A DRESS worn by an 18th-century Scottish noblewoman who was a close ally to the Jacobite cause and made a daring escape to France is going under the hammer in Edinburgh.
At auction house Lyon & Turnbull’s two-day-long Scotland Collected sale later this month, more than 80 lots belonging to the Earls of Airlie will go under the hammer.
The brocaded dress was worn by Lady Margaret Ogilvy, wife of David Ogilvy, the 6th Earl of Airlie, when they attended a ball hosted by Prince Charles Edward Stuart at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in 1745.
The dress is estimated to be bought for between £8000 to £12,000.
The gown has been on long-term loan to the Royal Collection, Palace of Holyrood, for almost 100 years, and was part of the Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites exhibition at the National Museums Scotland in 2017.
It was also displayed at Glamis Castle in late 2020, and most recently in The Queen's Lobby, next to the Great Gallery in Holyrood Palace.
It was in the Great Gallery that the couple, who were both in their early 20s, attended the ball following the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Prestonpans on September 21, 1745.
This post-battle party, described in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Waverley, was thought to have been an artistic invention by the famous Scottish author. However, the recent discovery of a letter by Deborah Clarke, formerly senior curator at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, while researching her book, The Palace of Holyroodhouse, confirmed the ball was based on a real event.
The letter, written by the Duke of Perth at Holyroodhouse on September 30, 1745, and sent to Lord Ogilvy refers to a "great ball at ye palace" on "Monday last".
The countess went on to join Jacobite troops on their journey to the Battle of Culloden in April 1746.
She was among the group of several women who were taken prisoner by the Duke of Cumberland, nicknamed the Butcher Cumberland, after the battle. She was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, where she was condemned to death as a traitor.
Lady Margaret Ogilvy's escape
In a daring escape, the Lady Ogilvy swapped clothes with a washerwoman and then disguised herself as a man. Soldiers later stopped her in London, believing she was the Bonnie Prince.
After being examined by a woman to prove her gender, and persuading the men that she was a woman of rank, she journeyed to France and joined her husband in exile.
John Mackie, head of sale, said: "This gown is a rare and tangible link to the 1745 Jacobite rising.
"While much Jacobite material has been lost or romanticised, this piece stands out for its provenance and condition.
"Objects like this shed light on the period not just politically, but personally. Lady Ogilvy’s story reveals the complexity of individual experience during the rising."
Also featured is a cannonball recovered from the battlefield of Culloden. Estimated to fetch between £3000 and £5000, it has a silver band engraved with the words "Ogilvy Culloden 16 April 1746".
An oval, straight-sided snuff box with a portrait of Prince Charles Edward Stuart and a pistol with engraved scroll and foliage decoration are all included in the lot.
