Moodie book

The Moodie Book. 45
into the service. For many years after this incident it was not found easy to
engage servants in the Orkneys."
XII. Bknjamin Moodie, 8th Laird of Melsetter, J.P , D.L., third but only
surviving son and heir of the preceding, was born at Aikerness, in Evie, 17th
Feb. 1723. Though a mere child at the time that his father was assassinated,
he is stated, when he heard the details of it from his mother, to have made a
vow to revenge it. He entered the army, and was appointed Lieutenant in the
4(ith (Colonel Murray's) Regiment, 5th April 1745. He was afterwards transferred
to the 47th Regiment with the rank of Captain, and served at the Battle of
Culloden, 16th April 1746 ; after which he asked and obtained permission from
the Duke of Cumberland to proceed against the Orkney Jacobites. 1 Accordingly,
in command of a detachment of the 47th Regiment and two Lieutenants' parties
of Marines, he hastened to Orkney, and, " arriving there suddenly and secretly, he
surprised Sir James Stewart while taking a morning walk in his nightcap, at
break of day, along the shores of his island of Burray. Sir James, on perceiving
the red coats, fled in terror into the barn of one of his tenants, and was over-
taken while endeavouring to conceal himself under some straw. When uncovered
he fell on his knees before Captain Moodie, acknowledging himself as the mur-
derer of his father, and told him he could take his revenge. Captain Moodie,
however, told him that he must take his trial as a rebel and a murderer by the
laws of his country. In a few days both he and his brother Alexander were
secured and sent to the Tower of London, where, with the aid of an old servant,
who, under pretence of kissing his master, slipped a lancet into his mouth,
Sir James and his brother bled themselves to death before the time
appointed for their trial, thus saving their properties from confiscation." 2
Besides 3 arresting the murderer of his father, Captain Moodie attempted to
1 In 1745 James Fea of Clestrain was the leader of the Orkney Jacobites. Mackenzie of Ardloch
was sent by Prince Charles, at Fea's instigation, with a party to raise men and money. They landed
in Walls and looted Melsetter. As Benjamin's correspondence shows that he went into the army
mainly to mend his "little fortune," the sacking, no doubt, meant a considerable loss to him, and
probably influenced his future dealings with the Orcadian Jacobites. After Culloden he writes : — " I
believe, if you'll enquire concerning Robert Strange or Strang, iugraver, late apprentice to Mr
Cooper', at Edinburgh, which Strange was an engineer in the Rebel army, it can be proved by him
and others that Clestrain was at the Pretender's camp at Falkirk, establishing his credit with the
Pretender's son, and managing the Orkney affairs." The Strange mentioned was, of course, after-
wards the well-known Sir Robert Strange, on knighting whom George III. is said to have expressed
the hope that Mr Strange did not mind receiving an honour at the hands of the " Elector of Hanover - !
2 " Scenes from the Life of a Soldier and Settler," by J. W. D. Moodie. Alexander Stewart,
however, is known to have died in exile at Amsterdam, and Sir James died not in the Tower but in
South wark Goal. .
3 It should be added that Captain Moodie burnt a number of the lairds houses in Orkney in 174b,
probably in order to make sure that the owners were not lurking in secret chambers. Mr Traill
Dennison, in his " Orcadian Sketch Book," gives an account of the burning of the house of Hellsness,
and makes Captain Benjamin reply to the pleadings of some of the inmates with the very pertinent
question, "Whose side began the spulyie (i.e. spoiling) o' houses?" an allusion, of course, to the
sacking of Melsetter.