Jacobite Legend

Horowhenua Chronicle, 3 February 1932, Page 8

Jacobite Legend

IN NEW ZEALAND SETTING.

“THE FRENCHWOMAN’S GRAVE”

U STORY OF CAMPBELL ISLAND,

An Auckland Star correspondent asked the other day for particulars of a story of a lady of high degree who was marooned on an island south or southeast of New 7 Zealand, and who sought to while away the hours by making a path of shells from the shore to her lonely hut. The paragraph caught the eye of Mr. George Graham, a keen student of early New 7 Zealand historj and of tales connected with the Jacob ite days. Among his clippings is one that tolls all Jhat is known about the romantic story, which it appears has been cropping up periodically for a number of years. Mr. Graham’s clipping is an article written by Canon Ncvill, and it appeared in the Evening Star, Dunedin, about four years ago. The canon went to a deal of trouble, and he probably found out as much as anyone is likely to Know 7 . The romantic story centres round Campbell Island, a lonely spot about 350 miles south of Stewart Island. About 100 miles in extent, it is mountainous, and there is a certain amount of pasture which from time to time tempts shcepowncrs to semi a flock down. It will be remembered that last year a steamer was sent down to the island specially to bring back to New Zealand two shepherds who had been living there for two years, tending their employer’s flocks. Daughter of Prince Charlie.

Half a century ago some graves were found on the island, and one of them was known as “the Frenchwoman’s grave.” Legend had it that the occupant was a natural daughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Her mother was said to be Peg Walkinshaw, who first attracted the somewhat versatile fancy of the Prince during the festivities at Holyrood during the exciting times of 1745. It will be remembered that after the dans had rallied round the banner of the ill-fated Prince he and his clansmen went south, and he held a brief but brilliant “court” at historic Holyrood. Peg followed him to France, and she caused a good deal of annbyance to the Prince’s party, who could not get it out of their heads that she was a spy in the pay of the British. Prince Charlie, however, refused to cast her off, and it was only her death that parted them. Peg Walkinshaw left a daughter, and the suspicion that had attached to the mother was fastened on the daughter.

Exactly why the child should have been so obnoxious to the Jacobites is not clear at this distant date, but rumour says that they plotted to try and get rid of her. Now enters the story of a buccaneering sort of person named Stewart, a keen Jacobite of riotous character. It is said that he discovered Stewart Island, and that it is his name the island still bears. Acting in the interests of the Jacobite party, he carried the girl off in his vessel and set out for the South Seas on what was apparently a filibustering expedition. He is said to have lost his vessel by shipwreck, and to have settled down on Stewart Island. Possible Explanation.

The next act in the drama tells how Stewart handed over the daughter of the Prince to a friend, who was appan ently of the same buccaneering type as Stewart himself. The sailor friend i 3 said to have taken the woman to Camp bell Island, where she lived, died, and was buried.

It is said that the real explanation of the connecting up of the daughter of the Prince and the grave on Campbell Island can be traced to a book, “New Zealand’s Lone Lands,” written many years ago. Stewart, the Jacobite sailor and discoverer, is said to have boasted that he smuggled the daughter of the Prince into England from France. The author of “New Zealand’s Lone Lands” is said to have connected the sailor’s boast with * ‘ the Frenchwoman’s grave” on Campbell Island and woven a romance that obtained a good deal of notice and was afterwards taken for fact instead of fiction. It is said that the story was printed in the “Pall Mall Gazette” as though it were Gospel truth.

Why The Bother?

It -would be idle to try to find out how people connected Stewart's boast with the lonely grave, but probably his connection with New Zealand suggested the possibility of a romance to the fertile brain of the author of “New Zealand’s Lone Lands.” A point that would strike a modern inquirer as fatal to the truth of the marooning of the unfortunate pledge of the affection the Prince had for the infatuated Peg Walkinshaw, is the unnecessary roundabout way which the “party” and Stewart adopted to remove the poor woman. People engaged in political intrigues in those stirring Jacobite days were not always so chivalrous or so soft-hearted as they appear through the haze of traditions that probably swamped the real Charles and the real Jacobites; one would imagine them finding some much less troublesome method of getting rid of the young woman.

Several correspondents have written tp the Star referring to the story, which apparently is well known in many quarters, but the above article probably gives as near the truth as, it is possible to arrive.