FLORA MACDONALD The Daily Cleveland Herald (Cleveland, Ohio), Monday, November 01, 1869 Contact: Myrtle Bridges May 10, 2016
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The Inverness Courier, in noticing the announcement of an autobiography of Flora Macdonald preserver of Prince Charles, now preparing for publication by Mr. Nimmo, of Edinburgh, observes: That none of our Scottish historions or topographics, who explored so minutely the wanderings and visissitudes of Charles Edward, seem to have been aware of the existence of the above manuscript. Flora-or Flory, as she signed her name in her marriage contract-had a singular and romantic career, and if she recorded fully her own trials and the state of the Highlands in the middle of last century, her autobiography cannot fail to possess interest. She was in her 34th year when she gallantly risked her own freedom to preserve that of Prince Charles. A private subscription was opened for her, which soon amounted to 1,500 pounds, and she sat to Allan Ramsay for her portrait, still preserved in Oxford. The features are decidedly Celtic-the complexion dark, contrasting with the ample white rose that decorated the bust. Boswell and Johnson describe her in 1773 as a little woman of genteel appearance and pleasing address. When she returned, the heroine of the day, to the Highlands, her society was courted by all classes, and between three and four years afterward she gave her hand to young Kingsburgh, who was the model of a Highlander in countenance, figure, dress and speech. Affairs do not seem to have gone prosperonsly with them, and in 1771 Flora and her husband emigrated to North Carolina. When the war broke out, Kingsburgh joined the Royalist forces, was taken prisoner, but regained his liberty, and served with the 84th in Canada. They returned, and it is related that the vessel in which Flora and her husband sailed was attacked by a French privateer, and while the Celtic heroine stood on deck bravely encouraging the seamen, she was thrown down and one of her arms broken. She was destined, however, to die at home at last, departing in her 68th year, in 1799, her shroud being formed of part of the sheets in which Prince Charles slept at Kingsburgh. Here are materials for a romantic biography! The hair-breadth escapes of the royal wanderer-the state of the Highlands while society yet retained some of the picturesque features of clanship-the emigrant voyage across the Atlantic, and the subsequent American war-the perilous return to Britain-and the final ten years of peace while all was changing in the Highlands and Islands, and the old race was disappearing from the land-such are the striking events in the life of Flora Macdonald.
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