Appin Murder

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The Appin Murder is a noted unsolved murder which took place in 1752 in Appin in western Scotland. Taking place in the tumultuous aftermath of the Jacobite rising, the murder is featured in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped.

On the 14 May 1752 Colin Campbell of Glenure, Government appointed Factor to the forfeited estates of Stewart of Ardshiel in North Argyll, Scotland, was murdered by person/s unknown in the wood of Lettermore. The search for the killer fell upon the local clan, the Jacobite Stewarts of Appin, who had suffered evictions on the orders of Colin Campbell. James Stewart, aka Seumas 'a Ghlinne and brother of Ardsheil' or James of the Glens, one of the last leaders of Stewarts, was implicated in the crime and arrested and tried for the murder. It was clear from the trial that James was not directly involved in the act, but he was eventually found guilty "in airts and pairts" (an accessory) by a jury seeded with a large element of Campbell family and its supporters and conducted by the Duke of Argyll, head of the Campbells. James was hanged on the 8 November, 1752 on a specially commissioned gibbet above the narrows at Ballachulish, now near the south entrance to the Ballachulish Bridge.

In 2001, a 89-year-old descendant of the Stewarts of Appin, Anda Penman, revealed what she claimed to be a long-held family secret. She said the murder was planned by four young Stewart lairds and that the gun was fired by the best shot among the four, Donald Stewart of Ballachulish, who had been elected assassin. A book published in 2004 supported this claim.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ Iain Lundy, The Appin murder: who killed Red Fox? [1]; Elizabeth McMee, Bloody Scots whodunit is 'solved' by US academic, Sunday Herald, Jan 25, 2004 [2]