Introduction to the CD explains everything: Carolina William Murray Nairne, who, but for the attainder
Oliphant was born on July 16, 1766 at Gask, on following the ’45 would have become Lord Nairne.
a hillside overlooking the River Earn in central The romance of her life started when she was just
Perthshire. Strathearn was a stronghold of Jacobite 17, her cousin being nine years her senior. Because
lairds: the Atholl Murrays, Perth Drummonds, of Captain Nairne’s impecunious state, the couple
Robertsons, Oliphants and Menzies, all of whom did not marry until 1806. She was then in her 40
th
took part in either or both of the Jacobite Risings of year and her fiancé nearly 50. Her grandfather, the
1715 and 1745. She herself was of Jacobite lineage old Laird of Strowan, bought the newlyweds a little
on both sides of her family: the Oliphants of Gask house in Duddingston and in Carolina Cottage she
on the father’s side and the Robertsons of Strowan was to spend the happiest years of her life.Her only
(sometimes spelled Struan) on her mother’s side. child, William Murray, was born there in July, 1808.
On July 28, 1766, she was christened Carolina Her first successful attempt at songwriting came
after the exiled King. Little Miss Car must have at 27 when she wrote The Ploughman. Absolute
grown up with many tales of her kinsmen’s Jacobite anonymity was essential. Had she been given public
allegiance. Her father, when he was 19, had supped credit for her compositions in her own lifetime, Carolina
with Charles Edward Stewart at Blair Castle at the would have been appalled by the notoriety. Her excessive
outset of the ’45; he had galloped to Edinburgh with diffidence may seem strange in the light of today’s
news of the Prince’s coming, and had spoken with commercial music, copyright and mass media, but she
Charles after the Battle of Culloden. Thereafter, with preferred to remain completely anonymous.
his own father and their kinsman, Lord Nairne, he The Ploughman appeared in at least two other
escaped to Sweden. They remained in exile for 17 forms before she tried her hand at it. One of these
years until it was safe to return home. was by Robert Burns. Carolina was among the first
The garden at Gask grew many white rose bushes to recognise Burns’ genius and she persuaded her
as befitted such a bastion of Jacobitism. The white brother Laurence to subscribe to the 1768 edition
rose was adopted as a symbol and June 10
th
as the of his poems. From this early period come The Laird
most hallowed date in the Jacobite calendar, when on o’Cockpen and a group of Jacobite songs including
that date in 1688 a son was born to James II and Mary Will Ye No Come Back Again? which have so caught the
of Modena. This was James Francis Edward Stewart, popular imagination. Under a nom de plume she was
a Catholic heir to the throne. Carolina herself, as she associated in 1821 with the production of a volume
grew and bloomed in beauty, was called The Flower of Scottish songs known as The Scottish Minstrel.
of Strathearn, or the White Rose of Gask. Her Jacobite She was so obsessed with absolute secrecy that she
songs were written at least 45 years after Culloden, disguised her own handwriting and on occasions
largely to please her father and her venerated even disguised herself as a gentlewoman of an older
kinsman, the Laird of Strowan, but the task must have time. The Scottish Minstrel was published in 1824 and
been an easy one, exposed as she had always been to Carolina published no more in her lifetime.
the unquestioning loyalty to the Stewart cause. The In that same year the British Parliament passed a
names of the reigning Hanoverian family were never Bill repealing the Act of Attainder against Scotland’s
permitted in the house and the initials K and Q were Jacobite nobility which had hitherto seen them
used only if absolutely necessary. stripped of their lands and their titles. The Bill was
When his unswerving loyalty to the Stewarts passed largely thanks to the efforts of Sir Walter Scott.
was reported to King George III, the Laird received When George IV visited Scotland in 1822, Major
this message: ‘Give my compliments – not the Nairne was presented to the King by his kinsman, the
compliments of the King of England, but those of Duke of Atholl. Nairne now became Lord Nairne and
the Elector of Hanover – to Mr Oliphant and tell Carolina his Baroness. Lord Nairne died in 1830. Lady
him how much I respect him for the steadiness of Nairne and her son travelled in Europe for several
his principles.’ years and William died in Brussels in 1837. Another
Carolina’s upbringing was very much within the six years passed before Lady Nairne finally accepted
usual narrow bounds of girls’ education in those her nephew’s repeated invitation to return home to
days: she learned to ride, to dance and to play the Gask. She died there in 1845 at the age of 79.”
spinet. She was also very talented with pencil and Will Ye No Come Back Again? - the song Lady
paintbrush. The Flower of Strathearn was full of life Nairne wrote as a tribute to Bonnie Prince Charlie
and high spirits. She was tall, dignified, with dark remains one of the most poignant and best-loved
eyes and hair, an aquiline nose and a small mouth. songs in the Scottish repertoire.
Carolina never lacked for wooers, but had given
For further details visit
www.jeanredpath.com
her heart at an early age to her cousin, Captain
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