Decorated bannerCHAPTERXIV.(1744 to 1761.)
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asubjectof great interest in the life of Charles Edward presents itself to consideration in the alleged romantic, but particularly absurd, incidents of his various appearances in London, or England. These doubtful visits commence with the year 1744, and close with the no longeryoungChevalier’s supposed presence at the coronation of GeorgeIII., 1761.
In the former year, there was residing at Ancoats, near Manchester, Sir Oswald Mosley, who had been created a baronet by the Hanoverian king, GeorgeI., in 1720. At the end of nearly a quarter of a century, if common report do not lie, he seems to have been a thorough Jacobite, with Charles Edward for his guest, in disguise! The ‘fact’ is first recorded in Aston’s ‘Metrical Records of Manchester,’ in the following doggrellines:—
In the year ’44, a Royal Visitor came,Tho’ few knew the Prince, or his rank, or his name—To sound the opinions and gather the strengthOf the party of Stuart, his house, ere the lengthThenin pettoto which he aspiredIf he found the High Tories sufficient inspiredWith notions of right, indefeasive, divine,In favour of his Royal Sire and his line.No doubt, he was promis’d an army, a host!But he found to his cost, it was all a vain boast;For when he return’d in the year ’45,For the crown of his father, in person to strive,When in Scottish costume at the head of the clansHe marched to Mancunium to perfect his plans,The hope he had cherish’d, from promises made,Remains to this day as a debt that’s unpaid.
In the year ’44, a Royal Visitor came,Tho’ few knew the Prince, or his rank, or his name—To sound the opinions and gather the strengthOf the party of Stuart, his house, ere the lengthThenin pettoto which he aspiredIf he found the High Tories sufficient inspiredWith notions of right, indefeasive, divine,In favour of his Royal Sire and his line.No doubt, he was promis’d an army, a host!But he found to his cost, it was all a vain boast;For when he return’d in the year ’45,For the crown of his father, in person to strive,When in Scottish costume at the head of the clansHe marched to Mancunium to perfect his plans,The hope he had cherish’d, from promises made,Remains to this day as a debt that’s unpaid.
In the year ’44, a Royal Visitor came,
Tho’ few knew the Prince, or his rank, or his name—
To sound the opinions and gather the strength
Of the party of Stuart, his house, ere the length
Thenin pettoto which he aspired
If he found the High Tories sufficient inspired
With notions of right, indefeasive, divine,
In favour of his Royal Sire and his line.
No doubt, he was promis’d an army, a host!
But he found to his cost, it was all a vain boast;
For when he return’d in the year ’45,
For the crown of his father, in person to strive,
When in Scottish costume at the head of the clans
He marched to Mancunium to perfect his plans,
The hope he had cherish’d, from promises made,
Remains to this day as a debt that’s unpaid.
CHARLES EDWARD IN MANCHESTER.
A foot-note states that the prince was the guest of Sir Oswald for several weeks, ‘no doubt, to see the inhabitants of Manchester and its vicinity, who were attached to the interests of his family.’
At that time, a girl was living in Manchester, who was about fourteen years of age. For seventy succeeding years she used to relate that in 1744, a handsome young gentleman used to come from Ancoats Hall into Manchester, every post day, to the inn and post house of her father, Bradbury, for letters or to read the papers from London, in which papers, as he sat apart, he seemed to take unusual interest. The girl admired his handsome countenance, his genteel deportment, and the generous spirit which led him to give her half-a-crown for some trivial chamber-maid service. In the following year, when Charles Edward marched past her father’s house at the head of his troops, the girl made outspoken recognition of him as the liberal donor of the welcome half-crown. The father, ill-pleased at her demonstration, drove her in, and silenced her with threats; but when all danger had ceased to exist, he acknowledged that the handsome young fellow with the genteel deportment andthe young Chevalier were one and the same.—Such is the substance of a corroborative story told by a later Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., in ‘Family Memoirs,’ printed in 1849 for private circulation.
MISS BYROM’S DIARY.
In Miss Beppy Byrom’s Diary, she narrates an interview which some of the leading Jacobites of Manchester had with the prince when he was there in the ’45 rebellion. These included her celebrated father, John Byrom, Deacon, the father of the unlucky young captain who was afterwards executed on Kennington Common, Clayton, and others. The day was St. Andrew’s Day, Saturday, November 30th. Many ladies were making crosses of St. Andrew; Miss Byrom dressed in white to go and see the prince, who witched her with his noble horsemanship. The horse seemed self-conscious of bearing a king’s son. After the review, the lady and others went to church. ‘Mr. Skrigley read prayers. He prayed for the King and Prince of Wales, but named no names.’ There was much mild dissipation afterwards, with too much restlessness to partake of settled meals, but infinite sipping of wine to Jacobite healths. In the evening, after having seen the prince at table, the lady and many companions drank more healths in the officers’ room. ‘They were all exceeding civil,’ she says, ‘and almost made us fuddled with drinking the P.’s health, for we had had no dinner. We sat there till Secretary Murray came to let us know the P. was at leisure, and had done supper; so we all had the honour to kiss his hand. My papa was fetched prisoner to do the same, so was Dr. Deacon. Mr.Cattell and Mr. Clayton did it without. The latter said grace for him. Then we went out and drank his health in another room,’ &c., &c. This record is quoted in ‘Notes and Queries,’ May 1, 1869, and as it makes no reference to the alleged visit of 1744 (only one year before), it may be taken as demolishing the earliest legend of the legendary visits of Charles Edward to England.
THE VISIT IN 1748.
The next in order of date is a very undefined visit of 1748. In support of it there appears that exceedingly, questionable witness, namely, Thicknesse.
Crazy Philip Thicknesse, in his crazy Memoirs, on the title-page of which he crazily announced that he had the misfortune to be the father of George Thicknesse Tuchet. Lord Audley (the son George had succeeded to the ancient barony, through his deceased mother) was the man who, on his son refusing to supply him with money, set up a cobbler’s stall, opposite the son’s house, with a board on which was painted, ‘Boots and shoes mended in the best and cheapest manner, by Philip Thicknesse, father of Lord Audley.’ This had the desired effect. In the farrago, called his Memoirs, Thicknesse says he knew ‘an Irish officer who had only one arm.’ In a note, the nameSegraveis given as that of the officer; but this editorial addition has been transferred to the text by all writers who have quoted crazy Philip’s account. The officer with only one arm assured Thicknesse that he had been with the Prince in England, between the years 1745 and 1756, and that ‘they,’ Prince and one-armedofficer, ‘had laid a plan of seizing the person of the King, GeorgeII., as he returned from the play, by a body of Irish chairmen, fifteen hundred of whom were to begin a revolution, in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.’ Philip, however, with a return of sense, remarks: ‘I cannot vouch for the truth of this story.’ Yet out of this unfounded story grew a report that Charles Edward was in London in 1748, which was between the years above named. Philip Thicknesse was in his 70th year when he began to put together his book, which was published in 1788. He reminds his readers, that he ‘never pretended to be an accurate writer.’ The reminder was hardly necessary.
THE VISIT IN 1750.
The next witness, in chronological order, is Dr. King, the Chevalier’s great agent, who gives the year 1750, as that in which Charles Edward came to London. This information was first furnished in a book which was published in 1818, under the title, ‘Political and Literary Anecdotes of his own time.’
The editor is anonymous. He gives this account of how he came in possession of the MS. ‘A Friend’ (no name given) ‘who was a long time a prisoner in France, met with the following work in the possession of two ladies’ (not named, but who are described as) ‘relations of the writer, Dr. King. From the interesting passages which he was permitted to extract, the Editor’ (as destitute of name as the others) ‘conceived that the original might be well worthy of publication, he therefore desired his friend to procure it, and found, on a comparison of the hand-writing with that which iswell ascertained to be Dr. King’s, in the account books of St. Mary Hall, in Oxford,—that there is every reason to suppose this MS. to have been written by Dr. King himself.’ Four nameless persons, and only ‘a reason to suppose’ among them.
DR. KING AND THE CHEVALIER.
Dr. King’s life extended from 1685 to 1763; and it was towards the close of his life, that he collected the anecdotes from the manuscript of which the editor (1818) was permitted to take extracts. Where theoriginal manuscript is to be found is not mentioned. The only reference to the young Chevalier of any importance is in the paragraph in which the writer leads us to infer that the prince was in England in September, 1750, at Lady Primrose’s house. ‘Lady Primrose,’ he says, ‘presented me to ——’ Why this mysterious dash, when frequent mention is made of Charles Edward, in description of character, as ‘the Prince’ or ‘Prince Charles?’ It is also stated that the prince was King’s guest, and was recognised by King’s servants. For a Jacobite, the doctor is as severe a dissector of the young Chevalier as the bitterest Whig could desire. He speaks ill of the illustrious visitor, morally and intellectually. As to his religion, King says he was quite ready to ‘conform’ to the religion of the country; that he was a Catholic with the Catholics, and with the Protestants, a Protestant. This was exactly what Lord Kilmarnock said before he was executed. King further states that Charles Edward would exhibit an English Common Prayer Book to Protestant friends; to the Catholics he could not haveafforded much pleasure by letting Gordon, the Nonjuror, christen his first child, of which Miss Walkenshawe was the mother. Such an easy shifting of livery, from Peter’s to Martin’s, and back again to Peter’s, was natural enough in the case of a man, who had been brought up at Rome, but who was placed under the care of a Protestant tutor, who of express purpose neglected his education, and who, if King’s surmise be correct, made a merit of his baseness, to the Government in London, and was probably rewarded for it by a pension. Dr. King speaks of the prince’s agents in London, as men of fortune and distinction, and many of the first nobility, who looked to him as ‘the saviour of their country.’
MEMORANDA.
This visit to London in 1750, if it really was ever made, is supposed to be referred to, in one of several memoranda for a letter in the prince’s handwriting, preserved with other Stuart papers, in Windsor Castle; and first published by Mr. Woodward, Queen’s Librarian, in 1864. It runs thus: ‘8thly. To mention my religion (which is) of the Church of England as by law established, as I have declared myself when in London, the year 1750.’ This memorandum is at the end of a commission from the writer’s father dated 1743, to which commission is appended a copy of the ‘Manifesto’ addressed by the prince to Scotland, in 1745. At what date the memorandum was written there is no possibility of knowing. If the prince, as was his custom, used only the initial of the name of the city, it is possible that Liége was meant; and, after theword ‘when,’ the writer may have omitted the name of one of his many agents of ‘fortune and distinction,’ who looked to him as the saviour of their country.
FURTHER MEMORANDA.
There are other memoranda for letters, supposed to refer to the above visit. For example:—‘Parted, ye 2ndSept.Arrived to A, ye 6th, parted from thence, ye 12thSept.E, ye 14th, and at L, ye 16th. Parted from L, ye 22nd, and arrived at P. ye 24th. From P, parted ye 28th, arrived here ye 30thSept.’ In this memorandum the initials are supposed to stand for Antwerp, England, London, and Paris. There is nothing to prove that theydo; and, it may be said that A and L quite as aptly represent Avignon and Liége. However this may be, dates and supposed places are entirely at variance from other dates and places which are taken as referring to this identical visit of the young Chevalier to London, in 1750. ‘Ye 5thSept.O.S. 1750, arrived; ye 11th parted to D, ye 12th in the morning parted and arrived at B, and ye 13th at P. R. S. ye 16thSept.ye 22nd, 23rd, and 24th.’ Here, D and B are interpreted as signifying Dover and Boulogne, P. is Paris. R. S. have received no interpretation. It is certain that one of the two recordsmustbe incorrect; and both of themmaybe.
CHARLES EDWARD’S STATEMENT.
But, something more definite is reached in a despatch from the British Minister at Florence (Mann), which Lord Stanhope published in his ‘Decline of the Stuarts.’ The minister, who writes in 1783, describes a conversation which took place at Florence, between Charles Edward (then known as Count d’Albany) andGustavus, King of Sweden, in the course of which the count told the king that, in September, 1750, he arrived secretly in London with a Colonel Brett; that together they examined the outer parts of the Tower, and came to the conclusion that one of the gates might be blown in by a petard. After which, at a lodging in Pall Mall, where fifty Jacobites were assembled, including the Duke of Beaufort and the Earl of Westmoreland, the prince said to these Jacobites, or rather to Gustavus, that if they could have assembled only 4,000 men, he would have publicly put himself at their head. He added that he stayed a fortnight in London, and that the Government were ignorant of his presence there.
It is to be remembered that this story was told three and thirty years after the alleged occurrence. The narrator was then an aged man, whose brains and memory and general health were so damaged by ‘the drink, the drink, dear Hamlet!’ that not the slightest trust could be placed in any single word that he uttered in respect to his past history. He may have dreamed it all, but that any two gentlemen, the face of one of whom was familiar, from prints and busts publicly sold, could have so carefully examined the Tower as to find out where it was vulnerable, without the sentinels having discovered the same part in the explorers, is surely incredible. The vaunt of the secret visitor publicly placing himself at the head of an army of Jacobites, was just such a boast as the brainless drunkard of 1783 would be likely to make. There is as littlereliance to be put on the statement of the Duke of Beaufort and Earl of Westmoreland being present at a Jacobite meeting in Pall Mall. The really Jacobite duke died in 1746. His successor, and also the Earl of Westmoreland (of the year 1750), may have been often in opposition to the Government, but no act of their lives would warrant the belief that they could be insane enough to attend a meeting of half a hundred Jacobites in Pall Mall, to listen to a project for blowing up the Tower and pulling down the throne.
THE VISIT IN 1752-3.
Two years after 1750, however, according to the MS. Journal of Lord Elcho, Charles Edward was again in London, secretly at the house of the very outspoken Jacobite lady, Lady Primrose. Hume, the historian, says, in a letter to Sir John Pringle (dated 1773), that he knew with the greatest certainty that Charles Edward was in London in 1753; his authority was Lord Marischal, ‘who said it consisted with his certain knowledge.’ The knowledge was derived from a lady—whom my Lordrefused to name, and whom Humeimaginedto be Lady Primrose. Now, Lady Primrose was the Protestant daughter of the Dean of Armagh, of Huguenot descent, bearing the name of Drelincourt. She was the widow of Viscount Primrose who had been an officer of distinction in the king’s service. Lady Primrose, herself, was a warm-hearted Jacobite who had given a temporary home in Essex Street, Strand, to Flora Macdonald, during part of her brief sojourn in London in 1747. According to this legendary visit of 1753, Charles Edward, unexpectedly, enteredher room, when she was entertaining a company at cards. He was there unannounced, yet Lady Primrose called him by a name he assumed! Her object was to keep him undetected by her friends; but his portrait hung in the room, and the company identified the visitor. Lord Marischal told Hume (he thinks, ‘from the authority of the same lady,’ whom Lord Marischal had refused to name), that the Prince went about the streets and parks, with no other disguise than not wearing ‘his blue ribband and star.’ Some years after, Hume spoke of this visit, to Lord Holdernesse (who in 1753 was Secretary of State). This minister stated that he received the first intelligence of Charles Edward’s presence in London from GeorgeII.; who may have been misinformed, and who is reported to have said, ‘When he is tired of England, he will go abroad again!’ A very unlikely remark. Another story resembled that of the Lincoln’s Inn Fields’ chairmen, namely, that in 1753, Lord Elibank, his brother Alexander Murray, and five dozen associates, were to be employed in carrying off this very good-natured monarch!
CREDIBILITY OF THE STORIES.
As to the credibility of this story, it is only necessary to remark that, in 1753, Dr. Archibald Cameron was hanged in London for being present in Scotland, where mischief was intended; and that, if the Ministry were so well served by their spies, such as Sam Cameron was, through whom the Doctor was arrested and executed, Charles Edward could not possibly have escaped; and his capture was of great importance atthe moment. Moreover, the king was powerless. It belonged to the Administration to decide whether the undisguised Prince should be captured or allowed to go free.
CONFLICTING STATEMENTS.
Assuming that he was so allowed, he is again found in London in 1754. At least, crazy Thicknesse says: ‘that this unfortunate man was in London,aboutthe year 1754, I can positively assert. He was “at a lady’s house, in Essex Street;” was recognised in the Park, by a Jacobite gentleman who attempted to kneel to him, and this so alarmed the lady in Essex Street, that a boat was procured the same night, in which he was forthwith despatched to France. Tonnage of boat and captain’s name not registered.
Later, the date of this last visit is given in a letter, addressed by Lord Albemarle, British ambassador in Paris, to Sir Thomas Robinson, namely, May 1754. The writer, in August, 1754, states that he had been ‘positively’ assured by a discontented Jacobite, that ‘no longer ago than about three months,’ Charles Edward had been in London, ‘in a great disguise as may be imagined;’ that the prince had received friendly notice, at Nottingham, that he was in danger of being seized, and that he immediately fled. As to the authority, Lord Albemarle writes:—‘The person from whom I have this, is as likely to have been informed of it as any of the party, and could have had no particular reason to have imposed such a story upon me, which could have served no purpose.’ The ambassador is mistaken. The purpose of such storieswas to keep warm the hopes—fading hopes—of the Jacobites, and it was not the last story invented with that purpose in view.
AT THE CORONATION.
Lastly, there is the story of the prince’s presence at the coronation festival of GeorgeIII., in 1761. According to some authorities, it was without any stirring incident. Others say, that very stirring matter indeed sprang from it, and that much confusion was the consequence.
Walpole, describing the illustrious people, state officers, and others at the coronation-banquet of GeorgeIII., September 1761, pauses at sight of the son of the unhappy Lord Kilmarnock. ‘One there was ... the noblest figure I ever saw, the High Constable of Scotland, Lord Errol’ (he had succeeded to this title through his mother), ‘as one saw him in a place capable of containing him, one admired him. At the wedding, dressed in tissue, he looked like one of the Giants in Guildhall, new gilt. It added to the energy of his person—that one considered him acting so considerable a part in that very Hall, where, so few years ago, one saw his father, Lord Kilmarnock, condemned to the block.’ In 1746, Lord Errol, then Lord Boyd, had fought at Culloden, against his father.
AT THE BANQUET.
They who were still of that father’s way of thinking were for long afterwards comforted by a story that when the King’s Champion proclaimed GeorgeIII.king, and challenged all who questioned the right of him so proclaimed, by throwing down his glove, a Champion of JamesIII.boldly stept forward, took upthe glove, and retired with it unmolested. The story, so to speak, got crystalised. It is still partially believed in. It may have arisen out of an incident chronicled in ‘Burke’s Peerage.’ It is there said that, officiating at the coronation as Constable of Scotland, Lord Errol, by accident, neglected to doff his cap when the king entered; but on his respectfully apologising for his negligence, his majesty entreated him to be covered, for he looked on his presence at the ceremony as a very particular honour.’ This wears an air of absurdity. However that may be, Scott has made use of the alleged challenge of the king’s right to his crown.
It occurs in ‘Redgauntlet,’ where Lilias swiftly passes through the covering lines of Jacobites, takes up the gauntlet, and leaves a pledge of battle in its stead. But contemporary accounts take no note of any such occurrence. Walpole, an eye-witness, merely records: ‘The Champion acted his part admirably, and dashed down his gauntlet with proud defiance. His associates, Lord Talbot, Lord Effingham, and the Duke of Bedford were woful. Lord Talbot [the Lord High Steward] piqued himself on backing his horse down the hall and not turning its rump towards the king; but he had taken such pains to address it to that duty, that it entered backwards; and, at his retreat, the spectators clapped, a terrible indecorum.’ This indecorous clapping, as the Champion (Dymoke) and his knights backed out of the hall may have been taken by those who were not aware of the cause as some party expression.GEORGE AND CHARLES EDWARD.Out of it the story of the Jacobite taker-up ofthe glove may have arisen. The story was told with a difference. A friend (who is anonymous) informed the Earl Marischal that he had recognised Charles Edward among the spectators at the coronation banquet, and had spoken to him. The prince is said to have replied: ‘I came only out of curiosity; and the person who is the object of all this magnificence is the one I envy the least.’ Scott, in a note to the incident in ‘Redgauntlet,’ remarks,—‘The story is probably one of the numerous fictions that were circulated to keep up the spirits of a sinking faction. The incident was, however, possible, if it could be supposed to be attended by any motive adequate to the risk.... GeorgeIII., it is said, had a police of his own, whose agency was so efficient that the Sovereign was able to tell his Prime Minister, on one occasion, to his great surprize, that the Pretender was in London. The Prime Minister began immediately to talk of measures to be taken, warrants to be procured, messengers and guards to be got in readiness. “Pooh! pooh!” said the good-natured Sovereign, “since I have found him out, leave me alone to deal with him.” “And what,” said the Minister, “is your Majesty’s purpose in so serious a case?” “To leave the young man to himself,” said GeorgeIII., “and when he tires, he will go back again.” The truth of this story does not depend on that of the lifting of the gauntlet, and while the latter could be but an idle bravado, the former expresses GeorgeIII.’s goodness of heart and soundness of policy.’
A DISQUALIFICATION.
Altogether it is very clear that dates, persons, andplaces have been inextricably mixed up in the Jacobite legends of the Chevalier’s visit to London. At the same time there seems to be but one opinion among all writers, without exception, who have dealt with this subject hitherto, namely, that the alleged visit of 1750 actually occurred. Perhaps the best evidence is furnished in the ‘Diary of a Lady of Quality’ (Mrs. Wynne). The writer’s grandson states that his grandmother had frequently told him that she had had, from Lady Primrose herself, full particulars of the visit of Charles Edward to London in 1750. A few questions, however, might easily break down even this assertion. After all, the decision must be left to the reader’s judgment.
Although no overt act answered the Champion’s challenge in Westminster Hall, the right of GeorgeIII.to succeed to the crown was vigorously denied in very High Church coteries. Soon after the king’s birth, in 1738, he was baptised by Secker, Bishop of Oxford. Now, Secker was born and bred a dissenter, and did not enter the Church till after he had been a medical student, and had run a not too exemplary career. How could an unbaptised bishop validly baptise a prince, heir to the crown of England? If the king was an unbaptised, or as good as unbaptised king, he was neither lawful King of England nor temporal head of England’s Church! This was the only form in which the Champion’s gage was picked up. It did not amount to much. Nevertheless, an old inheritor of Nonjuring principles occasionally may be foundquestioning the right of GeorgeIII.to succeed, on the score of his being unbaptised, or of being (still worse) baptised by an ex-dissenter, who himself had never been sanctified by the rite according to the Church of England!THE PROTESTANTISM OF CHARLES EDWARD.As to the story of the alleged Protestantism of Charles Edward, it never had more foundation than his own ignoble assurances to members of the Church of England whom he happened to encounter. In this sense he often ‘declared’ himself; but, never in a church, at Liége or in Switzerland, or in London, at St. Martin’s, St. James’s, or St. Mary’s le Strand. There is no record of any such solemn circumstance connected with any such exalted personage in any of those places or edifices. Such a fact as his conversion would have been utter ruin to him. The very report that the fact existed caused many of his Irish friends to tighten their purse-strings. Rome, with full knowledge that he really had no ‘religion’ at all, was perfectly satisfied that his Catholicism was uncontaminated. When, after his father’s death in 1766, Charles Edward returned to Rome, no recantation, nor anything like it, was demanded of him.
The stories of the change of religion not only differ from one another, but the same spreader of the story gives different versions. Walpole, in his Letters (April 21, 1772) says: ‘I have heard from one who should know, General Redmond, an Irish officer in the French service, that the Pretender himself abjured the Roman Catholic religion at Liégea few years ago.’ Walpole, in his ‘Last Journals,’ i. 81 (April, 1772), says, ‘GeneralRedmond, a brave old Irish officer in the French service, and a Roman Catholic, told Lord Holland that the Pretender had abjured the Roman religion at Liége, and that the Irish Catholics had withdrawn their contributions on that account.’ The time is also set down as ‘a few years ago.’
FOUNDATION OF THE STORY.
The entire flimsy fabric of these stories of conversion was probably raised on a simple but interesting incident. An English baronet of an ancient family, Sir Nathaniel Thorold, died at Naples. His heir, a Roman Catholic, could not succeed. Inheritance was barred by his being of the Romish Church. The law was as cruel as anything devised by the ‘Papists,’ on whose overthrow this legislation was made against them. To evade it, and secure his rights, the heir of Sir Nathaniel Thorold, probably,permissu superiorum, stripped himself of his Romanism, and became a member of the Protestant community, at St. Martin’s. This step entitled him to his uncle’s estates, and, doubtless, little disturbed his earlier convictions; but is not this the seed out of which grew the legend of the Pretender’s cutting himself loose from Popery? Charles Edward, in some things, was not unlike the craft commanded by poor Nanty Ewart, which ran in to Annan, with her smuggled kegs of Cognac, as the ‘Jumping Jenny,’ but which began her voyage from Dunkirk with seminary priests on board, as well as brandy, and was there known as ‘La Sainte Geneviève.’