On 19th April, 1746, Lord Findlater writes from Inverness that he had been attending on His Royal Highness. Among the MSS. in Cullen House is a series of letters from Lord Hardwicke to the Earl of Findlater in 1747, 1748, 1751, 1753, and 1764, generally in regard to the settlement of the country after the rebellion, the employment of the factors on the forfeited estates, &c. (Report Royal Comm. on Hist. MSS.) Want of precise information has led not a few persons to imagine that the rebellions of 1715 and 1745 had equally the active and passive support of the people in this district, but such is by no means the case. There is probably, in the present day, not a movement even of the most revolutionary character that will not find more supporters in this district than had the rebellion of 1745, but it was quite otherwise as regards the rebellion of 1715. That rebellion had the sympathy of Lord Deskford and the active support of Sir James Abercromby of Birkenbog, Sir James Dunbar of Durn, George Gordon of Buckie, James Gordon of Letterfourie, the laird of Farskane and many others, but following it came the ruin of those who had joined in it, and perhaps still more ruinous to the rebel cause-the Disarming Act. At Cullen there were delivered up 136 guns, 74 pistols, 9 barrels of guns, 236 swords, 33 dirks, a steel cape, and 3 calivers. In the first Jacobite Rebellion the Earl of Findlater suffered not a little. Writing to the Laird of Grant on 29th August 1716, he says:-"I have had great loss during the rebellion. The rebells took free quarter for five or six weeks, extorted double taxes, and disarmed my whol tennents, and I was oblidged with my whol familie to reside att Edenburgh during the rebellion, so that 1000 pound of arrears [referring to his pension due by the late Queen] which brings me to an equalitie, would be most useful to me at this time." In case the evidence presented in the following pages should lead the reader to a different conclusion, it may be proper to remark that the Charter Room of Cullen House still contains great stores of ancient and valuable documents. In connection with the source whence this little work was obtained the writer cannot refrain from making a passing reference to the abundance of materials existing in the Register House, Edinburgh, that inquirers from almost every part of Scotland would find useful for the elucidation of points connected with their respective localities. It is too frequently forgotten that the history of a locality may often be studied with more advantage in the Register House, or the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh, or in the Library of the British Museum, than even in the locality itself. The The narrative will be more intelligible if the reader refer to the plans that appear in the "Reminiscences of the Old Town of Cullen." position of the outer gate and of buildings now demolished are there seen on the west side of Cullen House, while on the east side is seen the site of the garden, as it existed at the time of the Rebellion. ALEXANDER GORDON of Cairnfield ROBERT DUNDAS, yr. of Arniston, Advocate ... LIEUT. COL. DAVID WATSON, Quarter-Master-General ALEXANDER GRANT, Chamberlain to the Earl of Findlater JAMES ANDERSON, Minister of Boyndie WALTER MORRISON, Minister of Deskford Soon after the close of the second Jacobite Rebellion an Act of Parliament was passed for the relief of such of His Majesty's subjects in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, whose title deeds and writings were destroyed or carried off by the rebels in that rebellion. All applicants for the benefit of this Act were required to lodge a petition with the Court of Session prior to the twentieth day of July, 1747, and had to obtain certificates that they had continued dutiful and loyal, that their houses had been invaded or rifled, and their writs, or parts of them, destroyed, or carried off by the rebels. The duty was imposed on the Court of Session of taking proof of such averments, the finding to be inserted in a register kept for this purpose. On 27th June, 1747, the Earl of Findlater and Seafield lodged a petition claiming the benefit of the Act, and on the fifth day of August following certificates were given in, that intimation of said petition had been made at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh, at the pier and shore of Leith, and at the Mercat Cross of Banff. Intimation was also made at Cullen as follows:"On twenty-third August, at the most patent door of the Parish Church of Cullen, and there in the afternoon, at the time of meeting of the congregation for divine service, after crying of three several oyeses, open proclamation, and public reading of said extract and warrant, I made intimation of said petition, and of which petition I affixed and left a full double with a short copy subjoined, at and upon the most patent door of said Parish Church of Cullen. Witnesses present-John Ord of Findochty, and James Brands, baillies of Cullen. (Signed) John Meldrum." 1748, January 26th. Follows the interlocutor pronounced by the Lords, upon advising the proof adduced by the Earl of Findlater and Seafield:Find the executions of intimation and the registration of said petition and executions orderly proceeded: Find it proven James, Earl of Findlater and Seafield, continued dutiful and loyal, that his house was invaded and great part of his writs destroyed or carried off by a party or parties of the rebels, in the month of April, 1746, and therefore the petitioner is entitled to the benefit of said Act. Hereafter follows record of the executions of the Act and Warrant, 29th November, 1748, before the Lords of Council and Session, on the petition of James, Earl of Findlater and Seafield. Then follow certificates that the petition and deliverance thereon had been left on the Market Cross of Edinburgh, the pier and shore of Leith, the Market Cross of Banff, the Parish Churches of Banff, Deskford, Fordyce, Alvah, Cullen, Boyndie (otherwise Inverboyndie), Rathven, Ordiquhill, Keith, and Grange. The register then gives the interlocutor of the whole Lords, upon advising the before-mentioned petition, (pages 35 to 53 of the register): Edinburgh, 16th June, 1750. Find it proven the petitioner was in possession in the year 1745 of the lands and heritages specified in said petition. [See Appendix Note A.] After a repetition of the foregoing certifications there follows a petition by the Earl of Findlater, craving that a commission be granted to take, at |