Archibald Cameron of Locheil - Betrayal and Execution

Betrayal and Execution

In exile, Archibald remained in Charles' service, travelling with him to Madrid in 1748. He returned to Scotland privately in 1749, and then, in 1753, he was sent back to Scotland again to obtain money from Loch Arkaig, and to participate in a desperate plot to assassinate George II and the royal family. However, while staying secretly at Brenachyle by Loch Katrine, he was betrayed (by MacDonell of Glengarry the notorious 'Pickle the spy', and members of his own clan who were this time sickened by his Jacobitism) and arrested. He was charged under the 1746 Act of Attainder for his part in the 1745 uprising. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle then taken to Tower Hill, London and sentenced to death. On 7 June 1753 at Tyburn, he was drawn on a sledge, and hanged for 20 minutes before being cut down and beheaded. His remains were buried in the Savoy chapel. He was, in fact, the last Jacobite to be executed. In his final papers, written from prison, he still protested his loyalty to the Jacobite cause and his episcopalian principles.

In 1753, John Cameron of Dochanassie wrote a song in Gaelic in commemoration of Archibald's life.

Archibald Cameron is a leading character in D K Broster's 1927 novel, The Gleam in the North, the second in her Jacobite Trilogy.