Anne McKay née MacLeod (fl. 1740s-1750s) was imprisoned for hiding members of the defeated Jacobite army in Inverness in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden.
Anne McKay | |
|---|---|
| Born | Anne MacLeod Skye |
| Years active | 1740s - 1750s |
| Known for | Helping Jacobite prisoner escape |
Anne McKay was born in Skye, a Gaelic speaker with very little English.[1] She boarded in Inverness with her children during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. After the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746, McKay's cellar was used to imprison MacDonald of Belfinlay and Robert Nairn, a prominent Jacobite and deputy paymaster. Robert Forbes, a nineteenth-century memoirist, noted that McKay was 'a wise, sagacious creature' who was called upon to help the injured prisoners.[2] When an escape plan was made, McKay helped by bringing clothes and food for Nairn and distracting the guard.[3]
When the escape was discovered, McKay was interrogated for three days and nights during which time she was not allowed to sit or lie down.[4] Her captors interrogated her using Irish and English and tried to entice her to tell them the names of the co-conspirators using bribery and alcohol.[2] However McKay refused to speak.[5] As punishment, McKay was sentenced to be whipped through the streets of Inverness but avoided it because of intervention by leading Inverness citizens, rumoured to include co-conspirator Lady Anne MacKintosh and Anne Leith.[6] McKay was released after seven weeks of imprisonment.[5] The guard who failed to stop Nairn escape was given 500 lashes.[2]
During McKay's imprisonment, her 17-year-old son was found by British soldiers and beaten so severely that he died of his injuries. In the aftermath of the escape, Robert Nairn's family supported Anne, who had been widowed during the Jacobite Rebellion, and her children financially.[4]
Additional sources
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Harrower-Gray, Annie (11 March 2014). Scotland's Hidden Harlots and Heroines: Women's Role in Scottish Society from 1690-1969. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473834705.
- ^ a b c Forbes, Robert (1834). Jacobite Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745. W. & R. Chambers. p. 239.
- ^ McDonnell, Frances (1999). Highland Jacobites, 1745. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 72. ISBN 9780806349350.
- ^ a b Ewan, Elizabeth, ed. (15 October 2018). "McKay or MacKay, Anne". The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 271. ISBN 9781474436298. OCLC 1057237368.
- ^ a b "The silent Jacobite wife sentenced to 800 lashes". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- ^ a b Craig, Maggie. (2000). Damn' rebel bitches : the women of the '45. Edinburgh [Scotland]: Mainstream Pub. ISBN 1840182989. OCLC 38075829.