THE MASSACRE OF GLENCOE


      The world has seen greater slaughters. Measured on the simplistic scale of death toll, it could be classified as "a little local difficulty". Even in our own country there have been other atrocities in which much greater numbers of people have been despatched in horrific ways. So why is it that the Massacre of Glencoe has lodged itself so firmly in popular folk lore?
      Perhaps it is the place. The hills are not large when compared with the Alps, but they are abrupt, shapely and carry snow into late spring. MacAulay it was, who started the myth that the name meant "The Glen of Weeping", but you can understand why that fiction was given currency. It rains a lot in Glencoe and when the cloud descends to seal it in with grey ceiling and the crags turn black, the place has an impressively doleful appearance.
      Perhaps, too, it is the tale of inter-clan vengeance by which the event has been characterised (and exaggerated). And then again, it may be the element of vicious betrayal at a personal level or the high level political repercussions.

      First the bald facts. On February 13th, 1692 in the darkness of early morning and in the midst of a snowstorm, a few dozen local folk, men, women and children, even babes in arms, were put to the sword and their houses torched. And in the hours which followed, as the survivors took flight through the surrounding mountains to Appin and elsewhere, a slightly greater number died of exposure. Those immediately responsible for this atrocity were soldiers acting apparently on orders from an authoritative source (exactly which source was to be the subject of enquiry) - a company of the regiment raised by the Earl of Argyll and under the command of Major Robert Duncanson. The company was commanded by Captain Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon. It is this Campbell connection, and the fact that the McDonalds of Glencoe had, over many years, made a habit of visiting rape and pillage on their southern Campbell neighbours, which gave rise to the oversimplified account of an inter-clan blood-letting.
      The detail, however, is more complex. For centuries Lowland Scottish kings had tried, and largely failed, to bring the "rebellious" Highland clans under their control. By 1690, however, the tide of power was beginning to flow towards Lowland supremacy. The crowns of England and Scotland had been united in the person of James VI (of Scotland) and I (of England). After various hiccups (*1) the Roman Catholic Jacobite dynasty had then been replaced on the joint throne by the Protestant King William of Orange. The fact that the Highlands were still mainly Catholic and loyal to the Jacobite cause gave new impetus to the need to bring the Highlanders under control.
      The first part of this Highland pacification process was a royal proclamation declaring an amnesty for all those who swore allegiance to King William by 1st January 1692. Step two (by those who had personal axes to grind) was to hope that certain clan chiefs would fail to comply.
      Old MacIain, chief of the McDonalds of Glencoe (*2) dithered until the last minute and then went to Fort William to swear his oath of allegiance. When he arrived (within the deadline) he was told by the governor of the garrison that he (the governor) was not authorised to do the necessary formalities. Inveraray was the proper place. Inveraray was the stronghold of Clan Campbell, MacIain's sworn enemies, so you can understand why he was reluctant to go there in the first place. But go he did, and in some haste. With him he took a letter from the Governor at Fort William explaining the circumstances. He got there a few days too late but his oath was taken and recorded nevertheless. Notification of MacIain's oath of allegiance was transmitted to the authorities in sufficient time to have prevented subsequent events, had they been so minded.
      But MacIain's enemies moved fast. The instructions were that the McDonalds of Glencoe and other surrounding areas (including Appin) were to be "extirpated" - a splendidly vague word which implied utter annihilation but could, for political purposes be interpreted otherwise. Now-a-days it would be called "a non-attributable instruction". It was the King himself who signed this proclamation and it was, for practical purposes, a death warrant. His subordinates down the chain of command supplied the explicit detail.
      Chief among these was Sir John Dalrymple, the Master of Stair, who, as a convert and previous supporter of the Jacobite cause, had a point of loyalty to prove. Plans were placed in position with care. There were many others involved but space does not permit me - and I'm not qualified - to go into that kind of detail. Prebble (see sources below) claims that the Master of Stair was the chief architect of the massacre. In laying his plans he wrote numerous letters to others spelling out what they should do and these letters are part of the historical record. Prebble further claims that Dalrymple was motivated by a long-standing ethnic hatred of the Lowlander for the Highlander. He may be right. The massacre certainly has many similarities to some recent events in the Balkans under the general heading of "ethnic cleansing". It seems to me, however, that a more complex story may be needed to explain the actions of a man of such perversely misapplied intelligence.
      As a crucial part of the plan, two companies of Argyll's regiment (*3), under Captain Robert Campbell and Captain Thomas Drummond were billeted on the McDonalds in Glencoe who received them in the hospitable tradition of the Highlands. Campbell it should be noted, was related by marriage to old MacIain himself and so it was natural that he should be billeted at the Chief's own house. At this stage however, it is not clear that Campbell knew the nature of his mission. On the 12th, the day before the massacre took place he received this instruction from his superior Major Duncanson.

      "You are hereby ordered to fall upon the McDonalds of Glencoe and put all to the sword under seventy; you are to have a special care that the old fox and his sons do not on any account escape your hands"

      In any random sample of humanity there will be those who carry out such orders with alacrity, those who do so with reluctance and those honourable few who resist and are prepared to suffer the consequences. And so it was with the company of soldiers billeted on the McDonalds. MacIain himself was killed while trying to rise from his bed but his sons escaped as initially did his wife. It is said that one of the soldiers gnawed her rings from her fingers and left her for dead. She was found by her son but died of cold while trying to escape a few hours later. Elsewhere, various members of the company found ways of warning their hosts. One is said to have addressed a warning to a large boulder (within earshot of his hosts) telling the stone that it would be very unwise to remain where it was that night. Another cut the finger from a child's hand so that he could show his sergeant the blood on the blade of his sword. It is not explained why he didn't find a less dramatic way of achieving the same result (and one which didn't leave him with a screaming child that was supposed to be dead) so that story may well be a just colourful tale but it is one which creates the possibility of an melodramatic sequel. Years later, that soldier, fallen on hard times, finds shelter in a highland home and confesses to having been a member of massacre detachment. His host is on the point of killing him when the soldier tells that story of the child spared. The host lowers his sword and holds up his hand to reveal a missing finger.
      In addition to the soldiers who were actually in Glencoe that night, two other detachments each of four hundred men were, according to the plan, to have converged on the escape routes. Both were late in taking up their positions. Whether this was by design, or by incompetence is not clear. The instructions gave timings which were peculiar to say the least. It is also possible that the snowstorm made arrival on time quite difficult - especially for those approaching over the Devil's Staircase from Kinlochleven to seal the eastern end of the glen. It is equally possible that they simply did not want to play any part in what they knew was a crime. Some took honour and insubordination further. Two lieutenants broke their swords rather than carry out their orders. They were arrested and imprisoned. Their names are not known for certain but Prebble suggests that they were Francis Farquhar and Gilbert Kennedy because these two later gave evidence for the prosecution against their superior officers. They should be remembered as honourable men.

      The massacre became a cause celébre and a commission of enquiry was set up. Under old Scots law there was a special category of murder known as "murder under trust" which was considered to be even more heinous than ordinary murder (if I may use such an expression). The Glencoe event was a clear example. After the Second World War, the victorious allies put those Nazis who still survived, on trial at Nuremburg. Much importance was attributed to the so-called Nuremburg Principle which was established there - that it is illegal to carry out an illegal order. This is exactly the principle which emerged in the aftermath of the Glencoe massacre.

Though the command of superior officers be very absolute, yet no command against the laws of nature is binding; so that a soldier, retaining his commission, ought to refuse to execute any barbarity, as if a soldier should be commanded to shoot a man passing by inoffensively, upon the street, no such command would exempt him from the punishment of murder.

      That is clear enough but the chief difficulty was finding where precisely in the chain of command such orders had their origin. Some neat political dance steps were then performed. The King was exonerated.
      The Scottish Parliament demanded the prosecution of various persons. Major Duncanson of the Argyll regiment had planned the detail of the massacre with Lt-Col James Hamilton deputy governor of Fort William garrison. They issued the fateful orders to Robert Campbell on the night prior to the massacre (carried by Captain Drummond). But by the time a commission of enquiry was set up, the Argyll regiment was in Flanders and had been surrendered ignominiously to the French by their General at Dixemude which placed them at least temporarily beyond the reach of Scottish Law. Duncanson subsequently was killed in action in Spain.
      Hamilton disappeared to Ireland. A person called Hamilton reappeared some time later in Edinburgh to plead the cause of his namesake but was dismissed as an embarrassment after which he vanished once more. Sir John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane, who had some involvement, was imprisoned by the Scottish parliament, but was released after a few months by the King. Several others escaped condemnation because the orders they had given had been sufficiently vague. In his absence Robert Campbell was condemned by the commission but he suffered no direct punishment other than what he inflicted on himself. He was a drunkard and died in poverty at Bruge. His family considered that he had bestowed upon them "the curse of Glencoe". Subsequently the Campbell Clan split into factions one of which supported the Jacobites and the other their opponents, the Protestant Hanovarians. At the battle of Sherriffmuir McDonalds and some Campbells fought shoulder to shoulder on the same side. So the tale about everlasting emnity between the clans is simply not true. Thomas Drummond also escaped questioning by being in Flanders where he served with distinction.

      The King, after much prevarication, declared that he was horrified by the affair and had known nothing of it at the time. This left Dalrymple, the Master of Stair as the main culprit. The Scottish Parliament had already identified him as such although this probably had more to do with the enemies this cunning man had created during his time as Sectretary of State. He had already resigned his post and now waited for years in calculated obscurity for the stir to pass. The King, no doubt embarrassed by his own culpability, punished no one and later, after the King's death, Dalrymple was re-appointed to various important positions (*4) (*5).


The END




FOOTNOTES

(*1) A civil war, a regal beheading, the formation of a republic, the restoration of the crown and an invasion.

(*2) It should be remembered that under Highland tradition, people were given names which were equivalent to a geneology. "Mac" means "son of" so a typical full name might read ... "Son of Iain, son of John, son of John ... ". Which is then abreviated to "Son of Iain". That explains why the chief of the Glencoe McDonalds was called MacIain.

(*3) The way regiments were raised is of some interest. Various members of the gentry raised their own companies - usually about sixty men of their own kith and kin. Robert Campbell, aged fifty nine at the time of the massacre and the oldest officer in the regiment, was not highly regarded as a soldier in some quarters. To this assortment of inexperienced soldiery would be added some companies of experienced professional soldiers to act as sergeants, drummers etc. Captain Drummond's company was of that kind.

(*4) Why does this seem depressingly familiar?

(*5) In 1706 Dalrymple played a leading role in negotiating the Treaty of Union (of the parliaments) with England and the end of Scotland's political independence very much against Scottish public opinion.


Sources: various popular history texts, but most particularly "Glencoe" by John Prebble which is highly recommended as a good read as well as a valued historical account. I have missed out a lot of detail, particularly about the other people who were involved in the planning of the massacre. In making this condensation it's possible I've missed out something important. If so, that's my fault, not Prebble's.

Copyright © Hugh Noble Feb 2000