lood,
and are virtues inherent and hereditary in the constitution of that
noble family."[213]

Lord Drummond was afterwards engaged in the insurrection of 1715: he
was attainted, but escaped to France, and, dying in 1730, left the
inheritance of estates which he had saved by a timely precaution, and
the empty title of Duke of Perth,[214] to his son James Drummond, the
unfortunate subject of this memoir.

Such was the character borne by the father of James, Duke of Perth. This
ill-fated adherent of the Stuarts was born on the eleventh of May 1713;
and three months afterwards, on the twenty-eighth of August, his father
deemed it expedient to execute a deed conveying the family estates to
him, by which means the property, at that time, escaped forfeiture. Like
many other young men under similar circumstances, this young nobleman
was educated at the Scottish College of Douay, consistently with the
principles of his family, who were at that time Roman Catholics.

In his twenty-first year, the young Duke of Perth came over to Scotland,
and devoted himself, in the absence of his father, to the management of
his estate. It is probable that his own inclinations might have led him
to prefer the occupations of an elegant leisure to the turmoils of
contention; but, be that as it may, it was not reserved for the head of
the House of Drummond to rest contentedly in his own halls.

The nearest kinsmen of the young nobleman were active partisans of the
Chevalier St. George. His brother, Lord John Drummond who had been
confirmed in all his devotion to the cause by his education at Douay,
had entered the service of the King of France, and had raised a regiment
called the Royal Scots, of which he was the Colonel. He was destined to
take an active share in the events to which all were at this time
looking forward, some with dread, others with impatience. But his
influence was less likely to be permanent over his brother, than that of
the Duke's mother, whose wishes were all deeply engaged in behalf of
James Stuart.

This lady, styled Duchess of Perth, was the daughter of George first
Duke of Gordon, and of Lady Elizabeth Howard, Duchess of Gordon, who, in
1711, had astonished the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh by sending
them a silver medal with the head of the Chevalier engraved upon it. The
Duchess of Perth inherited her mother's determined character and
political principles; for her adherence to which she eventually
suffered, t