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D' Sir,

. No. CCCCXCVII.

The Lord President to Pitcalnie.

7 Nov 1745.

I NEED not tell you what concern Malcom's folly has given me. I sent him repeated messages to come & see me; which produced no other effect, but a letter from him promising to do so, if I would give him under my hand that he should be at liberty to return to Perth, whither he said he was, by his parole of honour, bound to return. I, without looseing a moment, wrote him to that effect a letter in the strongest terms last Monday, which was that day deliver'd to him, but to no purpose; either his own apprehensions, or evil counsellors, have got the better of him; & I confess my concern for him is very great. The only thing, however, like ane ouvert act, he has done, is the disperseing the men that were assembled in order to form the Independant Comp". Now if none of these should actually follow him, I should hope that discouragement will be so great, that he will choose not to venture further than he has done; but rather to return to where he was confined, than to make such a figure, as in that case he must make, should he follow the opinion of his present advisers. It is for this reason, d' Sir, that I give you the trouble of this line, to entreat that you will lend your assistance to the other gentlemen of the name to whom I have wrote, not only to prevent the debauching of any of the men, but also to prevail with them to form the Independant Comp' now forming; that all the world may see, that the unhappy youth's folly had no encouragement from you. I need to make use of little argument with you to enforce ane advice so agreeable to what I dare say are your own inclinations; nor need I spend time in assureing you, that I am, with great sympathy, as well as sincerity,

Dear Sir,

Your most ob' & most hum. serv, &c.

No. CCCCXCVIII.

The Lord President to Inverchasly.

Nov 7, 1745.

I RETURN you all your letters. I think M' Baillie much in the right for despiseing Barisdale's threats: if menaces of that kind were to have any effect, I know not who would do their duty, or deserve the favour of the Crown for doing it. I wish, with all my heart, we could have letters from my La Ross, or the Master; but I cannot conceive how they should come, as nothing escapes the search of the gentlemen at Ed', who would not willingly suffer directions from them to come through; & the first tydings, I confess, I expect to hear from the Master is from himself, who I doubt not will convey himself hither by sea by the first proper occasion. I have, as you desired, wrote a letter to the gentlemen you mentioned of the name of Ross; & I have prevail'd with Culcairn to take a trip down amongst you to deliver it. He will be able to enforce it by arguments, & to give advice as to the manner of forming the Comp'; &, besides, he will say to you somewhat, which I do not choose to committ to writeing. I have also wrote a separate letter to Pitcalnie, exhorting him to exert himself on this occasion, as a plain way of shewing that he had no hand in his son's indiscretion. With respect to Don. Ross, if that will satisfy Aldie, I can certainly have him introduced to the Excise, & according to his merite have him promoted there. You can hardly

imagine

imagine how desirous I am that we should not be affronted with respect to this Comp', which I see fools are leagueing together to suppress.

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My service to M' Baillie; to whom I would have writt, but that

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I HAD the honour of yours of y 6th, which I had been expecting for a day or two before. Last Wednesday Ld Cromertie passed the river at Contin, with about a hundred men, in his way to Beulie, without my knowledge (owing to the neglect of my spies, as there's rogues of all professions). I have since seen severall that numbered them. L Macleod came from the Highlands the same day, and follow'd his father to the rendevous; but after traversing all Assint and Lochbroom, did not get one man, tho' he expected to get the Macleods there. I have this satisfaction, that not a man has stir'd from Ross-shire, except William Kilcoy's brother with seven men, and a tenant of Redcastle's with a few more; and if Lentron & Terradon did goe off last night, they did not carry between them a score of men. I took a ride yesterday to the westward with two hundred men, but find the bounds so rugged, that's impossible to prevent a single man from going by, if he has a mind. However, I threatened to burn their corn-yards if any body was from home this day; and I turn'd one house into the river for not finding its master at home. Its hard the Government gives nobody in the north power to keep people in order. I don't chuse to send a Company to Inverness till I hear what they are determined to doe at Lord Lovat's.. I took care of y' Sky post, and shall doe the same of every thing else you recommend. I am, my dear Lord,

Braan Castle,

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Nov. ye 8th, 1795.

Your Lordship's most affectionate humble servant,
K. MACKENZIE.

P. S. Coul has absented; where he is gone I know not..

No. D.

My Lord,

The Gentlemen of the name of Ross to the Lord President.

WE had the honor of receiving your letter by our friend Captain Munro of Culcairn; and beg leave to assure your Lop of our attachment & regard to the present happy establishment, under which we enjoy so many valuable privileges & advantages. And with respect to your letter, my Lord, we take the libertie to say, that we doe the more readily take part in the present affair because your Lordship has interested yourself so much in it; that, even on your account, we would join our good offices to our inclinations, for supporting the Government at this criticall time. We have mett here this day in compliance with your letter; and as Captain Munro will deliver this, we doe referr to him to acquaint your Lop, at greater length than may be

proper

to write in a letter, what resolution we have come to, in order to make up the men expected from this country. But as there is a mercatt next week, at which all the people have necessary bussyfess to doe, in order to enable them to pay their rents & other demands, wee are assured they will not willingly goe till that mercatt is over. But the week thereafter, we hope the men will be at Inverness, and make such an appearance there as will be agreeable to your Lop, and as much as possible atone for their being so long of coming up. M' Baillie, who is here also, and who concurs heartily in the same resolution with us, hopes your Lordship will see or hear from the Master of Ross, or my Lord Ross, or that himself will in a few days; that any objection, which the people of the estate of Balnagown may make on that account, may be avoided.

And as we understand this to be your birth-day, wee concur in hearty prayers, that you may live for manie years more to doe service to our king and country; and in testimonie of our sincerity we will conclude with ane innocent bottle, as use is on the like occasion; assuring your Lordship with how much honour, regard, and attachment, wee shall be on all occasions,

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My Lord,

Your Lop's most obedient and most faithful servants,

ROBERT ROSS.
SIMON ROSS.
DUNCAN ROSS.
THOMAS ROSS.
DAVID ROSS.
DAVID ROSS.

ARTHUR ROSS.

Dr Sir,

No. DI.

The Lord President to M' Scrope.

14th Nov 1745.

I AM just now, where I was just thirty years agoe, & employ'd in the same service, & with the same resolution, tho' not with the same vigour; & yet I cannot justly complain of the success of my weak endeavours; for of those kindreds of the Highlanders who in the year 1715 were at Perth, there are now in this country, partly assisting me, & partly detain'd at home by perswasion or force, a greater number than the number of reall Highlanders who have from Edin' march'd towards England. I do not speak of the whole of what they call their army, which is composed of numbers of low country people, who must prove rather a drawback than any assistance to them; but I speak of the natives of the mountains, who by the celerity of their marches, & by their capacity to bear fatigues, may be accounted dangerous enemys. I am hopefull, there will be soon a good account given of those; & that I shall be thereby relieved from the present drudgery. In the mean time, as I am sending dispatches to London, I thought you would not take it amiss to have it certify'd under my hand & seal, that I am still in the land of the liveing, & doing tolerably well; & I entertain some hopes, that you will, either by yourself or Harry, deliver a like certificate to Geo. Ross, who will put this into your hands, to be transmitted to me; which will gladden the heart of your affectionate well wisher, &c.

No. DII.

My Lord,

No. DII.

The Lord President to the Earl of Stair."

14 Nov* 1745.

I HAVE already wrote a very long letter to the Marquis of Tweeddale; which as your Lop will see, it would be troublesome to me, as well as nauseous to you, to repeat. From it, as well as from what Loudon will write to you, you must have a pretty good guess at the situation of the King's affairs in this country. Wherefore I shall trouble you with very little, except a circumstance which, I doubt, Loudon will omitt; & that is, that he came to this country exceeding seasonably to my relief, when I had the most occasion for him, & when I do not know what I should have done without him; & that to his vigilance, application, & temper, the crown & the country owe a great deal, & in all appearance will owe more. It is needless to entertain your Lop with many difficulties & cross accidents we have had to surmount; or with the knavery & folly of many of the fools we had to work with, & upon. The sum of what we have to flatter ourselves with, & which it may be of service to the Gov' to know, is, that except Mac Pherson of Clunie, who with about 300 of his posse left Badenoch before we were enabled to bring any force together, by those remittances which I so often press'd for, no body of men from this country have join'd the highlanders who were successful at Preston Pans; so that the force in highlanders of that army, as they call it, which has march'd from Edin' towards England, cannot possibly be formidable; however the numbers may be increas'd by a rif raf of low country people, who must do them more hurt than service. As I have press'd, in my letter to the Marquis, for a further remittance of money & supply of arms, I am confident your Lop will forward my request, & of all things prevent loss of time. The totall interruption of communication with the southern parts of Scotland made it impossible to raise any of the indepen' companys there, at least hitherto.

I am very faithfully,

No. DIII.

Your Lop's, &c.

Sir,

The Lord President to Mr. Geo. Ross.

15th Nov. THE strong boxes have been received out of the Saltash sloop, are delivered to Baillie James Fraser, & by him lodged for security in Fort George. They contain, I presume, the cash you mention, tho' they have not as yet been open'd; & that money shall be disposed of for the subsistence of the Indepen' Comp, of which no more than 5 are actually at Inver; more are dayly expected. It is very likely that there will be necessary occasion for money for incident expences, befor a fresh supply arrives from London; & in that case we shall be obliged to borrow from the sum remitted by you; to be made good afterwards, by money proper for such expences; & I have written to my Lord Marquis of Tweeddale, intreating that a further sum of money may be sent down to us, to answer such contingent expences; of which you will not fail to put him in mind from time to time. The directions you have given Baillie Fraser, as to the issueing the subsistance, he will, I dare say, comply with, & by the next occasion give you ane account of his proceedings.

I am, Sir,

3 M

Your most humble Serv, &c.

Dear George,

No. DIV.

The Lord President to Mr. Geo. Ross.

Same date.

BY another letter of this date, I have acknowledged the receipt of the strong boxes; & by one to Mr Mitchell, besides what I have wrote to the Mar. of Tweeddale, I have so far explain'd the state of this country, that he will be able to satisfy your curiosity. What I write this additional letter for is, to let you know, that your namesakes have not, whether from knavery or folly, or a mixture of both, behaved themselves as I expected, or as they ought to have done. So soon as I received the commissions for the indepen' comps, I sent for M' Baillie & Inverchasly, & acquainted them with my intentions of giveing one to the Master of Ross, with the Lieut. & Ensign that were proposed. They seem'd very well satisfy'd, found no difficulty in raiseing the comp3, & promised to bring the men together so soon as they should have notice; which could be no sooner than we could have arms & money: when these came, they had notice & brought 100 men together; but, upon some difficulty's raised by Pilcalny's mad son, they dispers'd; & tho' I have wrote to them, as a kindred, a letter, & sent Culcairn to Tain, where he had meetings with them, all I have got from them is a promise, that in a fortnight the comp' will be brought together. I do not choose to conjecture at the cause of this backwardness in the people; it is surely not disaffection. Some of the gentlemen question, whether the Master of Ross would accept, and others pretend he will not because he is not already here. If I knew where to write him, I would; & as you do, I desire that you may let him know how the matter stands; to the end, if he cannot come, he may write to his friends in the strongest terms. Inverchasly is, I am confident, sufficiently zealous. I am so monstrously tired with writeing, that the only other thing I can submitt to the trouble of writeing about, is poor John Innes, who writes me word from London, that his misfortunes this campaign have not left him a groat; & begs some supply. Remittance is impossible, & my purse is pretty well drain'd; let him, however, have somewhat to keep the bones green, & put on a coat, & I shall pay you.

I am, Dr George,

Yours, &c.

No. DV.

From the E. of Loudon & the Lord President to Marishall Wade, or the Commander

in Chief in the North.

Nov. 16, 1745.

Sir, AS we are sending dispatches for London by the Saltash sloop to Newcastle, we judged it might be for His Majestie's service, to drop you this short notice, to let you know the present situation of this country; which is in substance, that, except Mac Pherson of Clunie, with about 300 men from Badenoch, no body of highlanders of any consequence have, from the country to the northward of Athole, join'd those who originally took possession of Edin', or added to their numbers in their march towards England; that about 200 of the tribes dependant on the Clanchattan, with some men from Breumar, & some other small partys, had got together at Perth last Saturday; where, they said, they waited for further reinforcements from the north; that 150 or 160 Mac

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