Jl'l 



MONTKOSE 



ninl r.-nil Chalmers, K.S.A. It him memories, too, 

 oT Kdward I., iln- two Mclvillm, the Great Marquis, 

 the Old Pretender, lr Johnson, and I.<ilii Monte/.. 

 A royal burgh .mil eailier, it unilm with 



Arbruath, Biechin, Forfar, ami K.ivie to return 

 one member to parliament. l'op. i |s.M i I 

 Is| M.'C.'I: (I Sill) 13,048. See Mitchell's Hit- 

 tori/ nf Mtiiitnaf (Montrose, 1866). 



Montr. >xc. .IVMKS GKUIVM, M H:<.U i- m. 

 Ix-liin^i-il tu a family which ran ) traced In. k 

 to tin- year Ilis, and which since l.'CJ.", ha<l IM-I-M 

 settled at Old Montrose, in Mary ton parish, l-'ur 

 farshire, near Mon trust- town. It hud been en- 



iniilf<l with tin- mil- ni Lord Gnhain ( 1461 ) and 



Earl of Montrosc ( I.Vl.")) ; and three <if its member* 

 had fallen at the haltlcs of Kalkirk. Fhxlden. ami 

 I'inkic : whilst aimther. Sir William Graham, 

 early in the l.~>th century married for hU second 

 wife Mary, daughter of Kobert III. a marriage 

 from which sprung the Grahams of ( 'laverhouse. 

 John, third Karl of .Mont HIM', was chancellor and, 

 after James VI. 's accession to the English crown, 

 viceroy ni Scotland. HU successor, .lulm, married 

 Lady Margaret Kut liven, eldest sister of the un- 

 fortunate Earl of Gowrie ; and the issue of this 

 union wax five daughters and one son. James, tin 1 

 'great maniuis. who was lxrn in 1612 at Old 

 M'intio-e. His mother died in KilS, his father- 

 in Iti'.'ti. Next year the young earl was sent to 

 the university of St Andrews by his guardian and 

 brother in law, Archibald Lord Napier, son of the 

 famous inventor of logarithms. He was proficient 

 in all field -sporta, and an apt if not ardent student, 

 besides exhibiting a genuine love of literature, 

 which his stormy after life never destroyed. In 

 Iti-Jli he married Magdalene Carnegie, daughter of 

 the first Earl of Southesk. and he lived at Kinnaird 

 Castle, his father-in-law's seat, till in I63.'{. on 

 attaining his majority, he left Scotland to travel 

 in Italv. France, ami the l,ow Countries. 



On liis way home, in !(>.'>. he had an audience 

 with Charles I., but, owing to the machinations of 

 th<- Marijtiis of Hamilton. wa> coldly received; and 

 he had not lieen long hack in Scot' land Iwfore by 

 the -eanninc-s ,,f K,,the' be was 'brought in' to 

 the ranks of the kings opponents, at this time 

 comprising the great mass of the Scottish nation. 

 M out rose returned in the very year i Iti.'iT I when 

 the tumults broke out in Edinburgh on the attempt 

 to introduce Laud's I'rayer-book ; and he was one 

 of the four noblemen .-elected to compose the 

 'Table' of the nobility, which, along with tin- 

 other Tables of the gentry, the burghs, ami the 

 ministers, drew up the famous National Covenant 

 (il.v.). In the summer ot HiUS he was despatched 

 to Alierdeen. to coerce it into siibm-rijilion ; and in 

 1639 he made three military expeditions thither. 



in the lii-t a-ion i .'Kith March i lie employed 



conciliation : llaillie laim-nt- his too ",ic:it 

 humanity. <ln tin . h Max. i he imposed 



on the city a line of Id.lHNl lucrks, but, i hough his 

 Boldiers comniitted some acts of pillage, he le-i-ted 

 the imiMirtunities of the Coi-enanting /ealotn to 

 ffive -.Siero/. ' to the llamcs, and llaillie again 

 complains of 'his too great lenity in sparing the 

 enemy's hou-.-. The arrival at Abcideen by sea 

 ol the Karl of Alxiync, Charles- lieutenant of the 

 north, with reinforcements, caused Mont rose to 

 retreat, followed by the earl ami the (,.,,, I. ,n High- 

 landers; but at \1. .! Hill, near Stonehaven. on 

 1.1th June, he won a complete victory, and four 

 days later, after storming the Bridge of Dee, he 

 once more master of Aberdeen. The citi/cn- 

 e\|Mi-ted slime- bloody punishment for their well- 

 known Kpiscopfilian leanings, but again Mont rose 

 agreeably .li-apiminted their fears, again to be 

 upbraided by the Committee of Estate* for not 

 having biiimil the town. 



now arrived of the 'pacification of lleiwick,' 

 and terininati-il the -t niggle in the north. Charles 

 invited several of the Covenanting nobles to meet 

 him at Ih-iwick. Among those who went as 

 Mont row; and th. i lian-dateil what they 



'1 as hi- apostasy from that inlet view. Hi- 

 UOliUoal position ;LS certainly different after his 

 let urn. In the (ieneial Assembly which met in 

 August 1U39 he showed symptoms of ili-ul)ection 

 towards the Covenant: and one night, it is aid, 

 a paper wan affixed on his chamliei door. 'In- 

 iiniiia. ffrlim rniritiir.' In the sei-onil Hi-hops' 

 War, when, on -Jdth August 1MO, J.'i.lHHt Scots 

 crosse<l the Tweel. Mont rose wa the (list 

 to plunge into the stream ; but that very month, 

 witli eighteen other nobles and gentlemen, he 

 had entered into a secret engagement at Cum- 

 bernauld against the dictatorship of Argyll, to 

 whom and the zealots Mont rose was as Imstile 

 now as he ever had been to Hamilton and the 

 sometime pretended prelate-.' It leaked out that 

 he had been secretly communicating with the king; 

 and when the Scottish parliament met i November 

 1040) he was cited to ap|icar before a commit 

 The affair of the 'Cninlicniauld Bond' was brought 

 up; but nothing came of it, though gome of the fiery 

 spirits among the clergy 'pressed,' says (iiithrie, 

 'that his life might go for it. 1 Next 'June Mon 

 trose with three others was accused of plotting 

 against Argyll, and confined till November in 

 Kdinburgh Castle. Clarendon's story that Mon 

 trose. about this period, offered to the king to 

 assassinate Argyll and Hamilton may safely be 

 set aside ; but to Hamilton he owed the i eject ion 

 of his two pro|H>sals in the following year to raise 

 the loyalist standard in the Highlands. 



In hil-l. however, he quitted his forced inaction 

 at < l.xl'ord, w here he had been residing \v iih ( 'harles, 

 and, disguised us a groom, made his way into 

 Perthshire, with the rank of lieutenant -general in 

 Scotland and the title of Manpiis of Montrose. 

 At I'.lair Athole he met 1'2<K) Scoto-Irish auxiliaries 

 under Alaster Maccoll Keitadie Macdonell ( Col- 

 kitto'), and placed himself at their head, the dans 

 i|uickly rallvmg round him. Marching south, on 1st 

 Septemlier lie fell on the Covenanting army, com- 

 manded by Lord Klcho, at Tip|iernmir. neat I'erth, 

 and gained a signal victory. He next defeated a 

 force of Covenanters at Aberdeen I l.'ith Septem- 

 ber), and took posse-si, m of the city, which was 

 this time abandoned for four days to all tin- 

 horrors of war. The approach of Argyll, at the 

 head of 40XX) men. compelled Monlro.se. whose 

 forces were far inferior ill numliers and discipline, 

 to rctieat. He plunged into the wilds of Bade- 

 noch. recrussed the tirampians, and suddenly 

 awieared in Angus, where he wasted the estates 

 ot more than one Covenanting noble. Having 

 obtained fresh supplies, he once more relit! 



v iierdecnshirc. with the view of raising the 

 (minions: narrowly escaped defeat a: 1 v v ie in 

 I he end of Octolicr ; and again withdrew into the 

 fa si news of the mountains. Argyll, I milled, 

 returned to Kdinburgh, and threw up his com 

 mission. Monti-one, receiving large accessions 

 from the Highland clans, planned a winter cam- 

 paign, marched south west ward into the country 

 of the CamplK'lls, devastated it frightfully, drove 

 Argyll himself irmu his castle at Inveiaray. and 

 then wheeled north intending to attack Inverness. 

 The ' Estates' at Kdinburgh were greatly alarmed, 

 and, raising a fresh army, placed it under the com- 

 mand of a natural son of Sir William Bnillie of 

 Lamington. He arranged to proceed by way of 

 I'erth, and take Montrose in front, while Argyll 

 should rally his vast array of vassals, and fall on 

 him in the rear. The royalist lender was in the 

 Great Glen of Alhin, the basin of the Caledonian 



