Jean Cameron of Glendessary, also known as Jenny, was born around 1705. This birth year is determined by the chronological sequence of the marriages of Sir Ewen Cameron, 17th Chief of Lochiel. Sir Ewen married Jean Barclay on 2 February 1685, and their daughter Christian was born as the fifth daughter of the household. Secular history places Christian as the second born of Jean, and therefore, based on her marriage to Allan Cameron of Glendessary, on 28 December 1699; and the works of Mrs Grants Letters, Christian was 12 years old.
It was from this marriage between Christian and Allan Cameron of Glendessary, that Jean was born, a lineage that made her a first cousin to the 19th Chief, Donald Cameron. The primary heir to the estate was their first-born son, John Cameron, who stood as the rightful successor to the Glendessary interests. However, the family web was further tightened by her step-brother, Alexander Cameron of Dungallon, who held a primary legal interest in the Sunart, Morven and Ardnamurchan lands. As a principal tacksman to Lochiel, Alexander was legally responsible for the management of the estate and the military levying of its tenants; however, following his service as a Major in the ’45 and his subsequent naming in the Act of Attainder, this legal standing became a liability. This shift into extreme legal peril necessitated a transformation in how the Dungallon interest was managed.
Initially, Jean of Glendessary looked after Alexander’s estate, providing a degree of stability as the family navigated the initial government crackdown. Yet, as the Crown moved to effectively strip Alexander of his rights, a more defiant strategy was adopted. According to a report by David Bruce (Ref: Ne C 2100), the Surveyor of Forfeited Estates, a pivotal shift occurred around 1747 when Dungallon appointed Donald Cameron as his factor—a man whom Bruce had explicitly labelled a “traitor” for his active involvement in the ‘45. This appointment was an audacious move, placing the family’s survival in the hands of a veteran Jacobite and signalling that, while their rights were stripped on paper, the Camerons intended to maintain their lands through the loyalty of their own people.
The Family Network
The marriages of Jean’s sisters further strengthened these strategic alliances. Isabella married MacLean of Coll, while Marjorie (or Margaret) wed Allan Cameron of Erracht. Christian was married to Allen Cameron of Glendesssary, and Katherine married Dr John MacDonald—a man known as a smuggler and the brother of MacDonald of Kinloch Moidart(he was also the grandson of John Cameron of Fassifern). Along with their brothers John (d. 1763) and Allan (alive in 1770), and their sister Mary, these siblings anchored Jean in a world defined by kinship and clandestine connections.
The Myth of the Prince’s Mistress
Following the events of 1745, Jean’s life took an unexpected turn as she became the subject of persistent rumours naming her the mistress of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Much of this speculation arose after she attended the raising of the Jacobite standard on 19 August 1745. While popular legend claimed she marched at the head of a regiment, Aeneas MacDonald—who later escaped to France with the Prince—sharply contradicted this account. According to MacDonald, Jean was approximately fifty years old at the time, described as a well-groomed, attractive woman with beautiful eyes and jet-black hair. He clarified that she did not join the army and appeared publicly with the Prince only during his court at Edinburgh.
The “Maryland Gazette” and the Global Rumour Mill
By the winter of 1745, Jean Cameron had become such a “hot topic” that sightings of her were being reported across the country. One such sighting, reprinted in The Maryland Gazette on 25 March 1746, was based on a letter from Preston dated 14 December 1745. It claimed that Jean was travelling in a “Coach and six” (a formal carriage drawn by six horses) alongside the Prince and a “Mr Sheridan” (Sir Thomas Sheridan, 1684–1746). According to this account, the Prince was “assiduously ministered to unto by Jenny Cameron”, a phrasing that suggests she was providing constant, devoted care or service. This specific detail highlights how contemporary observers—or those spreading rumours—viewed her presence not just as a follower, but as an essential member of the Prince’s immediate and elite inner circle.
I Am Resolved To Wear Men’s Clothing All My Life!
Jenny Cameron allegedly left the world with a resounding statement: “I am resolved to wear men’s clothing all my life!” This bold declaration, followed by a fabricated tale of Jean fighting alongside the men at Culloden, was reportedly uttered after she was “brought hither on Saturday Night from Durham Jail in Man’s clothes”.
Jean was ultimately stereotyped by these accounts. Consequently, in 1753—following the execution of her cousin, Dr Archibald Cameron—a memoir was released entitled ‘The Life of Doctor Archibald Cameron, Brother to Donald Cameron of Lochiel, Chief of that Clan.’ This work included a depiction of Dr Cameron alongside an image of “Miss Jenny” Cameron in military habit. This image is described in f. 177 of the National Archives as an anti-Jacobite satirical print, deliberately showing her dressed in male Highland clothing to mock the Jacobite cause.
Identity Theft
When researchers are not satisfied that Jean Cameron was responsible for the vow to wear men’s clothing, many conclude that there must have been “another” Jean Cameron. If you have reached this conclusion, you are partially correct. It wasn’t our Jean Cameron who was seen wearing men’s clothing or telling tales of fighting at Culloden—but it also wasn’t another woman named Jean Cameron. In this instance, it was a clear act of impersonation; a strategic assuming of Jean’s identity by a figure with entirely different motives.
Sarah Waugh - Imposter
On 9 July 1749, The Ipswich Journal reported an amusing story—the identity of the woman who was responsible for impersonating Jenny Cameron. It was under the heading “Country News, Newcastle, July 22”:
“This week the town has been amused by a Female imposter, brought hither on Saturday Night from Durham Jail in Man’s clothes, and next Monday committed to the House of Correction, who sometimes dubb’d herself with the Character of a ‘Squire’s daughter’ of considerable fortune, near Alnwick in Northumberland; at other times, a gentlemen near Carlisle. She pretended, and some credulous Persons were weak enough to believe her, that she was brought up at the best Needle and Pastry Schools in this Town, that she was married from a Boarding-School in York to Cap’n Drummond, of the Duke’s Perth’s Regiment in the Rebel army, who was killed in the Field of Culloden, where she also fought in Man’s Dress, and receiv’d several wound; and that she had two Children by that gentleman, which she left in France. To keep up with the Dignity of her character, she carried with her a Six-Penny Watch, which she paml’d on the Mob for a gold one, and drew Tears of compassion from some of the Sex, to see a Person of her Rank in a Correction House, lying on straw. But, on Enquiry, our heroine turns out no more than a Basket Wench, who used to carry Meat from the Butchers to Gentleman’s families, to carry Coals, clean Houses, or hawk Fruit through the Streets of this Town, in 1744 or 1745, the owner herself a Roman Catholic, appeared in a Sailor’s Jacket and Breaches, and said she had been a Sailor several Years. Many Persons in this Town remember her by the Name of Sarah Waugh; but she called herself by different Names, particularly at Durham by that of the name of Miss Jenny Cameron; and says she is resolved to wear Men’s Claotes all her life
The wounds under her Chin, on her Head and Face, she shew’d as Marks of her Valour at the Battle of Culloden; but the first she got Roweling when she was young, to extract some fantastic humour from her Brain, which began to appear very early, and that on her Face by a fall, as she confessed when first in this Town. On Monday she was examined by the Magistrates of this Corporation, who order’d her to be sent with a Vagrant’s Pass to Kirby-Gate, in the Parish of Alston in Cumberland, the place of her settlement. ‘Tis said she was lately in Bedlam in London”.
Sarah Waugh, of Kirby-Gate, Cumberland, was the individual who assumed the identity of Jean Cameron. A self-identified “vagrant” and former patient of London’s Bedlam Institution, Sarah bore visible scars on her chin, head, and face—not from the battlefield, but from a brutal childhood medical procedure known as “roweling”. In an 18th-century attempt to “cure” her mental illness by extracting “fantastic humours” from the brain, surgeons had drawn silk or leather through her skin to create a permanent discharge. Far from a Highland lady of status, Sarah’s true station was that of a “basket wench”, a labourer who survived by hauling coal, cleaning houses, and peddling meat and fruit through the streets.
The individual who assumed Jenny Cameron’s identity was a habitual imposter with an extensive repertoire of personas. Beyond posing as a “squire’s daughter”, a sailor, and an heiress, she claimed to have attended prestigious needle and pastry schools in Newcastle and a boarding school in York. Her most elaborate fabrication involved posing as the Duchess of Perth and marrying a “Captain Drummond”, whom she claimed to have followed to the field of Culloden. She further alleged to have abandoned two children in France while seeking refuge as a fugitive. Sarah Waugh’s performance was so convincing—and her own conviction that she was Jenny Cameron was so firm—that her exploits became a staple of the contemporary press.
When Sarah was transferred from Durham Jail to the House of Correction, she was dressed in men’s clothing—a scandalous act for a woman of that era. Her bizarre vow to “wear men’s clothes all her life” became the definitive quote attributed to the mythical “Jenny Cameron”. This fabrication was so enduring that even modern works, such as the 2010 biography A Brief Account of the Life and Family of Miss Jenny Cameron, continue to focus on these sensationalized tales of cross-dressing, duels, and illegitimate children.
As The Ipswich Journal noted, her listeners were “credulous”, their tears and gossip fuelling a media frenzy. This cycle of misinformation transformed a vagrant’s delusions into the historical “truth” of Jean Cameron’s life, cementing a false identity that has persisted for centuries.
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