Hiya I'm Bruce Fummey. It's the 13th of November. Now they say
that the Jacobite cause came to an end here at Sheriffmuir on this date in
1715, but I want to talk about what they never
tell you. If the people places and events in
Scottish history are of interest to you, then hit the subscribe button at the
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Trust, but for now, let me tell you a story.
So beautiful Sheriffmuir here is the site of the battle.
It's always cited as the battle where the Jacobite cause ended in
1715, although that ignores another battle
which took place on the same day further to the south, but nobody ever
talks about it.
Now to catch up those that don't know, in 1714, George, Elector of Hanover
was brought from what's now Germany to become King of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland. Now the year before, Scottish
MPs had brought a bill to Parliament to
dissolve the six-year-old United Kingdom. Now this new
German-speaking King wasn't just unpopular in Scotland but a
lot of Scots thought better to bring back our own Stuart
King from France, because he'll dissolve this Union for us.
Now let's be honest, that Stuart King was more concerned about himself.
Another guy who only cared about himself was John Erskine,
Earl of Mar. He'd been one of the Commissioners
for the Union and he had a plum job in the previous Queen Anne's Government,
but this new German took away the plums. Time for an uprising! What do you think? Now
if you're in any doubt about the whole Jacobite thing, then I've
got lots of videos in a playlist and I'll leave a link at the end,
but on the 6th of September 1715, the Earl of Mar
raised the Standard of King James at Braemar. He started an uprising based
in Perth and it all ended here at Sheriffmuir
on the 13th of November.
Now halfway between these two dates, on the 15th of October,
he sent military veteran William Macintosh from Perth
south with two thousand Highlanders. Now they couldn't come this way
round by Stirling because the Duke of Argyll guarded Stirling
with Government troops. They'd have to go through
Fife and cross the Firth of Forth by boat.
Now the Duke of Argyll had ordered that all boats on the Fife coast
should be destroyed to prevent just such an eventuality.
I'll be honest, I've never had the money to have a boat on the Forth,
I don't know if you have, but tell me in the comment section below,
would you have destroyed your boat? The point is
that when two thousand Jacobite Highlanders arrived on the Fife coast
there were plenty of boats, and so overnight on the 11th of October
half of the force managed to cross. The next night there
were British Navy men of war cruising the Forth
searching for Jacobites. Now some were captured,
but half still got through and 1500 Jacobites crossed the Forth and two
days later captured the Old Citadel in Leith. The
Duke of Argyll raced down from Stirling stood outside
the walls of the Citadel and demanded their surrender. The Highlanders laughed
at him, so he went back to Stirling. They
headed for the Borders, and so we've come to the Borders. This is
the town square in the quaint border town of Kelso.
There's a ruined Abbey, Floors Castle and other places of interest to visit, but if
you were here in Kelso at 3 pm on the 22nd of October 1715,
you would have heard in the distance the skirl
of the bagpipes as William Macintosh and his Highlanders marched south
towards town. Now they weren't the first Jacobites to arrive
here, there were already Jacobite Borderers
under William Gordon Viscount of Kenmure, there were Jacobites from the north of
England under Thomas Forster. He was the MP
for Northumberland and James Radcliffe, the Earl of Derwentwater.
Now you have a group of Jacobites in Kelso that includes Catholics,
Anglicans, Scottish Episcopalians and Presbyterians,
Highlanders, Lowlanders and English all united for the Jacobite cause.
Okay not entirely united. The Scots carried partisan Scottish banners which
raged against the Union and they wore blue and white cockades in
their hats whilst the English Jacobites wore red and white ones, but other than
that, they were in total unity. There may be
trouble ahead!
We didn't have to wait long for the
trouble. When it was suggested that this army crossed the border,
the Highlanders refused. They were coaxed, cajoled and finally surrounded by the
Northumbrian English cavalry. The Highlanders cocked their muskets and
said, if we're gonna die fighting let's do it
in our own country.
Okay, what if we give you an extra sixpence a day?
Aye, all right we'll go as far as Hawick, but we're no crossing the border.
At Hawick, it was agreed that Highlanders would cross the border, but they were
free to desert whenever they wanted, and as they marched
south, the Jacobite army captured the toll
booths and excise buildings in every town
and confiscated the taxes, on behalf of the rightful King of course!
The Scottish Highlands weren't the only area of Jacobite support.
Lancashire in England was very Catholic and strongly Jacobite.
Manchester was a hotbed of Jacobites. These people would rise and join the
throng, so the plan was to continue south, liberating tax revenues and collecting
recruits as they went, making key stops in Lancaster, Preston
and end up in the port of Liverpool which they could defend,
whilst receiving arms, supplies and reinforcements from France.
This would be the bridgehead from which they would take England back
from the Hanoverian usurper, meanwhile the Hanoverian usurper had mobilized
local militias and they locked up Catholics,
just in case.
Okay, so that's going to reduce the Jacobite options,
but when the Jacobite force routed militia forces at Penrith,
they were on a roll and on the 8th of November they reached Preston.
Hanoverian forces had retreated south, Jacobite forces
felt confident, maybe overconfident,
and what happened next may have been crucial.
You see if the Preston welcome wasn't warm, it was certainly
much more than tepid. Preston was pro-Jacobite,
well lots of Catholics are high church Anglicans.
English Jacobite recruits were arriving in the town and some Preston residents
would later be hung for lending support. So the Jacobite
army enjoyed the hospitality offered by the
locals. They'd done a lot of marching, they
deserved a bit of down time. When the Penrith route is behind you and
the Preston reception is upon you, Liverpool doesn't seem nearly as urgent
does it? The problem was, that as they dawdled,
under their radar Hanoverian forces were gathering in
Wigan. Forster, the Northumberland MP, who was now in charge of the Jacobite
forces went to bed to recover from a bout of heavy drinking,
as Government forces approached for the Preston fight, which
has been described as the last English battle. Now given that the
infantry in the approaching Hanoverian force were
staunchly Presbyterian Cameronians, and the Jacobite force were
predominantly Highlanders. It's interesting to note that England's
last battle was largely a fight between Lowland
Scots on one side and Highland Scots on the other. The
defenders mounted the barricades around Preston to prepare for the coming
attacks. They held the first assault leaving heavy
Hanoverian losses. The second assault led to more of the same.
A third assault and as night fell, the Jacobites
had held firm.
The problems came the following morning as a larger Government force arrived.
Forster, the drink sleeping MP woke up to regret his long lie two days before.
The Jacobites had revelled in landlocked Preston when they should have been
heading for the port of Liverpool. The Highlanders had always been
suspicious of crossing the border, but their right to desert meant little
now that they were surrounded on all sides, but it wasn't the Highlanders who
were seeking an escape route. Forster, their Northumbrian leader had
looked at the size of the arriving Government force,
and his own dwindling supplies and ammunition,
and decided to seek terms from the newly arrived besieging Commander,
but he didn't feel it was necessary to consult the Highlanders under his
command. When they heard that he'd accepted
unconditional terms they were furious! Ultimately however
surrender was made as Jacobites further north frittered away their numerical
advantage, in a messy draw in the Battle of
Sheriffmuir.
The 1715 uprising was effectively over, but don't switch off there, because what
I'm going to tell you next may have been what sealed the fate of
Bonnie Prince Charlie 30 years later. 19th Century workmen digging around the
Friar's Gate in Preston, found the remains of a large man buried
with a Claymore, undoubtedly a Highland casualty of 1715.
Highlanders famously crossed the border in 1745,
but they had to deal with the consequences of Highlanders crossing the
border in 1715. You see, after the inconclusive Battle of
Sheriffmuir in Perthshire, Clansmen disappeared back into
impenetrable Highland glens, and many of their leaders escaped to
France. General Wade would be given the task of building
roads into the Highlands so that Government troops could get to
them in future, but for now it was another country.
The prospects for those captured at the Siege of Preston were much worse;
the commoners faced the gruesome prospect of being hung, drawn and quartered.
Of the Jacobite leaders at Preston, Lord Derwentwater, Lord Kenmure and Lord
Nitshdale were all sentenced to meet the axeman.
Little wonder then that 30 years later when the blue bonnets crossed the border
again, few English Jacobites were prepared to
raise their heads. Lord Kenmure had his cut off, Lord
Derwentwater had his cut off, Lord Nithsdale?
Well that's the story for another video. If you like this one, then give it the
thumbs up and share it, in the meantime, why not watch some of my
other Jacobite videos in the playlist coming up now. Tha mi an dochas bum bith
lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.