Despite a reputation in later popular history as “one of the most romantic of Jacobite heroes”,[2] Glenbucket was a controversial figure who acted as a government agent between 1715 and 1745, and was accused of forcibly conscripting men during the 1745 rising.

[5] Following the collapse of the Rising, Glenbucket and his men surrendered to his neighbour Ludovick Grant at Strathbogie on 6 March 1716 and Huntly intervened on his behalf, suggesting his local influence could be of use to the government.

[6] Initially held in Edinburgh Castle, Glenbucket's preferential treatment there led to a complaint by the Lord Justice Clerk; he was moved to Carlisle and released without being charged in late 1716.

[8] As bailie for the Gordon estates, Glenbucket gained considerable influence over large areas of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire and both Jacobites and the government sought his backing during the 1719 rising.

He fought them off but Huntly, now Duke of Gordon, sent a large party of armed men into the district and since Lachlan Macpherson (1673-1746) was also a Jacobite sympathiser, both sides sought support from the exiles.

It also coincided with an improvement in Jacobite prospects for the first time in over two decades, as French and Spanish statesmen looked for ways to reduce the expansion of British commercial strength.

[11] Glenbucket proposed a rising in Scotland, supported by French regulars from the Irish Brigades, arguing this could successfully resist the small number of government troops stationed there.

As a member of the minority Catholic faction, there was little support for Glenbucket's plan: John Murray of Broughton, appointed principal Jacobite agent in 1741, later characterised him as “a man of no property nor natural following, of very mean understanding, with a vast deal of vanity”.

[13] When Fleury died in 1743, Louis XV of France took over government; he planned an invasion of England in early 1744 to restore the Stuarts and to avoid incriminating Gordon in his pro-Jacobite activities, Glenbucket resigned as his factor in March 1744.

He relied on promises of support from a small number of clan chiefs in the western Highlands but ignored their stipulation this was conditional he provided French troops, money and weapons; without these, most Scottish Jacobites, including Murray of Broughton, attempted to dissuade him.

Though Lord George Murray described him as “very infirm”, Sir John MacDonald claimed that he was “the only Scot I ever knew who was able to start at the hour fixed, he was also the most active.”[22] Glenbucket’s regiment joined the Jacobite invasion of England in November 1745, marching as part of Perth’s division.

Glenbucket and his regiment were initially positioned in the second line; some authors have suggested that they retreated in good order to Badenoch and disbanded there, but given that they were not far from their own country they are more likely to have simply dispersed after the battle.

After some time in Norway he made his way to the Jacobite exile community in Paris, where he complained of living in poverty despite receiving a small number of ‘gratification’ payments from the French.