Wade arrived in Inverness on the 10th of August, 1723, and in virtue
of another Act passed the same year, he was empowered to proceed
to the Highlands and to summon the clans to deliver up their arms,
and to carry several other recommendations of his own into effect.
On his arrival he immediately proceeded to business, went to Brahan
Castle, and called on the Mackenzies to deliver up their weapons.
He took those presented to him on the word of Murchison, factor
on the estate and by the representation of Sir John Mackenzie Lord
Tarbat, Sir Kenneth Mackenzie of Cromarty, and Sir Colin Mackenzie
of Coul, at the head of a large deputation of the clan, he
compromised his more rigid instructions and accepted a selection
of worn-out and worthless arms, and at the same time promised that
if the clan exhibited a willing disposition to comply with the
orders of the Government he would use his influence in the next
Parliament to procure a remission for their chief and his followers;
and we find, that "through his means, and the action of other
minions of Court (Tarbat was then in power), Seaforth received a
simple pardon by letters patent in 1726, for himself and his clan,
whose submission was recognised in the sham form of delivering their
arms, a matter of the less consequence as few of that generation
were to have an opportunity of wielding them again in the same
cause.
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