Note 301 — AN ACCOUNT OF THE LATE REBELLION FROM ROSS AND SUTHERLAND WRITTEN BY DANIEL MUNRO MINISTER OF TAIN

There were three Macdonells all bearing the designation of Barisdale in the ’Forty-five, who are often confused, and who for distinction’s sake may be termed here, Old Barisdale, Young Barisdale, and Youngest Barisdale.

Old Barisdale was Archibald Macdonell, an uncle of Glengarry and a brother of Scotus. He paid his respects to Prince Charles at Glenfinnan, but took no active part in the Rising, probably being too old to go out. In May 1746, however, his house was burned down by Cumberland’s order, and he was carried prisoner on board a ship of war, but was soon released. He died in 1752.

Young Barisdale was Archibald’s eldest son, Coll Macdonell, who is a prominent figure in the rising. He was born in 1698. A man of commanding talent, he filled the rôle of Highland cateran to perfection, and raised a following absolutely devoted to him. He became captain of the watch and guardian of the marches for western Inverness-shire, a vocation (similar to that of his great prototype, Rob Roy) which he exercised with rigour and occasional cruelty. He was able to purchase several wadsets, which gave him territorial importance in the western Highlands. He further strengthened his influence in Ross-shire by his marriages, his first wife being a daughter of George Mackenzie of Balmuchie, and his second wife a sister of Alexander Mackenzie, then laird of Fairburn. He joined Prince Charles at Aberchalder on 27th August at the head of Glengarry’s Knoydart men, fought at Prestonpans, and when the Prince went to England he and Angus Macdonell, Glengarry’s second son, were sent back to the Highlands to raise more men. Barisdale greatly disliked his first cousin Lochgarry, who commanded the Glengarry battalion, so he managed to raise a regiment of his own. (Murray’s Mem., pp. 280, 441.) He fought at Falkirk, but was not at Culloden, being absent on service in Ross-shire. In June he was captured and taken prisoner along with his son to Fort Augustus, and there he received a ten days’ protection on condition of giving certain information to Government. For this he was seized by the Jacobites, carried prisoner to France, and confined at St. Malo and Saumur for two years and four months; was not attainted in 1746, but was excluded from the Act of Indemnity in 1747. He returned to Scotland in February 1749, but was again arrested by Government, taken to Edinburgh Castle, and kept a close prisoner without trial until his death, 1st June 1750. A friendly account of this remarkable man will be found in the History of Clan Donald, iii. 337; and an unfriendly one in Mr. Lang’s Companions of Pickle, p. 97.

Youngest Barisdale was Coll’s eldest son, Archibald, who was not quite twenty years old at the beginning of the adventure. He acted as major of the Glengarry regiment. His name was included in the list of attainders in 1746, apparently in mistake for his father. He was made prisoner along with his father in 1746, first by Government and afterwards by the Jacobites; he was carried to France, where he was held in durance for a year. He returned to Scotland, and in 1749 was again imprisoned by Government along with his father, but was immediately released. Once more he was arrested in 1753, at the time when Dr. Archibald Cameron was taken and executed. Barisdale was tried and sentenced to death in March 1754, but reprieved. He was kept a prisoner until 1762, when he was finally released. At his own request he at once took the oath of fealty to Government, and accepted a commission in the 105th Regiment (the Queen’s Own Royal Highlanders), which was disbanded the following year. He died at Barisdale in 1787.