Kenneth Lord Duffus was another of those noblemen who had already
established a character for personal bravery. He was a person of great
skill in maritime affairs, and was promoted by Queen Anne to the command
of the Advice ship of war, with which, in 1711, this gallant Highlander
engaged eight French privateers, and after a desperate resistance of
some hours, he was taken prisoner, after receiving five balls in his
body.
He was, however, released in time to engage in the Rebellion of 1715;
and though it does not appear that he took any followers to fight
beneath the Chevalier's standard, he was included in the Act of
Attainder. The intelligence was communicated to Lord Duffus when he was
in Sweden. He resolved immediately to surrender himself to the British
Government, and declared his intention to the British Minister at
Stockholm, who notified it to Lord Townshend, Secretary of State.
Notwithstanding this manly determination, Lord Duffus was arrested on
his way to England, at Hamburgh, and was detained there until the time
specified for surrendering had expired. He thence proceeded to London,
where he was confined more than a year in the Tower, but released in
1717, without being brought to trial. Lord Duffus died, according to
some accounts, in the Russian service; to others, in that of France. He
married a Swedish lady, and attained to the rank of Admiral.[75]
Such were some of those Jacobite chieftains whose history has sunk into
obscurity, partly from the difficulty of obtaining information
concerning their career, after the contest was at an end. Amongst those
who met Lord Mar in the hunting-field, but who afterwards became
neutral,[76] although most of his clan joined in the Rebellion, was the
Earl of Errol, one of a family whose fame for valour was dated from the
time of the Danish invasion. The origin of the House of Errol is
curious, and marks the simplicity of the times. An aged countryman,
named Hay, and his sons, had arrested the progress of the ruthless
conquerors in a defile near Lanearty in Perthshire. The old man was
rewarded by Kenneth the Third with as much land in the Carse of Gowrie
as a falcon from a man's hand flew over until she lighted. The bird flew
over a space of six miles, which was thence called Errol, and which is
still in possession of the family; and the old man and his sons were
raised from the rank of plebeians by the assignment of a coat of arms,
on which were three escutcheons, gules, to denote that the father and
the two sons had been the shields of Scotland. The family grew in wealth
and estimation, and the office of Hereditary High Constable of Scotland
was added to their other honours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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