Appin Murder

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.

Overview

On 14 May 1752 Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, the Government-appointed Factor 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."

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 Alasdair 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.

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 repreived is not his due.

"A girdle of the treasure of King George

Of finest gold around his middle fling,

And to the sea-king offer him, though hard,

Unless at once he name the rightful King."^[1]

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 marksman among the four, Donald Stewart of Ballachulish.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Lee Holcombe, Ph.D., has written the most thorough examination^{[citation needed]} 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.^[2] She also reported the information that Donald Stewart, rather than Allan Breck Stewart, was probably the actual shooter.^[3][4]

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."^[5]

Sources

• Nicholson, Eirwen E. C. "Allan Stewart," in Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. vol. 52, 628. London: OUP, 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

References

1. ^ Rev. A. MacDonald, "The Poems of Alexander MacDonald (Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair)," Inverness, 1924. Pages 258-261.
2. ^ Holcombe, Ancient Animosity, The Appin Murder and the End of Scottish Rebellion Author House, Bloomington, Indiana, 2004.
3. ^ Iain Lundy, "The Appin murder: who killed Red Fox?"
4. ^ Elizabeth McMee, Bloody Scots whodunit is 'solved' by US academic, Sunday Herald, Jan 25, 2004 [1]
5. ^ Senay Boztas, New Appin murder investigation reveals Jacobites plotted to kill, Sunday Herald, Aug 27, 2005 [2]

External links

• Scottish Heritage site on James of the Glen's death
• The Appin Murder in Pictures, from the BBC
• A recreation of "Alan Breck's" walk after the Appin murder
• Lyrics to "The Red Fox" (Big Country song about the murder) (Archived 2009-10-25)