USA > North Carolina > Sketches of North Carolina, historical and biographical : illustrative of the principles of a portion of her early settlers > Part 15
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From Portaree, the Prince took passage to Raarsay ; and from that island he went to Straith McKinnon, having for his guide a poor man, Malcolm McLeod, whose pack he carried as a paid servant, to escape observation. From thence, he took passage by water to Arasag, and then wandered through Arasag and Moodart and the roughest of the Highlands, enduring incredible hardships, till about the middle of autumn he found vessels to convey him and a few friends to France, leaving Scotland as unattended as he entered, hopeless of his crown, multitudes of his friends butchered, and others beggared or in exile, his resources all exhausted, him- self the scorn of France and pity of the world. With him
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sailed to France Neill McDonald, who assisted in his flight from Uist, and had shared his fortunes during his wanderings. The enthusiasm of his fair kinswoman dwelt in his bosom, and spread itself through the youth of the Highlands, and rendered the cap- ture of the Prince more hopeless ; after the exploit of the maiden and the two ladies McDonald, who would hesitate to give him succor and conceal his retreat ? Neill McDonald remained in France ; and his son became famous in the wars of the French Revolution, being made marshal by Buonaparte, and for his suc- cess created Duke of Tarentum. Had the unfortunate Charles Edward possessed a spirit to command, equal to the courage and daring of his friends, the house of Stuart might now occupy the throne of England.
After the escape of the Prince to France, the troubles of Flora McDonald commenced. Incensed at the loss of their victim, and not satisfied with the possession of the kingdom, and the execu- tions that the plea of necessity may have justified, the officers of the crown seized on those who were known to have aided the Prince in his flight, and conveyed them to London as state pri- soners, for sending from the island the cause of the late disturbance, routed, broken down and discouraged, and at once delivering the crown from farther cause of uneasiness, and the country from agitation. Flora was arrested, and together with Malcolm Mc- Leod, whose pack the prince had carried, Mckinnon of the Straith, who received him from McLeod, and McDonald of Kings- burg, who aided Flora on the 29th of June, were taken to London and confined in the Tower as prisoners of state, to be tried for their life, as aiding and abetting attempts against the life and crown of King George. The example of the young lady in rousing up her countrymen, however friendly to the house of Hanover, to promote the escape of one whom they could not, and perhaps on account of his religion, would not make king, turned the indignation of those who had lost the splendid reward offered for the Pretender dead or alive, upon herself and her friends. During their confinement, the nobility of England became deeply interested in the beautiful and high spirited Flora, especially as she was not a partisan of the Pretender, nor of his religious faith. Her devotion to royalty, so romantically expressed, won the favor of Prince Frederick the heir apparent, great grandfather of Vic- toria, the present queen of England ; visiting lier in prison, he became enlisted in her favor most strongly ; she awakened in his bosom the chivalric gallantry she had called forth in her country-
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men ; and by his strenuous exertions he procured her release, greatly to his own honor and the prosperity of the kingdom, and the popularity of the king.
After being set at liberty, her residence, while she remained in London, was surrounded by the carriages of the nobility and gentry, who paid their respects personally, congratulating her on her enterprise, her courage, her loyalty, and her release. Lady Primrose, a favorer of the Pretender, a lady of wealth and distinc- tion, introduced her to the court society, and by her example and influence, obtained large presents to make her forget her captivity, and to meet the expenses of her detention and her return to her own country. The tradition in Carolina, where she afterwards lived, is, that " she received golden ornaments and coin enough to fill a half bushel." She was introduced to the king, George II. ; and to his somewhat ungallant inquiry-" How could you dare to succor the enemy of my crown and kingdom ?" she replied with great simplicity-" It was no more than I would have done for your majesty, had you been in like situation." A chaise and four were fitted up for her return to Scotland ; for her escort she chose a fellow prisoner, Malcolm McLeod, who used afterwards to boast, " that he went to London to be hanged-but rode back in a chaise and four with Flora McDonald."
Four years after her return to Scotland she was married to Allan McDonald, son of the Laird of Kingsburg, who, at the death of his father, succeeded to the estate and title; and thus she became mistress of the very mansion in which the Prince passed his first night in the Isle of Skye, June 29th, 1746, after the romantic escape from Uist. Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell, in their tour to the Hebrides in 1773, were hospitably entertained by Allan and Flora McDonald, and were greatly gratified by being put to sleep in the same bed in which the unfortunate Charles Edward had slept the night he passed upon the island. Flora, though then more than twenty years a wife, and the mother of numerous children, still retained her blooming countenance and genteel form, and was full of the enthusiasm of her youth. On account of the pecuniary em- barrassments of her husband, they were then, the doctor tells us, in his journal, contemplating a removal to North Carolina, to join their countrymen and friends on the Cape Fear river, sent thither immediately after the rebellion of 1745. From that period the sandy country of the Carolinas had been the refuge of the High- landers, whether they fled from poverty or oppression, or were drawn by the desire of being independent landholders and wealthy
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men. In the year 1775, just as the troubles in the American colo- nies were turning into rebellion against the tyranny of England, and the assertion of independence of all foreign control, Allan and Flora, with their family and some friends, landed in North Carolina and took their abode for a short time at Cross Creek, now Fayette- ville. The place of her residence was destroyed by the great fire that swept off a large part of the town one Sabbath in the summer of 182 -. The ruins of this dwelling are still to be seen as you pass from the market-house to the court-house, on your right hand, just before you cross the creek, not far from the office built out over the stream. After a short stay in this place, they removed to Cameron's Hill, in the Barbacue congregation, about twenty miles above Fayetteville, in Cumberland county. While residing at this place, Mrs. Smith, now living in Robeson county, from whom much of the information respecting Flora was derived, remembers seeing her, at the Barbacue church, a dignified and handsome woman, to whom all paid great respect. They afterwards removed farther up the country into Anson county. While residing there, Donald McDonald, a relation of Flora's, who had been an officer in the Pretender's army in 1745, and had taken the oath of allegi- ance and emigrated to save his life, was commissioned by Governor Martin as general in the service of his Majesty George III. On the 1st of February, 1776, he issued his proclamation calling on all loyal and true Highlanders to join his standard at Cross Creek. Some fifteen hundred men soon assembled in arms; some of whom were sincerely attached to the house of Hanover, and others were under oaths of allegiance to which they owed their life, and, as some believed, their property. With these were assembled Kings- burg McDonald, the husband of Flora, with their kindred and neighbors, animated by the spirit of this matron, who now, on her former principles, defended George III. as readily as she had aided the unfortunate Charles Edward about thirty years before. Tra- dition says she accompanied her husband and neighbors to Cross- wicks, and communicated her own enthusiasm to the assembled Scotch. From this fact it has been supposed by some, that she followed the army in its march to join Governor Martin at the mouth of Cape Fear. Mrs. Smith, however, expressly asserts that she did not follow the army ; but returned to her residence in An- son, when the army first moved up Rockfish, as it did in a short time, in preparation to march down the river.
On their march down the river the forces of General McDonald were met by Colonels Lillington and Caswell, near the mouth of
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Moore's Creek, in New Hanover, and after a severe engagement, on the 27th, were entirely routed and dispersed, taken prisoners or killed. Among the prisoners was the husband of Flora, who served as captain.
After the release of her husband from Halifax jail, the place of confinement for the officers taken in the battle, having suffered much in their estate from the plunderings and confiscations to which the Royalists were exposed, they with their family embarked in a sloop of war for their native land. On the voyage home, the sloop was attacked by a French vessel of war ; and as the engagement grew warm the courage of the sailors deserted them, and capture seemed inevitable. Ascending the quarter deck, she animated the men to renew the conflict with activity and courage, nothing daunted by a wound she received in her hand. The sight of the courageous and wounded woman aroused the spirit of the crew to the highest pitch. Having beaten off the enemy, they landed Flora and the family safe on their native soil, from which she never again departed. She used sometimes to remark pleasantly on the peculiarity of her condition, " I have hazarded my life both for the house of Stuart and the house of Hanover ; and I do not see that I am a great gainer by it."
To the close of her life she was of a gentle, affable demeanor, and greatly beloved ; her modesty and self-respect were blended with kindness and benevolence. There were none of those mas- culine passions and habits, or tempers, so commonly connected in our thoughts with acts of bravery performed by females. She was always womanly in her course, and always lovely. The mother of a numerous family, five sons and two daughters, she inspired them all with her spirit of loyalty and adventure ; the sons all be- came military officers, and were faithful to their king and country ; the daughters were married to military men, and maintained their loyalty and their honor, as true descendants of such a mother. Loyalty in these ladies had no servility in it ; it was a sense of the necessity of a firm and established government to execute laws for the peace of the community, and a conviction that a restricted monarchy was the best form of government, and that a hereditary was better than an elective crown. The most desolating wars in the history of their country had been waged by disputants for the crown.
The eventful life of this amiable lady was closed March 5th, 1790. We have no record of the mental and religious exercises of her last moments. She was educated, lived, and died in the
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Presbyterian faith, the faith of the Church of Scotland ; and never sympathized in the religious creed of the Pretender, whose life she saved. It was not so much admiration of the Prince, as a charac- ter or a man, as the workings of her own kind heart and noble soul in looking upon her hereditary Prince in distress, that moved her to the romantic and hazardous enterprise of his escape from Uist. An immense concourse of people were assembled at her funeral ; not less than three thousand persons followed the corpse to the grave in the cemetery of Kilmuir, in the Isle of Skye. Ac- cording to a request long previously expressed, her shroud was made of the identical sheets in which the Prince reposed the night he slept at Kingsburg,-thus carrying to her grave the romantic spirit of her youth.
A writer who visited the cemetery in September, 1841, says : " There is not so much as one of that family in the land of the
. living. At the end of two years the body of her husband was de- posited in a grave by her side,-where, alas, all her offspring now silently slumber. Thus is Flora McDonald, she who once was beautiful as the flower of the morning, now reposing beneath a green hillock ; and no monument, as yet, has been erected to per- petuate the memory of her faithfulness or her achievements ! Thus the beauty of the world shall pass away !"
Though no monument be erected in England or in Scotland to her memory ; though no page of English history shall inscribe her worth, because displayed in an unpopular cause ; though from the time of that ill-planned and ill-fated rebellion, the whole policy of England towards her native country has been to annihilate the habits, and the very language and dress of the Highlands, and of her youth, her memory will live in North Carolina while nobleness has admirers, and romantic self-devotion to the welfare of the distressed can charm the heart. And will not that be for ever ? Will not posterity admire her more than Prince Charles who led his followers to slaughter ? or George II., who envied the popularity of his own son ? and draw more instruction from her romance, and affection, and boldness, and devotion, and womanly graces, and feminine loveliness, than from all the court of Eng- land that fill the histories of that by-gone period ? .
Massachusetts has her Lady Arabella ; Virginia her Pocahontas ; and North Carolina her Flora McDonald.
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CHAPTER XIII.
HUGH M'ADEN AND THE CHURCHES IN DUPLIN, NEW HANOVER, AND CASWELL.
THE first ordained minister that took his abode among the Pres- byterian settlements in North Carolina, was the Rev. James Campbell, on the Cape Fear river. The first missionary whose journal, or parts of journal, has been preserved, is Hugh McAden (or as sometimes spelled McCadden), who was also the first missionary that settled in the State.
The first Presbyterian minister that preached in North Caro- lina of whom we have any knowledge, was William Robinson, famous in the annals of the Virginia churches, of whom the Rev. Samuel Davies says,-" that favored man, Mr. Robinson, whose success, whenever I reflect upon it, astonishes me." This eminent missionary passed through Virginia to North Carolina, and spent a part of the winter of 1742 and 1743, among Pres- byterian settlements. It was on his return from Carolina, and while preaching at Cub Creek, in Charlotte county, that the mes- senger from Hanover county waited upon him and persuaded him to visit that county, in which were no settlements of Presbyterian emigrants, and which of course had not been included either in his original mission, or his intended route homeward.
We are not able to ascertain the places with precision, which he visited, but as the Presbyterian settlements in the county of Duplin and New Hanover were the oldest in the State, and there were none others at that time of much strength, the probability is that Duplin and New Hanover were the places he visited, and the scattered settlements then commenced in the upper part of the State also received some attention. Mr. Davies tells us that the success attending the ministry of this eminent man, so abun- dant in Virginia, was very small in Carolina. It is probably owing to that fact that the whole history of his mission is cir- cumscribed in the single statement, that he visited the country through much exposure, and many hardships, owing to the un- settled wilderness through which he had to pass.
Supplications were sent from Carolina to the Synod of Phila-
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delphia as early as the year 1744. The records speak of them as having come "from many people," but do not tell us from what section of the State they were sent. In the year 1753, two mission- aries were sent by the direction of the Synod to visit Virginia and North Carolina, Mr. McMordie and Mr. Donaldson ; but there is no mention 'made of the settlements they were to visit, further than they were "to show special regard" to the vacancies of North Carolina, especially betwixt Atkin (Yadkin) and Catawba rivers. In the year 1754 the Synod of New York directed four ministers, Messrs. Beatty, Bostwick, Lewis, and Thane, to visit the States of Virginia and North Carolina, each three months, but no particular places are specified. In 1755, the same Synod ap- pointed two other missionaries, and named some places in the upper part of the State; but owing to the disturbances in the country from the depredations of the Indians, this mission was not fulfilled.
The settlement of Presbyterians in Duplin county is probably the oldest large settlement of that denomination in the State. About the year 1736, or perhaps 1737, one Henry McCulloch induced a colony of Presbyterians from the province of Ulster, in Ireland, to settle in Duplin county, North Carolina, on lands he had obtained from his majesty, George II. The stipulated con- dition of the grant, or promised grant, was, that he should pro- cure a certain number of settlers to occupy the wide forests, as an inducement to other emigrants to seek a residence in the un- occupied regions of Carolina. His son reported between three and four hundred emigrants, for whose introduction he retained about sixty-four thousand acres of land. The descendants of these emigrants are found in Duplin, New Hanover, and Samp- son counties-the family names indicating their origin. The Grove congregation, whose place of worship is about three miles southeast of Duplin court-house, traces its origin to the church formed from this, the oldest Presbyterian settlement in the State, whose principal place of worship was at first called Goshen.
Nearer Wilmington was a settlement on what was called the Welch Tract, on the northeast Cape Fear.
This was composed at first of Welch emigrants, but after a short period other families were located on the tract, and then were associated families enough to form a congregation sufficiently large to invite the services of a minister.
These two settlements, one in Duplin and the other in Hanover, formed the field of labor in which McAden passed the first part of
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his settled ministry. As you pass rapidly on the cars from Rich- mond, Virginia, to Wilmington, North Carolina, after crossing the Tar River, and entering upon the extended sandy level that stretches, without an elevation of an ordinary hill, through the State, abounding in the species of pine that pours forth the tur- pentine of- commerce, you enter upon the country roamed over by McAden, in his ministry in Duplin. Passing on, with scarce an elevation or a turn, through that country, and the unchanging groves of pines in New Hanover, till you cross the Cape Fear, you have measured the space allotted to him for the exercise of his ministry. A singular country ; the wealth of the inhabitants is in the endless forest of pines, and their principal employment is gathering the product of these forests in the shape of turpentine, tar, and lumber, for foreign markets. The grain and grass crops are a secondary consideration, and scarcely supply the home de- mand. The supply from the forest has hitherto been unfailing, abundant, and often very profitable. To one accustomed to the cultivated fields of western Carolina, or the more northern States, this country, in passing hastily through it in the steam cars, ap- pears one vast solitude. The turpentine groves present little of romance or beauty in their constantly recurring sameness, while they are pouring out streams of wealth to an industrious people.
Hugh McAden was born in Pennsylvania ; his parentage is traced to the North of Ireland. His Alma Mater was Nassau Hall ; his instructor in Theology, John Blair, of New Castle Pres- bytery. He was graduated in 1753, and was licensed in 1755, by the Presbytery to which his instructor belonged, and ordained by the same Presbytery in 1757 ; and dismissed in 1759 to join Han- over Presbytery, whose limits extended indefinitely south. Com- paratively little is known of his early life, as his papers were almost entirely destroyed by the British soldiers, in January, 1781, while the army of Cornwallis, in the pursuit of Green, was en- camped at the Red House, in Caswell county. Of the few papers that escaped was the Journal of his first trip through Carolina, and is the only document of the kind known to be in existence. As it contains many facts, incidentally stated, that will now be useful, all the important and interesting parts of this brief document will be presented, either verbatim, or in a condensed form, leaving out repetitions, and things that are likely to be in a journal not intend- ed for the public, and which are not of lasting importance.
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M'ADEN'S JOURNAL.
" Tuesday, June 3d, 1755 .- Took my journey for Carolina from Mr. Kirkpatrick's in the evening ; came to Mr. Hall's, where I tar- ried all night. Next day crossed the river in company with Mr. Bay and his wife. Spent the day in visiting her friends on both sides,"-that is, the old and new sides into which the church was then divided. "Thursday we set off and came to York, forty miles, with some difficulty, the weather being extremely hot, and no food for our horses. A very bad prospect of crops appears everywhere, the ground being quite burned up with drought, and the corn much hurt by the frost ; the green wheat and meadows, in some places, entirely withered up from the roots as if they had been scorched by fire. Here I left Mr. Bay and his wife, rode out in the afternoon and lodged in the congregation. Next day set off in the morning and came to his house, where I stayed for breakfast." This Mr. Bay was a Presbyterian minister, of New Castle Presbytery, of the new side, and he speaks as if it were remarkable that he visited both sides with Mrs. Bay. York is the first town mentioned ; and the bearing of his journey, and cross- ing " the river," would seem to fix the location of Mr. Kirkpatrick in Lancaster county. The mention he here makes of the great drought is repeated through all the summer and fall; from which it ap- pears a severe drought prevailed extensively the same summer that Braddock's war raged so disastrously.
The second Sabbath of June he was at Rock Spring, and con- tinued till the Friday after; the people making preparations to attend the administration of the Lord's Supper in the two congre- gations, that lay on each side, of one of which the Rev. JAMES CAMPBELL, who was the next year in Carolina, was the pastor. In this he passed the third Sabbath of June, in company with the pastor and the Rev. Andrew Bay, whom he says he " heard preach with great satisfaction." This Mr. Campbell he had for his neigh- bor, in Carolina, on the Cape Fear, in about a year from this ; the patriarch of the Scotch churches.
" Monday, June the 16th, set out from Connegocheg, upon my journey for Carolina, crossed the Potomac, and lodged at Mr. Caten's, where I was very kindly entertained, and civilly used. Next day (Tuesday) set off about 12 o'clock, and came to Win- chester, forty miles, and tarried all night. In the morning rode out to Robert Wilson's, where I was kindly entertained. Spent the day with Mr. Hogg" (or Hoge) 11 This Mr. Wilson lived a
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short distance from the present Opecquon meeting-house, and was proverbial for his hospitality. His house, which is still stand- ing, on the east side of the great turnpike, part of stone and part of wood, was the resort of preachers in his day ; and during the time that Washington was encamped in Winchester, the resort of his Excellency. The Mr. Hogg, or Hogge, or Hoge, for the name has been spelled all these ways, had been ordained by New Castle Presbytery about the time that Mr. McAden was licensed. He was graduated at Nassau Hall, in 1748 ; how long he had been at Opecquon is not known. He was the first settled minister in that congregation, the oldest in the valley.
On Thursday, the 19th, he set off up the valley of the Shenan- doah, of which he says : " Alone in the wilderness. Sometimes a house in ten miles, and sometimes not that." On Friday night he lodged at a Mr. Shankland's, eighty miles from Opecquon, and twenty from Augusta court-house. On Saturday he stopped at a Mr. Poage's-" stayed for dinner, the first I had eaten since I left Pennsylvania."
From Staunton he went with Hugh Celsey to Samuel Downey's, at the North Mountain, where he preached on the fourth Sabbath of June, according to appointment, and being detained by his horse, preached there the fifth Sabbath also. The same cause detaining him another week, he consented to preach in the new court-house on the first Sabbath of July. " Rode to widow Preston's Satur- day evening, where I was very kindly entertained, and had a com- modious lodging." This is probably the widow of John Preston, whose family have since been so famous in Virginia. The North Mountain congregation has long since given place to Bethel and Hebron. On Monday he rode out to John Trimble's, more en- couraged by the appearances at North Mountain than in Staunton. On Tuesday he passed on to the Rev. John Brown's, who was the first settled minister of Providence and Timber Ridge. " Here I was vehemently desired by Mr. Brown to preach in one of his places, having set apart a day of fasting and prayer, on the account of the wars and many murders committed by the savage Indians on the back inhabitants. To this I agreed, having ap- pointed the Forks of James River for the next Lord's day, where I could easily reach on Saturday. So I tarried, and preached at Timber Ridge on Friday, which was the day appointed, to a pretty large congregation ; felt some life and earnestness in alarming the people of their dangers on account of sin, the procuring cause of all evils that befal us in this life, or that which is to come ; en-
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