| Honorific Prefix: | The Right Reverend |
| Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District | |
| Church: | Roman Catholic Church |
| Appointed: | 12 February 1731 |
| Ended: | 12 March 1773 |
| Predecessor: | Alexander Grant |
| Successor: | John MacDonald |
| Other Post: | Titular Bishop of Diana |
| Ordination: | 18 September 1725 |
| Ordained By: | James Gordon |
| Consecration: | 18 October 1731 |
| Consecrated By: | James Gordon |
| Birth Date: | 2 February 1699 |
| Birth Place: | Morar, Inverness-shire, Scotland |
| Death Date: | 12 March 1773 (aged 74) |
| Death Place: | Glen Garry, Scotland |
Hugh MacDonald (2 February 1699 – 12 March 1773) was a Roman Catholic bishop who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District for the strictly illegal and underground Catholic Church in Scotland between 1731 and 1773.[1] [2]
Born in Morar, Inverness on 2 February 1699, he was the son of Alexander MacDonald, Clanranald Tacksman of Morar, and Mary MacDonald, the daughter of Ranald MacDonald of Kinlochmoidart. He was educated for the priesthood at the Seminary of Scalan in Glenlivet, and afterwards at Paris. After completing his studies, he was ordained a priest at Scalan by Bishop James Gordon on 18 September 1725. He was appointed the Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District and Titular Bishop of Diana by the Holy See on 12 February 1731. He was consecrated to the Episcopate on 18 October 1731. The principal consecrator was Bishop James Gordon, and the principal co-consecrator was Bishop John Wallace, assisted by Bishop Alexander Smith.
According to a later report by Bishop John Geddes, as an outlawed clergyman of an illegal and underground church denomination, it is understandable why Bishop Hugh MacDonald would have felt very hopeful about the House of Stuart government in exile's promises of Catholic Emancipation, freedom of religion, and civil rights to everyone outside the Established Churches of the realm. It is equally understandable why the Scottish Catholic laity, who, "were discouraged and much exposed to oppression", would similarly, "wish for an event that was likely to release them, and put them again into the possession of the privileges of free-born citizens."[3]
Even so, upon learning that Prince Charles Edward Stuart had arrived from France and landed at Loch nan Uamh on 25 July 1745, Bishop MacDonald asked his kinsman, MacDonald of Morar, how many French Royal Army troops and military advisers had arrived with the Prince and panicked when he was told merely the Seven Men of Moidart and almost no military supplies or money. As a result, Bishop MacDonald argued in vain against beginning the Jacobite Rising of 1745.[4] [5]
Nevertheless, the Bishop reluctantly assigned several priests of his District, including Alexander Cameron and Colin Campbell of Lochnell, to the Jacobite Army as military chaplains, and blessed the standard raised at Glenfinnan.
According to Bishop John Geddes, "Immediately after the Battle of Culloden, orders were issued for the demolishing all the Catholic chapels and for apprehending the priests."[6] Historian John Watts confirms that this policy was followed by government troops and that, "In doing so, they appear to have been acting on official orders."[7]
After Culloden, Bishop MacDonald's movements as a fugitive are difficult to precisely document and he said in later years only that he, "lurked the best way he could."[8] It is known that he was sometimes in hiding at the chapel, library, and former seminary upon Eilean Bàn in Loch Morar.
For this reason, Royal Navy crews under the command of Captain John Fergussone of and Captain Duff of portaged over nine miles of rough, uncharted, and previously thought impassable terrain. They were seeking to capture the Bishop and high-ranking Jacobite Army leader Lord Lovat, who were correctly suspected of meeting with each other upon Eilean Bàn on 8 June 1746. Although the Bishop and the others on the island saw the sailors coming from afar off and managed to escape the island and flee the loch-side in the nick of time, the crew of HMS Furnace continued searching in caves surrounding the Loch and eventually succeeded in capturing Lord Lovat.[9]
According to a later report by Bishop John Geddes, Lovat had gone to Eilean Bàn to make his Confession and be received back into the Catholic Church by Bishop MacDonald.[10]
According a report of the action for the Duke of Newcastle, upon the island, "They found the before-named Popish bishop's house and chapel; which the sailors quickly gutted and demolished, merrily adorning themselves with the spoils of the chapel. In the scramble, a great many books and papers were tossed about and destroyed."[11]
According to historian John Watts, some of the chapel and seminary foundation stones may still be seen upon Eilean Bàn today. He has termed the 8 June 1746 book burning and the destruction of most of Bishop MacDonald personal papers, "an irreplaceable loss both for the eighteenth-century Church and the scholar of today."[12]
The Bishop remained in hiding in the neighbouring countryside until, on the sixth rescue attempt ordered by the Comte de Maurepas, the French Minister of Marine, he, the prince, Donald Cameron of Lochiel, and Dr Archibald Cameron of Lochiel were all successfully evacuated from Loch nan Uamh to France on 19 September 1746.[13] [14]
While in France he obtained a pension under the name of Marolle. He returned to Scotland in 1749. In 1755 he was apprehended in Edinburgh for being a Catholic priest and for his share in the '45. His captor was rewarded by the Royal Treasury.[15]
He was tried at Edinburgh on 1 March 1756, "and in punishment for his refusal to purge himself of Popery, was sentenced to be banished from the kingdom, never to return under pain of death."[16] The sentence, however, was never enforced, and, though the Bishop was obliged to live outside his district, he contrived to visit his district occasionally to perform episcopal duties, such as the setting up of Buorblach Seminary.[1]
He died in Glengarry, Lochaber, on 12 March 1773, aged 74.[1] [2]
After moving from Inverie in Knoydart, to Morar, Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, a former Jacobite Army Captain, near relative of the Bishop, and one of the two most important figures in Scottish Gaelic literature, composed a poem in praise of both the place and of Bishop MacDonald, the priests, and students at the illegal Buorblach seminary.[17]