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English Jacobitism, 1710–1715; Myth and Reality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

G. V. Bennett
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Extract

A complaint frequently voiced by historians of Jacobitism is that their subject is plagued by a breed of authors with a passion for secret agents, romantic uprisings, and princes in the heather. It is not so often admitted, however, just how intractable the professionals themselves find the topic and their substantial failure to give any coherent account of it. Jacobitism appears as the major issue in British politics in the early-eighteenth century; it was associated with wide-spread disorder, recurrent national crises, and a series of rebellions and attempted invasions; but its actual organization and the extent of its support remains surprisingly obscure. This is partly so because the source-material is notoriously difficult to handle and ranges from a mass of ciphered correspondence in the Stuart papers to the diplomatic archives of half-a-dozen European states. To study it is to enter a world both of illusion and deliberate misrepresentation. Would-be revolutionaries tended to imagine themselves perpetually on the verge of success, while it often suited the interests of the British government to assert that the nation was threatened with subversion and imminent invasion. But the weakness of Jacobite historiography is more fundamental than a problem with the sources. It lies in an addiction to detailed narrative unsupported by adequate analysis and a fixed assumption that the importance of the movement was its potential for effecting a revolution by armed force. This paper adopts a different approach. It examines the structure of the Jacobite organization and questions whether it was at any time between 1710 and 1715 capable of realising its aims; it argues rather that its activities contributed to a great popular myth, which was to be of critical significance in the struggle of men and parties which preceded the establishment of the Whig oligarchy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 32 , December 1982 , pp. 137 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1982

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References

1 In writing this paper I have profited greatly from discussion with Edward Gregg and with my pupil, Daniel Szechi, whose thesis will illuminate the character of the Jacobite parliamentary group, 1710–14.

2 For Marlborough's interview with Queen Anne on 23 November 1711, in which he vehemently accused the ministers of jacobitism, see Niedersächsisches Staatarchiv, Hannover, Cal. Br. 24, England 109, fos. 4–7, Bothmer to elector, 24 Nov./4 Dec. 1711.

3 Archives du Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Quai d'Orsay, Paris, Correspondance Politique, Angleterre [hereafter AECP], 234, fo. 252, Gaultier to Torcy, 18 Dec. 1711.

4 Macpherson, James, Original Papers containing the Secret History of Great Britain (2 vols., London, 1775), II, 546Google Scholar, Schütz to Robethon, 19/30 jan. 1714; ibid., 555, 16/27 Feb.; ibid., 564–7, Kreienberg to Robethon, 16/27 Feb.

5 B.L., Add. MS. 46495, fos. 9–10, James Dempster to Cardinal Gualterio, 5 Nov. 1713: ‘Monsieur Stafford me mande par sa dernier qu'il trouve comme dans un nouveau monde. La plupart de ses anciens amis sont morts: növelle decoration, nouveau personnages. Inclinations, moeurs, maximes, interests, tout est changé.’

6 For the complex intrigues of St.-Germain, see Jones, G. H., The Mainstream of Jacobitism (Cambridge, Mass., 1954)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 H.M.C., Stuart MSS., I, 361Google Scholar, James to Bolingbroke, 1 May 1715; ibid., 372, 2 July.

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19 Ibid., II, 233, Middleton to Tunstal, 18 Nov. 1711: ‘you must continue to see him, when there is occasion, and return compliments for compliments, which are more innocent than equivocations, because nobody is deceived by them. He had it in his power to have been great and good.’

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25 Lockhart Papers, I, 368–9; AECP 242, fo. 139, James to Torcy, 12 Oct. 1712: ‘lls ne laissent pas d'estre nombreux, et d'avoir beaucoup contribué a la paix et le Ministre n'en auroit jamais pu venir a bout sans leurs secours.’

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28 AECP 246, fo. 56, d'Aumont to Torcy, 10/21 July 1713; H.M.C., Stuart MSS., I, 269Google Scholar, Berwick to James, 29 June/10 July.

29 Macpherson, , Original Papers, II, 433–4Google Scholar, Nairne to Menzies, St Amand and Straton, 19 Sept. 1713; Lockhart Papers, I, 439.

30 AECP 249, fo. 33, Torcy to James, 14 May 1713, for Oxford's threat to abandon his project if Middleton were not dismissed. For Prior's request, H.M.C, Stuart MSS., I, 282Google Scholar, Berwick to James, 19 Nov. 1713, and AECP 247, fo. 156, Gaultier to Torcy, 8/19 Dec; and, for Torcy's advice to James to comply, ibid., 250, fo. 91, 21 Nov.

31 AECP 253, fos. 268–9, Gaultier to Torcy, 26Jan./5 Feb. 1714. For the manifesto, ibid., 261, fos. 14–16: ‘Projet du Manifeste du Chevalier de St. Georges’; Gregg, , Queen Anne, p. 375Google Scholar.

32 AECP 261, fo. 220, James to Torcy, 15/26 Feb. 1714. See also B.L., Add. MS. 20292, fo. 64, James to Cardinal Gualterio, 23 Apr. 1714.

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35 Fieldhouse, H. N., ‘Bolingbroke's Share in the Jacobite Intrigue of 1710–14’, Eng. Hist. Rev., lii (1937), 443–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; AECP 261, fo. 241, James to Torcy, 3 Mar. 1714: ‘Sably [Bolingbroke] qu'on suppose n'avoir que peu de credit. Olleron [Oxford] qui a tout pouvoir n'en parle pas.’

36 H.M.C, Stuart MSS., I, 299Google Scholar, Berwick to James, 21 Feb. 1714.

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39 Fieldhouse, , ‘Bolingbroke's share’, 451Google Scholar, d'Iberville to Torcy, 10/21 Mar. 1714, for evidence that Bolingbroke's advice to James followed immediately on his meeting with Jacobite MPs. See also Newman, A. N., ‘Proceedings in the House of Commons, March–June 1714’, Bull. Inst. Hist. Res., xxxiv (1961), 211–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the assertion of Charles Leslie that James would become an Anglican, see A Letter from Mr. Leslie to a Member of Parliament in London (dated 23 Apr. 1714).

40 Gregg, , Queen Anne, pp. 388–93Google Scholar; ‘Marlborough in Exile, 1712–1714’, Hist. Jnl., xv (1972), 593–618Google Scholar; ‘Was Queen Anne a Jacobite?’, History, lvii (1972), 358–75Google Scholar.

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43 Dickinson, H. T., Bolingbroke (London, 1970), pp. 131–5Google Scholar; Bennett, G. V., The Tory Crisis in Church and State, 1688–1730 (Oxford, 1975)Google Scholar, ch. 10.

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45 Jones, , Mainstream of Jacobitism, p. 106Google Scholar.

46 Speck, W. A., ‘The General Election of 1715’, Eng. Hist. Rev., xc (1975), 516CrossRefGoogle Scholar: the election changed the political complexion of Cornwall from a Tory majority of 34 boroughs to 8 in 1713 to a Whig majority of 32 to 10 in 1715.

47 H.M.C, Stuart MSS., I, 355, 366, 368, 379, 384Google Scholar. Cf. AECP 272, fo. 188, d'Iberville to Torcy, 25 Mar. 1715.

48 H.M.C, Stuart MSS., I, 520–5Google Scholar, 5/16 July 1715. Cf. ibid., 525, Mar to C. Kinnaird, 6/17 July, and Letter to Sir William Windham, p. 46.

49 H.M.C, Stuart MSS., I, 452, 534Google Scholar.

50 Lockhart Papers, I, 484–5. Mar's journey to Scotland was undertaken with James's clear consent: H.M.C, Stuart MSS., I, 388Google Scholar, James to Mar, 31 July/11 Aug. 1715. Mar merely went earlier than expected and without his commission to act.

51 Mahon, Lord, History of England (London, 1836), iGoogle Scholar, appendix, p. xvii–xviii, Boling-broke to James, 9/20 Aug. 1715; H.M.C, Stuart MSS., I, 399Google Scholar, James to Bolingbroke, 12/23 Aug.; ibid., 409, 23 Aug./3 Sept.; Mahon, , History, iGoogle Scholar, app. xix, Bolingbroke to Mar, 9/20 Sept. Campion had been MP for Bossiney, Helston and Sussex, and Courtenay for Newport, Cornwall; neither was re-elected in 1715.

52 See SirPetrie, Charles, ‘The Jacobite Activities in South and West England in the Summer of 1715’, T.R.Hist.S., 4th series, xviii (1935), 85–106CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I cannot agree with the general argument of this paper.

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