Scottish nobleman and an officer in the Jacobite army.
Arthur Elphinstone, 6th Lord Balmerino
[a]
and
5th Lord Cupar
(1688 ? 18 August 1746) was a
Scottish
nobleman and
Jacobite
, or supporter of the claim of the exiled
House of Stuart
to the British throne.
As a military officer, he served in both the British and French armies, as well as taking part in Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1745, and spent nearly 20 years in exile on the Continent. He was pardoned some years after the first rebellion but following the failure of the latter at
Culloden
he was taken prisoner, charged with treason, and executed at
Tower Hill
. Historians of the 1745 rising often refer to him simply as Lord Balmerino, although he did not inherit the title until January 1746 and was for most of his life styled "the Hon. Arthur Elphinstone".
Biography
[
edit
]
Arthur Elphinstone was the son of John Elphinstone, 4th
Lord Balmerino
and 3rd Lord Cupar, and of his second wife, Anne Ross or Rose, daughter of
Arthur Rose, Archbishop of St Andrews
. He was born in Balmerino House in
Leith
and lived there most of his life.
[1]
The family descended from
James
(
c.
1553
?1612), a younger son of
Robert Elphinstone, 3rd Lord Elphinstone
: King
James VI and I
granted the lands of
Balmerino Abbey
in Fife to James Elphinstone in 1605, though by the 18th century a series of lawsuits had reduced the family's properties to the
barony
of
Restalrig
in South
Leith
. The Elphinstones were prominent members of the
Episcopalian
minority within Scotland: the burying ground of the ruined
church at Restalrig
on their estate was used by local Episcopalians throughout the 18th century.
Arthur had three half-brothers from his father's first marriage; Hugh, Master of Balmerino, who died in 1708 at the
Siege of Lille
, James (1675?1746), a lawyer and judge, and Alexander (d. 1733).
[2]
[3]
[b]
He was not initially expected to inherit the family estate and embarked on a military career, being commissioned a captain in
Lord Shannon's regiment
in March 1714.
[4]
As a north-eastern Episcopalian Protestant, Elphinstone has been described as epitomising
the most "ideologically committed" Jacobite supporters.
[5]
(Many Scottish Episcopalians were conservatives who believed the deposition of the Stuarts to have been a breach of natural order, and who also opposed the
1707 Union
of England and Scotland.) During the
Jacobite rising of 1715
he fought at the inconclusive
Battle of Sheriffmuir
on the government side but, reportedly finding this "against his conscience", deserted and joined the Jacobites.
[6]
The rising subsequently collapsed and he fled the country, possibly to
Denmark
, before joining the French army.
In 1733 Elphinstone's father obtained a pardon for him, and he eventually returned to Scotland: about this time he married Margaret Chalmers or Chambers, daughter of a Captain Chalmers of Leith. His half-brother James succeeded to the title of Lord Balmerino on the death of their father in 1736.
Elphinstone was one of the first to join
Charles Edward Stuart
during his
1745 attempt to recover the British throne for the Stuarts
. While his history of Jacobite activity was undoubtedly a factor, some contemporaries also suggested that the family's poor financial standing meant he had little to lose. Alongside
David Wemyss, Lord Elcho
, he was given command of a troop of Charles' "Life Guard"; unlike nearly all other senior Jacobites, he escaped any criticism in the post-rising memoirs by various participants.
[7]
John Daniel, a colleague in 1745, recorded that Elphinstone's "sole and predominant passion" was "hard drinking", but paid tribute to his loyalty, courage, and gift for languages, noting that "his memory for his years was wonderful".
[7]
He became the 6th Lord Balmerino on 5 January 1746 following his half-brother James's death, but in April of the same year he was taken prisoner at the
Battle of Culloden
.
Balmerino was tried before Parliament, along with
William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock
and
George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie
. Given his history and previous pardon, he represented himself and offered little in the way of a defence, joking that he only pleaded not guilty in order "that so many ladies might not be disappointed of their show".
[8]
He was found guilty,
attainted
and beheaded on the same day as the Earl of Kilmarnock.
[8]
Balmerino went to his execution unrepentant, stating "If I had a thousand lives, I would lay them all down in the same cause".
[8]
His insouciant attitude at the time of his trial and execution - joking with bystanders and insisting on taking the axe in his carriage so that Kilmarnock would not be bothered by it - was widely reported in the media of the time.
[9]
Horace Walpole
, in a letter, described him as "the most natural brave old fellow I ever saw [...] at the bar he behaved like a soldier and a man: in the intervals of form, with carelessness and humour".
[8]
Balmerino's execution is sometimes reported to have taken three blows, though "the first certainly took away all sensation".
[10]
[8]
Like Kilmarnock, he was buried in the
Church of St Peter ad Vincula
in the
Tower of London
: reportedly, at his request, alongside
William Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine
.
His home, Balmerino House in Leith, was confiscated by the Crown, which also took over his patronage of
South Leith Parish Church
. The Crown sold Balmerino House to
James Stuart, 8th Earl of Moray
in 1755. He sold it on to Lady Baird of Newbyth, and in 1762, on her death, it passed to her brother, General St. Clair of St. Clair. After being purchased by William Sibbald, a Leith merchant, it was sold to the Catholic Church in 1848 for £1800 to build a convent and Roman Catholic church in its extensive grounds.
[1]
Family
[
edit
]
He was married to Margaret Chalmers daughter of Captain Chalmers of Leith but they had no children.
[1]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Also spelt "Balmerinoch", and once often pronounced "Bemirrney" by locals (
The Antiquary
, v.II, 1872, 280)
- ^
Alexander Elphinstone is remembered for playing (in 1724) the first ever golf match reported in a newspaper, against
Captain John Porteous
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh
; vol. 6, ch. 24.
- ^
Campbell, J. (1867)
Balmerino and Its Abbey: A Parochial History
, Paterson, p.391
- ^
The New Peerage
, v. II (1763), R. Davis, p.213
- ^
Henshaw, V. (2014)
Scotland and the British Army, 1700?1750: Defending the Union
, A&C Black, p.106.
- ^
McLynn, F. (1985)
The Jacobites
, Routledge, p.88.
- ^
Henshaw, p.107
- ^
a
b
MacKenzie Annand, A. "The Life Guards of Prince Charles Edward",
Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research
, Vol. 73, No. 293 (Spring 1995), 14?15.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
The Gentleman's Magazine
Published by F. Jefferies, volume 156 January?June 1834.
p. 133
quoting the Letters of
Horace Walpole
to Sir Horace Mann.
- ^
McKenzie, A. "Martyrs in Low Life? Dying "Game" in Augustan England",
Journal of British Studies
, Vol. 42, No. 2 (April 2003), 167?205.
- ^
Pittock, Murray G.H. (2004).
"Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"
.
Elphinstone, Arthur, sixth Lord Balmerino and fifth Lord Coupar (1688?1746)
. Oxford University Press
. Retrieved
9 January
2014
.
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