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M. de Lamartine having made a mistake in his History of the Restoration, in describing Marshal MacDonald as of Irish extraction, it may be worth while to state what really was the parentage of that highly respectable man.

When Prince Charles Stuart had to voyage in an open boat from the isle of South Uist in the Hebrides to Skye, he was guided and protected, as is well known, by Miss Flora MacDonald. On that occasion, Flora had for her attendant a man called Neil MacDonald, but more familiarly Neil MacEachan, who is described in the History of the Rebellion as a 'sort of preceptor in the Clanranald family.' This was the father of Marshal MacDonald. He remained more or less attached to the fugitive prince during the remainder of his wanderings in the Highlands, and afterwards joined him in France, under the influence of an unconquerable affection for his person. It was thus that his son came to be born abroad.

Neil MacDonald, though a man of humble rank, had received the education proper for a priest at the Scots College in Paris. His acquaintance with the French language had enabled him to be of considerable service to Prince Charles, when he wished to converse about matters of importance without taking the other people about him into his confidence. There is some reason to believe, that he wrote, or at least gave the information required for, a small novel descriptive of the poor Chevalier's wanderings, entitled Ascanius, or the Young Adventurer. (Cooper, London, 1746.)

[This according to Chambers - although he gives no proof and assigns it to a non-existent version of Ascanius (only Smith [actually William Faden] and T. Johnston printed in 1746)]. Having said that it was almost certainly offered for sale at Mary Cooper's book shop.

In France, all the Jacobite officers who had fled from Scotland were recruited to the army and Neil became a lieutenant. He had changed his surname to MacDonald. It is not clear why but various theories have been put forward. It could have been through loyalty to the MacDonald clan or because the Prince was known to trust the MacDonalds. Or was it simply because MacEachen was too difficult for the French to pronounce?

Whatever the reason, Neil's name can still be seen in the French military records at the Chateau de Vincennes outside Paris. The archivist, Dr Nathalie Genet Rouffiac, an expert on the Jacobites in France showed me Neil's name in a report on the Ogilvie regiment in 1761.

She said, “It's interesting that a handwritten note in French, English and Scots in the margin records that Neil MacDonald has a very close bond with Charles Edward Stuart. Obviously the military authorities thought this was important enough to write it down.”

However, two years later a peace treaty between England and France led to redundancies in the French army and Neil's life was to change for the worse. The English negotiators insisted that Bonnie Prince Charlie should be expelled from France. Several years later the Jacobite regiments were disbanded and Neil moved his young family to the town of Sancerre on the banks of the Loire river.

Sancerre had considerable attractions. The cost of living was cheap, the wine was good and the town was home to a small Jacobite community including Lord Nairn and the MacNabs. Indeed a plaque can still be seen on the wall of Lord Nairn's house, with inscriptions in French and Gaelic, commemorating the historic links with the Jacobites.

But Neil was now extremely poor and forced to live in cramped conditions in one room of a house with a wife he was not getting on with and their two children.

A local historian, Jean-Yves Ribault, said, “Neil's wife took in laundry and took cleaning jobs but it seems he did very little. The family would not have survived without financial support from better off Jacobites.”

Neil MacDonald eventually paid a heavy price for his loyalty to the Prince. He died in 1788 in exile and poverty far from the beautiful white beach of his childhood in Howbeg.

When Marshal MacDonald visited Scotland in 1825, he made his way to the farm of Howbeg, in South Uist, where his father had been born, and where his ancestors had lived for many generations. He found here an old lady and her brother, his cousins at one remove, to whom he shewed great kindness, settling a pension at the same time upon a more distant relation whom he found in poverty. When about to leave the spot, he took up some of the soil, and also a few pebbles, which he got packed up in separate parcels, and carried back with him to France.

The facts respecting Marshal MacDonald's parentage were lately communicated to M. de Lamartine, who promptly sent the following answer: 'J'ai reçu, avec reconnaissance, monsieur, vos intéressantes communications sur le Maréchal MacDonald, homme qui honore deux pays. J'en ferai usage l'année prochaine à l'époque des nouvelles éditions.'