Clan Donald Magazine No13 (1995) Online
Alastair Mor
by D. Rory MacDonald
He
was described as a man of "gigantic stature, being the tallest man
in Scotland and not less celebrated for his brave exploits than his
prodigious height." Indeed after his first trial in Aberdeen, part
of his appeal was that he had been manacled in Court and that this
was contrary to normal Court procedure. Living however in the
troubled times of James VII and King William, Alastair Mor seems to
have been like his contemporaries Rob Roy MacGregor and James
Macpherson, as much a hero and cult figure to the Highlanders -
especially those who supported the Stuarts as he was a hated robber
and villain to the lairds and farmers of Moray and the Mearns, who
supported King William and whose cattle he 'lifted.'
Alastair Mor, as he was called, was a MacDonald from Glen Roy and
when he was a young man, his clan, the MacDonalds of Keppoch claimed
to hold their lands by the sword and they revelled in the freedom
which had returned to the Western Highlands following the removal of
Cromwell's hated garrison at
Inverlochy. He
would have been trained in many cattle-lifting forays, including the
famous and dramatic 'spulzie' into Angus, when they lifted and
successfully drove back across the mountains the cattle of Lindsay
of Glen Esk. That raid in 1667 was a deliberate challenge to their
Mackintosh enemies, who claimed the Keppoch lands. The Mackintosh,
who had married Lindsay's daughter, was to avenge that insult with a
massive invasion of Keppoch but after a brief occupation he had to
return to his own new house at Dunachton and the raids continued.
For Alastair Mor, as for many Highlanders whose own inhospitable
glens were ill suited to farming, cattle were "God's creatures made
for the use of man, for which the earth yields grass and herbs in
plenty without the labour of man and therefor they ought to be in
common."
The
relatively easy days for the western clans came to an end with the
so called "glorious revolution" of 1689 and the arrival of William
of Orange. The Keppoch MacDonalds had had one final moment of glory
when they fought and won their last clan battle against the
Mackintoshes in 1688. A year later they were out with Dundee and
then after Killiecrankie, were forced to watch the slow collapse of
the Stuart cause, culminating in the establishment of a new fort and
garrison at Inverlochy, now Fort William , and the savage example of
the massacre of Glen Coe.
We
have no record of Alastair Mor's age. Clan tradition has it that he
was at Mulroy, the great battle with the Mackintoshes. If so he may
have been at Killiecrankie and he would certainly have been with the
Glencoe and Keppoch MacDonalds in their raid on Glen Lyon which so
inflamed the Campbell Earl of Breadalbane before the massacre. He
would also have been with his chief, Coll, when he had burnt the
Mackintosh's house at Dunachton during the campaign before
Killiecrankie. Now a hostile government in Edinburgh and a powerful
garrison in Fort William had avenged Breadalbane and were determined
also to avenge the Mackintosh. The next ten years were to be years
of outlawry and bare survival for Coll of Keppoch and his clan. For
Alastair Mor they were to present a need and an opportunity to leave
his embattled clan and establish himself elsewhere.
The
first major affray, in which Alastair Mor is mentioned in the
records of the time is the infamous Lovat rape case. Simon Fraser of
Beaufort, later the celebrated Lovat of the '45 attempted to
legitimise his claim to the Lovat title by seizing the widow of the
previous chief and forcibly 'marrying her'. In the subsequent
inquiries into the seizure of the lady and the capture of her
brothers and others sent to protect and avenge her, there are the
names of many Fraser tacksmen and others outlawed for assisting
Simon Fraser. The only names of accomplices outwith the clan are
those of Alastair Mor and of Angus the brother of his chief, Coll.
The Fraser historians give Alastair Mor credit for much of the
success of these campaigns and both he and Simon Fraser subsequently
escaped capture. What they do not say however but what came out in
the enquiries is that while they were successfully helping Simon
Fraser, their chief, Coll was simultaneously seeking favour with the
government and Lady Lovat's powerful father, the Earl of Atholl, by
offering to capture Fraser. Clearly as in many contemporary
affrays with the MacGregors the campaigns of these declared
'outlaws' were carefully co-ordinated.
When
Alastair Mor left Glen Roy, he established himself on the upper
Avon, above the present village of Tomintoul. The sheilings of
Inchrory provided good summer grazings but more importantly they are
protected from behind by the bulk of Cairngorm, while there is
easy access down
the Don to the flat lands of Buchan and down the Spey to the Laigh
of Moray, where in the words
of an earlier
Lochiel "all men take their prey." Politically, it was also a good
choice. It was part of the estate of the Jacobite Duke of Gordon and
the tacksman was Gordon of Camdell, not only the Duke's bailie but
the husband of Silis, the sister of Coll of Keppoch.
It is
not possible now to disentangle the mixture of politics, cattle
lifting and protection that involved bands like that of Alastair Mor.
There had always been an element of what became known as "Black
Meal" or blackmail. Some lairds and farmers were probably friendly
and themselves supporters of King James, many like Breadalbane
accepted the "payment of the Watch, which is neadfull to preserve
our friends and tenants from having their throats cut or being
harried." Others like the Lord Forbes, a leading Whig and Strachan
of Glenkindie refused to pay and suffered in consequence. These were
the seven ill years of famine, with the crops failing across
Scotland from the summer of 1695 and men like Lord Forbes must have
been especially bitter at the inability of the authorities to
protect them and by the tacit support given to their plunderers.
It
was the same when the blackmailers were finally caught. Rob Roy was
continually shielded by Breadalbane. James Macpherson was indeed
hanged at the Bridge of Banff in November 1709 but tradition and the
famous ballad has it that his enemies only managed to carry out the
hanging by altering the clock so that they could anticipate the
arrival of his pardon. When Alastair Mor was himself betrayed and
captured on a visit to Keppoch, there were again many who were
determined to intervene on his behalf. In a dramatic series of
trials, he was to be convicted again and again but on each occasion
reprieved from hanging. Whether it was the threats of his supporters
still active in Inchrory or whether it was the concern of many in
high places that his conviction seemed "political" at a time when
the Stuart Queen Anne was the heir to the throne - on each occasion
he was to survive. Lord Forbes in one letter makes it clear that
even Alastair himself did not expect to escape with his life; "he
was in a very good temper when expecting death and confesses
all that was
proven against him and much more that he now denies."
Alasdair was taken in October or November 1700 and sent to the
Tolbooth in Edinburgh. There was great rejoicing in Aberdeenshire on
his capture; "from his youth up to now this many years, beginning
with the rebellion against his majesty, he hath been a continual
depredator and ring-leader of Robbers, robbing with convocations of
armed men and wresting the poor country in all corners thereof." It
took a year however before he was brought to trial before the
Commissioners for Northern Justice in Aberdeen. He appeared on Nov
23 on a single charge of "breaking and robbinga house and tying man
wyffe and famillie. The assyse found the libel proven but there
being only one cryme, it was thought fit to prorogat sentence
against him, he being guilty of a great many oyr crimes. Therefor
the fiscall of court gave him a new indytment for 13 oyr roberries
all heinious." He was tried for these on Dec. 16th, again convicted
and condemned to death.
The
grounds of Alastair's appeal to the Scottish Privy Council were
various. He had been manacled in court; they had been unable to find
a Gaelic speaking lawyer and his defence had ultimately been
conducted by a man who had never appeared in a court before. Perhaps
however more significant was his appeal for clemency on the grounds
that "he had proceeded either from necessity or his blind complyance
with and following those on whom the petitioner depended. By the
time the court met, Lord Forbes was in a fury of letter writing,
condemning those "my relations and allies should have made such
appearance, I may say in the face
of Justice. They
have amazed the world as if the government had a mind to maintain
this famous robber and villain Alastair More." The Privy Council met
on Jan 13th and on the Chancellor's casting vote, Lord Forbes
appeared to triumph and Alastair was condemned to die. A few days
later however they reversed their decision and the sentence was
commuted to banishment. The Aberdeen Commissioners promptly
arraigned him again on fresh charges and meanwhile they appealed to
King William against the Privy Council's decision. Again the
Aberdeen court found him guilty and the sombre reply from the king
in London was that he "had not pardoned robbery or thefts in England
or in Holland and would not begin in Scotland." Then on March the
eighth King William himself died.
Queen
Anne ordered that the latest verdict from Aberdeen should be
investigated by the Privy Council, noting that even the Aberdeen
Commissioners were not united in their verdict on these charges.
Again the death sentence was waived and finally on July 23rd,
Alastair Mor was sentenced to banishment and the Earl Marischal, a
noted north-eastern Jacobite found caution of �500 until a passage
was found for him. Alastair Mor does not appear again in the Public
Records and five years later the Scots Privy Council itself was to
be abolished. The genealogy of Alastair's family, the MacDonalds of
Bohuntin, compiled almost two hundred years later, has a brief note
- Alastair Mor, banished to Holland for his part in the battle of
Mulroy.
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