inform Montrose of General Leslie's movements (Memoirs, p. 201); but as Lord Linton secretly withdrew with his troop on the night before the battle of Philiphaugh, it has been supposed that Traquair was in communication with Leslie, and gave him private information as to Montrose's position (ib. p. 202; Wishart, Memoirs of Montrose, ed. Murdoch and Simpson, 1893, p. 143). In November 1646 Charles addressed a letter to William Hamilton, earl of Lanark (afterwards second Duke of Hamilton) [q. v.], Scottish secretary of state, particularly recommending that Traquair should be admitted to his place in parliament; and this was accordingly done. In 1648 he raised a troop of horse for the engagement, and with his son, Lord Linton, was taken prisoner at Preston. He was confined in Warwick Castle, but at different periods was allowed to go to Berwick and Scotland for several months on parole (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651–4, passim). While a prisoner in England he was, in May 1650, discharged to enter the kingdom (Nicoll, Diary, p. 14; Balfour, Annals, iv. 42). He was set at liberty by Cromwell in 1654, and returned to Scotland. In August 1655 he was panelled and accused before the criminal court for perjury at the instance of his son-in-law (Nicoll, p. 156), but the result is not stated. If, however, the story of the kidnapping at his instance of Lord Durie by Willie Armstrong (1602?–1658?) [q. v.] be true, it would at least appear that he had no very scrupulous regard for legal tribunals. He died on 27 March 1659, ‘sitting in his chair in his own house, without any sickness preceding’ (ib. p. 228). By his wife, Lady Catherine, third daughter of Sir David Carnegie, first earl of Southesk [q. v.], he had, with four daughters (of whom Margaret married James Douglas, second earl of Queensberry [q. v.]), a son John, lord Linton (1622–1666), who succeeded as second earl of Traquair.
[Gordon's Scots Affairs and Spalding's Memorialls (Spalding Club); Rothes's Short Relation, Baillie's Letters and Journals, and Nicoll's Diary (Bannatyne Club); Wishart's Memoirs of Montrose; Bishop Guthry's Memoirs; Balfour's Annals; Hardwicke State Papers; Cal. State Papers, Dom. Charles I.]
STEWART, JOHN, called John Roy (Gaelic ruadh = red) (1700–1752), Jacobite, was son of Donald Stewart by his second wife, Barbara Shaw. He belonged to the Stewarts of Kincardine, Inverness-shire, the first of whom, Walter, third son of Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan [q. v.], was knighted for his valour at Harlaw (24 July 1411), and obtained the barony by charter from Robert III in 1400. The property continued in the family till 1683, when it was sold to the Duke of Gordon.
‘John Roy’ was born at Knock, Kincardine, in 1700, when his mother was fifty-two years of age. He served for some time as lieutenant and quartermaster in the Scots greys, but, being refused a commission in the Black Watch, he resigned. Subsequently he was employed as a Jacobite agent, and, on being arrested, he broke out of Inverness gaol by the connivance of Simon Fraser, lord Lovat [q. v.], 1736 (State Trials, vol. xviii.) Retiring to France, then a sort of Cave of Adullam for discontented Scots, he was next sent on a mission to Rome. He fought in the French army at Fontenoy (30 April 1745). At the opening of the Jacobite rebellion in the summer of 1745 he joined Prince Charles at Blair in Atholl, and was placed in command of the ‘Edinburgh regiment.’ His regiment was actively employed in all the engagements from Prestonpans (21 Sept. 1745) to Culloden. Scott calls him ‘a most excellent partisan officer,’ and Chambers says he was ‘the beau ideal of a clever highland soldier.’ His courage and devotion, his gift of song, and the knowledge and culture which he had acquired by service at home and in France, made him a great favourite with the Prince, who called him ‘the Body’ (‘Lyon in Mourning’). The highland chiefs had such confidence in his skill and resource that it was at one time proposed to make him commander in place of Lord George Murray (1700?–1760) [q. v.] After Culloden a price was set on his head, but, though he had many hairbreadth escapes, he was never betrayed. He described his immunity in a poem which he called ‘John Roy's Psalm.’ After hiding for some weeks on Speyside, he joined the prince in Lochaber and accompanied him to France, where he died in 1752.
John Roy was noted as a poet as well as a soldier. His Gaelic songs and laments are marked by strength and ardour, with fine touches of humour and pathos. They are still popular in the highlands.
[Duncan Stewart's History of the Stewarts, 1739; Old Statistical Account; Chambers's History of the Rebellion; The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry.]
STEWART, JOHN (1749–1822), ‘Walking Stewart,’ born in Bond Street, London, in 1749, was the only child of Scottish parents, his father being a linendraper. He was born, to use his own phrase. ‘of the most animated and passionate parents’ (Opus
