Young Pretender’s last stand

How Scotland’s most recent pitched battle affected life in Angus almost 280 years ago remains a matter of some interest.

The issue was explored by late author David W Potter in an entry in his copious compendium Forfar On This Day, which was published in 2021, in which he examined surviving evidence in the county town of newspaper coverage of the bloody Battle of Culloden on April 16 1746.

Looking at the ramifications on his home patch of the final defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie by a British government force under Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, at the Battle of Culloden near Inverness, Mr Potter wrote: “It marked the beginning of troubled times for Forfar, particularly those Forfarians who had sided with the Chevalier.

“Lord Ogilvy’s Regiment called the Forfarshires had fought in the Jacobite army and were 800 strong. The battle was of course a total rout, but it was what happened afterwards in the pogrom of the Duke of Cumberland that was even worse – and Forfar was not spared.

“The Episcopalians were the main subject of the persecution. Forfar at that time did not have a formal Episcopalian church or place of worship, but they had a secret meeting house, in East High Street, and a clergyman called William Seaton.

“Had Forfar had a church of Episcopalian worship it would have been burned down, as happened in many other towns at the hands of the victorious and unforgiving Hanoverians. They were backed up by the Presbyterians – similarly not renowned for their magnanimity or religious tolerance.

“All Episcopalian clergy were asked to sign a statement renouncing the Stuarts and swearing an oath of allegiance to King George II. They refused of course, and until more tolerant times returned, the Episcopalians were always on the run, having to worship in the open sometimes.”

The teacher and historian concluded: “The lack of any definite evidence of what went on in the Church in those days is perhaps an indication that these were indeed bloody times, but not only did the Episcopalian Church survive, so too, in a funny sort of way, did the Jacobite Rebellion flourish in the romantic fiction of it all, and it did bequeath us a whole collection of lovely Jacobite songs and music.

“Fifty years later Robert Burns, himself the grandson of a Jacobite, collected all these songs and of course wrote some himself.”

From Bella Simmers’ photo collection, pupils at Kilmany School in Fife dressed for a play with the church manse behind – see below.