THE LAST JACOBITE
chest by a bullet, which – proving impossible to remove – gave him pain for the rest of his life. He again saved Lochiel at Culloden, when, wounded by grapeshot
in both ankles, he was carried by his clansmen from the field. Reach- ing Achnacarry, they were hiding in the forest by Loch Arkaig, when word came of French ships bringing gold for Prince Charles, by then in the Outer Isles. Archie was amongst those who buried the treasure, the knowledge of where it was hidden proving fatal in later years. Together with his brother and other Jacobites, he hid in remote places
from the Redcoats, who had ordered by the Duke of Cumberland to hunt out the rebels and destroy all they possessed. On hearing that Prince Charles had reached the mainland, Archie was sent to find him and take him to Clunie MacPherson’s famous cave on Ben Alder. Here, on 13 September, they heard that ships sent from France to rescue him were lying in Loch nan Uamh. Archie sailed with Prince Charles on the L’Heureux, taking down his
memoirs of the campaign. In France they were greatly entertained by King Louis XV, who made Donald the colonel and Archie a captain of the Albany Regiment. Disappointingly, however, King Louis would not finance another rising so Prince Charles, with Archie Cameron, rode across the Pyrenees into Spain to try to win King Ferdinand to his cause. Again he was unsuccessful but Ferdinand did promise to give Archie the command of a Spanish regiment, but this would prove to be a promise that was never fulfilled. Returning to France he was joined by his wife Jean, who had suffered
badly during his absence, losing two of their children from exposure as they hid in caves and on the hills. For a time they lived in Lille, from where Archie was sent back to Scotland in 1749. He returned safely but Prince Charles – expelled from France by King Louis as part of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, which ended the Seven Years War – was trying to plan an invasion of Scotland with the help of the King of Prussia, who was at odds with his nephew George II, and a Swedish army commanded by General James Keith, the Earl Marischal’s brother. Unbeknown to him, Charles’ plans were betrayed by Alexander
MacDonell of Glengarry, alias ‘Pickle the Spy’, a man embittered by fight- ing for the Jacobites, whom he blamed for causing his ruin. Writing to Henry Pelham, the Prime Minister, on 4 November 1742, Glengarry told him that the prince had sent Mr Murray (of Elibank) for Doctor Archie Cameron and MacDonald of Lochgarry to meet him at Menin. There he gave them ‘mony and sent them to Scotland so as to meet several High- land gentlemen at the Crieff market for black cattel’. ‘The Elibank Plot’, a fantastic scheme to blow up the Tower of London
and kill or capture King George and his family, fell through. But Archie was left in Scotland, knowing only that he was to bring back some of the money buried at Loch Arkaig to King James in Rome, but otherwise in ignorance of all that was taking place. He should have been more careful. But whom should he have trusted
when asking for a safe house in which to stay, if not his cousin, Samuel Cameron, known as Crookshanks thanks to his bandy legs. Samuel, also in the pay of the British government, suggested Brenachoile, a house in the Trossachs on Loch Katrine. Arrested there by soldiers from the nearby barracks, he was taken to the Tower of London to stand trial as a traitor to the king. Convicted, he died a martyr, last in the cause of the Jacobites, for which, at the urge of his brother, he had so unwillingly gone to war. Doctor Archie did have one biography, written by Alexander Hender-
son, which sold for the price of one shilling in 1753. Since then he has been largely forgotten, but the man whose last action was to send his steel shoe buckles to his son – because this was the strongest metal, enduring as his own resolve – deserves to be remembered if only for the courage, self-sacrifice and loyalty given by this country doctor to what he knew to be a hopeless cause.
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 55
‘Convicted, he died a martyr, last in the cause of Jacobites’
Top left: Doctor Archie and his brother hid in the forest by Loch Arkaig following the Battle of Culloden. Below left to right: Prince Charles Edward Stuart; The Duke of Cumberland; Netherbow Port in Edinburgh.
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