Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T21:15:53.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

5 - Jonathan Swift's Memoirs of a Jacobite

Ian Higgins
Affiliation:
Australian National University
Allan I. Macinnes
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde
Kieran German
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde
Lesley Graham
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux 2
Get access

Summary

The Irish-born satirist and pamphleteer Jonathan Swift, Church of Ireland Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, was a juring High Churchman, yet he was involved in publishing the memoirs of an Irish Jacobite soldier in Scotland, a work which is in part a printed apologia for Episcopalian Jacobitism. The remarkable book was Memoirs of Capt. John Creichton. Written by Himself, an octavo volume of 170 pages, first published in 1731. It is an instance of Swift 's sympathy, indeed elective affinity with a Jacobite community of allegiance. This essay will consider aspects of the work and contend that Swift 's involvement with Creichton's memoirs was prompted by his High Church confessional politics which was the principal lens through which Swift viewed the Revolution in Scotland, Ireland and England. Swift had a three kingdoms perspective. He fully supported Anglican opposition in 1686–8 to James II's attempt to repeal the laws and Test Acts against Roman Catholics and Protestant nonconformists and to the King's exercise of the prerogative through Declarations of Indulgence. He wrote that the Revolution of 1688 was justified, but that in its consequences ‘the Prince of Orange's expedition … produced some very bad effects, which are likely to stick long enough by us’.

Type
Chapter
Information
Living with Jacobitism, 1690–1788
The Three Kingdoms and Beyond
, pp. 71 - 84
Publisher: Pickering & Chatto
First published in: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×