Hugh MacDonald (vicar apostolic of the Highland District)

For the 19th-century Roman Catholic bishop, see Hugh MacDonald (bishop of Aberdeen).

The Right Reverend Hugh MacDonald
Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Appointed	12 February 1731
Term ended	12 March 1773
Predecessor	Alexander Grant
Successor	John MacDonald
Other post(s)	Titular Bishop of Diana
Orders
Ordination	18 September 1725 by James Gordon
Consecration	18 October 1731 by James Gordon
Personal details
Born	2 February 1699 Morar, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Died	12 March 1773 (aged 74) 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.

Life

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, 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.

Like many others, he disagreed with the Jacobite Rising of 1745 as inopportune; nevertheless, he became involved in the rising, reluctantly assigned several priests of his District to the Jacobite Army as military chaplains, and blessed the standard raised at Glenfinnan. After the disaster of Culloden, he remained in hiding on an island chapel and former seminary in Loch Morar, where he had for a while as companion Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat.

After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Royal Navy crews under the command of Captain John Fergussone of HMS Furnace and Captain Duff of HMS Terror portaged over nine miles of rough terrain. They were seeking to capture the Bishop and high-ranking local Jacobite Army veterans, who were correctly suspected of meeting together upon the former seminary and island chapel in Loch Morar on 8 June 1746. Although the Bishop and the Jacobite leaders managed to escape the island in the nick of time, the crew of HMS Furnace continued searching in caves surrounding the Loch and eventually succeeded in capturing Lord Lovat.

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."

The Bishop took refuge in the neighbouring woods until he found an opportunity of escaping to France by one of the ships that came in search of Prince Charles Edward Stuart.

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 his share in the '45, and, in the following year, he was tried and sentenced to perpetual banishment. 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.

He died in Glengarry, Lochaber, on 12 March 1773, aged 74.

Further reading

• John Watts (2004), Hugh MacDonald: Highlander, Jacobite, Bishop, John Donald Press.