Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, NB
June 27, 1895
GLIMPSES OF THE PAST
(Continued from the Courier of July 12, 1894.)
Contributions to the History of Charlotte County and the Border Towns.
CXXV – HUGH CAMERON OF THE SEVENTY-FOURTH ASSOCIATION.
(Additional to Articles xcv.-ciii. and cviii.)
Among the grantees of lots on the Digdeguash, in 1790, was Hugh Cameron, a son of Sir Ian Cameron of Fassiefern.
The romance of his life is worthy of a place in the annals of a family so well known in Scottish story.
A century earlier, his ancestor, Ian Cameron of Locheill, chief of the Clan Cameron, (known as Ian Dhu, from his dark visage,) was in arms for his lawful king, James II, in the campaign which ended with the death of Dundee at the battle of Killiecrankie.
Donald, the eldest son of Ian Dhu, became on his father’s death chief of the clan; Ian, the second son, had the estate of Fassiefern.
Of Donald, known in history as the ‘gentle Locheill,’ it is said that his influence alone, in 1745, induced other chiefs to join the Young Pretender and hazard their lives in the uprising, which they all believed to be premature, and to which Locheill had only yielded consent after vainly endeavoring to persuade the prince to withdraw and wait for a better opportunity. Both Locheill and Fassiefern remained with Prince Charles until that fateful day when Culloden Moor saw the downfall of the Stuart cause; then they fled to the continent, and their estates were confiscated. In Aytoun’s Lays of the Scotish Cavaliers, the poet makes Charles Edward say in his reverie, referring to the mist which hid the enemy at Culloden:
Cumberland! I would not fear thee
Could my Camerons see their foes.
Alexander, the eldest son of Ian Cameron of Fassiefern, died before his father, and without issue.
Hugh, the second son, a high spirited and adventurous youth, fell in love with a peasant lass named Catherine McCallum, quarrelled with his family, left his home, and enlisted in the army as a private soldier. He served during part of the war in America, and after the disbanding of his regiment came to Digdeguash. Here he settled, with his wife and family; and bore the privations and hardships incident to the life of a pioneer.
In the meantime John Cameron, third son of Cameron of Fassiefern, was distinguishing himself in the British army. As colonel of the 93rd Sutherland Fencibles, being senior officer of the Highland Brigade, he led that gallant body in the victorious attempt to dislodge Noy’s corps from the village of Quatre Bras; and was stricken down at the moment when his men were driving everything before them.
. . . ‘Sleepless Grey Allan lay –
Grey Allan who for many a day
Had followed, stout and stern,
Where through battles rout and reel,
Storm of shot and hedge of steel,
Led the grandson of Locheill,
Valiant Fassiefern.’
‘Through steel and shot he leads no more,
Low laid, mid friend’s and foeman’s gore;
But long his native lake’s wild shore,
and Sunart rough, and high Ardgower,
And Morren long shall tell
How, upon bloody Quatre Bras,
Brave Cameron heard the wild hurrah
Of conquest as he fell.’
In consideration of this officer’s gallant services, his father’s estates of Fassiefern were returned to him, and he was created a baronet.
Hugh Cameron, of St. Patrick, had two sons and four daughters. Of the daughters, Margaret married Capt. Samuel McFarlane, of Rolling Dam; Nancy married George McKay, of St. Patrick; Barbara married Donald Morrison, of St. Andrews; and Kate married Sargeant Ludgate, an old soldier who had settled near. Lachlan, the eldest son, married Eliza McDonald, and had one daughter and four sons, now deceased, and only one grandson, Mr. Lachlan Cameron, of Lepreaux. The second son, John Duncan, had no sons: but had three daughters, two of whom are still alive.
J VROOM