THE Tory ministry of Anne, which had certainly
meditated some attempt at the restoration of the Stuart line, were
paralysed, as we have seen, by her death, and allowed the accession of
George of Hanover to take place without opposition. The new king had no
sooner settled himself in London, than he displaced the late queen’s
advisers, and surrounded himself with the Whigs, whom he knew to be his
only true friends. The sharpness of this proceeding, added to the general
discontent, produced an almost immediate insurrection. Two of the
ex-ministers - the Duke of Ormond and Lord Bolingbroke_- went to France,
and attached themselves to the exiled court. The Earl of Mar, after in
vain attempting to obtain the favour of King George, repaired to his
native country, and, on the 6th of September 1715, set up the standard of
rebellion in Aberdeenshire, although he is said to have had no commission
to that effect from the rival prince. This nobleman, who had acted as
Secretary of State under the late government, was speedily surrounded with
hundreds of armed men, chiefly of the Highland clans, who were willing to
be led by him to battle.
The government had at this time only a few
regiments in Scotland, not exceeding in all fifteen hundred men, and these
could not be concentrated in one place, without leaving the rest of the
country exposed. They were, however, put under the command of the Duke of
Argyle, a young soldier who had served under Marlborough, and at one time
commanded the British troops in Spain. The government could not well spare
more men for service in Scotland, as England, being threatened with a
corresponding invasion from France, required a large number of the
disposable troops for its own defence, and also for the purpose of
preventing a rising among the native Jacobites. An attempt was made to
surprise Edinburgh Castle in behalf of the Chevalier, and it would have
in all likelihood succeeded, but for the folly of one or two of the
conspirators. By this enterprise, if successful, the Duke of Argyle must
have been disabled for keeping together his small army, and the whole of
the south of Scotland would at once have fallen into the hands of the
insurgent general, if he had been gifted with common energy to take it
into his Possession.
Mar entered Perth on the 28th of September,
having with him about five thousand horse and foot, fully armed. Among his
Highland adherents were the chieftains of Clanranald and Glengarry, the
Earl of Breadalbane, and the Marquis of Tullibardine (eldest son of the
Duke of Athole), all of whom brought their clansmen into the field. Among
the Lowland Jacobites who had already joined him were the Earls of Panmure
and Strathmore, with, many of the younger sons of considerable families.
On the 2d of October, a party of his troops performed the dexterous
exploit of surprising a government vessel on the Firth of Forth opposite
to Burntisland, and taking from it several hundred stand of arms, which it
was about to carry to the north, for the purpose of arming the Whig Earl
of Sutherland against his Jacobite neighbours. This gave a little éclat to
the enterprise.
The government, in order to encourage loyalty
at this dangerous crisis, obtained an act, adjudging the estates of the
insurgents to such vassals, holding of them, as should remain at peace.
The state-officers were also very active in apprehending suspected
persons, especially in England. Some gentlemen in the northern counties,
fearing that this would be their fate, met on the 6th of October at
Rothbury, and soon increased to a considerable party. Among them were Mr
Forster, member of Parliament for Northumberland, and Lord Widdrington.
They made an advance to Newcastle, but were deterred from attacking
it. They then concentrated themselves at Hexham, and opened a
communication with Lord Mar. About the same time, the Viscount Kenmure,
and the Earls of Nithsdale, Wintoun, and Carnwath appeared in arms in the
south of Scotland, with a considerable band of followers, and a junction
was soon after effected between the two parties.
As the Earl of Mar was loath to leave the
Highlands, where immense bands were mustering to join him, he resolved to
make no attempt upon the Duke of Argyle, who had now posted his small
force at Stirling Bridge, which forms the only free pass between the north
and south of Scotland. The Earl, however, thought it expedient to send a
detachment of upwards of two thousand of his infantry across the Firth of
Forth, in order to co-operate with him, when the proper time should
arrive, by falling upon the duke in flank. This party was placed under the
command of Brigadier Mackintosh of Borlumn, an old officer, who had been
regularly trained under Marlborough. By making a feint at Burntisland, to
which point they attracted the war-vessels on the firth, about sixteen
hundred got safely over to East Lothian, and immediately marched upon
Edinburgh, which was then defenceless. The provost, however, had time to
call the Duke of Argyle to his aid, who entered the west gate of the city
with five hundred horse, at the same time that Mackintosh was approaching
its eastern limit. The insurgent chief turned aside to Leith, and
barricaded his men in the old dismantled citadel of Cromwell. There he was
called to surrender next day by the duke, but returned a haughty defiance,
and the assailing party had to retire to wait for cannon. The brigadier
took the opportunity that night to march back to East Lothian, where for a
day or two he garrisoned Seton House, the princely seat of the Earl of
Wintoun. The Duke of Argyle was obliged to leave him unmolested, in order
to return to Stirling, upon which he learned that the Earl of Mar was
marching with his whole force. The insurgent general was in reality only
anxious to call him off from the party under Mackintosh. The capital being
now protected by volunteers, that officer, in obedience to the commands
of the Earl of Mar, marched to Kelso, where he formed a junction with the
English and Lowland cavaliers.
There were now two Jacobitc armies in
Scotland—one at Perth, and another at Kelso. It was the obvious policy of
both to have attempted to break up the Duke of Argyle’s encampment, which
was the sole obstacle to their gaining possession of Scotland; but this
the Earl of Mar either found inconvenient or imprudent, and the party at
Kelso was soon diverted to another scene of action. After a delay of some
days, and much unhappy wrangling among themselves, it was determined by
the leaders of this body to march into the west of England, where, as the
country abounded with Jacobites, they expected to raise a large
reinforcement. They therefore moved along the Border by Jedburgh, Hawick,
and Langholm, followed by a government force much inferior to themselves
in numbers, under the command of General Carpenter. On the 31st of
October they entered England, all except a few hundred Highlanders, who
had determined to go home, and who were mostly seized by the country
people upon the march.
Hitherto, the insurrection had been a
spontaneous movement of the friends of the Chevalier, under the
self-assumed direction of the Earl of Mar. It was now put into proper form
by the earl receiving a commission as generalissimo from the royal
personage in whose behalf he was acting. Henceforth the insurgent forces
were supported by a regular daily pay of threepence in money, with a
certain quantity of provisions, the necessary funds being raised by virtue
of the Earl’s commission, in the shape of a land-tax, which was rendered
severer to the enemies than to the friends of the cause. The army was now
increased by two thousand five hundred men brought by the Marquis of
Huntly, eldest son of the Duke of Gordon, and nearly four thousand who
arrived, under the charge of the Earl of Seaforth, from the North
Highlands. Early in November, there could not be fewer than sixteen
thousand men in arms throughout the country for the Stuarts, a force
tripling that with which Prince Charles penetrated into England at a later
and less auspicious period. Yet even with all, or nearly all this force at
his command, the Earl of Mar permitted the Duke of Argyle to protect the
Lowlands and the capital with about three thousand men.
At length, on the 10th of November, having
gathered nearly all the forces he could expect, he resolved to force the
pass so well guarded by his opponent. When the Duke of Argyle learned that
Mar was moving from Perth, he resolved to cross the Forth and meet his
enemy on as advantageous ground as possible on the other side, being
afraid that the superior numbers of the insurgents might enable them to
advance upon more points of the river than he had troops to defend. He
drew up his forces on the lower part of a swelling waste called the
Sheriffmuir, with the village of Dunblane in his rear. His whole force
amounted to three thousand three hundred men, of whom twelve hundred were
cavalry. Mar, reinforced on the march by the West Highland clans under
General Gordon, advanced to battle with about nine thousand men, including
some squadrons of horse, which were composed, however, of only country
gentlemen and their retainers. Although the insurgents thus greatly
outnumbered their opponents, the balance was in some measure restored by
Mar’s total ignorance of the military art, and the undisciplined character
of his troops; while Argyle, on the other hand, had conducted armies under
the most critical circumstances, and his men were not only perfectly
trained, but possessed that superiority which consists in the mechanical
regularity and firmness with which such troops must act. On the night of
the 12th, the two armies lay within four miles of each other. Next
morning, they were arranged by their respective commanders in two lines,
the extremities of which were protected by horse. On meeting, however, at
the top of the swelling eminence which had been interposed between them,
it was found that the right wing of each greatly outflanked the left wing
of the other army. The commanders, who were stationed at this part of
their various hosts, immediately charged, and as in neither ease there was
much force opposed to them, they were both to some extent successful. The
Duke of Argyle beat back the left wing of the insurgents, consisting of
Highland foot and Lowland cavalry, to the river Allan. The Earl of Mar, in
like manner, drove the left wing of the royal army, which was commanded by
General Whitham, to the Forth. Neither of these triumphant parties knew of
what was done elsewhere, but both congratulated themselves upon their
partial success. In the afternoon, the Earl of Mar returned with the
victorious part of his army to an eminence in the centre of the field,
whence he was surprised, soon after, to observe the Duke of Argyle leading
back the victorious part of his army by the highway to Dunblane. The total
want of intelligence on each side, and the fear which ignorance always
engenders, prevented these troops mutually from attacking each other. The
duke retired to the village; the earl drew off towards Perth, whither a
large part of his army had already fled in the character of defeated
troops: and thus the action was altogether indecisive.
Several hundreds were slain on both sides; the
Earl of Strathmore and the chieftain of Clanranald fell on the side of
the insurgents; the Earl of Forfar on that of the royalists. The Duke of
Argyle reappeared next morning on the field, in order to renew the action;
but finding that Mar was in full retreat to Perth, he was enabled to
retire to Stirling with all the spoils of the field, and the credit of
having frustrated the design of the insurgent general to cross the Forth.
Even that part of his army which was discomfited by the Earl of Mar, had
nevertheless become possessed of the principal standard of the enemy.
This day was fatal to the cause of the
Chevalier in another part of the kingdom. The large party of united Scots
and English, under Forster, had penetrated to Lancashire, without gaining
any such accessions of force as had been expected. On the 12th of November
they were assailed in the town of Preston by a considerable force under
General Willis, who had concentrated the troops of a large district in
order to oppose their march. For this day, they defended themselves
effectually by barricading the streets; but next day the enemy was
increased by a large force under General Carpenter, and the unfortunate
Jacobites then found it necessary to surrender, upon the simple condition
that they should not be immediately put to the sword. Forster, Kenmure,
Nithsdale, Wintoun, and Mackintosh, with upwards of a hundred other
persons of distinction, including a brave and generous young nobleman, the
Earl of Derwentwater, were taken prisoners. The common men, in number
about fourteen hundred, were disposed about the country in prisons, while
their superiors were conducted to London, and, after being exposed in an
ignominious procession on the streets—a mark of the low taste as well as
of the political animosity of the time— imprisoned in Newgate on a charge
of high treason.
The affairs of the Chevalier now began to
decline in Scotland. The Earl of Sutherland, having established a garrison
at Inverness, afforded to the Earl of Seaforth and the Marquis of Huntly
an excuse for withdrawing their forces from Perth. Some of the other clans
went home to deposit their spoil, or because they could not endure to be
taunted for their bad behaviour at Sheriffmuir. The army being thus
reduced to about four thousand men, various officers began to think of
capitulating with the Duke of Argyle. To this there was one serious
objection. In compliance with a pressing invitation which they had
despatched in better times, they were daily expecting their prince to
arrive amongst them. Nevertheless, the Earl of Mar was compelled to open a
negotiation with the royalist general. In answer to their message, the
duke informed them that he had no power to treat with them as a body, but
would immediately send to court to ask for the required instructions. They
were in this posture when the unfortunate son of James VII. landed
(December 22) at Peterhead, and advanced to the camp to put himself at
their head. The Earl of Mar and some other officers went to Fetteresso to
meet him, and to apprise him of the present state of his affairs. Although
greatly dejected by what he heard, and much reduced in health by a severe
ague, he resolved to establish himself in royal state at Perth, in the
hope of reanimating the cause. Advancing through Brechin and Dundee, he
entered Perth in a ceremonious manner on the 9th of January; but he could
not conceal his mortification, on finding how much his forces were reduced
in number. It was, nevertheless, determined that he should be crowned at
Scone on the 23d. If he was disappointed with his adherents, they were no
less so with him. Whether from natural softness of character or through
the influence of his late malady, or from despair of his present
circumstances, he appeared exceedingly tame and inanimate; quite the
reverse, in every respect, of the bold and stirring chief required for
such an enterprise.
The Duke of Argyle, having now received large
reinforcements from England, besides three thousand Dutch troops, sent in
terms of the treaty of Utrecht, found himself as superior in numbers to
the Earl of Mar as that general had been to him in the early part of the
campaign. On the 23d of January, the day on which the Chevalier was to
have been crowned, the royalist troops commenced their march upon Perth,
through deep snow. To retard their progress, all the villages upon the
road were burned by the insurgents. It was now debated at Perth whether
they ought to remain within the town and defend themselves against the
royal forces, who, in this weather, must suffer severely in the fields, or
to march northward and disperse. A great part of the clans were anxious in
the highest degree for a battle with the duke; but the safety of the
Chevalier’s person was a consideration which precluded all desperate
hazards. It was resolved to vacate Perth. Accordingly, on the 30th of
January, a day ominous to the House of Stuart, from its being the
anniversary of the death of Charles I., the remains of the Highland army
deployed across the river, then covered with thick ice, and marched to
Dundee. The duke entered the town with his vanguard, only twelve hours
after the rear-guard of the insurgents had left it. But the state of the
roads rendered it impossible for him, with all the appurtenances of a
regular army, to overtake the light-footed mountaineers. He followed on
their track towards Aberdeen, at the distance of one or two marches behind
them. At Montrose, the Chevalier and the Earl of Mar provided for their
own safety by going on board a French vessel. The army, which had been.
fast declining by the way, was finally disbanded on the 7th of February at
Aberdeen, after which every man shifted for himself. Thus ended the
insurrection of 1715, an enterprise begun without concert or preparation,
and which languished so much throughout all its parts, that it could
hardly he considered in any other light than as an appearance of certain
friends of the house of Stuart in arms.
The Earl of Derwentwater and the Viscount
Kenmure were the only individuals of distinction who suffered death for
this rebellion. They were beheaded on Tower hill on the 24th of February.
All the rest of the noblemen and gentlemen taken at Preston either made
their escape from Ncwgate, which on this occasion manifested a peculiar
irretentiveness, or were pardoned. About twenty inferior persons were
executed. There were, however, at least forty families of distinction in
Scotland whose estates were forfeited. It is to be mentioned, to the
honour of the Argyle family, that they counselled lenient measures, and
set the example by not taking advantage of the law against such of their
vassals as had forfeited their estates into their hands as superiors.
The miserable failure of this effort for the
House of Stuart, and its dismal consequences, neither allayed the wishes
nor extinguished the hopes of the Jacobite party. Firm in the principle
of hereditary right, convinced that the prosperity and happiness of the
country could only be secured through their legitimate prince, seeing in
every shortcoming and error of the reigning house and ministry
confirmation of their doctrines, they never once faltered in believing
that a restoration was worthy of a civil war. They only admitted now,
that, for success, the assistance of some foreign state was indispensable.
Unfortunately for the hopes of the party, the
favour of France for the Stuart cause was at this time lost, in
consequence of the necessity of which the Regent Orleans felt himself
under of cultivating the alliance of Britain, that he might strengthen
himself against the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon. Even a home
could no longer be afforded by France for the unfortunate son of James
VII.; and it now occurs, as a curious instance of the vicissitudes of
fortune among historical persons, that the diplomate who negotiated for
his expulsion beyond the Alps (the Earl of Stair) was the grandson of one
whom James VII. had driven to Holland little more than thirty years
before.
Rather oddly, while the Stuart Party lost
France, prospects opened to them in quarters wholly new. It pleased the
half-crazed Charles XII. of Sweden to take umbrage at George I. for aid
given to some of his enemies; and he formed the resolution to dethrone the
British monarch, and replace his rival. There was only a total want of
ships of war and transports for effecting this object. Even from the great
rival of the Swede, Peter of Russia, some hopes were at one time
entertained. At length, Spain, under the ambitious politics of her
celebrated minister Alberoni, found it for her interest to take up in a
decided manner the cause of the Stuart. In spring 1719, an expedition,
comprehending a few companies of infantry and a considerable quantity of
arms, passed from St Sebastian to the isle of Lewis, under the care of the
Earl Marischal and the Marquis of Tullibardine, designing to raise and
arm the Highland clans. A landing was conducted in Loch Alsh amongst the
friendly Mackenzies, whose chief, the Earl of Seaforth, accompanied. the
expedition, and very quickly there were a thousand natives in arms, in
addition to the Spanish companies. But a foreign force of such a trivial
character was quite insufficient to induce a general rising. While the
Jacobite chiefs lingered in Glenshiel, with only about fifteen hundred men
in arms, a government force of rather superior numbers was conducted
northward by General Wightman. It would have been easy to prevent this
force from entering the Mackenzie country; but no attempt to that effect
was made. The two parties came into conflict on the 11th of June, and the
royal commander had 142 men killed and wounded, without accomplishing a
decisive victory. It was seen, however, by the Jacobite chiefs, two of
whom were wounded, that nothing more could be effected at present; and it
was therefore arranged that the Spanish troops should next day surrender
themselves, while the Highlanders should disperse. General Wightman was
happy to carry southwards 274 Spanish prisoners, without attempting to
inflict any punishment upon the rebels.
For some years afterwards, the agents of the
Stuart prince were actively engaged in keeping up his interest in
Scotland. A large proportion of the Highland clans and of the Lowland
nobility and gentry, along with the entire body of the Episcopalian
clergy, were his friends; but with the great bulk of the Presbyterian
middle classes his pretensions found little favour, and in the constantly
increasing comfort of the people through the pursuits of peaceful industry
his chance was always becoming less. Having married a Polish princess, he
became in 1720 the father of a prince named Charles Edward, who was
destined to make one last and brilliant, but unsuccessful effort for the
restoration of the family.
King George I., dying in June 1727, was
quietly succeeded by his son George II., with little change in the Whig
set of statesmen by which the affairs of the country had long been
conducted. During the latter years of the first Hanover sovereign, the
Duke of Argyle and his brother, the Earl of Ilay, were the men of chief
influence in Scotland. It was a period remarkable in several respects, but
particularly for the first decided development of the industrial energies
of the people, and for considerable changes in their manners and habits.
For a number of minor incidents, verging or trenching on the domain of
political history, reference must be made to the chronicle.
1714, Oct
The strong sense of religious duty at this time connected with the
observance of Sunday, is strikingly shewn in the conduct of the deputation
sent by the Church of Scotland to present a loyal address to George I. on
his accession. Reaching Barnby Moor on a Saturday night, and finding there
was no place of public worship which they were ‘clear’ to attend within a
reachable distance, ‘we resolved,’ says Mr Hart, ‘to spend the Lord’s Day
as well as we could. So each having retired alone for some time in the
morning) we breakfasted about ten of the clock, and after that Messrs
Linning, Ramsay, Adams, Mr Linning’s man, and I, did shut our
chamber-door, and went about worship. I read, sung, and prayed, and then
we retired again to our several chambers, and met about two of the clock,
and Mr Ramsay read, sung, and prayed; and after that we retired to our
several chambers, and met between four and five, supped, and, after
supper, Mr Linning read, sung, and prayed, and after we had sat a while we
retired, and so prepared for bed. Thus we spent the Lord’s Day at Barnby
Moor.’
It may be imagined that no small distress was
given to the clergy generally two years after, when it was reported that
Mr William Hamilton and Mr William Mitchell, in returning recently from
London, had travelled post on a Sabbath-day, with the horn sounding before
them. The presbytery of Edinburgh took up the case in great grief and
concern, and called the two reverend brethren to give an explanation of
their conduct, which fortunately they were able to do very
satisfactorily. Arriving at Stilton on a Saturday night, and finding there
was no accommodation for the next day but in a public-house, while there
was no place where they could rightly join in worship nearer than
Stamford—that is to say, no Presbyterian or dissenting meeting-house—they
had been induced to start on their journey to the latter place next
morning, when, as they were upon post-horses, it was a matter of course,
and needful for safety, that they should have a boy going before to blow a
horn. The presbytery was satisfied; but one strenuous brother, Mr James
Webster, who was not distinguished by a charitable temper, or much
moderation of words, broke out upon them on this score in his pulpit—not
in a sermon, but in the course of his prayer—and was rebuked on this
account by the presbytery.
1715, Feb
For many years after the Revolution, the sombre religious feelings of the
community forbade even an attempt at the revival of theatrical
performances. If there was anywhere an inclination to see Shakspeare,
Otway, Congreve, or Addison, put into living forms on the stage, it was
restricted to the same obscurity in the breast which entertained it, as
devotion to the mass or doubts regarding witchcraft. The plays and other
examples of light literature of the age of Anne did at length begin to
find their way from London to Edinburgh, there to meet a not wholly
congenial reception from at least that portion of society which professed
Episcopacy, not to speak of a certain minority of the gay, who have
usually contrived to exist even amidst the most gloomy puritanism. Time,
moreover, was continually removing the stern men of the seventeenth
century, to be replaced by others of gentler convictions. The natural love
of amusement began to assert itself against the pride of asceticism and
self-denial. Englishmen were constantly coming in as government officers,
or in pursuit of business, and bringing with them new ideas. Thus it came
to pass that, about the beginning of the Hanover dynasty, Scotland began
to think that it might indulge now and then in a little merriment, and no
great harm come of it. It must be owned, however, that during much of the
eighteenth century, there was great truth in a simile employed in the
preface to a play published in Edinburgh in 1668, which likened the drama
in Scotland to ‘a swaggerer in a country church.’
The very first presentment of any public
theatricals that can be authenticated, occurred in the early part of 1715,
just before the breaking out of the unfortunate insurrection. We know
little about it besides that a corps was then acting plays at the Tennis
Court, near Holyrood Palace.
‘We have now,’ says a contemporary
letter-writer, ‘got a playhouse set up here in the Tennis Court, to the
great grief of all sober good people; and I am surprised to see such
diversions as tend so much to corrupt men’s manners patronised and
countenanced by some of whom I expected better things…… Mr ‘Webster and
several other ministers have given a testimony against them; and for so
doing are mocked by a great many that yon would scarce suspect.
Particularly, Mr Webster is very much cried out against for saying no more
but that whoever in his parish did attend these plays should be refused
tokens to the sacrament of the Supper.’
The presbytery of Edinburgh was alive to the
danger of allowing stage-plays to be acted within their borders, and
adverted to the Canongate theatricals in great concern on the 23d of March
1715. ‘Being informed,’ they said, ‘that some comedians have lately come
to the bounds of this presbytcry, and do act within the precincts of the
Abbey, to the great offence of many, by trespassing upon morality and
those rides of modesty and chastity which our holy rcligion obligeth all
its professors to a strict observance of; therefore the presbytery
recommends to all their members to use all proper and prudent methods to
discourage the same.’ It is at the same time rather startling to find that
three of the ministers who went as a deputation to pay the respects of the
Church of Scotland to George I. on his accession in 1714— namely,
Mitchell, Ramsay, and Hart—went at Kendal to see the comedy of Love/or
Love acted.
Apr 22
A celebrated total eclipse of the sun, which happened about nine o’clock
in the morning of this day, made a great impression in Scotland, as in
other parts of Europe, over which the entire shadow passed. The darkness
lasted upwards of three minutes, during which the usual phenomena were
observed among the lower animals. The Edinburgh bard, Allan Ramsay,
heralded the event with a set of verses, embracing all the commonplaces
connected with it; adding,
‘The unlearned clowns, who don’t our era know,
From this dark Friday will their ages shew,
As I have often heard old country men
Talk of Dark Monday and their ages then!
Whiston, in his Memoirs, relates what will be
to philosophical persons an amusing anecdote of this eclipse. When the
accounts of it were published before-hand in the streets of London,
telling when it would commence, and that it would be total, a Mohammedan
envoy, from Tripoli, thought the English people were distracted in
pretending to know what God Almighty would do; which his own countrymen
could not do. ‘He concluded thus, that God Almighty would never reveal so
great a secret to us unbelievers, when he did not reveal it to those whom
he esteemed true believers. However, when the eclipse came exactly as we
all foretold, he was asked again what he thought of the matter now; his
answer was, that he supposed we knew this by art magique; otherwise he
must have turned Christian upon such an extraordinary event as this was.’ |