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John Roy Stewart

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John Roy Stewart or Stuart or Stiuart (Gaelic: Iain Ruadh Stiùbhart) (1700–1752) was a distinguished officer in the Jacobite Army during the rising of 1745 and a war poet in both Gaelic and in English.

Life[edit]

He was born at Knock in Kincardine in Badenoch. He was the son of Donald Stewart, a farmer in Strathspey and grandson of the last Baron of Kincardine, and his second wife, Barbara Shaw.[1] His father gave him a good education and procured him a commission as a Lieutenant in a Scots Greys which at that time was serving in Flanders. In 1730, after being refused a commission in the Black Watch Regiment, Stewart resigned from the British Army and was subsequently employed as a covert agent between the House of Stuart government in exile at the Palazzo Muti in Rome and Lord Lovat in Scotland. During an extended visit by Stewart to Beaufort Castle in 1736, according to later trial testimony, Stewart and Lord Lovat, "diverted themselves composing burlesque verse (in Gaelic) that when young Charles comes over, there will be blood and blows."[2]

Stewart fought in the French Royal Army under the command of Marshal Maurice de Saxe at the Battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745. Before the end of the same month, he had returned to Scotland and joined Prince Charles Edward Stuart at Blair Atholl on 31 August 1745.[3]

In the Jacobite Army he served as military commander of the Edinburgh Regiment at Gladsmuir, Clifton, and Falkirk. Before the Battle of Culloden, Stewart offered to lead his troops around the Water of Nairn and attack the Duke of Cumberland's Army from the rear, but his offer was not accepted.[4]

For five months after the Battle, according to Campbell, "Stewart was a hunted fugitive with a price on his head, and in Uirnuigh Iain Ruadh, 'John Roy's Prayer', and in 'John Roy's Psalm', the latter composed in English, he describes the dangers he ran from his pursuers at a moment when he had the misfortune to have sprained his ankle."[5]

Stewart left Scotland with the Prince at Loch nan Uamh on 20 September 1746. He was granted a baronetcy in the Jacobite peerage by Prince James Francis Edward Stuart and died abroad in 1752.[6]

Literary legacy[edit]

Some of his most well-known poems are "Lament for Lady Macintosh" and "Latha Chuil-Lodair" ("Culloden Day"),[7] "Òran Eile air Latha Chu-Lodair ("Another Song on Culloden Day"),[8] and Urnuigh Iain Ruadh ("John Roy's Prayer").[9]

According to John Lorne Campbell, Stewart's importance to Scottish Gaelic literature is increased by the fact that, "He was the only Jacobite leader who was a Gaelic poet. His Gaelic verse shows a polish and an elegance not possessed by his contemporaries, and it is much to be regretted that so few of his compositions have survived. He does not seem to have possessed the knowledge of writing his mother tongue. His two poems on Culloden are of great historical interest, revealing as they do the depth of bitterness that was felt towards the Prince's lieutenant general, Lord George Murray, by a section of the Jacobite leaders."[10]

In popular culture[edit]

John Roy Stewart is widely believed in some circles to have been the main model for Robert Louis Stevenson's fictionalized depiction of Allan Breck Stewart in his novel Kidnapped.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. p. 165.
  2. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. pp. 165-166.
  3. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. p. 166.
  4. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. p. 166.
  5. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. pp. 166-167.
  6. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. p. 167.
  7. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. pp. 168-175.
  8. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. pp. 176-185.
  9. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. pp. 186-191.
  10. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press, New York City. p. 167.
  11. ^ About John Roy Stewart

External links[edit]

  • Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Stewart, John (1700-1752)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 54. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  • About John Roy
  • John Roy Stewart
  • Biography
  • Memorial
  • Manuscripts
  • Poem
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