Flora MacDonald (Scottish Jacobite)
| Flora MacDonald | |
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Portrait of Flora MacDonald by Allan Ramsay
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| Born | 1722 Milton, South Uist, Scotland |
| Died | 4 March 1790 (aged 67–68) Kingsburgh, Isle of Skye |
| Nationality | Scotland |
| Known for | Jacobitism |
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Flora MacDonald (Gaelic: Fionnghal nic Dhòmhnaill; 1722 – 4 March 1790), Jacobite heroine, was the daughter of Ranald MacDonald of Milton on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and his wife Marion, the daughter of Angus MacDonald.
Her father died when she was a child, and her mother was abducted and married by Hugh MacDonald of Armadale, Skye. She was brought up under the care of the chief of her clan, the Macdonalds of Clanranald her father's cousin, and was partly educated in Edinburgh. Throughout her life she was a practising Presbyterian.
During the Jacobite Risings, in June 1746, at the age of 24, she was living on the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides when Bonnie Prince Charlie took refuge there after the Battle of Culloden. The prince's companion, a Captain Conn O'Neill of The Feeva, County Antrim, son of Captain Conn Modera of the O'Neills of Clannaboy, sought her assistance to help the prince escape capture. They were distant relatives and had met at the home of their mutual relative, Ambrose O'Neill of Ballybollan. The island was controlled by the Hanoverian government using a local militia, but the MacDonalds were secretly sympathetic with the Jacobite cause.
After some hesitation, Flora promised to help the prince escape the island. At a later period she told the Duke of Cumberland, son of George II and commander-in-chief in Scotland, that she acted from charity and would have helped the duke himself were he in defeat and in distress.
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