John Mackenzie, Son of George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie

George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie, was initially reluctant to ‘come out’ for Prince Charles Edward Stuart but was persuaded by kinsmen including the ‘Old Fox’, Simon Fraser. He handed George, a young man, his great-great-grandfather’s sword, modestly entitled ‘The Triumphing Sword of the Clan Mackenzie’ and instructed him to support his Prince. This, plus a strong sense of being a Highlander in debt to the Hanoverian tax man, encouraged both him and his son John to join the Prince’s forces.

John kept a diary of the ’45 Rising until he was captured and this fascinating document, now in Register House in Edinburgh, illustrates numerous problems that the Jacobite forces, often ill equipped and poorly paid, had to deal with. It also describes the Battle of Falkirk where the Earl and his son urged the Jacobite forces to give chase to the fleeing Hanoverians. John laconically described the Highland troops as 'standing around congratulating themselves rather than pursuing the enemy’. He was not enamoured by the French artillery officers either, who seemed more fond of brandy than gunpowder. In some ways it was a miracle that they got as far as they did.

He was captured with his force of 400-500 hundred men after the Battle of Meikle Ferry on the southern shore of the Dornoch Firth whilst George, after nominally capturing Dunrobin Castle and having a glass of wine with the Countess of Sutherland (who had Jacobite sympathies), was surprised when General Louden came to demand Cromartie’s surrender. He attempted to hide behind a curtain with the Countess standing in front. Unfortunately, he left a foot sticking out. One of Louden’s officers proclaimed ‘My Lady has three legs’ and George was taken prisoner with his son and the remainder of his troop.

Both were taken down by ship to the Tower of London; George was imprisoned in the Bloody Tower and John in the Wakefield Tower. Georges wife, Isabella Gordon, known as ‘Bonnie Belle’ who was six months pregnant at the time, rode in three days from Castle Leod to the Tower to appeal for their release. It was an extraordinary feat of stamina and horsemanship considering the so-called ‘roads’ in those days. Well aware that the sentence for High Treason was death, upon arrival she ordered ‘suits of mourning’.

Bonnie Belle, however, was made of stern stuff; she managed to get a Petition together and succeeded in presenting this to the King George II outside Kensington Palace chapel.

At the trial of the four Jacobite peers of Lovat, Balmarino, Kilmarnock and Cromartie, sentence was a forgone conclusion. Their convictions led to attainder and their estates were confiscated. Contemporary prints show the scene of Lord Lovat’s beheading on Tower Hill with the scaffold surrounded by thousands of spectators. Bonnie Belle, however, was made of stern stuff; she managed to get a Petition together and succeeded in presenting this to the King George II outside Kensington Palace chapel. Surrounded by ‘wailing children’, she fainted at the King’s feet, whereupon he lifted her up. 

She was aided by the King’s eldest son, Frederick Prince of Wales, and his wife, who not only took pity on poor Bonnie Belle but actively worked against the King. Public reaction to the aftermath of Culloden and the rather loathsome ‘Butcher Cumberland’s’ slaughter of innocents and wounded had worked in Cromartie’s favour and his death sentence was commuted to life in exile in Devonshire. He lived mainly in Honiton, where there is still a Cromartie Drive, but died in poverty in Walpole Street, London. Until his death his wife and family received no money from Cromartie’s estate save what was smuggled out of the now Hanoverian-run Cromartie Estate by their loyal factor.

Having seemingly lost all, it was then spectacularly regained by John. He spent many years as a soldier in Sweden, attaining a high rank and becoming an Earl Marishal as well as being created ‘Count Cromartie of Sweden’. His return to Scotland was welcomed by the government who recognised his military brilliance. Together with his brother, George, they raised what was then known as ‘Lord Macleod’s Regiment of Foot’, later to become the Highland Light Infantry. The MacLeod title, a courtesy one, is still held by the Chief of the Mackenzies.

John and George were sent off with the Highland Light Infantry to fight in India against Hyder Ali where they had numerous battles and near escapes. John managed to persuade the British Government that Highland troops were better fighting machines if dressed in lighter uniforms more suitable to the tropics than to damp and cold Scotland! Unfortunately, George was killed and is buried in Madras. John eventually returned home as a Major General and in 1784 managed to buy back Cromartie Estate for the relatively huge sum of £19,000; this was the amount of back-tax owed to the Hanoverian Government. He made Castle Leod his home as well as that of the more comfortable and modern, Tarbat House. On his death, the estates passed to his eldest sister, Isabella. Several generations of daughters owned the estates thereafter; upon marriage, their husbands assumed the Mackenzie name thereby giving precedence to their wives’ lineage.

It was not until Queen Victoria made Anne Hay-Mackenzie The Countess of Cromartie in her own right, that the titles were restored. A marriage to the Duke of Sutherland brought much needed cash to the impoverished estates and work began to restore Castle Leod to its former prestigious status.