The Legend of Culloden
By Phil Legg
A legend has been told for at least a century that Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley, commanded a regiment at the Battle of Culloden on 16th April 1746. In the Great Hall at Berkeley Castle hangs a standard that family legend says was taken all the way to the bloody battle and in the garden stands the ‘Culloden Pine’, a tree thought to have been grown from a seed brought back from the battlefield. But how true is this story?
On 19 August 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart (better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie), raised his standard at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands and began a rebellion to take the British crown. They caught the British Army by surprise, and by September the rebels had captured Edinburgh and defeated the British at Prestonpans. Bonnie Prince Charlie then marched into England and took both Carlisle and Manchester in November.
The uprising posed a real threat to King George II and several emergency measures were adopted. From the end of September, provisional battalions were formed, the Militia were embodied and magistrates put forward criminals as possible recruits. In England and Scotland volunteers for provincial regiments were enrolled for home defence. It was clear that the rebellion was causing panic.
Noblemen also volunteered to raise and maintain regiments to demonstrate their loyalty and gain access to financial allowances. However, the cost of supporting a unit was underestimated and it was suggested that the noblemen’s regiments be included in the regular army. The government reluctantly agreed and fifteen such regiments received numbers. Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley (1715-1755), raised one of these regiments, which was given the number 72nd Regiment of Foot.
Augustus Berkeley was a former lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd Foot Guards and had been Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire since 1737. His unit was ‘to be raised for Our Service in our County of Gloucester’ but was not to be limited to its borders.1 In November 1745, Berkeley was able to use his influence to get a drum-major and a corporal from his old Guards regiment to train his new battalion. Many of the noblemen’s regiments had blue coats, but Berkeley chose red with green facings, possibly cut in a simple style. Marching Orders record that Berkeley’s regiment moved all its companies to Bristol in December where they formed the garrison alongside the regular 24th Foot.
After reaching Derby, only about a week’s march from Gloucester, Bonnie Prince Charlie and his rebels decided to withdraw back to Scotland in December 1745 and were later decisively beaten at the battle of Culloden on 16th April 1746.
In June 1746 it was decided to disband the noblemen’s regiments and the Earl of Berkeley’s Regiment was disbanded at Gloucester on 26th June 1746. The men were allowed to keep their uniforms.
Despite the legend that the earl of Berkeley commanded a regiment that fought at the battle of Culloden, a legend that can be traced back to at least 1905, Berkeley’s regiment is not listed among those that fought at the battle of Culloden.2 There is also another legend that the regiment moved north ready to engage in the battle but by the time they reached Culloden it was all over. However, there does not seem to be any evidence that Berkeley’s regiment ever left England although Marching Orders did not contain all the movements of some regiments so there is still some room for doubt. Bernard Falk noted that the Earl ‘commanded a regiment raised to fight the Jacobite rebels but does not appear to have got as far as Culloden’.3 George Cokayne simply stated that the 4th Earl was the colonel of a regiment ‘sent against the Jacobites in 1745’.4
As for the 4th Earl of Berkeley, if there is no evidence of Berkeley’s regiment moving north, this is also true of him personally. In the Berkeley Castle accounts a payment is recorded for the use of a boat to cross the Severn for the Earl and several of his officers on 1 April 1746.5 Although this could have been a retrospective payment, it does suggest that the Earl was in Gloucestershire during that time and not on his way to Scotland.
The standard in the Great Hall believed to have been used by Berkeley’s Regiment does not fit the size or shape of any military design. It is certainly associated with the 4th Earl of Berkeley as it has his coat of arms together with the badge of the Order of the Thistle. Berkeley was awarded the Order of the Thistle in 1739 and wears the sash of the order in a portrait by Gavin Hamilton which also hangs in the Great Hall.
It is possible that what now remains was the central device cut from the green material of the regimental colour which, at six feet by six feet, would have been very difficult to maintain. It is known that heraldic arms and crests did appear on some regiments’ standards despite being forbidden by clothing regulations of 1743. No infantry colours and very few other artefacts from the noblemen’s regiments remain today, so the Berkeley standard could indeed be significant.
The legend around the ‘Culloden Pine’, believed to have been grown from a seed brought back from the battlefield, led to the 8th Earl of Berkeley ensuring the tree was left undisturbed when raising the lower lawn in the 1920s, hence it now stands in a dip. In 1746, however, the battlefield was a moor with almost no trees. It was only later that the area was planted with pines, although it has now been deforested again. It is true that the pine at Berkeley Castle is the same type that later grew at Culloden, so it is possible that the seed did come from there but was probably collected and brought back to Berkeley in the 19th century when the Highlands were viewed romantically, influenced by Queen Victoria’s love of Scotland.
It will never be known for certain whether the 4th Earl of Berkeley and his regiment fought in the battle of Culloden, but the evidence suggests that this is unlikely. It seems that the legend was forged from the Earl’s regiment that stood in defence of the county of Gloucestershire against Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion.
[1] Bamford, Andrew (Ed), Rebellious Scots to Crush (Warwick: Helion & Co, 2020) p. 77
[2] Proceedings at the Annual Spring Meeting at Berkeley and North Nibley, 1905, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 28, p.9; Pollard, T.(Ed.) Culloden: The History and Archaeology of the Last Clan Battle (Pen & Sword Military, 2009)
[3] Falk, B., The Berkeleys of Berkeley Square (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1944) p.152
[4] Cokayne, G. E., The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom (London, 1910) p.42
[5] Berkeley Castle Household Accounts, 1746