Scotswomen have often taken a part, unrehearsed but vigorous, in the defence of their castles and towns. The history of the Debateable Land alone is full of instances of their mettle. But there are few records of their enrolment, as a precautionary measure, in national or local defence, for the corps of such defenders have normally been composed of men. Once at least, however, in a bleak October, women were called lout by tuck of drum, to defend their fellow-citizens. The Jacobite rising of 1715 was a much less spectacular rebellion than that of 1745, which was due' in no small measure to the insipidity of the Old Pretender as compared with his son's vivid personality. The attempt to restore the Stuarts was received with great enthusiasm in certain parts of Scotland, and with coolness in
Council of Peterhead met in the Tolbeeth "and n October 5, 1715, the magistrate one of the most loyally Jacobite towns
taking to their serious consideration the hazard and danger the Town may sustain by the inconvenience of the present times, have therefore resolved unanimously that the said Town, for their own safety and defence, keep Guard, by calling out the respective inhabitants of the Town and making a division in four quarters," Each quarter was to be under the command of two captains, provided (by themselves) with officer's pikes and swords, and was to be manned by a number of "fencible inhabitant who numbered 138 men and ten women.
Janet Dickie, Margaret Greig, Geilles Scott, Margaret Dun, Elspeth Mitchell, Janet Cruickshank, Widow Boche, Widow Brown, Elsie Bruce, and Mrs, Walker—those were the familiar-sounding Scottish names of the gallant ten. They had to mount guard every night, carrying armour, which consisted of "one sufficient gun charged with powder and bullets, and four spair shouts besides, and one sufficient sword."
Such was their equivalent for the tin hat, the gas mask, and the decontamination suit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.