The Elusive Duncan Campbell: The Massacre at Glencoe:

The Blackheath Connection:

Chapter 2

 

      The peculiarity and the elusiveness of the life of Duncan Campbell is that his biography has been split, fractured and fragmented into splinters and shards by historians working in England, the United States and Australia. These historians have worked on varied  topics: the American Revolution and its aftermaths, convict transportation to Australia, the administration of the Thames prison hulks, West India merchants, the Anglo-American tobacco trade before the American Revolution, or the legend of the Mutiny on HMAV Bounty. Campbell was certainly not a great man in history, and over decades, it is as though when he is mentioned, that what has been important, is that he is given incorrectly, not correctly. In a sense, he's a humpty-dumpty figure in a history of British commerce 1700-1800. Is Humpty-Dumpty worth the effort? Didn't the nursery rhyme long ago prove it's impossible to piece Humpty together again? Can he be seen whole? When he is seen whole, is he accompanied by anyone interesting?

 

As overseer of the Thames Prison Hulks, Campbell was merely a government functionary. His role as hulks overseer is downplayed by historians of the Bligh legend, or, biographers of William Bligh, who was deposed as governor of New South Wales in 1808. The "Bligh problem" with the splintering of Campbell's life story has arisen partly due to problems in interpreting the two men's family history. ([1]) As overseer, Campbell was loathed by the London journalists of his day, since the hulks convicts were an affront to traditional views about English "liberty". Hence, Campbell gave affront by profiting from giving affront about liberty - so the journalists thought. One problem for biographers of Bligh is that it is difficult to apportion prestige to Bligh, and to Bligh's family, if part of that family is a loathed overseer of hated prison hulks. Such problems were avoided by Bligh biographers working in the 1930s, and have not been solved since.

 

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     Meanwhile almost no-one has noted Campbell as the sometime-chairman of the British Creditors, a body of about 205 English and Scottish merchants which was set up from 1783 (after the American Revolution) to lobby for repayment of debts owed by those rebellious, but victorious, Americans. The amount outstanding was £2.5 million  minimum. In this capacity, Campbell met Thomas Jefferson in London in April 1786, a matter scarcely noted (except by Jefferson himself) and never followed up.

 

     Which is more important? Bligh going to Tahiti for breadfruit? The overseership of the Thames prison hulks? Or, Thomas Jefferson's ambitions to revise Mercantilism after the American Revolution, versus the British Creditors' determination to retrieve their debt monies? So far, historians are unable to cope with a London merchant who could have given his own opinion on which of the above was most important. Sandwiched in any choice of what was more important is the entire topic known as "the founding of Australia" as a British colony. Whether that colony was merely a penal colony, or something of more moment, is only one of many sets of serious questions to be ranged around views of Campbell's career.

 

Campbell was an eyewitness to some matters historians have failed to note. Such as the day in London when Campbell met Gov. Arthur Phillip, 10 January, 1787, the same day that the First Fleet contractor, William Richards, began signing his first contracts for the transportation to New South Wales. And here is an added problem - much information on Richards has also been lost to history. The "overcrowded prisons" of England were one of the problems reputedly impelling the colonisation of Australia. In this context alone, any administrator should be worth examination.

 

We begin with a cloud of unknowing. Campbell's father was principal Neil Campbell (circa 1678-1761) of the College of Glasgow (1728-1761), which university of course contributed many talented Scotsmen to the service of the British Empire, and/or, to less formally Imperialistic areas of endeavour.

 

     Principal Neil's paternity remains an intractable genealogical problem. Luckily, Neil's wife Henrietta has a coherent lineage. Information on Neil's known Australian descendants (stemming from only one of the hulks overseer's sons, "Duncan Jnr.") stops at 1938 in mid-north Queensland, at Almaden, inland from Cairns. Here, little is known also about an ex-Sydney civil engineer, William Dugald Campbell (1848-1938), who was buried at Chillagoe Cemetery, Queensland.

 

     Out of this cloud of unknowing, Stop One. Neil's uncle was Colonel John Campbell of Black River, Jamaica (?-1740), "the first Campbell on Jamaica", and therefore, conspicuous. Colonel John Campbell (or, John Black River as I shall call him) was a military employee of the Scottish Darien Company, which is just one factor requiring the historian of just one Campbell family to delve deeper into the late seventeenth century.

 

     Stop Two: A relative of John Black River, Dugald Campbell (died 1744) on Jamaica produced a daughter, Rebecca. In 1753, Rebecca married principal  Neil's son Duncan on her family's plantation, Saltspring, Hanover Parish, Jamaica. A little is known of Rebecca's father's family history.

 

     Stop Three: In 1758 in London, Duncan, a ship's captain following his naval experience by 1748 on HM Dove, branched out from his London-Jamaica trade to become partner with John Stewart, the London convict contractor shipping felons to Virginia and North America, backloading tobacco.

 

    Here enters a major theme... the British use of coerced labour (both slave and convict), a tradition inspired by experience after the settlement from 1625 of Barbados. ([2]) A growing view exists that in British history, slavery and the use of convict labour may as well be regarded as synonymous. Adopting this view makes viewing Campbell's career easier. He worked slaves on the plantation he inherited from Rebecca's family, shipped British felons to North America, then managed prison hulks. In this, Campbell  became an epitome of many Eighteenth Century British trends which are today found repellent, but which in his own time were commonplace and seldom protested till the late 1780s. So, in 1786, Thomas Jefferson in London disagreed over American debts with a merchant who was an epitome of much that was normal in London-British commerce.

 

     Stop Four: By 1766-1770, Campbell had two captains sailing for him, named Somerville, delivering convicts to Virginia or Maryland. They were his nephews, sons of his eldest sister Ann (the first child of principal Neil and Henrietta), or, relatives of her husband John?

 

     Stop Five: Before the American Revolution, Campbell was one of the top nine London tobacco traders. He dealt also with tobacco merchants in Scotland. The American War eclipsed his tobacco dealing, and by mid-1776, Campbell was embroiled in becoming overseer of the newly-established Thames prison hulks).

 

     Here arises a question historians find difficult for lack of industry information...  from 1775, what happened to Campbell's tobacco trade? Did he resume trading in tobacco, and if so, when? This question inevitably plunges the researcher into reviewing the career of the man who "financed the American Revolution", Robert Morris, who by-the-by was given marketing control of the American tobacco crop as one means of raising finance for the American War. Duncan Campbell resumed tobacco dealing about 1792, having made new arrangements with Christopher Court, also one of the top London tobacco traders before 1776.

 

     Stop Six: The second daughter of Principal Neil, the popular Mary, married Richard Betham in 1748. In 1765 Betham was installed as customs controller on the Isle of Man, which had lately been purchased by the British Government from its hereditary owner, the Duke of Atholl (a noted Freemason). Betham's task as customs-controller was to suppress smuggling on an island widely regarded as a "nest of smugglers". It is astonishing, how difficult it is to find a printed treatment of the suppression of smuggling on the Isle of Man! So far, anything printed about Betham - and very little to date - is concerned with Bligh and HMAV Bounty.

 

     Stop Seven: Campbell's niece Elizabeth Betham on the Isle of Man married William Bligh on 4 February, 1781. Later, till August 1787, Bligh sailed Campbell's ships on the  London-Jamaica run. Thus, Bligh met Fletcher Christian. Both these men, known to history as protagonist-antagonist on Bounty, were ex-employees of the only merchant in London who would sit in 1786, and speak, and profoundly disagree, with Thomas Jefferson.

 

     Stop Eight: Campbell from 9 May, 1787 promoted Bligh (then about Jamaica, or returning from there) as captain for the notorious voyage to obtain breadfruit from Tahiti to feed slaves more cheaply. Campbell and his staff had not long finalised their bookwork associated with delivering convicts to the First Fleet departing Portsmouth 13 May, 1787 for "Botany Bay".

 

     No American historian treating convict transportation to North America to 1775 has thought it wise to pursue information on Campbell's career through to the departure of the First Fleet for Australia. No Australian historian has thought it wise to organise information on Campbell's transportation of American convicts or tobacco trading before he began as the hulks overseer in 1776 - despite his Letterbooks being available to the public since about 1953. ([3]) From about 1929 until 1953, Campbell's Letterbooks had been in the possession of Bligh's first serious biographer, a Sydney historian, George Mackaness. ([4]) It remains an irony, then, that so many literary problems begin with Mackaness' work written in Sydney, the destination of so many convicts sent from England.

 

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     An amusing factor remaining unknown here has been - yes, a Scots game - golf! It is now clear that from 1766, if not earlier, golf was played by Scotsmen (mostly affluent merchants) at Blackheath in London - at the second United Kingdom golf club established after St Andrews. Duncan Campbell was a golfer here, but oddly enough, in his correspondence, this enthusiasm is never noted, not even in his Private Letterbooks.      Several other Scotsmen noted in Australian European history from 17886-1788 were also Blackheath golfers, including alderman George Mackenzie Macaulay. Macaulay had an interest in the First Fleet ship Lady Penrhyn, but he and his alderman partner in that venture, William Curtis, have been written out the story, "the founding of Australia".

 

     In 1788, both Bounty and Lady Penrhyn stopped at Tahiti, Bounty of course to gather breadfruit. That is, two Scots London merchants associated one way or another with the First Fleet played golf at Blackheath. Both resided at Blackheath. Both have been ignored. Duncan Campbell brings with him Bligh, Bounty, Jamaica and Thomas Jefferson. Macaulay brings with him aspects of City of London politics relating to the "convict problem" impelling the British settlement of Australia, and some maritime history.

 

     Stop Nine: If these two Blackheath golfers, Campbell and Macaulay, were each associated with the only two British ships stopping at Tahiti in 1788, should these oddities of maritime history be noted? Yes, if only because only a few doors from Macaulay at Blackheath lived the Enderby whalers, promoters of the Southern Whale Fishery plus John St Barbe - and the Industrial Revolution was in part oiled by whale oil. Blackheath in the timeframes considered in this book was a hothouse of interest in the Pacific.

 

    Stop Ten: The career of Duncan Campbell remains flanked with the ghosts-of-lost-information. The history of the Blackheath Golf Club also mentions Freemasonry in a context where

 

(a) convicts are sent to Australia, and;

 

(b) the maritime history of early Australia (to 1800) might as well mention golf at Blackheath, if only because a noted opponent of the "Botany Bay" expedition, the East India hydrographer, Alexander Dalrymple, also golfed at Blackheath. ([5])

 

     Stop Eleven: Why have no convict descendants in the US or Australia ever decided to research a man who might for example have shifted their ancestor from Britain between 1758-1801? This seems unanswerable. As unanswerable as asking, why maritime historians never noted the membership lists of the Blackheath Golf Club? Why biographers of Jefferson have not delved into Jefferson's London discussions in 1786 about the debts which Jefferson candidly admitted the Americans owed to the British Creditors.

 

     A great irony about Campbell's career arose just before the Australian Bicentennial. In his history of convictism in Australia, The Fatal Shore, Robert Hughes wrote that the "crooked" (shipping) contractor for the First Fleet was Duncan Campbell. ([6]) Wrong. In writing this, Hughes of course obliterated the actual contractor, William Richards, whose son William (later a convict ship captain) took up land (a place called Winterbourne) near Walcha, NSW, and also had an interest in the Australian whale fishery. That is, Hughes' error about the mounting of the First Fleet is an affront to biography, to maritime history, to family history, a tri-umph of an error.

 

     When in fact, Campbell's family history sprawls from 1678 in Glasgow to Jamaica, to the Isle of Man, to pre-revolutionary Virginia and Maryland, to the controversial Thames prison hulks, to golf at Blackheath (London local history if nothing else), with Bligh to Tahiti and the Bounty mutiny. In history, to the time of Governor Lachlan Macquarie at New South Wales. When Macquarie replaced Bligh as governor of NSW, Bligh's daughter Mary found she was a cousin (second or more distantly removed?) to Macquarie's aide-de-camp, Henry Colden Antill. (Forebear of the Antills of Jarvisfield, Picton). Antill was a nephew of Henrietta Colden of New York nee Betham, Henrietta being the sister of Bligh's wife, Elizabeth Betham.

 

     Duncan Campbell's family history then forms a genealogical net in which much other history can also be captured. Why have certain London-Scots golfers been largely deleted from Australia's maritime history - when they contributed so much to that history? It seems, sociology and history have not met, when they should have met long ago. Some problems arising are specifically biographical, sociological, genealogical, as well as "historical". It now seems that the writing of Australian history has suffered since 1900 from lack of expertise in both sociology and genealogy. But all this perhaps gives new opportunities to genealogists in Australia, the UK, and the US. Since by simply considering the life of Duncan Campbell, convict contractor "of the Adelphi, London", much can be regained that has been lost. ([7]) And so, we can ask, was Campbell, hulks overseer, a villain? Did he become a virtual millionaire by his own efforts only? Did he make any contribution to the sum of human wisdom besides the assets he bequeathed to his children? Does he deserve any attention at all?

 

Difficult though it is to find the best beginning to overseer Campbell's story, it may suit the terms of drama, or, controversy, to mention a dark Scots legend, the story of the so-called massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells at Glencoe in 1692, yet another matter which can obscure Campbell's biography, due to a legend that the overseer's father, principal Neil, was a bastard son of an Earl of Argyll, though precisely which earl, is difficult to ascertain.

 

William III orders the massacre of the Macdonalds at Glencoe:

 

1692, William, R, "As for the McDonalds of Glencoe, if they can be well distinguished from the rest of the Highlanders, it will be proper, for the vindication of public justice, to extirpate that set of thieves." - "W.R."

 

     After being executed on 30 June, 1685 at Edinburgh, the ninth Earl of Argyll was succeeded by his eldest son Archibald, who was created the first Duke of Argyll in 1701 (Lord Inverary, Mull, Morven, and Tiry, Viscount Lochow and Glenilla, Earl of Campbell and Cowal, Marquis of Kintyre and Lorne. He died on 25 September, 1703, and was born probably in 1651?

 

     To help him recover his father's forfeited estates, (the matter of the attainder) the later first Duke of Argyll supported James II, even to the point of embracing Catholicism. Since he remained unsuccessful in regaining his estates he had gone to the Hague and joined William of Orange, to later help promote the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. Later he continued to support William III, which assisted Scots progress in English colonies.

 

     The tenth earl (some have said) is chiefly remembered for his part in organizing and carrying out with John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane, the massacre of the Macdonalds at Glencoe in 1692. In spite of the attainder on his title and estates he was admitted to the 1689 Convention of Scots Estates as Earl of Argyll, and was deputed with Sir James Montgomery and Sir John Dalrymple to present the crown to William III in its name, and to tender the Coronation Oath. He was a celebrated soldier, finally a field marshall, and in 1690, after the Glorious Revolution, an Act restored his titles and estates. The tenth Earl of Argyll in 1696 became a Lord of the Treasury, rewarded in 1701 with being created the Duke of Argyll. ([8]) On his death the first Duke (the possible? father of Neil, principal of the College of Glasgow, as we shall have to examine) was succeeded by his eldest son John, second Duke of Argyll).

 

      In spring 1691 there were signs of unrest amongst the clans of north-west Scotland, some of whom entertained hopes of a French invasion. Finally they were bribed to keep quiet, and had to swear oaths of allegiance. John Campbell (1635-1717), first Earl of Breadalbane, in 1689 had taken the oath to William III and was authorised (bribed) to receive the submission of the clans. ([9]) Before the submission of the clans could be gained, however, the permission of James II was needed for them to foreswear allegiance to him, and give it to William III. That permission was gained by 27 December, 1691. MacIain of Glencoe was reluctant to let go his allegiance to James.

 

      However, in 1692, a single Jacobite chieftain, Alexander Macdonald of Glencoe, was by accident too late to deliver his loyalty, "unavoidably detained" it is said by bad weather, in submitting his oath. He arrived too late in the Campbell burgh, on 2 January, 1692. (His men were supposed to be as troublesome as any in the Highlands). By legend, this provided the Campbells with a pretext for revenges for old enmities. (The story is put in different ways, and has been re-researched since Prebble published in 1965.) By April 1689 the Earl of Argyll's offer to raise a new regiment of 600 from the West Highlands was officially accepted. The Lt-Col was Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck. Second in command was Major Robert Duncanson of Stirlingshire.

 

     In new research, a Clan Campbell point is that the Glencoe Massacre was not a deliberated act of clan vengeance, as of legend, but an act of an arm of a standing army operating on specific orders from their king. With his military troubles including a Jacobite insurrection in Scotland, whilst James II had stirred up the Irish, William III needed a larger army of standing regiments to keep his position. Various new regiments were raised in Scotland. Some were only short-lived, some were amalgamated. (Two such regiments still survive). ([10])

 

     The Macdonalds of Glencoe had been relatively peaceable till the notorious 1692 massacre, and then "governmental spite against all sympathisers with the deposed Stuarts was vented cold-bloodedly against a clan innocent of other offence." (There are ironies of wordplay here - Macdonald in Gaelic is derived from the words for "world ruler". The old Campbell motto was Vix Ea Nostro Voco - "I scarcely call all this mine own").

 

     Special permission was needed for MacIain of Glencoe to tender his allegiance late. This permission was denied at Edinburgh. In London was Stair, Sir John Dalrymple (1648-1706-07), the master of Stair, first Earl of Dalrymple, under-secretary of state and the William III's adviser in London on Scottish affairs. ([11]) Stair was determined to punish Jacobitism. On 7 January, Stair ordered the commander-in-chief of the British army in Scotland, Sir Thomas Livingstone, to prepare to attack Jacobite clans; then he dined with the earls of Argyll and Breadalbane.

 

    By 9 January, Stair however had incorrect information from Edinburgh about the lists of loyal oaths given. (Of the chiefs still "holding out", one was MacDonell of Glengarry). Thinking his step would cause little outcry, Stair decided to make an example of the Macdonalds. He laid before William an order for the extirpation of the Macdonalds, which order William signed. (William III often signed things he had not read properly). On 11 January, Stair sent to Livingstone, William's order to move against those who had not signed their oath. The intention was to terrify Highlanders into submission. Stair had just heard from the Earl of Argyll that despite news to the contrary, MacIain of Glencoe had still not taken his oath by the set date.

 

1692, William, R, "As for the McDonalds of Glencoe, if they can be well distinguished from the rest of the Highlanders, it will be proper, for the vindication of public justice, to extirpate that set of thieves." - "W.R."

 

     Stair felt that as the king's signature was doubly written, the order was to be promptly and urgently executed. The English historian, Strickland, surmised before 1972, this idea (which Prebble terms genocide) must have originated in William III's mind, as a Scot would have spoken with more definition about areas in his locality; whereas an Englishman would have regarded an extirpation as a matter of horror. ([12])

 

     Strickland writes, Capt. Robert Campbell of Glenlyon was "the mere executioner", and cites a letter:

 

"For their Majesties' service. To Capt Campbell. Ballacholis, 12 Feb, 1692, Sir, You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the Macdonalds of Glencoe, and put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have special care that the old fox and his cubs do not escape your hands. You are to secure all avenues, that no man escape. This you are to put into execution at five in the morning precisely, and by that hour I'll strive and be at you with a stronger party. This is by the king's special commission, for the good of the country, that these miscreants may be cut off root and branch. See these be put in execution without fear, else you may be expected to be treated as not true to the king's government, nor as a man fit to carry a commission in king William's service. Expecting you will not fail in the fulfilling, as you love yourself, I subscribe these with my hand. [sgd] Robert Duncanson."

 

    These orders were sent to General Livingston and one Col. Hill on 16 January. Livingston then wrote with detailed instructions for the massacre to Lt-Col James Hamilton serving under Col. Hill at Inverlochy. Hamilton planned further with Major Duncanson of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment on 30 January. (Hill was absent). Two companies of the regiment under Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon were to take quarters with the MacIain Macdonalds of Glencoe. These men arrived on 1 February. MacIain had to welcome them as he had not paid his taxes and was therefore liable to have troops billeted. (This made whatever happened, less an essential offence against the laws of hospitality, than legends have suggested). Glenlyon, who had joined the army due to bankruptcy after the MacIains had pillaged his land, seemed unaware of what was to happen. He told MacIain he was to punish Glengarry when the weather improved. The order was carried out. About 100 soldiers from Fort William, mostly Highlanders of the Earl of Argyll's regiment of foot, entered Macdonald territory. They "lived amicably" with their hosts the Macdonalds for a week or more, then set to massacre. Many intended victims escaped, some having been forewarned, but the chief, 33 men, two women and two children were butchered.

 

     On 12 February, Col. Hill received Stair's order from London to massacre the Glencoe Macdonalds. Hill told Hamilton to carry out the orders already received from Livingstone. Hamilton then wrote to Duncanson with companies of the Argyll regiment, then at Ballachulish, to march to Glencoe and begin the massacre at 7am on 13 February.     Duncanson, perhaps awkward with obeying his orders, then ordered Glenlyon to begin the massacre at 5am. Capt Thomas Drummond with the Grenadier company (many being Lowlander men) took Duncanson's orders to Glenlyon, arriving late on the night of 12 February. The soldiers were to be told nothing till the time came to start shooting.

 

By 5am came a strong snowstorm, and the troops arrived for the massacre. The MacIan chief was shot in his house - within minutes about 30 of his clan were dead. Many soldiers turned a blind eye to escaping clanspeople. (Legend has it also, Glenlyon's piper began playing "Breadalbane's March" as a warning to the Macdonalds). We also find, that when the Highland soldiers seemed squeamish, the more savage Lowlanders, who had no respect for Highlanders, stepped in and finished a killing job.

 

     Duncanson arrived at 7am, hardly amused to find most of the clan had escaped, including the chief's sons. Lt-Col Hamilton arrived about 11am, slowed by the snowstorm and with making efforts to cut off escape routes at the head of the glen. Glenlyon was uncommonly unpopular. He could report that he had killed a final figure of 38 people, only 10 per cent of the total. The soldiers got out the same day after firing the cottages and driving off animals. The men involved were soon at Leith. The public became aware of Glenlyon's orders. Jacobites in Edinburgh spread word to France. By May, a Jacobite newspaper in Paris carried a lengthy report by Charles Leslie. By August, the son of MacIain delivered the loyalty of his clan to William III.

 

     The shocking news was spread by Jacobite pamphleteers, decent opinion was kept outraged. Matters continued protested in 1693 and 1695. Inquiries into the reasons for blame for the massacre came to little, for obvious reasons, although Stair by 1695 had to resign as secretary of state for Scotland, doomed to spend his remaining time in private life. The Earl of Breadalbane was charged with high treason but never brought to trial.

 

The story has often been told in terms of vicious clan rivalry, when the order came directly from William III, so that wherever it is thought the Campbells gained clan ascendancy by a vicious massacre, William III remains exonerated, because he is ignored. Clark writes...

 

"The general execration of the deed helped to build up the British sense of justice and humanity... never again were the worst methods of frontier warfare combined with the worst methods of secret police".

 

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[Finis Chapter 2]

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