Jean Cameron of Glendessary ( – 1772)
[Ewan, Innes, Reynolds and Pipes (eds) (2007) ''Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women'', University of Edinburgh Press, pp.59-60] was a member of the Scottish gentry and a
Jacobite. She may have been briefly involved in the
Jacobite rising of 1745
The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Franci ...
, during which the
Stuart heir
Charles Edward Charles Edward may refer to:
*Charles Edward (horse), a racehorse
*Charles Edward Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie
*Charles E. Stuart, Charles Edward Stuart, American politician
*Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
*Charles Edward Callwe ...
attempted to reclaim the British throne for his father.
As "Jenny Cameron", she became well-known after a number of sensationalised accounts of her life and deeds during the rising were published.
The majority were almost entirely fictional and some were intended as anti-Stuart propaganda.
Life
Jean was the daughter of Allan Cameron (d. ) of Glendessary, who had previously been involved in the
1715 Jacobite rising
The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ;
or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts.
At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, lo ...
. The Camerons, who held land in
Morvern
Morvern, historically also spelt Morven, is a peninsula and traditional district in the Highlands, on the west coast of Scotland. It lies south of the districts of Ardgour and Sunart, and is bounded on the north by Loch Sunart and Glen Tarbert, ...
, were a junior branch of the family of Cameron of Lochiel, hereditary chiefs of
Clan Cameron
Clan Cameron is a West Highland Scottish clan, with one main branch Lochiel, and numerous cadet branches. The Clan Cameron lands are in Lochaber and within their lands lies Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in the British Isles. The Chief ...
.
Jean was further connected with the Camerons of Lochiel through her mother Christian Cameron, a daughter of Sir
Ewen Cameron of Lochiel
Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel (Scottish Gaelic: ''Eòghain Camshròn Mac Dhòmhnaill Dubh''; February 1629 – 12 June 1719) was a Scottish highland chief, soldier and courtier. He was the Chief of Clan Cameron – the 17th Lochiel, and was renow ...
by his third wife. She had two brothers: John (c.1715-1758) the senior brother and heir, and Allan. Few details of her life can be established; she is said to have married an Irish army officer called O'Neill, but was either widowed or (in some accounts) due to his "brutal" treatment divorced him, returned to Scotland, and was given back her maiden name.
[Chambers, Robert. (1847) ''History of the Rebellion in 1745-6'', p.215]
John Cameron had suffered from a form of disability (described as a "palsy") since childhood and Jean often acted as his agent.
[Martin, Carine. (2015) "Female Rebels: the Female Figure in Anti-Jacobite Propaganda", in Macinnes (ed) ''Living with Jacobitism 1690-1788'', Pickering & Chatto, p.86] Jean's brothers went abroad in 1744, appointing her
factor
Factor, a Latin word meaning "who/which acts", may refer to:
Commerce
* Factor (agent), a person who acts for, notably a mercantile and colonial agent
* Factor (Scotland), a person or firm managing a Scottish estate
* Factors of production, suc ...
of the family estates. As
tacksmen, holding a lease from the clan chief, the family had an obligation to raise their sub-tenants for military service at the chief's request: when in August 1745
Donald Cameron of Lochiel
Donald Cameron of Lochiel (c. 1695 – 1748), popularly known as the Gentle Lochiel, was a Scottish Jacobite and hereditary chief of Clan Cameron, traditionally loyal to the exiled House of Stuart. His father John was permanently exiled after ...
committed to supporting Charles Stuart, the Camerons of Glendessary were required to follow.
![Jacobite broadside - Miss Jenny Cameron in a Military Habit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Jacobite_broadside_-_Miss_Jenny_Cameron_in_a_Military_Habit.jpg)
Jean Cameron was reported to have been present at
Glenfinnan
Glenfinnan ( gd, Gleann Fhionnain ) is a hamlet in Lochaber area of the Highlands of Scotland. In 1745 the Jacobite rising began here when Prince Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") raised his standard on the shores of Loch Shiel. S ...
on 19 August when Charles raised his standard; in line with her duties as proxy tacksman, she may have accompanied some of the Cameron levies from Morvern along with her cousin, Alexander Cameron of Dungallon.
[ She may also have subsequently attended the Jacobite court in Edinburgh, but took little further part in the rebellion: a relative later suggested that despite sending some cattle to the Jacobite army she never actually met Charles himself.][ Aeneas MacDonald, who had been present at Glenfinnan, described her as a "widow, nearer fifty than forty ..a genteel, well-looked handsome woman, with a pair of pretty eyes, and hair as black as jet. She is of a very sprightly genius and is very agreeable in conversation. She was so far from accompanying the Prince's army, that she went off with the rest of the spectators as soon as the army marched".][
Despite Cameron's limited involvement, a number of "cruel and apocryphal"][Munro and Taylor (1971) ''Glenfinnan and the 45'', National Trust for Scotland, p.13] accounts were circulated in England portraying Cameron either as an active military leader, an "amazon" marching at the head of her men, or as a "lewd woman" who became Charles's mistress.[Macinnes, p.87] These were standard tropes of misogynistic satire of the period: the former credited her with military prowess (including being largely responsible for the victory at Prestonpans
Prestonpans ( gd, Baile an t-Sagairt, Scots: ''The Pans'') is a small mining town, situated approximately eight miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Council area of East Lothian. The population as of is. It is near the site of the 1745 ...
), unusual courage, physical strength, and often depicted her wearing male clothing.[Macinnes, p.87] The latter, notably a prurient 1746 "memoir" written by an "Alexander Arbuthnot", described her as having a voracious sexual appetite and claimed she had borne several illegitimate children.[
While untrue, such stories were intended to delegitimise the Jacobite cause by identifying it as the party of chaos and by suggesting its male leaders were cowards, morally bankrupt or otherwise inadequate.][Macinnes, p.92] Their popularity was to give rise to songs, novels and even a play, and by 1750 "Jenny Cameron" was a legend, although at the cost of Jean Cameron's good reputation.[
The truth about Cameron's involvement in the rising was further confused when a woman called Jean or Jenny Cameron was taken prisoner by the government army in 1746 at ]Stirling
Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...
; although confused with Jean Cameron of Glendessary, including by the government itself, she claimed to in fact be a milliner
Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter.
Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of ...
from Edinburgh.[
]
After the rising
After the failure of the rising in 1746, the Cameron tenants in Morvern suffered from punitive actions by government militias, although the Glendessary family seem to have retained most of their property. Cameron herself returned to relative obscurity.
In 1751 she purchased the isolated estates of Rodinghead and Blacklaw in Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland.
Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...
, near modern-day St Leonards St Leonards may refer to:
Places Australia
*St Leonards, New South Wales
**St Leonards railway station
*St Leonards, Tasmania, suburb of Launceston
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Canada
*St. Leonard's, Newfoundland and Labrador
New Zealand
* St L ...
, East Kilbride
East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...
.[ She is said to have lived a quiet and devout existence at Blacklaw and to have been locally popular; though a Catholic herself she financially supported the local ]Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
school.[ A late 18th-century account by a local antiquary remembered her as "retaining ..the striking remains of a graceful beauty" and as "rather melancholy", though an informed and intelligent conversationalist, noting that "politics was her favourite topic".][Ure, David (1793) ''The History of Rutherglen and East-Kilbride'', D Niven, p.166] In the 1830s John Lindsay, an elderly resident of the parish, recalled that "very many poor Highlanders were in the habit of visiting her".[Correspondence in ''The Edinburgh Literary Journal'' no 153 (Oct 15,1831), p.228]
Cameron died in 1772 and was buried on the Blacklaw estate near her house, afterwards known as "Mount Cameron"; the East Kilbride poet John Struthers later wrote of the "dark firs" surrounding the "lowly" grave.[Struthers, John. (1850) ''The Poetical Works of John Struthers'', A. Fullarton, p.103] By 1793 the grave was said to be "distinguished by nothing but a turf of grass, which is now almost equal with the ground".[Ure, p.167] During the 20th century the site of the estate became a golf course, and the house itself was demolished in 1958; however a horse chestnut tree was planted near the grave and a plaque set up in the same year.[Cairn marking the grave of Jean Cameron]
''Mapping memorials to women in Scotland'', womenofscotland.org.uk
Although suburban development has since taken place in the area, Jean Cameron's grave can still be seen in a small park marked by a cairn
A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ).
Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...
, built in 1995 of stone brought from Morvern.[
]
References
External links
* http://www.folklorist.org/song/Bonnie_Jeanie_Cameron
* http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scottish_story6.htm
* http://www.jacobites.info/jenny%20cameron.htm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Jean
1772 deaths
History of the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Jacobites
People of the Jacobite rising of 1745
Year of birth uncertain