Margaret Ogilvy

Margaret Ogilvy, Lady Ogilvy (née Johnstone; 1725 – 1757) was a Scottish Jacobite noblewoman. She accompanied the Jacobite army to several battles in 1746. She was captured and imprisoned after the Battle of Culloden, but escaped from Edinburgh Castle into a brief exile in France before returning to Scotland with her family.

Early life and family She was born Margaret Johnstone, daughter of Sir James Johnstone, 3rd Baronet of Westerhall, and his wife, The Hon. Barbara Murray, whose brothers were involved in the Jacobite movement. Her many siblings included Barbara, James (later a lieutenant-colonel in the English army), William, George, and John.

By 1745 she had eloped with David Ogilvy, Lord Ogilvy, later the de jure 6th Earl of Airlie and Chief of Clan Ogilvy who led his clan during the '45.

Jacobite rising of 1745 A satirical print featuring Margaret Ogilvy (bottom left), holding a sword and wearing a military jackboot, at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In 1745, Margaret accompanied her husband at the front of his regiment during the Jacobite uprising. She was accused of inciting violence in Coupar Angus in October 1745, tearing down a poster of King George, while her husband stood with a drawn sword to intimidate a bailie into announcing that James VI and I was the true king. She also accompanied the reserve force at the Battle of Falkirk Muir.

After the Battle of Culloden in April 1746, Margaret was captured at Inverness and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. She escaped in November 1746. Nineteenth-century accounts claim that she did this by trading clothes with her washerwoman and with the help of her sister Barbara Johnston. Her husband had fled, via Norway and Sweden, to France, and Margaret joined him there.

Later life Margaret and David's first child, Margaret, was born in Boulogne, France, in 1748, at which point David was a lieutenant-general in the army of Louis XV. Their third child, Johanna, was born in 1755/6.

Lady Ogilvy died in 1757.