Memorandum relative to the Capture of 

 Colonel Henry Ker of Graden, after Culloden. 



By Rev. James Fleming Leishman, M.A. 



Three years ago I published^ a short account of the career 

 of Henry Ker of Graden, the Teviotdale Jacobite (1698-1751), 

 in the opinion of the late Mr Andrew Lang,^ with the exception 

 of Lord George Murray, probably the most active and efficient 

 officer in the Prince's army. Various documents have since 

 been unearthed which cast fresh light upon his capture. It 

 is with these I now propose to deal. After Culloden, fought 

 16th April, 1746, and the fruitless rendezvous at Ruthven in 

 Badenoch, Colonel Ker set his face for the Braes of Angus. 



Being full moon, the fugitive had ample light to speed him 

 on his way. His destination was Kincaldrum House, about 

 six miles South-east of Forfar, on the Dundee road. Its 

 owner, Alexander Bower of Meathie and Kincaldrum, through 

 his wife, Margaret St. Clair of Roslin, was Henry Ker's 

 cousin-german. Alike in religion and politics Ker and 

 Bower had many ties in common. The Bowers were an 

 ancient Roman Catholic family, and claimed to derive their 

 surname from a valiant Knight of the Middle Ages, who, in 

 the third Crusade, distinguished himself under Coeur de Lion, 

 repelling a sortie of the Saracens in 1191, For arms, they 

 bore two bows and three quivers of arrows, with the motto 

 Ad Metam. Ker and Bower had served togetlier in the 



^ "A Son of Knox, and other Studies, Antiquarian and Biographical," 

 Maclehose, Glasgow, 1909. 

 * Letter penes me. 



