Battle of Glenlivet

‘The battle of Glenlivet, chiefly remarkable as being fought between the two races which divided Scotland, took place upon the third day of October, 1594. Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchindoun, an uncle of Huntley, was slain, with only twelve others, on the side of the victors. Huntley had his own horse killed under him, and many of his followers were wounded and dismounted. Argyle lost some chiefs and men of note, and about seven hundred common soldiers. The issue of the battle was fortunate for the country, which would have been pitifully plundered had the victory remained with the barbarous Highlanders.

The Lord Forbes, with an army hastily assembled of such clans as were hostile to the Gordons, put himself in motion to form a junction with Argyle, and persuade him to resume his enterprise. But a gentleman of the name of Irvine being, in the darkness of the night, slain by the shot of a pistol, the accident spread such general distrust in an army composed of various clans, among whom there lurked reasons of feud, that the host dispersed itself, and could not be again assembled.

James VI. was disturbed, in the hour of midnight, at Dundee, to which he had then advanced, by news of the defeat of Argyle, and the victory of Huntley and Errol. He showed that he felt the force of the emergency, by the energy with which he prepared to meet it. Animated with an unusual spirit of promptitude, he hastened, by pawning the crown jewels, to raise a sum of money sufficient to support a small army, with which he marched into Aberdeenshire against the Catholic lords. The king was there joined by various clans, the feudal enemies of Huntley and Errol. But either weakened by the effects of their own victory, or faithful to the principles of loyalty expressed by Huntley on the eve of the battle of Glenlivet, the Catholic earls offered no opposition. The king marched through the country, casting down and dismantling the fortresses of Strathbogie and Glaimis, and returned home with the honor of having suppressed, by his personal exertions, a threatening and triumphant rebellion. He left behind him the Duke of Lennox, who, under the title of lieutenant, hanged many of the poorer sort, and inflicted heavy fines upon the wealthier persons who had borne arms under Huntley and Errol…’

The text above is from Walter Scott’s “Scotland”.  The Battle of Glenlivet took place on October 3, 1594.

Robert Barclay

Robert Barclay, the author of "An Apology for the True Christian Divinity", died on October 3, 1690.  Barclay is known for his view that all people can be illuminated by the inner light of Christ.  Like fellow Quaker George Fox, Barclay had an influence on Sir Walter Scott's ancestors.  From the 1843 edition of "Rob Roy" published by Robert Cadell:

'There is yet another link betwixt the author and the simple-minded and excellent Society of Friends, through a proselyte of much more importance than Walter Scott of Raeburn. The celebrated John Swinton, of Swinton, sixth baron in descent of that ancient and once powerful family, was, with Sir William Lockhart of Lee, the person whom Cromwell chiefly trusted in the management of the Scottish affairs during his usurpation. After the Restoration, Swinton was devoted as a victim to the new order of things, and was brought down in the same vessel which conveyed the Marquis of Argyle to Edinburgh, where that nobleman was tried and executed. Swinton was destined to the same fate. He had assumed the habit, and entered into the Society of the Quakers, and appeared as one of their number before the Parliament of Scotland. He renounced all legal defense, though several pleas were open to him, and answered, in conformity to the principles of his sect, that at the time these crimes were imputed to him, he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity; but that God Almighty having since called him to the light, he saw and acknowledged these errors, and did not refuse to pay the forfeit of them, even though, in the judgment of the Parliament, it should extend to life itself.



Respect to fallen greatness, and to the patience and calm resignation with which a man once in high power expressed himself under such a change of fortune, found Swinton friends; family connexions, and some interested considerations of Middleton the Commissioner, joined to procure his safety, and he was dismissed, but after a long imprisonment, and much dilapidation of his estates. It is said, that Swinton's admonitions, while confined in the Castle of Edinburgh, had a considerable share in converting to the tenets of the Friends Colonel David Barclay, then lying there in the garrison. This was the father of Robert Barclay, author of the celebrated Apology for the Quakers. It may be observed among the inconsistencies of human nature, that Kirkton, Wodrow, and other Presbyterian authors, who have detailed the sufferings of their own sect for non-conformity with the established church, censure the government of the time for not exerting the civil power against the peaceful enthusiasts we have treated of, and some express particular chagrin at the escape of Swinton. Whatever might be his motives for assuming the tenets of the Friends, the old man retained them faithfully till the close of his life.

Jean Swinton, grand-daughter of Sir John Swinton, son of Judge Swinton, as the Quaker was usually termed, was mother of Anne Rutherford, the author's mother.'