prologue
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‘I R[eceived] very early this morning by Ex[pre]ss the favour of [your] Letter of the , with the enclosed Information,’ Newcastle scrawled. ‘I shall not fail,’ he continued, ‘to lay it before the L[ord] J[ustices] who I am persuaded will greatly approve [of ] your Zeal & attention; to His M[ajes]ty service, in sending in the most exp[re]s manner, an Intelligence which justly appeared to you of such great Importance.’ Rumours and counter-rumours had been circulating for months, but over the last week information coming from the north was beginning to align in certain crucial details. Only the day before, a short report (itself dated Whitehall, Saturday, August) had been released by the government and published in the London Gazette which spoke of ‘a French Vessel of or Guns’ which ‘had appeared on the West Coast of Scotland’ and ‘had there landed betwixt the Islands of Mull and Skie, several Persons’ one of whom, ‘there is the greatest Reason to believe is the Pretender’s Son’. The Duke of Newcastle was one of the few government ministers to have taken the rumours seriously. So, with the arrival of this statement from an independent witness, it seemed that his worst fears were confirmed beyond reasonable doubt: Charles Edward Stuart, son of James Stuart, the exiled claimant to the British throne, was in Scotland, and a new Jacobite rising had already begun.
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2/26/2016 7:25:31 PM