Massacre of Glencoe - February 13, 1692 Massacre of Glencoe — February 13, 1692 Who slaughtered whom? Thirty-seven members of the MacDonald family of Glencoe were killed by soldiers under the command of John Dalrymple. John's career suffered only a minor bump in 1695 when he had to resign because of his involvement in the Glencoe Massacre. By 1703 he was back up and running and became the earl of Stair. The background of this massacre was the loyalty of the MacDonald family to former king Glencoe massacre poem projected on to landscape - BBC News BBC News Glencoe massacre poem projected on to landscape 5 February 2015 Close share panel Image copyright Double Take Projections Image caption Words from a poem by Sir Walter Scott have been projected on to the Glencoe landscape Lines from Sir Walter Scott's poem about the Massacre of Glencoe have been beamed on to hillsides and stone dykes in Glencoe. The project by Edinburgh-based Double Take Projections was created to mark the 300th anniversary of the 1715 Jacobite uprising.

Thirty-eight members of the MacDonald clan were killed on 13 February 1692. They were killed by a detachment of government soldiers led by Capt Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon. The events played a part in mobilising popular support across the Highlands for the Jacobite cause in the years leading to the 1715 uprising. Sir Walter was approached in 1811 by Edinburgh scholar George Thompson to write a poem to recall the massacre. Lines from the work, On the Massacre of Glencoe, were projected on to the landscape, including Buachaille Etive Beag. The Massacre of Glencoe - 13th February 1692 | Perdurabo The Massacre of Glencoe - 13th February 1692 Monument to a Massacre On the 13th February 1692 and on the direct orders of King William III, known as William of Orange, 78 people were killed without warning in Glencoe, Scotland.

The stone memorial to this event has always struck me as particularly paltry, given that as each year passes, the crime itself seems more heinous, more unjust, and more worthy of being remembered, instead of being quietly forgotten. This is because as with so much historical iniquity, the final reckoning was delivered by the victors, meaning that justice was not done. The king who signed the order was exempt from guilt because a king could not be tried or found guilty of any such crime. Of the other perpetrators, recommendations for punishment were made and compensation was suggested to be paid to the surviving MacDonalds — but neither of these happened. Warning! This is a blog post and I am trying to keep it under 1200 words. It is not an authoritative history of the massacre of Glencoe but aims to remember the event, sketch the actual monarchical and governmental tyranny which it represents, and will conclude by arguing that it is just this sort of brutality that has become the bedrock and ultimately the guiding principle of our state. I know! But bear with me. If you want a complete history of the Glencoe Massacre then there are a few (but not plenty) books on the subject.

Generalisation It is fair to generalise details of the massacre at Glencoe because the story can be told in so many different ways. It is not a ‘blame-the-English’ tale. Instead, what we have at Glencoe is a boiling cauldron of clan rivalry, petty bureaucracy gone wrong, personal ambition, and actions taken to subdue a strange and alien people, by a group of distant patriarchs who were worried about war with France and who wished to achieve a kind of unified, homogenous state they were to soon be calling Great Britain. Three years previously the Macdonalds had attacked Campbell lands killing individuals, stealing food and livestock, and leaving Campbell settlements to starve over the winter period. Unjustified as this raid was, some people tell the Glencoe story as payback. There are simply many ways to present these events. Personally, I present the massacre at Glencoe as symptomatic of the violent tendency of the state to bribe and threaten dissenting citizens, and as an example of state use of violence to cajole and terrorise. The king and his chiefest administrators thought they could get away with it — and they did.

The aim had been to kill the entire clan, over 200 people, and in that at least the nascent British state failed as they only wiped out a half of them. Background After his marriage in November 1677, William of Orange became a strong candidate for the English throne if his father-in-law (and uncle) James were to be excluded because of his Catholicism. William, always looking for ways to lessen the power of France, hoped that James would join the League of Augsburg , but by 1687 it became clear that James would not join the anti-French alliance. Seeing him as a friend, and often having maintained secret contacts with him for years, many English politicians began to urge William to carry out an armed invasion of England. In 1688, the British government asked William of Orange to travel from Holland and seize the throne of what was then England and Scotland. Political union between the two countries had not been made but a union of the crowns was in place — one monarch wearing two crowns if that makes sense. When William took the English and Scottish throne he did not just depose a monarch however but an entire dynasty — the Stuart dynasty.

The reasons why this happened was ostensibly to preserve freedom of worship in England. This freedom of worship had been an important part of English life since the times of Henry VIII and it was felt that James II and the Stuart dynasty threatened this. It wasn’t a smooth takeover however and there were major battles in the British Isles as William’s monarchy was asserted. The Battle of the Boyne is the best known and was fought in 1690 between the two rival claimants of the English, Scottish, and Irish thrones. Then there were a series of Jacobite risings also took place in Scotland, where Viscount Dundee (a personal hero of mine) raised Highland forces and won a victory on 27 July 1689 at the Battle of Killiecrankie, but he died in the fight. After these battles, William offered something of a truce to the Highland clans that had resisted him, saying that if they signed an oath of loyalty by 1st January 1692, they would not be punished for rebelling. If they wouldn’t sign, they would face what had been the effective punishment in this area for decades — treatment by fire and sword.

‘Fire and sword’ however meant to extirpate, and not exterminate, and involved the burning of crops, and the driving away of cattle but as a rule little loss of life. As is dramatised in the 1971 film of the Glencoe events starring James Robertson Justice, James II, in exile in France, dithered before advising the clans to sign. Due to this and various other factors — sluggishness on his own part and deliberate delays made on the government part — Alastair Maclain, 12th Chief of Glencoe, did not come to sign the oath until 6th January, some days late. Here's the film, found on YouTube: This was the cause used behind the order to carry out the massacre of Glencoe, and King William, John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, and John Dalrymple gave an order not to extirpate, but to exterminate this clan. There are reasons why this clan was chosen — they were not popular, for one, but they also lived in a glen from which it would be impossible to flee.

The Villains King William - Murderous Queynte Chief Queynte and murderer number one is universally held to be John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, but both King William and John Dalrymple were also murderous queyntes. King William’s signature appears twice on the order, a fine indication that he knew exactly what was going on, and so the blood of infants, men and women, old, young, pregnant and nursing is plastered across his hands and throne. John Dalrymple’s case is also of note. Dalrymple was the effective ruler of Scotland at that time — kind of a Scottish secretary of State — and not only did he think Britain was going to be better together under the union which he saw through in 1707, he was repulsed by the fact that many people in Highland Scotland were living a clan based existence, when he and others like him sought a unified state, very much of the tax-farm model which we still persist with.

John Dalrymple - Murderous Queynte Dalrymple already had a plan in place to remove the clan system, and was not normally one for violence — but in this case as is clearly seen from his correspondence he felt that a lesson could be made of this clan. Finally there is John “Iain Glas” Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Viscount of Tay and Pentland, and Lord Glenorchy, Benderloch, Ormelie and Wick, 1696. The problem with Breadalbane was that he was so deep in what he conceived to be real-politik, that he switched from being a supporter of the Jacobites, to being their scourge, upon the ascent of William. Breadalbane is held by most accounts to be the chief queynte behind the massacre at Glencoe. Breadalbane is such a controversial figure however that you are best advised to research him for yourself, because your opinion will be so vastly different from mine, that there is little point in my saying what I think of him. The Glen The ancient and famous Highland hospitality and the inviolable rights of guests was one reason why the attack was seen as so heinous.

Rough and crazy as the Highlanders were, they had a strict code regarding the treatment of guests, and so to have guests turn round and kill their hosts had the most shocking impact on everybody. The massacre began simultaneously in three settlements along the glen — Invercoe, Inverrigan, and Achnacon — although the killing took place all over the glen as fleeing MacDonalds were pursued. Glencoe is a land of moods. Of a June evening the hills drowse in a haze of sloeberry bloom and the clear streams croon. Unlike much of the Highlands it is a fruitful and habitable place. There are juicy pastures where black cattle, sheep and goats can feed, and Loch Leven and Loch Linhe would have provided the clan with herrings, trout and salmon. Oats did well in the glen (when people used to grow crops there) and red deer were also plentiful. It wouldn’t have been an idyllic life, but it was not one of naked barbarism. These people had their own type of civilisation and their own type of economy, and they grew their own corn and traded with people from the Lowlands, as they always had a surplus of black cattle.

Glencoe In actual comfort, in fact, the society of Glencoe probably exceded that of most Lowland parishes of the time. There was no backbreaking monotonous toil, and their food was better than that of most people in Britain. There's Been a Murder (78 of them) Although it happened 323 years ago the mass murders at Glencoe are not ancient history. There are very good records of the events, including copies of the orders as they travelled north to Edinburgh and were disseminated from there, as well as eye-witness accounts and municipal records. There are also letters and accounts from many landowners some of whom defended the king — the powerful always have their apologists — but there is no doubt that William of Orange in carrying out this crime etched divisions so hard into the fabric of the British Isles that as a consequence we still have hatred in Ireland and in Scotland, and bigotries which may have left the battlefield but which now persist on football terraces and on Twitter. Tendencies Abound MacDonald Clan Glencoe Massacre The Massacre at Glencoe was part of the repercussions of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Date: The MacDonalds were attacked on the night of February 13, 1692. Battle Summary: Following the ascent of Protestant William III and Mary II to the English and Scottish thrones, many clans in the Highlands rose up in support of James II, their recently deposed Catholic king. Known as Jacobites, these Scots fought to return James to the throne, but were defeated by Government troops in mid-1690. In the wake of James' defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland, the former king withdrew to France to begin his exile. On August 27, 1691, William offered the Jacobite Highland clans a pardon for their role in the uprising provided that their chiefs swore allegiance to him by the end of the year. This oath was to be given to a magistrate and those who failed to appear before the deadline were threatened with harsh repercussions from the new king. Concerned over whether to accept William's offer, the chiefs wrote to James asking his permission. Delaying over a decision as he still hoped to regain his throne, the former king finally accepted his fate and granted it late that fall.

Word of his decision did not reach the Highlands until mid-December due to particularly harsh winter conditions. Upon receiving this message, the chiefs quickly moved to obey William's command. Alastair MacIain, the chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe, set out on December 31, 1691, for Fort William where he intended to give his oath. Arriving, he presented himself to Colonel John Hill, the governor, and stated his intentions to comply with the king's wishes. A soldier, Hill stated that he was not permitted to accept the oath and told him to see Sir Colin Campbell, the sheriff of Argyle, at Inveraray. Before the MacIain departed, Hill gave him a letter of protection and a letter explaining to Campbell that MacIain had arrived before the deadline. Riding south for three days, MacIain reached Inveraray, where he was forced to wait three more days to see Campbell. On January 6, Campbell, after some prodding, finally accepted MacIain's oath. Departing, MacIain believed that he had fully complied with the king's wishes.

Campbell forwarded MacIain's oath and the letter from Hill to his superiors in Edinburgh. Here they were examined and a decision was made not to accept MacIain's oath without a special warrant from the king. The paperwork was not, however sent on and a plot was hatched to eliminate the MacDonald's of Glencoe. Apparently led by Secretary of State John Dalrymple, who had a hatred of the Highlanders, the plot sought to eliminate a troublesome clan while making an example for the others to see. Working with Sir Thomas Livingstone, the military commander in Scotland, Dalrymple secured the king's blessing for taking measures against those who had not given the oath in time. In late January, two companies (120 men) of the Earl of Argyle's Regiment of Foot were sent to Glencoe and billeted with the MacDonalds. These men were specifically chosen as their captain, Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, had seen his land plundered by the Glengarry and Glencoe MacDonalds after the 1689 Battle of Dunkeld. Arriving in Glencoe, Campbell and his men were warmly greeted by MacIain and his clan.

It appears that Campbell was unaware of his actual mission at this point, and he and men graciously accepted MacIain's hospitality. After peacefully coexisting for two weeks, Campbell received new orders on February 12, 1692, following the arrival of Captain Thomas Drummond. Signed by Major Robert Duncanson, the orders stated, "You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe, and put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special care that the old fox and his sons do upon no account escape your hands. You are to secure all the avenues that no man escape." Pleased to have an opportunity to exact revenge, Campbell issued orders for his men to attack at 5:00 AM on the 13th. As dawn approached, Campbell's men fell upon the MacDonalds in their villages of Invercoe, Inverrigan, and Achacon. MacIain was killed by Lieutenant John Lindsay and Ensign John Lundie, though his wife and sons managed to escape. Through the glen, Campbell's men had mixed feelings about their orders with several warning their hosts of the coming attack.

Two officers, Lieutenants Francis Farquhar and Gilbert Kennedy refused to take part and broke their swords in protest. Despite these hesitations, Campbell's men killed 38 MacDonalds and put their villages to the torch. Those MacDonalds who survived were forced to flee the glen and an additional 40 died from exposure. Aftermath: As news of the massacre spread across Britain, an outcry rose against the king. While sources are unclear as to whether William knew the full extent of the orders he signed, he quickly moved to have matter investigated. Appointing a commission of inquiry in early 1695, William awaited their findings. Completed June 25, 1695, the commission's report declared that the attack was murder, but exonerated the king stating that his instructions regarding repercussions did not extend to massacre. The majority of the blame was placed on Dalrymple, however he was never punished for his role in the affair. In the wake of the report, the Scottish Parliament requested an address to the king to be drawn up calling for the punishment of the conspirators and suggesting compensation to surviving MacDonalds.

Neither occurred, though the MacDonalds of Glencoe were permitted to return to their lands where they lived in poverty due to the loss of their property in the attack. Selected Sources New-found ruin could be linked to Massacre of Glencoe - BBC News New-found ruin could be linked to Massacre of Glencoe 12 February 2016 Image copyright NTS Image caption The site in Glen Coe where the turf building was found Archaeologists are to investigate the remains of a turf house building that they believe could have a connection to the Massacre of Glencoe. The ruin was recently discovered at Achtriochtan, one of the places where some of the 38 murdered members of the MacDonald clan lived. The killings in Glen Coe in February 1692 were carried out on the orders of the government. A National Trust for Scotland team will visit the site next week. The discovery was made during a routine inspection of known archaeological sites in the area by trust staff. Little of the building survives, but the workers were able to see the rough rectangular outline of it. 'Future research' The trust's head of archaeology Derek Alexander said: "We were very excited to discover these remains.

"Most of the archaeological sites in the glen are stone-built structures, likely to date to after the agricultural changes of the mid 18th or 19th Century. "Prior to then, most buildings would have been built of turf, perhaps with one or two stones included in the base of the wall." Image copyright Double Take Projections Image caption Lines from a poem about the massacre written by Sir Walter Scott were beamed on to Glen Coe's landscape last year Mr Alexander added: "It is impossible to provide a precise date for the Achtriochtan structure from their surface remains alone, but by carrying out a detailed drawing of the site and undertaking a comprehensive photographic record we will provide a basis for any future research." The members of the MacDonald clan were killed on 13 February by a detachment of government soldiers led by Capt Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon. The events played a part in mobilising popular support across the Highlands for the Jacobite cause in the years leading to the 1715 uprising. Years later, Sir Walter Scott wrote a poem about the events of 1692. In February last year, lines from the poem were beamed on to the landscape of Glen Coe.

THE GLENCOE MASSACRE. WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU for Self catering Very few lochside Cottages are near the most beautiful Glen in Scotland. This pretty lochside holiday cottage by Glencoe between Fort William and Oban. We overlook the Bay of Kentallen, Loch Linnhe by Ben Nevis. Glencoe cottages WHY SELF CATERING IS SO SO MUCH BETTER THAN B&B COME AND GO as you please. You can eat in CHEAPLY. Peak time week, family of 4, only £23per person/per night. EMAIL US CLICK 300 yards walk from the PUB There is a poor escape route out to Glen Etive for the families living up the valley and this was blocked off. Some of the 39 were killed here. But the easiest escape routes to Appin were not blocked at all. Come on, that was deliberate. Probably Duncanson.selected Glenlyon to lead the attack because Glenlyon was related by marriage to Alasdair Mcdonald, MacIain’s younger son. Glenlyon had no prior knowledge of the task expected of him until the night before the attack.

This would help to lull the suspicions of the people of Glencoe. They arrived and claimed hospitality under the Highland code and said that the Fort William garrison was full. The McDonalds were very suspicious and wary. The McDonald Chief had been late in signing his loyalty oath to King William. Oh, they would have been very worried indeed but in ten days their fears settled down. The soldiers themselves had no idea why they were there, of course, so they would have been re- assuring to the Glencoe MacDonalds. It was an act of official policy, conceived by a Secretary of State for Scotland, Dalrymple, and executed by a Scottish commander- in- chief, approved by the King, and carried out by a regiment in the British Army. Indeed, the Argyll Regiment was deliberately chosen by Dalrymple because he knew how their involvement would be perceived. The Campbell clan was not popular with the government. Under Scots law. “Murder under trust” as this was, was a more heinous crime than ordinary murder. The government decided to make all the Clan Chiefs vow an oath of loyalty by January 1st.

The McDonald Chief, MacIain left it till late, then set out for Inverlochy, to- days Fort William, where he was told to go to Inverary to sign. He did so, but arrived six days after the deadline. All seemed well, but this was the excuse that the government in London needed for teaching the Highlanders a lesson in treachery. Afterwards, those responsible for organising the murders were pardoned by William. One became a colonel, another a knight, a third a peer, and a fourth an earl. Not surprising really, because William had personally signed the orders. All of this is well documented, from the subsequent Parliamentary Commission which later enquired into the crime. Dirty job politics, always has been, always will be. In fact, it appears that the Secretary contemplated the total extirpation of the clans.

In a letter to the commander of the forces in Scotland, dated January 7th., he says, "You know in general that these troops posted at Inverness and Inverlochie, will be ordered to take in the house of Innergarie, and to destroy entirely the country of Lochaber, Lochiel's lands, Keppoch's, Glengarie's and Glencoe," and he adds, "I assure you your power shall be full enough, and I hope the soldiers will not trouble the government with prisoners." The Government plotters originally planned to include many other clans, but only the Glencoe McDonalds provided the excuse. King William signed the orders in England but later washed his hands of the whole thing and claimed to know nothing of it when the London press got hold of the story. That’s politics for you. The facts The atrocity occurred at 5.00am on February 13, 1692 when some of the 135 men in the Argyll regiment, turned on the MacDonalds after receiving orders to kill all the men below the age of 70.

The soldiers had been billeted for 11 days with McDonald families in the little Glencoe communities and receiving hospitality. The regiment were not only Campbells. Only a few were professional soldiers. The Captain of the troop, Robert Campbell of Glenlyon who was 60, seems to have been deliberately chosen as a shambles of a man by all accounts, a drunkard, who had recently taken his army commission to help to clear his large gambling debts. He was given his orders only the night before, by a Major Robert Duncanson who was billeted with support troops at Ballachulish House. He knew nothing of the plan until then. More telling facts The killings began with gunfire. That is a sure way for the soldiers to warn everyone up the glen that trouble is about. That was clearly deliberate. Swords and daggers would have been far quieter and more effective and would have seen off half of the targets before the MacDonalds were roused. They were at close quarters, for goodness’ sake. It is thought that there were about 200 McDonald men in Glencoe. Only 39 were killed including women and children.

After a surprise attack 3 hours before dawn, as they all lay sleeping in their beds, with soldiers outside, in their yards and they succeeded in killing only 39? If the soldiers killed three McDonalds each, then only 13 soldiers were needed to do the job. These soldier lads couldn’t do it. Not in any way. The person who had cooked for them for the past ten days was like their own mother. They had laughs with the boys, who worked on the farm just as their own families worked theirs. They eyed the girls, and the girls eyed them. Then they were told suddenly to get out their swords and rifles and kill all the men – it couldn’t be done. And they did not do it. They made sure the families were warned. – the soldiers got the blame for it. Two of Glenlyon’s lieutenants refused to carry out the murders and broke their swords. They were later prosecuted and freed. Also, according to tradition, the family of Campbell of Airds at Castle Stalker helped many of the fugitives. Glenlyon, the leader of the attack, saved two young McDonald men but both were murdered by Duncanson.

Another telling fact Additional soldiers were sent to block off the passes out of the Glen. Escaping McDonalds would head naturally the other way towards Duror in Appin. That is where their long- standing friends were, the Stewarts. They knew that another military force was at Ballachulish, so they would not go along the coast. So why would the soldiers block the one exit they would not use? - the story they don’t tell you In Scotland, murder has always been a dreadful crime But there is a worse crime in the Highlands, much worse. It is called Murder under Trust. That’s what it was.That’s why the Massacre of Glencoe has reverberated so strongly in Scottish history. but... it was not a massacre Most of the soldiers actually got the people to safety. Some soldiers killed them though, and some McDonalds died horribly. It was not a Clan fight - it was planned by the government .The Campbell clan was set up to take the blame. Events The Massacre of Glencoe King William wanted to make sure that the Jacobite chiefs would obey him, so he sent his soldiers into the Highlands to keep an eye on them. These soldiers built Fort William right in the middle of Lochaber.

Then King William told the Jacobite chiefs they had to make a promise to obey him. He gave them until 30 December 1691 to make their promises or else they would be punished. MacIain, the old chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe, waited until the very last day before he went to make his promise at Fort William. When he got there he was told he could only make his promise in front of the Sheriff of Argyll at Inveraray. It took the old man five days to walk there through blizzards and very deep snow. When he reached Inveraray MacIain explained why he was late and made his promise to obey King William. After that he thought everything would be fine. He was wrong. King William's government decided to make an example of the MacDonalds by killing the whole clan. They made careful plans. They sent so many soldiers to Fort William that it did not have room for all of them. Local people had to give these extra soldiers beds. 120 men, under the command of Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, made their way to Glencoe, under the pretence of collecting tax in arrears.

They persuaded MacIain to give them shelter, producing military documents as proof. The MacDonalds of Glencoe did not know that these soldiers would be used to kill them. Indeed, nobody knew about the plans until the very last minute. A letter from Major Duncanson gave the soldiers in Glencoe orders to murder the families they were staying with at five o'clock in the morning of 13 February 1692. They thought the MacDonalds would be in their beds so it would be easy to kill them all. Extra soldiers from Fort William were sent to block the roads out of Glencoe to make sure that nobody could escape. Their plan did not work. A terrible blizzard stopped the soldiers from Fort William reaching Glencoe in time. The soldiers in Glencoe got lost in the snow, so many MacDonalds escaped and hid in the mountains. 38 people were killed but about 450 escaped. The Aftermath The massacre of Glencoe reflected badly against the reigning king, William III, as it appeared to have been a decision resulting from his command. It was decided, three years after the incident that it had nothing to do with the King and the matter quietened.

In the meantime, the MacDonalds were almost destroyed, returning to their homes poverty-stricken. Due to the clan's conduct in the aftermath, the King chose to compensate the surviving family members. Massacre of Glencoe, The Massacre of Glencoe, The DESCRIPTION: Glencoe is wakened by cannon. "Naked mothers were shot with their babes as they ran, For the English had risen to murder the clan." Five hundred McDonalds are killed including Flora's Donald. She dies of grief. "The pride of Glencoe" are buried together. AUTHOR: unknown EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(26)) KEYWORDS: battle burial death Scotland HISTORICAL REFERENCES: Feb 13, 1692 - The Massacre of Glencoe FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Roud #5783 BROADSIDES: Bodleian, 2806 c.14(26), "Flora and Donald" or "The Massacre of Glencoe" ("O dark lour'd the night on the wide distant heather"), J.

Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866 Murray, Mu23-y1:082, "Flora and Donald" or "The Massacre of Glencoe," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(021), "The Massacre of Glencoe," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1856 NOTES: GreigDuncan1: .".. 13 February 1692 ...." When Maclain of Glencoe, a MacDonald clan subdivision, was late in swearing loyalty to the crown, William III's forces, augmented by the MacDonald enemy Campbells killed 38 in Glencoe and forced "countless others into the snow-topped Scottish mountains (where many died)." (source: "British Timeline: Massacre of Glencoe 1692" at the BBC site). - BS The Massacre of Glencoe remains controversial to this day. The reason is the complicated set of circumstances which led to it.

In some ways it was just another case of clan-on-clan warfare (Campbells versus MacDonalds), and by no means the most bloody. But it ended up with a taint of royal favoritism and injustice -- and a deserved reputation as a "brutal crime" (Willson, p. 467). The story, according to Thomson, p. xv, began "with the violent death of a Campbell chief in 1296[. T]he feud then went on for about 450 years. There were numerous clashes and cullings inflicted by both sides, among which the incident at Glencoe in 1692 just happens to have been the best publicised." It became known because King William III (William of Orange) approved it. The problem was that William III, who had come to power by ousting James II, was shaky on the throne. (The "Glorious Revolution" which brought him to the throne had happened as recently as 1689; see the notes to songs such as "Lilliburlero" and "The Vicar of Bray.") Scotland in particular was restive, and the Highlands most restive of all.

"The Jacobite Rising of 1689 had left the Highlands in a turmoil. The government hurriedly built a new garrison fortress at Fort William, at the head of Loch Linnhe, and troops were deployed at several other strategic points. These were men King William urgently needed in Flanders, where he was embroiled in a war with France. How was the problem to be settled?" (Magnusson, pp. 522-523). "It is probable that the government, and especially the Joint-Secretary, Dalrymple, hoped that the recalcitrance of the Highland chiefs would provide a pretext for a crusade against them" (Mackie, p. 251). "In the spring and summer of 1691 there were signs of unrest among the clans of the north-west, who had hopes of a French invasion; and the government distributed several thousands of pounds of bribes to keep them quiet, at the same time ordering the suspected chiefs to take an oath of allegiance before the fixed date of New Year's Day 1692.

In anticipation of widespread refusals 'letters of fire and sword' were drawn up in the long accustomed form, ordering wholesale ravaging and slaughter" (Clark, p. 269). "The king's secretary of state in Scotland was now the lord advocate, Sir John Dalrymple, the Master of Stair. Dalrymple was an able and dedicated civil servant, totally committed to achieving the security and stability of the new regime. He saw the Highlands as a constant threat, and was convinced that the only way to establish law and order in Scotland was to make an example of one or another of the recalcitrant clans. He was also sure that few of the clan chiefs would submit to William voluntarily, and started drawing up grandiose plans for an exemplary punitive expedition" (Magnusson, p. 522). "The time of year was carefully chosen. 'The winter time,' wrote Stair, 'is the only season in which we are sure the Highlanders cannot escape, and carry their wives, bairns, and cattle to the hills.... This is the proper time to maul them in the long dark nights" (MacLean, p. 143). Not everyone views Stair's behavior in this light.

Mitchison, p. 286, suggests that "Stair, in London, in the confidence of the King, wanted to see what negotiation would do. He took over Tarbat's scheme [of settling Highland quarrels by buying up disputed areas for the crown], but did not know or understand Highland issues -- he was impatient with the attitudes of the chiefs to William's sovereignty and did not appreciate their values and way of life.... To negotiate with the chiefs he rightly chose a Highlander who could go among them but unwisely chose a man whom nobody could ever begin to trust. The Earl of Breadalbane had never been known to do anything straightforwardly...." (Tarbat's career was fascinating, incidentally -- he had gotten in trouble in the reign of Charles II, had wormed his way into favor with James II, but then managed to gain the trust of William III also; Prebble, p. 85. Talk about slick....) Prebble, p.

87, describes what happened this way: "Joining in the clamour of voices and the prodigal expenditure of ink there came the Earl of Breadalbane, whom few men trusted but all credited with a umique knowlege of Highland robbers and murderers, being descended from a long line of them himself. He had no original proposal. He blandly took Tarbat's, with this difference -- he should treat with the chiefs, he should distribute the money among them. He had a plausible tongue, and he persuaded the King... to give him a commission 'to meet, treat and correspond with any of the Highlanders in order to reduce them to submission and obedience'. But if few men in the Lowlands could be found to trust the Earl of Breadalbane there were even fewer in the Highlands, and for the moment his commission was no more than paper in his pocket. He had not, in any case, been sent the money, and felt no obligation to move until he was." The continued Jacobite threat (leading to the Battle of the Boyne) made William especially worried about Scotland. He wanted the place pacified, whatever it took.

And the battle of the Haughs of Cromdale in 1690 (the real one, not the fictional story in the song of that name) inclined him to be forceful; Cromdale gave the government forces the initiative they had largely lost after Killiecrankie. In practice, it hardly matters whether Stair preferred to use the carrot or the stick. He prepared both -- and in the end used both. "Tarbat's plan had miscarried because Stair was not the right man to carry it out, but the unity of the band of chiefs was gone" (Mitchison, p. 287). "By the end of the year it was clear that nearly all the clan chiefs were prepared to swear the required oath of allegiance" (Magnusson, p. 522). (It may not have been a sign that their allegiance to the Jacobite cause was waning; MacLean, p. 143, notes that "From his exile in France King James at the last moment authorized the chiefs to swear allegiance to his Dutch son-in-law.") What happened next is somewhat unclear. What is certain is that the MacDonalds of Glencoe were not liked.

Their chief "had fought at Killiecrankie and his men were reputed to be as troublesome as any in the Highlands" (Clark, p. 269). It sounds as if they raided Campbell lands on their way back from Killiecrankie, where of course they fought for the Stuarts (Prebble, pp. 71-72). "The MacDonalds were thus still seen as semi-barbarian and the Glencoe branch of the family was particularly unpopular for its frequent raids on Glenlyon and Inverary" (Thomson, p. 83). "By the end of the sixteenth century it was agreed that the men of Glencoe were the most incorrigble and troublesome of the gallows herd, and had their land been as desirable and as accessible as Clan Gregor's they too might have come under the Crown's proscription" (Prebble, p. 45). The chief himself had already been imprisoned once, and was accused of executing some of his own men -- a severe crime by Highland standards (Prebble, p. 57). Plus, they had fought with Montrose on behalf of Charles I (Prebble, p.

48) -- though Prebble thinks this was because of the usual rivalry with the Campbells, not true loyalty to the Stuarts. And -- their chieftain was late to submit. (MacLean, p. 143, claims that he was one of only two chiefs -- the powerful MacDonell of Glengarry being the other -- not to take the oath on time.) Thomson, pp. 84-85, takes a very low view of Alastair MacIain MacDonald, the twelfth chief of Glencoe. "He had spend some time acquiring polish in Paris.... The Glencoe MacDonalds had joined in virtually every raid southwards or eastwards since Alastair MacColla first mobilised the MacDonalds in 1645.... "Numerous mysteries still surround the massacre, not least with regard to the behavior of the 12th Chief.... [H]e had been accused of murdering some of his own men. He had been arrested in 1673 and imprisoned at Inveraray but then escaped." [Prebble, p.

58, says that no one knows how he pulled this off, but notes that it caused quite a stir.] Thomson continues, "The other mystery about Alastair MacIain is why he made such a mess of his capitulation. He as an experienced campaigner and not a stupid man. Soon after the end of August 1691 he must have received the offer of pardon extended to all Highlanders by William of Orange as long as they reported to their local sheriff by 1 January of the following year. He knew that for him it meant a trip down to Inveraray, yet he left everything to he last minute and then reported to the wrong town, Fort William.... Then after a slow midwinter journey from Fort William to Inveraray he arrived too late and because it was the new year holiday had to wait another three days before being allowed to sign. Since the Sheriff, Colin Campbell of Ardkinglas, had been a heavy recent sufferer from Glencoe depredations it was not surprising that he made Glencoe sweat it out." MacLean, p.

143, agrees that Glencoe's delay was "partly from dilatoriness and partly through the inclemency of the weather." Few other authorities are so willing to blame Glencoe. Clark, p. 269, says that he arrived late "by accident." Magnusson, p. 523, declares, "By an extraordinary series of mishaps, Alasdair MacIain Macdonald of Glencoe had missed the deadline for taking the oath of binding loyalty to King William. He was one of the many chieftains who had waited for formal permission from 'the king across the water' to take the oath, which permission did not arrive in the Highlands until 28 December. With time running out fast, Macdonald set out at once and presented himself at the newly-built government fortress at Fort William on 31 December. But there he was told that the military commander could not accept the oath -- only the sheriff at Inverary could do that. Macdonald now had to make the freezing, ninety-five kilometre journey... carrying a helpful explanatory letter from the commander at Fort William.

On the way he was stopped by a party of grenadiers who refused to accept the validity of the letter and held him for twenty-four hours. By the time he reached Inverary the deadline had passed.... His oath was forwarded to Edinburgh, but the government lawyers refused to accept responsibility for it." "Some very underhanded dealings by the clerks of the Privy Council meant that the Council had not been officially informed that Glencoe had taken the oath; and Stair, who had been informed, stuck to it that all that mattered was that the time limit had been passed" (Mitchison, p. 287). And so the government decided to use Glencoe as an example: they "were a much softer target [than the other chiefs who had not sworn], living in scattered huts at the foot of a glen which could easily be blocked at both ends. According to Dalrymple, they were also 'the only popish clan in the kingdom, and it will be popular to take severe course with them'; in fact, they were probably Episcopalian, if anything.

But they were the ideal victims for a terrible and symbolic act of punishment to frighten everyone else into submission" (Magnusson, p. 523). (The statement that the Glencoe sept was Episcopalian is probably based on the fact that they were part of the Highland Host of 1678 that tried to convert the Lowlands from Calvinism to episcopacy; Prebble, p. 59. However, a Catholic sept might well have supported episcopacy against Presbyterianisn; Prebble, p. 34, agrees with the claim that the MacDonalds were were Catholic.) The glen was indeed a trap: "Running east to west along the northern border of Argyll, and eight miles in length, [the vale of Glencoe] is a deep scar left by the agony of Creation. It is an arm bent at the elbow, with sinews of quartz and muscles of granite. It is both fortress and trap, for the only natural entrances are at either end -- across Rannoch Moor in the east and by Loch Levenside in the west, and the high passes to the north and south lead ignorant men to higher hills only.

Before the building of a road the Rannoch gate itself was frequently closed by winter snows and summer storms.... "Only the people of Glencoe, and the broken men of Clan Gregor who hid on its fringe, knew the paths across Rannoch.... The northern wall of the glen is a rippling, saw-toothed escarpment called Aonach Eagach, the Notched Ridge. It is three thousand feet and more in height, and unbroken except in the west where it twists sharply toward Loch Leven, dips, and rises again.... At the eastern end of Aonach Eagach is the only path to Glencoe from the north, a narrow, crooked path that climbs cautiously from the head of Loch Leven... It is rightly called The Devil's Staircase.... [O]pposite the Devil's Staircase [stands] Lairig Gartain, the green pass to Glen Etive in the south, and this too is no escape from or entrance to Glencoe..." (Prebble, pp. 19-20).

It was neither a large nor a productive territory, which never could field more than 150 swords, and so presumably never had more than about 500 people (Prebble, p. 27). The population seems to have been significantly less than that in 1689, even though the land was good (Prebble, p. 29). The glen did support about a thousand cattle, a major source of food for the winter (Prebble, pp. 30-31). There was no central keep or defensive fortification of any kind (Prebble, p. 28). Little is known of the history of the MacDonalds of Glencoe. Although Alastair MacDonald was said to be the twelfth chief, we have no list; the number may be wrong (Prebble, p. 34). Indeed, Alastair is almost the only chief about whom we know anything: "He was born late in the third decade of the [seventeenth] century, with the red hair of his family, and he grew to an extraordinary height, six feet seven inches it was said.

In his youth he went to Paris, where the sons of Highland chiefs were often sent to lacquer their splendid savagery and pride.... The death of his father brought him home in 1650" (Prebble, p. 34). "[Alastair MacDonald] took a wife from among the Keppoch MacDonalds who, living to the north of Loch Leven, were the Glencoe men's constant companions in raiding and in war. By her he had two sons, John who would succeed him, and Alasdair Og, Alexander the Younger, a man of eager spirits and a hot temper. There was also at least one daughter, of whom little is known but her existance. John's wife was the daughter of the tacksman of Achtriachan, but Alasdair Og's came from outside the glen. She was Sarah Campbell, daughter of Campbell of Lochnell, great-granddaughter of a Breadalbane Campbell, and niece of the Glenlyon Campbell who would one day come to cut her husband's throat" (Prebble, p. 35). How much William of Orange knew about the plan is uncertain; Clark, p.

269, says that Dalrymple "laid before the king an order for their extirpation. It is probable that the king did not read it: we know that he often signed papers so hurriedly that he did not know their contents." But whether he agreed with the idea or not, "his signature is still to be seen on the paper" (Clark, p. 269). The sept of Glencoe was to be destroyed. "Hamilton [the commander of Fort William]... passed on the orders to Major Duncanson of the Earl of Argyll's regiment on 12 February 1692: '...pursuant to the commander in chief's orders for putting into execution the service against the rebels in Glencoe the orders are that none be spared'. "That same day Duncanson wrote to Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon... 'You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe and to put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special care that the old fox and his sons upon no account escape your hands.

This you are to put in execution at 5 of the clock precisely.' Thus, like so many war crimes over the centuries, the guilt was spread thinly from top to bottom" (Thomson, p. 85. MacLean, p. 145, has a copy of the written order). Campbell, being a Campbell, had a grudge against the MacDonalds anyway, and he was not the sort to show mercy: "Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, a kinsman of the Earl of Breadalbane... was sixty years old, an inveterate gambler, and in a notoriously hard-drinking age he drank harder than most" (Magnusson, p. 524). The way the attack was carried out was particularly odious. The day before, "Robert Campbell actually dined with the head of the sept, who was totally unaware of the plot about to be murderously carried out" (Fry/Fry, p. 180). "Rather more than a hundred soldiers from Fort William, most of them highlanders of Argyll's regiment, were quartered on the valley.

After living amicably with their hosts for more than a week they set about the work of massacre" (Clark, p. 269). "[Campbell's] obedience [to the order for massacre] is even less remarkable when we remember that it was mainly the Glencoe MacDonalds who had caused his ruination by so many raids on his farms. They had also recently burned down the castle of Achallader, south of Glencoe, which belonged to his cousin, Campbell of Glenorchy. What is more surprising -- and this is the main reason why Robert Campbell's reputation has remained so black -- is that if he was aware of the purpose of his expedition to Glencoe for the ten days between arriving there and receiving his final orders, how could he bear to enjoy the MacDonalds' hospitality to hypocritically for all that time? This dishonesty was made even more objectionable by the fact that his own niece was married to one of Alastair MacIain's sons and was living in the glen" (Thomson, p. 86).

"At about five in the morning the next day the Campbells rose quietly and crept toward the homes of the Macdonalds, and in a few swift minutes slaughtered thirty-eight people, including two women and a child of six" (Fry/Fry, p. 180). The only good news is that the massacre was not as complete as intended. "It was a botched affair -- the passes were to have been closed by Argyll's followers and by troops from Fort William, but many of the victims got through in spite of the bad weather that the high mountains bring down upon the narrow glen" (Mitchison, p. 287). "It was snowing hard, and additional contingents from Fort William and Ballachulish who were intended to block off the escape routes did not arrive in time. "At five in the morning, two of Glenlyon's officers burst into the house of 'the old fox' at Carnoch and shot him as he was getting out of bed. The sound of gunfire there, and in another house at Achtriachtan, alerted the rest of the Macdonalds, who ran, half-naked, for the icy sanctuary of the hills.

Both of Alasdair MacIain Macdonald's sons, and his baby grandson, escaped. Nevertheless, at least thirty-eight of the clan -- men, women, and children -- were systematically slaughtered; many others died in the raging snowstorm" (Magnusson, pp. 524-525). "Parties of soldiers went from cottage to cottage, slaughtering the sleeping MacDonalds and setting light to their houses. MacIain himself was shot by one of his guests of the night before. A Campbell soldier gnawed the rings from Lady Glencoe's fingers with his teeth. A child of six, who clung, begging for mercy, to Glenlyon's knees, was promptly dispatched. As the massacre proceeded, snow began to fall. Some of the inhabitants of the glen were able to escape in the confusion. Others died in the snow" (MacLean, pp. 144-146). "The final mystery about Glenlyon is that, given the fact that he did so totally deceive the unsuspecting MacDonalds... why did he not do a better job of exterminating them? ...

He had not obeyed his orders very thoroughly; indeed, he had left people alive who could act as witnesses of the way he had behaved. And he managed to lose three of his own men as well... Of the roughly 150 men who took part in the massacre, under 10 per cent were Campbells, but these included the commanding officer, two junior officers and a corporal" (Thomson, p. 86). "Such was the public outcry that the Scottish parliament was forced to react when it met in March 1693. A committee was appointed to look into the Massacre, but its report was not published and nothing was done. Two years later, as public revulsion showed no signs of abating, a royal commission was appointed to examine the chain of events leading up to the events at Glencoe. It published its report a month later, in June 1695. This time there was no cover-up: the Massacre had been an act of murder, and the government was condemned for having 'barbarously killed men under trust'.

There had to be a scapegoat; the blame was laid squarely at the door of Dalrymple, who resigned his office as secretary of states, unrepentant but totally discredited" (Magnusson, p. 525). "In due course, however, Stair was rewarded with an earldom, while Campbell of Glenlyon was promoted to colonel" (MacLean, p. 147). "The earl of Breadalbane, who had acted with [Dalrymple/Stair], was charged with high treason, but never brought to trial. That was all that was done to punish the offenders" (Clark, p. 270). William III "attempted to deny prior knowledge of the plot, but the documents showed otherwise and he was never trusted again in Scotland" (Fry/Fry, p. 180). "In its immediate object terrorism succeeded, as it usually does. The resistant chiefs made their peace at once. Within a fortnight of the slaughter Colonel Hill had occupied Glengarry and Castle Eilean Donan, and was expecting the submission even of McNeill of Barra.

But though the clans yielded to the threat of force the basic cause of discontent in the growth of Campbell power remained. "William's government to the end of his reign rested on uncertain foundations. Jacobitism remained an open, or openable, question far longer in his northern kingdom than in England" (Mitchison, p. 288). "The general execration of the deed helped to build up the British sense of justice and humanity. There were still to be scenes of cruelty in the Highlands as long as the Stuarts called their friends to arms; but never again were the worst methods of frontier warfare combined with the worst methods of secret police" (Clark, p. 270). "Despite William's concessions, Scotland was never reconciled to his rule, and bitterness in England was greatly increased by a commercial failure in 1799" (Willson, p. 467). It will be observed that the song bears almost no resemblance to the actual masssacre: The first shots were not fired by artillery, and the casualties in the song are exaggerated more than tenfold. You almost wonder if the song might not be about another clan-on-clan massacre. Except -- it blames it all on the English....

- RBW Bibliography Fry/Fry: Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, The History of Scotland , 1982 (I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition) MacLean: Fitzroy MacLean, A Concise History of Scotland , Beekman House, 1970 Scotland: The Story of a Nation , Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000 , Martin Secker & Warburg, 1966 (I use the 1968 Penguin edition) Thomson: Oliver Thomson, The Great Feud: The Campbells & The MacDonalds , revised edition, Sutton, 2001 1692 - Massacre of Glencoe 1692 - Massacre of Glencoe The Massacre of Glencoe Without a charismatic leader, Jacobite resistance in Scotland died down. The government, however, was determined to make an example of any Highland clans who stood out against them. It was decreed that all clan chiefs must take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary by New Year 1692.

Delayed by a snowstorm and by having found the wrong government official to take his oath, the chief of clan MacIan (a sept of the MacDonalds) missed the crucial date. Little did he know that a deadly example was to be made of his clan. Here are two reports of the massacre. The first was written the day after the event by the Governor of Fort William, whose second in command, Campbell of Glenlyon, carried out the massacre. The second is a popular account circulated in 1695 at a time when demands to punish the culprits were being heard in the Scottish Parliament. Fort William 14th February 1692 My Lord, This is to give your Lordship an account that the house off Invergary was surrendered to my order on Thursday last, at which tyme I sent an officer and a partie to take possession off Island Donan, which a strict and positive order from Major Generall Buchan to those who keepe it, to surrender it to my order which I beleeve is done ere this (if the horrid storme on Fryday night did not retard him). I have alsoe ruined Glencoe.

Old Glencoe and Achtriaton (the two Cheifes off the two familyes off the Clanean in Glencoe) being killed with 36 more, the rest by reason off an extraordinary storme escaped, but their goods are a prey to the souldiers and their houses to the fire, who may get other broken men to joyne them and be very troublesome to the countrey, off which (not to give your Lordship too great trouble) I have written more fully to the Commander in Chief and aboute a proclamation which will be necessary to be issued out against them. They come from all partes to submit to the King's mercy, and take the oath of allegiance and soe (according to my orders) save their lifes. I hope this example off justice and severity upon Glencoe will be enough. The next will be to thinke of a civill jurisdiction which will be most likely to compleat the settlement off which I have given formerly several memorandums to the councell and the secretaryes.

This is what is requisite at present from him who covets the honor of your Lordship's commands and is My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble and obedient servant [John Hill] 'Yester papers', MS. 7014, f.13. Gallienus Redivivus or Murther will out The soldiers being disposed five or three in a House, according to the number of the Family they were to assassinate, had their orders given them secretly. They had been all receiv'd as Friends by those poor People, who intending no Evil themselves, little suspected that their Guests were designed to be their Murtherers. At 5 a Clock in the Morning they began their bloody Work, surprised and butchered 38 persons, who had kindly received them under their Roofs. Mac-ian himself was murthered, and is much bemoan'd; he was a stately well-favoured Man, and of good Courage and Sense: As also the Laird Archintrikin, a Gentleman of more than ordinary Judgment and Understanding, who had submitted to the Government, and had Collonel Hill's Protection in his Pocket, which he had got three Months before.

I cannot without horror represent how that a Boy about Eight Years of Age was murthered; he seeing what was done to others in the House with him, in a terrible Fright run of the House, and espying Capt Campbell, grasped him about the Legs, crying for Mercy, and offering to be his Servant all his Life. I am inform'd Capt Campbell inclined to spare him, but one Drummond; an Officer, barbarously run his Dagger through him, whereof he died immediately. The rehearsal of several Particulars and Circumstances of this tragical Story, makes it appear most doleful; as that Mac-ian was kill'd as he was drawing on his Breeches, standing before his Bed and giving orders to his Servants for the good Entertainment of those who murthered him; while he was speaking the words, he was shot through the Head, and fell dead in his Ladies Arms, who thro' the grief of this, and other bad Usages she met with, died the next day. It is not to be omitted, that most of those poor People were kill'd when they were asleep, and none was allowed to pray to God for Mercy.

Providence ordered it so, that that Night was most boisterous; so as a Party of 400 Men, who should have come to the other end of the Glen, and begun the lie Work there at the same hour, (intending that the poor Inhabitants should be enclosed, and none of them escape) could not march that length, until it was Nine a Clock, and this afforded to many any opportunity of escaping, and none were kill'd but those in whose Houses Campbell of Glenlyon's Men were Quartered, otherwise all the Male under 70 Years of Age, to the number of 200, had been cut off, for that was the order; and it might have easily been executed, especially considering that the Inhabitants had no Arms at that time; for upon the first hearing that the Soldiers were coming to the Glen, they had conveyed them all out of the way: For tho' they rely'd on the Promises which were made them for their Safety; yet they thought it not improbable that they might be disarm'd.

I know not whether to impute it to difficulty of distinguishing the difference of a few Years, or to the Fury of the Soldiers, who being once glutted with Blood, stand at nothing, that even from above Seventy Years of Age were destroyed. They set all the Houses on Fire, drove off all the Cattle to the Garison of Inverlochy, viz. 900 Cows, 200 Horses, and a great many Sheep and Goats, and there they were divided among the Officers. An how dismal may you imagine the Case of the poor Women and Children was then! It was lamentable, past expression; their Husbands and Fathers, and nearest Relations were forced to flee for their Lives; they themselves almost stript, and nothing left them, and their Houses being burnt, and not one House nearer than six Miles, and to get thither they were to pass over Mountains, and Wreaths of Snow, in a vehement Storm, wherein the greatest part of them perished through Hunger and Cold.

It fills me with horror to think of poor stript Children, and Women, some with Child, and some giving Suck, wrestling against a Storm in Mountains, and heaps of Snow, and at length to be overcome, and give over, and fall down, and die miserably. You see in Hamilton's Order to Duncanson, there's a special Caution, that the old Fox, nor none, of his Cubs should escape; and in Duncanson's Order to Capt Campbell of Glenlyon, that the old Fox, nor more of his Sons escape; but notwithstanding all this wicked Caution, it pleased God that the two young Gentlemen, Mac-ian's Sons escaped: for it happened that the younger of these Gentlemen trusted little to the fair Promises of Campbell, and had a more watchful Eye over him than his Father or Brother, who suffered themselves by his reiterated Oaths to be deluded into a Belief of his Integrity: He having a strong Impression on his Spirit, that some mischievous Design was hidden under Campbell's specious Pretences, it made him after the rest were in Bed, remain in a retired Corner, where he had an advantageous prospect into their Guard.

About midnight perceiving several Soldiers to enter it, this encreased his Jealousie; so he went and communicated his Fears to his Brother, who could not for a long time be persuaded there was any bad Design against them, and asserted, that what he had seen was not a doubling of their Guards in order to any ill design, but that being in a strange place, and at a distance from the Garrison, they were to send out Sentinels far from the Guard, and because of the Extremity of the Weather relieved them often, and that the Men he saw could be no more but these. Yet he persisting to say, that they were not so secure, but that it was fit to acquaint their Father with what he had seen, he prevailed with his Brother to rise, and go with him to his Father, who lay in a room contiguous to that they were in. Though what the younger Son alledged made no great Impression on his Father, yet he allowed his Sons to try what they could discover.

They well knowing all skulking places there, went and hid themselves near to a Sentinel's Post, where instead of one they discovered eight or ten Men; this made them more inquisitive, so they crept as near as they could without being discovered, so near that they could hear one say to his Fellows, that he liked not this Work, and that had he known of it he would have been very unwilling to have come there; but that non, except their Commanders, knew of it till within a quarter of an hour. The Soldier added, that he was willing to fight against the Men of the Glen, but it was base to murder them: But to all this was answered, All the blame be on such as gave the Orders; we are free, being bound to obey our officers.

Upon hearing of these words the young Gentlemen retired as quickly and quietly as they could towards the House, to inform their Father of what they had heard; but as they came nigh to it they perceived it surrounded, and heard Guns discharged, and the People shrieking; whereupon, being unarm'd, and totally unable to rescue their Father, they preserved their own Lives in hopes yet to serve their King and Country, and see Justice done upon those Hell-hounds, treacherous Murtherers, the Shame of their Country and Disgrace of Mankind. I must not forget to tell you, that there were two of these Officers who had given their Paroll of Honour to Mac-ian, who refused to be concerned in that brutal Tragedy, for which they were sent Prisoners to Glascow, where if they remain not still, I am sure they were some Weeks ago. Thus, Sir, in obedience to your Commands I have sent you such account as I could get of that monstrous and most inhuman Massacre of the Laird of Glenco, and others of this Clan.

You desire some Proofs of the Truth of the Story; for you say there are many in England who cannot believe such a thing could be done, and publick Justice not executed upon the Ruffians: For they take it for granted, that no such Order could be given by the Government; and you say they will never believe it without a downright Demonstration. Sir, As to the Government; I will not meddle with it, or whether these Officers who murdered Glenco, had such Orders as they pretended from the Government; the Government knows that best, and how to vindicate their own Honour, and punish the Murtherers who pretended their Authority, and still stand upon it. But as to the Matter of Fact of the Murther of Glenco, you may depend upon it, as certain and undeniable: It would be thought as strange a thing in Scotland for any man to doubt of it, as of the Death of my Lord Dundee, or with you that the Duke of Monmouth lost his Head.

But to Put you out of all doubt, you will e'er long have my Lord Argyle's Regiment with you in London, and there you may speak with Glenlyon himself, with Drummond and the rest of the Actors in that dismal Tragedy; and on my Life, there is never a one of them will deny it to you; for they know that it is notoriously known all over Scotland, and it is an admiration to us that there should be any one in England who makes the least doubt of it. Nay, Glenlyon is so far from denying it, that he brags of it, and justifies the Action publickly: He said in the Royal Coffee-house in Edinburgh, that he would do it again; nay, that he would stab any Man in Scotland or in England, without asking the cause, if the King gave him orders, and that it was every good Subject's duty so to do; and I am credibly informed, that Glenlyon and the rest of them have address'd them selves to the Council for a Reward for their good Service, in destroying Glenco pursuant to their Orders.

There is enough of this mournful subject: If what I have said satisfie you not, you may have what Proof, and in what manner ye please to ask it. Gallienus Redivivus Or Murther Will Out, Edinburgh, 1695.

Question: Members of what family were killed in the Massacre of Glencoe in Scotland, on 13 February 1692?
Answer: McDonald