Description
the simple plain case with white enamel dial, Arabic numerals to outer minute and inner calendar dial, the main chapter ring with Roman numerals, gold hands, the verge movement unsigned
Dimensions
dial 40mm diameter
Footnote
Provenance:
Inherited by Duncan McGrouther
By descent to his wife, Margaret McGrouther (nee Stirling of Kippendavie)
gifted by his wife to female line of Stirling of Airth family
by direct descent
Notes:
The McGrouther Relics
Although a family not well recorded within the annuals of Jacobites and their supporters, the McGrouther (aka as McGrowther, McGrouder or MacRudder) gave as much to the cause as any member of the landed gentry and were at the side through not just the ’45 but also the ’15 before.
Alexander McGouther, son of John McGrouther of Meigor and Jean Drummond (presumably a relation of the Duke or Perth’s family) was born in around 1673.
In 1715 Alexander, aged 42, was sent in place of his father (by this time aged over 80) along with his brother William to rise with the Duke of Perth in support of King James. However he was captured at Preston in November 1715 as a Captain in Logie’s Regiment, one of 778 taken at the time. He was one of those marched to London to face trail, which took place at the Court of Exchequer on 31st May 1716 with six other defendants. The result of the trial appears not to have been recorded but it appears Alexander spent the next year in Newgate Jail until he was released under the Act of Indemnity of 1717 and returned to Scotland.
During this sentence he was passed over for succession of his father’s estates in 1716, his younger brother John taking his inheritance, as he was still imprisoned for his part in the ’15.
Even after such hardship and imprisonment in the 1715 uprising, McGrouther was still an active member of the forces in the ’45, not on his own this time but with his son Alexander Jnr. By this time, aged 72, he re-enlisted in the Duke of Perth’s regiment. He and his son were both listed in the list of rebel Officers and soldiers who surrendered at Carlisle. They were transported to London on 10th February in a heavily guarded wagon train and sent to various prisons.
Alexander Jnr, Lieutenant in the Duke of Perth’s regiment, died aged only 21 in the New Gaol, Southwark, un married and without heir before his trial had been set.
Alexander Snr’s trial and punishment however was a much more colourful affair. Spending February - June in prison he was heard in front of the Grand Jury on 25th and 26th July 1746 when “Counsel for the prisoners begged for further time to prepare for trial, because their witnesses were not ready. This opposed by the Counsel for the Crown and refused by the Court, for on 31st July the Court met at St. Margaret’s Hill for their trial, when Alexander McGrouther, senior, of Perthshire, a Lieutenant in Perth’s regiment, was brought to the Bar and pleaded Not Guilty”.
“He brought four witnesses to prove that the Duke of Perth, whose vassal he was, had forced him into the rebellion, threatening, if he did not immediately join the army, to burn all his houses destroy his lands and drive his cattle away. But they only swore that they heard himself say that he was ordered to join the Duke of Perth and he must comply”.
The prosecutors replied to this evidence, now shaky on the watered down testimony of his four witnesses, saying “that it was unreasonable to suppose that a man forced into the rebel army should continue so long in it, accept of a commission, and act as an officer, and that it was proved that when the rebels got possession of Edinburgh he was with them in Highland dress, a white cockade in his blue bonnet, a dirk and pistols in his girdle, and was a very vigilant and active encouraging the rebel officers to be hearty in the cause, and not to doubt of success; that he acted at the battle of Prestonpans as a Lieutenant; that he marched with the rebels into England; and that when Carlisle surrendered to the Duke, he acknowledged himself to be a lieutenant in Perth’s regiment”.
This stacked evidence against him would signal the end of his defence and the possibility of a not guilty verdict seemed, and was, impossible. After the three hour trial, and without leaving the court he was found guilty. As he was escorted from court he was recorded as stating “By my faith this is a very infamous verdict they have brought against me”. Even when led back to the Bar for sentencing he was still defiant in his defence and that he was forced into his actions, however these pleas would fall on deaf ears.
In his sentencing, The Lord Chief Justice, after a ‘pathetic speech’ pronounced sentence on McGrouther and others stating “let the several prisoners above named return to the gaol of the county of Surrey, from whence they came; and from thence they must be drawn to the place of execution, and when they come there they must be severally hanged by the neck, but not till they be dead; for they must be cut down alive, then their bowels must be taken out and burned before their faces; then their heads must be severed from their bodies, and their bodies severally divided into four quarters; and these must be at the King’s disposal”.
This was not however the end for Alexander as once the warrant for his execution was issued on 19th August – for execution on 22nd – he was reprieved only the day before. This was one of three reprieves from the gallows and he would escape hanging and be released by 1749.