John Graham/e also known as ‘Bonnie Dundee’ (1648-1689) was a Scottish professional Soldier and is remembered for leading the Jacobite cause during the first uprising of 1689.
A well-educated man, ‘Dundee’ was educated at University of St Andrews, sitting south of his father’s estate of Claverhouse, near Dundee itself. The Claverhouse family were distinguished in that they, as a junior cadet line, were part of the Grahams who were descended from King Robert III through marriage and related to the Bruce’s the Stuarts.
His military career began fighting for Louis XIV of France as a 1st lieutenant with William Lockhart’s Scot’ Regiment under the Duke of Monmouth, distinguishing himself in 1674 in Belgium at the Battle of Seneff. It was here he reputedly saved the life of the Prince of Orange, a Protestant and future King William of Britain. This led to Dundee gaining a commission in the Prince’s own Horse Guards
Returning to Scotland in 1678 Dundee took a commission under Charles II who had regained his throne in 1660. It was his role to suppress the ‘seditious’ Covenanters, especially in the Lowlands and Borders making his headquarters in the Black Bull Hotel in Moffat in the north of Annandale.
It was because of the zeal in which he took to the task that he gained the nickname ‘Bluidy Clavers’, which some say was undeserved. His decisive victory at Bothwell Brig (1679) Lanarkshire, caused many Covenanters to go to ground and saw the end of their uprising.
Dundee’s rise was meteoric as Charles made him Sheriff, whose job was to assert the King’s authority, over Wigtown, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and our own ancestral home of Annandale in south west Scotland.
It is strongly suggested that Dundee’s reputation as a malevolent and obsessive force against the Covenanters was greatly exaggerated by some historians of a political nature, because of his meteoric rise, as he eventually married (1684) Lady Jean Cochrane daughter of William Lord Cochrane, the Cochrane’s being a fiercely Covenanting family.
Dundee was made Viscount in 1688 and commissioned by the then James II, to the rank of Major General and command of all the King’s forces in Scotland. This was the same period that saw William of Orange to claim the throne, land in Torbay causing James to flee to France.
In 1689, the Scottish parliament, suggesting James had abdicated, supported Williams claim to the throne. This stimulated Dundee to set the touch paper for the first Jacobite uprising to restore the crown to the Jacobite cause.
While in Edinburgh he daringly scaled the rock face of Edinburgh Castle to confer with the Duke of Gordon who was holding the castle for the Stuart King, following which he was declared a rebel and a bounty of £20,000 was placed on his head. John Graham went home to his family and after seeing to the security of his wife and young child raised the Royal Standard on Dundee Laws in support of the Jacobite cause. The Jacobites met the Government army at the Pass of Killiecrankie in June 1689, and although outnumbered two to one, Dundee was victorious.
Dundee initiated the first of the four Jacobite uprisings in Scotland, which in all covered 57 years, until finally Bonnie Prince Charlie’s disastrous bid to drive out the House of Hanover at the ’75 Rebellion. As such he’s seen as being a major player in the great Jacobite (mis)adventure which in itself led to a poem and song written by Sir Walter Scott:
The Battle is remembered ‘the Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee’ played below by that famous Scottish folk band the Corries.
This was one of the last battles where claymores and the ‘highland charge’ were used. Sadly, Dundee was mortally wounded and died.
So what role did Carruthers play in the life of ‘Bonnie Dundee’.
Carruthers were known for ‘favouring Coventicles’, but not in full, some were not supporters and in fact some remained Catholic in their religious beliefs.
In letters of 1679 to the Earl of Linlithgow, during Dundee’s time Annandale, Carruthers are mentioned a few times. The first was in a letter to the Earl of Linlithgow Jan 6th, who was the Major General at the time, with regards the ‘quartering’ (billeting) of the troops under his command that were with him in Annandale, where he send an order from the Privy Council to the Stewart Depute of Annandale, one James Carruthers, with regards the demolishing of a Covenanter meeting house in Castlemilk, which he carried out to the letter.
The second dated 29th January is John Carruthers 9th of Holmains a Covenanter sympathiser, again in a letter from Dundee to the Earl of Linlithgow in 1679, who is mentioned as ‘ane grytt reseter of ministers, who is gone to Edinburgh, upon our entire heir, with severalls who keips not their oune houisses‘ (basically contravening the laws of the land and failing to mind their own business).
Again in a letter to the Earl the next month, February 7th 1679, ‘Dundee’ confirms he is rounding up dissenters, three of whom were John Carruthers, 9th of Holmains, John Carruthers 4th of Dormont and George Carruthers of Denby, for which he sent 20 Dragoons. Only Dormont was captured as Holmains and Denby had previously gone to present themselves in front of the Privy Council in Edinburgh, but if they had stayed, ‘Dundee’ claimed he would endeavour to find them.
It is obvious that Carruthers were still considered a rebellious family, however not totally out of favour. John 9th of Holmains was highly respected and had been appointed a Justice of the Peace (JP) in 1678, only the year before the letters of Dundee to the Earl of Linlithgow. He was again appointed as a JP in 1678 and in 1685 was appointed by the Scottish Parliament as one of their Commissioners of Supply for the Shire. Along with others he was further appointed to investigate the conduct of the Sherriff, Sir James Turner. Holmains had also been listed as Captain of Foot in the Dumfries Militia in 1668.
Dormont on the other hand was thrown into Edinburgh Tollbooth, but was let out after a short period by accepting that he frequent Dalton Kirk under heavy penalty if he did not, of which John Cavert in Bayliehill became surety. The records only show Dormont as being placed in the Tollbooth, and was that because the other two had presented themselves voluntarily to the Privy Council.
Who knows, but we thank Joseph Todd Carruthers in the US, for bringing the letters to our attention.
I know what the bread of the heart refers to I know things now I shouldn’t! I am a Carruth and I have visions of what our ancestors hid! I want to restore the rite of my for father’s and give clarity to all!