JACOBITES SKIRMISH AT KEITH, TWO WEEKS BEFORE CULLODEN by Isobel Shanks I am going to tell you today what Keith would have been like at the time of the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745. Keith in the 18thcentury and around that time had a population of about 2,300 people, half the size it is today as the population is now around 4,500 Now what did the town of Keith look like? To begin with you can forget all of the New Keith i.e. Mid Street, Land Street, Moss Street, Balloch Road, the Den, the Cuthil, the Church and Chapel, your schools, everything you associate with Keith today. It was a large grassy moor. New Keith was not thought about until about1750. five years after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, and of course there was no Fife-Keith or Newmill either. That leaves the Old Town area where the cemetery and Tesco now stands. Here there were many houses, some with thatched roof and some with slates. These houses spread along the River Isla towards Strathmill distillery. There was an Inn and a Jail which was situated behind where the large heavy cemetery gate now stands. Remember there was no cemetery there. It was on the higher ground, to reach this higher ground today you could climb the stone steps. On the high ground was the Kirk of Keith - the only Church at that time. Alongside it was the school named Edindaich Mortifiers School. This was a school for boys - no girls. So there was Keith. A hamlet of houses at the bottom of Beggs Brae - where the Steppes, now are which lead to Tesco's. It had a lovely pack horse bridge over the River Isla 1609 - the only bridge over the Isla. What work or jobs did the men and boys and girls and women do? Some would have worked in the Tannery. Cleaning, scraping and preserving animal hides. Forsyth s Tannery was directly across the road from where Tesco is today. The place is still called Hyde Park. Behind Hyde Park near where St. Rufus Church now stands was Earlsmill. It was a meal mill and it had a weaving shed.
There were many meal mills strung along the River Isla s banks. The biggest one was beside Milton Castle - now only the tower remains of that Castle. Both men and women worked on farms, or they worked for the Lairds of big Estates or in snuff mills. Others would have been employed in Bleachfields, in flax dressing, spinning and weaving linen and woollen cloth. The spinning and weaving was sometimes done in sheds, but mostly it was done at home, where nearly every house had a spinning wheel and weaving loom. This style of working was called a Cottage Industry. What did they eat? The food would have been very basic using crops which were grown in the area. These were mainly oats, turnips, cabbage, kale. The animals such as black cattle snd sheep would be used for their milk which was made into butter and cheese and crowdie, and for meat when the animals were slaughtered. Fish was mainly salted herring with the occasional river trout. Sometimes there was rabbit stew or pigeon soup - never chicken at turkey, only the well-off rich ate that. To drink the people would have had water from spring or well, skimmed or whole milk and ale. Tea and coffee were available but most people could not afford to buy them. Forks and knives were also available, but again too expensive for ordinary people, so they used their fingers. Spoons were used for porridge, soup etc. Here is a typical menu for one day. First of all you would have to light the fire and stoke it with peats and fetch the water from the well or spring and set it on the fire to boil. Breakfast: Porridge or Brose. (This is oatmeal, salt with boiling water added and mixed to a stiff paste. Dinner was at midday. It could be barley and kale broth with strips of meat or barley bannock or turnip and kale (cabbage). There might be potatoes, which were available. However, these were grown as a garden crop. Sometimes the meat was replaced by eggs, cheese, butter, milk, salt herring or oatmeal dumplings. Supper / tea would again be porridge, brose or oatcakes and cheese and crowdy.
Not a very exciting diet, but it was healthy. Only the Lairds and their families enjoyed a variety of different foods. Entertainment: Well there wasn't a lot to do. Everyone went to Church on Sundays, i.e. every Sunday. Stories around the fireside would be told at night time. Singing songs, and someone could play a fiddle, that would be a bonus. Another event was the drowning of a witch from the scaier stone which was a stone by the bank of the River Isla just under where the road bridge has been built. In the unlikely event of the witch surviving her drowning she was still pronounced guilty and burned at the stake. This was stopped by the Government in 1735, thank goodness. Then in September there was the great event of Simmereve Fair. Traders, cattle dealers came from far and wide to attend the Keith Simmereve Fair. I hope you've got the picture of how Keith looked in 1715 to 1745. Just the Old Town by the river. Do you remember where the school was, and the church? And at the bottom of the steep bank an Inn and Jail stood and the rest was flat grassland. You know that people worked at weaving and on farms, on tannery, snuff mill, bleach green and as servants. Some had shops and some worked in the Cottage Industry. This peaceful scene of Old Keith was about to be disrupted - the date 1715, when a force of 60 Jacobite soldiers descended on Keith and occupied the town in December and stayed for two months, 8 long weeks. In the town they looted and robbed the Church, School, shops and houses. The local people called them Monsters of wickedness. This rebellion or Jacobite Rising was caused by the Old Pretender Charles claim to the throne. He had been in exile in France for a long time. Well the 2 months the Jacobites stayed in Keith the Old Pretender had himself crowned at Scone on 23rd December 1715. By the end of December the Old Pretender and his supporters were in full retreat after the Battle of Sheriffmuir. The Jacobite army was
making for Inverness and the Highlands and were being chased by an army of Argyle soldiers. The Old Pretender fled to France. The retreating Jacobite army on their way to rejoin their Clans in the Highlands reached Keith early in February 1716 - all 4,000 of them joining the 60 Clansmen Jacobites - already camped in Keith. Their camp was scattered over a wide area but that did not stop them plundering and robbing the good people of Keith. After a stay of 8 days, thankfully the 4,060 men set off for their homes in the Highlands. After the uprising the Government passed the Disarming Act, which meant that all guns, axes, swords. Dirks, pistols had to be handed over. Keith had been on a war footing - people had tried to protect themselves and their families because in Keith alone 634 swords, 91 dirks, 396 guns, 219 pistols, 57 halberts and other weapons were handed in, over 1,000 in the end - a weapon for every household. Peace descended and Keith until 1746. So what happened in 1746? The Young Pretender - Bonnie Prince Charlie arrived in disguise on the island of Eriskay in July 1745. By August at Glenfinnan the Royal standard had been raised. This meant he had laid his claim to the throne of Scotland, England and Ireland. The king's army was called the Hanoverians. They were under General Wade and the Duke of Cumberland. The Jacobites were led by Prince Charles. The Jacobites and Hanoverian redcoats clashed in Keith on the 20th of March 1746, and this is what happened down by the Auld Brig and School on that fateful night. Captain Campbell arrived in Keith with a force of Argylshire Militia - more than 100 men, some with horses - and they set up camp on the grassland on what is now the cemetery, some were camped in the school and others settled in the Kirk. First though they looted and plundered houses and shops terrifying the people of Keith. At the same time, in Fochabers the Jacobites had a camp and intelligence i.e. news reached them that Hanoverians were camped at
Keith. So they set off to march towards Keith, 60 men plus 40 on horseback - 100 in all. When they reach the top of the Dramlach hill about where the A96 branches off to Buckie the company split in two. Horsesmen went straight on towards Keith. The other half went towards where Newmill is today. They forded the Isla and came to Keith. So when the Jacobites reached Keith they came in on both sides effectively trapping the Hanoverian Campbells escape route. This is called a pincer movement. Some of the Keith people met them and guided them to the Hanoverian camp because they were angry at the soldiers for looting and plundering their town. It was a pitch black night as the Jacobites reached the Hanoverian camp. Sentries guarding the camp challenged them, Who goes there?. The answer given by the Jacobites was Friends. The Campbells sentry replied You are welcome, we hear the enemy is at hand. The Jacobites then seized the sentries by the throat and threw them to the ground. Remember the town was now surrounded by Jacobites and the Hanoverians asleep in the Kirk, Schools and grassland. Now the Jacobites attacked the sleeping soldiers. Caught by surprise the Hanoverian Campbells had no chance. The skirmish was deadly, some of the Campbells tried to take cover under the Auld Bridge and also around a large boulder by the bridge. This covered a small cave and to this day this bolder is still called the Cambell s hole in memory of the fierce fighting that took place. The Keith Dr Hay attended to the many wounded Campbells. He was so shocked at the amount of men wounded and killed that he spread a rumour, a story, that a large army of Hanoverians was on route from Strathbogie, that is Huntly. When the Jacobites heard this story they hastily retreated to Fochabers. Sadly most of the Campbells had been killed. Those remaining - mainly the ones who had been in the school or Kirk set to work digging a huge communal grave for all the men. For a long time afterwards this grave, which was in the low part of the ground,
was known as Campbells Hillock. This hillock was removed in 1870 when the lower part of the cemetery was laid out. This all took place around March 20th 1746, and on 16th of April 1746 the Jacobites were totally defeated at the Battle of Culloden. This was the end of Bonnie Prince Charlie s claim to the throne. He escaped to Europe by dressing up as a lady's maid to Flora MacDonald, sailing from the Islands to France. Keith became a peaceful hamlet again. Five years later in 1750 New Keith was laid out by the Earl of Seafield End