Saturday, August 12, 2017

Letter from Major Clephane, Second Highland Battalion, to the Doctor, 1757


Kilraick, April 8, 1757

My dear Johnie,

No doubt that you will be much surprised that, till now, you have had no letter from me ever since I came to this place, which is not 20 days, but I’m persuaded you’ll give great allowance for my silence, when I tell you that till yesterday I have not been 24 hours at one time here; sometimes one day at Inverness, next day return here, and a third day at Nairn, and so on alternately, often reviewing my recruits, and Kilraick and I engaging good men and dismissing worse. In short, this has been my life all this while. Add to all this a crowd of company always in the old Castle, under pretence, forsooth, of seeing me, which, God knows, is only a pretence in many; but no more of that. Now I come to tell you, which I well know will give equal pleasure to you as to me, that I have at last sent off for Glasgow 124 recruits along with Colonel Fraser’s company (our two companies making the first division of the battalion,) and yesterday I sent off six men more to go with the last division from Inverness, which leaves that to-day, so that I hope the whole battalion will be at Glasgow by the 19th or 20th of this month. I have given orders that the nine or ten men I have in Angus and Perthshire shall join my company at Crieff, to go along with them to Glasgow. With this great number of men which I have got (which, by the by, have been levied altogether by my worthy friend Kilraick, and a few others, without the assistance of any one officer or sergeant belonging to Colonel Fraser’s battalion,) I dare assure you that I shall be able, when I come to Glasgow, to make out a company of 110 or 112 men, as good hearty young fellows as are to be seen in many regiments, and all as willingly and cheerfully engaged as is possible any men to be, for not one of them ever confined, and not one deserted while here, in which I glory and have great joy. Upon my arrival at Edinburgh, and finding there, my letters from Kilraick, of his surprising success for me, I was obliged to put a stop to my friends recruiting for me in Angus and Perthshire, otherwise my number of men would have run too great, and the expense too high, which God knows, are to high already for my poor purse, but in that there is no help, I rather chose to have men than money. Capt. Arthur Rose, Kilraick’s uncle, who, you know, is lieutenant in the Dutch service, was so kind and obliging as to take the charge and trouble to conduct my company to Glasgow, and indeed he was a most fit person for it, as being well acquainted with the humours and genius of every one recruit, as having been among them daily and hourly ever since the recruiting began here, and in whom all of them has great confidence; and he was most assiduous in exercising them as far as he could while here. In short, dear Johnie, he has been of infinite service and use to me in all this affair. And I think I may very safely affirm, that he will turn out a very good officer and he would rather almost go to hell than be obliged to return to Holland again, and that he would willingly accept of a lieutenancy among us, I dare assure you of. For God’s sake, try what you can do for him that way. This family are all well, and minds you often with much affection. How soon as I am settled at Glasgow, I shall be more particular about them than I can be here, for I am in a continued hurry with one of t’other calling for me. The bell rings for dinner, and the post goes off at 4 o’clock. God bless and reward you, shall ever be the earnest prayers of,

My dear Brother,
                        Your most affectionate and obliged Brother
                    James Clephane.


The Doctor succeeded in his endeavour, and Arthur Rose’s name is found as lieutenant of one of the three additional companies of Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Fraser’s regiment, with instructions for raising his quota of men, dated July 16th 1757. He writes from Quebec on the 17th July 1760, to his grand-nephew, announcing his being wounded - "I am sorry I can't accompany you with the fiddle any more, my left hand being rendered useless... The many battles, sieges, and skirmishes we have had, fell heavier on us that any other regiment; having thirteen officers killed between Luisburg and Quebec, and a great number of men among whom is poor Sandie Rose of Little-town. But I hope this summer will put an end to any more fighting. I assure you, dear Hugh, my curiosity that way is entirely satisfied... If there is a peace, I hope soon to be with you, and see you kill some muir-fowl on the muirs about Culmoney, or a fox in the mickle park or birken ward. I shall grow melancholy if I continue in this strain, considering the prodigious distance I am from these happy places."

After the Doctor's death, the Major wanted the encouragement and support which had hitherto sustained him. He sold out of the army in 1760; and from thenceforward Kilravock was his common residence. He was fondly attached to his sister and her children. The easy social life of the castle suited him. He kept up a lazy correspondence with a few old brother officers, and devoted some energy to the care and putting out in the world of two grand-nephews, Harry and James Malcolm, the sons of Captain Henry Malcolm, who were bred from children under the kind nursing of good Betty Clephane, and one of who lived to repay to her and her daughter some part of his obligations. Harry Malcolm went a cadet to India in 1768. Mrs. Rose's letter speak of him as successively Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief and Adjutant-General at Madras.

The first two companies of soldiers would depart Kilravock, Inverness, Scotland for Glasgow on March 31, 1757.

Source:
Rose, H., and Lachlan Shaw. A genealogical deduction of the family of Rose of Kilravock: with illustrative documents from the family papers, and notes [Edinburgh, 1848].

©  Jeffrey Campbell, Fraser's 78th Regiment of Foot, 2017. 

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