Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cameron, Archibald
CAMERON, ARCHIBALD (1707–1753), Jacobite, was the fourth son of John Cameron, eighteenth of Lochiel, by his wife, Ishbel, daughter of Alexander Campbell of Lochnell, and the younger brother of Donald Cameron [q. v], who took a prominent part in the rising of 1745. He was born in 1707, and was originally intended for the bar, but preferred medicine to law, and, after completing his studies at Edinburgh and Paris, settled at Lochaber among his own people, devoting his whole attention to their general welfare, and exercising among them as much the functions of a philanthropist as a physician. In the rebellion of 1745 he was present with his clan, 'not from choice,' as he alleged, 'but from compulsion of kindred,' and chiefly in the character of physician, although apparently holding also the rank of captain. After the defeat of the highlanders at Culloden, 16 April 1746, Cameron took on active part in concealing Prince Charles, being always in constant communication with him, and sending information to him, when in the 'cage' at Benalder, of the arrival of two vessels at Loch-nanuagh to convey him and his friends to France. Escaping with the party, which included also his brother, Cameron obtained an appointment as physician and captain in Albany's regiment, to which his brother had been appointed colonel, and on his brother's death in 1748 he was transferred to a similar position in Lord Ogilvie's regiment. In 1749 he came over to England to receive money contributed by the Pretender's friends for the support of his adherents, and in 1753 he paid a visit to Scotland on a similar errand, when, word being sent to the garrison of Inversnaid of his arrival in the neighbourhood, he was on 12 March apprehended at Glenbucket, whence he was brought to Edinburgh Castle, and after a short confinement was sent up to London. On 17 May he was arraigned before the court of king's bench upon the act of attainder passed against him and others for being concerned in the rebellion of 1745, and not surrendering in due time, and was condemned to be hanged and quartered. Notwithstanding the frantic efforts of his widow to save him by petitioning the king and the more influential of the nobility, the sentence was carried out on 7 June, Cameron bearing himself with undaunted composure. The execution after hostilities had so long ceased, of a gentleman of so humane a disposition, who during the rebellion had exercised his skill as a physician among both friends and foes, is explained by the general suspicion prevailing among political circles that he was an emissary of King Frederick of Prussia, who, it was said, purposed to send over 15,000 men to aid a new Jacobite rising (Walpole George II, and Letters to Horace Mann). The execution of Cameron provoked, according to Boswell, a caustic invective against George II, from Dr. Johnson when on a visit to Richardson. By his wife Jean, daughter of Archibald Cameron of Dungallon, Cameron left two sons and a daughter.
[Life of Dr. Archibald Cameron, London, 1753; Scots Magazine, xv. (1753), 157, 200, 250-1, 278-280, 305, 657, 659; Gent. Mag. xxiii. (1753), 198, 246, 257-8; State Trials, xix. 734-46; Mackenzie's Hist. of the Camerons, 214, 222, 233, 239, 241-3, 251-3, 261-78; Carlyle's Frederick the Great, bk. xvi. ch. xiii.]