED OF OUR ARMS
C Female Camp Follower.
One of'the highland wifies' described by Pat rick Crichton, wearing an arisaid,
the female version of the plaid worn as an outdoor garment, generally pulled
over the head and allowed to drape over one arm. Her arisaid has slipped off
her head here. Arisaids as Burt described were frequently striped rather than
checked like a male plaid. They were smaller than the belted plaid at 'two
breadths wide, and three yards in length'; She is also wearing a linen gown (as
the Prince did to be Betty Burke, although his had more decoration on it), a
cap, and a French-influenced apron.
79
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