This illustration was taken from 'Boswell's Journal of the Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson'
Flora MacDonald (1722-1790) is famous for her part in the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie after the defeat of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. She was born in South Uist in 1722. Her father died soon after she was born and her mother remarried, with the result that Flora was brought up by a Clanranald family. She was educated in Edinburgh.
Flora was a native of South Uist, but was brought up on Skye. Both her step-father and her fiance, Allan MacDonald, were soldiers in the government army during the '45 Jacobite Rebellion and she was not sympathetic to the Jacobite cause. When she met the Prince following his defeat at Culloden, she was unwilling to help him, but eventually was persuaded to get him to Skye. Disguising the Prince as her Irish maid, Betty Burke, Flora rowed him across the Minch from Benbecula to Portree, from where the Prince was able to sail to France. Flora was arrested for her involvement and sent to the Tower of London, but was released shortly after due to the 1747 Act of Indemnity.
Flora later married Allan MacDonald of Kingsburgh and they emigrated to North Carolina in 1774 where they were active in recruiting Scots to fight for the British during the American Revolution. After the British were defeated they returned to settle at Kingsburgh on Skye. Flora died in 1790 and is buried in the churchyard at Kilmuir.
The epitaph on her memorial in the graveyard at Kilmuir in the north of Skye reads, "A name that will be mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour"
Click to enlarge the image, read the text then answer the following questions.
Questions
- Where did Flora Macdonald stand as regards the Jacobite cause?
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Where was Flora Macdonald:
- born
- brought up
- and educated?
- How did she take Bonnie Prince Charlie to Skye?
- What part did she play in the American Revolution?
- How old was she when she died and where is she buried?