Monument to a great Soldier-
Sir Robert Munro of Foulis
(1684 -
SIR Robert Munro of Foulis, who was killed at the Battle of Falkirk in 1746, was
a soldier-
He was a child when James VII and II lost his throne and the Protestant succession
was secured, and a young man when Queen Anne's wars sent many Scots to fight under
Marlborough on the Continent of Europe. His grandfather Sir John Munro, and his father
Sir Robert, were successively chiefs of the clan: his uncle Andrew was a captain,
and several of his relatives served before him in the Royal Scots. It is not surprising,
therefore, that young Robert's thoughts should turn to an army career, and his earliest
surviving letter (Oct. 1706) deals with plans for securing a commission, perhaps
through the influence of the Duke of Argyll who was in Scotland for the critical
pre-
But in the meantime, Robert had received a small Part of the family estate from his father, and become a member of Queen Anne's last Parliament. His patrimony, of which he received a crown character in 1708, comprised Meikle and Little Clynes and the lands of Drummond, near the present village of Evanton. Scotland's share in the Parliament of Great Britain at Westminster was 15 burgh members and 30 from the shires and at the general election of 1710 Robert was chosen under the limited franchise of those days by the northern burghs of Dingwall, Tain, Dornoch, Wick and Kirkwall, which he was to represent through five more elections for a period of 31 years.
With his Whig sympathies-
Support for the ministers in office was usually rewarded, just as opposition was
penalised. After the king's arrival, Robert reported sadly more than once that "there
is nothing yet done" for him; but in December he was offered and accepted a commission
(backdated to 9 August) to replace a MacKenzie as Captain of an Independent Company
raised ten years earlier to help in policing the northern Highlands. This was one
of three such companies, forming distinct units unconnected with each other, and
responsible for peace and security in their own area-
The standard of rebellion was raised by the Earl of Mar, now out of office and out of favour with the new sovereign. In the northern shires the Earl of Sutherland was the King's Lieutenant, and the. Mackays, Rosses and Munros could be counted on to support the Government, but the Mackenzies, Macdonalds and Chisholms were Jacobites, and the Frasers divided owing to a disputed chiefship. The old Laird of Foulis, who lived until 1729, had lost his eyesight in early life, and the leadership of the Munros therefore devolved on his sons. Robert was in London when rumours first gained ground that a rising was intended, but his brother George of Culcairn put the clan in a state of readiness at the beginning of August, and this example was followed by others, in spite of a great shortage of arms, ammunition and money.
About a week after Mar raised the standard on September 6, the Jacobites occupied
Inverness, where Seaforth put in a Mackenzie governor. Young Foulis made a move in
that direction, but was stopped before he had crossed the River Conon. Calling on
those well disposed to the Government to support him, he then formed an encampment
at the bridge of Alness, where he was joined on October 5, by Sutherland and detachments
from further north. Seaforth advanced-
In November, the Whig lairds of Kilravock and Culloden, now joined by Simon Fraser of Lovat (who had been outlawed and in exile), put pressure on the Jacobite garrison in Inverness, which was delivered upon the very day when Sherriffmuir was fought and another Jacobite force was defeated at Preston. Young Foulis marched into the town with 400 Munros and took over control as governor, although his commission (and his brevet of colonel) had been intercepted by the rebels at Perth. "James VIII" came and went (he was less than two months in Scotland), Government troops arrived in Inverness towards the end of February, and for some months the process of disarming the rebels went on, helped by a Munro detachment under Culcairn. With the rising suppressed, and the Hanoverian succession firmly established, Colonel Robert's interest with the Government and his own compassionate nature prompted him to mediate on behalf of some of the defeated leaders (including Alexander Macdonell of Glengarry) and their wives and children.
For the next ten years Robert Munro was kept busy, in addition to his duties as M.P.
and landlord, as one of the only three Scots among the 13 M.P.s appointed (by a Commons
ballot in June, 1716) to be Commissioners for the survey and disposal of the estates
of more than 50 attainted Jacobites, "in order to raise money out of them for the
use of the public". Each Commissioner received a salary of £1,000 a year, and as
they could hold no other public office (though remaining M.P.s), Robert demitted
his governorship of Inverness Castle and Independent Company command (both of which
were given to Lovat). Four English M.P.s joined Robert Munro and his colleague Patrick
Haldane for the Scottish part of the commission's business, but they were greatly
hindered by the dilatory ways of some members (including Sir Richard Steele, who
was fined for non-
After having been the effective leader of the clan for many years, Colonel Robert
became Munro of Foulis and the sixth baronet on the death of his father in 1729.
As a landowner he pioneered the planting of woodlands, of which he added nearly 500
acres on the Foulis estate. As a heritor and an elder of the Church of Scotland,
he was one of those who arranged on behalf of the General Assembly for the spending
of £1,000 a year of the "Royal Bounty" on the "reformation" of the Highlands and
Islands by means of itinerant preachers and catechists. Described by a clansman as
"an obliging, civil, moral gentleman, well beloved of his name", Sir Robert lived
on friendly terms with his neighbours. His marriage to a member of a great English
family -
Of Sir Robert's activities in Parliament, the almost complete absence of reported
debates leaves little to be said. Outside the House of Commons, we find him at various
times trying to secure the reinstatement in a Customs post at Inverness of a neighbour's
brother; he took an active part in pressing for Simon Fraser's pardon and succession
to the Lovat estates; he helped to find employment for the son of a Mackenzie friend,
and for a scape-
The clan rivalries which had erupted in rebellion were finding an outlet in local
politics. Seaforth was forfeited in 1716, and it seems to have been arranged that
while the Rosses held the county seat the Munros would represent the Northern Burghs.
To secure the burghs, control of three out of the five was necessary, and the manoeuvrings
by which the councils were persuaded to send the "right" delegate to vote in parliamentary
elections were often exciting, and even a show of force was not uncommon. Ross ascendancy
was secure in Tain, and from 1716 to 1745 the Munros controlled Dingwall, with Robert
of one of his brothers as provost -
This probably mattered less to Sir Robert, as he was now securely back in the army.
The Independent Companies, disbanded after the Rising, had been revived by General
Wade, and in 1739 the six companies were increased to ten and formed into a regular
Highland regiment 780 strong under his command-
War on the Continent was moving towards a direct confrontation between Britain and
France, and the regiment embarked immediately for Flanders. There the men earned
high praise for their behaviour towards the civilian population, and the regiment
became a favourite choice as guardians of property; the Elector Palatine told his
envoy in London that this was owing to Sir Robert's care, "for whose sake he should
always pay a regard to a Scotchman". Their first action against the French came in
the spring of 1745, near the village of Fontenoy. A British army under William Duke
of Cumberland was defeated, but the "Highland furies" (as one Frenchman called them)
saved it from disaster by their gallantry. Allowed "their own way of fighting" by
the young Commander-
In June 1745, a little more than a month after the battle of Fontenoy, Sir Robert
was "rewarded" by an appointment to succeed General Ponsonby as Colonel of the 37th
Regiment of Foot. When the second Jacobite Rising broke out, his friends in the Highlands
hoped for his presence among them (one wrote that it would have been "the greatest
service to His Majesty and the common cause"), but it was not to be. His regiment
was brought over by sea to Newcastle, and while his son and brother joined Cope with
the able-
Later, when the third brother, Captain George Munro of Culcairn, was shot in mistake
for another officer in Lochaber, the Commander-
This multiple blow was felt most severely by the family and the clan, and one veteran
soldier used to lament. "Ochon, ochon, had his ain folk been there!" It was some
years before a monument was erected, as an entry in the Falkirk Parish Church accounts
for October 1750 shows: "Present for the poor from Sir Harry Munro, five guineas,
for the privilege of a Tomb upon Sir Robert, my Father, in the Church-
R. W. Munro
