ON THIS DAY: In 1753, leading Jacobite Dr Archie Cameron was executed by hanging and beheading at Tower Hill, London. Archie Cameron was brother to Lochiel, the exiled Chief of Clan Cameron and served as an aide-de-camp to Prince Charles throughout the Rising, tending both Jacobite and captured Hanoverian wounded with equal care. He would be the last man to be put to death for his involvement in the ’45. After Culloden he spent five months in hiding before sailing from Loch nan Uamh with Prince Charles and his brother for France. However, in March 1753 he was covertly visiting David Stuart of Glenbuckie when he was captured by soldiers from the barrack at Invershaid and taken to the Tower of London. He was denied a fair trial as the Hanoverian authorities feared that the identity of their spies might be revealed. Despite not being allowed writing material he managed to put down his dying thoughts on several scraps of paper, each of which he signed. Among them was a letter to his young son in France in which he affirmed. ‘I thank God I was always easier ashamed than frightened.’ On June 7th he was drawn on a sledge, hung for 20 minutes before finally being cut down and beheaded. He was secretly buried in the Savoy Chapel below the Strand and a brass plaque beside the altar was dedicated to his memory on 7th June 1993 after two earlier memorials had been destroyed by fire and war.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 12:15:49 +0000
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