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 Cameron poured in his men, disarmed the guards, and captured the city on the morning of 17 Sept. Other successes followed, mainly due to Cameron. When a question of precedence was raised before the affair of Prestonpans, he waived his claim in favour of the Macdonalds, ‘lords of the isles.’ At Prestonpans the Camerons distinguished themselves, striking at the horses' heads with their claymores, taking no heed of the riders. The expedition in two divisions, passing southwards, met at Derby. There it was decided to return, and by 20 Dec. Scotland was reached. Falkirk was taken by Cameron, who was wounded there; Stirling Castle was besieged but not taken; and desultory fighting filled up the months of January and February. Throughout the campaign Cameron's prudence, courage, and clemency are generally praised. He was a principal leader at Culloden, 16 April 1746; but it was in direct opposition to his counsel that the attempt was made of a night surprise of Cumberland's army. Charles rode off the field, but Cameron was severely wounded, and was borne off by his clansmen.

Cameron was attainted and forfeited, 1 June, but found a refuge in his native district for two months; then returned to the borders of Rannoch, and lay in a miserable hovel on the side of Benalder to be cured of his wounds, his cousin, Cluny Macdonald, bringing him his food. One day (30 Aug.) he and his few attendants were about to fire on an approaching party of men taken for enemies, when Cameron discovered them to be Prince Charles and Archibald Cameron, with a few guides. Soon after two French vessels arrived, and the prince, Cameron, his brother, and a hundred other refugees embarked, and safely reached the coast of Brittany, 29 Sept.

When fully recovered Cameron received command of the regiment of Albany in the French service, Prince Charles being Count of Albany. In the French chronicles of the time we read of Cameron attending the ‘young chevalier’ on his visit to Versailles as his ‘master of the horse.’ His father died at Nieuport in Flanders, after a long exile of thirty-three years, in 1748. In the same year Cameron died. By his wife, Anne, daughter of Sir James Campbell, fifth baron Auchinbreck, he had three sons and four daughters: John, who succeeded to his father's Albany regiment, and was afterwards captain of Royal Scots in the French service, died 1762; James, captain of Royal Scots in the same service, died 1759; Charles, who succeeded to his father's highland claims, held from the British crown leases of some of the estates on easy terms, and a commission in the 71st Highlanders, to which he added a company of clansmen of his own raising. On the regiment being ordered on foreign service while he was ill in London, the Camerons refused to march without him. Hastening to Glasgow to appease them, his strength was exhausted, and he died soon after. His descendant, Donald Cameron, late M.P. county Inverness, is the representative of the house of Camerons of Lochiel. Of the four daughters of Cameron, Isabel and Harriet married officers in the French service; Janet became a nun; and Donalda died young.

Bromley, in his ‘Catalogue of Engraved Portraits,’ mentions a portrait of Cameron, ‘whole-length in a highland dress,’ but omits the names of artist and engraver. When Sir Walter Scott was in Rome in 1832, he visited the Villa Muti at Fiescati, which had been many years the favourite residence of the Cardinal of York, who was bishop of Tusculuna. In a picture there of a fête given on the cardinal's promotion Scott discovered a portrait like a picture he had formerly seen of Cameron of Lochiel, whom he described as ‘a dark, hard-featured man.’

[Culloden Papers, 1815; Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, i. 328; Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, c. 75; Chambers's History of the Rebellion; Boswell's Tour to the Western Isles; Lockhart Papers, ii. 439, 479; Scots Mag. 1746, pp. 39, 174; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 303; Notes and Queries, 4th series, vii. 334; Lockhart's Life of Scott, p. 747; various Histories of Scotland, under date A.D. 1745–6.]  CAMERON, EWEN or EVAN (1629–1719), of Lochiel, highland chief, was descended from a family who were able to trace their succession as chiefs from John, surnamed Ochtery, who distinguished himself in the service of King Robert I and King David. He was the seventeenth in descent from John Ochtery, being the eldest son of John M'Allan Cameron, and Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir Robert Campbell, then of Glenfalloch, afterwards of Glenurchy, grandfather of John Campbell, eighth earl of Breadalbane [q. v.] He was born in the castle of Kilchurn, the seat of Sir Robert Campbell in February 1629. His father having died in his infancy, the first seven years of his life were passed with his foster-father, Cameron of Latter-Finlay, after which he was taken in charge by his uncle. Having in his twelfth year been placed in the hands of the Marquis of Argyll as a hostage for the behaviour of the Camerons, he attended the school at Inverary. The marquis had intended him to study at Oxford, but the unsettled state of the country prevented them