Note 171 — ORIGINS OF THE ’FORTY-FIVE PAPERS OF JOHN MURRAY OF BROUGHTON

The Highland Regiment, originally the 43rd and afterwards the 42nd, was raised in the name of John, 20th Earl of Crawford (then lying wounded at Belgrade), in 1739, and first embodied 1740. It was sent to London in 1743, and there its members, who understood on enlistment that their service was for the Highlands only, were persuaded that the Government intended to send them to the plantations or to sell them into slavery. When encamped at Highgate more than two hundred of them left the camp by night in May 1743 and started to march to Scotland. They were overtaken and surrounded when near Oundle in Northamptonshire; they surrendered and were marched prisoners to the Tower. Three of their leaders were executed, Corporals Samuel and Malcolm Macpherson and private Farquhar Shaw, all of Clan Chattan.