122 Transactions. 



a check at Annan water, no effort was made to oppose the rebels 

 or to defend the burgh. Most of you are conversant with the 

 incidents which took place in Dumfries at this time, but I think 

 it will be of interest to hear Mr Fergusson's account of them. 

 On ISth December lie wrote to the Duke as follows : — 

 " Upon Monday last there was a meeting at Dumfries of the 

 gentlemen and clergy, when we received intelligence that the 

 Duke of Cumberland had come up with ye rebels near Lancaster, 

 yt his vanguard had beat a party of ym and driven ym into yt 

 toun, where he had ye main body inclosed, yt the Duke of Perth 

 with 110 horse, among ym ye Pretender's son and a good many 

 of ye chiefs were said to be, had got away, and were come upon 

 Saturday night last to Shap, yt an express was come to Penrith 

 on Sunday morning from the Duke desiring the country might 

 rise and take care of ye stragglers, and that he would take care of 

 ye main body. This account yt was confirmed by several letters 

 determined ye meeting to agree to raise a considerable body of 

 the best men in this shire and the neighbouring parishes of the 

 Stewartry of Kirkcudbright to secure all the passes in the county. 

 The Presbytery of Penpont are to meet at Thornhill to-morrow, 

 when I intend to make up a company of at least 100 men out of 

 your Grace's tenants in ye parishes of Kirkconnel, Sanquhar, 

 Durisdeer, and Morton. These, I believe, will be sufficient at 

 present, and are as uaany as I can get any way armed. 



" A subscription was set on foot last week by some people at 

 Dumfries for raising a sum of money to levy men for six months 

 for recruiting ye regiments now in Scotland at ye expense of £i 

 bounty money to each man. It was proposed to me to write to 

 your Grace concerning it. I declined yt till ye scheme should be 

 approven by a public meeting of ye gentlemen, and, indeed, I 

 thought altogether unnecessary to give you the trouble of a letter 

 concerning it, as the time fixed by ye proclamation ^viz., to the 

 25th inst. — for enlisting men to be discharged at the end of six 

 months must be elapsed before any return from your Grace could 

 be expected. I own I also disapproved the scheme. First, 

 because I saw no probability of getting even ye small number 

 which were proposed, being 120 men, to enlist in a place so thinly 

 inhabited, and where there are so few manufactures as in this 

 country , secondly, because I thought it would take to enlist even 

 yt number a sum yt in ye pi'esent scarcity of money could not 

 well be spared here in case ye Militia should be ordered to rise ; 



