in ennobling an ancient and loyal race, the marriage produced a lasting
influence on the fortunes of the family. That they were proud of the
alliance appears from the circumstance that the children of that
marriage used to wear the prince's feather, that plume which has, since
the days of Edward the Black Prince, distinguished the heir apparent to
royalty. But the consanguinity in blood to the Stuarts produced another,
and a far more serious result. The sons of the Lady Mary Tudor and of
Francis, second Earl of Derwentwater, were educated, like brothers, with
the son of the abdicated monarch. James Radcliffe, who was born about
the year 1692, and who afterwards became Earl of Derwentwater, passed
his childhood at St. Germains with his royal namesake, James Stuart. The
brother of the Earl, Charles, was also brought up in France; both of
these youths, whose fate was afterwards so tragical, were reared in the
faith of the Church of Rome, and under the tuition of the Roman Catholic
clergy. They thus grew up, without perhaps hearing, certainly without
entertaining, a doubt of those rights which they died to assert. "The
late Earl of Derwentwater," writes the biographer of Charles Radclyffe,
"and his brother Charles were so strongly attached to the Pretender's
party, that their advice or consent was not so much as asked in those
consultations that were held among the disaffected previous to the
Rebellion; neither did the party think it necessary, because they were
always sure of them whenever they should come to action."
In 1705, Francis, Earl of Derwentwater, died; and during a season of
domestic tranquillity, whilst as yet the Jacobites were full of hopes
that the succession would be restored to the Stuart line, his son James
succeeded to the Earldom, and to the vast estates which had accumulated
to give dignity and influence to rank. Besides the castle of Dilstone
and Castlerigg, which Leland, who visited Cumberland in 1539, describes
as still being the "head place of the Radcliffes," many other valuable
properties, had been gradually added to the patrimonial possessions.
It was the disposition of Lord Derwentwater to employ the advantages of
wealth and birth to the benefit of others. He returned to England,
English in heart, and became the true model of an English nobleman. "He
was a man," said a contemporary writer, "formed by nature to be beloved;
for he was of so universal a beneficence, that he seemed to live for
others."[180] Residing among his own people, among them he spent his
estate, and passed his days in deeds of kindness, and in acts of
charity, which regarding no differences of faith as obstacles to the
course of that heavenly virtue, were extended alike by this unfortunate
nobleman to Protestant and to Roman Catholic. In his days, Dilstone was
the scene of an open-hearted hospitality, "which," observes the renegade
Jacobite who has chronicled the events of the period, "few in that
country do, and none can, come up to." That castle-hall, now ruined and
for ever deserted, was thronged by the distressed, who, whether the poor
denizens of the place or the wanderer by the way side, found there
relief, and went away consoled. The owner of the castle gave bread to
thousands, who long remembered his virtues, and mourned his fate. He
conciliated the good will of his equals, and disarmed the animosity of
those who differed from him in opinion. Beloved, trusted, almost
reverenced in the prime of youth, James Earl of Derwentwater held, at
the period of the first Rebellion, the enviable position of one whose
station was remembered only in conjunction with the higher dignity of
virtue. To the solid qualities of integrity, he added a sweetness and
courtesy of manner which must have lent to even homely features their
usual charm.[181] Blessing and blest, he thus dwelt amid the romantic
scenery of the Vale of Hexham.
Lord Derwentwater married Anna Maria, one of the five daughters of Sir
John Webb, Baronet of Odstock in Wiltshire. An ancestor of Sir John Webb
had first acquired the title in the reign of Charles the First for "his
family having both shed their blood in the King's cause, and
contributed, as far as they were able, with their purses, in his
defence," as is expressed in their patent.[182]
During the reign of Queen Anne, Lord Derwentwater took no part in the
various intrigues which were carried on by the Jacobite party. He lived
peaceably at Dilstone, where his name was long honoured after the
tragical events which hurried him into an early grave had occurred. But
this tranquil demeanour does not argue, as it has been supposed, that
the early playmate of James had become indifferent to the cause of the
Stuarts. The friends of the exiled family founded their hopes of its
restoration on the well-known partiality of Queen Anne for her brother,
and on the circumstance of her having seen the last of her children
consigned to the tomb. There seems no reason to doubt but that, had Anne
lived longer, she would have taken measures, in unison with the wishes
of the bulk of the nobility, and in conjunction with her confidential
ministers, to have placed the Chevalier St. George the next in
succession. In this hope, the wishes of the most respectable portion of
the Jacobite nobility were tranquillized.[183]
The sudden decease of Queen Anne disconcerted the hopes of those who had
been thus waiting for the course of events; and the immediate change of
ministry depriving those who were favourable to the house of Stuart of
power, the succession of George the First was secured, under the aspect,
for a few weeks, of the most perfect national repose. It has been well
explained, that, unless some circumstances connected with the birth and
education of the Chevalier had favoured the interests of Hanover, a very
different result would have appeared. The notion so diligently spread
abroad, of a supposititious birth--the foreign education of the young
Prince--above all, the pains which had been taken to inculcate in his
heart a devotion to the faith of both his parents, were considerations
which strongly favoured the accession of the Elector of Hanover.[184]
A year passed away, and that tranquillity was succeeded by an
ill-concerted, immature enterprise, headed by a man of every talent
except the right sort; and chilled, rather than aided, by the presence
of that melancholy exile who presented himself for the first and last
time, to sadden by the gloom of his aspect, and the inertness of his
measures, the hearts that yearned to welcome him back to Britain.
It was towards the latter end of August, in 1715, in the shire of Perth,
that the people first began to assemble themselves in a body, until they
marched to a small market town, named Kirk Michael, where the Chevalier
was first proclaimed, and his standard set up.[185] Meantime several
noblemen and gentlemen, both in England and in Scotland, influenced by
the Earl of Mar, began to collect their servants and dependants from
different places, and under various pretexts, for their proceedings.
There were also measures concerted in London by the Chevalier's friends;
and among the more active of the partisans, was a certain Captain Robert
Talbot, an Irish officer, who, upon being acquainted with the projected
insurrection, took shipping and sailed for Newcastle-upon-Tyne. By this
agent, the resolutions which had been adopted by the Jacobites in London
were conveyed to their friends in the north of England. This was part of
the scheme of the Jacobites; London was the centre of all their
conferences, and from the metropolis intelligence was secretly conveyed
in various directions: measures were concerted; the parties who were to
engage were furnished with means to act, and brought together; letters
were carried by private hands to various confederates, and debates and
correspondence were carried on some months before the Rebellion actually
broke out.
The plot was managed with care and address. The common conveyance of
letters was dangerous, and the office of delivering them was undertaken
by gentlemen of Jacobite principles, who rode from place to place as
travellers, pretending merely that they were viewing the country, and
making inquiries to gratify curiosity: these travellers were all Irish
and Papists.
Another class of agents, consisting of Mr. Clifton, a brother of Sir
Gervase Clifton, and of Mr. Beaumont, both gentlemen of Nottinghamshire,
and attended by Mr. Buxton, a clergyman of Derbyshire, rode like
gentlemen, with servants, but were armed with swords and pistols. These
emissaries also continued moving from place to place, and kept up a
constant intercourse between the disaffected parties, until all things
were ready for action.
Under these circumstances, Government took a decided step, which, as it
turned out, brought the whole concerted plot into action sooner than the
confederates had originally intended. Means were taken for the
apprehension of several suspected Jacobites. Towards the end of
September, Lord Derwentwater, among others, received notice that there
was a warrant issued by the Secretary of State to apprehend him, and
that messengers were actually arrived at Durham in order to seize his
person.[186]
On receiving this information, Lord Derwentwater, who had at that time
taken no ostensible part in the consultations of the Jacobites, and who,
as it was thought by many who knew him intimately, was undecided whether
to join the insurgents or not, adopted the line of conduct most suitable
to innocence. He repaired to the house of a neighbouring justice of the
peace, whose name has not been given at length and boldly placed himself
in his hands. He demanded what were the grounds of his accusation.
Unhappily the magistrate's loyalty was not unimpeachable. Had this
gentleman been zealously affected to the Government, or had he been a
true friend to Lord Derwentwater, he would either have persuaded that
nobleman to surrender to the messengers of Government, or he would have
detained him, and thus prevented the rash outbreak which afterwards
ensued. Such is the opinion of one who knew all the parties concerned in
the insurrection well. Such is the statement of Mr. Robert Patten,
himself a Jacobite, and chaplain to Mr. Forster. He afterwards turned
King's evidence, and received for that treachery, or, as he is pleased
to call it, penitence, a suitable remuneration.[187]
Lord Derwentwater unfortunately adopted a course which could but have
one termination. He concealed himself from those who were employed to
apprehend him. Clear from any direct imputation, had he then given
himself up, he would have been released; and he might have been deterred
from a participation in the disastrous scenes which ensued. He had now
two children, a son and a daughter. He had many valuable considerations
to forfeit for the one abstract principle of indefeasible right to the
throne. Few men had more to venture. Many of the Jacobites went into the
field with tarnished characters, and with ruined fortunes: they might
gain,--they could not lose by the perilous undertaking. Amid the bands
of high-born and highly principled men who co-operated in both the
Rebellions, adventurers would appear, whose previous lives shed
dishonour upon any cause; but the irreproachable, the prosperous, the
beloved, could desire little more for themselves than what they already
possessed: they ventured their rich and glorious barks upon the
current; and let those who sully every motive with suspicion, say that
there was no virtue, no patriotism, in the Jacobite party.
By his own descendant, Lord Derwentwater is believed to have hesitated
upon the verge of his fate, but to have been urged into it by his
brother Charles. Young and ardent, courageous even to rashness, the
first to offer himself where an enterprise was the most hazardous,
seeming to set no value upon his life where glory was to be obtained,
the darling of his party, and, to sum up the whole, only twenty-two
years of age, Mr. Radcliffe rashly drew his brother into a confederacy,
so agreeable to his own ambitious and fearless spirit. But there was
another individual on whom the responsibility of that luckless movement
in the North must chiefly rest. This was Mr. Thomas Forster the younger,
of Etherston in the county of Northumberland, and member for the county.
During the first thirty years of his life, this gentleman had scarcely
been known beyond the precincts of his paternal estate. He became a
member of Parliament, and was drawn into the vortex of party without
talents to adorn or judgment to guide his conduct. Although a
Protestant, Mr. Forster soon made his house the place of rendezvous for
all the non-jurors and disaffected people of the county in which he
lived; and he became involved in the dangers of their schemes, almost
before he was aware of the perils which he was about to encounter. The
party of the Jacobites was composed of very dissimilar materials. Whilst
some adopted its projects to retrieve character, or to attain, as they
vainly hoped, fortune, whilst others were actuated by genuine motives,
there were many who mingled in the mazes of the intricate politics of
that day from vanity, and the love of being at the head of faction: such
was Forster; and his career was unsatisfactory and inglorious as his
character was weak.
A warrant for Mr. Forster's apprehension having been sent forth, he was,
like Lord Derwentwater, obliged to fly from place to place, until he
arrived at the house of Mr. Fenwick, at Bywell. Lord Derwentwater,
meantime, had been secreted under the roof of a man named Lambert, in a
cottage, where he had remained in safety. His horses had been seized by
one of the neighbouring magistrates, and had been detained in custody
for several weeks, pursuant to an order in council; yet, when he had
need of them they were returned. "I afterwards asked that lord," Mr.
Patten relates, "how he came so quietly by his horses from the justice's
possession, whom the believing neighbourhood esteemed a most rigid Whig.
I was answered thus, by that lord's repeating a saying of Oliver
Cromwell's, 'that he could gain his ends with an ass-load of gold,' and
left me to make the application."[188]
Mr. Fenwick, of Bywell, was a secret, though not an avowed Jacobite; and
it was soon agreed that at his house should be collected all those who
were favourable to the cause. A meeting of the party was accordingly
held: it was decided that finding there was now no longer any safety in
shifting from place to place, and that since, in a few days they might
all be hurried up to London, and secured in prisons, where they might be
separately examined, and induced to betray each other;--it was now time
to appear boldly in arms, and to show the loyalty of the confederates to
King James.
In pursuance of this resolution, the place and hour of meeting were
appointed the very next morning; the sixth of October was named, and all
were to assemble at Greenrig. Here those who rode from Bywell were met
by Mr. Forster, with a party of twenty gentlemen. The meeting might have
recalled the days of the Cavaliers: the winding of the river Tyne in the
valley; the rural village of Bywell; on the rising ground to the right a
ruin, once the fortress of the vale, and held in former times by the
Baliols, presented a scene of tranquil beauty, which some who met that
day were destined never to look upon again.
The low situation of Greenrig was deemed inconvenient for the purpose of
the insurgents, and the party ascended a hill called the Waterfalls,
from which they could see the distant country. This spot is thus
described: "As you look upon Bywell from the most pleasing point of
view, the landskip lies in the following order:--from the road near the
front of the river, the ruined piers of a bridge become the front
objects; behind which, in a regular cascade, the whole river falls over
a wear, extended from bank to bank, in height above eight feet
perpendicular; a mill on the right hand, a salmon lock on the left: the
tower and the two churches stretch along the banks of the upper basin of
the river, with a fine curvature; the solemn ruins of the ancient castle
of the Baliols lift their towers above the trees on the right, and make
an agreeable contrast with the adjoining mansion-house. The whole
background appears covered with wood."[189]
On this height Mr. Forster and his party paused; but they had not been
long there before they saw the Earl of Derwentwater, who came that
morning from Dilstone, advancing. He was attended by several friends and
by all his servants, some mounted on his coach-horses, and all well
armed. As they marched through Corbridge, this gallant troop drew their
swords. They were reinforced by several other gentlemen at the house of
Mr. Errington, where they stopped; and they then advanced to the spot
where their friends awaited their approach. They now mustered sixty
horse, mostly composed of gentlemen and their attendants. After a short
council it was decided that they should proceed towards the river
Coquet, to Plainfield: here they were joined by several stragglers: they
marched that evening to Rothbury a small market-town, where they
remained all night, and continued their march on the following morning,
the seventh of October, to Warkworth Castle.
In thus assembling his friends and his tenantry, Lord Derwentwater was
not blameless of undue influence and oppression. The instances, indeed,
of threats and absolute compulsion being used to augment the forces of
the Jacobites, and to draw unwilling dependants into participation, are
very numerous; they may be collected from various petitions, borne out
by evidence, among the State Papers for 1715 and 1716. It is true that
such excuses were certain to be alleged by many persons unjustly; but,
where the charges were substantiated, we must with pain confess that the
virtues of the Earl of Derwentwater, as well as those of other
Jacobites, are sullied by a violent exercise of power over their
tenantry. One man, named George Gibson, afterwards, in memorialising
Lord Townshend from Newgate, affirms that upon his refusal to carry a
message from Lord Derwentwater to Mr. Forster, two days before the
insurrection, and returning to his own house instead, he was one night
dragged out of bed by seven or eight men, and hurried off to serve in
the said insurrection without a single servant of his own attending him.
It was proved also, by King's evidence, that the unfortunate man did all
in his power to escape from Kelso, and really made the attempt; but it
was defeated, for he was ever an object of suspicion to the Earl of
Derwentwater and Mr. Forster, whose watchfulness kept him among the
rebel troops.[190] Party may do much to blunt the feelings; yet there
was too much of what was good in the character of Lord Derwentwater for
him, in the solitude of his own prison, not to remember in after days
the heavy responsibilities which even by one act of this nature he had
incurred, in compelling a man to act against his will and conscience.
Warkworth was probably chosen as a resting-place for the insurgents, on
account of its strength. Situated only three-quarters of a mile from the
sea, on the river Coquet, over which is thrown a bridge, guarded by a
lofty tower, the Castle of Warkworth, which guards the town, commands a
view both varied with objects of interest and importance.
From a lofty turret of the castle a great extent of land and ocean is to
be seen. The great Tower of the Percys, from which this turret rises, is
decorated with the lion of Brabant, and is seated on the brink of a
cliff above the town. From this lofty structure the eye, stretching
along the coast, may discern the castles of Dunstanbrough and
Bamborough: the Fern Islands, dotted upon the face of the waters, the
Port of Alemouth, and, at a little distance, the mouth of the river
Coquet, with its island and ruined monastery. To the north, a richly
cultivated country extends as far as Alnwick; to the south lies a plain,
interspersed with villages and woods; the shore, to which it inclines,
is indented with many ports and creeks; the smoke rising from many
scattered hamlets, and the spires of churches enliven the smiling
prospect.
In this secure station the rebels remained for two days; and here Mr.
Forster assumed the rank of General of the Forces in the North, a title
which had been bestowed on him by the Earl of Mar. On the day after his
arrival at Warkworth, Mr. Forster sent Mr. Buxton, who was chaplain to
the troops to desire Mr. Ton, the parish clergyman, to pray for the
Chevalier as King; and, in the Litany, for Mary, the Queen Mother, and
to omit the petition for King George, the Prince and Princess of Wales,
&c. Mr. Ton declining to make this alteration, Mr. Buxton took
possession of the reading-desk, and performed the service, whilst the
deposed clergyman took flight, and, hastening to Newcastle, gave notice
there of what had occurred. This was the first place where the Chevalier
was prayed for in England; and Mr. Buxton's sermon, observes our
historian, "gave mighty encouragement to his hearers, being full of
exhortations, flourishing arguments, and cunning insinuations to be
hearty in the cause." These incentives were aided by a "comely
personage," and considerable eloquence and erudition.
On the following day, after proclaiming James King of England with all
due formality and with the sound of trumpet, Mr. Forster attending the
ceremony in disguise, the troops marched to Morpeth, their numbers
increasing as they went. At Felton Bridge, they were joined by seventy
horse, composed of gentlemen from the borders; and by the time they
reached Morpeth, their number had augmented to three hundred: these were
all horse-soldiers: Mr. Forster refused the foot as auxiliaries,
otherwise the increase would have been considerable. The reason assigned
for this rejection was the impossibility of supplying the men with arms;
but the fairest assurances were given to the friends of the cause that
arms and ammunition would soon be procured, and regiments listed
forthwith.
The spirits of the Jacobite army were now high; their hopes were raised
by the daily increase of their party. Newcastle was their next object,
and thither they prepared to march, having first proclaimed the
Chevalier,--Mr. Buxton taking upon himself the office of herald.
Newcastle was, however, on her defence: the city gates were closed
against the troops, and they turned towards Hexham, and thence marched
to a moor near Dilstone Castle, and here they halted for some days. This
was a feint, as they intended, it is thought, to have surprised the town
of Newcastle. But the news they received from that place were far from
encouraging. The gentry in the neighbourhood had rallied for its
defence; and Lord Scarborough, the lord-lieutenant of the county, had
entered the town with a body of men. Still there was a powerful High
Church party, who, as the Jacobites hoped, would declare for the
Chevalier. It was from Newcastle that Lord Derwentwater had been
apprised, in the first instance, that there were messengers sent to
apprehend him. The insurgents therefore, continued near Hexham, where
they seized on all the horses and arms they could, read prayers in the
churches for King James, and proclaimed him in the market-place.
The Earl of Derwentwater had appointed his brother to the command of his
troop, whilst Captain Shaftoe was under Mr. Radcliffe. This, in some
respects, was an unfortunate step: the young and brave commander had
never even seen an army before: he was inexperienced, and ignorant of
all military discipline: what he wanted in knowledge, he is said,
however, to have made up for by the influence he acquired over his men,
and by the power he had of inciting them to great exploits.[191]
Whilst the rebel forces lay at Hexham, they received the intelligence
that Lord Kenmure, the Earls of Nithisdale, of Carnwath, and Wintoun,
had risen in Nithisdale, and had marched thence to England to join the
troops in Northumberland, and had even advanced as far as Rothbury. On
the nineteenth of October, Mr. Forster joined the Scottish army at
Rothbury, and afterwards marched with an increasing force to Kelso. Here
prayers were read in the great kirk by Mr. Buxton; "and I," relates Mr.
Patten, "preached on these words, Deut. xxi. 17,--the latter part of the
verse: 'The right of the first-born is his.'" The service of the Church
of England was then read for the first time on that side of the
Tweed.[192]