Duncan Stewart of Ardsheal

In 1752, Duncan's uncle, James Stewart of the Glen, was convicted and hanged at Ballachulish for ordering the assassination in the Wood of Lettermore of government-appointed estate factor Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure.

At the time of his assassination by a marksman, he was on the way to enforce yet another large scale estate clearance at Duror.

The trial and execution of Duncan Stewart's uncle, which helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped, is still alleged in the local oral tradition to have been a miscarriage of justice.

During the American War of Independence, Stewart fought as a Loyalist military officer and was rewarded by having the estate in Ardsheal, that had been confiscated from his father, returned to him in 1789.

Stewart is remembered best for his portrait by John Singleton Copley[1] held by the National Gallery of Scotland and for his friendship and travels with James Boswell.