men. They wore the Highland dress, with a sporran of badger's or otter's
skin and carried musket and broadsword; some of them wore a dirk at
their own cost. Among the officers were no less than five Simon
Frasers,[3] three or four each of Alexander Frasers and John Frasers,
and a good many other Frasers, among them a young Ensign, Malcolm
Fraser, destined to rule one of the seigniories at Malbaie for more than
half a century. Other Scottish names also appear, Macnabs, Chisholms,
Macleans, and among them John Nairne who, like Malcolm Fraser, spent the
best part of his life at Malbaie.

The head of the Nairne clan, a John Nairne, third Baron Nairne, had
fought for the Stuarts in 1745. He died an exile in France. Of how close
kin to him was the young Highland Officer, John Nairne, who settled
later at Malbaie, we do not know. His family was of course Jacobite. In
"Waverley" Sir Walter Scott mentions a Miss Nairne with whom he says he
was acquainted, and this lady appears to have been one of the sisters of
Captain John Nairne. In 1745, as the Highland army rushed into
Edinburgh, Miss Nairne was standing with some ladies on a balcony, when
a shot, discharged by accident from a Highlander's musket, grazed her
forehead. "Thank God," she said, "that the accident happened to me whose
principles are known; had it befallen a Whig [the name then identified
with the anti-Jacobite party] they would have said it was done on
purpose."[4] At Murray Bay there is still a miniature portrait of Prince
Charlie given it is said by himself to Miss Nairne.

Before fighting under Wolfe John Nairne had followed the Dutch flag.
Just before the rising of 1745, when a youth of only 17, he, like a
great many others of his countrymen, is found serving in the well known
"Scots Brigade"; many years later at Malbaie, he tells in his letters,
of old companions in this service with well known Scottish names--Bruce,