Lady Anne Farquharson-Mackintosh and the 'Rout of Moy' that Saved Bonnie Prince Charlie

The village of Moy (Scottish Gaelic: A' Mhòigh) is situated between the villages of Daviot and Tomatin, in the Highland region of Scotland. Moy Hall is near to the village and is the home of the chiefs of the Clan Mackintosh, a Highland Scottish clan. It was at Moy Hall that Jacobite supporter Lady Anne Farquharson-MacKintosh entertained Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie")  in 1746. She learned that English government forces were advancing to capture Prince Charlie and she arranged for an act of subterfuge to protect him from capture.

Lady MacKintosh arranged for Donald Fraser the blacksmith and four other retainers to watch the road from Inverness. During the night they saw hundreds of Hanoverian troops marching along the road. As the English government troops approached they set about deceiving the advancing army by firing their pistols, shouting the battle cries of the Clan MacDonald and Clan Cameron and banging their swords against rocks. They fooled the advancing soldiers into thinking they had entered a stronghold of the Jacobite Army. At which point the British Government forces hastily retreated. It was an event that has come to be remembered as the "Rout of Moy".

Lady Anne Farquharson-Mackintosh (1723–1784) was the daughter of John Farquharson of Invercauld and was the wife of the chief of the Clan Mackintosh.  Lady Anne was a firm supporter of the Jacobite cause. Jacobites being those supporting the restoration of the Scottish House of Stuart to the British throne. When Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard at Glenfinnan she helped gather over 350 Farquharsons and Mackintoshs to fight with the Clan Chattan Regiment in the Jacobite army. The Prince called her La Belle Rebelle (the beautiful rebel).

After the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746, Lady Mackintosh was arrested and turned over to the care of her mother-in-law for a time. An interesting factor in her story is that her husband, Angus Mackintosh, 22nd Chief of the Clan Mackintosh, held a commission in the British Black Watch regiment under King George II of Great Britain. However his clan supported the Jacobite cause under the leadership of his wife. It meant that Angus was not with his clansmen who fought as Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden. It was her husband who gave her the nickname "Colonel Anne" at a time when he was captured by Jacobite forces and the Prince turned him over into the custody of his wife. She greeted him with the words, "Your servant, captain" to which he replied, "your servant, colonel".

Even after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie on 16 April 1746, Lady Anne Farquharson-Mackintosh continued to support the Jacobite cause for the rest of her life. She died on 2nd March 1787 at Leith (Scottish Gaelic: Lìte) and is buried in North Leith Graveyard. Her grave is marked by a white Jacobite rose and a commemorative plaque.