Hanging inside Perth Museum is a striking textile banner titled Damn Rebel Bitches. Created by Irish political textile artist Nikkita Morgan in collaboration with a group of stitchers, it tells the stories of women who supported the Jacobite cause between the late seventeenth and mid eighteenth centuries.
Their stories are rarely recorded in official histories. Yet these women carried messages, sheltered fugitives, organised supplies, and risked imprisonment or exile. The banner restores their presence to the historical record.
Women in the Shadows of Rebellion
The Jacobite Risings, from the 1680s to the 1740s, aimed to restore the exiled Stuart dynasty to the throne. While men fought on battlefields, women worked quietly behind the scenes.
They hid fugitives in their homes. Passed intelligence between supporters. They transported money, weapons, and supplies. Without these networks, the rebellion could not function.
Their contribution is essential. Sadly their names are rarely preserved in official accounts.
Flora MacDonald and the Most Famous Escape
One of the best known figures on the banner is Flora MacDonald. In 1746, after the defeat at Culloden, she helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape capture by disguising him as her maid and guiding him across the sea to Skye.
She is arrested soon afterwards and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Although later released, she lived the rest of her life marked by her role in the rebellion.
Her actions became one of the most famous acts of loyalty in Scottish history.
Lady Grange and a Life Stolen
Another powerful story is that of Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange. In 1732, after she threatened to expose her husband’s Jacobite sympathies, he ordered men to abduct her.
They took her to the remote island of St Kilda, where they held her in isolation for eight years. In 1740, they transferred her to Assynt, and later to Skye, where she died in 1745.
She never regained her freedom.
wee wild adventures
Her story is one of the most disturbing examples of political imprisonment in Scottish history.
Helen Murray and the White Rose
The banner also depicts Helen Murray of Ochtertyre, shown holding a white rose. The white rose was the symbol of Jacobite allegiance, representing loyalty to the Stuart cause.
Wearing or displaying the symbol could signal political support and personal risk.
Even small gestures carried meaning.
Why This Banner Matters
The banner’s title deliberately confronts the language once used to dismiss and insult women who supported the Jacobite cause. By reclaiming those words, the artwork gives dignity and recognition back to the women who shaped the rebellion.
Through embroidery and textile, the banner transforms fabric into historical testimony.
Each stitched panel represents courage, resistance, and survival.
Together, they restore voices that history left behind.