Flora MacDonald i i Iped Bonnie Prince Charlie ist of fate, the Scottish heroine who helps 3onn' net ee in 1746 immigrated to North Carolina ind eS only to find herself allied with the Crown during the American Revolution. By Jean Creznic FLORA MACDONALD, a name that will be mentioned in history, and if cour- age and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour,” wrote Doctor Samuel Johnson in Journey to the Western Isles after he and his friend James Boswell Visited her in Scotland in. September 1773. As Johnson predicted, her name is honored among her fellow Scots, and her life has become legend, a story that took this eighteenth-century heroine from the islands of Scotland to the colony of North Carolina, on the eve of America's Revolutionary War, = See Flora MacDonald gained renown and the affection of her Scottish Highland countrymen when she helped Prince Charles Edward, the Stuart pretender to the British throne, escape capture in 1746. Her later association with America, though brief, placed her in the thick of the Revolutionary War. eee Flora was born in 1722 in Milton, South Uist, one of the Hebrides Islands that lie off the western coast of Scotland, Her father died when she was a child. and her mother remarried in 1728 and moved to the Hebridean Isle of Skye. Eyer the independent thinker, six-year- old Flora declared that she would stay in Milton with her older brother, Angus, rather than go to her mother’s new home. She said that she would be happier with him there than in a house that was strange to her. Later, an aunt and uncle took charge and sent her to school in Ed- inburgh, after which, she lived as a mem- ber of a privileged family, spending her ‘time in ladylike pursuits, frequently trav- cling to visit relatives and friends, The adventure that brought Flora fame began as she was staying with rela- tives at Ommaclade, on South Uist. The talk in Scotland was all about Prince Charles Edward Stuart, known by the Scots as Bonnie Prince Charlie, and how he might reestablish the Catholic Stuarts 88 Great Britain’s rightful rulers. The Prince was the grandson of the Stuart King James Tl, who had reigned in Brit, ain during 1685-88. English sentiment ism ran high during his Tey, itd James, “whose sympathies leaned more and more toward Rome, when the over. peared imminent, Hisson. also named James, spent his ifs in France and Italy, ploting o regain hig father’s throne, During the first half of the century, the pressure on Jay Charles Edward, to succeed t eighteenth Mess. son, 0 the throne 46 was enormous, but England under Prot estant King George I had no intentionof allowing the Catholic Stuarts to wear the crown, Despite the fact there was no et couragement for Prince Charles Edward from that quarter, agents of the exiled Stuarts traveled the Scottish Highlands striving to enlist the support ofthe Hist land clans. They succeeded in rane small band of Jacobites (supporters «! the House of Stuart), most of them Mae | Donalds, to the cause. a | Ariving in Seotiand in August 178 the prince and his followers lance! their long awaited campaign. Alhee? well begun, the effort was neverthele doomed to failure and ended the Re year on April 16, 1746, atthe Bate © Calloden, where the prince and hs I | thousand Highland supporters cenushed by some nine thousand infant ‘men led by George IT's son, William Duke of Cumberland. ‘The English showed the weil Scots no mercy, and his defeat se the fate of the prince and of tht gence of the House of Stuart iy Edward fled for his life after 86 oy. hiding from the Duke of Cunt, soldiers wherever he could. fina)" ing his way to the westem 's Flora MacDonald. cept Some say that Flora’s ee ad Hugh MacDonald—a SYMP ose Prince Charles Edward 8&6 Tt tion as the commander of - ‘ment militia in South Uist