Flora Macdonald

Scottish heroine, born in South Uist, Western Isles, W Scotland, UK. After the rebellion of 1745, she conducted the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, disguised as ‘Betty Burke’, to safety in Skye. For this she was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but released in 1747. She married in 1750, and in 1774 emigrated to North Carolina, where her husband fought in the War of Independence. When he was captured, Flora returned to Scotland in 1779, and her husband rejoined her there in 1781.

Flora Macdonald (1722 – March 5, 1790), Jacobite heroine, was the daughter of Ranald Macdonald of Milton on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, 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, and was partly educated in Edinburgh. In June 1746, at the age of 24, she was living in the town of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides when Bonnie Prince Charlie took refuge there after the Battle of Culloden. The prince's companion, a Captain O'Neill, sought her assistance to help the prince escape capture. 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.

The commander of the militia in the island was also a Macdonald and probably a sympathizer of the Jacobite cause. The prince was hidden in a cave while Flora Macdonald found help for him in the neighbourhood, and he was finally able to escape. The talk of the boatmen brought suspicion on Flora Macdonald, and she was arrested and brought to London for aiding the prince's escape. Dr Johnson, who met her in 1773, describes her as "a woman of soft features, gentle manners and elegant presence."

In 1750, at the age of 28, she married Captain Alan Macdonald of Kingsburgh, and in 1773 together they emigrated to North Carolina.

In 1779 Flora returned home to Scotland in a merchant ship.

Flora Macdonald had a large family of sons, who mostly entered the army or navy, and two daughters.

Flora Macdonald was the inspiration for an Alexander McQueen fashion show held in March of 2005.