Elite Scotswomen's Roles, Identity, and Agency in Jacobite Political
“PETTICOAT PATRONAGE.”
Elite Scotswomen’s Roles, Identity, and Agency in Jacobite Political Affairs, 1688-1766.
This Thesis is
Presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of History
of the University of Western Australia
Humanities
History
Anita R. Fairney
B.A. (Hons.)
2015 ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to uncover and analyse the identities and actions of the elite Scotswomen who supported and/or were involved in the political machinations between 1688 and 1766 in support of the Stuart cause. The strength of Jacobitism in Scotland and the national level of its support has been reappraised in recent years, revealing its centrality to Scottish political life and its strong patriotic agenda. However, the role and participation elite Scottish women played in over half a century’s political and military schemes, and their part in the preservation of Scottish Jacobite culture and community has not been examined. Through predominantly archival research I have identified and examined a few hundred elite women, who during this period were known, or referred to as Jacobites, in support of the exiled Stuart monarchy. These women came from the length and breadth of Scotland, with a variety of religious, political and familial identities, substantiating the national extent of Jacobitism in Scotland in the eighteenth century. In order to better understand the nature and range of female support I have made a prosopographical investigation of a cross section of these women. Furthermore, for the process of analysis I have organised the nature and type of elite Scotswomen’s support for Jacobitism into four main categories, which are examined each in their own chapter. This analysis contributes to Scottish, women’s and Jacobite history by revealing that the roles performed by these women had at the heart of their intention and motivation a political intent. I begin with those who preserved Jacobitism among the Scots as a political, religious and cultural ideology, and raised their children in it, and encouraged others to support it. I also examine those who partook in the patronage network as either a client or patroness in Jacobites’ favour. It also involved the analysis of women who were confidantes and informants of significant Jacobite male officials, within and outwith the field of action, contributing to their plotting and planning with moral support and information. This is further complemented by an examination of those who performed the role of accomplice and agent to such officials, organising, managing and delegating secret correspondence, and the participation of others in the lead up to Jacobite events. Finally, research into the contemporary media and ii propaganda directed against the women in the movement is analysed, to reveal the extent to which their support and actions were felt and responded to by contemporaries. The findings of this research reveal that elite Scotswomen were political women, and very much involved and supportive of Jacobite political affairs. Their contribution to the political machinations in the eighteenth century was significant to Jacobite political affairs, and therefore Scottish politics, as they were at the very heart of state building, or rather changing, working alongside Scotsmen in numerous capacities to return the Stuarts to the throne. Previously unacknowledged by historians, elite women’s participation reveals that women did not sit at home while their men plotted and planned, and went out into the field to fight for the Cause. It shows rather that they worked with them and alongside them in their country’s and families’ interest.