The Glencairn Uprising, 1653-54 Helen Baker Department of ...

Ayr. Therefore, they had little choice but surrender the Castle of Lochheid which they
had previously fortified. Perhaps because this land lay within his family’s sphere of
interest, Lorne was generous in formulating terms of capitulation. Kenmore was so
incensed by this apparent leniency that he rode off to lodge an official complaint with
Glencairn. 158
In September, while Lorne and Kenmore were occupied in Argyllshire, Glencairn
attacked Falkland, kidnapping an officer, Captain Penne, and four or five of his
soldiers who were guarding timber. Lilburne believed a number of inhabitants of
Falkland aided the insurgents. Sir Arthur Forbes negotiated the release of the
prisoners with the English army, demanding the sum of £80. Around the same time
around 300 Highlanders attacked the town of Dumbarton, killing two soldiers and
taking two prisoners. 159
After their quarrel at Kintyre, Lorne and Kenmore split up and made their way back
into the heart of Scotland separately. Lorne had travelled to the neighbourhood of
Glenurquhay where he had spent much of his childhood. 160 Kenmore made his way to
Dumbarton and stole horses from Lowlanders in surprise night-time attacks. On 12
November, Lilburne informed Cromwell that Sir Arthur Forbes had launched an
assault on the community at Kirkentilloch and, on the same night, Kenmore boated
over the River Clyde and kidnapped Sir James Hamilton for complying with the
English. 161
By mid-November the danger posed by the rebels had certainly extended to the
Lowlands, far away from the hills. On 15 November Lilburne reported that three
captains and a number of officers belonging to Captain Overton’s regiment had been
158
Dow, F.D. Cromwellian Scotland, pp.84, 94-95, 96-97 and Firth, C.H. Scotland and the
Commonwealth, pp.243, 257.
159
Firth, C.H. Scotland and the Commonwealth, p.231 and Gardiner, S.R. History of the
Commonwealth and Protectorate 1649-1656, p.94.
160 It was customary for young children of important families to be ‘fostered’ away from home by a
kinsman of the family. The initial objective of this tradition – which appears to have extended into all
classes of Scottish society – was to encourage bonds of affiliation between adults. Sir Colin Campbell,
the 8 th Laird of Glenurquhay, had committed himself to raising Lorne. However, Sir Colin had died in
1640, years before the Glencairn uprising, and the current Laird of Glenurquhay preferred the
friendship of Argyle to that of his eldest son. See Willcock, J. A Scots Earl in Covenanting Times, p.5,
54.
161 Firth, C.H. Scotland and the Commonwealth, p.265.