Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:25:24.985Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Jacobitism and Country Principles in the Reign of William III1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Paul Monod
Affiliation:
Middlebury College, Vermont

Extract

Ours is the age of the Jacobite restoration – not in dynastic terms, but in historical scholarship. Parliamentary Jacobitism in the period after 1710 has particularly attracted recent attention. While disagreement persists among historians as to the extent and seriousness of tory involvement with the Jacobite cause, few would deny that the issue is significant. By contrast, the influence of Jacobitism on politics under William III has been almost entirely neglected. Beyond the shadowy conspiracies that have long fascinated researchers, little is known of the role of Jacobite sentiment in the political life of England between 1688 and 1702. Not much has been added to Keith Feiling's sixty-year old assessment of the Jacobites as ‘that right wing of Toryism, in which the whole pre-Revolutionary sentiment survived’.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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.)

References

2 See Cruickshanks, Eveline, Political untouchables: the tories and the' 45 (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Colley, Linda, In defiance of oligarchy, the tory party, 1714–60 (Cambridge, 1982), esp. ch. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bennett, G. V., ‘English Jacobitism, 1710–15; myth and reality’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, XXXII (1982), 137–51Google Scholar; Szechi, Daniel, Jacobitism and tory politics, 1710–14 (Edinburgh, 1984)Google Scholar; Clark, J. C. D., English society, 1689–1832: Ideology, social structure and political practice during the ancien régime. (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 141–61Google Scholar.

3 For Jacobite plotting, see Jones, G. H., The main stream of Jacobitism (Cambridge, Mass., 1956)Google Scholar; Hopkins, Paul, ‘Aspects of Jacobite conspiracy in England in the reign of William III’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1981)Google Scholar.

4 Feiling, Keith, A history of the tory party, 1640–1714 (Oxford, 1924 and 1965), p. 299Google Scholar.

5 See Browning, Andrew, Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby and duke of Leeds, 1632–1712 (3 vols., Glasgow, 19441951), I, 173–84Google Scholar; Haley, K. H. D., The first earl of Shaftesbury (Oxford, 1968), ch. 17Google Scholar; Jones, J. R., Country and court (London, 1978), ch. 9Google Scholar.

6 Twenty-eight former Country M.P.s voted against exclusion – Henning, Basil Duke (ed.), The history of parliament: the house of commons, 1660–1690 (3 vols., London, 1983), 1, 37Google Scholar. See also Jones, J. H., The first whigs. the politics of the Exclusion Crisis, 1678–1685 (London, 1961)Google Scholar.

7 Rubini, D., Court and country, 1688–1702 (London, 1967)Google Scholar.

8 Horwitz, H., Parliament, policy and politics in the reign of William III (Manchester, 1977), esp. pp. 94100, 208–18, 316–20Google Scholar

9 Hayton, D., ‘The “Country” interest and the party system, 1689–c. 1720’, in Jones, Clyve (ed.), Party and management in parliament, 1660–1784 (New York, 1984), pp. 3785Google Scholar.

10 Plumb, J. H., The growth of political stability in England, 1615–1725 (London, 1967), p. 62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 See his James II: a study in kingship (Hove, 1978)Google Scholar, and his The potential for “absolutism” in later Stuart England’, History, LXIX (1984), 187207Google Scholar; also Western, J. R., Monarchy and revolution: The English state in the 1680s (London, 1972), chs 6–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ashley, Maurice, James II (London, 1977), chs. 14, 22Google Scholar.

12 Jones, J. R., ‘James II's whig collaborators’, Historical Journal, III (1960), 6573CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rev. Clarke, J. S. (ed.), The life of James the Second, king of England, &c. collected out of memoirs writ of his own hand (2 vols., London, 1816), 11, 184–5Google Scholar.

13 Ibid. 11, 274; Bodleian Library, Oxford (Bodl), Carte MS 208, fos. 1a–b, pp. 1–2.

14 Singer, S. W. (ed.), The correspondence of Henry Hyde, earl of Clarendon, and of his brother, Laurence Hyde, earl of Rochester (2 vols., London, 1828), 11, 234–5Google Scholar.

15 Buckley, W. E. (ed.), Memoirs of Thomas, earl of Ailesbury (2 vols., Westminster, 1890), 1, 232Google Scholar.

16 Singer, , Correspondence, II, pp. 251–2Google Scholar; Clarke, , Life, 286–90Google Scholar; Bodl. Carte MS 208, fos. 1a–b, PP. 3–4.

17 Braybrooke, Lord (ed.), The autobiography of Sir John Bramston, Camden Society, first series, XXXII (1845), 338, 344. 356Google Scholar.

18 Singer, , Correspondence, 11, 238Google Scholar.

19 Browning, Andrew (ed.), Memoirs of Sir John Reresby (Glasgow, 1936), p. 553Google Scholar.

20 Singer, , Correspondence, 11 236, 237–8, 244, 252–3Google Scholar.

21 Ibid. p. 253; Horwitz, H., Revolution politicks; the career of Daniel Finch, second earl of Nottingham, 1647–1730 (Cambridge, 1968), ch. 5Google Scholar; Cherry, George L., ‘The legal and philosophical position of the Jacobites’, Journal of Moden History, XXII (1950), 309–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Schwoerer, Lois, ‘A Jornall of the Convention at Westminster begun the 22 of January 1688/9’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XLIX (1976), 242–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Horwitz, H., ‘Parliament and the Glorious Revolution’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XLVII (1974), 50Google Scholar.

24 Beddard, Robert, ‘The loyalist opposition in the Interregnum: a letter of Dr. Francis Turner, bishop of Ely, on the Revolution of 1688’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XL (1967), 107Google Scholar.

25 Jones, J. R., The revolution of 1688 in England (New York, 1972), ch. 11Google Scholar; Kenyon, J. P., ‘The revolution of 1688: resistance and contract’, in McKendrick, Neil (ed.), Historical perspectives: studies in English thought and society in honour of J. H. Plumb (London, 1975), pp. 4369Google Scholar, and his Revolution principles: the politics of party, 1689–1720 (Cambridge, 1977), chs. 2–4Google Scholar; Clark, , English society, pp. 127–30Google Scholar. But see Schwoerer, Lois, The Declaration of Rights, 1689 (Baltimore, 1981)Google Scholar, and De Krey, Gary, ‘Political radicalism in London after the Glorious Revolution’, Journal of Modern History, LV (1983), 585617CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Plumb, Political stability, ch. 4; Western, Monarchy and revolution, ch. 11.

27 Singer, , Correspondence 11, 278, 285, 297, 299, 302–3, 306–8, 311–12, 318–19Google Scholar.

28 Historical Manuscripts Commission (H.M.C.), Report on the manuscripts of Allan George Finch (5 vols., London, 19131960), III, 10, 46, 308–45Google Scholar.

29 Macpherson, James (ed.), Original papers; containing the secret history of Great Britain from the Restoration to the accession of the House of Hannover (2 vols., London, 1776), 1, 456–9, 480–4, 487–8Google Scholar; Clarke, , Life, 11, 444–50Google Scholar; Jones, , Main stream of Jacobitism, pp. 3941Google Scholar; Hopkins, ‘Jacobite conspiracy’, chs. 5–7.

30 Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 440Google Scholar.

31 Macaulay, Lord, The history of England from the accession of James II (London, 1953), vol. III, ch. 20, pp. 81–2Google Scholar; Scott, Walter (ed.), A Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts (13 vols., London, 1813), (hereafter Somers Tracts), x, 591–8Google Scholar

32 Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 422–3Google Scholar; Jones, G. H., Charles Middleton the life and times of a Restoration politician (Chicago, 1967), p. 250Google Scholar

33 Singer, , Correspondence, 11, 303Google Scholar, Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 454, 484Google Scholar.

34 For the secret officers, see Bodl Carte MS 181, fos. 558, 561–2, Rev Porteous, T. C., ‘New light on the Lancashire Jacobite plot, 1692–4’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, L (19341935), 2962Google Scholar

35 Clarke, , Life, 11, 362–5Google Scholar; also Simms, J. G., Jacobite Ireland, 1689–91 (London, 1969)Google Scholar, and Jones, , Main stream of Jacobitism, pp. 718Google Scholar. For rumours about the treatment of protestants in Ireland, see , H.M.C., Manuscripts of Lord Kenyon (London, 1894), p. 224Google Scholar.

36 Clarke, , Life, 11, 488–9Google Scholar.

37 Yale University, Beinecke Library, Broadsides Quarto By6 1692; Clarke, , Life, 11, 479–88Google Scholar.

38 Luttrell, Narcissus, A brief historical relation of state affairs (6 vols., Oxford, 1857), 11, 430Google Scholar; Clarke, , Life, 11, 489–96Google Scholar; Aubrey, Philip, The defeat of James Stuart's armada, 1692 (Leicester, 1979)Google Scholar.

39 Luttrell, , A brief historical relation, 11, 14Google Scholar; Jones, , Main stream of Jacobitism pp. 28–9Google Scholar; Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 425–40Google Scholar.

40 Jones, , Main stream of Jacobitism, p. 20Google Scholar; Jones, , Middleton, pp. 247–51Google Scholar; Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 445Google Scholar. But see Hopkins, , ‘Jacobite conspiracy’, p. 95Google Scholar.

41 [Abbadie, Jacques], The History of the Late Conspiracy against the King and the Motion (London, 1696), p. 123Google Scholar; K[ingston, R[obert]], A True History of the Several Designs and Conspiracies Against His Majesties Sacred Person and Government (London, 1698), p. 55Google Scholar; Ailesbury memoirs, 1, 272–3, 276, 303, 306–7; Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 433–5Google Scholar.

42 Jones, , Main stream of Jacobitism, pp. 1617Google Scholar; Ferguson, James, Robert Ferguson the plotter (Edinburgh, 1887), ch. 14Google Scholar; Halliday, J., ‘The club and the revolution in Scotland, 1689–90’, Scottish Historical Review XLV (1966), 143–59Google Scholar; Clarke, , Life, II, 336–48Google Scholar; Bodl. Carte MS 181, fos. 429–30; British Library (B.L.), Add. MS 37661, fos. 53–5.

43 Bodl. Rawlinson MS D. 1079, fos. 97–8. For Lawton, see Dictionary of National Biography; Hopkins, ‘Jacobite conspiracy’, ch. 6; Goldie, Mark, ‘The roots of true whiggism, 1689–94’, History of Political Thought, I (1980), 228–9Google Scholar.

44 [Lawton, Charlwood], The Jacobite principles vindicated (London, 1693), p. 5Google Scholar.

45 [Lawton, Charlwood], A French conquest neither desirable nor practicable (n.p., 1693), p. 17Google Scholar.

46 B.L. Add.MS 37661, fo. 49. Paul Hopkins first identified Lawton as the ‘Lati’ of these letters.

47 Ibid. fos. 99, 102–3, 106.

48 Ibid. fo.172.

49 Ibid. fos. 213–14.

50 Ibid. fos. 242–3.

51 Ibid. fos. 374–5.

52 , H.M.C., Calendar of the Stuart papers belonging to His Majesty the King, preserved at Windsor Castle (7 vols., London, 19021923), p. 64Google Scholar. For Brent, see Miller, John, Popery and politics in England, 1660–1688 (Cambridge, 1973), pp. 208, 221CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Hopkins, , ‘Jacobite conspiracy’, p. 128Google Scholar; for Nosworthy, see Henning, , History of parliament, III, 165–6Google Scholar.

53 , H.M.C., Stuart, VI, 65–7Google Scholar; [ SirMontgomery, James], Great Britain's just Complaint for her late Measures, present Sufferings, and the future Miseries she is exposed to, in Somers Tracts, X, 438Google Scholar.

54 Clarke, , Life, 11, 498502, 505, 507Google Scholar.

55 Beinecke Lib., Broadsides Quarto By6 1693; Clarke, , Life, 11, 502–5Google Scholar.

56 Ibid. pp. 508–9, 511–12, 514.

57 , H.M.C., Report on the manuscripts of the late Reginald Rawdon Hastings, Esq. (2 vols., London, 1930), 11, 238Google Scholar.

58 For these factions, see Hayton, , ‘The “Country” interest’, 52–4Google Scholar; Goldie, , ‘The roots of true Whiggism’, 195236Google Scholar; Pocock, J. G. A., ‘The varieties of whiggism from exclusion to reform: a history of ideology and discourse’, in his Virtue, commerce and history (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 223–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 391Google Scholar.

60 Jones, J. R., ‘The Green Ribbon Club’, Durham University Journal, new series, XLIX (1956), 1720Google Scholar; Allen, D., ‘Political clubs in Restoration London’, Historical Journal, XIX (1976), 564, 566–8Google Scholar.

61 Singer, , Correspondence, 11, 273, 319Google Scholar; Henning, , History of parliament, 11, 505, III, 712, 748Google Scholar; Sedgwick, Romney (ed.), History of parliament: the house of commons, 1715–54 (2 vols., London, 1970), I, 183, n. 118Google Scholar; 11, 535, 550.

62 , H.M.C., The manuscripts of his grace the duke of Portland (10 vols., London, 18911920), III, 537, 598, 601, 675Google Scholar.

63 Downie, J. A., Robert Harley and the press: propaganda and public opinion in the age of Swift and Defoe (Cambridge, 1976), p. 26Google Scholar; Goldie, , ‘The roots of true Whiggism’, 230Google Scholar.

64 , H.M.C., Portland, IV, 287–8, 448, 478, 561, 611–12Google Scholar (mentions Lawton's 10 years of service to Harley): Macpherson, , Original papers, 11, 277, 283Google Scholar.

65 Ferguson, , Robert Ferguson, pp. 386–7Google Scholar.

66 Thompson, E. M. (ed.), Correspondence of the family of Hatton 1601–1704, Camden Society, first series, XXII–III (18771878), 11 198Google Scholar.

67 James, G. P. R. (ed.), Letters illustrative of the reign of William III. From 1696 to 1708. Addressed to the duke of Shrewsbury by James Vernon, esq., secretary of state (3 vols., London, 1841), 11, 346Google Scholar.

68 He tried to draw up another in 1696, but bickering among Jacobite factions scuttled the project – Clarke, , Life, 11, 532, 534–5Google Scholar.

69 , H.M.C., Portland, III, 460, 465Google Scholar.

70 Rubini, , Court and country, pp. 46, 72, 76–8, 80–1Google Scholar.

71 Horwitz, , Parliament, policy and politics, pp. 129–30Google Scholar.

72 Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 437, 459–60, 463–7Google Scholar; Hopkins, , ‘Jacobite conspiracy’, pp. 369–70Google Scholar.

73 , H.M.C., The Manuscripts of the marquis of Downshire (I vol. in 2 parts, London, 1924), pt. 1, pp. 446–8Google Scholar; Henning, , History of parliament, 11, 502–3Google Scholar; also Luttrell, 11, 255, 277, 57.

74 K[ingston], , True History, pp. 63–6Google Scholar; for this Simon Harcourt, not to be confused with the Abingdon, M.P., see Vernon correspondence, 11, 397Google Scholar.

75 Ibid. pp. 71–90.

76 Further evidence exists for the Jacobite sympathies of thirty-eight of those named. The most problematic of the other cases are those of Lord Mohun, a terrible scoundrel whose uncle was a Jacobite (Clarke, , Life, 11, 268)Google Scholar, and Sir Peter Colleton, who had a grandson named after the Jacobite Prince of Wales (Sedgwick, , History of parliament, 1, 56)Google Scholar.

77 Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 491–4Google Scholar.

78 For the trials, see Beamont, William (ed.), The Jacobite trials at Manchester in 1694, Chetham Society, XXVII (1853)Google Scholar; , H.M.C., Kenyan, pp. 292, 394, 402Google Scholar; Porteous, , ‘New light on the Lancashire Plot’, pp. 129Google Scholar; Hopkins, Paul, ‘The commissions for superstitious lands of the 1690s’, Recusant History, XV (1980), 265–82Google Scholar, and his ‘Sham plots and real plots in the 1690s’, in Cruickshanks, Eveline (ed.), Ideology and conspiracy: aspects of Jacobitism, 1689–1759 (Edinburgh, 1982), pp. 95–7Google Scholar.

79 [Ferguson, Robert], A letter to the Right Honourable, my Lord Chief Justice Holt, occasioned by the noise of a plot ([London], 1694)Google Scholar; also [Wagstaffe, Thomas], A letter out of Lancashire to a friend in London (n.p., 1694)Google Scholar.

80 , H.M.C., Portland, III, 555Google Scholar; Horwitz, , Parliament, policy and politics, pp. 135–6, 147Google Scholar.

81 Latimer, John, The annals of Bristol in the eighteenth century (n.p., 1893), p. 19Google Scholar; Luttrell, , A brief historical relation, III, 423–4Google Scholar.

82 Macpherson, , Original papers, 1, 505–9, 520–1Google Scholar.

83 [Ferguson, Robert], Whether the Parliament be not in law dissolved by the death of the Princess of Orange? ([London], 1695)Google Scholar.

84 Ailesbury memoirs, 1, 359–60

85 Horwitz, , Parliament, poliCy and politics, pp 157–8Google Scholar

86 [Wagstaffe, Thomas], A letter to a gentleman elected a Knight of the shire to serve in the present Parliament (n.p [1695])Google Scholar

87 , H M C, Kenyon, pp 386–7Google Scholar

88 Ibid p 399

89 Ibid p 399

90 , H M C, Hastings, 11, 253–4Google Scholar

91 See Garrett, Jane, The triumphs of providence: the assassination plot, 1696 (Cambridge, 1980)Google Scholar; Hardy, W. J. (ed.), Calendar of state papers: domestic series, of the reign of William and Mary (C.S.P.D., W.&M.) (13 vols., London, 18951924), VII, 193Google Scholar; Ailesbury memoirs, 1, 352–6.

92 , C.S.P.D., W.&M., VII, 109111Google Scholar; Ailesbury Memoirs, 1, 354.

93 They are listed in Browning, , Danby, III, 187213Google Scholar.

94 Henning, , History of parliament, 1, 759, 11, 215, 250, III, 617Google Scholar.

95 , H.M.C., Portland, III, 575Google Scholar.

96 Horwitz, , Parliament, policy and politics, pp. 182–7Google Scholar; Rubini, , Court and country, pp. 126–30Google Scholar; Hopkins, , ‘Sham plots’, pp. 95, 98–9Google Scholar.

97 Vemon correspondence, 1, 52–3.

98 Ailesbury memoirs, 1, 437–8.

99 Pape, T., ‘The ancient corporation of Cheadle’, North Staffordshire Field Club Transactions (19291930), pp. 5288Google Scholar; Coupe, Frank, Walton-le-dale: a history of the village (Preston, 1954), pp. 144–7Google Scholar.

100 Schwoerer, Lois G., No standing armies! The antiarmy ideology in seventeenth century England (Baltimore, 1974)Google Scholar, and her The role of William III of England in the standing army controversy, 1697–99’, Journal of British Studies, V (1966), 7494Google Scholar; Rubini, Court and country, ch. 6; Horwitz, , Parliament, policy and politics, pp. 224–9, 231, 235, 247–55Google Scholar.

101 Hopkins, , ‘Jacobite conspiracy’, p. 285Google Scholar; Vernon correspondence, 11, 17; Horwitz, , Parliament, policy and politics, p. 238Google Scholar.

102 Duke, of Manchester, , Court and society from Elizabeth to Anne. Edited from the papers at Kimbolton (2 vols., London, 1864), 11, 113–15Google Scholar.

103 Ibid, pp. 116–20.

104 Vemon correspondence, III, 121.

105 , H.M.C., The manuscripts of the Earl Cawper (2 vols., 18881889), 1, 409Google Scholar.

106 Cole, Christian (ed.), Historical and political memoirs (London, 1735), pp. 234–5Google Scholar.

107 Jones, , Main stream of Jacobitism, pp. 5960Google Scholar.

108 Cole, , Historical and political memoirs, p. 354Google Scholar.

109 John, , Campbell, Lord, The lives of the lord chancellors and keepers of the Great Seal of England (7 vols., Philadelphia, 1847–8), IV, 348Google Scholar; Vernon correspondence, III, 337–8.

110 , H.M.C., Tenth report, Appendix, Part IV, p. 335Google Scholar.

111 Szechi, Jacobitism, passim; Holmes, Geoffrey, British politics in the age of Anne (New York, 1967), pp. 93–4Google Scholar.

112 Hayton, , 'The ”Country” interest, 63–5Google Scholar; Horwitz, , Parliament, policy and politics, p. 293Google Scholar; Goldie, Mark, ‘The Nonjurors, episcopacy, and the origins of the convocation controversy’, in Cruickshanks, , Ideology and conspiracy, p. 29Google Scholar.

113 Macaulay, , History of England III, ch. 25, pp. 534–5Google Scholar; Rubini, , Court and country, p. 238Google Scholar; Singer, , Correspondence 11, 397Google Scholar.

114 C.S.P.D., W.&M., XI, 499–500, 501–2, 505.

115 Cameron, W. J. (ed.), Poems on affairs of state: Augustan satirical verse, 1660–1714 (7 vols., New Haven, 19631975), VI, 353–4Google Scholar.

116 , H.M.C., Portland, IV, 36Google Scholar.

117 Macpherson, , Original papers 1, 606–7Google Scholar.