Duncan M'Gillies

Duncan M'Gillies was a sixty year old labourer from Arisaig, in Scotland. He was captured following the surrender of Carlisle.—S.PD., 91-77 ; Scots Mag., Oct. 1746, 486; T.B.P., 327-109; PR., 3621-3. 

Duncan sent a touching letter from Moffat, (where the Jacobite army camped on it's march south), to his girlfriend Margaret McDonnell, a barmaid in the tavern of the barracks at Fort Augustus. He's missing her day and night and remembering her "kindness and pleasant company". His health is fine - "nothing ails me but the wanting of you". They were mature lovers.

Duncan was a man of 60 and his 14 year old son was fighting alongside him. In a postscript to his letter he sends his regards to Margaret's children, after signing himself "your most obedient love". Margaret was destined never to read the letter expressing Duncan's feelings for her. The bearer of the letter, Charles Spalding of Whitefield, was captured on the way home and his letters handed over to General Guest at Edinburgh Castle.

There weren't many men called M'Gillies in the Jacobite army - just four of them. Duncan, who wrote to Margaret the barmaid, is sometimes wrongly listed as Daniel or Donald. The other three were his son Daniel and two other boys - Hector and Donald, 16 and 18 years old respectively.

They were all in Glengarry's regiment and may well have been related, although the two older boys came from Inverness, not Arisaig like Duncan and his son. All the M'Gillies shared the same fate, being among the men left behind to garrison Carlisle.

When the castle was re-taken by the Duke of Cumberland on 30 December 1745, the officers were quickly weeded out for transfer to prison in London. The common men, 300 of them, were thrown into a dank and dark dungeon within the castle for several days. One of the stone walls in the dungeon is worn away to a most unusual shape. It took on this form because moisture collected there and the prisoners licked it in an attempt to soothe parched lips and throats. They were given no water, no food and no candles, but left for days in the pitch black and bitter January cold, heavy chains on their wrists and ankles. Maybe that was what did for Duncan M'Gillies' health, or maybe it was the overcrowded and insanitary conditions at York Castle.

He did make it to York and was certainly there on 27 July 1746 when his name appears on a document detailing the prisoners who drew lots for trial or transportation. Duncan didn't draw the lot for trial. The standard sources state that he and his son were transported to the West Indies in May 1747. However, further research shows that only the three M'Gillies boys were on the Veteran transport's list.

It would appear that at some point between July 1746 and May 1747 Duncan probably died. He was not a young man, and many younger than him succumbed to the terrible conditions in which they were kept. Illness and fever also often raged fatally through the overcrowded prison community. Conditions in York Castle were notoriously bad for the common men.

Daniel M'Gillies and the two other lads, Hector and Donald, were eventually marched to Liverpool for embarkation on the Veteran for transportation to Antigua on 8 May 1747. On 28 June, the Veteran, commanded by Captain Ricky, was intercepted by a French privateer called the Diamant captained by Paul Marsal. There was a short sharp engagement which the French won. The ship, her crew and her unwilling passengers were carried into Fort-de-France in Martinique.There the prisoners were given their liberty and were either allowed to stay in Martinique or were taken to France were they then lived for the rest of their lives (Ref:- "Damn' Rebel Bitches: the women of the 45" by Maggie Craig, Pages 58-60, 163-165).

Daniel M’Gillies Fourteen year old from Arisaig. Son of Duncan M'Gillies above.—S.P.D., 91-84; Scots Mag., Oct. 1746, 486 ; P.R., 3621-3 ; T.B.P., 327-109.

Donald M’Gillies Eighteen year old labourer from Inverness. —S.P.D., 91-77 ; P.R., 8621-3

Hector M’Gillies Sixteen year old herdsman from Inverness. .—S.P.D., 91-77 ; Scots Mag., Oct. 1746,486 ; P.R., 3621-3 ; T.B.P., 327-109.