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Feas of Clestrain \ James I \ James II \ James III \ James IV \ James V \ James VI \ Jacobite CauseJames Fea and Charles Edward StewartThe extract of the letter from Captain Moodie makes reference
to “Clestran” being at the Pretender’s camp at Falkirk. Charles Edward
Stewart was only the one night at Falkirk, following the battle there on
the afternoon of 16th January 1746. This was on his northward retreat.
It is likely he would have meant Stirling as the Jacobites were encamped
there for some time and received reinforcements.
Allan Fea in “The Real Captain Cleveland” (1912) refers to information
coming from letters written by eyewitnesses to support some of the stories.
| In an audience with Charles, Clestrain spoke of the various
oppressions suffered by his countrymen, and pleaded that in the event of
the insurrection having a successful issue, their rights might be looked
into. “He received a paper”, continues the account, signed by the
Prince to the effect “promising in the strongest manner redress of grievances
upon the country’s raising and furnishing him with what men and money they
were capable to raise.”
The Real Captain Cleveland (1912), Allan Fea - page 168 |
Allan Fea says that James Fea stipulated that those Orcadians
recruited should form a separate regiment called “The Orkney Regiment”
but that the Prince was unable to agree to this “as there was in Orkney
a gentleman, Sir James Stewart of Burray, of great fortune and consideration,
and his great friend, whom perhaps the country would incline to choose
their leader.”
James Fea returned to Orkney enthusiastic but got practically no response.
The lairds were too cautious to show any act of open rebellion.
He induced Mackenzie of Ardloch to bring a party of Highlanders to Orkney
to see if that would spur the Orcadians to action.
The actions of Ardloch were not entirely well received. Crossing
from Caithness, Ardloch put in at Longhope and sent a letter to Donald
Smith, the representative of the laird of Melsetter demanding under pain
of military execution “a quota of men and money to be provided and ready
for him on his return from Kirkwall.”
Only James Fea was at Kirkwall to meet Ardloch. The high handedness
of Ardloch was resented and James Fea was told that he had done more harm
than good for the Prince’s cause.
Failing to raise men, he collected arms at his house of Sound
in Shapinsay, which were then taken to the Ayre at Kirkwall where they
were landed in secret and taken away by Ardloch, who was waiting to receive
them.
Earlier, Fea had heard of a quantity of smuggled brandy being held by
Mr John Baikie, the Customs Officer. He told Baikie, in the presence
of the Magistrates, that he must keep it for Ardloch and his men who would
soon be in Orkney and that it would be at his peril if it were not produced.
Apparently, Baikie yielded to the circumstances.
On Ardloch’s return to Longhope, he sent men to Melsetter. Donald
Smith had little cash and decided to go into hiding. In the circumstances,
Ardloch had instructed his men to take whatever they wanted. According
to an account of the devastation of the property to the owner:
| This they did on a Sunday’s forenoon in a most outrageous
and barbarous manner, sparing nothing, but plundering everything that was
portable and destroying almost everything else - I beheld a melancholy
scene, everything either taken away or demolished and nothing to be seen
but waste and desolation, the very beds emptied of the down and scattered
through the house, and the tyck carried away. I shared a little in
the common calamity, having a chest with some clothes in the room I used
to sleep in, which they broke up and carried off the clothes, whereby
I suffered to the value of some £6 or £7 sterling.
Eyewitness account, quoted in 'The Real Captain Cleveland'
(1912), Allan Fea, pages 172-173 |
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