The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 3, Spring 2020 | Page 116
Tea Table Sisterhood and Rebel Dames: The C
dured caused severe leg swelling and
had lasting health effects. 99 Following
three days of torture and verbal abuse,
Anne’s sentence included eight hundred
lashes administered throughout
the town for her part in the escape.
Several high-born women, including
Lady Mackintosh, loudly objected to
the punishment and saved her from the
lashings.
Anne MacKay gained her freedom
seven weeks later without the
beating. Still, soldiers visited her house
shortly after her release afterward, beating
her seventeen-year-old son so severely
that he died the thee days following
the horrible abuse. 100 Anne received
help, and thanks, from Robert Nairne
and his family, she received financial
contributions to help raise and educate
her fatherless children. 101 Anne’s story
is just one of many Jacobite women’s
involvement in hiding men on the run
or tending wounded Jacobite soldiers.
The commoner woman risked rape for
herself and her daughters, physical assault
to her family, sacking and burning
of her home, and even deportation
without her family for the smallest act
of kindness to any Jacobite. There is less
documentation explaining the scope of
brutality that the majority of the commoner
class women suffered for their
acts of service in support ofPrince
Charles. Although the noble class woman
received more prestige for their acts
during the Jacobite Rebellions, the commoner
woman’s participation was just
as meaningful. They hid men fleeing
Cumberland’s wrath, tended wounded
men after the battle, influenced their
husbands to support the Prince, and re-
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