History of the Stewarts | Famous Stewarts
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When the Appin Regiment rallied to the Prince, it was Charles Stewart of Ardsheal who led the regiment not Appin. It has been claimed that this was because Dougal was too young to do however since he came of age in the 1730s this is clearly not the case. Ardsheal was given a warrant by James VIII in 1739 to raise men on his behalf - effectively a commission to raise the clan. However in 1743 Dougal Stewart was created Baron Stewart in the Jacobite peerage.
Without a doubt the Government side did attempt to woo him and he was in fact attending upon the duke of Argyll when the news of the Prince´s landing came at the beginning of August 1745.
He returned home and it appears that he was playing both sides throughout the ´year of the Prince´ as he claimed he was unable to leave his estates without the permission of the Whig deputy lieutenant of the county yet he had meetings with other Jacobite Stewarts and did not stop his tenants when they went to join the Appin Regiment under Ardsheal Although he said subsequently that his family hated him as Lord Islay had obtained him a Government commission and no more than 21 of his tenants went to join the Rising. When the Rising collapsed he sent his wife south to Edinburgh. It seems likely that he may not have disclosed to the authorities all the names and number of the clan who fought against the Government
After Culloden, Ardsheal´s estates were forfeited and the Campbell factor who ran them was , of course Colin Campbell of Glenure who was shot dead on the 14 May 1752 in the Appin Murder. However in the years after Culloden, Glenure had managed to acquire quite a large amount of Appin land, putting Appin in Glenure´s power.