Dance Kenmure's on and awa' 3437

O, Kenmure’s on and awa, Willie,
   O, Kenmure’s on and awa!
An’ Kenmure’s lord’s the bravest lord
   That ever Galloway saw!

Success to Kenmure’s band, Willie,
   Success to Kenmure’s band!
There’s no heart that fears a Whig
   That rides by Kenmure’s hand.

Here’s Kenmure’s health in wine, Willie,
   Here’s Kenmure’s health in wine!
There ne’er was a coward o’ Kenmure’s blude,
   Nor yet o’ Gordon’s line.

O, Kenmure’s lads are men, Willie,
   O, Kenmure’s lads are men!
Their hearts and swords are metal true,
   And that their faes shall ken.

They’ll live or die wi’ fame, Willie,
   They’ll live or die wi’ fame!
But soon wi’ sounding Victorie
   My Kenmure’s lord come hame!

Here’s him that’s far awa, Willie,
   Here’s him that’s far awa!
And here’s the flower that I lo’e best –
   The rose that’s like the snaw!

This brave Jacobite song was written by Robert Burns for James Johnson’s The Scots Musical Museum, Volume 4, 1792.

Kenmure was William Gordon, 6th Viscount Kenmure, commander of the forces of the “Old Pretender”, James Francis Edward Stuart (1688–1766).

The Galloway Gordons descended from Adam de Gordon, Lord of Gordon, Lochinvar and Strathbogie, who died in 1333, and Adam’s younger son, William Gordon, Laird of Stitchel and Lochinvar. Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar, Baron Lochinvar (c. 1599–1634) was created first Viscount Kenmure in 1633 and was the brother-in-law of Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll (1598–1661). Although the earlier Viscounts Kenmure had been staunch and active Presbyterians, Alexander, 5th Viscount Kenmure, wo died in 1698, did, after a certain amount of soul-searching, turn his loyalties to the exiled Stuarts under James VII (II) who had been deposed in favour of his Protestant son-in-law, William of Orange.

The sixth viscount’s adherence to the Jacobite cause and the Rising of 1715 was partly due to his father’s devotion to the Jacobites and partly due to the political leanings of his wife, Mary, sister of Robert Dalziel, 6th Earl of Carnwath, an avowed Jacobite.

The Royal Standard was raised at Lochmaben in Dumfries-shire on 12 October, 1715, and some two hundred gentlemen answered the call. When Kenmure reached Hawick he learned of the rising of the English Jacobites and at Kelso the Border Scots were joined by the forces of Thomas Forster, Member of Parliament for Northumberland, and James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater. Fourteen hundred more men, under William Macintosh of Borlum, had reinforced the small army on the Borders when they crossed into England to join the Lancashire Jacobites. On 9 November, in torrential rain, they entered the town of Preston and dug in their heels. The end was swift. On 12 November, after some furious fighting in and around Preston with the Hanoverians under General Carpenter, the leaders of the Jacobite army completely lost heart and surrendered.

William Stenhouse describes the end of the Rising of 1715 for Kenmure and the Border Jacobites. “Here (Preston), however, his lordship surrendered himself a prisoner at discretion, and was appointed to be conducted, with many of his unfortunate followers, to London, in 1715. Arriving at Highgate, each of the prisoners was placed on horseback, with his arms firmly pinioned, and a foot soldier holding the reins of his bridle. On the 9th of that month, General Tatton, who commanded the detachment, left Highgate with his prisoners, and proceeded to London, drums beating a victorious march, and the mob strengthening the chorus with the horrid din of marrow-bones, cleavers, and warming-pans. In this disgraceful triumph were the unhappy captives led through the streets of the city, amidst the hootings and insults of a barbarous rabble, and conducted to the several prisons assigned to receive them. Lord Kenmure and several other noblemen were committed to the tower. He was afterwards tried and (very unjustly, as some thought), beheaded on Tower-hill, 24th February 1716.”

As a result of the trials that followed this abortive and inglorious rising, nineteen Scottish and two English peers lost their titles and estates. EIght were condemned to death, but only the Earl of Derwentwater and Viscount Kenmure actually went to the scaffold on Tower Hill. The others eluded the ultimate wrath of George I by royal pardon or courageous escape.