Duncan Forbes of Culloden: The Scottish Lord Who Saved the Hanoverian Throne

Duncan Forbes (1685–1747), 3rd of Culloden, was Scotland's Lord President of the Court of Session and one of the most consequential Scottish statesmen of the 18th century. When Bonnie Prince Charlie launched the Jacobite rising of 1745, it was Forbes—through personal diplomacy, financial outlay, and sheer political nerve—who kept crucial Highland clans loyal to the Hanoverian crown, preventing the rebellion from becoming the national uprising the Stuarts desperately needed.

Who Was Duncan Forbes of Culloden?

Born in 1685 at Culloden House near Inverness, Forbes came from a prominent Scots legal family. His elder brother John served as Lord President before him, and Duncan himself was called to the Scottish bar in 1709. He rose quickly: MP for Inverness Burghs (1722–1737), Lord Advocate of Scotland from 1725, and finally Lord President of the Court of Session from 1737 until his death. Culloden House—the ancestral estate just east of Inverness—lent him both his territorial designation and a strategic base in the Highlands. Intellectually rigorous and personally courageous, Forbes was also a noted wit and a close friend of the philosopher Francis Hutcheson.

What Role Did Forbes Play in the 1745 Jacobite Rising?

When Prince Charles Edward Stuart raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August 1745, Forbes immediately grasped the danger. Travelling north at his own expense, he met with clan chiefs across the Great Glen and the northern Highlands, personally persuading at least 18 clan leaders—including the MacLeods, the Munros, and the Mackays—to withhold their support from the Jacobite cause. Historians estimate Forbes recruited or retained around 3,000 fighting men for the government side. He spent an estimated £2,000 of his own money—a ruinous sum—in the process, and drafted emergency legal instruments to accelerate military commissions. Without his intervention, several powerful clans would almost certainly have joined the rising, potentially tipping the military balance before the Duke of Cumberland could mobilise his forces. The battle that crushed the Jacobites was fought on 16 April 1746 at Culloden Moor—barely a mile from Forbes's own front door.

Why Did Forbes Oppose the Post-Culloden Reprisals?

Ironically, Forbes's reward was official ingratitude. After Cumberland's brutal pacification campaign—burnings, executions, and the stripping of Highland culture—Forbes protested vigorously against the collective punishment of clans that had remained neutral or even fought for the crown. He submitted to Cumberland a memorandum arguing that the reprisals violated both natural justice and sound policy, earning the Duke's contemptuous nickname 'that old woman who talked of humanity.' The government refused to reimburse more than a fraction of his personal expenditure. Forbes died on 10 December 1747, reportedly broken in spirit and heavily in debt, aged 62. He never received the financial compensation he sought.