Northumbrians in the '45

Only a handful Northumbrians are known to have taken part in the '45. One, Thomas Collingwood of Thrunton, was arrested but escaped from Morpeth Jail on 28 October. He joined the Jacobites at Carlisle, was captured and eventually tried and acquitted. Another was John Sanderson, a Catholic of Tynedale, who was taken at Brampton with incriminating letters. But these letters were not addressed to the Northumbrian gentry at all; instead, they were for the Cumbrian Jacobites, a few of whom do seem to have taken part in the Rising. John Hunter and a dozen of his friends from the Alnwick area rode into Scotland to help the Prince. Edward Clavering, son of William Clavering who had been out in the '15 joined the Manchester Regiment raised by the Prince. Hunter and Clavering were tried and executed in November 1715.

Most of the suspected Northumbrian Jacobites seem to have spent much more time during the '45 ensuring they were not implicated in the Rising rather than in plotting its success. Many of the leading local Catholics either left the area for London during the period of the rising or bent over backwards to show their goodwill to the Government, swearing endless oaths of loyalty and voluntarily giving up their weapons and horses. Many were clearly terrified they would lose everything through even the weakest association with the Rising. In the end, Northumberland and Durham had no part to play in the '45, and it is clear that the hopes of the few local Jacobites for a rising in the area were just castles in the sky. The consequences of the '15 for those who had taken part were quite enough to dissuade anyone in the next generation from taking part.

 
 

Page 3 of 4