1

A New King and His Supporters, August 1714–July 1715

On 1 August 1714, Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs, died without any surviving children. The English Parliament had already dealt with this issue, for, following the death of Anne’s last child, the Duke of Gloucester, in 1700, they had passed the Act of Settlement in 1701. This provided for the royal succession, but it ignored numerous candidates because of their Catholicism. The next in line was the Protestant George Lewis, Elector of Hanover and great grandson of James I of England. Therefore, on the same day that Anne died he was proclaimed King of Great Britain. There was little or no opposition.

It is usual in accounts of the first year of George I’s reign to focus on the numerous riots which took place throughout England, and there were many, possibly constituting the longest and most widespread political riots in British history. There has been debate as to whether these were primarily Jacobite in nature, or more broadly anti-Hanoverian, or whether they were an idiom for other concerns; economic, political and religious.1 The political calendar certainly provided for a number of dates which were liable to lead to public demonstrations and these days, especially in 1714 and 1715, resulted in a number of flashpoints. These were the King’s coronation on 20 October, his birthday on 28 May, the anniversary of the restoration of Charles II in 1660, on 29 May and the birthday of James Stuart on 10 June. The oft-cited demonstrations of popular protest are important, but what is usually overlooked, and is surely of equal importance, are the displays in public of support for the new monarch. Indeed, it was these which were often the foci of hostility from Jacobites and others.

It was in London that Englishmen first became aware that they had a new monarch. The heralds of Arms announced this ‘with the usual Solemnity’ at various points in the city: at St. James’ Palace, at Charing Cross, at Temple Bar, in Cheapside and at the Royal Exchange. According to the Rev. Peter Rae:

Great numbers of the Nobility and principal Gentry assisted at each Proclamation, and attended in their Coaches, during the whole Solemnity, as the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen did within the City. The Joy was as universally great as could possibly be expressed by a People, who were sensible how narrowly they had escaped from Popery and slavery… The Guns in the Tower and in St. James’ Park were fired, the Flags display’d, and in the Evening there were Bonfires, Illuminations and ringing of bells.2

Further evidence was given, which also shows a positive vehemence towards the new King’s enemies, on this occasion:

the streets been crowded with vast multitudes of people, who made joyfull Acclamations. No manner of Disturbance was given to this ceremony, nor was any Disorder committed in it; save only, that some of the Mobb hiss’d at and insulted the Lords Ox[for]d and Bo[lingbro]ke.3

Such hostility to the leaders of the current Tory administration was echoed in the words of Joseph Symson (1650–1731), a Kendal merchant, in the following months, when he wrote in a letter about the political changes he anticipated

If the clemency of our good King spare these moles and caterpillars, who during the last distracted reign were so hellishly busy and eager to undermine and devour our happy constitution, I hope our most merciful deliverer will take from them the power of exercising their mischievous faculties for the future or the faculties themselves.4

Four days later, there was a similar proclamation in the eastern part of commercial and industrial London; namely at Tower Hill, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Shadwell and Ratcliff Cross. The scene was similar:

The concourse of people on this solemn occasion was very great, all expressing their hearty joy and affection to his sacred Majesty with the loudest Acclamations… Bonfires and illuminations were made in the evening at the places aforesaid, with all imaginable demonstrations of joy and satisfaction.5

Even those whose loyalty might be suspect thought fit to celebrate, ‘Lord Bolingbroke on Sunday made a Bonfire and the finest illuminations in town at his house in Golden Square, but that might be out of Policy fearing the mob.’6

In the first few days of August 1714, George I was proclaimed King in cities and towns throughout the British Isles, ‘more universally than any of our sovereigns had been before him’.7 The Bishop of Carlisle, William Nicolson (1650–1728), accompanied Thomas Pattinson, the Sheriff of Cumberland, to proclaim the new King at Carlisle on 4 August.8 Furthermore, the city corporation spent money on festivities associated with the event; by supplying drink to the populace. This consisted of five gallons of ale and twenty-four barrels of wine. Candles and tar barrels were paid for in order that there might be a bonfire.9 Similarly, in Liverpool, the corporation greeted this news with orders for celebrations. There were cannons fired, church bells rang and there were bonfires in the streets. The corporation were clearly Whig because they also took the time to state their party’s belief that the current administration, made up of Tories, be punished for their recent activities.10

The like behaviour occurred elsewhere. At five o’clock on 3 August, Robert Love, the sheriff of Hampshire, and John Blake, the mayor, and the corporation of Winchester, decked out in their scarlet gowns, accompanied by representatives of Winchester College, cathedral clergy and other Hampshire clergy and gentry, gathered at the market cross. There George I was proclaimed King. They then proceeded to the Guildhall at the top of the High Street. There they toasted the new King and expressed the hope that he would arrive safely. Outside, ‘the evening was concluded with ringing of bells, bonfires, illuminations and all other demonstrations of joy’.11

The Lord Mayor of York, Sir William Readman, along with the aldermen and common councillors proclaimed the new King on 4 August.12 Two days later, in Richmond, Yorkshire, it was noted ‘This day we have proclaimed His Majesty King George with the greatest pomp an unanimity.’13 At Hull there was free drink for the crowds and a feast paid for at the town hall for the local elite.14

Leicester corporation, on 3 August, decided to build a bonfire and provide ale at the Gainsborow inn amid ‘demonstrations of joy’.15 At Dorchester, six bottles of wine were drunk by the corporation to celebrate the accession; they also bought candles to light the cupola, bought 50 faggots for a bonfire and provided half a hogshead of ale for the people to drink.16

Even in Oxford, a well-known bastion of support for the Stuarts, there was a public announcement of the new reign by the civic and university authorities at Carfax on 4 August, despite Richard Broadwater, the mayor, being warned against it. Indeed, the latter ‘expressed great abhorrence of it’ and issued a notice offering a reward of £100 for the miscreant’s arrest.17 Windows were lit up in Oxford that night. 18 Thomas Hearne (1678–1735), an Oxford Jacobite, reported in his diary of one James Tyrell, telling him that he thought the new King would maintain his throne and then extolled the right of Parliament to have selected him.19

The Oxford proclamation is detailed in the council minute book and reads as follows:

‘The Mayor acquaints the house that he has received a proclamation from several of the lords spiritual and temporal with others of her late Majesty’s Privy Council for proclaiming the high and mighty Prince George of Brunswick-Luneburg to be King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and that he intends to perform the same tomorrow and since ‘it will be convenient for the honour of that solemnity that a quantity of wine and bear be spent in the doeing of it. It is at this Councell agreed that such a Quantity of Clarett be spent by putting it into the Conduit and running in two pipes eastwards and Southwards and that such many Barrells of Beer be spent amongst the Freemen and that such other Entertainment for the Councell Chamber be provided as the Mayor and his Brethren shall think fitt’ and that the expenses be borne by the City.

‘For the Order and Solemnity it is agreed that it be on Horseback Mr Mayor and Mr Recorder with Foot Cloathes Mr Mayor and his Brethren in their scarlett gownes and Cloakes the Aldermen Thirteen and Bayliffes and such as have been Bayliffes that have scarlett gownes to ride in them and such other of the house that have horses to ride in their gownes.

To take horse at the Guildhall Mr Oliver Scandrett to ride first to make way then the petty Constables with their long staves then the head Constables with their staves then the Trumpeters then the Bayliffes serjeants with the Maces then the Bayliffes with their white staves Then the Townclerke and the Maceberer with the great mace then Mr Mayor Mr Recorder with the Senior Aldermen then the rest of the Thirteens by two and two and then the other members of the house in their seniority.

‘The order of proclaiming to be done in the places and manner following (viz.) the proclamacon herof to be made at Carfax on the Eastside of the Conduit thence to ride to St. Maries and their doe it againe thence to Eastgate and then back againe over Carfax and so to the Southgate staying at the Lanes and thence doe it againe thence proceed through Pennyfarthing Street to Westgate and thence up New Inn hall Lane to Northgate and doe it againe and soe over Carfax in decent Manner to the Guildhall to drink proper Congratulatory Healths upon His Majesties happy accession of the Throne of these Kingdoms and with harty and cheerful acclamations to Cry aloude

· God save King George

· This was performed accordingly’.20

It was not only the secular authorities who proclaimed the new King. Nathaniel Crewe (1633–1721), bishop of Durham, did likewise. He proclaimed the new monarch, with great pomp and ceremony, having the cathedral’s bells ring, amongst other public rejoicings. Later he assisted ‘as ye Rt hand supporter at His Majesties’ Coronation… The King gave orders yt whenever yt good man came to see him, he should be admitted immediately’.21 Church bells rang to celebrate the new King; at Werburgh in Derbyshire the ringers were paid 5s ‘at ye King’s landing’ and a further 3s ‘for ringing to proclaim King George’.22

These proclamations were occasionally the subject of controversy. At Newcastle, a group of Whigs, presumably without any advance notice or authorisation from the corporation, decided to light bonfires using tar barrels and to treat the populace with free drinks in order to celebrate George’s accession. This so maddened the mayor’s brother, one Johnson, that, probably accompanied by others, he tried to put out the fires, shouted the names of the city’s two Tory MPs (Sir William Blackett and William Wrightson) and threw firesticks at windows where celebrations were taking place.23

An insight into what the common people thought of the news of the new King, at least in York, was given by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762), in a letter to her husband. After the proclamation was read out on the evening of 4 August by the Lord Mayor accompanied by the archbishop and other secular and civic officials, there were ‘vast acclamations and the appearance of a general satisfaction, [an effigy of] the Pretender afterwards dragged about the streets and burnt, ringing of bells, bonfires and illuminations, the mob crying liberty and property and long live King George’.24 A national newspaper noted that ‘universal joy’ was apparent on this occasion.25 Several days later, she wrote ‘all Protestants here seem unanimous for the Hannover Succession’.26 A personal reflection came from Leeds antiquarian Ralph Thoresby (1658–1725), writing that on 2 August, when he was in London and ‘at the prayers at St. Dunstan’s, where King George was prayed for: the Lord make his reign long and prosperous to these nations’.27

Some contemporaries recorded that there was little to upset the peace of the kingdom in the weeks between the King’s accession and his Coronation. James Clegg (1679–1755), a Dissenting minister and doctor of Derbyshire, noted ‘I never knew the nation in a more dead calm than during the time of the Queen’s death and the King’s coming over’.28

Yet there was anxiety in some official quarters lest there be a Jacobite coup or an invasion before the new King could arrive. The Privy Council instructed Readman to take precautions and he readily complied by having York’s city gates locked at night and Catholics and other suspects were obliged to make oaths of allegiance.29 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu observed in August 1714 that in York there were fears that ‘attempts from Scotland’ might endanger the succession and that there was apparently a fleet sailing from Scotland.30 Readman wrote to the Secretary of State on 11 August to report what had been done by himself and his officials,

We immediately took all the precautions imaginable for the security of the peace by locking up the gates here and hindering all suspect persons from going out the next morning. We summoned all papists and suspected persons to appear in order to tender the oaths.31

In December, 65 Catholics were summoned to make loyal oaths; of these, 17 refused to do so. They were fined a total of £2 14s 6d.32

There was written support for the new King. Joseph Harris wrote a pamphlet mourning the loss of the Queen but also writing verses which were published in support of George I. Two lines read ‘Oh, all ye hosts of Angels now appear/And Guard his Royal Person safely here!’ 33 Another similar was by Susanna Centlivre, who stated that George I was the ‘Adopted Son’ of ‘the Glorious WILLIAM [III]’ the ‘great Deliverer’. She saluted his arrival ‘Hail! Hero born to rule, and reconcile/The fatal Discords of our English Isle’. He was also seen as a bulwark against Britain’s perceived enemies ‘No more shall France, no more shall Rome prevail’.34 William III (1650–1702), as Prince of Orange, had led the invasion force which resulted in the overthrow of James II and so was naturally seen by George I’s supporters as illustrious indeed.

Coincidentally, on the same day as George I was proclaimed, there arrived back in England the exiled Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722). Crowds cheered the military genius of the War of the Spanish Succession and shouted ‘Long live King George, long live the Duke of Marlborough’. It was also recorded that this was ‘a proper occasion for the people to shew their zeal and affection for King George’.35

Symson looked forward to the new King’s arrival, writing to a friend in London on 30 August,

I hope you will in a little time have the satisfaction to see our gracious sovereign arrive safely at his palace of St. James with the Princes his son and grandson to the unspeakable Joy and comfort of all his good subjects.36

The new King and his son arrived at Gravesend on 18 September, where members of the corporation welcomed him and presented him with a loyal address. The royal party arrived at Greenwich that evening, where a rather larger reception awaited them, headed by the Duke of Northumberland and the Lord Chancellor. Sir William Wentworth wrote ‘I have the satisfaction to tell you we have got our King and Prince safe and well at St. James’.37 As Rae then stated:

Thereafter His Majesty walked to his House in the Park, accompanied by most of the Nobility and great Numbers of the principal Gentry, through a vast Croud of People, who repeated their joyful Acclamations; and the night concluded with Bonfires, Illuminations and all other Demonstrations of public Joy.38

Another contemporary publication stated that he was ‘welcomed with the loud Acclamations of a vast multitude of people who had repair’d thither from London and all the neighbouring villages’.39 Many from the counties adjacent came to London to see the new King, one being Isabella Twisden of Walteringbury in Kent, who later wrote, ‘Cosen Style and Cosen Betty Dalison and myself taken to London, and Greenwich; to see ye King make his entry was our chief pretence’.40

Two days later, the royal pair arrived in London, through the City and onto the palace of St. James. Rae, again, describes the scene:

his Majesty’s Coach being preceded by more than two hundred of those of the Nobility and Gentry, all with six horses, the juniors marching first; and was met at St. Margaret’s Hill in Southwark, by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Recorders, Sheriffs, and Officers of the City, on Horseback, all in their Robes, who likewise, pass’d thro’ the City before His Majesty, in a most splendid Manner, everyone expressing unspeakable Joy and Satisfaction in His Majesty’s happy Accession to the throne of his Royal Ancestors. At his Majesty’s arrival at his royal palace, the Cannon in the Park were three times discharged, and the Evening concluded with Bonfires, Illuminations, and all other marks of the most universal public joy. And public rejoicings were made by his Majesty’s good subjects throughout his Dominions, as soon as they heard the joyful news of his safe Arrival.41

Thoresby was concerned about what might happen on the King’s arrival, noting the ‘great terror of all good men of whatever denomination, as expecting nothing but confusion’. However, when it actually happened, the reverse was the case: ‘the most blessed sight of a Protestant King and prince (whom I had full view of) attended with loud acclamations’. He added that the streets were full of people, ‘nobility splendidly attired’, livery companies with their banners, charity school children and ‘innumerable spectators; the balconies heavy with tapestry, and filled with ladies’. The whole was ‘most splendid and magnificent above expression’.42

On 13 October, Caroline, Princess of Wales, and her two daughters, Anne and Amelia, came into the capital of their new realm. They were also the focus of much rejoicing as ‘vast numbers of spectators attending them, with loud Acclamations of joy. The evening concluded with Illuminations, Bonfires and other Demonstrations of Joy, usual on Publick Occasions.’43

A week later, on 20 October, George I was crowned King at Westminster Abbey. Following this there were the usual bonfires, bells and candles lit in house windows ‘and other Marks of a general Joy and Satisfaction’. Elsewhere, the day was ‘observed, as a Day of solemn Rejoicing throughout his Dominions: Chearfulness appeared in the faces of all his good subjects’.44

There were indeed many celebrations of the coronation throughout England and paradoxically those we know most about were those which were disrupted. At Bristol a number of gentlemen held ‘a handsome Ball’ at the Customs House ‘with all Duty and Affection celebrating the Coronation’. They also caused bonfires to be erected in the street. Mr Whitting, the under-sheriff, had his house lit up to mark the day. Public celebrations were held in Chippenham, where ‘great preparations were made to honour the King upon his Coronation, with the greatest Joy’. Messrs Eagle and Earle ordered 20 hogsheads of ale, arranged for there to be bonfires, bell ringing and other events. JPs, gentlemen, freemen and other inhabitants with coronation favours in their hats proceeded through the town, huzzaing and toasting the new King, the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Church of England, and calling for the preservation of liberty and property ‘with the greatest chearfulness imaginable’.45

There was also bonfire building and loyal toasts among the gentlemen and tradesmen of Norwich and Reading. At the former, they came armed to the event. At Birmingham celebrations were held indoors. A number of them had dinner at the Castle Tavern to express their joy at the coronation. Elsewhere in the same town a gentleman entertained friends in his own house and hung a flag out of the window with the initials GR emblazoned on it.46

At Carlisle, the corporation spent £11 2s 6d on drink for the people. There were also bonfires and a firework display, as noted by the bishop who attended with his son and daughters.47

At Leicester the councillors met at the town hall at 10 a.m., then went to church to hear a sermon, returning to the town hall and then to the White Hart,

to an ordinary prepared for that purpose the corporation to allow a Bottle of wine between two of all such as shall have tickets that dine. And so much Ale as shall be then necessary. And so much Ale and wine at the Gainsborrow at night as Mr Mayor shall think fit with Bonfires and other demonstrations of Joy.48

Mrs Savage, wife of a Dissenting minister in Cheshire, wrote thus in her diary:

The Coronation of King George was observed throughout ye Nation with great solemnity. Bells and Bonfires, illuminations, &c. great reason to rejoice yt we have a Protestant on ye Throne who we trust will seek ye Welfare & peace of our English Israel. My earnest prayer for him is a wise & considerate heart & may his throne be established in righteousness.49

Church bells were rung to celebrate the King’s accession and his coronation. In Hampshire, Lymington’s church paid its ringers £2 7s 4d on George’s proclamation and a further £2 6s on his coronation day; generous sums indeed.50 St. Peter’s churchwardens were more close with their funds, paying their ringers three shillings to ring on both of these occasions.51

Dissenters in particular supported the new King, as shall be seen throughout this book. Clegg wrote ‘consulting with Mr Middleton, we caused King George to be proclaimed in our town’.52 William Stout (1660–1752) was a Quaker merchant of Lancaster and when he wrote his memoirs, he had this to say on the subject, referring to George I, ‘Upon his entering upon Councill, he declared that he would maintaine the toleration of Protestant Dissenters as by law settled; which gave great satisfaction to all well wishers of the nation’s true interest’.53 James Ibbetson of Leeds claimed that locally, the Dissenters were ‘all vigorous… of the right of King George’.54 Anne’s last (Tory) government had taken measures which were seen as being in favour of the Anglican Church of England and to the detriment of nonconformist Protestants, such as the need for all schoolmasters to take holy communion at an Anglican Church, thus making Dissenting schools illegal.

Religion had a key part to play in determining loyalties and actions. Symson certainly identified the King’s government and the Church as one, writing on 29 January about the forthcoming general election, ‘Our neighbouring elections we have grounds to hope will [be] better than formerly. It behoves all honest men to bestir them in whereon the Protestant religion and the welfare of Britain so much depends.’55

Traditionally, George I has not received a good press, but some contemporaries were impressed with him at this time. On 25 July Dudley Ryder (1691–1756), a young law student living near London, saw the Royal Family and was impressed, writing:

Saw the King very plain a great while. I could not help looking smiling and pleased when I looked at him. His countenance is so full of good humour that it naturally communicates that temper to them that behold. I am sure I showed a peculiar cheerfulness and joy in my countenance when I looked at him. Heard the princess talk a great while together. She talks English very prettily, is mighty familiar and good humoured.56

Henry Liddell, a London merchant, writing on 2 December in the previous, also wrote favourably of the new King,

I may venture to tell you that His Majesty who hitherto has bin passive will exert himself shortly. He is a man off few words but a nice observer off persons and off a very profound judgement, and I doubt not in time will make us a happy people.57

At Woolwich dockyard, Ryder and his friends saw a new warship being built. It was to have been called The Royal Anne but was being renamed The Royal George. He saw that ‘At the forecastle is a large figure of King George a horseback trampling upon the Turk’. On their way home via boat, they got into conversation with the waterman, and Ryder wrote ‘He seemed to be a Tory but seemed to be very much for the King’.58 George I as a young man had fought alongside the Imperial forces against the Ottoman Turks and so the ship figurines were an appropriate way of reminding onlookers of the new King’s martial virtues against the infidel.

Loyalty has also been expressed in another way, Since the King’s accession, now over two months ago, there had been a ‘vast Number of congratulatory Addresses that were presented to His Majesty on this Occasion… they deserved to be recorded because they discover the Pulse of the Nation at that Juncture’.59

Loyal addresses were sent from throughout Britain. That of Nottingham corporation was

to congratulate King George upon his happy Arrivall at his kingdom of Great Britain and to assure him of the corporation’s loyalty and affection for His Majesty’s Person and Government and that they will exert themselves in Defence of the same Against the Pretender and all opposers whatsoever.60

Another instance of support for the new King was from the pulpits and printing presses. In an age when churchgoing was almost universal and access to the printed word, either by reading it or having it read aloud in public, was common, these were other powerful means of communicating a message and having it reinforced. Sermons were given in church and some were published, thus multiplying their audience and preserving the message for posterity. How effective they were is another question which is impossible to answer, but the fact that many were published for sale indicates that many thought they were a viable commercial proposition for which there would be a high demand.

The Revd. Joseph Acres (1667–1746) of Blewberry in Berkshire preached a loyal sermon on 28 October in Whitechapel. He had his words published as Glad Tidings to Great Britain: A Thanksgiving Sermon… published for His Majesty’s Accession. Hearne inevitably criticised it as being ‘in commendation of Usurpers’.61

Undeterred by a Jacobite mob, Acres published two more similar sermons in the following year. These were The True Method of Propagating Religion and Loyalty and Great Britain’s Jubilee: or a Joyful Day. The first of these was preached at Blewberry on 20 January 1715. It gave thanks to God for the King’s peaceful accession and praised George I ‘We consider we have a King that is the Delight of Mankind, a Man after God’s own heart’. Acres stressed the new King’s virtues as being brave but prudent and, above all, a Protestant. He did not need to remind his audience that James Stuart was a Catholic, and he went on to attack the Catholics and Jacobites, with reference to ‘the merciless Temper of the papists’ and to the Protestant martyrs of Mary’s reign. As to the Jacobite rioters of 1714, of whom he had had first-hand experience, ‘Their behaviour is a disgrace’.62

On 1 August 1715, the anniversary of George’s accession, Acres preached another sermon to mark the day. As before, if not more so, he spent much of it on an attack on Catholicism, reminding his audience, not only of Mary’s bloody reign but also of that of a more recent Catholic monarch in Britain, James II, who had been planning ‘to destroy our Church’. He likened England to Israel, in having a mighty deliverer, ‘Who can remember, without a Heart full of Joy, the Extacy of Gladness that spread over the while of the Nation, upon filling the throne with the illustrious WILLIAM [III]?’ Acres beseeched God to ‘defeat all the secret counsels of the ungodly’ and upon him [George I] and his posterity, let the Crown for ever flourish’.63

There was rather belated bell ringing in Chester, as noted by Henry Prescott (1649–1719), the diocesan deputy registrar, on 20 January 1715, ‘The Bells very early awake the Town… A Thanksgiving is strictly kept for His Majesties’ Peaceable accession to the Crown.’64

The next public occasion for overt loyalism was 28 May 1715. By this time there had been a general election and there was now a Whig majority in the Commons. The political tide had further shifted from the Tories, leading Viscount Bolingbroke to flee to France and the way open for legal proceedings against Bolingbroke’s colleague, Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.

Printed material appeared in support of George I. One such was in order to defend him against Jacobite comments, the author stating that it was ‘the indisputable Duty of every true Englishman… to put a stop to these bold Proceedings’ and he aimed ‘to strip him of those hideous Forms, in which his Enemies have took so much Pains to Dress him’. He spent time stressing the new King’s virtues, stating that he was a ‘middle-siz’d well proportion’d Man, of a gentle Address, and a good Appearance, Temperate to the last Degree… good Judgement in Musick, plays well at chess… Nobody more pleasant at Table nor more free among his nearest servants.’ He was courageous in battle, yet a lover of peace, economical, hardworking, knew the British constitution and was in favour of toleration for Protestants and was anti-Catholic.65

There was also a manuscript poem about the new King, which included lines such as ‘That such a blessing comes/No less a blessing than the best of Kings’ and When Kings that make the publick good their care/Advance in dignity and state’. The chorus ran:

· Honoured with the best of Kings

· And a sett of loyalties springs

· From the Royal Fountain flowing’.66

The Whigs ‘in and about Oxford’ met at the King’s Head. They were nobles and gentry, come there to celebrate the new King’s birthday.67 At Warrington there were more public festivities. A bonfire was lit in the street and lit candles appeared at windows. The Dissenters among the Whigs also ‘inadvertently, made some Reflections upon the Church [of England’ and this led to open conflict in the streets.68 On this day there was, curiously enough, a Jacobite demonstration in Manchester, but it was suppressed by constables and others.69

In Sheffield, too, the Jacobite demonstrations were overcome by those inhabitants loyal to George I. ‘The honest people of the town, both Churchmen and Dissenters’ joined together and after a couple of days stamped out all local Jacobite sentiment.70 Possibly economic reasons were behind this resistance to the Jacobites, for as a contemporary newspaper observed, ‘Here is a flourishing trade and provisions cheap, and we hope will continue so if we are but quiet in the neighbouring places where disturbances have happened, they have suffered in their Business.’71 In Staffordshire, one William Abbs, a labourer of Dudley, was applauded for helping suppress the riots there (and given £10 16s for his trouble) and the sheriff of that county was likewise praised for his ‘zeal and diligence’.72

Regrettably Ryder did not keep his diary until June 1715, but Anglo-Irish George Berkeley, the philosopher, kept a running commentary on London and national affairs. He reported that on the King’s birthday there were ‘great illuminations’ in London, ‘but in the City there was not so much loyal spirit shown and the bells tolled faintly or not at all’, with the churchwardens pleading that the bell ropes could not be found.73

Churches had their bells rung for the King’s birthday on 28 May, payments to the bell ringers being recorded in the surviving churchwardens’ accounts. The bells of St. Andrew’s church in Penrith were rung, with four shillings being distributed among the ringers.74 Prescott noted that in Chester, ‘The King’s birthday remembered in the Bells, little els’.75 Six of the seven churches whose accounts survive for Oxford record bell ringing on this day, but Hearne was critical, ‘some bells were jambled in Oxford, by the care of some of the Whiggish fanatical crew’ and he added ‘it was little taken notice’.76 St. Botolph’s bells and those of Holy Trinity in Cambridge rang on this day.77 St. Peter’s church in St. Albans and those at Elstree and Bushey also rang on this day.78 All three of York’s churches – St. John’s, St. Martin’s cum Gregory’s and Holy Trinity Goodramgate – for which churchwardens’ accounts survive, rang their bells on this day.79

It is possible to attribute the activity of the York churches to the zeal that the archbishop, Sir William Dawes (1671–1724), had already shown towards the succession in the previous decade. In 1709 he had preached and then caused to be published, a fiercely anti-Catholic sermon given on 5 November of that year. This was titled, The Continued plots and the attempts of the Romanists against the established Church and government of England, ever since the reformation.80 On 4 May 1714 he had written a letter to Sophia Dorothea, George I’s mother, assuring her of the loyalty of himself and his clergy, writing that he

daily and most ardently pray to God, for the health, long life and prosperity of yourself and every branch of your illustrious family and particularly that He would guard and maintain your right of succeeding to the Crown of these Realms as now by law established… not onely myself, but the whole body of our clergy are faithfull and zealous.81

On 10 June the Jacobites held their displays in public. They did not always go unchallenged. In Warrington, their ringing of the church bells to celebrate James’ birthday was stopped by the Whigs.82

Chapels of Dissenters were a common target for popular hostility and many were destroyed. At Stand and at Plat in Lancashire, the chapels were threatened on 20 and 22 June respectively, but the congregations, presumably armed, guarded them and so deterred the crowds from attacking them.83 In Manchester, when a group of Dissenters were fired upon by, presumably a smaller group, they fought back, took their opponents’ weapons and thrashed them.84

Berkeley blamed these demonstrations of Jacobite support on the clergy,

It cannot be denyed that the clergy are wanting in their duty of preaching and recommending peace. On the contrary any of them in private conversation shew a factious dislike of the present administration, and some have the impudence to shew the same in their pulpits.85

Similarly John Percivall, a correspondent of Berkeley’s, wrote that ‘the behaviour of the inferior clergy during the last Ministry and even since the King came in has much contributed the present rebellion’.86

Berkeley’s thoughts on the situation fluctuated as he heard different pieces of news. On 1 July he wrote that ‘the spirit of party begins to cool among us, and in a little time there is hopes we may be a quiet and united people’.87 Yet 18 days later he wrote ‘But ’tis surprising how much the Jacobite spirit has been cultivated over the kingdom’ and that an increased army might be necessary’.88 The fall in the value of stocks might have a beneficial result as Berkeley surmised on 23 July that self-interest would damp down Jacobite support among the Tories, ‘a great many Tories will begin to consider when they see their religion and fortunes at stake’. He related how there was a diversity of opinion among those he came into contact with:

Some believe the preparations made by us will frighten the Pretender from attempting to invade, others are afraid, lest the generall ferment of the People, the villainous Jacobite spirit so very much spread over the nation will make it a case of difficulty and time.89

Yet five days later, he became more pessimistic on hearing news of ‘above 20,000 men of Birmingham and the Parts adjacent ready to take arms against the government’, and thought that this was especially worrying because ‘of the vast number of firearms, and all sort of weapons which make the great trade of that town, it is the opinion of most people that the nation is ready to break out into a flame.90

Jacobite riots were in no ways universal throughout England. As an observer wrote

it was not in the power of the enemies of the Government to raise any tumult there [at Preston], which must in good measure be attributed to the Reverend Mr Peploe, the parson of the Town, who…had the honesty and fortitude to declare on all proper occasions as well from the pulpit as in his conversation, that nothing humanly speaking could secure our Religion and our Laws but the Succession of the Crown as settled in the most illustrious House of Hanover and who since His Majesty’s accession of the Throne has shewn as eminent a zeal for his Royal person and Government.91

It is interesting to note that a church in Derbyshire rang its bells to mark the flight of two leading Tories, Bolingbroke and Ormonde, from England, both to join the Jacobite court, in the course of the year.92

The first year of the new reign had been relatively safe for the new King and his supporters. The riots had been many but brief and had not in themselves been a threat to the new order, however irritating they were to local Whigs and, more so, Dissenters. Nor had they been universal throughout the country. The threat from overseas, much feared, had failed to materialise. Yet this was all to change, as we shall see in the next chapter, and rather more was then expected of the King’s supporters than bells, bonfires and loyal toasts, addresses and sermons, important as all these were for a gauge of support at a verbal level.

Notes

1. Monod, Jacobitism, pp. 173–220; Nicholas Rogers, ‘Jacobitism and Popular Protest in Early Hanoverian England’, in Cruickshanks, ed., Ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism, 1689–1759 (Edinburgh: Donald, 1982); Oates, ‘Jacobitism and Popular Disturbances in Northern England, 1714–1719’, Northern History, XL:1, (2004).

2. Peter Rae, History of the Late Rebellion Raised against… King George by the Friends of the Popish Pretender (Dumfries, 1746), pp. 60–61.

3. Political State of Great Britain, VIII, (1714), p. 118.

4. S.D. Smith, ed., An Exact and Industrious Tradesman: The Letter Books of Joseph Symson, 1711–1719 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 279.

5. Political State, VIII, (1714), p,121.

6. James Cartwright, ed., The Wentworth Papers, 1705–1739 (London, 1883), pp. 408–409.

7. Rae, History, p. 64.

8. Bishop of Barrow in Furness, ed., ‘Diaries of Bishop Nicolson, V’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, (1905), p. 1.

9. Cumbria Archive Service: Carlisle, Ca4/4.

10. Post Boy 3004, 7–10 August 1714; William Page, ed., Victoria County History of Lancashire IV, (London: Constable and Co., 1911), p. 28.

11. Hampshire Record Office, W/B1/8, fo.141v.

12. Daily Courant, 3996, 13 August 1714.

13. Ibid., 3997, 16 August 1714.

14. John Tickell, History of Kingston upon Hull (Hull: T. Lee and Co., 1798), pp. 599–600.

15. G. Chinnery, ed., Records of the Borough of Leicester, 1689–1835 (Leicester, 1964), p. 71.

16. Charles Mayo, ed., Municipal Records of Dorchester (Exeter: W. Pollard, 1908), p. 646.

17. M.G. Hobson, ed., ‘Oxford Council Acts, 1701–1752’, Oxfordshire Historical Society, New Series, X, (1954), pp. 86–87; Bodleian Library, B. Gardiner, Appendix (1717), 1–2.

18. D.W. Rannie, ed., ‘Hearne’s Collections’, IV, OHS, 34, (1897), p. 389.

19. Rannie, ‘Hearne’s Collections’, IV, p. 389.

20. Hobson, ‘Council Acts’, pp. 86–87.

21. The Post Boy, 3004, 7–9 August 1714; A. Clark, ed., ‘Memoirs of Nathaniel, Lord Crewe’, Camden Society Miscellany, IX, (1898), p. 34.

22. Thomas Tudor, ‘Notes On An Old Churchwarden’s Account Book, 1595–1718’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, 40 (1918), p. 222.

23. Edward Hughes, ed., ‘Some Clavering Correspondence’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 34, (1956), p. 21.

24. R. Halsband, ed., Correspondence of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Vol. 1 (Oxford, 1965), p. 213.

25. Daily Courant 3996, 13 August 1714.

26. Halsband, Correspondence, p. 215.

27. Joseph Hunter, ed., Diary of Ralph Thoresby, II (London, 1830), p. 247.

28. Vanessa Doe, ed., ‘The Diaries of James Clegg of Chapel en le Firth, 1708–1755’, III, Derbyshire Record Society, V, (1981), p. 920.

29. The National Archives, State Papers Domestic, 35/1, f.19r.

30. Halsband, Correspondence, pp. 213–215.

31. TNA, SP35/1, f.19r.

32. York City Archives, F12a, p. viii.

33. Joseph Harris, Funeral Panderique ode sacred to… Queen Anne with a lecture congratulatory poem on our present illustrious King George and his Happy Accession, (1714), p. 8.

34. Susanna Centlivre, A Poem Humbly Presented to His Most Sacred Majesty KING GEORGE, (1715) pp. 5–8.

35. Political State, VIII, pp. 140–142.

36. Smith, Letter Books, p. 279.

37. Cartwright, Wentworth Papers, p. 419.

38. Rae, History, pp. 88–89.

39. Political State, VIII, p. 248.

40. Anon., ‘A Chapter of County Gossip’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 5 (1863), p. 94.

41. Rae, History, pp. 96–97.

42. Hunter, Diary, p. 260.

43. Rae, History, pp. 101–102.

44. Rae, History, pp. 102–103.

45. Political State, VIII, pp. 362–365.

46. Political State, VIII, pp. 366–368.

47. CAS, Carlisle, Ca4/4; Bishop of Barrow in Furness, ‘Nicholson’s Diaries’, V p. 2.

48. Chinnery, Records, p. 71.

49. Bodleian Library, MS Eng Misc. c331, 20.

50. HRO, 42M75/PW3, 182.

51. Ibid., 3M82W/PW3.

52. Doe, ‘Diary’, III, p. 920.

53. J. Marshall, ed., ‘Autobiography of William Stout of Lancaster, 1665–1752’, Chetham Society 3rd series, vol. 15, (1967), p. 172.

54. TNA, SP35/8, f.254r.

55. Smith, Letter Book, pp. 292–293.

56. W.E. Matthews, ed., Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715–1716 (London: Methuen, 1939) p. 62.

57. J.M. Ellis, ed., ‘Liddell–Cotesworth Letters’, Surtees Society, 187 (1985), p. 153.

58. Matthews, Diary, p. 64.

59. Rae, History, pp. 103–104.

60. W.H. Steveson, ed., Records of the Borough of Nottingham, 1702–1760, V (Nottingham: Thomas Forman and Sons, 1914), p. 62.

61. J. Buchannan Brown, ed., The Remains of Thomas Hearne, (London: Centaur Press, 1966), pp. 154–155.

62. Joseph Acres, Glad Tidings to Great Britain: A Sermon preached at Blewberry in Berkshire, (London: John Clark, 1715), pp. 19, 11–12, 20–21.

63. J. Acres, Great Britain’s Jubilee: Or a Joyful Day A Sermon preached at Blewberry in Berkshire, (London: J. Baker, 1715), pp. 11–12, 18–19, 20, 31, 32.

64. John Addy and Peter McNiven, eds., ‘The Diary of Henry Prescott, LLB, Deputy Registrar of Chester Diocese’ II, Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 132 (1994), pp. 424–425.

65. The Grand Exemplar Set Forth in an Impartial Character of His Sacred Majesty, KING GEORGE (London, 1715), pp. 1, 2, 4.

66. BL. Stowe Mss, 748, f.106.

67. Rae, History, p. 140.

68. Anon, History of All the Mobs and Insurrections in Great Britain (London, 1715), pp. 56–57.

69. Ibid, p. 57.

70. Flying Post, 3672, 16–19 July 1715.

71. Ibid.

72. TNA, SP44/147, Townshend, 30 November 1715; SP44/118, p. 27.

73. BL. Add. Mss., 47028, f.26r.

74. CAS, Carlisle, PR110/75.

75. Addy and McNiven, ‘Diary’, II, p. 444.

76. Rannie, ‘Remarks’, V, p. 61.

77. CRO, P22/5/4, p. 10; P26/5/3, p. 6.

78. Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, DP26/5/1, 21/5/2, 36/5/1.

79. Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, Y/J 18, Y/MG 20, Y/HTG13.

80. W. Dawes, The Continued plots (1709).

81. BL., Stowe Mss, 227, f.16r.

82. Flying Post, 3660, 18–21 June 1715.

83. Ibid, 3670, 12–14 July 1715.

84. Ibid, 3667, 5–7 July 1715.

85. BL. Add. Mss. 47028, f.27v.

86. Ibid, f.46v.

87. Ibid, f.33v.

88. Ibid, f.41r.

89. Ibid, f.45v.

90. Ibid, f.44r.

91. P. Purcell, ‘The Jacobite Rising of 1715 and the English Catholics’, English Historical Review, XLIV, (1929), p. 423.

92. Tudor, ‘Note’, p. 222.

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