7
On 5 December the Jacobite council at Derby made the crucial decision to end their march to London and to retreat to Scotland, citing the lack of support from England and France and the fact that their opponents outnumbered them. The immediate threat to the capital was now over, at least from this source. Yet another danger loomed. Across the English Channel a French invasion fleet was gathering as it had in early 1744. There was danger for those in southern England as well as for those in the north, where the Jacobite army would now pass through. We shall examine responses in the north of England first, as the Jacobite army made its retreat along the same route as it had marched southwards.
Information was sent to Cumberland of the Jacobite retreat almost at once. On 7 December Elizabeth Mason, postmistress of Lancaster, told that the Jacobites left Derby for Ashbourne on 6 December, en route to Leek and then perhaps to Wales.1 John Rushton of Macclesfield told a Staffordshire JP that the Jacobites were approaching Ashbourne, perhaps aiming for Leek.2
This was not immediately realised by all. William Cranston wrote on 10 December:
Yesterday brought us still better and today yet better, it being confidently reported that the horse, with the duke at their head, have so hemed in the rebells that he is able to keep em at bay till his foot can come up, which will oblige em to a battle the success of which does not seem to be doubted.
Cranston was unsure about the accuracy of this news, but the immediate emergency was over, as he noted that on 10 December George II thanked the lawyers who had promised to rise in arms for his service, that they could stand down.3
As in the previous month, the state at its higher echelons desired that the county forces could impede the movement of the Jacobite army. This was especially important for it was believed that the armies led by Wade, and especially by Cumberland, would then be able to make contact with the Jacobite army, bring it to battle and defeat it, thus crushing the rebellion once more. In this, perhaps, there was, as in the previous month, an optimistic view as to what the county forces could realistically achieve.
Tucker noted how the attitude of most people had altered with news of the Jacobite retreat, writing, on 14 December, that they now ‘speak slightingly of the men whom a week past as held upon as invincible’ and recalled ‘on this day sev’ nights this good Citty was in the utmost consternation from the apprehension of the arrival of this Highland army’.4 Hurd seemed optimistic that the retreating army would be intercepted, writing on 18 December,
I am unwilling to think that the rebels will have it in their power to make good their work of returning to you with Recruits from Scotland: tho’ whether they can be hinder’d getting back there seems very uncertain., what is manifest is, that our Young Hero [Cumberland] does his utmost to prevent it.5
Ridley had hoped ‘we were in great expectation of having a good account of the Duke coming up with the rebels’, but hoped on their retreat ‘I wish the army [of Marshal Wade] sent there in time to stop the progress of the rebels now in arms about Perth’.6 As soon as the Jacobite army left Derby, the gentlemen there went to each house in their parish to find out how many Jacobites had lodged there; they came up with a figure of 6,600.7
The Jacobite army marched back the same way that it had marched forward, through Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland. It did so rather more quickly than on the southward march in part because there was no need to delay at Carlisle as the place was in Jacobite hands. This meant that for responses to be effective they would need to be extremely prompt, but as the lords lieutenant for Lancashire and Cumberland and Westmorland were absentees, this was to prove less than easy. As Dr Bracken wrote,
I must likewise beg leave to inform your lordship that most of the Justices of the Peace as well as the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Lancashire quitted the same when the reappearing of the rebels (which was pretty much the case with this family).8
Cumberland wrote, with the following conservative demands, to the magistrates and inhabitants of Manchester on 11 December:
Having been informed on my arrival here with the King’s forces under my command that divers of the King’s rebellious subjects from Scotland & others who joined there are still lurking about the Town of Manchester. These are in His Majesty’s name strictly to command you, to cause to be secured immediately all persons who have been part of, or who have aided & abetted the Scots rebels, or who shall with armed force have broke the publick peace & tranquillity herein. You are in no office to fail as you will answer a contempt at your own great peril for you to do so, this shall be your sufficient authorisation.9
Some of the magistracy in Lancashire were able to assist the army. Liverpool corporation were proactive, writing to Cumberland to ask if they could help, with horses and provisions, ‘for the more speedy march of the Army’.10 Indeed it was and 11 carts loaded with biscuits were despatched on 12 December.11 The army deemed that this act demonstrated ‘a very considerable zeal on this occasion’.12 Later, Lancaster corporation supplied the army with 77 bags of bread.13 Westmorland JPs provided the army with 12 horse-loads of bread, cheese and ale.14
More ambitiously, Cumberland wrote on the next day, whilst still at Macclesfield:
To the Lord Lieut, in case of his absence, Deputy Lieuts of the county of Lancaster,
My Lord Lieutenant of the County of Lancaster,
The Rebels being now retreating in so great haste through the County of Lancaster, that it will be difficult for His Majesty’s Troops to overtake them, unless they can be stopp’d on their march, I must recommend it to you as a matter greatly importing His Majesty’s service that all means should be used for that end by breaking the roads, or felling trees across them, spoiling fords or if necessary breaking down Bridges or if the Posse Comitatus could be raised & the people be incouraged to attack & harass them in passes or places of advantage, it would be most effectual & must give time to the King’s forces who are pursuing with all the expedition possible to come up with them wch by God’s help might be the means of their total destruction. This is a service of so great concern to His Majesty & the Nation that I cannot doubt of your zeal & readyness to engage in the performance of it, of which I shall not be wanting to make a faithful memorial to His Majesty, & for my own part, I shall always remain obliged to you for what furtherance you may give it.
I am
To be directed to the Rt. Honble the Earl of Derby, Lord Lieut of Lancaster here, or in his absence the Deputy Lieuts of that County.
A like Letter to be directed to the Rt. Honble the Lord Viscount Lonsdale, Ld Lieut of the County of Westmorland & Appleby.15
Lonsdale certainly acted promptly on its receipt. On 13 December he addressed his deputy lieutenants and county JPs, informing them of Cumberland’s proximity to the fleeing Jacobite army and urged them
to Use Your utmost Endeavours to give all possible Assistance to His Royal Highness’ Army, Whether it is by obstructing the Passage of the Rebels over the River Eamont, if this be Found Practicable & of Service, or by any other Means that your own Discretion suggests to You. But I must in a particular manner recommend the taking Effectual Care that His Royal Highnesses Army be as well supplied as Possible with Provisions, Forrage & Whatever else they may have Occasion for.16
Certainly, the lack of county leadership was blamed by some for a lack of perceived effective action. Fawkener wrote on 16 December, that though there were ‘in this county [Lancashire] a number of fine bodys of men in a very good spirit’, he also noted the lack of any concerted effort to hold up the Jacobites’ march. In his opinion, the reason was clear: ‘I imagine there is a want of spirit, or understanding, or good intentions among the gentry’. This, he believed, was a result of Derby’s ‘irreconcilable Quitting of this County’.17 Despite his letter above, Lonsdale later wrote ‘I have very little expectation from their feeble attempts’.18
The belief in the loyalty of the country people was shared by Colonel Yorke, who, six days earlier, had written, ‘The country people are enrag’d against ‘em to such a degree that if the country gentlemen had had the least grain of spirit to have headed ‘em, they would never have come so far.’19 Likewise, on 15 December, he wrote
If the good wishes of the poor Country people and their prayers will avail anything, we have a good chance of succeeding, for never were the people more hearty on any cause as they are in ours, and I don’t doubt will be of infinite service to us in our expedition, for they have recently have had some smart skirmishes with the rebels on their return.20
The Jacobite retreat caused concern for some on its potential route. Malton wrote to Fitzwilliam on 7 December: ‘I hope they’ll return the way they came’.21 Clegg wrote on 7 December, ‘a rumour prevailed that the Rebels were just coming on us which occasioned great confusion but they were only advancing towards Macclesfield’. Three days later, he wrote with great relief, ‘Blessed be God the silk mill is safe’.22
Assuming that this is a reference to anti-Jacobite action in Lancashire, there is some evidence for such. At Leek, stragglers were attacked by local men and apparently 30 were killed and 100 captured for the loss of 10 Leek men killed. This was because the main body of the army had previously robbed and plundered in the town.23 At Stockport, Jacobites were fired upon during the nighttime and the result of such musketry was that some were killed.24 In southern Lancashire, just before Manchester was reached, a woman and child found a young Jacobite soldier, asleep. They slit his throat.25 Jacobite quartermaster Colonel John William O’Sullivan (c.1700–c.1760) later recorded being fired upon when in Wigan.26 Jacobites were clearly contemptuous of such activity, with James Maxwell writing about a Jacobite gentleman’s servant ‘that had gone aside was barbarously murdered nigh Stockport by some of the militia, who had ventured out of their lurking holes’.27 Lancashire Jacobite John Daniel, describes the killing by the woman and child of a Jacobite straggler as ‘a barbarous deed perpetrated… which shewed the innate cruelty of our enemies’ by ‘this cruel fiend’. Daniel put this incident and another due to Jacobite leniency, ‘many exercised their malice merely on account of the known goodness and clemency of the Prince, which however, they would not have dared to do, if he had permitted a little more severity in punishing them’.28 Dr Bracken later claimed that he had been instrumental in ‘maiming and wounding some of the rebels’.29
Jacobite stragglers, feared for their potential propensity to loot, were resisted. One Mr Eccles and his neighbours ‘determining not to be plundered any more by stragglers, armed themselves and stood upon their guard’. One Mr Dickinson approached their property at night and was arrested by the ‘very angry’ Eccles and friends.30 Similar activity took place in Leighton, ‘ye country people thereabouts had armed themselves as best they could and had obliged ye dog to sheer off’.31 At Prescot, 100 townsmen armed themselves with scythes, pitchforks, guns and rusty swords and rounded up 40 Jacobite stragglers; they were described as being lame and almost dead’, so presumably put up little or no resistance.32
There were many other examples of small numbers of Jacobites being attacked. Between Ashbourne and Derby a farmer and his servant took up two Jacobites and sent them to Cumberland. Watchmen shot at a Jacobite patrol at night at Stockport and hid one of their horses. When this group of our Jacobites arrived at Manchester
one of them, suppos’d to be Thomas Siddal the Barber [a Manchester Jacobite], narrowly escap’d being seized at the Upper End of Market Street Lane. He was forced to go down the Street, and through Acker’s Gates and in the Square he quit his mare.33
According to Ray, anti-Jacobite action was in part due to the behaviour of the retreating Jacobites ‘which provok’d the Country People to do them all the Mischief they could’.34 There was certainly fear at the Jacobite retreat as Mrs Holland of Mobberley wrote ‘all the country alarmed again with great fear of them… gave us great disturbance in the neighbourhood’.35 Another example of such was when a rumour started in Salop that the Jacobite army might march there, ‘which occasion’d such an universal pannick, that almost Everybody pack’d up their Best Effects and sent them aboard vessels on the Severn… in short the Town was in the greatest Confusion’.36
There had been a plan at Manchester to rally the country people to attack the Jacobites on 8 and 9 December. The Kay family of Bury gathered about 500 people for this purpose from Rossendale alone and they were joined by, allegedly, thousands more. Dr Edward Mainwaring and Justice Bradshaw were the leaders of the group. They were armed with scythes and hedge stakes and, according to a newspaper report, numbered as many as 11,000.37 Jessop recorded ‘We hear that… they are arming in Stoppard and Manchester and are resolved not to receive them’.38 Another account states that they were told to bring pick axes in order to spoil the roads and seemed ‘very hearty to have a brush’.39 This was by order of Dr Mainwaring and Justice Bradshaw, who had sent the bellman round to alert the townsmen,
This is to give notice to all the inhabitants of this town that they are desired to rise and arm themselves with guns, swords, pickaxes, shovels, or any other weapons they can get, and go stop all ends of the town to prevent the rebels from coming in for two hours, and the King’s forces will be up with them.
Beppy Byrom, daughter of Dr John Byrom (1692–1763) of Manchester, observed additionally, ‘I met the Dr. on horseback in the midst of the mob encouraging them and promising them to send all the country in as he went (for he ran his way as soon as he had done).’40 Maxwell claimed that the reason for this activity was that they had heard that the Jacobite army had been defeated.41
However, as Kay wrote, ‘’tis thought proper not to oppose the Rebells; They and Thousands were dismiss’d. Lord, Bring Good out of these Troublesome Times.’42 Beppy Byrom observed that Robert Booth and Mr Walley sent the bellman to quell the mob, with the message, ‘Whereas a tumultuous mob has been raised, &c., this is to desire that all the country folks will go to their own homes, and that everybody will lay down their arms and be quiet’. Most did.43
However, one Captain Hilton, along with 400–500 men, went from Manchester to Cheadle and apparently forced a party of Jacobites there to retreat to Stockport.44 Beppy Byrom claimed that his work was rather less effective. According to that account, that Dr Mainwaring ordered Hilton to demolish the bridge, but they returned to Manchester ‘from their fruitless expedition’.45
Although this show of resistance was short-lived it clearly drew the ire of some Jacobites, as Kay later recorded his family being sent a letter on the subject:
Notice is hereby given that his Rumpish Highness the second Pretender and Prince of the Presbyterian Territories has given an order for the raising a new Regiment of Rossendale Plundered under the Emphatical Denomination of Oliverian Murderers. And that such as are willing to join ate to repair to the Colonel’s Quarters at the Sign of the Bloody Surgeon… the Ensigns Inn at the Sign of the Three Marshall Handkerchiefs, where for their advance they shall receive full Power to kill and Plunder all Loyall Subjects to the true born King, and for their further Encouragement when they come to join their respective Regiment, now lying squandered and confounded in the bewilder’d Forrest of Rossendale, they shall receive no pay, nor Cloathing but every Man a rusty Sword, an old Stick, and a long Pike and roasting spits, and all Things fitting to compleat a Gentleman Plunderer and an Oliverian Murderer, out of whose hands, God save the true born King.46
The reception given to the Jacobite army on its arrival in Manchester was far from enthusiastic. Quartermasters for the army, arriving on 8 December before it did, were chased away. Maxwell wrote next day of this situation: ‘There had been a good deal of mobbing and confusion in Manchester the day before. The Hanoverian mob, reinforced by great numbers of country people in arms had been very outrageous to the Prince’s friends.’47
When the Jacobite army arrived in the town on 9 December, as Maxwell wrote they ‘seemed determined to dispute his passage, but upon the first appearance of the Prince’s vanguard, the mob was dispersed’.48 When the advance guard of about 40 horsemen arrived, it led to ‘several stones [being] thrown at them by the mob as they came through hanging Ditch’. The cavalry drew their pistols so as to fire, but otherwise waited for the main body to arrive.49
This did not mean that the townspeople did not then passively resist. Ray wrote that
they were not received as they had been before, nor have I heard that the new made officers had the Compliments paid to them as usual on such Occasions, but in the Contrary, the Town’s People, or at least the Mob, gave them some pretty visible marks of Dislike.50
Those with valuables hid them.51 On the Jacobite army’s retreat, clods of earth were thrown at them and they were even fired upon; on being threatened, however, they fled.52
With the Jacobites gone, loyalists could be more aggressive without fear of reprisals. On Dr Mainwaring’s return to the town, Beppy Byrom claims ‘he looks mighty gruff’ and preached ‘a most furious sermon against Popery’ and ‘abuses them [the Highlanders] most strongly’. The windows of houses of known Jacobite sympathisers, such as Dr Deacon, whose sons had enlisted in the Jacobite Manchester regiment in the previous month, were broken.53 The constables sent an express to Cumberland, informing him of the Jacobite retreat. They also paid watchmen to prevent anyone sending news to the Jacobite army.54 Bells were rung on 11 December for Cumberland’s arrival.
Once the British army arrived in Manchester, on 12 December, bonfires were lit, church bells rang and the town’s windows were lit up to welcome them.55 Loyalists, such as Dr Mainwaring, were eager to meet Cumberland. The local newspaper mocked the retreating Jacobites, castigating Charles as ‘very faint and sick’ and his followers as ‘The wild rebels… looked like hunted hares and would rather hear the name of the devil than the duke’.56
Cumberland certainly encouraged the country people to do what they could against the Jacobite army. On hearing, on 10 December, that they were in Manchester, he told Newcastle
The first thing I did last night was to send an order by Express to the Inhabitants and Magistrates of Manchester to enjoin them to seize all stragglers of the Rebel Army or such as had abetted them, and to keep them in safe custody.57
Responses to the arrival of the British army were positive. As Kay noted in his diary, after a visit to Manchester to see them, ‘It gives Abundance of joy to good people of all true Protestants to see such a number of Fine forces; and question not but hearing of them hath given abundance of Terror to the proudest of our Enemies.’58 In the following days he used a number of military references in his prayers, as noted in his diary. On 11 December he wrote, ‘Lord, fight our Battles for us’ and on the next day he recorded ‘Lord, let our Forces go forth conquering and to conquer’. When he wrote, on 20 December, ‘Lord, Preserve us in our way, and keep us out of the hands of wicked and unreasonable Men’ it is clear to whom he referred.59
Kay was not alone in such sentiments. At Macclesfield, the troops were provided with quarters, provisions and straw ‘with great chearfulness and readiness’.60 Farmers dug up the barrels of beer they had hidden from the Jacobites and treated the men.61 Warrington notables accompanied the army as far as Wigan.62 Church bells rang out. At St. John’s church in Macclesfield, they rang ‘three days when the Duke of Cumberland was here’.63 At Stockport, the churchwardens’ accounts read, paying £1 ‘To the Ringers ringing two days and a half when the King’s Troops went through the Town in pursuit of the Rebels on their Retreat from Derby’.64 At Standish, the church bells rang ‘when the Duke of Cumberland marched past with the army’.65 Colonel Yorke wrote on 11 December, ‘If I had a shilling for every blessing I get in these counties, I should have a very good estate’.66 Soldiers were welcomed by the landlord at the White Lion inn at Knutsford. He referred to them as pillars of state and wished that when they returned they should revisit him.67
Cumberland wrote on 11 December at Macclesfield, ‘I have the pleasure of finding the greatest zeal and affection express’d on the arrival of the King’s Troops here’.68 At Manchester, his reception was none the less, as a contemporary historian wrote,
he entered the Town, upon the 12th, amidst repeated Acclamations of a People who poured out their Blessings upon him; the Town was illuminated, the Bells were set a Ringing, Bonfires were prepared, and in short every other Demonstration of Joy was observed.69
Cumberland himself won plaudits. Thomas Shepherd of Kendal, whose house Cumberland stayed in, was very effusive, writing that the Duke’s glorious appearance
left a lasting impression of Joy and Gratitude on the minds of the inhabitants. He made us happy and we know ourselves to be under his courage and conduct; he drove away the rebels at the very crisis… He dissipated our fears, animated our Hopes, filled every Heart with Joy and every house with festivity… May the God of Battles give safety to His Royal Highness’ person, success to his cause.70
After the skirmish at Clifton he stayed with Thomas Savage, a Quaker who later wrote that his royal guest was ‘pleasant agreeable company he was – a man of parts – very friendly and no pride in him’.71
Although there was relief about the Jacobite retreat and the ensuing pursuit there was also some concern. James Jurin wrote on 10 December to Robert Smith: ‘I find now, that ye further and further the rebels run from our Billy, ye more my head clears up’. Yet 11 days later, having had more news about that pursuit, he wrote
People are in great expectation from your Princely Pupil [Smith had once been Cumberland’s tutor]… I think it is a great pity his person should be exposed in hunting Yahoos, especially as he can have few foot with him & without them he can hardly do any great service.72
In the immediate aftermath of the Jacobite departure some Lancashire magistrates acted against Jacobite sympathisers. Hoghton questioned a Charles Douglas and had one Morgan, who had been seen wearing a Jacobite white cockade, arrested. A newspaper claimed that between 30 and 40 men had been arrested for similar behaviour.73 Such actions were appreciated in London, with Hoghton being told ‘the King… is extremely sensible of this instance, and of the many other proofs you have given on occasion for the present rebellion, of your constant care and attention to His Majesty’s service’.74 In Yorkshire, Dr Burton was sent southwards to prison in London where he could be further questioned and, if necessary, put on trial for treason.
Other assistance that had been rendered to the army as that the Quakers of London had provided hundreds of flannel waistcoats to keep them warm in Scotland and these they received at Coventry. James Ray wrote ‘I have not met with any of them, during the late Rebellion, but that were zealous Friends to the Government’.75 Lord Chetwynd contacted all the JPs in Staffordshire for them to gather horses, up to 2,000, to mount Cumberland’s infantry for a faster pursuit of the Jacobite army.76 Sir Lister Holte (1720–1770) of Aston Hall, an MP for Birmingham, provided 250 horses from his own stables and parks to help mount Cumberland’s men for the pursuit; others from Birmingham did likewise. Apparently
For which service His Royal Highness was pleased to signify his great satisfaction; as also for the ready Assistance given by the Town of Newcastle among others; and, indeed, there was scarce a man in the whole County who did not exert himself on this occasion.77
Although the Jacobite army marched north through Lancashire, there was activity in the eastern side of the Pennines, in Yorkshire, as they did so. Given that the Jacobite route could not be known for certain, there were fears that the return march might lead them through Yorkshire. On 10 December, Jessop wrote
We hear that they were bringing their horses into the Country again for fear of the Rebels and that they begin to be uneasy on Holmfirth again for fear of a visit from some party of the Rebels… they are in greater consternation in Holmfirth than they were on Saturday 30th of last month.78
It was not just in the borders that such fears were felt. An express from Bradford reached York announcing that the vanguard of the Jacobite army was at Rochdale, only 40 miles away. York was their alleged destination. William Aislabie (1700–1781), one of the MPs for Ripon, fled York. He was not alone; as John Graves wrote, ‘nothing was seen on our streets but familys hurrying out of town, tho’ hardly any if ym knew where to go for safety’. Graves was not afraid for he thought that the alleged proximity of the regular army was their best defence. The alarm turned out to be a false one.79 John Boynton was less confident, writing on 7 December, ‘we are yet in expectation of a visit from ym here, tho’ only on the way home’. He hoped to hear news of the Jacobite defeat at Cumberland’s hands and had little confidence in Wade’s forces being effective: ‘they can possibly get by Wade again, wch they have found no difficulty’.80
A parish constable and another man arrested a suspect at Newmill who arrived there with some horses, but they were able to give a good account of themselves and were released the following day. Another suspect was taken up over a week later and was sent to the house of correction at Wakefield.81
In Yorkshire there were a number of occasions when the volunteer forces had tasks. The men from the Leeds and York volunteers, for instance, took part in searches of Catholic properties in York on 7 December. The corporation refused to use their own forces, so Malton gave the others a warrant to do so. Guards were placed on houses during these searches. In all 26 horses were confiscated and transferred to the army.82 They were not universally approved, even by loyalists, such as Herring who wrote, ‘Tho’ I applaud the measure, I am extremely mortified at ye manner of putting it in execution – it looks like an insult on the magistracy and such a cruel representation of them to the world.’83 However, one William Bowes strongly approved of this action and blamed the corporation for not having done so previously, ‘this inactivity of our Magistracy has brought infinite disregard on our city’.84 It is possible that Malton, a strong Whig, was antagonistic towards the Tory corporation with whom he had been at odds at the General elections of 1734 and 1741 and took this opportunity to humiliate and cast aspersions on them prior to a forthcoming election. That there was meant to be truce in party politics as had been expressed in September was proving to be of very temporary duration. There were certainly concerns about the loyalty of the corporation and its officers, such as Thomas Place, ‘if the papists and some of the magistrates continue to go on in a like manner… it will not be safe for the King’s Friends… to walk the streets’.85
On 29 December Mr Scot’s house at Woodsome was searched by the association troops on suspicion he was harbouring Jacobites there.86 Men from the east riding volunteers were posted on the east coast at the month’s end after a rumour that Scots soldiers in the Dutch auxiliary forces were deserting and sought passage across the sea home. Men were placed on the coastline between Hull and Bridlington, in order to watch ferries. Alarm posts were placed there to be manned by constables. Parish constables assisted with the creation of beacons on the coastline, but there is no evidence of further activity.87 Constables erected beacons on the north riding coastline, too.88 The north riding volunteers were used to guard Jacobite prisoners as they were sent to York Castle, the county gaol, on 26 December.89
The concern about Jacobite incursions into Yorkshire continued in December as they had in November. One Yorkshireman thought that small towns might be in danger from bands of Jacobites and so ‘a company or two of the Blues might now be of service here… it may not be amiss immediately to address Lord Malton to this purpose’.90 Vigilance on the part of the watchmen in Skipton was not amiss as the young Lord Higham, Malton’s son, wrote on 19 December, ‘I was stopt by the watchmen’.91
The west riding volunteers were not fully uniformed until late December and, at this time, finally received the cockades to put into their hats. Winn told Robert Buck, the contractor, that they no longer required these items. Buck replied on 19 December, ‘surely it will be a matter of great triumph even to put cockades in their hats’.92
A rather more important upset was when Captain Thomas Duncombe of the associated companies decided to unilaterally disband his company on the grounds that he was afraid that they would be ordered to march beyond the county boundaries and this he would not do because he had sworn to the men that they would not do so. D’Arcy was concerned that this might lead to the like behaviour on the part of other officers and wrote to Malton for advice.93 The men were unhappy about Duncombe’s unilateral action, which ‘had the contrary effect and raised in them great indignation’.94
Further afield were Northumberland and Durham. Association volunteers had been formed in previous months in both counties, but these had run into difficulties and so by December it was felt that these should be disbanded and the county militia summoned into being in their stead. In Durham, Christopher Johnson issued a circular to the county’s gentry to have them advance a fortnight’s pay to the militia.95 He also hoped that those who had served as officers in the Volunteer Horse would also serve likewise in the militia and accept officers’ commissions. Bowes refused and wrote that the take-up was far from universal: ‘few of any figure have accepted them which is no small mortification to the noble militia colonel’.96 Bowes believed that his own efforts had been slighted, though the bishop urged him to accept the secondary command of lieutenant colonel: ‘this station wch needs the help at this juncture of every able hand’. But Bowes refused to serve under Johnson, attesting that this was not due to any disloyalty to the Crown but because Johnson had previously snubbed him.97 As in the case with the searches at York the fragile façade of unity against a common enemy was breaking up.
The Northumberland militia was to be summoned following a meeting at the end of December by the deputy lieutenants. Yet there was little urgency and it is not certain that this ever happened, let alone the militia being raised.98 In any case there was now no further need as the Jacobite army was in retreat to Scotland and so the immediate danger was over.
Even the Yorkshire Association was perhaps nearing its end. On 13 December, Malton had suggested that the force be disbanded and efforts made to encourage the men to enlist in the regular army.99 This was controversial and his fellow lords lieutenant did not agree; ‘they seem to be in danger if arguing quarrelling about it amongst themselves’, Hardwicke observed.100 The lieutenants met on 30 December but Malton could not persuade Irwin nor D’Arcy of the merits of his plan.101 It is possible that Malton was looking to the future and believed that with the local danger over, what was needed was to strengthen the regular army which was to pursue and defeat the Jacobite army and that if he could further this in any way it would be beneficial both for himself and the country.
It is possible that Malton was influenced in his thinking by what had happened in Derbyshire. Having reached Retford as the last stage of their flight from Derby, and being unable to link up with Wade’s army, they returned to Derby to find that the Jacobite army had taken all the subscription money gathered there to pay the men. Without funds, the men, with the exception of the Duke’s own company, were disbanded forthwith.102
There was also a popular demonstration of anti-Catholicism in Stokesley, in the north riding of Yorkshire, that was clearly conceived as a display of loyalism as much as an act of wanton vandalism and destruction. It is worth reporting in full because it gives an insight into the mindset of both the common people when acting on their own initiative and the justices of the peace responsible for law and order in the counties.
Last Tuesday [2 December] a Number of Stokesley Boys pulled some tiles off Mr Pearson’s Mass-House, the Damage of which might amount to 11s. The Papists could not see their Place of Worship thus insulted, without resenting it, therefore got a warrant from Mr Skottowe against one of the Boys (a sailor) who had been the most active in the Affair. The Constable apprehended the Boy the next Day, upon which his Associates were called together to the Number of near 200, and being joined by some young Fellows, march’d in order (with drum bearing and colours flying) to Mr Skottowe’s, and declared to him, that they all acknowledged themselves equally guilty with the Boy charged with the Fact. Mr Skottowe could not forebear laughing at them; however, after giving them a gentle Reprimand, he dismissed them, recommending it to the Papists to put up with the damage. Upon this the Boys went to Ayton, beating up for Volunteers for His Majesty’s Service, and enlisted about 30 or 40 Boys; then march’d to Stokesley Cross, fix’d their Colours upon it, and made large Coal fires about it, the Spectators all wondering what were their Intentions to act next. When they had completed the Fires, they marched in a full Body to the Mass House, got upon it, stripp’d off all the Tiles, and beat down the ceiling; from thence they let themselves down into the Chapel, pull’d it all to pieces, and toss’d the Things out of the Windows into the Yard, where they had placed a Guard to secure them. When they had got every Thing out, not even sparing the floor and wainscot, they march’d with their Booty to the Market Cross, and set the Things around the Fires; then one of them put on a fine vestment and Cap, with a Mitre in his hand, and mounted the Cross, called them all around him, and made there a Speech, in conclusion of which he told them, that in consideration of the great Service they had done to their King and Country, in destroying the Mass House that day, he presum’d, from the great Authority he was then invested with, to absolve them from all their past sins, but exhorted them for the future to lead a peaceable and godly life; upon which they gave a great huzza, God save King George, and down with the Mass; then he put off his Robes and threw them into the Fire; at the same Time each Hand was employed in burning the Rest of the Things laid ready for the Flames; after which they dispersed, and went to their Respective Homes.103
There had been no equivalent attack on a Catholic chapel in 1715–1716, though there had been plenty of similar attacks by Jacobites on Dissenting chapels in 1715. Anti-Catholic sermons and anti-Catholic sentiments in the press together with the Jacobite invasion of England could well have encouraged such an action. Initially, the damage done to the chapel (and it should be recalled that Catholic worship was illegal, though in more peaceful times was clearly tolerated by both the public and magistrates) was limited. The lone magistrate did not seriously admonish the rioters, even had he wanted to, he was hardly in a position to do otherwise. This emboldened them to carry on their work. The crowd was strongly loyalist in their drumming up volunteers for military or naval service as well as the cheers which ‘God save King George’ was greeted. Given that at least one young man was a sailor, who may have seen active service against the French and Spanish, he would have been at the sharp end of the conflict. This was the first but not the last of a number of similar outbreaks of popular anti-Catholicism in the north of England, as we shall see in the next chapter.
Miss Savile in London commented on this incident in Yorkshire a few days later and her views give a useful contemporary insight from a propertied loyalist. She wrote that ‘The Mob in several Places began to be angry at Mass Houses’ and then gave a paraphrased account of the above newspaper report as cited above. She prefaced this with her lack of sympathy that there were any Catholic chapels at all, ‘O Shamefull that there should be any allow’d, but there are a great many almost in every place’. The complaint made by the Catholics to Skottowe was viewed by her as ‘such impudent authority the Papists have got’. Skottowe was referred, presumably ironically as ‘The stout Justice’ and his inactivity due to ‘there were too many for him to deal with’. Her view on the subsequent actions of the crowd were equivocal: ‘I won’t justify them, but I can’t much condemn them at this time; at least I think it should be answered what law a mass House was ever there?’ With the benefit of hindsight (she was writing this on 25 January 1746) she added ‘These Heroick Boys were the beginners of a great deal of the same kind since’.104
There were other instances of popular hostility against the Jacobites. Walpole told Mann on 9 December, ‘the greatest demonstration of loyalty appeared on the prisoners, being brought to town from the Soleil prize’, a ship from France taken by the Royal Navy carrying reinforcements to the Jacobite cause. The principal prisoner was the exiled Earl of Derwentwater, Charles Radcliffe, who had fought in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 but who had escaped and had now been captured. Walpole further wrote,
the mob, persuaded of his being the youngest Pretender, could scarcely be restrained from tearing him to pieces, all the way on the road, and at his arrival. He had heard of English mobs, but could not conceive they were so dreadful.105
The Jacobite army did not march through Yorkshire, but after leaving Manchester on 10 December the main body of it was at Preston and was at Lancaster on 15 December and Kendal on the next day. Responses against the Jacobites as they marched thorough Cumberland and Westmorland were more pronounced.
There was a skirmish at Kendal when, on 14 December, the Jacobite advance guard of about 80–100 cavalry under Perth arrived, at about 10 a.m. A contemporary historian wrote:
the Country People being there at a Market, mobbed their Rear, and as they were turning toward the Bridge of the Town, one of the Rebels was killed by a Musket fired out of a window; whereupon the Town’s People closed in and took two more prisoners. But some shot being fired by the Rebels, which killed a shoe maker and an Ostler, the People dispers’d.106
When the main body of the Jacobite army arrived at Kendal two days later they ‘breathed nothing but Revenge’ and the magistrates had to pacify them with ‘a great Sum’.107
There was another skirmish shortly after that at Kendal. The county gentry, urged on by Cumberland, acted against the retreating Jacobites. Perth’s advance guard was now to the north of Kendal, being at Shap. The following letter from the justices of the peace at Appleby, gives an account of what happened when the country people took action against them:
several people of Cumberland and this county [Westmorland] came to a Resolution to attack them & accordingly marched towards them & fired at them on a place called Langwathby Moor, whereupon the Rebels made a precipitate retreat by roads towards Orton & the country people pursued them with all imaginable speed above fourteen miles and made frequent fires at them, which were sometimes return’d by the rebels, but night coming on prevented them from further pursuit. The Cumberland people made one of the rebels prisoner [Fitzgerald, a Jacobite hussar] and took horses (two of which were the Duke of Perth’s coach horses) a portmanteau and some arms.
On the next day the Jacobite party was at Appleby when ‘The Townsmen immediately got such arms as they could procure, & placed themselves at the bridge resolving to dispute the pass with them, but they crossed the River Eden about two miles below’. On 16 December, with the Jacobites now at Orton, six miles away, ‘We with the townsmen of Appleby & some others mounted our horses & got to Orton before daylight intending to attack them, when we receiv’d accounts that the rebels were gone to Borough bridge’.108
Apparently a beacon was lit at Penrith when the Jacobite army was on its way there. Fitzgerald was taken before three JPs, who decided to send him to Newcastle.109
There was much misinformation as is common during times of fast-moving crisis. Tufton Sackville, seventh earl of Thanet and sheriff of Westmorland, was told that the Jacobite army had been routed and:
Upon which report the sheriff sent warrants to raise the country to take up those that had escaped the brave Duke, which was done, most people shewing great willingness in obeying the Warrants, we all met at Cockermouth and divided into two parties, and one marched to Keswick with the High Sheriff and the other to Ireby with the Under Sheriff, but another Express arrived, brought advice that the main Body of the Rebels were come into Penrith, we were all dismissed, so we all returned home.110
There was another instance of a false alarm leading to loyalist action. When the Jacobite army was in Lancaster a report was spread northwards of their defeat. According to Ray, this resulted in ‘great Rejoicing in that Country, and many candles and Tar-Barrels were burnt at Whitehaven on that Occasion, with some Gunpowder’.111
Such hostility was in part due to the differing behaviour of the Jacobite army in their retreat and rumours concerning such. This was to an extent a chicken and egg situation, as English Jacobite John Daniel recorded,
The Army irritated by the frequent instances of the enemy’s malice began to behave with less forbearance. And now few they were, who would go on foot when they could ride; and mighty taking, stealing, and pressing of horses there was amongst us, for none of us were never sure of keeping his own.112
Such activity lost nothing in rumour and Jessop’s diary records many incidents of alleged Jacobite misbehaviour, ‘They say that the rebels are vastly more cruel and inhuman since they left Preston and Manchester’.113 One contemporary history notes that on leaving Derby ‘Before they left Ashburn, they shot two men, one of whom died on the spot. They took all the horses they could lay their hands on and plundered and did great damage.’114
Evidence of this come from a number of Jacobite soldiers. Daniel wrote:
The Enemy… to endeavour to raise the Inhabitants of the towns through which we had to pass against us, by spreading false reports that the Prince’s Army had been defeated… This report was believed… and every man thought himself capable of knocking out a Rebel’s brains with a club or staff. Then you might see heroic behaviour displayed among cocks that never crowed but among hens upon their own dunghill.115
Likewise, James Johnstone (1719-c.1800), another Jacobite officer, wrote, ‘They were deficient neither in hatred towards us, nor in the wish to injure us, but they wanted courage and resolution to oppose themselves to the swords of the Highlanders’. He added, ‘Our stragglers seldom failed to be attacked by the English peasants, who were all implacable Enemies of the Prince’.116 Elcho agreed: ‘They were quite prepared if the army had been beat to have knock’d on the head all that would have Escaped from the Battle.’117
Lord George Murray (1694–1760), premier Jacobite general, recorded how carefully he instructed the battalion commanders to have an officer ensure that all of their men were kept with the army to avoid straggling and he stated that this was to stop the men ‘committing abuses’.118 But there may have been another reason, as implied by Elcho,
Whenever any of the men stragled or stay’d behind, they either murder’d them or sent them to the Duke, and all the way from Carlisle, to Derby all the men that were left sick upon the road were either killed or after very much abused sent to jails off the great road.119
Jacobite soldiers did not doubt the enmity of the civilian population towards them but they were contemptuous of their ability to do real harm. Sir John MacDonald noted, ‘We only saw some of their Militia on horseback on the hill tops watching our march and being very careful to keep out of shot, even by a single soldier’.120 A similar instance was recorded by Murray:
I now observed small platoons of horse appearing on eminences at some distance behind me… There was, indeed, a body of two or three hindered light horse, being, I believe, mostly Cumberland people, that drew up in my way, thinking to obstruct our march: but so soon as the Glengarry men threw their plaids, and ran forward to attack them, they made off at the top gallop and gave me no more trouble.121
Jacobite memoir writers refer to a skirmish between their army and, allegedly, the Yorkshire Hunters, near Lancaster. The fight was with the Jacobite cavalry and the latter won, taking a number of prisoners.122 However, as O’Sullivan refers to these forces as ‘cload in green with leathern Caps’ this does not match the known uniform of the Hunters, as has been noted in a previous chapter. They were probably the Georgia Rangers who were also part of Wade’s force.123
One reason for this lack of actual aggression was noted in a contemporary history,
These, and indeed the whole militia, were very eager in the service of the government, and willing to fight the rebels, but their leaders being men of experience, considering that they could not be defeated without loss of some useful lives they were referred to a more able avenger.124
The counties were also able to assist the army with useful supplies. Initially, Cumberland was supplied with about 1,000 horses on which to mount volunteers from his infantry to join his cavalry in pursuing the Jacobite army. Some were provided by the gentlemen of Staffordshire.125
There was some breaking up of the road in Westmorland, from Kendal to Penrith, as O’Sullivan noted,
we met with a great deal of these difficulties, for the road… was so broak yt no carriage cou’d passe… So yt the Prince… when he parted the next day, was obliged to take the mountain road, where he had all the peines in the world to passe his cannon.126
In Cumberland, the posse was raised on two occasions during the Jacobite retreat and ‘several straggling parties of ‘em were taken up’. Joshua Lucock, the county sheriff, also had messengers despatched to the Duke of Cumberland with information about the Jacobite progress in the county and their disposal of Jacobite prisoners. There was also collaboration between Daniel Willis, the sheriff of Lancashire (who also raised the posse in his county), and this counterpart in this county, sending messengers to inform the constables of Jacobite activity and in co-ordination of disposal of Jacobite prisoners.127
Assistance was given to transporting the British army’s baggage. William Nicholson and John Hodgson, constables of Newton near Penrith, were summoned by the High Constable to bring ten horses to transport army baggage 21 miles. The township of Botcherby near Carlisle supplied two horses to move army baggage to Hawick in Scotland. John Lamonby, constable of Brisco also near Carlisle, summoned seven horses to ‘convey the Baggage belonging to the King’s Forces from the Castle of Carlisle to Hawick’. The parish of Greystoke supplied 30 men with 30 horses and 30 carts for the army to use to convey baggage from Penrith to Carlisle. It was not only transport that was provided for the army. Robert Montgomery, Chief Constable of Leathward, arranged with the petty constables to supply ‘Hay, straw, Oats and other Provisions for ye Accommodation of His Royal Highnesses ye Duke’s Army’.128
Another practical method was an association formed by gentlemen in Newcastle at the end of the month to form a subscription to help the wives and children of the soldiers of Wade’s army who fell sick and this ‘meets with great encouragement’.129
Meanwhile in London, loyalists looked forward to good news from the north of England, with Samuel Burt writing on 17 December, ‘wee hourly in expectation of having a good account of the rebels from the Duke of Cumberland’. On the same day Cranston wrote: ‘We have had no news in town from either the duke or the rebels which puzzles us much.’130
Although the skirmish at Clifton on 18 December was between the advance guard of the British army and the Jacobite rearguard, some of the county forces were involved in the aftermath. Next morning the country people found about 20–30 Jacobites, some wounded, and took them prisoner. They were then taken by the Westmorland militia to York.131 Thomas Savage, a resident of Clifton, who provided intelligence of the Jacobites’ positions prior to the fighting, housed Cumberland with him that night and allowed 100 of his horses to be used by the army.132
Lonsdale had not thought that the pursuit would have been so effective. On 23 December he wrote, ‘I thought it impossible they could have been overtaken before they had reached Carlisle’ because of the ‘little interruption that was given by the breaking up the roads’. He put the former down to Cumberland,
nobody could have done it but His Royal Highness himself. His extraordinary and uncommon expedition can’t fail of laying a lasting obligation upon all those who wish for the Prosperity and Happiness of this Kingdom, but it must be more sensibly felt by those who immediately receive the Benefit of it, as we do who have a particular concern in the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland.133
On 19 December, the Jacobite army was at Carlisle and controversially decided to leave a garrison of about 400 men in the castle and town, to hold up their pursuers. Cumberland’s forces ceased their pursuit of the main Jacobite army and began to besiege the city and castle, but it initially lacked artillery of any kind in order to breach the walls prior to a possible assault.
The forces which surrounded Carlisle were principally made up from units of the British army but there was also assistance from the civilian population. Firstly there was the crucial role played by the Whitehaven corporation. Cumberland lacked artillery because the need for speed precluded their travelling with his cavalrymen and infantry mounted on horseback. Prior to 16 December they had written to him making an offer of heavy guns and Fawkener replied, thanking them for ‘the very kind offer of furnishing ten pieces of battering cannon’ and stating that ‘all may be held in readiness’ together with straw, horses and cartage for transportation.134
The magistrates had six eighteen-pounder cannon and four twelve-pounders and these were used to batter the walls of the castle. This was quite an undertaking because of the number of horses needed to pull these heavy guns. According to an eye witness, 16 or 18 horses pulled each gun. Some of the horses were provided by Sir James Lowther, though others assisted, too, with horses, including the bishop of Carlisle.135
The Comptroller of the Custom House at Whitehaven had also been involved in this; attending Cumberland outside Carlisle. He wrote that on 25 December
since last Saturday at Noon [21 December] we have been busy in forwarding Cannon, powder, Ball, etc., to the Army before Carlisle, and have now received Orders to send all ye large cannon and what powder and ball that can be met with or found in the Town.136
There was other assistance rendered. Jerome Tullie and Montague Farrer, JPs, authorised Thomas Robson, the constable of Grinsdale, to provide three horses, a carriage and three men to ‘Carry the artillery, used by the Duke of Cumberland in retaking of Carlisle, from thence to Allonby, being sixteen miles’. They also had 23 horses and carts to carry stones from Sandsfield to Carlisle castle. Thomas Liddell, constable of Blackwall, had Thomas Railton to provide corn and hay for the horses in the army. Nineteen Cockermouth residents transported, by horses and carts, cannon and ball to Carlisle. Richard Richmond, High Constable of Allerdale ‘suffered great Hardship and underwent great Fatigue in providing and summoning horses to assist in bringing the Cannon from Whitehaven to Carlisle and in providing horses’.137 On 27 December, after sending more cannon balls to the army, the Whitehaven gentlemen wrote ‘We pray God to give a speedy and happy end to this affair’.138
There was also assistance rendered by the country people during the siege, when ‘upon his first appearance they flocked in with provisions, tools and other necessaries, yea, and contributed with their own hands to advance the works against the town’.139 Apparently 10,000 came along, some armed with clubs and staves, but most were dismissed except those who were to cut fascines for the batteries.140 Over 50 men from the parish of Dalston spent five days working on the batteries and 34 men from Wetheral went to Stanwick to dig trenches there.141 William Nixon ‘was Imployed to Lead and Carry Material, Cannon Ball & several other Implements for His majesty’s Forces when they were besieging the Rebels in Carlisle.142 However, he did not need the county’s posse, so on 22 December ordered that they return home, after thanking them for their services.143
Secondly there were the men of the Liverpool Blues, who marched northwards to ultimately take part in the siege. On 11 December they received orders from Cumberland to march to Latchford bridge to defend the pass at Warrington bridge. Taking two small cannon with them they left Chester at noon on that day. They stayed in quarters near the bridge until 15 December and then were ordered north, marching to Wigan, Preston and Lancaster, receiving additional ammunition at Preston. Apparently near Warrington they rounded up 16 stragglers from the Jacobite army who were allotted to various prisons. On 21 December, after being at Lancaster for a few days they were to march further northwards, first to Penrith and then to Stanwick Bank on the 24th, in order to prevent any of the Jacobite garrison slipping away by that route. They reached there on Christmas day.144
The Liverpool Blues were to have four companies on watch and the remaining four quartered in nearby villages and then to relieve each other in turn. Shairp recorded
That night orders were given by the Genl for neither officer nor soldier to go to bed but always to be in readiness to turn out at a moments warning which orders were continued all the time we lay in that place & were strictly observed by our Regiment.
On one occasion there was a concern that the garrison were to attempt a sally, so, as Shairp wrote ‘We stood under arms about an hour & fir’d a few shots off to let them know we were in readiness to exercise them.’145
The Jacobite garrison surrendered on 30 December after the heavy guns had begun to bombard the walls. There was relief that there was no need to storm the castle, as Shairp wrote,
Had not the town surrendered when it did this would have been a turn of much harder duty that itt was being a very easy one having nothing now to fear… But thank God that it happened as it did else a good many lives would have been lost in the attempt.146
On 29 December, Walter Blackett (1707–1777) and Nicholas Fenwick (c.1693–1752), the MPs for Newcastle, arrived at Carlisle to pay their compliments to Cumberland and to invite him to Newcastle. At the other side of the north of England, there was concern in December that a party of Jacobites might pay a visit to Newcastle. One Captain Ashbone and 150 volunteers, on 17 December, therefore assembled and offered to guard the pass at Newburn.147 The Jacobites, however, did not trouble them.
Loyalists had mixed feelings about how the campaign in England ended. Kay wrote on 22 December, ‘We hear our Army have surrounded the City of Carlisle, but ’tis feared most of the Rebells are march’d forward to Scotland’ and wrote after its fall on 31 December he noted ‘not many Rebells are in it’.148 Similarly, Jessop wrote, ‘It is not doubted but they… will go directly into Scotland, there being no sufficient force to stop them. It is feared there will be hard work to suppress them now. Duke William hath been disappointed in pursuing them.’ At least he could admit ‘we are delivered from our fears here’.149 An anonymous correspondent, writing on 27 December from Preston, was also confident about the military prospects of the campaign, writing ‘It is not doubted but those which have made their Escape from Carlisle will meet with their Desert as the Duke has sent a Detachment after them & have Forces North of them.’150
Carlisle’s citizens were apparently pleased with the surrender of the Jacobite garrison there, even if this was only the relief at the town not having to be attacked:
the Duke entered Carlisle on horseback, amidst the blessings of the citizens, and the acclamations of the country people… They were enamoured to see the city restored to her King, to herself and to them, whilst their fascination was crowned with seeing such things as were forcibly or otherwise taken away exposed to view, that all might receive their own on proving their property.151
There was disappointment that the Jacobite army had not been brought to battle and beaten. Hardwicke expressed such on 12 December: ‘we are as full of fears that they will get back to Scotland unchastised, and join that growing army of rebels in the north’. He told his son, Joseph, who was on Cumberland’s staff,
The view which prevails here is that your pursuit of the rebel army is in vain. That even your advanced party of horse, dragoons and mounted foot, can never come up with them. Some people have also had their fears what might be the consequence if you should get too near them, out of reach of being supported by your infantry.152
Apart from the immediate challenge in the north of England, there was a need for loyalists to act in the south-east of England, too. Cranston wrote on 7 December,
We are in a good deal of consternation in town, more from an assurance of a large embarkation from Dunkirk, than from the rebells… But the apprehension of a landing in Suffolk, Norfolk or Lincolnshire and of the rebells getting thither to join em… greatly alarms us.153
Hurd agreed that it ‘makes us less attentive to matters in the north’, but he was confident it would be short-lived, ‘a few days I hope will free us of these Apprehensions’.154
On 12 December, Hardwicke wrote that he had received a message that the French had landed in Sussex and ‘we were alarmed’. The news ‘was soon spread over the whole town’ but was soon learnt to have been false.155
As Jessop noted on 18 December, ‘we are in great fear of a French invasion and are taking the utmost we can to prevent it’.156 Clegg was also alarmed, writing on 27 December, ‘We had advice that the French are about to land 15 or 20000 men in England, may the Almighty God in mercy appear for our defence’.157
Barbara Kerrich told her sister on 10 December:
I write to you now in ye greatest confusion, as is all ye countrey hereabouts… God knows what is to become of us nor where we can go for to be sure they will be all over ye County if they come here, we have Pack’d up our most valuable things to hide somewhere if they do come. Mrs Grigson & me meet almost every day to contrive & comfort one another. I pray God you may be safer where you are.158
The lieutenancy of Kent was foremost in the defence of the county and occasioned the following notice to be printed, along with a letter from Admiral Edward Vernon (1684–1757) telling of the French armada being assembled, and distributed:
Everybody who reads the above letter, willing and ready to stand up for the defence of their King and country, their liberties and lives, are desired to assemble on Sunday morning next, 22d inst., as soon as possible, on horseback, with such arms and ammunition as they have, and to bring two days’ provisions of victuals with them. The place of rendezvous, or assembling, is Swinfield Minis. It is hoped all the parishes and towns within twenty miles off the sea coasts any way will not fail to be there, with all the able bodied men they have.
The parishes near to Swinfield Minis are desired to bring some pick axes, shovels and axes, along with them, besides their arms’.159
Apparently between 2,000 and 4,000 men responded to this call to arm and gathered about three miles from Dover.160 There were other volunteers, too, for on 22 December, at Canterbury
about 300 of the Townsmen, headed by several Gentlemen, went from hence on horseback arm’d with guns, swords and Pistols, and six pioneers, to meet the Country People at Swinfield Minis, 10 Miles from this place… to repulse the Enemy in case they should attempt to land.161
It was not only in Kent that there was alarm at this time. Newcastle also instructed the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, Benjamin Mildmay (1672–1756) the Earl of Fitzwalter, to have the coast watched and any information to be sent to London post haste. Fitzwalter was prompt to obey and told Newcastle that he had ‘immediately sent proper Directions to my deputy lieutenants, but more especially to those who live nearest to the… coasts’. One of his most trusted men was sent to Rochford.162 Reports from his deputies show that they were active in this regard. At Burnham, ‘evrybody employed in the King’s service is watchful and diligent’. Charles and John Coe watched the mouth of the river for any enemy activity.163 William Gooch at Creeksea sent reports of the French fleet that he had had from a Dutchman. Men from Rochford as well as customs men watched the coasts. Apparently 500 gentry, clergy, freeholders and farmers in the Hundred of Rochford met and were ‘extremely zealous to serve His Majesty with their lives and fortunes’. In the event of an invasion they resolved to clear the country of their horses and do ‘all other things as they have opportunity, in order to distress them’.164
The deputy lord lieutenants contacted the parishes, via the High Constables, and the example of West Thurrock may be typical. They were told to ‘keep a watch Day and Night upon suspicion of an Invasion’. On 27 December the parish vestry met to discuss this and they agreed to comply, further attesting their loyalty thus, ‘God preserve His MAJESTY King George, the Duke of Cumberland and all the Royal Family’.165
On 17 December Fitzwalter could inform Newcastle that ‘There being many people ordered by me to watch and keep a good look out upon the coast of the country’.166 However, there was little cause for any positive action except to take three French sailors found in Burnham to Chelmsford Prison.167 All this came at a cost, as Fitzwalter pointed out to Newcastle, who wanted to know when all this would cease ‘so that every man may return to his business and further expense avoided than what is necessary’.168
Apart from the need to be watchful, there were orders on 5 December for the county militia to be summoned.169 There was a call on the Essex Lieutenancy for this to occur. It is not certain if this happened, but there was an irregular response: ‘Upon rumour of an intended invasion from France, the Labouring People of Essex have begun to arm themselves by fixing their Scythes strait on staves about four feet long.’170 There was also talk about the people being willing to serve in the militia if the gentry would countenance such.171
Concern about a possible invasion was felt in Hampshire, too. On 12 December the mayor of Portsmouth, Edward Linzee, told Newcastle, ‘We are now greatly alarmed with a rumour that there is an actual invasion by the French forces on the Sussex coast’. At least the town’s Catholics seemed to be behaving, but Linzee was unsure as to how he would act and sought guidance from Newcastle.172 Bolton was told by Newcastle to take charge and on 21 December he could write that beacons ten feet high had been erected at five points on the Hampshire coast, with combustibles near at hand and a shed for watchmen to stand by them night and day, to light them if French ships were seen. Constables were told to remove oxen and cattle 20 miles inland should they see the beacons lit.173 This level of alertness was maintained until February, with a gentleman complaining of the cost as it was ‘a pretty large charge to the county and the contributing the watchmen will increase it’.174
In London, the trained bands were, on sound of the cannon firing from the Tower, to go to their mustering points; a regiment to Tower Hill, another to the Guildhall yard, one to St. Paul’s churchyard, one to the Royal Exchange, another to Old Fish Street and the sixth to West Smithfield. The two regiments of Tower Hamlets militia were to be stationed at Tower Hill and the other at Sun Tavern fields in Shadwell. Meanwhile, by 19 December there had been three benefit performances of The Beggars’ Opera, with Mrs Cibber playing Polly Peachum, and the £600 raised being given for ‘the Encouragement of the soldiers’.175
There were other concerns in London at this time. On 12 December, several Catholic priests were arrested in London. The parish of St. George’s Bloomsbury, where Miss Savile resided, got together a petition signed by most of the householders, including the said spinster, to have a patrol raised amongst them to guard the streets at night. Each householder was urged to commit two guineas.176
However, concern was diminishing as time passed, with John Collier writing on 21 December, ‘Tis generally believed here that the invasion will not take place in the south part of Great Britain’.177
There were also literary and sermon responses to this stage of the campaign. The former included triumphalist sentiment in A NEW BALLAD, beginning thus, ‘Come all loyal Britons, and lend me an ear/The Rebels have fled, and Prince Will’s in their rear… As soon as they heard the brave prince was come forth/Away ganged Charles’. There was much abuse heaped on the Jacobites, ‘such vermin won’t live long’, ‘Base cowards invade us’, ‘scoundrels’, ‘plundering’, ‘pilfering church’, and a hit against Charles’ father, ‘warming pan old Jemmy’. It concluded, ‘So heav’n bless King George and the Protestant line… we’ll be fright’d no more’.178
There was also a new version of God save the King, as ‘the former words having no merit but their loyalty’. It was three verses long:
‘Fame let thy trumpet sound,
Tell all the world around,
Great GEORGE is king:
Tell Rome, and France and Spain
BRITANNIA scorns their Chain:
All their vile arts are vain;
Great GEORGE is king.
May heav’n his life defend,
And make his race extend
Wide as his fame;
Thy choicest blessings shed
On his devoted head,
And teach his foes to dread
Great GEORGE’s name.
He peace and plenty brings,
Whilst Rome’s deluded kings
Waste and destroy:
Then let his people sing
Long live our gracious king
From whom such blessings spring,
Freedom and joy.
The chorus remained the same as that written in September.179
Newspapers published ‘Extract from a Letter of a Gentleman at Derby’ which focussed on the alleged barbaric nature of the Jacobite soldiery. Some parts of this read as follows:
The men… look’d like so many fiends turn’d out from hell, to ravage the kingdom, and to cut throats, and under their plaids nothing but a various sort of butchering weapons were to be seen… As to their Dialect or Language… the same seem’d to me to be as if a herd of Hottentots, wild monkeys in a desert, or vagrant gypsies had been seen jabbering screaming and howling together… very properly suited to such a sett of Banditti.
On their departure, after having been eaten out of house and home, the distressed householder found ‘a Regiment or two of Highland Lice, several loads of their filthy excrement, and other ejections of different colours, scattered before my door, in the Garden and elsewhere about my house’.180
Another strong piece was the suggestion of what would later be termed biological warfare. Noting that
Among the other excesses, the usual attendants on war, the rebels, we are told, are particularly fond of exercising their parts on the female sex; and being fellows of pretty keen appetites, commonly take up with whatever falls in their way,
the following method was suggested of weakening them. London prostitutes were to be conveyed to those places where the Jacobite Army would reach and the Highlanders, on seeing such finely dressed women, ‘will take every one of them to be a Laird’s daughter, and think it no little honour to storm such illustrious Forts’. Thus they would ‘contract a disease, which will effectually stop their progress and will afford his Majesty’s forces an easy and cheap bought conquest’. This was justified thus: ‘everything is allowable against rebels’ and then cited the Old Testament.181
Numerous anti-Catholic pamphlets were published and there was even a whole section devoted to them in the adverts section of the Gentleman’s Magazine. Titles included ‘The artifices of the Romish priests in making converts to popery’, ‘Popery inconsistent with Christianity, liberty and reason’, ‘Liberty and property, no pretender’. On sale were numerous loyalist sermons.182
More intelligent was the reasoned answer to Charles’ manifesto, in which the author takes this apart piece by piece, citing the original and then explaining it away. As to the many charges against the state, the writer argued that these could be resolved by reasoned debate in Parliament, not force, as governments could be changed but monarchs remained. It ended with a firm declaration that the Jacobite army would bring nothing but civil war and ruin for years to come.183
Fielding’s True Patriot printed more moderate comments, now the Jacobite army was in retreat. He wrote that ‘the Cruelties they have committed fallen altogether short of what have been apprehended from such a Rabble’. Fielding was also sympathetic towards retreating Jacobites.184
December 18th had been nominated in the previous month as a day for a national fast and several clergymen preached on this day; there were at least 34 of these published, mostly in London and the south of England. The Rev. Mansion Warner of St. Ives stated that whatever was amiss in the congregation, it must be condemned and then improved, to ‘obtain the pardon of our own sins’ in order to ‘avert heavy judgements’ on themselves. Repentance would have another effect, that is ‘for procuring the divine blessings on His majesty’s arms and endeavours’ in order to restore peace and prosperity to the kingdom.185 The Rev. Thomas Penrose of Newbury also preached on this day, though used a different text and painted a picture of the world consumed by man-made calamities, but that by religious devotion and abstinence, together with a desire to defend religion and country, such could be overcome. Real sorrow and grief were required.186 But he also remined the congregation of the cruelties of Catholicism; 800 burnt during Mary’s reign and tens of thousands murdered in Ireland in the 1640s. Any lies put out by the Jacobites about these not being repeated were not to be believed.187
In an exaggerated vein, Ridley wrote to the Lord President, Duncan Forbes (1685–1747), towards the year’s end,
Amidst all the gloomy appearances, it must give great satisfaction and grounds to hope a good issue, when we see all ranks of people in England united in duty and affection to his Majesty and family. God grant us a speedy end if these troubles.188
A predictory verse for the new year was published in London as follows:
‘For the Eve of New Years Day
Whilst Janus, with thy double view,
Thous seest the Old Year and the new,
Oh Prophesy! For Britain’s Peace
That all intestine Broils shall cease,
That Forty Six shall pure arrive,
And bid rebellion far beyond
The utmost orcades abscond!’189
By the end of the year 1745, the Jacobite army, save for the garrison at Carlisle, had left England. The French threat was to persist until the next month, however. Responses in the north-west of England towards the Jacobites had been hostile but, except when working in conjunction with the regular army at Carlisle and in harassing stragglers and small parties of Jacobites, ineffectual.
Notes
1. RA, CP MAIN/7/347 (M).
2. Ibid., 335.
3. Saville, ‘Letters’, pp. 318–319.
4. Bod. Lib. Donc.107/2, f.184v.
5. Brewer, Early Letters, p. 151.
6. Sykes, Account, p. 34.
7. Derby Mercury, 12 December 1745.
8. TNA, SP36/81, f.298v.
9. RA, CP MAIN/8/7 (M).
10. Ibid., 4.
11. Ibid., 22.
12. Ibid., 37a.
13. Ibid., 63.
14. Penny London Post, 416, 25–27 December 1745.
15. RA, CP MAIN/8/25 (M).
16. Jarvis, Jacobite Risings, pp. 247–248.
17. CAS Whitehaven, D.Pen.2689/14.
18. RA, CP MAIN/8/57 (M).
19. Yorke, Hardwicke, I, p. 479.
20. Ibid., p. 480.
21. NRO, Malton to Fitzwilliam, 7 December 1745.
22. Doe, ‘Diaries’, II, p. 559.
23. Boulton, Staffordshire.
24. Elcho, Short Account, p. 343.
25. W.B. Blaikie, ed., ‘Origins of the Forty Five and other papers relating to that Rising’, Scottish History Society, series 2, 2 (1916), p. 180.
26. Taylers, The 1745, p. 28.
27. Maxwell, Narrative, p. 80.
28. Blaikie, ‘Origins’, p. 180.
29. RA, CP MAIN/9/100 (M).
30. TNA, TS20/7/2.
31. Ibid., SP36/77, f.52r.
32. Saville, ‘Secret Comment’, p. 263.
33. Marchant, History, pp. 204–205.
34. Ray, History, pp. 177–178.
35. Banner, ‘Going out’, p. 88.
36. Reading Mercury, 23 December 1745.
37. Brocksbank and Kensworthy, ‘Diary’, p. 103; Talon, Selections, p. 233; Henderson, History, p. 63.
38. Whiting, ‘Two Yorkshire Diaries’, p. 113.
39. Marchant, History, p. 205.
40. Talon, Selections, p. 233.
41. Maxwell, Narrative, p. 80.
42. Brocksbank and Kenworthy, ‘Diary’, p. 103.
43. Talon, Selections, p. 233.
44. Marchant, History, p. 205.
45. Talon, Selections, p. 233.
46. Brocksbank and Kenworthy, ‘Diary’, pp. 105–106.
47. Ray, History, p. 82; Maxwell, Narrative, p. 79.
48. Maxwell, Narrative, p. 80.
49. Marchant, History, p. 205.
50. Ray, History, pp. 79–82.
51. Henderson, History, p. 63.
52. Elcho, Short Account, p. 344; Talon, Selections, p. 245.
53. Talon, Selections, pp. 239–245.
54. Earwaker, Accounts, p. 24.
55. Talon, Selections, p. 235.
56. Banner, ‘Going out’, p. 90.
57. RA, CP MAIN/8/6 (M).
58. Brocksbank and Kenworthy, ‘Diary’, pp. 103–104.
59. Ibid., p. 104.
60. The Manuscripts of the Hon. Frederick Lindley Wood, p. 141.
61. T.A Coward, Picturesque Cheshire (London, 1903), p. 366.
62. Beaumont, ‘Some Occurrences’, p. 191.
63. CA, P85/10/1.
64. Ibid., P14/3435/8/2.
65. LRO, PR183.
66. Yorke, Hardwicke, I, p. 479.
67. Beaumont, ‘Some Occurrences’, p. 197.
68. RA, CP MAIN/8/6 (M).
69. Andrew Henderson, History of the Rebellion (Edinburgh, 1748), pp. 63–64.
70. RA, CP MAIN/8/102 (M).
71. C. Ferguson, ‘The Retreat of the Highlanders through Westmorland in 1745’, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 10 (1889), p. 210.
72. Andrew Rusnuck, ed., The Correspondence of James Jurin, 1683–1750 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996), pp. 482, 485.
73. The Penny London Post, 414, 20–23 December 1745.
74. TNA, SP36/79, f.290r; 80, f.84v.
75. Ray, History, p. 164.
76. Boulton, Staffordshire.
77. Marchant, History, pp. 209–210.
78. Whiting, ‘Two Yorkshire Diaries’, pp. 114–115.
79. WYAS Leeds, NH2830/18; 2875/10.
80. Ibid., NH2876/19.
81. Whiting, ‘Two Yorkshire Diaries’, pp. 114–115, 118.
82. WYAS, Leeds, NH2875/12; BL. Add. Mss. 35889, f.64v.
83. Ibid., 64r.
84. WYAS, Leeds, NH2875/12.
85. TNA, SP36/77, f.52r.
86. Whiting, ‘Two Yorkshire Diaries’, p. 119.
87. TNA, SP36/78, f189r.
88. NYCRO, QSM, p. 243.
89. NYCRO, ZAL Box 40/4, Johnson to Mayer, 25 December 1745.
90. WYAS, Leeds, Birkbeck Papers, 12.
91. SA, WWM2/352.
92. WYAS, Leeds, NP1563/13.
93. TNA, SP36/77, f125r–126v.
94. Ibid.
95. DCCL, Sharp Mss., 150, 37.
96. DCRO, D/Lo/F743/23.
97. DCCL, Sharp Mss., 150, 46–47.
98. NRO, ZMD135/48.
99. TNA, SP36/77, ff20r-21r.
100. BL. Add. Mss. 32705, f.406r.
101. SA, WWM2/354, 359.
102. Andrew and Lucy Bamford, ‘The Derbyshire Blues and Chatsworth Contingent’ in Andrew Bamford, ed. Rebellious Scots to Crush (Solihull: Helion, 2020), pp. 178–179.
103. Marchant, History, pp. 258–259.
104. Saville, ‘Secret Comment’, pp. 266–267.
105. Lewis, Correspondence, 19, p. 180.
106. Henderson, History, p. 64.
107. Ibid.
108. RA, CP MAIN/8/46 (M).
109. Jarvis, Jacobite Risings, pp. 375–376.
110. Dalton, ‘Some Letters’, p. 112.
111. Ray, History, p. 185.
112. Blaikie, ‘Origins’, p. 181.
113. Whiting, ‘Two Yorkshire Diaries’, p. 113.
114. Douglas, History, p. 66.
115. Blaikie, ‘Origins’, p. 179.
116. B. Rawson, ed. Memoir of the Chevalier de Johnstone (London: Folio Society, 1958), p. 75.
117. Elcho, Short Account, p. 343.
118. Robert Forbes and Robert Chambers, eds., Jacobite Memoirs (Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1834), p. 62.
119. Elcho, Short Account, p. 343.
120. Taylers, 1745 and after, p. 103n.
121. Forbes, Jacobite Memoirs, p. 65.
122. Blaikie, ‘Origins’, pp. 183–184.
123. Taylers, 1745 and after, p. 104.
124. Andrew Henderson, Life of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (London: J. Ridley, 1765), p. 181.
125. Ibid., pp. 181–182.
126. Taylers, 1745 and after, p. 106.
127. TNA, T64/262.
128. Jarvis, Jacobite Risings, pp. 275–283.
129. Newcastle Courant, 2702, 28 Sept-2 October 1745.
130. Saville, ‘Letters’, p. 322.
131. Marchant, History, pp. 222–225.
132. Boyse, Impartial History, p. 118n.
133. RA, CP MAIN/8/90 (M).
134. D. Hepburn and C. Richardson, ‘Documentation relating to the transportation of cannon from Whitehaven to Carlisle during the Jacobite Rising of 1745’, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, series II, LXXXIV (1984), p. 144.
135. Ray, History, p201.
136. Rupert Jarvis, ‘Whitehaven Port records and the Forty Five’, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaelogical Society, series II, 45 (1945), p. 10.
137. Jarvis, Jacobite Risings, pp. 319–321, 324.
138. RA, CP MAIN/8/147 (M).
139. Henderson, Life, p. 196.
140. Ray, History, p. 202.
141. Jarvis, Jacobite Risings, pp. 322–325.
142. Ibid., p. 325.
143. RA, CP MAIN/8/87 (M).
144. MNMM, DX594, ff.20v–26v; Henderson, Life, p. 181.
145. MNMM, DX 594, ff, 27v–29v.
146. Ibid., ff.33v-34v.
147. Sykes, Account, pp. 20, 19.
148. Brocksbank and Kenworthy, ‘Diary’, pp. 104–105.
149. Whiting, ‘Two Yorkshire Diaries’, p. 117.
150. Donald Nicholas, ed., Intercepted Post (London: Bodley Head, 1956), p. 147.
151. Henderson, Life, p. 196.
152. Yorke, Hardwicke, I, p. 481.
153. Saville, ‘Letters’, p. 318.
154. Brewer, Early Letters, p. 151.
155. Yorke, Hardwicke, I, p. 481.
156. Whiting, ‘Two Yorkshire Diaries’, pp. 117–118.
157. Doe, ‘Diaries’, II, p. 561.
158. Pyle, Memoirs, p. 113.
159. Douglas, History, p. 87.
160. Ibid.
161. Marchant, History, p. 235.
162. TNA, SP36/77, f.150r.
163. Ibid., f151r.
164. Ibid.
165. E.N. Williams, The Eighteenth Century Constitution (Cambridge, 1959), p. 282.
166. TNA, SP36/77, f.185r.
167. General Advertiser, 3494, 7 January 1746.
168. TNA, SP36/77, f18.
169. Ibid., PC2/99, p. 276.
170. London Evening Press, 2824, 10–12 December 1745.
171. TNA, SP36/80, f.154r.
172. Ibid., 76, f.420r.
173. Ibid., 77, ff.414r–415r; 78, f.107r.
174. Ibid., 81, f.56v.
175. Marchant, History, p. 249.
176. Saville, ‘Secret Comment’, pp. 363, 364.
177. Saville, ‘Letters’, p. 322.
178. Gentleman’s Magazine, 15, p. 663.
179. Ibid., p. 662.
180. Ibid., 16 (1746), p. 16.
181. Ibid., 15, p. 648.
182. Ibid., p. 672.
183. Ibid., pp. 657–660.
184. Cited in Jarvis, Collected Papers, II, p. 202.
185. Mansion Warner, A Sermon preach’d at the Parish Church of St. Ives on… the Day appointed for a Public Fast (Cambridge, 1745), pp. 21–22.
186. Thomas Penrose, A Sermon preached in the parish Church of Newbury… (Reading, 1746), pp. 8–10.
187. Ibid., pp. 20–21.
188. Sykes, Account, p. 35.
189. Reading Mercury, 6 January 1746.