The abduction of Lady Grange to St Kilda: searching for truth

Abstract

A Hanoverian supporter, Lady Grange was kidnapped by her husband, Lord Lovat and others in 1732 for threatening to denounce their Jacobite sympathies. After eight years of captivity in Heisker and St Kilda, news of her imprisonment finally reached Edinburgh in December 1740. Even then her captors were able to thwart an attempt of rescue and move the unfortunate woman like so much unwanted baggage from St Kilda to Assynt, Harris, and Skye, where she died in 1745.

None of her family or friends raised objections, choosing to believe her ensconced in some comfortable lodging for her own protection from what they termed as madness. In reality she was immured without any physical or mental comforts, and, to a woman of her class, in utter destitution and isolation. Those are the basic facts, but the true story is more complex, although clouded over the centuries by the retelling of inaccurate accounts of the affair. Influential men still exerted considerable autonomy, especially clan chiefs in the dying years of the old Highland Clan system. Based on years of research, this article seeks to elicit the truth behind the affair, for every account so far, including the latest, contains inaccuracies. New evidence is considered, and the most likely route to the Highlands established.