The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 3, Spring 2020 | Page 115

and Scroll
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Although many of the women
documented in this research are well
known in Jacobite history, they were
treated according to their class status.
Flora MacDonald, Anne MacIntosh,
and Jenny Cameron belonged to the nobility
class and obtained privilege allotted
to their social status. The lower class
or commoner women suffered extreme
hardships and cruelty for any suspected
Jacobite activities or sympathies. Anne
Mackay serves as a good example. She
stayed in a letted house near Inverness
following Culloden waiting for news
of her husband’s fate, who died in battle.
She lived with her children ranging
from less than a year old to seventeen
years old, but the number of children
is not recorded. Following the Battle
of Culloden, the English captured two
wounded men and housed them in the
cellar below Anne’s rented home.
Together with the aid of the great
Lady Anne Mackintosh, Anne MacKay
conceived a plan to help one wounded
man escape, Robert Nairne. Nairne received
judgment while held in the cellar
for his actions as a Jacobite then sentenced
as a traitor, which is punishable
by death. Plans for his journey to London
were made for his execution, but
MacKay, according to plan, distracted
the soldiers guarding the prisoners allowing
Naire the opportunity to escape.
Once the English discovered that Robert
escaped, Anne suffered severe interrogations
and torture for helping, who
the English considered “an important
prisoner.” 98 Colonel Leighton of the
Blakeley Regiment interrogated while
forcing Anne to stand without food and
water for three days. The treatment en-