Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745

Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715
and 1745, by

Mrs. Thomson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost
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Title: Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 Volume III.
Author: Mrs. Thomson
Release Date: March 31, 2007 [EBook #20948]
Language: English
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MEMOIRS
OF
THE JACOBITES

OF 1715 AND 1745.
BY MRS. THOMSON,
AUTHOR OF
"MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF HENRY THE EIGHTH,"
"MEMOIRS OF SARAH, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH," ETC.
VOLUME III.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1845.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY, Bangor House,
Shoe Lane.

PREFACE.
In completing this work, I have to repeat my acknowledgments to those
friends and correspondents to whom I expressed my obligations in the
Preface to the first volume; and I have the additional pleasure of
recording similar obligations from other channels.
I beg to testify my gratitude to Sir William Maxwell, Bart., of
Montreith, for some information regarding the Nithsdale family; which,
I hope, at some future time, to interweave with my biography of the
Earl of Nithsdale; and also to Miss Charlotte Maxwell, the sister of Sir
William Maxwell, whose enthusiasm for the subject of the Jacobites is
proved by the interesting collection of Jacobite airs which she is
forming, and which will be very acceptable to all who can appreciate
poetry and song.
To Sir John Maxwell, Bart., of Pollock, and to Lady Matilda Maxwell,
I offer my best thanks for their prompt and valued suggestions on the

same subject.
I owe much to the courtesy and great intelligence of Mrs. Howison
Craufurd, of Craufurdland Castle, Ayrshire: I have derived
considerable assistance from that lady in the life of the Earl of
Kilmarnock, and have, through her aid, been enabled to give to the
public several letters never before published. For original information
regarding the Derwentwater family, and for a degree of zeal, combined
with accurate knowledge, I must here express my cordial thanks to the
Hon. Mrs. Douglass, to whose assistance much of the interest which
will be found in the life of Charles Radcliffe is justly due.
I have also to acknowledge the kindness of Mons. Amedée Pichot,
from whose interesting work I have derived great pleasure and profit;
and to Madame Colmache, for her inquiries in the Biblothéque du Roi,
for original papers relating to the subject. To W. E. Aytoun, Esq., of
Edinburgh, I beg also to express my acknowledgments for his aid in
supplying me with some curious information regarding the Duke of
Perth. The kindness with which my researches, in every direction, have
been met, has added to my task a degree of gratification, which now
causes its close to be regarded with something almost like regret.
One advantage to be gained by the late publication of this third volume,
is the criticism of friends on the two former ones. Amid many errors, I
have been admonished, by my kind adviser and critic, Charles
Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., of having erred in accepting the common
authorities in regard to the celebrated and unfortunate Lady Grange.
Whatever were the sorrows of that lady, her faults and the provocation
she gave to her irritated husband, were, it appears, fully equal to her
misfortunes. Since the story of Lady Grange is not strictly connected
with my subject, I have only referred to it incidentally. At some future
time, the singular narrative of her fate may afford me a subject of
further investigation.
I beg to correct a mistake into which I had fallen, in the first volume,
respecting those letters relating to the Earl of Mar, for which I am
indebted, to Alexander Macdonald, Esq. These, a distinct collection
from that with which I was favoured by James Gibson Craig, Esq.,

were copied about twelve years ago, from the papers then in the
possession of Lady Frances Erskine. They have since passed into the
possession of the present Earl of Mar.
An interesting letter in the Appendix of this work, will be found
relative to the social state of the Chevalier St. George, at Rome. For
permission to publish this I am indebted to the valued friendship of my
brother-in-law, Samuel Coltman, Esq., in whose possession it is, having
been bequeathed, with other MSS. to his mother, by the well-known
Joseph Spence, author of the "Anecdotes", and of other works.
LONDON, 28th March, 1846.

CONTENTS OF THE THIRD