until they had crossed the Tweed. Like the Earl of Derwentwater, this
unfortunate nobleman is declared to have shewn reluctance to take up
arms. On having been solicited by the Earl of Mar to command the forces,
and assured that he would join him, he at first refused the offer, but
had finally acceded, and had set up the standard of the Chevalier at
Moffat, in Annandale. The standard was made, for this occasion, by Lady
Kenmure, the sister of Robert, sixth Earl of Carnwath. It was very
handsome; one side being blue, with the arms of Scotland wrought in
gold; on the other side a thistle,--the words so often uttered during
the Rebellion, and re-echoed in many a Scottish heart, "No Union," were
wrought underneath the thistle. Above it were the words NEMO ME IMPUNE
LACESSIT; white pendants were attached to the standard, on which were
inscribed--"For our Wronged King and Oppressed Country!" "For our Lives
and Liberties!"
But the nobleman who had taken this prominent part in the Rebellion of
1715, although possessed of extraordinary knowledge in politics and
civil affairs, was an utter stranger to all military business. His mild
temper and his unoffending character inspired compassion for his
subsequent fate, but unfitted him for the office of command: his
gentler qualities were united, nevertheless, to a resolute and lofty
mind. The fate of this nobleman, like that of his most distinguished
friends, was a brief tragedy.
Lord Kenmure had a troop of gentlemen with him, the command of which he
gave to the Hon. Bazil Hamilton of Beldoun, and a nephew of the Duke of
Hamilton.
Among other characters who were conspicuous on this occasion, was the
celebrated Brigadier Mackintosh. The sixth regiment, named after the
Brigadier as chief of the clan, was commanded by a kinsman. The
Brigadier had served in Germany, and had there gained his military rank.
Descended from the ancient house of Fife, the chieftain had increased
his influence by marrying, while a minor, the heiress of Clanchattan, in
right of whom he became chieftain of that clan, comprising many others.
His motto, "Touch not the cat without a glove," and the coat-of-arms
supported by two wild cats, with a cat for the crest, were not
inappropriate. No suspicion had been entertained of Mackintosh's
adherence to the Chevalier, with whom he became acquainted abroad, until
he actually joined the party.
The Earl of Carnwath, Lord Nairn, Lord Charles Murray, and the Earl of
Wintoun, commanded the other Scottish regiments, which were generally
better armed than those of the English. The Earl of Derwentwater, and
the Lords Widdrington had the two principal English regiments, of which
there were four.[193]
On the twenty-fifth of October, the united army of Scots and English
left Kelso, and marched to Jedburgh. On their march, some of the Scots,
taking umbrage, left the army under the guidance of the Earl of Wintoun;
and although that nobleman afterwards returned with his troop, above
four hundred Highlanders deserted, and returned to their country.
During the progress of the insurgent forces, there is little reason to
conclude that Lord Derwentwater took a very active or important part in
the various consultations which were held, always with great disunion,
and with a melancholy want of judgment, between the General, Mr.
Forster, and his military council. The amiable nobleman appears to have
assigned to his less discreet brother the entire guidance of his troop.
"His temper and disposition," as he expresses it in his defence,
"disposed him to peace. He was totally inexperienced in martial affairs;
that he entered upon the undertaking without any previous concert with
its chief promoters,--without any preparation of men, horses, and arms,
or other warlike accoutrements," was at once an instance of his
imprudence and a mitigation of his error.[194] There was, indeed, no
doubt but that Lord Derwentwater might have brought many hundreds of his
followers to the field, even from one portion of his estate only; for he
possessed the extensive lead mines on Alstone Moor, where a large body
of men were daily employed, and received from him their sole means of
support.[195]
But whether or not this unfortunate nobleman failed in energy or in
zeal; whether he entered with his whole heart into the cause of James
Stuart; or whether, with the conscientious scruples of a gentle nature,
he shrank from involving in the risk of this insurrection the majority
of his humble dependants, he acted throughout the whole of this brief
campaign with the consideration for others so characteristic of his
mind. He truly affirmed on his trial, that no one could charge him with
any cruel, severe, or harsh action during his continuance in arms: and
his conduct in the last extremity corresponded to his previous
forbearance. Such dispositions appear to have been cherished, indeed, by
the rest of the Jacobite party. The merciful temper of the Chevalier,
and his known aversion to destructive measures, may have had its
influence over those who asserted his claims. There was something like
the spirit of the cavalier of the Great Rebellion in Mr. Forster's reply
to some of his officers, who wished to put down or burn a Presbyterian
meetinghouse at Penrith: "It is by clemency, and not by cruelty, that we
are to prevail."[196]
After the insurgent troops had marched from place to place for some
time, it was decided that the English regiments should recross the
border; and after many disputes and much loss of time, they resolved on
a march into Lancashire, a country abounding at that time in Roman
Catholic gentry, and strongly Jacobite.[197] This decision, like most of
the other military movements of the unfortunate Jacobites, was the work
of a strong party in the camp, and was founded upon the alleged
authority of private letters, which gave the assurance of a general
insurrection taking place on the appearance of the insurgent force. The
unlucky change of plans superseded a meditated attack upon the town of
Dumfries. "Nothing," observes Mr. Patten, "could be a greater token of a
complete infatuation,--that Heaven confounded all their devices, and
that their destruction was to be of their own working, than their
omitting such an opportunity." After a rapid march from Langholm in the
west of Scotland, across the borders, and through Penrith, Appleby, and
Kendal, to Kirby Lonsdale, the combined force entered the county of
Lancaster; and having entered Lancaster without opposition, they
resolved to proceed to Preston. It is now that the last disastrous
events of Lord Derwentwater's brief career brought to light his
excellent qualities, his pure and amiable motives of action. It is not
possible to read the account of the battle of Preston, in which he was
engaged, without a deep regret for the personal misfortunes of one so
young, so well intentioned, and so esteemed, as this ill-fated nobleman.
The forces of the Jacobites amounted, after being joined by a party of
volunteers under the Lords Rothes and Torpichen, and since their
separation from the Highlanders, to about two thousand men. The foot was
commanded by Brigadier Mackintosh; and six hundred Northumbrian and
Dumfriesshire horsemen, by Lord Kenmure and Mr. Forster.[198]
On the ninth instant the march to Preston was commenced; the cavalry
troops reached that town on the same evening; but the day proving rainy,
and the roads heavy, the foot regiments were left at a small market-town
called Garstang, half-way between Manchester and Preston. Two troops of
Stanhope's dragoons, formerly quartered at Preston, having retired as
the rebels approached, the spirits of the Jacobite officers and the
ardour of their men were greatly encouraged. On the following day,
Thursday the tenth of November, the Chevalier was proclaimed at Preston,
and here the rebels were joined by many country gentlemen, their tenants
and servants: this was the first accession to the party since their
entrance into Lancashire. The new allies were chiefly Roman Catholics, a
circumstance which aroused the instinctive dread of the Scottish
volunteers to persons of that persuasion. The High Church party hung
back from joining the cause. The Roman Catholics began, according to
the historian of the Rebellion of 1715, "to show their blind side,"
being never right hearty for their cause until they are "mellow," as
they call it "over a bottle or two."[199]
The town of Preston seated on the river Ribble, was a place from which
an enemy might, in the year 1715, have been easily repulsed. About a
mile and a half from the town, a bridge over the river offered an
admirable stand for a besieged garrison; it might have been so easily
barricadoed, that it would have been impracticable to pass that way if
the commonest precautions had been adopted. The river in this part was
not fordable for a considerable distance on either side of the bridge,
and it could have been easily rendered impassable. From the Ribble
bridge to the town, the road ran between two steep banks; and this way,
or lane, was then so narrow, that in several places two men could not
ride abreast. It was here that Oliver Cromwell had met with a famous
resistance from the King's forces in 1648, large mill-stones having been
rolled down upon him from the rising grounds, so that the republican
general was in considerable danger, and he only escaped with life by
making his horse plunge into a quicksand.
This lane formed a curious natural outwork; and might easily have been
barricadoed, but the deficiencies of Mr. Forster's generalship were
fatal to so simple and obvious a plan of defence. He confined his
exertions to the town, barricadoed the streets, and posted men in the
bye-lanes and houses. The Jacobite troops formed four main barriers: one
in the churchyard, commanded by Brigadier Mackintosh. This barrier was
to be supported by four noblemen, who, at the head of the volunteer
horse, (as in many instances in the army of Charles the First,) composed
of gentlemen solely, was planted in the churchyard of Old St. Wilfred,
as the parish-church of Preston was then called: their leaders were the
Earl of Derwentwater, Lord Kenmure, the Earl of Nithisdale, and the Earl
of Wintoun,--a truehearted band as ever braved the terrors of an
encounter with their countrymen. At a little distance from the
churchyard and at the extremity of a lane leading into the fields, Lord
Charles Murray defended another post. The third was at a windmill, and
that Colonel Mackintosh was appointed to command. The fourth was in the
town.
Lord Derwentwater and his brothers were the objects, even before the
action began, of universal approbation. Whatever may have been the real
or supposed reluctance of the former to engage in the cause, it vanished
as he came into action. There he stood, having stripped off his clothes
to his waistcoat, encouraging the men, giving them money to induce them
to cast up the trenches, and animating them to a vigorous defence. His
brother addressed the soldiers also, and displayed all the ardour of his
fearless spirit. "No man of distinction," wrote a Scottish prisoner in
the Marshalsea to his friend in the North, "behaved himself better than
the Earl of Derwentwater. He kept himself most with the Scots,
abundantly exposing himself."[200] But all this was in vain, if we dare
to call any manifestations of heroic devotion in vain.
With singular incapacity, Mr. Forster had failed in procuring the
necessary intelligence of the movements of the enemy. He had been
assured by the Lancashire gentlemen, that General Wills, who headed the
King's forces, could not come within forty miles of Preston without
their knowledge. On Saturday, the twelfth of November, after he had
ordered the forces to march toward Manchester, the intelligence reached
him that General Wills had advanced as far as Wigan to attack the
rebels. Even at this crisis affairs might have been retrieved: a body of
the Jacobites was, indeed, sent forward to defend the Ribble bridge,
whilst Mr. Forster went on with a party of horse to reconnoitre. He soon
saw the enemy's dragoons; but instead of disputing the bridge, or
allowing Colonel Farquharson, belonging to Mackintosh's battalion, to
keep the pass, he ordered a retreat to the town. Then all was confusion,
slaughter, disgrace. General Wills advanced; he remembered the disaster
of Oliver Cromwell; he looked carefully around him, and caused the
hedges and fields to be viewed; but no enemy appeared to dispute his
progress. The dragoons advanced towards the town; at first, their
General conjectured that it must have been abandoned. When he
discovered his mistake, he ordered his troops to pass through a gate
which leads into the fields at the back of the town, and immediately
disposed his forces so as to prevent either a sally or a retreat.
The insurgents, meantime, were prepared to receive him. The ancient
church of St. Wilfred, which has since 1814 been replaced by a modern
structure, and endowed with another name, that of St. John, must have
been shaken to its foundations with the explosion of the cannon, as it
was discharged beneath its ancient walls. The besieged formed four main
barriers; one a little below the church, commanded by Brigadier
Mackintosh: the Earl of Derwentwater and his gallant volunteers were
commanded to support that barrier in particular, and here the first
attack was made; but it met with so fierce a reception, and such a fire
upon the assailants, that the dragoons were obliged to retreat to the
entrance of the town. Of this repulse Lord Derwentwater and his youthful
brother gained the chief credit. The scene that followed is a detail of
fruitless gallantry, and of an agonised but ill-concerted resistance.
The fatality which attended the Stuart cause, and which rendered the
bloodshed of its gallant champions unavailing to promote it, was here
conspicuous. That fatality was doubtless resolvable into a want of
common sense, in entrusting the command of the forces into incompetent
hands. All night, indeed, the Jacobite forces met their opponents with
a determined resistance, that made up, in some measure, for inequality
of numbers: the besieged were in many instances sheltered from the
enemy's shot, and they had also the advantage on their side of cannon,
with which General Wills was not supplied. In the course of that night
of horrors, whilst the brave were carried away, mangled or dying, Lord
Charles Murray, who was attacked late in the evening, wanted a
reinforcement of men. He sent Mr. Patten to the Earl of Derwentwater to
ask for aid; it was granted; Mr. Patten passing in safety on account of
his black coat, upon which neither party would fire, conducted a troop
of fifty volunteers to Lord Charles, who maintained his post, and
obliged the enemy to retire with loss. Had it not been for another of
Mr. Forster's fatal blunders, the insurgents would still have remained
in possession of the town of Preston, which has always, from its
commanding situation, been deemed, in all the civil commotions of the
kingdom, as a military post of great importance.
All Saturday night, the platoons of the King's forces were incessantly
playing upon the insurgents from two principal houses which the
besiegers had taken, but few persons of importance were killed. Several
houses were set on fire by both parties, but the wind was still,
otherwise the inhabitants and the Jacobite troops must have perished in
the flames. Towards morning the information arrived in the town through
some of the King's soldiers who had been made prisoners, that General
Carpenter, with three regiments of dragoons was marching towards
Preston, and that he had arrived at Clithero. This intelligence spread
great consternation among the Jacobites; and a capitulation began to be
mentioned among them; yet it is probable they would still have held out,
had not one of the avenues into Preston, by an inexcusable oversight of
the Jacobite General, been left unguarded.
It was discovered by some of the King's men that the street leading to
Wigan had not been barricadoed. This weak point was thereupon attacked
by Lord Forrester, at the head of that brave and old regiment, called
Preston's regiment. The assailants marched into a straight passage
behind the houses: then Lord Forrester came into the open street, and
faced Mackintosh's barrier; there were many shots fired at him, and he
was wounded; yet he went back, and lead his men fearlessly into the
street, where many of that regiment fell a sacrifice to this dauntless
assault. It prevailed; and from that time the fate of the heroes of the
churchyard of Preston, of Derwentwater and his noble comrades was
determined. But, during that appalling conflict, whilst the blood of the
valiant was tinging the streets of Preston, where was the General, who
should have shared the dangers with his officers? "I had almost forgot
to tell you," writes the plain-spoken Scottish soldier above referred
to, "that in the hottest time of our little action, which was about
eleven on Saturday night, Lord Charles Murray's men falling short of
ammunition, Robertson of Guy, and another gentleman, were sent to the
General, Mr. Forster, for a recruit. When they got access, they found
him lying in his naked bed, with a sack-posset, and some confections by
him; which I humbly judge was not a very becoming posture at that time
for a General. He took all along particular care of himself."[201]
Towards morning Mr. Forster in conjunction with Lord Widdrington and
Colonel Oxburgh, proposed a capitulation. It was considered, that by
submission, terms of mercy might be procured by the insurgent troops.
Those who thus argued had had no experience of the temper of those to
whom they trusted, or they would have willingly died sword in hand
rather than have confided in such slender hopes of clemency. The Earl of
Derwentwater was among those who counselled the surrender. From his
general character, the reasons which he assigned afterwards in his
defence, for such advice, have ever been credited. When the fury of the
action was over, the amiable nobleman perceived that it was his duty to
coincide in a step by which the lives of his countrymen might be spared:
he trusted to the mediation of Colonel Oxburgh, who offered to go to the
King's forces, and to request a cessation of arms; and who also
promised, by his personal influence, to obtain fair terms of
capitulation. As a guarantee for the suspension of hostilities, Lord
Derwentwater volunteered to become one of the hostages until the
morning, should General Wills require it. It appears that his offer was
accepted, and that while the Earl was in the camp of General Wills, he
received assurances of King George's being a prince of known
clemency,--a virtue which was said to form a distinguishing mark in his
character.[202] But Mr. Radcliffe, young and ardent, opposed the
capitulation with the vehemence natural to his character. During the
whole of the action, he had been in the midst of the fire, and had
displayed the utmost intrepidity; and now he declared, that "he would
rather die with his sword in his hand, like a man of honour, than be
dragged like a felon to the gallows, there to be hanged like a dog." He
was, of course, obliged to submit to the majority.[203] The common
soldiers joined in his declamations. "Never," writes the Scottish
soldier, "was a handful of men more ready to fight than those at
Preston." It was with difficulty that the gallant Highlanders could be
restrained from sallying forth, with their claymores, at all hazards,
upon the enemy. They chafed under the disappointment and humiliation of
that day; but all was to little purpose. Perhaps no power of words could
express the bitter feelings of that hour better than the homely phrases
of an eye-witness of the scene.
"On Sunday, to our surprise, about three in the afternoon," writes the
Highlander from his prison, "we saw a drum of the enemy beating a
chamade in the street. In an instant we were all called from our posts
to the Market-place: the horsemen were ordered to mount. This made us
believe the parley had been proposed by General Wills, and that we were
to break out and attack them sword in hand,--at least, break through
them at that end of the town; but we soon found it was proposed by Mr.
Forster, and that there was a cessation till nine next morning, and a
capitulation to be made. This was very choaking to us all, but there was
no helping of it; for no sooner had we left our posts, than they made
themselves master of them, and of our cannon."[204]
Whilst the chamade was beating, Colonel Cotton, sent by General Wills,
rode up the street, and alighted at the sign of the Mitre: the firing
meantime had not ceased from several of the houses: the common soldiers
were ignorant of the real state of the case, and believed that General
Wills had sent to offer honourable terms, not knowing that the offer of
a capitulation had proceeded from their own party.
Still there were obstacles to the capitulation raised by the Scottish
party, who were represented by Brigadier Mackintosh. "He could not," he
replied, when urged for his consent, "answer for the Scotch, for they
were people of desperate fortunes, and he had been a soldier himself,
and knew what it was to be a prisoner at discretion." When this demur
was stated to General Wills, "Go back to your people again," was his
answer to those who stated it: "I will attack the town, and I will not
spare a man of you." At the subsequent trial of the rebels General Wills
was able, with truth, to deny the charge of having given his unhappy
prisoners any hopes, to induce them to sign the capitulation. "All the
terms he offered them," such was his assertion, "was, that he would save
their lives from the soldiers till further orders, if they surrendered
at discretion: (the meaning of which was, that by the rules of war it
was in his power to cut them all to pieces, but he would give them their
lives till further orders;) and if they did not comply, he would renew
the attack, and not spare a man."[205]
No sooner had the news of the capitulation been bruited about the
streets, than it was received with a sorrow and indignation almost past
description. Had the unlucky and pusillanimous Mr. Forster appeared at
that moment, he "would certainly," as Mr. Patten relates, "have been cut
to pieces." Even in his chamber, the General was attacked by his own
Secretary, Mr. Murray, and a pistol which was aimed at him only averted
by Mr. Patten's hand. The truth is, even Forster's fidelity has been
doubted; and subsequently, the mild treatment which he received during
his imprisonment, and his escape from prison, have been construed, with
what justice it is difficult to say, into a confirmation of this charge.
On the morning after the surrender, the rebels were all made prisoners
and disarmed, soon after daybreak. That day, so fatal to the Jacobites
of 1715, witnessed also the battle of Sherriff Muir under Lord Mar, and
the retaking of the town of Inverness by Lovat. It must have aggravated
the regrets of those who then laid down their arms, to see the
townspeople of Preston plundered, in despite of every hope to the
contrary, by the King's forces, as they dislodged the dejected Jacobites
from their quarters. But these irregularities were soon checked.
At last the sound of trumpets and the beating of drums were heard: the
two Generals were entering the town in form. They rode into the
Market-place, around which the Highlanders were drawn up with their
arms. The lords and gentlemen among the rebels were first secured, and
placed severally under guard in separate rooms at the inn. Then the poor
Highlanders laid down their arms where they stood, and were marched off
to the church, under a sufficient guard. Here the thrifty Scots amused
themselves by making garments of the linings of the pews, which they
ripped off from the seats.