James Macpherson's references to The Break of Killyleagh, April 1689 - from 1775.

These extracts are from Original papers, containing the secret history of Great Britain from the Restoration, to the accession of the House of Hannover : to which are prefixed extracts from the life of James II as written by himself by James Macpherson (1775).

Macpherson was of course suspected of being a hoaxer, inventing the Ossian poems. However, Thomas Jefferson thought he was "the greatest poet that ever existed".

Macpherson's introduction (online here) explains that the sources were found in the 'Scotch College' in Paris, and were hitherto unpublished. 

• Macpherson's key statistics below – of Buchan leading "one troop of horse, another of dragoons, and two regiments of foot", and of Henry Hunter's 'rebels' being "betwixt three and four thousand in number, of which six hundred were killed on the spot" are consistent with the numbers mentioned in the account by Bishop William King in his The State of the Protestants in Ireland (1691).

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"... (April) The sixteenth his Majesty came back to Charlemont, where he sent more troops to reinforce the garrison of Coleraine newly taken, as also the county of Down, where he was informed that there was a likelihood of some stirring of rebels. The night of the sixteenth and seventeenth the King received an express from the army, which let him know that the general officers had resolved to rest the troops, the 17th and the 18th, to join all their troops together and march straight to Derry ; and that it was the general opinion, that in the consternation in which the enemies were since the forcing of the passages of the river, the town would surrender without any resistance..." (p 183)

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"... The King had already sent a general officer to command the troops, which were to march into the county of Down, near Antrim and Carrickfergus, to hinder the landing of the English, in cafe their ships which had appeared before Derry, and retired the day the King came before the town, should attempt any thing against the castle of Carrickfergus; a place of much importance, as commanding a convenient port of that side. But being informed that there were again in that county some new commotions of the protestants, he sent thither a recruit of one troop of horse before he left Charlemont, and the next day being the 23d, being come to Newry, and finding the disorders in the said county of Down increased, he sent one troop more of dragoons, which was all the force on that side of the country or with his person..." (p189)

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"... The resistance of Derry had encouraged several of the rebels, and especially those of Inniskillin, to commit insolences. They began to make excursions into, and destroy the neighbouring country, when his Majefty sent colonel Sarsfield, with thirty-five companies of foot, four troops of horse and dragoons, towards Sligo, to confine them within narrow limits, and repress a little their insolence.

About this time happened the defeat of the rebels in the county of Down, by colonel Baughan, general major of his Majesty's forces [le Sr. Bochan, marechal de camp] who had set upon them with one troop of horse, another of dragoons, and two regiments of foot; they being betwixt three and four thousand in number, of which six hundred were killed on the spot, and the rest dispersed. Upon which, that country being a little more secure from the enemy's attempts, Boughan had orders to march with his troops to Derry.

A few days after, the King received the welcome news of the arrival of the French fleet, in the bay of Bantrey, and of the fight they had with the English, who were beaten and put to flight with as much ignominy, as they had, with insolence, and disrespect to the law of nations, attacked them. This arrival of the fleet, which brought a supply of officers, arms, and money and which was followed with so glorious a victory, filled the court with a general satisfaction; and the whole city expressed their joy for it with bonfires..." (p 193)

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NB: 'Bochan', 'Baughan' and 'Boughan' are all of course 'Buchan', for Sir Thomas Buchan, the persecutor of Covenanters in Scotland during the 1670s and 1680s, who James II had brought to Ireland to quell any rebellions in east Ulster.