Archibald Cameron of Lochiel

Archibald Cameron of Lochiel (1707 – 7 June 1753) was a Scottish physician and a prominent leader in the Jacobite rising of 1745. He was the personal physician of Charles Edward Stuart, and younger brother of Donald Cameron of Lochiel, otherwise known as the Gentle Lochiel, who led Clan Cameron during the rising. At Tyburn on 7 June 1753, he was the last Jacobite to be executed for high treason. In popular memory, he is sometimes referred to as Doctor Archie.

Mezzotint of Archibald Cameron

Before the uprising
Cameron arms

Archibald Cameron was born in 1707 at Achnacarry Castle, the sixth child (and third surviving son) of John Cameron, Lord Lochiel and Isobel Cameron, Lady Lochiel (née Campbell).[1]

His father, made Lord Lochiel in Jacobite peerage, had participated in the failed 1715 Jacobite rising and, as a result, had become an exile, living first in Paris and then Boulogne. Archibald Cameron's elder brother was Donald Cameron of Lochiel, who was the Clan Cameron chief in the absence of their father, and is known in Jacobite history as "The Gentle Lochiel".

Archibald Cameron initially attended the University of Glasgow to study law, before transferring to study medicine at University of Edinburgh. He completed further studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He subsequently returned to the Scottish Highlands, married his Lochaber cousin, Jean Cameron, and fathered seven children.[2]

1745 uprising

When Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") first arrived in Scotland Cameron was despatched by his brother to Loch nan Uamh to communicate the futility of the enterprise and persuade the Prince to return to France.[3] However, Prince Charles persuaded Cameron otherwise and soon the Camerons joined him in armed revolt.

Archibald Cameron first saw action in late August 1745, when he helped to lead a fairly futile attack on Ruthven Barracks.[4] In the campaign that followed Cameron seems to have been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in his brother's clan regiment.[5] The Newgate Calendar's hagiography portrays him as being a pacifist by nature, refusing to offer more than his surgical skills in the cause, but this is likely to be inaccurate[6] since Cameron was slightly wounded in action at the Battle of Falkirk in January 1746.[7] He is also recorded as having performed surgery on his brother after he suffered two broken ankles and other injuries at the Battle of Culloden.[8]

The defeat at Culloden ended the Jacobites' hopes, and both Cameron brothers, along with their father, became fugitives from government troops. After the burning of the family seat, Achnacarry House, the Cameron family hid at Badenoch. However, despite the danger, the Prince was determined to meet The Lochiel. Archibald Cameron was sent to Loch Arkaig to escort the Prince to the family's hiding place (3 September). The whole party then moved to Ben Alder, the seat of Ewen MacPherson of Cluny, keeper of the Loch Arkaig treasure. At Ben Alder Castle on 13 September 1746 word came that French naval ships were waiting at Loch nan Uamh, and on these the whole party escaped to France on 19 September.

Betrayal and execution
Anti-Jacobite broadside depicting Cameron being drawn on a sledge to Tyburn

In exile Cameron remained in Prince Charles's service, travelling with him to Madrid in 1748 and returning to Scotland privately in 1749. In 1753, he was sent back to Scotland again to obtain money from Loch Arkaig[9] and to participate in a desperate plot to assassinate George II and other members of the British royal family. However, while he was staying secretly at Brenachyle by Loch Katrine, he was betrayed by MacDonell of Glengarry, the notorious "Pickle the spy", and members of his own clan who by this time were sickened by his Jacobitism.[4] He was arrested and attainted of high treason under the Attainder of Earl of Kellie and Others Act 1746 (19 Geo. 2, c. 26) for his part in the 1745 uprising. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle then taken to Tower Hill in London. His wife was pregnant with their eight child at the time, and among those who begged for a reprieve for the “gentle and humane” physician.[8]

On 7 June 1753, Cameron was drawn on a sledge to Tyburn and hanged for 20 minutes before being cut down and beheaded. His remains were buried in the Savoy Chapel, Westminster.[10] He was the last Jacobite to receive the death penalty. In his final papers, written from prison, he still protested his undying loyalty to the House of Stuart and his Non-juring Episcopalian principles.[11]

Cameron was buried in the vaults of the Savoy Chapel, off the Strand in London. The Rev. John Wilkinson, who was thought to have Jacobite sympathies, was said to have paid the burial costs himself. There was previously a stained glass window to Cameron, but this was later destroyed. A brass plaque now records the event.

Legacy

Assessment

Archibald Cameron is generally regarded as a benevolent figure; his betrayal and execution in 1753 was greatly lamented.[6] According to James Browne in his work A History of the Highlands "his fate was generally pitied".[12] His benevolence is demonstrated by his having prevented the execution of prisoners after Prestonpans and for treating a wounded Hanoverian officer.[13] It is not certain whether he ever took part in battle with some arguing that he probably did,[6] while others insist he was a pacifist and that his role was limited to being a physician.[13] Furthermore, there was also perceived indignation surrounding the cruel method, and place of execution. Tyburn was the location for the executions of low-born criminals, not noblemen who were traditionally executed at Tower Hill, where for example in 1747, Lord Lovat was beheaded.

There have been numerous proposals as to why Cameron was executed. Generally, it is thought that his overt attainder and execution served as a final warning to the Jacobite cause and any further attempts conceived.[8] His own account given in his memoir is that it was 'to cover the Cruelty of murdering me at [such a] Distance of Time from the passing of [the act of attainder].'[14]

  • In 1753 John Cameron of Dochanassie composed "A Song to Doctor Cameron", an Aisling song in Gaelic in commemoration of Cameron's life.[15]
  • Cameron appears in D. K. Broster's novel The Flight of the Heron (1925), and is a leading character in its sequel The Gleam in the North (1927), which fictionalises the events leading up to his execution.

References
  1. Clan Cameron Genealogies.
  2. The Newgate Calendar (1824): Account of Cameron's execution.
  3. Kybett, Susan Maclean (1988). Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography. London: Unwin Hyman. p. 122. ISBN 0044402139.
  4. Kybett, Susan Maclean (1988). Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography. London: Unwin Hyman. p. 128. ISBN 0044402139.
  5. Clan Cameron Archives Account of the Battle
  6. exclassics.com
  7. Account from the Clan Cameron Archive
  8. McGrigor, Mary (14 June 2019). "Dr Archie Cameron - the man who was the last Jacobite". Scottish Field. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  9. Kybett, Susan Maclean (1988). Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography. London: Unwin Hyman. p. 268. ISBN 0044402139.
  10. The history of Clan Cameron
  11. "Letters Written in the Tower of London 5-6 June 1753", Clan Cameron archives
  12. Browne, James (20 February 2015). A History of the Highlands and of the Highland Clans - Scholar's Choice Edition. Creative Media Partners, LLC. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-297-42714-5.
  13. "The story of the last Jacobite to be hanged". The Scotsman. 2 August 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  14. Turner 2004.
  15. "A Song to Doctor Cameron", Clan Cameron archives.

Sources
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