History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

THE RISING IN 1745 171
preferred it, and, like a young knight-errant, meant to try and save life by
seeking for a remedy for the smallpox, which, impartially visiting the palace
and the cottage, caused 60 per cent, of the infant mortality in England in
1746-50, and nearly as many in Scotland.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu went to Constantinople in 1717, and allowed
her son to be inoculated, after the custom she found prevailing in the East ; but
it was not readily adopted in Great Britain, and it was arranged that when
James had taken his medical degree in Edinburgh, he should study for a short
time in Paris, to learn the French practice in fevers, and this new mode—as far
as Europe was concerned—of combating the dreaded enemy, which carried off
three of his sisters and later two of his own children.
Galabank is mentioned as an ex-Provost of Annan, but it is not quite clear
which year he served.
It was in sight of his house, and over the bridge at Annan, that the wearied
and disappointed army of Prince Charles Edward, in 1745, continued their
retreat from England, where they had not found the support they had been
led to expect. No Prince had visited Annan since James VI. stayed at Newbie
Castle and hunted in the neighbourhood, although Charles I. was anxiously
expected at Caerlaverock Castle when it maintained a siege on his behalf.
Some volunteers undertook to guard the bridge, but fled at the first sound of the
pibroch ; and as part of the Prince's army halted for the night on Galabank's
land, James, the eldest of his sons at home, then fifteen, conveyed away all his
horses in front of the cavalry by the bridge to Limekilns, the house of a relative,
Carlile, who was attached to the cause of George II., lest their seizure should
compromise the owner in the eyes of the Government. 1 In an autobiography,
written in his old age, James relates how he returned in the morning " in time
to see the march of the clans towards Dumfries. The Prince walked at the
head of the Clan Macpherson, which defeated the Duke of Cumberland's troops
in a skirmish, and gave some check to the advance of the punitive force."
He describes Prince Charles Edward as " tall, fair, and his whole demeanour,
affable and princely. Though possessed of courage and address, he had not
enough to succeed in his arduous undertaking. He was not forward in battle,
and left the field at Culloden too soon (but his friends obliged him to do soj.
In repassing the Esk, Dec. 21, on his retreat, he carried on a high horse a
Highlander behind him, and returned back again and brought a second in like
manner ; this was gracious, and encouraged his people to pass the river, which
was breast high. The vanguard of their horse, under Lord Kilmarnock,
suddenly drew up the same day before my father's door, accompanied by Mr
Lawson," etc.
1 In Glimpses of Peebles, by the Rev. A. Williamson, there is a letter from the
Marchioness of Annandale, then a widow for the second time, dated Jan. 17, 1746, from
Comlongan Castle, describing the Highlanders on their march : " My dear boys," she writes,
"being at home, was an amusement to me in such disturbances as this country was in
when they returned on Dec. 21, the day my house was visited by 3 A.M., when a captain
and five men entered the house and stayed till 7. They asked for arms and horses—
the former I had none. Then they went to the stables and would have taken all my mares
but Mr Hoggan pleaded hard for them, and said I was afflicted with gout, and had no way