Leith.] THE HIGHLAND MUTINEERS ON THE SHORE. 195 - .
the battery guns facing the city-which was filled
with consternation-while a rather helpless force of
cavalry took possession of the Castle HilL The
crisis was, indeed, a perilous one, as the vaults of
the fortress were full of French and Spanish prisoners
of war, while a French squadron was cruising off the
mouth of the Forth, and had already captured some
vessels. Next day the company capitulated, all
save one, who, with his claymore, assailed an officer
of the Ioth, who struck him down and had him
made a prisoner.
The cavalry occupied the fortress until the arrival
of Lord Lennox?s regiment, the 26th or Cameronians,
when?a court-martial was held. One Highlander
was sentenced to be shot, and another to
receive a thousand lashes ; but both were forgiven
on condition of serving beyond the seas in a battalion
of the line.
Another mutiny occurred in the April of the
following year.
Seventy Highlanders enlisted for the 42nd and
71st (then known as the Master of Lovat?s
Regiment) when marched to Leith, refused to
embark, a mischievous report having been spread
that they were to be draughted into a Lowland
corps, and thus deprived of the kilt; and so much
did they resent this, that they resolved to resist to
death. On the evening they reached Leith the
following despatch was delivered at Edinburgh
Castle by a mounted dragoon :-
(? To Governor Wemyss, or the Commanding
Officer of the South Fencible Regiment. 7
? Headquarters, Apri!, I 7 79.
? SrR,-The draughts of the 71st Regiment
having refused to embark, you will order 200 men
of the South Fencibles to march immediately to
Leith to seize these mutineers and march them
prisoners to the castle of Edinburgh, to be detained
there until further orders.-I am, &c.,
? JA. AmLPnus OUGHTON.?
In obedience to this order from the General
Commanding, three captains, six subalterns, and
zoo of the Fencibles under Major Sir James
Johnstone, Bart., of Westerhall, marched to Leith
on this most unpleasant duty, and found the
seventy Highlanders on the Shore, drawn up in
line with their backs to the houses, their bayoiiets
fixed, and muskets loaded. Sir James drew up his
detachment in such a manner as to render escape
impossible, and then stated the positive orders he
would be compelled to obey.
His words were translated into Gaelic by Sergeant
Ross, who acted as interpreter, and who,
after some expostulation, turned to Sir James,
saying that all was over-his countrymen would
neither surrender nor lay down their arms. On
this Johnston?e gave the order to prepare for firing
-but added, ?Recover ams.?
A Bighlander at that moment attempted to
escape, but was seized by a sergeant, who was
instantly bayoneted, while another, coming to the
rescue with his pike, was shot. The blood of the
Fencibles was roused now, and they poured in
more than one volley upon the Highlanders, of
whom twelve were shot dead, and many mortally
wounded. The fire was returned promptly enough,
but with feeble effect, as the Highlanders had only
a few charges given to them by a Leith porter;
thus only two Fencibles were killed and one
wounded ; but Captain James Mansfield (formerly
of the 7th or Queen?s Dragoons), while attempting
to save the latter, was bayoneted by a furious
Celt, whose charge he vainly sought to parry with
his sword. A corporal shot the mutineer through
the head: the Fencibles-while a vast crowd of
Leith people looked on: appalled by a scene so unusual-
now closed up with charged bayonets, disarmed
the whole, and leaving the Shore strewn
with dead and dying, returned to the Castle with
twenty-five prisoners, and the body of Captain
Mansfield, who left a widow with six children, and
was interred in the Greyfriars churchyard.
The scene of this tragedy was in front of the
old Ship Tavern and the tenement known as the
Britannia Inn.
After a court-martial was held, on the 29th ot
May, the garrison, consisting of the South and West
Fencibles and the cavalry, paraded on the Castle
Hill, in three sides of a hollow square, facing inwards.
With a band playing the dead march, and
the drums muffled and craped, three of these Highland
recruits, who had been sentenced to death,
each stepping slowly behind his open coffin, were
brought by an escort down the winding pathway,
under the great wall of the Half-moon Battery,
and placed in the open face of the square by the
Provost-marshal. They were then desired to kneel,
while their sentence was read to them-Privates
Williamson and MacIvor of the Black Watch, and
Budge of the 7 1st-to be shof fo death f
The summer morning was bright and beautiful ;
but a dark cloud rested on every face while the
poor prisoners remained on their knees, each man
in his coffin, and a Highland officer interpreted the
sentence in Gaelic. They were pale and composed,
save Budge, who was suffering severely from wounds
received at Leith, and looked emaciated and
ghastly. Their eyes were now bound up, and the
firing party were in the act of taking aim at the
.
196 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
prisoners, who were praying intently, when Sir
Adolphus Oughton stepped forward, and, displaying
pardons, exclaimed, c( Recover arms.?
?? Soldiers,? he added, ?? in consequence of the
distinguished valour of the Royal Highlanders, to
which two of these unfortunates belong, his Majesty
has been graciously pleased to forgive them all.?
So solemn and affecting was the scene that the
prisoners were incapable of speech. Reverently
lifting their bonnets, they endeavoured to express
engaged in commercial speculations by which he
realised a considerable sum of money, and adopting
the cause of the revolted colonists in America, was
appointed first lieutenant of the Ayred, on board
of which, to use his own words, ?he had the
honour to hoist with his own hands the flag of
freedom, the first time it was displayed in the
Delaware.? After much fighting in many waters,
he obtained from the French Government command
of the Dztras, a 42-gun ship, which he named
ST. NINIAN?S CHURCH.
their gratitude, but their voices failed them, and,
overcome by weakness and the revulsion of feeling,
the soldier of the 7 1st sank prostrate on the ground.
More than forty of their comrades who were shot,
or had died of mortal wounds, were interred in the
old churchyard of St. Mary?s at Leith, and a huge
grassy mound long marked the place of their last
repose.
The next source of consternation in Leith was
the appearance of the noted Paul Jones, with his
squadron, in the Firth in the September of the
same year.
This adventurer, whose real name was John Paul,
son of a gardener in Kirkcudbright, became a seaman.
about 1760, and as master and supercargo
lk Ban Honime Rich~d, and leaving St. Croix
with a squadron of seven sail (four of which deserted
him on the way), he appeared off Leith with
three, including the Pallas and the Vengeance. It
was on the 16th of September that they were seen
working up the Firth by long tacks, against astormy
westerly breeze, but fully expecting, as he states,
?to raise a contribution of ~zoo,ooo sterling on
Leith, where there was no battery of cannon to
oppose our landing.?
Terror and confusion reigned supreme in Leith,
yet, true to their old instincts, the people made
some attempt to defend themselves. Three ancient
pieces of cannon, which had long been in
what was called the Naval Yard, drawn by sailors
