The bayonets of Cumberland scarcely dealt a deadlier blow at Jacobitism than the spades which, in gentle and unaccustomed hands, buried the treasure of French gold at Loch Arkaig. About this fatal hoard, which set clan against clan, and, literally, brother against brother, something has been elsewhere said. But the unpublished reports given by spies and informers in the Cumberland Papers and the Record Office throw a great deal of unexpected light on the subject.

Our purpose is, first to offer what may be called official statements as to the original amount and hiding places of the treasure. Next we shall examine the stories as to the disposition and diffusion of the money. These will indicate that the charges of ‘embezzlement’ and ‘villainy’ brought by Young Glengarry against men so noted for their loyalty as Dr. Cameron and Cluny Macpherson are false. In our evidence will occur the testimony of informers, whose names, as they were persons of no historical importance, it seems needless to reveal. But their revelations were employed by Government in securing the condemnation and banishment of Lochiel’s brother, Cameron of Fassifern.

On the whole subject of the hoard we have several statements by Murray of Broughton. The least copious is contained in a tract which professes to be written by a friend of Murray; really it is from his own pen.[71]

Murray, who had been in very bad health since the Prince was in Elgin before Culloden, found himself skulking with Lochiel in a wood near Loch Arkaig. He heard at the same moment of Charles’s flight to the isles, which he condemned, and of the arrival of French ships with money. Most of the party resolved to scatter, but Lochiel declared ‘that to desert his Clan was inconsistent with his honour and their interest,’ and, by his desire, Murray remained with him, ‘unable to refuse the desire of a person for whom he had such a regard, and with whom he had lived so many years in the strictest intimacy.’ Major Kennedy, too, though, like other officers in French service, he might have surrendered safely, most generously clave to Lochiel. In later years Kennedy recovered for the Prince a remnant of the French louis d’or.

Murray was next carried to the bay opposite Keppoch, where the French ships were lying. They had been attacked by British vessels of war, but had previously landed 35,000 louis d’or in six (seven?) casks. One cask, however, was already missing. The five casks were conveyed to Murray, and of the stolen cask all but one bag of gold was recovered. Next day the Duke of Perth, who was dying, with his brother, Lord John Drummond, Elcho, old Sir Thomas Sheridan, the Prince’s tutor, the younger Lockhart of Carnwath, and others sailed for France in the ships. Murray paid Clanranald, Barisdale, and others their arrears, with allowances for widows and wounded men, out of the French gold. He then sent off the remainder of the hoard under Archy Cameron’s care, and returned to Loch Arkaig. Fifteen thousand louis were buried ‘in three several parcels in the wood,’ and the empty casks were filled with stones, and carried about with Murray, ‘so as to give no Jelousy to the other Clans of his having more confidence in the Camerons’ than in them. Near the foot of Loch Arkaig, Murray caused Dr. Cameron to bury 12,000 louis, reserving about 5,000 for expenses.

Murray travelled south and was captured in Tweeddale. On August 27, 1746, when in the Tower, he wrote to an English official, ‘last time I had the honour to see you, I offered to lay my hand upon the 15,000 louis d’or, and am still certain I can do so, but as the season is now advancing, and the parties will probably soon be called in, it is not in that event impossible but the money may be raised.’ (It was ‘raised’ by Dr. Cameron.) In his Examination (August 13, 1746) Murray had already betrayed the secret of the casks of gold. But the English could never discover the treasure.

Elsewhere, in a paper of accounts, Murray tells, in defence of his pecuniary honesty, all about the disposition of the louis d’or.

He accounts for various sums, including 40l. to Lochiel, who, like the gallant gentleman he was, had given every penny in his possession ‘to his own people about.’ Mr. Murray ‘chided him for being too easy to give money to whoever asked it.’ A sum of 3,868l. was buried in the garden of Mrs. Menzies of Culdairs. This, we presume, was the bulk of the 5,000 louis reserved. Murray corroborates (as in his tract) an anonymous informant’s story, presently to be given, about the stealing of a cask of money, and restitution made after confession to Father Harrison. The penitent however, an Irishman, kept 700l., as stated in the anonymous information. Murray reckons at 15,000l. a sum buried near Loch Arkaig, by Dr. Archibald Cameron, Young Macleod of Neuck, Sir Stewart Threipland, and Major Kennedy. There were fifteen bags containing 1,000l. each; one parcel was put under a rock, in a burn, and two in holes, near at hand, dug by the four gentlemen. Another sum of 12,000l., in two parcels, was carried by Dr. Cameron and Mr. Macleod, from Lochiel’s house of Achnacarry, and buried near the lower end of Loch Arkaig. Lochiel received 1,520l. for the Prince’s immediate needs, and the rest is scrupulously accounted for the unhappy Secretary. His stories are consistent throughout.[72]

Another description of the arrival and burial of the gold has never been published. It is from the Cumberland Papers, and must have been written about 1749-1750. This is proved by the writer’s mention of Barisdale as still alive, and in prison. Now young Barisdale (Archibald) is not meant, for he was not taken till 1753.[73] His father, Coll Macdonnell of Barisdale, on the other hand, was taken in March 1749, and died in Edinburgh Castle on June 1, 1750.[74]

We now offer this anonymous intelligence of 1749-1750, as to the arrival, burial, and later fortunes of the French gold.

Even before the probable date of this intelligence, Government knew that Cluny’s fidelity to his trust had embittered his relations with the Camerons of Glenevis and Glengarry’s people. There is a curious anonymous note of January 26, 1748,[77] written by a man who could spell, and was something of a scholar. ‘Scyphax,’ he says, ‘is still in the country and there are disturbances between him and the Dorians and Ætolians over the goods left by the Young Mogul.’ Scyphax is Cluny, the Dorians are the Camerons, the Ætolians are the Glengarrys; the Young Mogul is Prince Charles: ‘Nothing but stealing and plundering prevails in all quarters here.’ The writer may have been a Presbyterian minister.

The author of the long letter of intelligence is unknown, but he can hardly have been an English officer, like Ensign Small, who did much secret service in the Highlands. His name is always signed to his Reports, as when he tried to catch Lochgarry on shipboard, in 1753. The information, however obtained, is accurate, and, so far, entirely exculpates Cluny from the various unpleasant accusations brought by his enemies.[78] Major Kennedy really went from France to Newcastle, and received 6,000l. for Charles, a sum conveyed to him, at what peril we may imagine, by Macpherson of Breakachy.[79]

We now consider the various accounts given of embezzlement by Dr. Cameron and Cluny. It is certain that, in November or December, 1749, Young Glengarry, Lochgarry, and Dr. Cameron were in Cluny’s country, that they handled the treasure, that they quarrelled, and that they carried their dispute before the exiled James in Rome. Dr. Cameron accused Young Glengarry of obtaining the money by a forged order from James; while Glengarry charged Cluny and the Doctor with ‘embezzlement’ and ‘villainy.’ Cameron, he said, declared that the Royal Family had given up all hopes of a restoration, and told the Highlanders that they must now shift for themselves. He also took 6,000 louis d’or of the Prince’s money, ‘and I am credibly informed,’ says Glengarry, ‘that he designs to lay this money in the hands of a merchant in Dunkirk, and enter partners with him.’[80] Again, in an undated letter to Charles, of about March 1751, Glengarry denounces the embezzlement and ‘villainy’ of Cluny and Dr. Cameron.[81] He acknowledges having taken ‘a trifle’ himself. Another account, clearly from a Macdonnell source, occurs in old Gask’s hand, among his papers.[82] Dr. Cameron is here, as by Glengarry, credited with absorbing 6,000l., while Cameron of Glenevis is said to have ‘intercepted’ 3,000l., and Cluny, ‘for his estate’ gets 10,000l. This reads like a variant of Young Glengarry’s tale told to Bishop Forbes in April 1752. According to that version, Cluny and Lochiel took security from Charles for the full value of their estates before they joined the Royal Standard. This full value is the 10,000l. which Cluny is said to have ‘embezzled.’

Now the only independent evidence against Dr. Cameron is contained in a letter of his uncle, Cameron of Torcastle, to Prince Charles.[83] In this Torcastle denies that he himself touched the money, and avers that he knew nothing of it, till Dr. Cameron ‘told it himself at Rome, where I happened to be at the time’ (1750). This letter is singularly inconsistent with another unpublished letter from Douay, of August 28, 1751. The epistle was intended for Cameron of Glenevis, but was intercepted by Colonel Crawfurd, Governor of Fort William. The Colonel attributed its authorship to Cameron of Torcastle, and if the attribution be correct, the letter contradicts Torcastle’s accusations of his nephew, Dr. Cameron. Whoever the author of the Douay letter may be, he speaks of ‘the industrious malicious designs and scandalous untruths, publicly handed about against Lochiel’s family by Gl—ry.’ ‘Chalmers (Dr. Cameron) knows very well that when truth comes out, these people will fall with scandal into the trap they have contrived for others.... All that Chalmers (Dr. Cameron) saw or had access to was his expenses.’ The writer then speaks of the ‘unprecedented method Gl—ry &c. took to get att their sinister ends,’ and about Gl—ry’s misrepresentations of Chalmers to Mr. Young,’ the Prince. Singular irritation against Lochgarry is also expressed.[84]

On this showing Dr. Cameron got no 6,000l., but only his expenses. Now, that Dr. Cameron should receive his expenses was perfectly legitimate. But, if he took 6,000l., as Young Glengarry declares, his character is lost. In 1750, 6,000l. was a fortune. Dr. Carlyle, writing of that time, speaks about a minister who married a lady with a tocher of 4,000l., which then was equivalent to an estate. When executed in June 1753, Dr. Cameron left his family destitute. Consequently he cannot have helped himself to 6,000l., and put it into commerce, as Glengarry alleged. That he did nothing of the sort, we have the very curious evidence of an Informer in 1753. This man, declaring that he is afraid of being informed against by Young Glengarry, informs against him. He says, in his information:

‘In Sep. 1749 Dr. Cameron told him (the Informer) he had come over to get some money on behalf of Lochiel’s Family; That Fassfarn got from Clunie £6,000, took it to Edinburgh the following winter, and put it in the hands of John Mc.Farlane, W.S.[85] Dr. Cameron at the same time got £350: and Fassfarn £400 more to be employed in making good certain claims on the estate of Lochiel.

‘Says he saw Dr. Cameron a day or two after, who denied either he or Fassfarn had got any money, alledging that Cluny would not give it without orders from the Old Pretender: That the Doctor was off to Rome (1750) to get these, with only £100 for expenses. That the following winter he (the Informer) met Young Glengarry, who disproved this by giving him a copy of the Accounts in Clunie’s writing of all the money.’

Here follows Young Glengarry’s alleged copy of Cluny’s accounts:—

According to this statement, said to be produced as Cluny’s, Dr. Cameron did not receive 6,000l. for himself. The money went to the support of the exiled family of Lochiel, who had died in 1748. The large claims made by Cluny rest, as before, on the word of Young Glengarry.

In May 1753, Fassifern himself, then a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, was examined. He declined to give any evidence against anybody on any charge. He admitted that in 1749 he received 4,000l. from Evan Cameron of Drumsallie, now dead, for Lochiel’s family. He asked no questions, but deposited it with Mr. Macfarlane, W.S., who lent it out to Wedderburn of Gosford, in Fassifern’s name. Fassifern acted as a near relation for his exiled nephew, Lochiel’s son.

Thus the money which Dr. Cameron is said to have seized, was used for the support of Charles’s best friends, the family of his most renowned adherent. So vanishes the charge that Dr. Cameron speculated with the money.[87]

As to Cluny’s retention of money, the same difficulty occurs as in the case of Dr. Cameron. He arrived in France a destitute exile, when, by Charles’s command, he ceased to skulk in the caves of Ben Alder, and crossed to join the Prince in 1754. There is no trace of the value of an estate in his possession, though Charles, in ordinary gratitude, owed him much more than he is said to have claimed. Thus it is certain that Archibald Cameron did not help himself to the Prince’s money; while the story about Cluny is inconsistent both with his honourable poverty and with figures, for these accounts make no allowance for 6,000 louis, certainly conveyed to Charles by Major Kennedy. The whole scandal rests merely on the word of Young Glengarry.[88]