John Roy Stewarts Regiment is the Jacobite guise of Rose & Thistle. It was set up by experienced re-enactors who wanted to show that there was more to the Jacobite Army of 1745 than the Highland Clans. Although within our membership we do have Highlanders we also have Lowland, French and English troops as well as civilians, craftsmen, and experts in weaponry of the period.

What John Roy Stewarts Regiment portrays is the members of Bonnie Prince Charlie's (Charles Edward Stuart) army that came from every walk of life. From our research we have found that there were Highlanders, Lowlanders, former members of both the British and European Armies, craftsmen such as shoe makers, the well off who joined through a romantic image of the "Bonnie Prince" , those from the lowest social standing who left the wynds and lanes of Edinburgh to receive pay in the Jacobite Army, and people who were pressed into the service of the Jacobite cause.

John Roy Stewart himself was a tough but romantic character who is remembered for his tough recruiting methods- said to be on par with that of a British Redcoat recruiting Sergeant, and his poetry. In fact it is reported that at Culloden,. The Duke of Cumberland , pointing to him, inquired who he was. "Ah," replied one of his aides-de-camp, "that is John Roy Stewart." "Good God!" exclaimed the Duke, "the man I left in Flanders doing the butcheries of ten heroes! Is it possible that he could have dogged me here?". His loyalty to Jacobite cause and to Bonnie Prince Charlie was never in question and he accompanied the Prince during his escape through the Highlands after the battle of Culloden and eventually back to France in 1746. Before joining the Jacobite Army he was in service in the French Army.

Carlisle

Cumberland waited for his much needed mounted infantry at Penrith after clifton, in which time the rebels reached Carlisle and decided to leave there garrison there while the prince returned to join Lord John Drummonds forces with his own and mount a second invasion of England. John Hamilton was to hold and to govern Carlisle until thye return. The artillery which were dragged from Edinburgh to Derby and back without firing a shot would also be left there with companies drawn from the second (Aberdeenshire) battalion of the Duke of Perth’s Regiment, along with some men and officers from John Roy Stewart’s Regiment and Lord Ogilvy’s Regiment. There were also 20 officers and 93 men of the Manchester Regiment.

Derby

During the retreat from Derby the regiment formed the rear guard

Clifton

Murray was joined by two units of cavalry Lord Pitslargo’s horse and Bagot’s Hussars, encouraged he was not forgotten, he secured the village with John Roy Stewart’s Regiment and sent the artillery escorted by Perth’s Regiment on. Murray and the Glengarry men then went to Lowther Hall looking for Oglethorpe’s Georgia Rangers.. Appon capturing one of the Duke of Cumberland’s running footmen and an officer it was discovered Cumberland was less than a mile away. Murray returned to Clifton while John Roy Stewart was sent to alert the prince at Penrith. During this time Cumberland had reached the village and drove off the rebel cavalry. Perth turned up about the same time as Murray with Cluny’s MacPhersons and Appin men under Ardshiel. Murray prepared the few troops he had until Perth could bring up the rest of the army, placing the Glengarry men in the enclosures on the west of the road, Roy Stewarts Regiment astride it and Cluny’s and Ardshiel’s battalions on the east side. In all totaling about 1,000 men. To conceal the limited numbers Murray:

“…caused roll up what colours we had, and made them pass half open to different places, bringing them back once or twice under cover; so that the enemy, seeing them as they were carried forward to different places, could not form any judgment of our numbers.”

At about four o’clock Cumberland dismounted his dragoons and ordered them forward to take the village. John Roy Stewart returned with orders to fall back to Penrith at this time. As it was now dark and believing there were only 500 dragoons Murray announced his intention to counter-attack, Stewart and Cluny MacPherson agreed, though Cluny was not keen having concluded there were upwards of 1,000 dragoons. He reluctantly agreed if ordered to do so. “I do order it then,” replied Murray and off they went. Murray and Cluny lead the attack followed by Ardshiel in the next lane. The men were ordered though not to pass the bottom ditch to the muir, as Glengarry’s Regiment would not be able to tell them from the enemy. Having done as proposed the retreat began first Roy Stewarts, then Appin, Cluny, and Glengarry’s men.

Huntly

On the 17^th March a fairly large rebel detachment led by John Roy Stewart was in the area of Huntly, intending to attack the Laird of Grant’s men at Clatt. Failing to make contact they returned to Huntly and ordered dinner. Upon receiving news that Bland was approaching fast there was a hasty retreat covered by the Hussars and some of the prince’s Lifeguards.

A rebel officer, Captain Robert Stewart of Colonel John Roy Stewart’s Regiment wrote a detailed and honest account of the affair:

“…the colonel gave orders for five men of a company to be turned out, the whole fifty to be commanded by Captain Robert Stewart, younger…and, upon examining the men’s arms and ammunition, and finding them in very indifferent order, was obliged to disperse the most of all his own powder and shot… Then, throwing away his plaid, he desired that every one might do the like, &c.”

“…At Mill of Keith; made a circle round the town, to the tents of Summers-eve’s Fair, as if they had been from Straithbogie. Then Captain Stewart was ordered to close up with his party to the advance guard. As twelve o’clock at night struck, they came near the town. The Campbell’s sentry challenged, Who was there? It was answered, Friends – the Campbells. He replied, you are very welcome; we hear the enemy is at hand. On their coming up to him, they seized his arms, griped him by the neck, and threw him to the ground. Then he began to cry: they told him if he made any more noise they would thrust a dirk to his heart”

Culloden Moor

16 April 1746

Likewise the Camerons, Stewarts, and Macintoshes, Maclachlans and Macleans, And John Roy Stewart's regiment, united into one, these are their names; Besides the Macleods, Chisholms, Macdonalds of Clanranald and Glengarry, Also the noble chieftain Keppoch, all eager the English to harry.

It must be observed that Lord George on all the occasions in question carried with him the concurrence of the Highland chiefs. No wonder that their resolution misgave them when they found themselves in the heart of England with a handful of men, and when French and English alike gave no sign. Lord George persevered to the utmost limit admitting of an alternative. He out-manoeuvred the Duke in the last onward as well as in the retrograde movement; and at Clifton he, with Cluny's and the Glengarry men, John Roy Stewart's regiment, and the Stuarts of Appin, gave the dragoons a lesson which effectually prevented all further annoyance in pursuit. But the whole was a desperate neck-or-nothing game, in which, having once embarked, it became at every juncture about as hazardous to recede as to go forward. Having once turned back in their onward progress to the Capital, all hope of ultimate success at least was at an end, and no reasonable expectation could have been entertained, beyond that of compelling something like fair terms, by protracting hostilities, for which the Highlands afforded every facility.

After Culloden the regiment marched with there colonel to Ruthven and dispersed

Approximation of flag believed to have been

John Roy Stewart's Regiment, taken after Culloden