Appin Murder

Coordinates: 54°53′42″N 2°56′02″W / 54.895°N 2.934°W / 54.895; -2.934
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54°53′42″N 2°56′02″W / 54.895°N 2.934°W / 54.895; -2.934

A memorial to James Stewart of the Glen, who was wrongly convicted and executed for the Appin Murder

The Appin Murder (Scottish Gaelic: Murt na h-Apainn[1]) was the assassination of Colin Roy Campbell, the Clan Campbell tacksman of Glenure and Factor in Lochaber for the Forfeited Estates Commission, on 14 May 1752 on the former lands of Clan Stewart of Appin in the west of Scotland. The murder occurred in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising of 1745 and led to the execution of James Stewart of the Glens, often characterized as a notorious miscarriage of justice.[2] The murder inspired events in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel Kidnapped and its sequel Catriona.[2]

Victim

Statue of Allan Stewart (left) and the fictional David Balfour (right), from Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, on Corstorphine Rd in Edinburgh

Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure (1708-1752), nicknamed "The Red Fox", was the government-appointed factor to the forfeited lands of the Clan Stewart of Appin in north Argyllshire. In the aftermath of the rising of 1745 and in violation of dùthchas, the principle that clan members had an inalienable right to live in their clan's territory, Campbell had ordered several mass evictions of members of Clan Stewart and their replacement by members of Clan Campbell.[3] On 14 May 1752, while on the way to enforce another mass eviction, Campbell was shot in the back by a marksman in the wood of Lettermore near Duror.[2]

While fictional versions of the Appin Murder have Campbell accompanied by a body of regular soldiers, contemporary accounts refer only to three mounted companions. One of these was his nephew Mungo Campbell, a lawyer. While a single shot was heard by these witnesses two wounds were reportedly found in Colin Campbell's body. Slouching on his horse Colin Campbell cried out "Oh, I am dead - take care of yourselves". Mungo Campbell close by the victim, sighted a figure on a hill at some distance, in dark clothing and carrying a musket.

Following a Reformed funeral, Colin Roy Campbell was laid to rest at Ardchattan Priory.[4]

Shortly before his murder, Colin Roy Campbell was mentioned by Jacobite poet Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair in his Anti-Whig satire An Airce. In the poem, the ghost of a beheaded Jacobite prophesies that his Campbell clansmen will soon be punished for committing high treason against their lawful king. Ironically, Colin is one of the few Whigs for whom the ghost confesses a certain respect:

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 alder but true yew;
Since he forsook the allegiance of his sires,
To be reprieved is not his due.
"A girdle of the treasure of King George
Of finest gold around his middle fling,
And to Neptune offer him, though hard,
Unless at once he name the rightful King".[5]

Trial

The search for the killer targeted the Clan Stewart. The chief suspect, Alan Breck Stewart having fled, James Stewart of the Glens, the tanist of the Stewarts, was arrested for the crime two days later and tried for the murder[2] in a trial dominated by the pro-Hanoverian Clan Campbell: the chief (Scottish Gaelic: MacCailein Mòr) Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll was the presiding judge and the 15-man jury contained a majoroty of Campbell clansmen.[2] Although the trial showed that James had a solid alibi, he was found guilty "in airts and pairts" (as an accessory before the fact; or an aider and abetter).[6]

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, lamenting that people of the ages may think him capable of a horrid and barbarous murder. Before mounting the scaffold, James of the Glens drew upon the tradition of Reformed worship in the Gàidhealtachd and sang the Metrical version of the 35th Psalm in Scottish Gaelic:

False witnesses rose; to my charge things I not knew they laid. They, to the spoiling of my soul, me ill for good repaid. ~Psalm 35

To this day in the Highlands, it remains known as "The Psalm of James of the Glens".

Similarly to the usual practice after the hanging of pirates, James of the Glens' corpse was left hanging at what is now the south end of the Ballachulish Ferry for eighteen months as a warning to other Clans with rebellious intentions. Over those months, it was beaten and battered by winds and rain. As it deteriorated, his skeletal remains were held together with chains and wire.[7][8][9]

Recent scholarship

In Walking With Murder: On The Kidnapped Trail (2005), Ian Nimmo examined the mystery of who shot Colin Campbell with the assistance of retired police Detective Inspector Les Liney, who helped by applying modern police methods to the documents, including two post-mortem reports, relating to the case.[10]

Ian Nimmo explained, however, "Everyone thought that the bullets came from high on the hillside because of evidence from Mungo Campbell - Colin's nephew - saying that he saw a figure there with a gun going away from him. But the position of the bullets suggests they were fired from lower down, by an assassin on one knee in a nearby depression who could be out of sight in the trees in 10 seconds. We believe that the person on the hill was an observer, who left as soon as the job was done."[10]

Furthermore, according to journalist Senay Boztas, "There was one shot but two wounds to Glenure's body because two bullets were loaded into the same gun barrel, the second called a 'wanderer' - (Scottish Gaelic: fear siubhail) - as it was less accurate. Both exited his body, suggesting they were fired from close range, and from low on the hillside, according to Liney's analysis."[10]

According to Nimmo, Alan Stewart did not pull the trigger, and the secret of who did has been handed down in the oral tradition to at least 20 local descendants of Clan Stewart over more than 250 years. Ian Nimmo chose not to reveal the shooter's name, stating, "it is not mine to give away".[10]

In 2001, Amanda Penman, an 89-year-old descendant of the Clan Chiefs of the Stewarts of Appin, alleged the murder had been planned by four young Stewart tacksmen without the sanction of James of the Glens. There was a shooting contest among them and the assassination was committed by the best marksman among the four, Donald Stewart of Ballachulish.[7][11] According to some accounts, 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's execution, when the body was finally returned to the Stewart Clan for burial, Donald Stewart of Ballachulish was responsible for washing the bones before the Reformed funeral.[7] Penman's allegations are supported by the local oral tradition, which has long held that Donald Stewart of Ballachulish, rather than Allan Breck or James of the Glens, was responsible.[12]

In his 2004 examination of the evidence, Lee Holcombe also concluded that Donald Stewart of Ballachulish, rather than Allan Breck Stewart, is far more likely to have been the actual shooter.[7][11] However, Holcombe also concluded that James of the Glens, despite his eloquent denials, was indeed guilty of sanctioning the murder of Colin Campbell in advance.[13]

In 2016, Prof. Allan MacInnes of the University of Strathclyde and historian Mhàiri Livingstone expressed a belief that, rather than being a conspiracy by members of Clan Stewart of Appin, the murder was far more likely to have been a fragging by the victim's nephew, Mungo Campbell. Mungo Campbell was the only witness and inherited his uncle's position as estate factor for the Crown, with both historians said was a consistent motive based on what is known of his personality. Most crucially, Mungo Campbell took charge of the investigation into his uncle's assassination and routinely used excessive force while interrogating witnesses and suspects, which would have allowed him the opportunity to deflect suspicion from himself. Both historians offered no smoking gun, however, to prove their theory.[14]

There was an attempt to gain a pardon for James of the Glens. In 2008, Glasgow lawyer John Macaulay asked the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to reconsider the case on the grounds his study of the trial transcripts shows there was "not a shred of evidence" against Stewart.[2] but was denied due to the case being so old it was not in the interest of justice.[15] In 2015, the Scottish government said it would not proceed with a pardon.[16]

Notes

  1. ^ MacIlleathain, Ruairidh (2015). An Creanaiche: myself, Lee Oswald and the murder of JFK. NicEachairne, Màiri (Fictitious character). Dingwall, Ross-shire: Lasag Books. ISBN 978-1-910124-78-9. OCLC 944312200.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Auslan Cramb (14 November 2008). "18th Century murder conviction 'should be quashed'". The Daily Telegraph.
  3. ^ Hunter, James; Kennedy, Kate (3 September 2013). "The Appin Murder – Historical Context" (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Scotland: Murder in Appin". The Independent. 2 June 2002. Archived from the original on 8 May 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  5. ^ MacDonald, Rev. A (1924). The Poems of Alexander MacDonald (Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair). Inverness: Northern Counties Newspaper and Print and Pub. Co. pp. 258–261.
  6. ^ Mackay, David N., ed. (1905–1915). Notable Scottish trials. James Stewart The Appin Murder. Glasgow and Edinburgh: William Hodge & Co. p. 288. OCLC 563059557. Archived from the original on 8 July 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2020. Alt URL
  7. ^ a b c d Lundy 2005.
  8. ^ "Scotland: Murder in Appin". The Independent. 2 June 2002. Archived from the original on 8 May 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  9. ^ "The Appin Murder 1752". thesonsofscotland.co.uk. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d Boztas 2005.
  11. ^ a b McMee 2004.
  12. ^ The Appin murder: Victim's nephew suspected as murderer, BBC Scotland, 10 June 2016.
  13. ^ Holcombe 2004.
  14. ^ The Appin murder: Victim's nephew suspected as murderer, BBC Scotland, 10 June 2016.
  15. ^ Commission rules against 18th century murder review, The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland 9 December 2008
  16. ^ Ross, David (18 August 2015). "'Appin Murder' campaigners told no pardon in historic miscarriage of justice case". The Herald, Scotland.

References

Further reading

See also

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