INTRODUCTION

The foUowing pages are translatée! from Une Famille Royaliste Irlandaise et Ecossaise et Le Prince Charles Edouard : a French publication unsigned but compiled from original MSS. by the présent Duc de la TrémoïUe, a descendant in the female line of the family of Walsh.

Of Irish origin, but settled in France, the Walshes were distinguished for ardent loyalty to the exiled Royal House of Stuart, and two brothers of the family were especially active in the service of Prince Charles Edward. The one, whose voyage to Scotland with the Prince in 1745 is hère recorded, was created Earl Walsh by James m. (viii.), and the other received from Louis xv. of France the title of Comte de Serrant, and was ancestor of the Duc de la Trémoïlle, who has given permission for this translation. His relative, another of the Walsh family, V. Hussey Walsh, Esq., has supplied valuable additional information and kind assistance ; the letters which he has translated are marked H. W.

The French work, published at Nantes in 1901, was reviewed by The Scotsman in November of that year and likewise by The Dundee Advertiser. In thèse reviews the suggestion was made that an édition in English was désirable, and this translation is the resuit.

Net a few fresh détails relative to Prince Charles Edward and his adhérents are given in the volume, and the log-book of the Doutelle, which bore him to Scotland, appears on its pages for the first time. It is in the hope that thèse will prove interesting that the work is now offered to the public by

The Translater

A. G. MuRRAY Mac Gregor.

Perth, December 1903.

PKEFACE^

' Semper Ubique Fidèles.'

Whilst classifying the archives of Serrant, I found letters addressed to Legrand, signed Douglas. The mysterious style, the friendly but sometimes dictatorial tone of this correspoadeuce was strange and incompréhensible.

A note, recently discovered, from Prince Charles Stuart to Antony Walsh " gives the key to the enigma : ' Henceforward my address is Mr. Douglas. Remember that for every one you are Monsieur Legrand.'

Thus it is to Walsh that this correspondence is addressed by the Prince of Wales.

Continuing my researches, I bave collected numerous documents, which give fresh détails of the wandering life of the exiled Princes and their relations with the Court of Louis XV.

The correspondence of the Prince of Wales begins in 1745.

The events of this epoch seemed to favour the projects of the claimant.^ The victory of Fontenoy, the support promised by Louis xv., had re-animated ail the hopes of King James, and determined the Prince to attempt a descent on England. On the 2nd June 1745, the frigate, the Dutillay, raised her anchor in the roadstead of Mindin, for the voyage to Scotland ; Prince Charles Edward was on board, and disembarked on the 1 Ith August at Lochnanuagh, to maintain, arms in hand, the cause of the King, his father. The interests of France were to see the plans of the claimant successful. Louis

' [From the French. Suuh documents as Dominique 1763. were written in English will be noted. — Tr.] ^ ['Prétendant,' the correct nieaning is that

2 Anthony Walsh, descendant of an Irish of 'claimant,' rather than the false epithet

family, born at St. Malo 1703, died at Saint obnoxious to every Jacobite. — Tr.]

viii A ROYALIST FAMILY

XV., to support the Jacobite expédition, had given orders to coUect ships at Dunkirk : eighteen battalions of infantry and two squadrons of cavalry formed a corps of land forces. Maurepas, entrusted with the exécution of the King's will, hurried the organisation and departure of the troops. The command of the French fleet was committed to Anthony Walsh, a devoted servant of the Stuarts. It was on bis frigate, the Dutillay, that the Prince of Wales had recently gone to Scotland. Everything was preparing in France to embark the troops and to set sail about the month of March 1746. Delays, difBculties, the cause of which is unknown, prevented the succour being ready in time to be useful. Prince Charles Edward, abandoned to his own forces, was defeated at Culloden in the month of April 1746. The cause of the Stuarts was lost, the descent of the French on England countermanded.

A correspondence of d'Heguerty,' speaking of the project of the expédition to England and of its organisation, begins this publication. Letters Patent from the Kings of France and of England terminate thèse old réminiscences of a royalist family.

' Heguerty, an Irishman who settled in owner or shipbroker, 'armateur' signifyingone France and became an 'armateur' [i.c. ship- who fitsout a vesselathisownexpense. — Tr.].