Killin incident of 1749

Last updated

Killin incident
Part of the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745
Killinfromstrona.JPG
The village of Killin, Scottish Highlands with Loch Tay in the background
DateAugust 1749
Location
Result Rebel victory
Belligerents
Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg British Government
Pulteney’s Regiment
Jacobite Standard (1745).svg Jacobites
Commanders and leaders
Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg Captain Hughes Mr Campbell, Sheriff depute in Killin
Casualties and losses
None

The Killin incident of 1749 took place in August 1749 in Killin in the Scottish Highlands in the tumultuous aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Two men who had been plundering at will in full Highland dress after the Dress Act 1746 had made it illegal to wear it, had been captured by soldiers of the British Army, but a large mob secured their release.

Contents

Background

After the Jacobite rising of 1745 the Dress Act 1746 was passed by George II of Great Britain making it illegal, as of 1 August 1747, for any man or boy to wear Highland dress. [1] However, there was a lack of cooperation, as the military saw it, of the civilian authorities to bring in offenders. [2] Captain Hughes of Pulteney's Regiment reported from his headquarters at Loch Rannoch in August 1749 that the local sheriff depute had been dismissing individuals taken before him for wearing Highland dress. [2]

The incident

Later that month Captain Hughes reported that a party of fully armed Highlanders had been plundering at Killiecrankie. [3] They were chased as far as Aberfeldy but they escaped because the soldiers could get no help from the local people. [3] However, two of the men were later captured at Killin, [3] but while the Corporal was conducting the two offenders to Captain Hughes he was met by the sheriff depute and a mob. [2] The sheriff depute ordered the soldiers to release the two prisoners or he would put the soldiers in prison and at the same time "abuse" them for "molesting" people for wearing dress that he thought should be tolerated. [2] The soldiers then released the prisoners. [2]

Aftermath

Captain Hughes reported the incident as "the People Insult & Triumph, and while their sheriff depute protects them, make a Jest of Military Power". [2] Captain Hughes reported on 1 October 1749 that one of his patrols in Killin had captured one Duncan Campbell on 22 September who had been wearing "Tartan Clothes" and that he was then confined in the prison of Killin. [4] Captain Hughes also reported that they had recently pursued three armed men who had attacked some cattle drovers and stolen their cattle, but that the Highlanders being lighter armed and dressed were able to escape. [4]

Similar incidents were reported around the same time in other parts of the Scottish Highlands: On 16 September 1749 a Captain Scott of Guise's Regiment who was stationed at Braemar Barracks reported that his men had pursued a Highlander who had appeared armed and in "Highland Dress" but that he had fairly outrun them and that they had opened fire on him as he ran into a wood, but missed him. [4] The same Captain reported on 1 October 1749 that one of his Sergeants was missing, presumed murdered, who had been in pursuit of four men who had appeared armed and in "Highland Garb", and who were presumed to be thieves. [4] The Captain reported again that as of 4 October 1749 the Sergeant was still missing and presumed murdered. [5]

The ban on wearing Highland dress was repealed in 1782 and the wearing of it returned to civil use. [6] However, it became a fashion for both the English and Scots, and in particular the English aristocracy. [6] The seal of royal approval for wearing both tartan and Highland dress came in 1822 when George IV of the United Kingdom made his visit to Edinburgh dressed accordingly. [6]

Related Research Articles

Battle of Culloden Final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, on Drummossie Moor near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. It was the last pitched battle fought on British soil.

The Dress Act 1746 was part of the Act of Proscription which came into force on 1 August 1746 and made wearing "the Highland Dress" — including the kilt — illegal in Scotland as well as reiterating the Disarming Act. The Jacobite Risings between 1689 and 1746 found their most effective support amongst the Scottish clans, and this act was part of a series of measures attempting to bring the clans under government control. An exemption allowed the kilt to be worn in the army, continuing the tradition established by the Black Watch regiment.

Clan Donnachaidh Scottish clan

Clan Donnachaidh, also known as Clan Robertson, is a Scottish clan.

Visit of King George IV to Scotland

The visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 was the first visit of a reigning monarch to Scotland in nearly two centuries, the last being by King Charles II for his Scottish coronation in 1651. Government ministers had pressed the King to bring forward a proposed visit to Scotland, to divert him from diplomatic intrigue at the Congress of Verona.

Act of Proscription 1746 United Kingdom legislation

The Act of Proscription was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which came into effect in Scotland on 1 August 1746. It was part of a series of efforts to assimilate the Scottish Highlands, ending their ability to revolt, and the first of the "King's laws" that sought to crush the Clan system in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. These laws were finally repealed on 1 July 1782.

Trews Traditional Celtic tightly-fit footed trousers, often of tartan; also trousers from Scottish Highland dress.

Trews are men's clothing for the legs and lower abdomen, a traditional form of tartan trousers from Scottish Highland dress. Trews could be trimmed with leather, usually buckskin, especially on the inner leg to prevent wear from riding on horseback.

Tartanry

Tartanry is the stereotypical or kitsch representation of traditional Scottish culture, particularly by the emergent Scottish tourist industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, and later by the American film industry. The earliest use of the word "tartanry" itself is said to have been in 1976. The phenomenon was explored in Scotch Myths, a culturally influential exhibition devised by Barbara and Murray Grigor and Peter Rush and mounted at the Crawford Centre at the University of St. Andrews in the Spring of 1981

History of the kilt Wikimedia history article

The history of the kilt stretches back to at least the end of the 16th century. The kilt first appeared as the belted plaid or great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak draped over the shoulder, or brought up over the head as a hood. The small kilt or walking kilt did not develop until the late 17th or early 18th century, and is essentially the bottom half of the great kilt.

Kinloch Rannoch Human settlement in Scotland

Kinloch Rannoch is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, at the eastern end of Loch Rannoch, 18 miles (29 km) west of Pitlochry, on the banks of the River Tummel. The village is a tourist and outdoor pursuits centre. It has a small population and is fairly remote.

Thomas Rawlinson was an 18th-century English industrialist who is widely reputed, though not without controversy, to have been the inventor of the modern kilt.

Loudon's Highlanders, or the 64th Highlanders, or Earl of Loudon's Regiment of Foot, was an infantry regiment of the British Army.

Anti-Scottish sentiment is disdain, discrimination, or hatred for Scotland, the Scots or Scottish culture. It may also include the persecution or oppression of the Scottish people as an ethnic group, or nation. It can also be referred to as Scotophobia or Albaphobia.

Dugald Buchanan was a Scottish poet writing in Scots and Scottish Gaelic. He helped the Rev. James Stuart or Stewart of Killin to translate the New Testament into Scottish Gaelic. John Reid called him "the Cowper of the Highlands".

Rannoch Barracks

Rannoch Barracks was a military barracks constructed in 1746 at Bridge of Gaur, Perthshire, Scotland, at the western end of Loch Rannoch. The barracks were built in response to the Jacobite uprising of 1745.

The Independent Highland Companies were irregular militia raised from the Scottish clans of the Scottish Highlands by order of the Government between 1603 and 1760 in order to help keep the peace and enforce the law in the Highlands and were recognized as such by the Government. The officers of the Independent Highland Companies were commissioned as officers of the British Army but the Independent Companies were not recognized as official regiments of the line of the army. The Independent Highland Companies were the progenitors of the Highland Regiments of the British Army that began when ten Independent Highland Companies were embodied to form the Earl of Crawford's Highland Regiment that was numbered the 43rd Regiment of Foot in 1739.

Raids on Lochaber and Shiramore

The Raids on Lochaber and Shiramore took place in the Scottish Highlands between 22 May and 31 August 1746 and were part of the closing operations of the British-Hanoverian Government to bring to an end the Jacobite rising of 1745. Sometimes referred to as the "mopping up" operations many rebels surrendered themselves and their arms, while others were captured and punished. It also included the hunt for the Jacobite leader Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart otherwise known as the Young Pretender. Most of the work was done on behalf of the Government by the Independent Highland Companies of militia and also the Campbell of Argyll Militia.

Atholl raids

The Atholl raids of 14 - 17 March 1746 were a series of raids carried out by Jacobite rebels against the British-Hanoverian Government during the Jacobite rising of 1745.

Lieutenant-Colonel Caroline Frederick Scott was a Scottish soldier and military engineer who served in the British Army before transferring to the East India Company.

Jacobite Army (1745) Military unit

The Jacobite Army, sometimes referred to as the Highland Army, was the military force assembled by Charles Edward Stuart and his Jacobite supporters during the 1745 Rising that attempted to restore the House of Stuart to the British throne.

<i>An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745</i>

An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745 is an oil painting, by the Anglo-Swiss artist David Morier (c.1705-1770). It is part of the art collection of the British royal family. It depicts a scene during the 1746 Battle of Culloden, in which a group of Jacobite Scottish Highland soldiers charge a group of soldiers of the government army of Great Britain.

References

  1. Dixon, John. H (1886). Gairloch in North-west Ross-shire: Its Records, Traditions, Inhabitants, and Natural History with a Guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree. Co-operative Print. Company. p.  128. Dress Act 1746.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Harris, Robert (2002). Politics and the Nation: Britain in the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press. p. 177. ISBN   9780191554384.
  3. 1 2 3 Cunningham, A. D (1994). "A History of Rannoch, After the '45". Electric Scotland. Electric Scotland. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Allardyce, James (1895). Historical papers relating to the Jacobite period, 1699-1750. Vol. 2. Aberdeen: Printed for the New Spalding Club. pp. 523–525.
  5. Allardyce (1895). p. 527.
  6. 1 2 3 Yarwood, Doreen (2011). Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Costume. Courier Corporation. p. 360. ISBN   9780486433806.