Appin Murder
Encyclopedia
The Appin Murder occurred on May 14, 1752 near Appin
in the north-west of Scotland, and it resulted in what is often held to be a notorious miscarriage of justice. Taking place in the tumultuous aftermath of the '45'
Jacobite rising
, the murder is featured in Robert Louis Stevenson
's novel Kidnapped
.
to the forfeited estates of the Stewart Clan in North Argyll
, Scotland, was shot in the back by a marksman in the wood of Lettermore. The search for the killer targeted the local Clan, the Jacobite Stewarts of Appin
, who had recently suffered evictions on Campbell's orders.
The chief suspect, Allan Stewart
(or Alan Breck Stewart) having fled, James Stewart
(also known as Seumas a' Ghlinne (James of the Glen) and brother of Ardsheil'), one of the last leaders of Stewarts, was arrested for the crime and tried for the murder. Although, it was clear at the trial that James was not directly involved in the assassination, he was found guilty "in airts and pairts
" (as an accessory; an aider and abetter) by a jury consisting of a people from the locality where the crime occurred, including a number of jurors related to Clan Campbell
. The presiding judge was Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll
, Chief of Clan Campbell.
James Stewart was hanged on 8 November 1752 on a specially commissioned gibbet above the narrows at Ballachulish
, now near the south entrance to the Ballachulish Bridge
. He died protesting his innocence and recited the 35th Psalm before mounting the scaffold. To this day in the Highlands, it remains known as "The Psalm of James of the Glens."
poked fun at Colin's loyalties in his Anti-Whig polemic
An Airce.
In the poem, which begins by skewering the conventions of Aisling
poetry, the poet describes meeting the ghost of a beheaded Jacobite who prophesises that his Campbell clansmen will soon be punished for committing high treason
against their lawful king by a repeat of the Ten Plagues of Egypt followed by a second Great Flood on their lands. The bard is instructed to emulate Noah
by building an Ark
for Campbells loyal to the Stuart cause. Some, however, are first to be purged of their "treason" by receiving a good, proper soaking.
among the four, Donald Stewart of Ballachulish. According to other stories, Donald desperately wanted to turn himself in rather than allow James to hang and had to be physically held down to prevent this. Several years after James' execution, when the body was finally delivered to the Stewart Clan for burial, Donald Stewart of Ballachulish was responsible for washing the bones before the funeral.
Lee Holcombe, Ph.D., has written the most thorough examination of the Appin Murder published to date. She concluded, based on substantial evidence, that James of the Glens was indeed guilty of ordering the murder of Colin Campbell. She also reported the information that Donald Stewart, rather than Allan Breck Stewart, was probably the actual shooter.
In Walking With Murder: On The Kidnapped Trail (2005), Ian Nimmo has addressed the mystery of who shot Colin Campbell, applying modern police methods to the documents in the case, including two post-mortem reports. According to Nimmo, Alan Stewart did not pull the trigger, and the secret of who did has been handed down through the Stewart family for 250 years. Nimmo does not choose to reveal it, stating that "it is not mine to give away."
Appin
Appin is a remote coastal district of the Scottish West Highlands bounded west by Loch Linnhe, south by Loch Creran, east by the districts of Benderloch and Lorne, and north by Loch Leven...
in the north-west of Scotland, and it resulted in what is often held to be a notorious miscarriage of justice. Taking place in the tumultuous aftermath of the '45'
Jacobite rising
Jacobite Rising of 1745
The Jacobite rising of 1745, often referred to as "The 'Forty-Five," was the attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. The rising occurred during the War of the Austrian Succession when most of the British Army was on the European continent...
, the murder is featured in Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
's novel Kidnapped
Kidnapped (novel)
Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Written as a "boys' novel" and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, the novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis...
.
Overview
On 14 May 1752 Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, the Government-appointed FactorFactor (agent)
A factor, from the Latin "he who does" , is a person who professionally acts as the representative of another individual or other legal entity, historically with his seat at a factory , notably in the following contexts:-Mercantile factor:In a relatively large company, there could be a hierarchy,...
to the forfeited estates of the Stewart Clan in North Argyll
Argyll
Argyll , archaically Argyle , is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western coast between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath...
, Scotland, was shot in the back by a marksman in the wood of Lettermore. The search for the killer targeted the local Clan, the Jacobite Stewarts of Appin
Clan Stewart of Appin
Clan Stewart of Appin is a west highland branch of the Clan Stewart and have been considered a distinct clan since the 15th century. They are descended from Sir James Stewart of Perston, who was himself the grandson of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland...
, who had recently suffered evictions on Campbell's orders.
The chief suspect, Allan Stewart
Allan Stewart (Jacobite)
Ailean Breac Stiùbhart was an 18th-century soldier and Scottish Jacobite resistance figure. He was the centre of a murder case that inspired novels by Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.-Life and the Appin murder:...
(or Alan Breck Stewart) having fled, James Stewart
James of the Glen
James Stewart, known as James of the Glens, Seamus a’ Ghlinne and James Stewart of Acharn was a Scotsman famous for being wrongfully accused and hanged for being accessory to the killing of Colin Roy Campbell...
(also known as Seumas a' Ghlinne (James of the Glen) and brother of Ardsheil'), one of the last leaders of Stewarts, was arrested for the crime and tried for the murder. Although, it was clear at the trial that James was not directly involved in the assassination, he was found guilty "in airts and pairts
Art and part
Art and part is a term used in Scots law to denote the aiding or abetting in the perpetration of a crime, or being an accessory before or at the perpetration of the crime...
" (as an accessory; an aider and abetter) by a jury consisting of a people from the locality where the crime occurred, including a number of jurors related to Clan Campbell
Clan Campbell
Clan Campbell is a Highland Scottish clan. Historically one of the largest, most powerful and most successful of the Highland clans, their lands were in Argyll and the chief of the clan became the Earl and later Duke of Argyll.-Origins:...
. The presiding judge was Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll
Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll
Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, 1st Earl of Ilay was a Scottish nobleman, politician, lawyer, businessman and soldier...
, Chief of Clan Campbell.
James Stewart was hanged on 8 November 1752 on a specially commissioned gibbet above the narrows at Ballachulish
Ballachulish
The village of Ballachulish in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, is centred around former slate quarries. The name Ballachulish was more correctly applied to the area now called North Ballachulish, to the north of Loch Leven, but was usurped for the quarry villages at East Laroch and West Laroch,...
, now near the south entrance to the Ballachulish Bridge
Ballachulish Bridge
The Ballachulish Bridge is a bridge in Scotland.It crosses a narrows between South Ballachulish and North Ballachulish on the main [A82] west coast road between Glasgow and Inverness. It opened in 1975, replacing the Ballachulish ferry.Its design was not to everyone's taste, neither was its...
. He died protesting his innocence and recited the 35th Psalm before mounting the scaffold. To this day in the Highlands, it remains known as "The Psalm of James of the Glens."
Satire
Ironically, Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure had actually been very well liked, even by many veteran Jacobites. Shortly before his murder, Jacobite poet and propagandist Alasdair MacMhaighstir AlasdairAlasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair
Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair was a Scottish poet, lexicographer, political writer and memoirist, respected as perhaps the finest Gaelic language poet of the 18th century...
poked fun at Colin's loyalties in his Anti-Whig polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
An Airce.
In the poem, which begins by skewering the conventions of Aisling
Aisling
The aisling , or vision poem, is a poetic genre that developed during the late 17th and 18th centuries in Irish language poetry...
poetry, the poet describes meeting the ghost of a beheaded Jacobite who prophesises that his Campbell clansmen will soon be punished for committing high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
against their lawful king by a repeat of the Ten Plagues of Egypt followed by a second Great Flood on their lands. The bard is instructed to emulate Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
by building an Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
for Campbells loyal to the Stuart cause. Some, however, are first to be purged of their "treason" by receiving a good, proper soaking.
- Ge toil leam Cailean Glinn Iubhair
- B' fheàrr leam gu 'm b' iubhar 's nach b' fheàrna;
- Bho 'n a threig e nàdur a mhuinntreach,
- 'S gann a dh' fhaodar cuim thoirt dà-san.
- Cuir boiseid de ionmhas Righ Deorsa,
- De smior an òir mu theis-meadhon;
- 'S ìobair e 'Neptun ge searbh e,
- Mur grad-ainmich e 'n righ dlighneach.
- "Though Colin of Glenure I much esteem,
- Would that he was not alderAlderAlder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
but true yewTaxus baccataTaxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
; - Since he forsook the allegiance of his sires,
- To be repreived is not his due.
- "A girdleGirdleA girdle is a garment that encircles the lower torso, perhaps extending below the hips, and worn often for support. The word girdle originally meant a belt. In modern English, the term girdle is most commonly used for a form of women's foundation wear that replaced the corset in popularity...
of the treasure of King George - Of finest gold around his middle fling,
- And to the sea-kingNeptune (mythology)Neptune was the god of water and the sea in Roman mythology and religion. He is analogous with, but not identical to, the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto, each of them presiding over one of the three realms of the universe,...
offer him, though hard, - Unless at once he name the rightful King."
Recent scholarship
In 2001, Anda Penman, an 89-year-old descendant of the Clan Chiefs of the Stewarts of Appin, revealed what she alleged to be a long-held family secret. She said the murder was planned by four young Stewart lairds without the sanction of James of the Glens. There was a shooting contest among them and that the assassination was committed by the best marksmanMarksman
A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision, or a sharpshooter shooting, using projectile weapons, such as with a rifle but most commonly with a sniper rifle, to shoot at long range targets...
among the four, Donald Stewart of Ballachulish. According to other stories, Donald desperately wanted to turn himself in rather than allow James to hang and had to be physically held down to prevent this. Several years after James' execution, when the body was finally delivered to the Stewart Clan for burial, Donald Stewart of Ballachulish was responsible for washing the bones before the funeral.
Lee Holcombe, Ph.D., has written the most thorough examination of the Appin Murder published to date. She concluded, based on substantial evidence, that James of the Glens was indeed guilty of ordering the murder of Colin Campbell. She also reported the information that Donald Stewart, rather than Allan Breck Stewart, was probably the actual shooter.
In Walking With Murder: On The Kidnapped Trail (2005), Ian Nimmo has addressed the mystery of who shot Colin Campbell, applying modern police methods to the documents in the case, including two post-mortem reports. According to Nimmo, Alan Stewart did not pull the trigger, and the secret of who did has been handed down through the Stewart family for 250 years. Nimmo does not choose to reveal it, stating that "it is not mine to give away."
Sources
- Nicholson, Eirwen E. C. "Allan Stewart," in Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyDictionary of National BiographyThe Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
. vol. 52, 628. London: OUPOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2004. - Nimmo, Ian (2005). Walking with Murder: On the Kidnapped Trail. Birlinn Ltd. Paperback.
- Gibson, Rosemary. "The Appin Murder." History Scotland. Vol.3 No.1 January/February 2003