Flora Macdonald, Largie and The Island of Cara
It is said that the estate of Largie, beside Tayinloan, was given to Ranald Bane by the Earl of Ross for his services at
the Battle of Inverlochy in 1431. Ranald Bane was descended through five generations from Somerled of The Isles,
forebears of many families of Macdonalds, his descendants were called Clanranaldbane. About 1645, the Clan Chief,
Angus, followed Montrose into that war and, as a result forfeited Largie Estate, though it was restored to him after
The Restoration in 1661.
Angus’s son, Archibald was a minor when he succeeded hisfather. His sister married the Reverend Angus Macdonald,
who was the Episcopal minister in Gigha - and also, for some time, of Killean. They later moved to South Uist. His
grand-daughter was the famous Flora Macdonald of Prince Charlie fame.
Though at one point Flora had spent a year with her cousins at Largie, it cannot be confirmed that she stayed there,
when she, her husband Alan and two of their sons, Alexander and James, were about to ship out to America in 1774.
During her stay at Largie, her brother Ronald was killed in a shooting accident on the island of Cara.
The tacksman of Cara at the time was Alexander McMarcus (Marquis) whose wife was second cousin to Flora. Their
daughter, Mary Anne Marquis, married the Reverend John McKeiche, who later became minister of Southend parish.
After his death, Anne took over the tenancy of Lochorodale, a large sheep farm and then later married one Murdo
Morrison from Stornoway.
Flora, by now fifty-two years of age and her family did however land at Campbelltown, on the Cape Fear River. The
settlement was later renamed Fayetteville, honouring General Layfayette who had become a popular figure in America
during the Revolution which broke out in April 1775, at Lexington.
Flora’s husband, Alan, their sons, Alexander and James and three servants joined the Loyalist forces at the mouth of
Cape Fear, early in 1776 and just before daylight on February 27, 1776, Allan and his son Alexander found themselves
prisoners of the Americans after little more than a five-minute battle at Moore’s Creek. Also taken prisoner were
Alexander MacDonald of Cuildreach, husband of Flora’s sister Annabella and two of his brothers. Flora’s son-in-law,
Alexander MacLeod, only escaped capture by hiding in the woods till he could later rejoin the Royalist forces.
As an American prisoner, Flora’s husband, Allan, had to walk 700 miles from Moore’s Creek to Philadelphia, in
Pennsylvania. The experience led to the loss of the use of his legs in later life.
A year later Flora refused to take the oath of allegiance to North Carolina and the plantation was confiscated. Flora’s
daughter, Anne, too fled her home.
In February 1778, two years after Moore’s Creek, Alexander MacLeod, a major in the British Army, arranged a flag of
truce for his family and his wife, Anne, their four children, Anne’s mother, Flora Macdonald and their indentured
servants sailed from North Carolina to New York, then under control of Royalist forces. Two months later, in April
1778, following an exchange of prisoners, Flora was reunited with her husband and they were posted to Halifax where
Flora, with an injured wrist and homesick - she hadn’t seen her two youngest children for five years, spent a
miserable cold winter.
In October 1779, Flora’s husband arranged that she should return to London and there she learned that their son
Alexander had died at sea, probably as a result of wounds that he had received two years earlier at Moore’s Creek.
Two years later their son Ranald, in the Marines, also died at sea.
Flora was now reunited with her two youngest children, Anne and Fanny, whom she had not seen for five years. It is
not however known if she again met her son John who, about the time of Flora’s return, sailed for India where he was
to live for many years.
The war over in 1783 and the 84th Regiment disbanded, Allan received a regimental grant of 3,000 acres of land in
Nova Scotia but, lacking capital to develop the land, Allan returned to London too and, hoping to be repaid for losses
suffered during the war, filed claims for his two plantations - he got just £440.
Alan, Flora and their surviving family, Charles, James, Anne and Fanny, returned home to Skye where Flora died in
1790, around the time when the present church building at A’Chleit, between Tayinloan and Muasdale, was
completed and her husband died, two years later, in 1792.
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