Parrish, David (2013) Jacobitism and the British Atlantic world in the age of Anne. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4697/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Jacobitism and the British Atlantic World in the Age of Anne Thesis submitted as a requirement for the degree Ph.D. David Parrish School of History College of Arts University of Glasgow October 2013 ii Abstract This thesis demonstrates the existence and significance of Jacobitism in the British Atlantic World, c. 1688-1727. Throughout the period under investigation, colonists were increasingly integrated into Britain’s partisan politics, religious controversies, and vibrant public sphere. This integrative process encouraged colonists to actively participate in British controversies. Moreover, this integration was complex and multi-faceted and included elements of a Tory political culture in addition to their Whig counterparts. During this period, colonists increasingly identified themselves and others according to British political and religious terminology. This was both caused and encouraged by imperial appointments, clerical appointments/SPG activity, and an increased consumption of British political news and commentary. All three informed and shaped colonists’ views regarding Jacobitism. In light of these developments, this thesis examines in three case studies colonial manifestations of Jacobitism within a larger British Atlantic context. Taking into account the voluminous recent research on Jacobitism, this examination reveals that there was an identifiable transatlantic Jacobite subculture. This subculture is recognizable by its associations with elements of British culture inextricably linked to Jacobitism: nonjuring, Scottish Episcopalianism, high church Anglicanism, and – increasingly after 1710 – Toryism. These associations were demonstrated by overt expressions of Jacobitism, such as seditious words and celebrations of Jacobite holidays. They are also illustrated by accusations of Jacobitism. This thesis seeks to incorporate Jacobitism into the burgeoning field of Atlantic History and demonstrate the significance of Jacobitism as an important element of a process of colonial iii Anglicization. This contribution to historical understandings of the Anglicization of the British Atlantic World seeks to encourage discussions between the disparate fields of British and colonial history. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements v Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 Part One 1. Jacobitism, Party Politics, and the British Atlantic 40 2. Jacobitism and Religious Belief in the British Atlantic 81 3. Jacobitism and Anti-Jacobitism in the Atlantic Public Sphere 125 Part Two 4. Occasional Conformity in Miniature: 167 Jacobitism and South Carolina, c. 1702-1716 5. ‘An Echo to that on the Other Side’: 202 Jacobitism and the Mid-Atlantic Colonies, c. 1710-1717 6. ‘Now the Mask is Taken Off’: 242 Jacobitism and Colonial New England, c. 1702-1727 7. Conclusion 280 Bibliography 288 v Acknowledgements This thesis would still be an unintelligible mess of papers if not for the guidance, direction, and support of my supervisors, Karin Bowie and Murray Pittock. Both have given more time and energy than should be required of any supervisor, and for that I will be forever grateful. The amount of time they have spent critiquing countless draft chapters borders on the absurd. I would also like to thank the participants of the Early Modern Research in Progress seminar at Glasgow University. They have provided valuable direction on two chapters and have been a regular source of interesting discussion. Most importantly, I would like to thank my wife Amanda. Her support made this thesis possible and kept me sane. Luckily, she did not know what she was getting herself into when she agreed to move across the Atlantic. If she had known from the beginning how many conversations about Jacobitism she would have to endure over three years, it would have seemed much less of an adventure and this thesis would never have been written! vi I declare that, except where explicit reference is made to the contribution of others, that this dissertation is the result of my own work and has not been submitted for any other degree at the University of Glasgow or any other institution. Signature David Parrish vii Abbreviations Add MS Additional Manuscripts AWM American Weekly Mercury AOM Archives of Maryland ed. by William Hand Brown, (Baltimore, MD: Maryland Historical Society, 1910) BNL Boston Newsletter BL British Library CSPC Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, eds. W. Noel Sainsbury, J.W. Fortescue, and Cecil Headlam, 45 vols, (1860-1969). FP Fulham Papers Colonial MHS Massachusetts Historical Society NAS National Archives Scotland NEC New England Courant SPG American material in the archives of the USPG Introduction ...any man would be ashamed to make use of such evidences or talk of dethroneing a great prince among the pine trees 4000 miles from her [Queen Anne]... -Thomas Nairne-1 In the summer of 1708 Thomas Nairne lay confined in a hot and humid jail cell in Charleston, South Carolina after having been accused of Jacobitism and arrested for treason. He was forced to lie ‘like a dog in a hot hole’ which, in his mind, in a Charleston summer, was as good as a death sentence. What was his (treasonable) offence? Nairne was accused of high treason for speaking against Queen Anne’s right to the throne of Great Britain. Although he was no leader of a colonial contingent of Jacobite irregulars seeking to liberate South Carolina from the rule of a usurper, his words were no different or any less seditious than if they had been spoken in London, Edinburgh, or Dublin. Nairne’s lament noted above is illustrative for two important reasons. First, his case demonstrates a vigorous response to suspected Jacobitism in a British colony 4000 miles away from London. Second, his comment in response, quoted above prompts an intriguing question. What should historians make of evidences or talk of dethroning a prince in a colony with a fairly insignificant population 4000 miles away from the 1 CSPC, Thomas Nairne to the [Earl of Sunderland?], 28,July 1708, item 662. 1 Introduction 2 metropolitan centre of London? Until recently, many historians of Britain have been hesitant to believe that Jacobitism, or support for the exiled Stuart dynasty, is a serious historical problem and had failed to acknowledge the serious nature of the Jacobite threat in the British Isles. If this was true for the historiography of the British Isles, it remains all the more true for studies of the British colonies. There is a historiographical consensus, amply illustrated by the near-absence of scholarship, that examples of Jacobitism 4000 miles away from the British Isles have very little historical importance. Evidence of seditious words, disaffection, or high treason is curiously left unexplained, almost as if historians are ashamed to make use of such evidences. Nairne’s words, though spoken hundreds of years ago, presciently speak the opinion of the current historical record. This project is an attempt to fill this important gap in the historical record and demonstrate the existence, expression, and significance of Jacobitism in the British Atlantic World from 1688, the year of the ‘Glorious Revolution’, to 1727, the year George II acceded to the throne of Great Britain. Before making a case for the existence and significance of Jacobitism in the British Atlantic, it is necessary to define what is meant by Jacobitism. In its broadest sense, Jacobitism entails support for James VII & II and his heirs. This simple definition masks the complexity inherent in the idea of support. What counts as support and how much ‘support’ must one show in order to be counted a Jacobite? If rebellion is not the measure, what is? Paul Monod’s 1989 work Jacobitism and the English People provides a helpful guide. Monod argues that Jacobitism is both ‘the idea and the expression of support’ for the Stuarts, and that these ideas and expressions possess an internal coherence. As such, they are a subcultural element of the larger English political Introduction 3 culture.2 This definition is useful and applicable for the larger British Atlantic World. Expressions of Jacobitism in the colonies are examples of the expression of a complex British subculture in a remote British province. In other words, a Jacobite subculture, which represented one facet of the cultural totality of Britain, was transatlantic. Therefore, expressions of Jacobitism in a colony are not necessarily examples of a colonial Jacobite subculture; they are representative of a larger transatlantic subculture. This is not to imply a monolithic Jacobite movement or a sophisticated transatlantic Jacobite organisation, but rather a transatlantic subculture bound by a series of shared ‘words, images,’ and ‘forms of behaviour.’3 This thesis consciously refers to the period under examination, 1688 to 1727, as the ‘Age of Anne’, a term adopted from Geoffrey Holmes’s study British Politics in the Age of Anne. Although Holmes was primarily interested in explaining the rage of party politics during the reign of Anne (1702-1714), he understood that the period was inexplicable if constrained to the reign of a single monarch.4 Moreover, Holmes’s work captures the essence of the tripartite relationship between politics, religion, and the public throughout the period; a goal the present work seeks to emulate. The majority of this thesis examines events which occurred between the years 1702 to 1722 but it too understands that these events were rooted in developments occurring prior to Anne’s accession.