, and on their
evidence much of the stability of the case depended. The claimant,
Thomas Drummond, who is stated to have been the eldest son of James, son
of James Duke of Perth, was born in 1792, and was living in 1831 at
Houghton-le-Spring, in the occupation of a pitman. Much doubt is thrown
upon the whole of the case, which was not followed up, by the length of
time which elapsed before any claim was made on the part of this
supposed descendant of the Duke of Perth. The act for the restoration of
the forfeited estates was not passed, indeed, until two years after the
death (as it is stated) of the Duke of Perth, that is, in 1784; yet one
would suppose that he would have carefully instructed his son in the
proper manner to assert his rights in case of such an event. That son
lived to a mature age, married and died, yet made no effort to recover
what were said to be his just rights.[269]

Such is the statement of those who seek to establish the belief that the
Duke of Perth lived to a good old age, married, had children, and left
heirs to his title and estates. On the other hand, it is certain that
it was generally considered certain, at the time of the insurrection,
that the Duke died on his voyage to France; and it was even alluded to
by one of the counsel at the trials of Lord Kilmarnock and Lord
Balmerino in August 1746, when the name of the Duke of Perth being
mentioned, "who," said the Speaker, "I see by the papers, is dead." But
it _is_ certainly _remarkable_, that neither Maxwell of Kirkconnel, nor
Lord Elcho, the one in his narrative which has been printed, the other
in his manuscript memoir, mention the death of the Duke of Perth on the
voyage, which, as they both state, they shared with him. So important
and interesting a circumstance would not, one may suppose, have occurred
without their alluding to it. "All the gentlemen," Lord Elcho relates,
"who crossed to Nantes, proceeded to Paris after their
disembarkation;"[270] but he enters into no further particulars of their
destination. His silence, and that of Maxwell of Kirkconnel, regarding
the Duke of Perth's death, seems, if it really took place, to have been
inexplicable.

All doubt, but that the story of the unfortunate Duke's death was really
true, appears however to be set at rest by the epitaph which some
friendly or kindred hand has inscribed on a tomb in the chapel of the
English Nuns at Antwerp, commemorating the virtues and the fate of the
Duke,