History
Georgians and Jacobites
Advanced Higher
6329
HIGHER STILL
History
Georgians and Jacobites
1715-1800
Advanced Higher
Support Materials
*+,-./
Acknowledgements
The Higher Still Development Programme gratefully acknowledges the following for
permission to reproduce copyright material:
HarperCollins Publishers for the extracts from A History of the Scottish People 15601830 by TC Smout, 1969; Macmillan Publishers for the extracts from Scotland’s
Society and Economy in Transition 1500-1760 by ID Whyte, 1997, and Jacobitism by
MH Pittock, 1998; Yale University Press for the extracts from Britons: Forging the
Nation 1707-1837 by Linda Colley, © Linda Colley 1992; The Historical Association
for the extract from
‘To Solemnise His Majesty’s Birthday: New Perspectives on Loyalism in George II’s
Britain’ by B Harris and CA Whatley, in History, 1998; Tuckwell Press for the
extracts from Clanship, Commerce and the House of Stuart 1603-1788 by Allan
MacInnes, 1996, and Modern Scottish History 1707 to the Present, Volume 1, by A
Cooke et al, 1998; Cambridge University Press for the extracts from The Industrial
Revolution in Scotland
by CA Whatley, 1997; Penguin for the extracts from The Scottish Nation: A History
1700-2000 by TM Devine, published by Viking, © TM Devine 1999.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission to use extracts from the appropriate
copyright owners. The Higher Still Development Programme apologises for any
omission which, if notified, it will be pleased to rectify at the earliest opportunity.
This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part for educational purposes provided that no
profit is derived from the reproduction and that, if reproduced in part, the source is acknowledged.
First published 2000
Higher Still Development Unit
PO Box 12754
Ladywell House
Ladywell Road
Edinburgh
EH12 7YH
CONTENTS
Teacher’s/Lecturer’s Guide
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General Aims
Course Content
Assessment
Learning Experiences
Using this Unit
Student Materials
Time-line for 1715-1800
The Importance of Studying Eighteenth Century Scotland
Introductory Section
Section 1: Jacobites and Highlanders
Section 2: Growing Wealth
Section 3: Political Stability
Section 4: Cultural Achievements of the Enlightenment
Overview
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TEACHER’S/LECTURER’S GUIDE
General Aims
This Advanced Higher context has to fulfil the overall aims for this level of historical
study:
• To acquire depth in the knowledge and understanding of historical themes.
• To develop skills of analysing issues, developments and events, drawing
conclusions and evaluating sources.
Course Content
The content to be covered is described in the following terms:
Georgians and Jacobites: Scotland 1715-1800
A study of political integration and economic growth in Scotland in the eighteenth
century, of tensions in Scottish society and of the diverse cultural achievements of the
period, illustrating the themes of conflict, culture and improvement.
The assimilation of the Highlands, including: the origins of Jacobitism and the 1715
rebellion; the distinctive features of the Gaeltacht; the course of the 1745-46 Jacobite
rising; changes in Highland society after the ’45.
Growing wealth: trade after the Union; the tobacco lords; agricultural improvement;
urban development; changing standards of living.
Political stability: the government of Scotland after the Union; the nature and
importance of the Kirk and other Churches; the ‘Dundas despotism’; unrest during the
period of the French Revolution.
Cultural achievements of the Enlightenment: education and attitudes towards
improvement; history, philosophy, social commentary; contacts with England and
Europe; architecture, painting, literature; poetry and the languages of Scotland.
Assessment
Course requirements describe the criteria that students are expected to meet as
consisting of the ability to:
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handle detailed information in order to analyse events and their relationship
thoroughly
use this analysis to address complex historical issues including consideration of
alternative interpretations
draw a series of judgements together by structured, reasoned argument reaching
well-supported conclusions.
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Learning Experiences
The kinds of activities expected of a student who is taking an Advanced History
course are outlined below.
Students should:
• engage in wide-ranging, independent reading relevant to their historical studies
• interpret and evaluate historical source material, relating it precisely to its context
in order to show awareness of the complexity and elusiveness of historical truth
• become aware of different interpretations of history by different historians and the
reasons for these
• record systematically information derived from a variety of sources, such as
books, notes, lectures, audio-visual materials
• make use of historical terms and concepts encountered in the study of complex
primary and secondary evidence
• take part in formal and informal discussion and debate based on and informed by
historical evidence and knowledge
• develop the skills of extended communication for a variety of purposes including
descriptive and analytical essays or oral responses, responses to source-based
questions and a Dissertation; opportunities should be provided for revision and
redrafting of extended writing following critical review
• develop individual and independent learning skills, especially those relating to the
preparation and production of a Dissertation.
It is important that the students should understand the historical themes that run
through the chosen topic and not simply learn about a series of discrete historical
issues.
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Using this Unit
The material in this unit is intended to support students’ work on this course by:
• expanding the course content to provide a more detailed framework for student
study
• providing stimulus material to encourage debate and discussion
• providing source handling exercises appropriate to the course requirements
• making reference to suitable texts.
Teachers may wish to:
• provide an introductory lecture for an aspect of the course, this introduction to be
followed by purposeful note-taking by students investigating the relevant aspect
more fully
• raise a question/problem/issue to be discussed, followed by note-taking, and
concluded with further discussion
• raise an issue for students to explore, given an assigned case to argue, to be
followed by formal debate
• provide stimulus materials in any appropriate form, to be followed by detailed
research of the issue through student note-making
• select essay titles for collaborative planning of an essay outline
• use sources for collaborative work on handling sources effectively.
Sources
It is essential that sources are used regularly and are drawn from all parts of the
course.
Sources should include extracts from the works of historians. Where appropriate,
differing interpretations by historians should be used and the reasons for these
differences carefully considered.
Students’ study of historians’ works should include identifying and describing
historians’ viewpoints.
The student material which follows is structured to:
• introduce each section of the course
• raise issues to form the basis for student research and to use for discussion, debate
and essay/practice
• provide a framework for the course which students can use to develop more
detailed notes
• provide a selection of primary sources
• provide brief extracts from historians’ works
• provide appropriate activities.
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STUDENT MATERIALS
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TIME-LINE FOR 1715–1800
Date
1715
1719
1719
1724
1725
1727
1733
1736
1739
1739-40
1740-48
1742
1745
1746
1747
1754
1756-63
1759
1760
1761
1767
1769
1771
1773
1774
1776
1776-83
1778
1783
1789
1789
1790
1791
1792
1793
1796
1797
1800
Event
Jacobite Rising.
Jacobite Rising in North West Scotland, supported by Spanish troops.
First Newcomen engine erected in Scotland.
General Wade appointed Commander-in-Chief for North Britain.
Malt tax riots including Shawfield riots.
Royal Bank of Scotland founded. Board of Manufacturers set up.
The Original Secession-split in the Church of Scotland.
The Porteous Riots in Edinburgh.
Raising of the Black Watch.
Publication of David Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature.
The War of the Austrian Succession.
The Cambuslang Revival. Start of a bounty on coarse linen for export.
Jacobite Rising; Battle of Prestonpans. Jacobites reach Derby.
Battle of Culloden.
Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act.
Golfing Society (later the Royal and Ancient) founded.
Seven Years War.
Carron Ironworks founded. Birth of Robert Burns.
Accession of George III.
Publication by James MacPherson of Fingal: an ancient epic poem.
Beginning of making of Edinburgh New Town.
James Watt patents the separate condenser for steam engines.
Birth of Walter Scott. Publication of the first Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Boswell and Johnson’s tour of the Hebrides.
Building of Register House, designed by Robert Adam.
Publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.
The War of American Independence.
First cotton mills in Scotland.
The Younger Pitt establishes himself in power helped by his Scottish
ally, Henry Dundas.
Outbreak of French Revolution.
Forth-Clyde Canal opens.
Publication of the First Statistical Account.
Episcopalians religious disabilities removed. General Convention of
Friends of the People meet in Edinburgh.
Trial of Thomas Muir.
War with Revolutionary France begins.
Death of Robert Burns.
Rioting against Militia Act.
Robert Owen becomes manager of New Lanark mills.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SCOTLAND
‘Few periods contain as much interest and significance for the historian of Scotland
as the eighteenth century.’
(Professor T M Devine, in Eighteenth Century Scotland: New Perspectives, 1999)
The eighteenth century contains a remarkable range of changes and developments that
re-shaped Scottish society. Whilst evidence of many of these changes can be found
before 1700, the extent and degree of change in the century after that date mark the
period out as one of great importance for serious study.
Important Developments
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The settling down of the 1707 political union of Scotland with England so that
initial hostility towards it was much faded by 1800.
The ending of Stuart ambitions to recover the crown from the Hanoverian dynasty
that had obtained it in 1714.
Economic changes that brought great improvements to Scotland’s transport
system,
an expansion of trade, the growth of industry (including an increasing use of
water and steam power) and agricultural changes that increased output.
Social changes that included a growth in the size of Scotland’s population, a big
increase in the number of villages and rapid expansion of towns and cities.
Cultural changes; this was a period of quite remarkable Scottish achievements in
intellectual and artistic terms.
The transformation of the Highlands including the breaking down of the old
authority of clan chiefs, the development of crofting and other major changes in
people’s way of life.
The migration of Scots to Scottish towns and cities, especially in the western
lowlands, to England and to the rapidly expanding empire.
The Wider Scene
These events took place at a time when Britain was heavily involved in rivalry and
conflict with other European powers over questions of trade, empire, and the
domination of Europe. Scots played a major role in these conflicts both in military
and civilian roles. Having failed before the 1707 union in the attempt to create a
Scottish overseas empire, Scots joined with enthusiasm in the expansion of the former
English Empire. In North America, India and the West Indies especially a major
struggle with the French for colonial control took place. The period includes the
following conflicts that involved Britain:
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1739
1740-48
1756-63
1776-83
17931815
The War of Jenkins Ear, a clash with Spain over matters of trade and
colonies.
The War of the Austrian Succession, a European War against France
and Prussia that included sea and colonial conflict with France and
Spain.
The Seven Years War, a further European, sea and colonial conflict
with France that brought significant gains to Britain, not least control of
Canada.
The War of American Independence, the 13 British colonies along the
east coast of North America revolted successfully, with French help, and
became the USA.
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, a huge conflict (interrupted
by a brief peace), that followed the outbreak of the French Revolution in
1789.
Events and developments in Scotland took place within this wider context. Jacobite
fortunes partly depended on circumstances in Europe. Scottish trade and industry was
affected by events beyond Scotland. Political thinking (and activity) was affected by
ideas at the times of the American and French Revolutions. Thus, study of outline
histories of Britain and of Europe will help place this study of eighteenth century
Scotland in its proper context.
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INTRODUCTORY SECTION
What was Society like in Scotland in the early eighteenth century?
Before working on the detail of the aspects set out in the course descriptor, it is
important to build up an understanding of life in Scotland at the beginning of the
1715-1800 time span.
Issues for Investigation, Discussion and Debate
There are two main issues to gather material on and consider:
a) How poverty-stricken was Scottish Society at this time?
b) Why did the Scottish Parliament vote to abolish itself and agree to political
union with England in 1707?
The two issues are connected; both at the time, and subsequently, it has been
argued that one of the reasons for union was to bring greater prosperity to
Scotland.
The Population
Around a million and a quarter people lived in Scotland in the early eighteenth
century. The overwhelming majority earned their living from agriculture. The
country possessed few villages and a small number of burghs of any size: only about
an eighth of the population could be described as living urban lives and dependant on
wages earned.
A far higher proportion of the population lived in the Highlands than has been the
case in more recent times. According to the historian Bruce Lenman, in Scotland in
1750:
‘The Highlands and Islands, covering 70% of the land surface of Scotland, had a
population of 652,000 or 51% of the total figure’.
(In Integration and Enlightenment: Scotland 1746-1832, 1981, p. 3)
Gather information on:
i)
Population size
ii) Population distribution
iii) Occupations.
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Standard of Living
The historian T C Smout paints a bleak picture of Scottish society at the time.
‘In 1690, and for half a century after that, Scotland showed in a peculiarly acute
form all the evils of a traditional under developed economy. ... She was poorer
and more backward even in her pre-industrial economy than the states to which
she most frequently compared herself.’
(In A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830, 1969, p. 224)
Historians working in this area are not necessarily in agreement with Professor Smout
and have gathered evidence of growth in the Scottish economy in the later
seventeenth century.
Gather information on:
i)
Signs of economic growth
ii) Evidence of economic troubles
iii) The social, economic and political ambitions of the leaders of Scottish society.
The Union
In 1707 Scotland and England ceased to be two quite separate countries who shared
the same monarch and became a single country with just one Parliament in London.
The reasons for Union, the desirability of Union, the benefits of Union and the
possible harm caused by Union are all matters fiercely debated at the time and
subsequently.
Gather information on:
i)
The terms of the Act of Union
ii) The main reasons for the Act of Union
iii) The views of those opposed to it
iv) The views of those in favour of it.
Activities
Two brief extracts from the work of historians follow. (It will be very helpful to
study the whole of the booklets from which they come.) Use these sources and
notes you have built up to discuss:
• Why did the Scottish Parliament vote to abolish itself?
• Was this decision in the interests of Scotland at the time?
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Sources
Source A is from Paul Scott’s 1707 The Union of Scotland and England, 1979,
Chambers, p. 3.
‘The importance of considerations of trade in bringing about the Union has
been greatly exaggerated. On the other hand, few accounts have admitted the
extent to which the Scottish Government, and the negotiators of the Treaty,
were puppets of the English Court. Many historians have denied the clear
evidence of bribery, and it seems that no one has previously suggested that
bribery is also the most probable explanation for Hamilton’s sabotage of the
opposition. Little emphasis has been placed on military intimidation or the fear
of civil war, although most contemporary accounts suggest that these
considerations were the strongest argument for the Union.’
Source B is from Christopher Whatley’s Bought and Sold for English Gold, 1994,
Economic and Social History Society of Scotland, p. 47.
He describes the Scots who negotiated the Union:
‘They fashioned a settlement which would be to Scotland's advantage, or at
least less to its disadvantage than might otherwise have been the case. Indeed
some historians, particularly those with a nationalist bias, have failed to
acknowledge the achievements of the stubborn and far from pliant Scots
Parliamentarians who ensured the future of the Scottish system and privileges
of the Royal Burghs. ... The incorporating Union of 1707 was neither
inevitable, nor a monument to wise and forward-looking statesmanship.
Neither was it a diktat. Nonetheless there was a certain logic to it. It was ... a
practical agreement between unequal partners, born and made of political,
economic and strategic necessity, which served the needs of the politicians of
both countries at the time.’
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SECTION 1: JACOBITES AND HIGHLANDERS
This first main area of content involves the study of the Assimilation of the
Highlands, including:
• the origins of Jacobitism
• the 1715 rebellion
• the distinctive features of the Gaeltacht
• the course of the 1745-46 Jacobite rising
• changes in Highland society after the ’45.
This content area brings together two distinct aspects – Jacobitism and the changing
Highlands – which overlap and interact, yet which are not identical. There were
Highland peoples opposed to or indifferent to Jacobitism; there were dimensions to
the Jacobite movement other than that provided by the Highlands. Nevertheless it was
the Highlands that felt the full force of the consequences of the final failure of
Jacobitism.
Issues for Investigation/Research
The Jacobite dimension raises two main issues:
a) ‘Who Supported the Jacobites?’ This issue can take different forms, e.g. ‘How far
was support for Jacobitism dependent on the Highlands?’ or ‘Foreign support was
vital to the Jacobite cause. Do you agree?’
b) ‘Why did Jacobitism fail?’ This, too, can take different forms, e.g. ‘Discuss the
view that the failure of Jacobitism was inevitable’ or ‘Jacobitism was too
dependent on marginal sections of society. Do you agree?’
The Highland dimension raises issues of:
a) ‘In what way can it be said that the Gaeltacht possessed distinctive features?’
b) ‘In what ways and for what reasons was Highland society transformed after
1745?’
c) ‘How important was Highland support to the Jacobite cause?’
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The Origins of Jacobitism
The background
The Treaty of Union of 1707 had, as its second article, the statement that when Queen
Anne died her successor should be:
‘Princess Sophia, Electress ... of Hanover and the Heirs of her Body, being
Protestants ... and that all Papists and persons marrying Papists shall be
excluded from ... the imperial crown of Great Britain.’
In 1688 King James VII of Scotland and II of England lost the Crown to his
Protestant son-in-law, William. English Protestant leaders’ fear of Catholic rule was
very strong and when James’s second wife gave birth to a son in 1688, they felt they
could no longer wait for James to die to be succeeded by one of his Protestant
daughters. James’s efforts to recover his former crown failed. First William, and his
wife Mary, ruled, then Anne who was, like Mary, the child of James’s first marriage.
James’s supporters, the Jacobites, were especially active in Scotland. Their leader,
Viscount Dundee, died during the course of a battle at Killiecrankie: the Jacobite
rising was checked during 1690 and James’s efforts to secure control of Ireland ended
at the Battle of the Boyne.
English leaders’ determination to exclude James and his successors was so strong that
it played a major part in convincing them that Union with Scotland was essential to
prevent a Catholic Stuart from becoming King in Scotland when Anne died.
The English Parliament had settled the succession to the English Crown on the House
of Hanover; it was essential to English interests that Scotland do the same.
Yet, even after this was agreed in 1707, Jacobitism continued to enjoy support to the
extent of being able to mount major military risings after 1707.
The supporters of Jacobitism
Support fluctuated over time, but came from:
• People who had religious reasons. These included some Roman Catholics and far
more Episcopalians. The latter believed their Monarchs ruled by ‘divine right’;
they were answerable only to God for what they did. Episcopalians did not
approve of either the way the Church of Scotland was organised or of the kinds of
services they held. They were especially strong in the North East and in the
Universities.
•
Some Highland Clans. These included clans hostile to the large pro-Hanoverian
Campbell Clan.
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•
People who resented the condition of post-Union Scotland. These included men
like the Earl of Mar who failed to win an important position under the new
Hanoverian King, George I, and who resented the grip on important positions
obtained by the group of political leaders known as Whigs. It also involved people
who had opposed the Union of 1707 and people who had supported it but were
bitterly disappointed in its immediate results.
•
English Jacobites. These included people loyal to the Stuarts, some Catholics and
some opposed to the Whig monopoly of power.
•
Foreign countries. Jacobite hopes depended, in part, on foreign support. This
came, chiefly, from the Catholic countries of France and Spain. When the leaders
of these countries supported the Jacobites with money, men and ships it was
because it suited them to distract British leaders with trouble at home, making it
more difficult for British forces to win success in Europe, the Colonies and at Sea.
The 1715 Rising
What happened
A detailed account of the main events should be made from suitable books such as
The Jacobite Cause, B Lenman (1992 edition) and the same author’s The Jacobite
Risings in Britain 1689-1746 (1995 edition) and Jacobitism, MGH Pittock (1998).
Issues to consider
Once this has been completed then reflection, analysis and evaluation are possible.
These focus around such questions as:
‘Why did the 1715 Rising fail?’
‘Was the 1715 Rising the Great Missed Opportunity for the Jacobites?’
Supporters and opponents, problems and circumstances
To investigate these issues it is necessary, first, to find out who supported the Rising
of 1715 and gather detail on:
• Scots who were discontented with the Union.
• English Tories who supported James.
• Scots and English who believed loyalty to the Stuarts was right.
• People who had religious reasons for supporting James.
• Highland clans, like the MacKenzies and Clan Cameron, who supported James.
• Any evidence of popular pro-Jacobite feelings in the Lowlands, e.g. burgh
discontent with post-Union circumstances.
• The Government’s lack of effective leadership in Scotland, having abolished the
Privy Council in 1708 and offended Scots peers by forcing them to compete to
enter the House of Lords as one of the sixteen representative peers.
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Against this list should be set a list of opponents and circumstances that led to failure,
e.g.
• Pro-Government clans, especially the Clan Campbell led by the Duke of Argyll.
• Protestants opposed to a Catholic King.
• The Government and its loyal forces.
• People who wanted peace to farm, trade, develop business, etc.
• The age and then death of Louis XIV and the lack of vigorous support from the
Regent Orleans who took his place.
• The Earl of Mar’s lack of military skill.
• The scattered nature of the Rising.
• The arrival of Dutch troops.
What happened afterwards?
Evidence of how the Government followed up its success is helpful, especially if
comparisons are to be made with what happened after the ’45 Rising. Consider:
• How secure the Government felt, and therefore able to act boldly.
• The mood in Scotland and the possible effects of aggressive Government action.
• The Duke of Argyll’s attitude.
• The punishments that were carried out.
• The drift to loyalty to the Hanoverians of former Jacobite leaders such as Mar and
Bolingbroke.
• The Disarming Act.
• The appointment of General Wade and the road and fort building policy.
• The raising of troops from the Highlands.
• The policy of peaceful relations with France pursued by Walpole’s Government.
This last point illustrates that foreign aid was seen as a key factor. In 1719 it played a
part in a further Jacobite Rising. The main events and reasons for failure of this
Rising should be noted.
The Distinctive Features of the Gaeltacht
For several centuries before 1700 the spread of English speech across lowland
Scotland led to Gaelic speaking being largely confined to an area beyond the
Highland line, to the Highlands and Islands and the east coast beyond Inverness.
Lowland Scots developed a critical attitude to the kilted Gaelic-speaking Highlanders.
According to the historian Professor T M Devine:
‘The differences in both speech and dress were clear but even more
significant, however, was the perceived savagery and lawlessness of the
Highlander. He was a figure of menace who did not share the “domestic” and
“civilised” virtues of the Lowland people. “Wyld wykkd Helandmen”, as
Wyntoun described them, were viewed as racially and culturally inferior to
other Scots and were seen as a threat to the more peace-loving inhabitants of
the rest of the country.’
(T M Devine, Clanship to Crofters’ War, 1994, p. 2)
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By 1700 the Church of Scotland had a powerful presence in Lowland Scotland, its
authority in the Highlands was far less secure whereas Episcopalianism flourished
there. The growth of burghs in Lowland areas as a focus of trade, crafts, and services
was not matched in the Highlands by a similar spread of such settlements.
By 1700, too, the continued existence of the Clan System marked the Highlanders as
a distinctive people. Powerful clan chiefs provided protection to their people; clan
success depended in part in the numbers and fighting spirit of clan members.
Although ‘clan’
(‘A’ Chlann’) literally meant children, members of a clan were not necessarily blood
relatives. Clan territories changed frequently and as a result some clans people
changed loyalties or were forcibly absorbed into a different clan. However, the myth
that all clan members were descended from a common ancestor provided a strong
emotional bond.
Clan chiefs’ authority over their clans was considerable and, through the continuation
of the feudal system of land holding, chiefs were able to mobilise their clans for war.
The Highland Economy depended primarily on farming. Traditionally the clan chief
left the detailed management of this to his tacksman (who was often a relative) who
leased land then rented it out to the folk who actually farmed it.
The Highlands very varied geographical features make it difficult to generalise too
strongly about life there. Moreover, by the early eighteenth century, there were many
signs of change in the area. Violent clashes between clans had become rare, the clan
chiefs’ powers were starting to fade and their way of life was changing as they sought
to make their estates more profitable (for example removing the tacksmen and dealing
directly with tenants). Some had huge debts that they struggled to pay off.
Highlanders were seen in the Lowlands in increasing numbers as drovers, seasonal
workers and as inhabitants of Lowland burghs like Perth and Stirling. So strong were
these signs of change that the historian Ian Whyte maintains that in the Highlands
before the 1745 Rising:
‘Much of the change that occurred after 1745 would have happened anyway
even if the rebellion had not taken place.’
(I D Whyte, Scotland's Society and Economy in Transition 1500-1760,
1997, p. 113)
The historian Allan MacInnes has questioned whether it is fair to regard Highland
society in the early eighteenth century as economically backward and points to
evidence of economic developments which had begun to take place in the seventeenth
century.
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Important aspects to consider in this section include:
• Language, culture and beliefs.
• The Clan System.
• The Highland Economy.
• Signs of change in the Highlands before 1745.
The Course of the 1745-6 Jacobite Rising
Detailed structured notes on the events of the 1745 Rising can be readily made from
the many available books. Notes should be made for clear purposes and in this topic
these include:
• Why was the Rising initially successful?
• Why did it eventually fail?
• Where did its support come from?
Study of the topic should take account of the wider context, especially of the War of
the Austrian Succession.
The topic has attracted the attention of numerous historians, some of whom have
questioned the traditional tendency to equate Jacobite military forces with
Highlanders. The historian John Stuart Shaw observes that:
‘The long-held view has represented that (Highland) society as a
commercially backward one in which the militant clan system provided the
Jacobites with officers and men. This view had come under attack, most
persuasively in the work of Allan MacInnes. He explains that the militarism of
the clans can be overplayed.’
(J S Shaw, The Political History of Eighteenth Century Scotland, 1999, p. 87)
Shaw also notes the controversial views of another academic, Murray Pittock:
‘... argues that the Jacobite army in 1745 was largely from the Lowlands.
Only 43-6% of the troops seem to have come from the Highlands ... the
Jacobite Lowland heartlands matched traditionally strong Episcopalian areas
almost exactly’.
(J S Shaw op.cit. p. 88)
Murray Pittock's views question the traditional image of Jacobite armies as poorly
armed with guns and heavily reliant on a sword-brandishing charge. He describes
Culloden as: ‘principally an artillery battle’ and maintains of the Jacobite army, ‘only
the gentlemen in the front ranks appear to have been armed with the swords which
are too often held to typify the Jacobite manner of fighting: on the field of Culloden,
Government troops recovered 2,320 Jacobite muskets, but only 190 broadswords.’
(M H Pittock, Jacobitism, 1998, p. 109)
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The points raised by these historians show the importance of paying careful
attention to the nature and extent of Highland involvement in the ’45. The final
failure needs to take account not only of military matters but also of the condition
of the country by then.
The historian Linda Colley argues:
‘... the more politically educated knew that the Stuart Pretender was a pawn
in a world-wide struggle for commercial and imperial primacy between
France and Britain, a struggle in which the trading community had quite as
much at stake as its ruling elite. I am not suggesting that material
considerations determined the defeat of Jacobitism. The overwhelming
strength of Protestantism throughout Great Britain did that, if anything did.
... Virtually all of the Scottish towns occupied by the Jacobite army exhibited
active or passive pro-Hanoverianism.’
(L Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837, 1992, pp. 79-80 and 83)
It is worth comparing the ’15 and the ’45 in terms of the likely success of each.
The historian, Bruce Lenman, suggests:
‘The 1715 was a far bigger rising and it had a far better chance of success at
the outset.’
Consider the range of support that each rising attracted and the reasons why their
fortunes differed.
Changes in Highland Society after the ’45
Highland society was affected by both immediate Government action and by longer
term social and economic trends which can be detected before 1745 but which had a
major impact in the later eighteenth century. Both require to be studied.
Government actions included:
• Arresting, hunting, killing and intimidating many Highlanders.
• Seizing 41 estates, selling off some and controlling 13.
• Burning crops and property, killing and driving off livestock.
• Abolishing the legal rights enabling Scottish landowners to hold private courts.
• Banning the carrying of weapons and the wearing of tartan.
• Garrisoning the Highlands and building Fort George as a huge military base.
(The historian Allan MacInnes has described these policies as ‘systematic state
terrorism’.)
• Supporting some economic development in the Highlands, e.g. the British
Fisheries Society (of 1786) which developed Ullapool and Lochbay.
Longer term trends included:
• The population of the Highlands increased.
• The movement of Highlanders out of the Highlands to urban areas and to North
America and the West Indies.
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•
The decline of the clan system and a shift to a much more commercial system of
agriculture in which rents rose and the landlord dealt directly with his tenants,
doing away with the tacksman.
The increasingly comfortable and cultured lifestyle of the clan chiefs.
The break-up of the old township (or ‘baile’) and its collaborative strip-farming
system in favour of single tenant farms (especially eastern areas) and crofting
(especially along the western coast).
The coming of Border Black face and Cheviot sheep and the development of
extensive sheep farming (since the textile revolution vastly increased demand for
wool) that required few people to manage.
Relocation of people from glens to coastal areas.
The establishment of potatoes as a major crop providing yields three times those
of oats and eight times those of barley.
The development of supplementary earnings by crofters from fishing, quarrying,
illicit distilling, and burning seaweed to make kelp, an ash used in the glass and
soap industries.
The spread of Presbyterianism, pushed by the Society in Scotland for the
Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK).
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The historian T M Devine observes:
‘traditional society was destroyed in this period and a new order based on
quite different values, principles and relationships emerged to take its place.’
(T M Devine, Clanship to Crofters’ War, 1994, p. 32)
The relocation of Highlanders has stirred great debate between those who condemn it
and those who see it as the result of underlying long-term factors.
Activities
Essays
1.
‘The Jacobite cause was always a doomed enterprise.’ Do you agree?
2.
How acceptable is the view that long-term economic and social trends did far
more to transform the Highlands than the consequences of Highland
involvement in Jacobitism?
3.
Is it true to say that the relocation of Highlanders at this time was an
unavoidable economic necessity?
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Sources: Historians’ Views
Source 1A
The historian Linda Colley’s comments on how the Union was seen in the years
immediately after 1707 include her views that:
‘... leaders of Scottish society both resented the South and craved its bounty
and opportunities, kicking against the Union when it proved uncomfortable, yet
demanding full parity with the English inside it. On the other side of the
border, ambiguity and reluctance were just as marked. It is sometimes
supposed that the Act of Union was a piece of cultural and political
imperialism foisted on the hapless Scots by their stronger southern neighbour.
But this was not how many eighteenth-century Englishmen regarded it. To
some of them, union with Scotland seemed a blatant affront to older identities.
They bitterly disapproved of “English” and “England” giving way to
“British” and “Great Britain”, as they were in both official and everyday
vocabulary by the 1750s. And many regarded the Scots as poor and pushy
relations, unwilling to pay their full share of taxation, yet constantly
demanding access to English resources in terms of trade and jobs. There was
also an element of fear. The fact that in 1715 and 1745, hostile Jacobite armies
marched into England from Scotland ensured that older memories of crossborder hostilities remained alive. “Scotland ... is certainly the sink of the
earth”, a Whig grandee would write to the Duke of Newcastle after the Battle
of Culloden in 1746. “As to Scotland,” replied Newcastle, who was then
Secretary of State as well as the Prime Minister's brother, “I am as little
partial to it as any man alive.” “However,” he added, in a rare fit of
generosity, “we must consider that they are within our island.” ’
(L Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837, 1992, pp. 12-13)
Source 1B
Murray Pittock’s challenging and controversial study of Jacobitism includes this
summary of some of the ways in which Jacobites wished to change the British state.
‘Those who wished to restore the Catholic Stuarts to the throne aimed at a
diversity of ends which to a greater or lesser extent would undermine this state.
There was no question, for virtually all British Jacobites, that the Stuarts
would be restored to all their three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland
(though French foreign policy on occasion leant towards a restoration in
Scotland and/or Ireland alone): but the Britain of James III and VIII would, it
was generally hoped, be a very different place. Irish Jacobites frequently
desired Catholic hegemony, and the end of Saxon rule in Ireland; Scottish
Jacobites wanted to restore the Edinburgh Parliament, the Episcopal Church
and the status quo ante 1688; English and Welsh Jacobites abhorred the
financial revolution, higher taxes, a pro-Hanoverian foreign policy and the
threat to the Anglican High Church posed by the Lutheran Georges. Many
Jacobites also wanted religious toleration, and an end to the oppressive
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enclosures of land and emphasis on property rights under the new regime,
which were widely regarded as corrupt: these and other radical measures
gained at least the intermittent support of many of the poor. Some of such aims
were in conflict, and many would no doubt not have been realised in the event
of any restoration: but people risked their lives believing them, and it is
important for the modern reader to understand that Jacobitism was thus far
more than a dynastic squabble: it was regarded by its contemporaries as a
major military, political and religious threat to the existence of the state itself.’
(Murray G H Pittock, Jacobitism, 1998, p. 2)
Source 1C
The following is from an article discussing the importance of loyal feelings in
Scotland towards George II as shown in the way people celebrated the King’s
birthday. The authors see these celebrations as:
‘... one of the means by which a loyal, largely Presbyterian Scotland was
coming into clearer political definition, one which encompassed not just
supporters of the Church of Scotland and the union, but supporters of
secessionist churches and even those loyal to George II but opposed to the
union. It is an element of Scottish society that some scholars, notably the
literary historian Murray Pittock, have recently tried hard to overlook.
Demonstrations of loyalty on the part of lowland Scots did not await the
“distancing” of Jacobitism in the 1750s and 1760s, but were to be found both
before and during the final Jacobite rising. It is in this context that the riots of
30 October 1745 ... highlight the fact that Scotland was greatly divided during
the crisis, not between a minority of active supporters of the Young Pretender
and those who were indifferent to the fate of the Hanoverians, but between two
minorities, made up of Jacobites and supporters of George II, and a further
group or series of groups, who probably made up the majority. These
comprised people whose reactions varied from embarrassment through
confusion to indifference. The articulate and vocal minority who were loyal
Scots were in many places prepared to contest vigorously the political terrain
with the Jacobites, even when under Jacobite occupation.’
(B Harris and C A Whatley, ‘To Solemnize His Majesty’s Birthday: New
Perspectives on Loyalism in George II’s Britain’, in History, 1998, The Historical
Association)
Source 1D
Ian Whyte’s survey of Scottish society includes these comments on change in the
Highlands.
‘The 1745 rebellion shook the government so severely that in the aftermath of
Culloden there were no half-measures. Government involvement in the region
initially took the form of restoring and increasing garrisons, and mounting
punitive expeditions against the lands of Jacobite clans. The abolition of
wardholding and heritable jurisdictions in 1747 formed part of a sustained
attack on the structure of clanship, which aimed to destroy the political
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separateness of the Highlands. A disarming act, more rigorously enforced
than earlier ones, was imposed and wearing Highland dress was forbidden.
Despite these measures it was economic rather than political change that
undermined traditional Highland society. Once central authority was firmly in
control of the region, government involvement began to take on social and
economic as well as military dimensions. The impact of this, however, has
often been exaggerated. Social and economic conditions in the Highlands had
been changing gradually for a century and a half or more. Much of the
change that occurred after 1745 would have happened anyway even if the
rebellion had not taken place. Government policy aimed at social and
economic development in order to integrate the Highlands more closely with
the rest of Britain. The philosophy of “improvement” was extended from the
Lowlands. The untapped productive forces of the Highlands, it was thought,
could be usefully employed in manufacturing or in military service.’
(Ian D Whyte, ‘Scotland’s Society and Economy in Transition 1500-1760’,
1997, pp. 112-3)
Source 1E
Allan MacInnes’ study of Highland clans includes these comments on Government
policy towards them once Culloden, and the events that immediately followed the
battle, were over.
‘As the debate within Government circles switched from punitive severity to
remedial leniency, the policy of civilising became identified not only with
enforced pacification but with the commercial promotion of agriculture,
fisheries and manufacturers. The cultural extirpation of the Gael by degrees
was now deemed integral to the productive transformation of a burdensome
and noxious load upon Great Britain. State-sponsored terrorism was to give
way to state-sponsored improvement. In response to a plethora of civilising
schemes from unctuous ideologues and unplaced opportunists, the Whig
Government had decided that thirteen forfeited estates of Jacobite chiefs and
gentry were to be annexed inalienably to the Crown in 1752. The Annexed
Estates were thus created as corridors of improvement that were to be models
of planning and management from the southern through the central Highlands
with intersections in western and northern districts. At the same time,
resistance of clansmen to the forfeiture of their chiefs and leading gentry had
been cowed by a final show trial that led to the execution of James Stewart of
the Glens for his supposed role as accessory to the murder of Colin Campbell
of Glenmure – the Government factor immortalised as “the Red Fox” – near
Ballachulish Ferry.’
(Allan MacInnes, Clanship, Commerce and the House of Stuart 1603-1788,
1996, p. 217)
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Primary Sources
Source 1F
In 1739 the London-based Gentleman’s Magazine included this impression of what
the author thought Highlanders were like:
‘In this great extent of country (the Highlands), ignorance and superstition
greatly prevail. In some places the remains even of Paganism are still to be
found, and in many others the Reformation from Popery has never yet
obtained. The Parishes where Ministers are settled are commonly of very great
extent, some 30, 40, 50 miles long, and generally divided by unpassable
mountains and lakes; so that most of the inhabitants being destitute of all
means of knowledge, and without any schools to educate their children, are
entirely ignorant of the principles of religion and virtue, live in idleness and
poverty, have no notion of industry, or sense of liberty, are subject to the will
and command of their Popish disaffected chieftains, who have always opposed
the propagating Christian knowledge, and the English tongue, that they might
with less difficulty keep their miserable vassals in a slavish dependence. The
poorer sort have only the Irish tongue, and little correspondence with the
civilised parts of the nation, and only come among them to pillage the more
industrious inhabitants; they are brought up in principles of tyranny and
arbitrary Government, depend upon foreign Papists as their main support, and
the native Irish as their best correspondents and allies. This has been the
source of all the rebellions and insurrections, in that country, since the
Revolution.’
(In T M Devine, Clanship to Crofters’ War, p. 29)
Source 1G
On the eve of the 1745 Rising, James Edward issued this proclamation to the people
of Scotland:
‘We see a nation always famous for valour, and highly esteemed by the
greatest of foreign potentates, reduced to the condition of a province, under the
specious pretence of a union with a more powerful neighbour. In consequence
of this pretended union, grievous and unprecedented taxes have been laid on,
and levied with severity in spite of all the representations that could be made to
the contrary; and these have not failed to produce that poverty and decay of
trade which were easily foreseen to be the necessary consequences of such
oppressive measures.
We will with all convenient speed call a free Parliament; that by the advice
and assistance of such an assembly, we may be enabled to repair the breaches
caused by so long an usurpation, to redress all grievances, and to free our
people from the insupportable burden of the malt-tax, and all other hardships
and impositions which have been the consequences of the pretended union;
that so the nation may be restored to that honour, liberty, and independency,
which it formerly enjoyed.’
(In M Hook and W Ross, The Forty Five, 1995, p. 12)
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Source 1H
The Duke of Cumberland wrote this account of Highland fighting methods some
weeks before Culloden.
‘The manner of the Highlanders’ way of fighting, which there is nothing so
easy to resist, if officers and men are not prepossessed with the lies and
accounts which are told of them. They commonly form their front rank of what
they call their best men, or true Highlanders, the number of which being
always but few. When they form in battalions, they commonly form four deep,
and these Highlanders form the front of the four, the rest being Lowlanders
and arrant scum. When these battalions come within a large musket shot or
threescore yards, this front rank gives their fire, and immediately throw down
their firelocks and come down in a cluster with their swords and targets,
making a noise and endeavouring to pierce the body or battalion before them,
becoming twelve or fourteen deep by the time they come up to the people they
attack ... if the fire is given at a distance, you probably will be broke, for you
never get time to load a second cartridge, and, if you give way, you may give
your foot for dead, for they being without a firelock, or any load, no man with
his arms, accoutrements, etc., can escape them, and they give no quarter.’
(In T M Devine, Clanship to Crofters' War, p. 22)
Source 1I
The English writer Dr Samuel Johnson toured Scotland with his Scottish friend James
Boswell in 1773 and wrote about the Highlanders:
‘There was perhaps never any change of national manners so quick, so great,
and so general, as that which has operated in the Highlands by the last
conquest and the subsequent laws. We came hither too late to see what we
expected – a people of peculiar appearance, and a system of antiquated life.
The clans retain little now of their original character: their ferocity of temper
is softened, their military ardour is extinguished, their dignity of independence
is depressed, their contempt of government subdued, and their reverence for
their chiefs abashed. Of what they had before the late conquest of their country
there remains only their language and their property.’
(In T C Smout, A History of the Scottish People, pp. 320-1)
Source 1J
In the 1790s the parish minister of Callander warned about how new farming methods
would affect people’s lives:
‘If the enlargement of farms is introduced and the country depopulated to
make room for sheep, the inhabitants must emigrate, or crowd into villages.
And if villages are increased without due regard to their police, their
employment, and their manners, it were much better for the people, and their
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country, that they had never seen a village, but had remained in the simplicity
of a rural life, wrapped in their plaids, on the brow of a hill, attending their
cattle, and composing sonnets.’
(The Statistical Account of Scotland)
Source 1K
James Hogg travelled through the Highlands at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. There he met a Highland Laird, MacKenzie of Dundonnell (in Wester
Ross).
‘(MacKenzie’s) glens are so crammed full of stout, able-bodied men and
women, that the estate under the present system must have enough to do
maintaining them. The valleys are impoverished by perpetual cropping, and
saving one farm on the north west quarter ... the extensive mountains are all
waste; for the small parcels of diminutive sheep which the natives have, are
all herded below nearest the dwellings, and are housed every night.
Dundonnell asked me what I thought it would bring annually if let off in
sheepwalks. I said I had only had a superficial view of it, but that, exclusive of
a reasonable extent near the house, to be occupied by himself, it would bring
not below £2000. He said his people would never pay him half of that. He was
loathe to chase them all away to America, but at present they did not pay him
above £700. He hath, however, the pleasure of absolute sway.’
(Both the above sources in Eric Richards, A History of the Highland Clearances,
pp. 136-7)
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Source-based Questions
1.
How convincingly does Source 1B explain the motives that made some
people Jacobites?
2.
To what extent do the views on support for Jacobitism provided in
Source 1C differ from those in Source 1B?
3.
How justified was the author of Source 1E in his analysis of Government
policy towards the Highlands?
4.
Did the author of Source 1F have any justification for his views?
5.
Analyse Source 1G to discuss the author’s motives in producing this
source.
6.
To what extent does Source 1H provide an accurate account of Jacobite
fighting methods?
7.
Account for the changes described in Source 1I.
8.
Use Sources 1J and 1K to explain the problems facing Highland lairds in
the late eighteenth century.
Issues for Discussion and Debate
‘The failure of Jacobitism is a matter for relief not regret.’
‘The way of life of the inhabitants of the Gaeltacht in the early eighteenth
century was so out of date it deserved to be obliterated.’
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SECTION 2: GROWING WEALTH
This section of the syllabus requires the study of:
• trade after the Union
• the Tobacco Lords
• agricultural improvement
• urban development
• changing standards of living.
It therefore deals with economic change and the changing way of life of many people,
especially the inhabitants of Lowland Scotland. The concept of conflict is relevant
since these changes could involve tensions between individuals, social groups, and
nations.
The primary focus, however, is on the concept of improvement. This latter concept
should not be accepted uncritically; gains for some could mean losses for others.
Issues for Investigation/Research
a) The impact of the Union and the degree to which it shaped Scottish fortunes
is of central importance and can take the form of:
‘How far was Scottish economic growth in the eighteenth century the result
of Union with England?’
b) This issue overlaps with others that explore the reasons for economic growth,
e.g.
‘In what ways and for what reasons did Scottish trade expand during the
eighteenth century?’
and
‘How do you account for the changes in Scottish agriculture that took place
during the eighteenth century?’
c) A further area for consideration focuses on consequences of economic
change, e.g.
‘What factors caused urban growth in eighteenth century Scotland?’
and
‘How far is it true to say that during the eighteenth century standards of
living rose in Scotland?’
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Trade after the Union
This aspect requires an understanding of:
• the establishment of peace within Britain after 1746
• the effect of the Union in opening up England and its Empire to Scottish
enterprise – within the shelter of Navigation Acts aimed at keeping foreign traders
who competed with Britain in an inferior position
• trade and market centres within Scotland
• the improving infrastructure making trade easier, including turnpike roads, canals,
bridges and harbours
• the main exports leaving Scotland
• major imports
• factors encouraging trade such as the development of banking and the rise in
household income in the later eighteenth century
• British success in eighteenth century wars with rivals.
Flourishing trade depends on having goods worth selling, i.e. this aspect cannot be
separated from the increasing productivity of Scottish farms and the development of
Scottish industry. The historian C A Whatley suggests: ‘External markets are central
to most accounts of Scottish industry.’
(C A Whatley, The Industrial Revolution in Scotland, 1997, p. 39)
Scottish exports included, especially, cattle and linen; English markets were vital to
Scottish traders – indeed, the historian Ian Whyte argues: ‘It was the prospect of
unrestricted trade with England rather than her colonies which was the main
attraction of Union for most landowners and merchants.’
(Ian Whyte, Scotland's Society and Economy in Transition, 1997, p. 158)
The historian Michael Fry notes that Scots wanted to be part of a British economy:
‘Scots ... insisted on free trade ... And since they got what they wanted it meant they
were, in a sense, entering the union on their own terms.’ (in Eighteenth Century
Scotland New Perspectives, ed. T M Devine and J R Young, 1999, p. 57). This, of
course, meant they entered a political unit strong enough to fight for the fiercely
contested trade of the times.
The historian Alastair Durie has made a special study of the linen trade and estimates
that exports to the colonies began to rise: linen was used to clothe seamen and slaves
in the Americas, for example. However, some historians have argued that the origins
of change can be found in Scotland before 1707 and that in the short term 1707 hurt
some Scottish enterprises; certainly the Scottish fine woollens industry’s troubles were
made worse by the arrival of English imports. The historian Rosalind Mitchison
writes: ‘Merchants in Scotland found that free trade granted did not immediately open
markets ... There was scope for disillusionment.’
(R Mitchison Lordship to Patronage 1603-1745, 1983, p. 137)
Developments before 1707 and the effects of the Union need to be born in mind when
studying this topic.
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The Tobacco Lords
Trade in tobacco, operated by Glasgow merchants, provided an impressive example
of growth until the War of American Independence brought disruption to it. Study of
this topic requires an understanding of:
• the effects of Union in allowing Scots to trade legally with England’s tobaccogrowing colonies – Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.
• evidence of how Glasgow merchants were able to compete so successfully with
English rivals. The historian T M Devine notes: ‘The golden age of Glasgow
tobacco dates from the 1740s and, astonishingly, by 1758 Scottish tobacco
imports were greater than those of London and all the English outports
combined.’
(T M Devine, The Scottish Nation, 1999, p. 59)
This involves looking at:
– how far smuggling played a part in Scottish success
– the ways in which Glasgow tobacco merchants improved their business
– locational advantages.
• the merchant houses that developed, their operational methods especially in the
colonies and in developing shipping
• the impact on Glasgow and the Clyde ports
• the consequences of the War of American Independence and how Glasgow
merchants responded to the crisis they faced.
This last area has stirred debate among historians. For example, Professor R H
Campbell has argued: ‘The merchants were not ruined ... they did everything in their
power to anticipate and minimise the effects of the Revolution.’
(in Scotland since 1707, 1985 edition, p. 41)
T M Devine has questioned this explanation and has put forward a range of other
reasons for the relative success of Glasgow’s tobacco merchants in surviving the
crisis of the conflict in America (see T M Devine Exploring the Scottish Past: Themes
in the History of Scottish Society, 1995, pp. 74-92).
The same historian also argues that trade in tobacco to Glasgow continued in the
immediate aftermath of the war. American tobacco planters needed merchants able to
buy their goods and supply manufacturers; Glasgow was able to do this. Professor
Devine concludes ‘The end did not come because of the American War and its
aftermath. The tobacco trade became less significant more gradually and for more
complex and less dramatic reasons.’
(T M Devine, ‘The Golden Age of Tobacco’ in Glasgow Vol I, ed.
T M Devine and G Jackson, 1995, p. 176)
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Agricultural Improvement
This important topic requires the study of:
• the nature of ‘unimproved’ farming
• the reasons for agricultural improvement
• the main features of improvement including:
– enclosure
– crops and animals
– feeding the land
– equipment, machinery and sources of power for machinery
– changing leases and tenancies
• the Improvers
• the impact on farming people; where they lived; the decline of townships;
the creation of new villages and growth of older ones
• the importance of better transport
• the working gulf between classes.
This topic has stirred debate among and further research by a number of historians.
The description of early eighteenth century conditions provided by T C Smout
(in A History of the Scottish People) has been criticised, e.g. ‘… his picture of preimprovement conditions is rather pessimistic and underestimates the amount of
change which occurred before the 1760s.’
(Ian Whyte, ‘Rural Transformation and Lowland Society’, in
Modern Scottish History 1707 to the Present, Vol 1, ed. A Cooke et al, 1998, p. 86)
Any discussion of agricultural improvement from 1715 will need to take account of
the pre-Union situation in order to put later change in perspective and, once again,
consider if Union made a difference. Moreover some historians have questioned
whether the word ‘revolution’ is an appropriate one to use. For example, G
Whittington has maintained: ‘Revolution suggests that a previous system was
overturned ... replacement over a long period is a more realistic approach to the
changes in Scottish agriculture and the Scottish rural landscape.’
(G Whittington, ‘Was there a Scottish Agricultural Revolution?’, in Area 7,
1975, pp. 204-6)
In contrast I H Adams has argued: ‘The Agricultural Revolution on Scotland was a
real event recognised by contemporaries.’ (In Area 9, 1978, pp. 198-205).
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Urban Development
Ian Whyte defines urbanisation as: ‘... the increasing concentration of population in
urban areas with a growth in the size of towns and cities ... it involves changes in
society as people adopt urban economies and social and cultural patterns.’
(I D Whyte, ‘Urbanisation in eighteenth century Scotland’ in T M Devine and J R
Young ed., Eighteenth Century Scotland: New Perspectives, 1999, p. 176)
In studying this topic consider:
• what size of population justifies the use of the word ‘urban’ about any
community? Some historians use 10,000 and above as a measurement yet Scotland
contains many small towns; during the eighteenth century many town populations
fell below this figure. Ian Whyte suggests a figure for this period of 2,000 and
above.
• the extent of urban growth in the period.
• the problem of explaining urban growth. Neil Tranter notes that until the improved
census returns of the later nineteenth century ‘comprehensive and reliable data on
the size and rate of growth of Scotland population is severely limited by
deficiencies in the sources.’
(N Tranter, ‘Demography’, in Modern Scottish History,Vol 1, ed.
A Cooke et al, 1998, p. 108)
•
the burgh background including:
– different types of burgh
– their location and reasons for growth
– how they were governed
– their income and ability to tackle problems of growth.
•
the reasons for urban growth including:
– trade
– market, service and craft skill functions
– improved travel
– industrial expansion
– where migrants came from and why they came
– rural change.
•
the growth of Edinburgh especially the development of the New Town from
1767 (to the completion of Charlotte Square in 1800) including the role of
Provost Drummond and the reasons for the re-shaping of Edinburgh.
•
the growth and changing character of Glasgow.
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•
other urban areas including:
– Aberdeen
– Dundee
– other selected centres that grew for different reasons, including planned
settlements.
•
the changing urban environment and how burgh authorities tackled problems of
housing, water, health, etc.
Historians continue to explore and develop all the above aspects. Harsh views on the
competence of eighteenth century burgh authorities have, of late, been modified, e.g.
in Irene Maver’s essay on Glasgow (in T M Devine and G Jackson ed., Glasgow, Vol
1, 1995, pp. 239-270). The speed of urban growth in Scotland has attracted comment,
as Ian Whyte remarks: ‘Urban expansion began later in Scotland and occurred at a
much more rapid rate than south of the Border.’ (in T M Devine and J R Young ed.,
Eighteenth Century Scotland: New Perspectives, 1999, p. 179). Several historians
point out the danger of assuming that urban growth was simply the result of
industrialisation and that its development prior to and in the earlier eighteenth century
should not be ignored.
Changing Standards of Living
This aspect of the period involves exploring the changing fortunes of Scottish people
from 1715 to 1800 and considering which social groups seemed to benefit. It
therefore involves consideration of:
• Income and whether this rose or fell for different groups of people.
• The fortunes of different social groups. Did the middle class increase as a
proportion of the whole population?
• Mortality. How long did people live? Did this change? Were any times of life
especially dangerous?
• Diet. Did this change? Were changes for the better?
• Housing in both rural and urban areas.
• Diseases and medical care, noting especially the treatment of smallpox.
• The nature of work, whether it became more punishing, whether towns increased,
the leisure available and the amenities available for leisure.
Accurate evidence is a problem in this area, too. Robert Tyson comments:
‘The improvement of six years in expectation of life at birth in Scotland between 1755
and the 1790s is a conundrum that, as yet, has no satisfactory explanation.’
(R E Tyson, ‘Demographic Change’ in T M Devine and J R Young,
Eighteenth Century Scotland. New Perspectives, 1999, p. 204)
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Historians concerned with women’s lives are not impressed by the effects of changes,
e.g. Rosalind Marshall states ‘Whatever improvements were made on estates ... to the
women fell many of the hard basic physical tasks which had always been theirs.’
(R K Marshall, Virgins and Viragoes, 1983, p. 233)
This writer does allow that the houses built for the better off and the improvements in
travel did allow for a more varied and freer existence for well-to-do ladies. For
married women ‘there was no escape from the perpetual business of child bearing.
Moreover, maternal mortality remained distressingly high.’
(R K Marshall, op.cit. p. 223)
The question of whether the standard of living of working class people rose in the
later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries has long been a focus for historical
debate.
For the period 1760-1793, J H Treble states that though: ‘the commonly accepted
view among historians is that the standard of living of the British working class
remained virtually stationary ... the data ... which deals with the largest single source
of male employment in eighteenth century Scotland presents a picture of substantial
growth in the real income of agricultural workers.’
J H Treble, ‘The Standard of Living of the Working Class’, in
People and Society in Scotland Vol I, ed. T M Devine and R Mitchison, 1988, p. 194)
J H Treble goes on to argue that this optimistic picture is true of many skilled workers
too and it is thus possible to suggest that, till the outbreak of war in 1793, there was:
‘a rise in the real earnings of the bulk of the Scottish working class in contact with the
market economy.’
(J H Treble op.cit. p. 205)
This issue of how far it is possible to argue that the standard of living rose is an
important one to consider when gathering data. Two historians who have done
detailed work in this area suggest that the earnings of a whole family – husband, wife
and children, could well, when combined, provide a tolerable income. From as early
as seven or eight years children might be expected to add to the family income.
(see A J S Gibson and T C Smout, Prices, food and wages in Scotland 1550-1780)
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Activities
Essays
1.
How far is it true to say that ‘the Union did not cause economic growth in
Scotland, rather it provided a context where growth was possible’?
2.
Why was Glasgow so successful in developing as a centre for the tobacco
trade?
3.
Do you agree that ‘we have so little reliable data we simply cannot say
whether the standard of living rose in eighteenth century Scotland’?
Sources: Historians’ Views
Source 2A
Christopher Whatley’s discussion of the industrial revolution in Scotland includes the
following:
‘Those who argue that the Union was important for Scottish economic
development and provided the environment in which industrialisation could
emerge have a strong case ... After 1707 Scots ... sought places within the East
India Company. They found them too, in disproportionate numbers, and by trading
on their own account many were able to amass and remit home small fortunes
which were then invested in land and improvement schemes. The West Indies
provided another and an increasingly important route after 1707 for ambitious
young men who sought means through the plantations or trade by which they could
return with investment capital. Military service and army and navy provisioning
also provided alternative lucrative sources of income for the younger sons of the
peerage and gentry.
The British state played its part in other more conscious ways too. On the national
(United Kingdom) scale attention has recently been drawn to the various ways in
which the British Government created an ordered trading environment. This was
both at home (after 1746) and overseas as in the acquisition of various Caribbean
and other islands and former French possessions in the 1790s. State intervention
was important for the linen industry which, in spite of East India Company and
Lancastrian opposition, was given favoured treatment in the English market.’
(C A Whatley, The Industrial Revolution in Scotland, 1997, p. 46)
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Source 2B
Linda Colley puts forward these views on benefits to Scots of Union.
‘Investing in empire supplied Scots with a means of redressing some of the
imbalance in wealth, power and enterprise between them and the English. For
Scottish merchants and tradesmen, access to the newer colonial markets proved
doubly advantageous because, unlike older settlements and the customary
European markets, they were not dominated by English merchantmen. For Scots
who had trained in medicine, the level of disease in the colonies ensured that there
were always lucrative if dangerous openings available there. For skilled artisans,
blacksmiths, wrights, coppersmiths, joiners and the like, leaving Scotland for the
West Indies or other possessions could be a means of making enough money to buy
their own slaves and set up a business.
Other Scots found niches in the colonies as clerks, or as book-keepers, or as legal
assistants.’
(L Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837, 1992, p. 129)
Primary Sources
Source 2C
In 1774 the agricultural improver Lord Kames complained:
‘Our farmers, led entirely by custom, not by reflection, seldom think of
proportioning the number of their working cattle to the uses they have for them.
Hence, in different countries, from six to twelve oxen in a plough, without any
regard to the soil. Seldom it is, that more than four good beasts can be necessary,
if the proper time for ploughing be watched.
The division of a farm into infield and outfield, is execrable husbandry. ...
Extensive farms, a small part of which next the dwelling, termed infield, was
cultivated for corn: the remainder, termed outfield, was abandoned to the cattle, in
appearance for pasture, but in reality for starving. The same mode continues to
this day, without many exceptions, though necessity cannot be pleaded for it. But
custom is the ruling principle that governs all. Sad is the condition of the
labouring cattle; which are often reduced to thistles, and withered straw. A single
acre of red clover would give more food than a whole outfield; yet how common is
the complaint of tenants, that they are disabled from carrying on any summerwork, for want of food to their horses; a shameful complaint, considering how easy
the remedy is.
Custom is no where more prevalent than in the form of ridges. No less high than
broad, they are enormous masses of accumulated earth, that admit not crossploughing, nor any ploughing. ... Balks between ridges are equally frequent,
though invincible obstructions to good culture. It would puzzle one at first view to
explain, why such strips of land are left untilled.’
(Henry Home, Lord Kames, ‘The Gentleman Farmer’, 1774, pp. 359-364,
quoted p. 126, Modern Scottish History, Vol 5)
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Source 2D
In 1752 the Convention of Royal Burghs supported the publication of a pamphlet that
argued the need for the development of Edinburgh, stating:
‘A nation cannot at this day be considerable, unless it be opulent. Wealth is only to
be obtained by trade and commerce, and these are only carried on to advantage in
populous cities. There also we find the chief objects of pleasure and ambition, and
there consequently all those will flock whose circumstances can afford it. But can
we expect, that persons of fortune in SCOTLAND will exchange the handsome
seats they generally possess in the country, for the scanty lodging, and paltry
accommodations they must put up with in EDINBURGH? It is not choice, but
necessity, which obliges them to go so frequently to LONDON. Let us improve and
enlarge this city, and possibly the superior pleasures of LONDON, which is at a
distance, will be compensated, at least in some measure, by the moderate pleasures
of EDINBURGH, which is at home.’
(In A J Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh 1750-1840, 1966,
Edinburgh University Press, pp. 9-12)
Source 2E
From the Statistical Account of the 1790s, the parish of Montquitter in
Aberdeenshire:
‘The maintenance of a tradesman's or a day-labourer's family does not entirely
depend on what he himself gains; for if his wife and children are industrious,
they share the merit of furnishing subsistence. When a day-labourer or
tradesman rents a croft, his wife commonly pays landlord and merchant by the
produce of her cows and by manufacture; and leaves it for the husband, by the
sale of cattle and by his work, to furnish bread. During infancy and childhood
of their family, parents of these classes are generally poor, but gradually rise
to easy circumstances, as their children become capable of relieving the hand,
and assisting in the industry of the mother.’
(In A J S Gibson and T C Smout, Prices, Food and Wages in Scotland, 1995, p. 350)
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Source-based Activities
1.
How fully do Sources 2A and 2B explain the arguments for maintaining
that Union brought economic benefits to Scots?
2.
How justified was the author of Source 2C in attacking farmers’ attitudes
to improvement?
3.
Analyse Source 2D to discuss the reasons for the development of
Edinburgh New Town.
Issues for Discussion and Debate
Possible issues include:
‘Scottish economic growth after 1707 owed little to the Union.’
‘Agricultural improvement was an exercise in selfishness and ruthlessness by
landowners.’
‘Improved living standards in the eighteenth century benefited men, not women.’
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SECTION 3: POLITICAL STABILITY
This section of the syllabus requires a study of:
• the government of Scotland after the Union
• the nature of the importance of the Kirk and other Churches
• the ‘Dundas despotism’
• unrest during the period of the French Revolution.
All three key concepts run through the issues raised by this section. The central
concern of the control of Scotland also relates to the issues raised in the first section
of the syllabus.
Issues for Investigation/Research
a) The issues raised in this section focus around the ways in which Scottish
society was controlled, the effectiveness of this control and the nature of
success of opposition to that control. These issues can be expressed in a
number of ways, e.g.
• ‘In what ways was Scotland governed from 1715 to 1800?’
• ‘What kind of resistance was met by those who were governing Scotland
from 1715 to 1800?’
• ‘Why was Henry Dundas so successful in managing Scottish politics from
1775 to 1800?’
• ‘What kinds of political protests developed in the 1790s?’
• ‘How did Government deal with protest in the 1790s?’
b) Embedded in these questions lie two dimensions of political life at the time,
i.e.
• ‘How corrupt was Scottish politics at this time?’
• ‘How docile was the Scottish population at this time?’
c) The Kirk can be seen as part of the structure of control of society, as a
possible contributor to stability. Study of it raises questions of:
• ‘In what ways did the character of the Kirk change over the period?’
• ‘To what extent was the Kirk's position threatened by divisions within it
and by other Churches?’
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The Government of Scotland after the Union
‘Westminster was sovereign in theory but in practice the real business of running
Scotland was the responsibility of institutions inherited from the period before 1707.’
(T M Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700-2000, 1999, p. 23)
Investigating the government of Scotland in the period 1715-1800 involves the study
of both the Scottish presence in the Westminster Parliament and the governing people
and institutions within Scotland itself. It therefore involves a consideration of:
• The abolition of the Privy Council in 1708 and the consequences of this.
• The country and burgh electoral system including:
- the numbers of voters
- how elections were managed
- how electors were persuaded to vote for a particular person.
• The Scottish peers in the House of Lords.
• The management of this system, especially by the Earl of Islay.
• The Edinburgh-based Scottish institutions of importance such as law courts,
financial and commercial bodies.
• County government including:
- sheriffs
- justices of the peace
- commissions of supply.
• Parish government including:
- the power of the landowners and how this changed over the period
- the Church of Scotland’s role in dealing with poverty, education and orderly
behaviour, through the Kirk sessions.
• How effective this system was before 1789 including:
- evidence of protests, riots, etc
- how Government dealt with these episodes
- reasons why political reform didn’t take place.
Historians studying this period have raised a number of issues that deserve careful
attention. This view that government of Scotland simply shifted to London after
1707 has been very sharply questioned, indeed the historian Michael Fry argues: ‘So
strong was the influence of the national institutions in the first century of Union that
historians have even called that a period of semi-independence’.
(M Fry, ‘Politics’ in Modern Scottish History 1707 to the Present,
Vol 1, ed. A Cooke et al, p. 45)
The management of politics during the eighteenth century inevitably raises the need
to consider bribery and corruption. Professor T M Devine maintains that in this time
before modern political parties existed other ways had to be found to maintain
support for the government, i.e. ‘.. the cement of the power structure was the
patronage system’.
(in The Scottish Nation, p. 215)
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The small size of the Scottish electorate, and the skill with which landowners kept a
grip on the county seats, made Scotland especially suited to political management.
John Stuart Shaw suggests that the results were not all harmful for: ‘the block of
support created by the great managers, Islay and Henry Dundas, brought stability to
the scene .... political stability ... had benefits for Scottish society.’
(J S Shaw, The Political History of Eighteenth Century Scotland, 1999, p. 35)
The Nature and Importance of the Kirk and Other Churches
Religion and religious organisations played a very important part in the lives of Scots
in the eighteenth century. Ian Whyte maintains: ‘The Union of 1707 guaranteed the
maintenance of the established Presbyterian Church of Scotland. With loss of
political independence the Kirk became a focus for national consciousness.’
(I D Whyte, Scotland’s Society and Economy in Transition’, 1997, pp. 59-60)
During the period the Kirk experienced changes, divisions, even the departure of
important groups. It faced, too, the rivalry of other Christian churches.
Consideration of these matters is not simply relevant to investigating people’s beliefs;
the Kirk had a social and administrative role that went far beyond its simply being a
place of worship.
This section, therefore, involves the study of:
•
the Kirk in 1715 -
its organisation
its beliefs
its importance as a social and community centre
the issue of who appointed its ministers including the 1712
Patronage Act
- its educational role
- its social welfare role
- the Kirk as an upholder of moral behaviour
• the Episcopalian Church - its organisation
where its support lay
• the Roman Catholic Church
• the Evangelicals; the Cambuslang Revival
• the Moderates in the Kirk, the influence on them of the Enlightenment
• differences within the Kirk, especially over the issue of patronage
• Seceders from the Kirk including the old and the new Licht Burghers, the Relief
Church and the Glasites and other Dissenters, including the areas where and the
social groups with whom their strength lay.
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The tensions in the Kirk in this period seem to the historian Callum Brown to be a
result, in part, of wider developments and involved struggles between landowners and
common people: ‘the Church became increasingly the class battleground for the
wider divisions introduced by agricultural improvement and, in the Highlands and the
Hebrides, for the Clearances.’
(Callum Brown, ‘Religion’, in Modern Scottish History, Vol 1, ed.
A Cooke et al, 1998, p. 72)
On the other hand Linda Colley argues that the fact that most Scots, English and
Welsh people were Protestant, and that they fought wars with Catholic France and
Spain, helped bind them together: ‘Protestantism was the foundation stone that made
the invention of Great Britain possible’.
(L Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837, 1992, p. 54)
The Dundas Despotism
‘Dundas, leading his file of wonderfully reliable Scots MPs towards whichever lobby
suited those in power, survived and prospered in the midst of political hurricanes.’
(B Lenman, Integration, Enlightenment and Industrialisation,1981, p. 71)
The later eighteenth century career of Henry Dundas (1742-1811) brings together the
three sections of this chapter, for he played a key role at Westminster, dominated
government in Scotland and used the Kirk as means of extending his authority.
His control was so powerful and lasted for so long that, in political terms, the later
eighteenth century is known as ‘the Dundas Despotism’.
This topic involves studying:
• the various offices that Dundas occupied
• his early career and importance to Pitt
• his use of the Empire and the armed forces in his political system
• his use of the Kirk, the Universities, the Law.
The historian of the ‘Dundas Despotism’ is Michael Fry whose book of that name
was published in 1992. Discussion of Dundas’s methods illustrates some differences
between historians. For example, John Stuart Shaw maintains that the power Dundas
gained as Commissioner (1784) then President (1793) of the East India Company was
not one he was able to exploit –‘the common assumption that Dundas used his
position to increase his powers of patronage vastly in Scotland is wrong’.
(J S Shaw, The Political History of Eighteenth Century Scotland, 1999, p. 82)
Professor Devine, however, asserts ‘Although Scots were finding Indian appointments
in significant numbers long before Dundas came on the scene, access to the
Company's vast patronage could only strengthen his position further’ .
(T M Devine, The Scottish Nation, 1999, p. 198)
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Professor Devine also notes the contrast between the questioning argumentative
society of late eighteenth century Scotland, a society with highly regarded
universities, and the obedient and unquestioning behaviour of the MPs Dundas
controlled so skilfully.
Unrest During the Period of the French Revolution
The rapid social and economic changes of the eighteenth century produced protests,
riots and attacks on hated individuals and groups. Authorities lacked an effective
police force with which to control rioters and were compelled, in a crisis, to call for
troops.
The period after the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 brought demands for
change, and organisations to try to bring them about, that especially alarmed
authorities. The greatest period of activity in Scotland, the early 1790s, came at a
time when Henry Dundas was Home Secretary.
This topic involves the study of:
• The background of longer term political protest including the impact of the
American Revolution and demands for burgh reform.
• The other dimensions of protest, especially those concerned with food prices and
shortages and with the Militia Act of 1797.
• The impact of the French Revolution.
• The importance of Tom Paine’s Rights of Man.
• The activities and ideas of the Scottish Association of the Friends of the People.
• The changing circumstances in France and the coming of war.
• The Government’s response to demands for reform; repression; Lord Braxfield;
the trial of Thomas Muir.
• The United Scotsmen organisation.
• Why the pressure for reform failed.
The historian Hamish Fraser suggests ‘a shrewd use of a combination of coercion and
concession by the public authorities in Scotland had effectively eradicated the
popular pressures for political changes by the first decade of the nineteenth century’ .
(H Fraser, ‘Patterns of Protest’, in People and Society in Scotland, Vol I, ed.
T M Devine and R Mitchison, 1988, p. 285)
Elaine McFarland argues for considering the importance of Irish radicals’ ideas,
organisations and activities in influencing Scots reformers (‘Scottish Radicalism in
the Later Eighteenth Century’ in Eighteenth Century Scotland, ed. T M Devine and T
R Young, 1999). Though the reformers failed, they had pushed forward the cause in
ways that became evident in the next century.
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Activities
Essays
1. How far is it true to say that the Kirk was ‘the focus of community organisation
and local government’ (Callum Brown) in the eighteenth century?
2. Do you agree with Michael Fry’s view that ‘Argyll made patronage the central
activity in Scottish politics’?
3. ‘Political reform was simply not a popular cause.’ Is this why Scottish
reformers failed in the 1790s?
Primary Sources
Source 3A
John Mitchell looked back on his youth in late eighteenth century Ayrshire and
commented on the Kirk’s ministers:
‘Declining the active and energetic discharge of the duties of their spiritual and
evangelical functions, too many of the pledged servants of the Lord betook
themselves to literary study, or the culture of their glebes, perhaps farms, or to
other secular concerns. They cultivated connection with the upper classes of
society in their parishes, declining intercourse with those of low degree with whom
the Gospel is preached, and set themselves earnestly so to arrange matters
connected with the poor as to save expense to the heritors.’
(J Mitchell, ‘Memories of Ayrshire’, in Miscellany of the Scottish History Society,
Vol VI, 1939, pp. 302-3)
Source 3B
This extract from a pamphlet was published in 1793 in Paisley.
Declaration of Rights
I.
THE Government of this realm, and the making of laws for the same, ought to
be lodged in the hands of King, Lords of Parliament, and the representatives of
the whole body of the free men of this realm.
II.
Every Briton (infants, insane persons, and criminals only excepted) is of
common right, and by the laws of God, a free man, and entitled to the full
enjoyment of liberty.
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III.
A Briton’s liberty, or freedom, consists in having an actual share, either in
legislation itself, or in the appointing of those who are to frame the laws; which,
although they ought to protect him in the full enjoyment of those absolute rights,
that are vested in him by the immutable laws of nature, may yet be fabricated to
the destruction of his person, his property, his religious freedom, family, and
fame.
IV. It is the right of the commons of Britain to elect a new house for parliament once
at least in every year: because, when a parliament continues for a longer term
than one session, thousands, who have attained to man’s estate since it was
elected, and are therefore entitled to enter into possession of their best
inheritance, the actual exercise of their elective franchise, are, in that case,
unjustly denied their right, and excluded from freedom.
(Scottish Record Office Document JC26/276/1/13)
Sources: Historians’ Views
Source 3C
From T C Smout’s views on Scots MPs at Westminster:
‘After the Union of 1707, Scottish Parliamentary life as reflected in the careers of
Scottish members at Westminster became for a long time so moribund as to be
scarcely relevant any longer to a general history of Scottish society. British
Parliamentary life itself in the eighteenth century was not in any case very
dynamic, glamorous or inspiring. The English Government ruled from the basis of
a solid block of sycophantic votes organised by experienced managers dispensing
safe seats with the one hand and lucrative positions of government office with the
other. Their eye picked out the Scottish newcomers to the Westminster assembly as
promising recruits: they organised them under one of their own number.’
(T C Smout, A History of the Scottish People, p. 201)
Source 3D
From Michael Fry’s comments on the impact of Union on Scotland:
‘Once teething troubles were over after 1707, the English only interfered in
Scotland when they felt a threat from Scotland, as in the case of the Jacobites. They
let the Scots otherwise look after themselves, as the Treaty of Union said Scots
should do. It is hard to see a crushed and colonised country behind the glorious
intellectual achievements of the Enlightenment. Nor do we get the impression from
the enterprising, successful Scots of the nineteenth century that they were sons and
daughters of a nation robbed of its character and vitality. Semi-independence is a
less straightforward concept than management. But perhaps it gives, among other
things, a better explanation of the Enlightenment, as the flowering of an essentially
native culture in the liberating environment. It also offers one, though not the only,
reason why Scotland inside the Union did not follow the road of Ireland, but
remained a country proud of itself and capable of excellence across a vast range of
activities.’
(‘Politics’, in Modern Scottish History 1707 to the Present,Vol 1, p. 61)
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Source 3E
From T M Devine's discussion of Scottish political life:
‘The electorate was minute in size, with Scotland's proud capital of Edinburgh
having a mere thirty-three people enfranchised. All commentators are agreed that
brazen corruption and venality were rampant in burgh elections, with small, selfperpetuating cliques drawn from the merchant and craft guilds able to maintain
their continued ascendancy with relative ease. It is hardly surprising that elections
became a matter of indifference, to the extent that in some cases they were never
even held. Remarkably, in 1790, at a time when the French Revolution was
sending political shock waves around Europe, only nine county and burgh
elections in Scotland were actually contested.
This was a dramatic contrast to Ireland at the time where political activity at a
local level was intense and the issues keenly fought.
The difference was partly due to the extraordinary success of Harry Dundas, the
government’s ‘manager’ or ‘minister’ for Scotland, in honing the techniques of
political management so that he was able comfortably to control most of the
Scottish electoral system in his interest by the early 1790s. In consequence, real
opposition, in the formal, parliamentary sense, became both rare and pointless.’
(T M Devine, The Scottish Nation, p. 197)
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Source-based Activities
1.
Does Source 3A provide an accurate account of the behaviour and
attitudes of the Kirk's ministers in the late eighteenth century?
2.
Does Source 3B fully describe the demands of the Scots reformers of the
1790s?
3.
Analyse Sources 3C and 3E to explain the political behaviour of Scots
MPs of the eighteenth century.
4.
To what extent is the author of Source 3D justified in arguing the case he
puts forward?
Issues for Discussion and Debate
Possible issues include:
‘The Treaty of Union was remarkably generous in leaving Scots to run their own
affairs.’
‘Far from being a disgrace, patronage was essential to making politics work.’
‘The Kirk’s critics were quite right to be very unhappy about its condition.’
‘Henry Dundas was one of the heroic figures of eighteenth century Scotland.’
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SECTION 4: CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
This section of the syllabus requires the study of:
• education and attitudes towards Improvement
• history, philosophy, social commentary
• contacts with England and Europe
• architecture, painting, literature
• poetry and the languages of Scotland.
‘The Scottish Enlightenment is a relatively recent term for the extraordinary outburst
of intellectual activity that took place in Scotland in the eighteenth century.’
(David Daiches, ‘The Scottish Enlightenment’ in The Scottish Enlightenment 1730-1790,
A Hotbed of Genius, ed. D Daiches, P Jones and J Jones, 1986, p. 1)
This topic involves exploring the many ways in which Scottish cultural achievements
expressed themselves at this time and the reasons historians have suggested that may
account for these achievements. Scots were at the forefront of work in economics,
philosophy, sociology, history, geology, chemistry, medicine, architecture and
technology; Scottish painting and poetry reached new heights, Gaelic poetry
flourished in the Highlands. Explaining why this happened is not easy.
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Issues for Investigation/Research
This area raises a number of issues, such as:
• ‘What kind of educational system existed at the time and what did it
contribute to the Enlightenment?’
• ‘In what other ways did enthusiasm for ‘improvement’ show itself?’
• ‘What contributions to history, philosophy and social commentary at this
time were made by Scots?’
• ‘What kinds of notable achievements were made, and by whom, in the
fields of architecture, painting and literature?’
• ‘What was the position of and what were the achievements within the
Gaelic language?’
• ‘What part did English and European ideas play in the Scottish
Enlightenment?’
• ‘What reasons have been offered for the outburst of achievements at this
time?’
Education and Attitudes towards Improvement
‘The majority of those who formed the Scottish Enlightenment were university
professors, ministers of the Kirk and lawyers.’
(A Broadie, The Scottish Enlightenment, 1997 edition, p. 15)
By European standards of the time, Scots were quite well-educated. The
achievements of the Enlightenment were rooted in the work of educated men and
appreciated by educated audiences. The nature of Scotland's educational system is
therefore important to understanding society at the time and the achievements of the
Enlightenment in particular.
This topic requires the study of:
• the parish schools supervised by the Kirk
• the grammar schools and academies in the burghs
• different sorts of private schools
• the work of the SSPK in the Highlands
• the universities, including their fees, their teaching methods, their subjects
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•
•
•
individuals especially keen on ‘Improvement’, e.g. Lord Kames, Sir John Sinclair
organisations devoted to ‘Improvement’, e.g. the Honourable Society of
Improvers (1723) and the Select Society (1754)
publications concerned with ‘Improvement’.
Historians have explored how literate a society resulted from this system.
D J Withrington notes the debate among historians of education ‘about its democratic
character and about whether it succeeded in promoting the universal literacy planned
for by the religious reformers in 1560.’ He concludes ‘the ability to read was
widespread in Scotland in the 1790s ... ability to write was much more limited’.
(D J Withrington, ‘Education’, in Modern Scottish History 1707 to the Present,
Vol 1, ed. A Cooke et al, pp. 282-4)
A second issue that has been much discussed concerns how far the educational
system allowed an ordinary boy to progress to the highest academic levels.
T M Devine maintains, ‘Whether the achievement in schooling promoted real equality
of opportunity ... is more debatable ... the Universities aided the career progression of
the lower middle class rather than the upward mobility of the vast majority of Scots.’
(T M Devine, The Scottish Nation, p. 98)
On the other hand in an essay written in 1970 John Clive argues ‘The national system
of education ... enabled many a poor father’s boy to go on to one of the universities
as well prepared as his socially superior classmates’.
(‘The Social Background of the Scottish Renaissance’, in
Scotland in the Age of Improvement, ed. N T Phillipson and R Mitchison, p. 225)
History, Philosophy and Social Commentary
This section of the syllabus focuses on the outstanding intellectual achievements of
the time. The identified aspects merit careful attention; other areas of intellectual
achievement are also worth noting.
This topic requires the study of:
• William Robertson (1712-1793) and the development of historical studies
carefully rooted in sources.
• David Hume (1711-1776) and his importance in philosophy.
• Adam Smith (1723-1790) and economic thinking.
• Adam Ferguson (1723-1816) and the study of people in society.
• Other important intellectuals, especially Joseph Black and chemistry, and James
Hutton and geology.
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Historians have explored why this surge of activity took place at this time. Part of
the explanation may be found in influences from other countries (see next section).
T M Devine suggests other factors such as ‘... a more liberal climate ... for the
exchange of ideas ... changes in the Church of Scotland, progressive reform in the
universities and a more appropriate political and economic background’.
(The Scottish Nation, p. 72)
Christopher Berry identifies a particular division among those considering this issue,
i.e. ‘those who emphasise the union with England as a decisive, formative force and
those who emphasise continuity between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’.
(C Berry, Social Theory of the Scottish Enlightenment,1997, p. 188)
The actual extent of the Scottish Enlightenment provides a further area of debate.
John Lough has argued ‘such Enlightenment as existed in eighteenth century Scotland
was confined to a tiny minority who lived surrounded by narrow-minded nationalism
and bigoted Puritanism which have survived in part down to our own day.’
(J Lough, ‘Reflection on Enlightenment and Lumieres, in
British Journal of Eighteenth Century Studies 8, 1985)
This view has been criticised, not least by showing the numbers of Scottish
intellectuals who were producing worthwhile work at this time. Alexander Broadie
observes
‘the Enlightenment was a good deal more than those great figures.’
(A Broadie, The Scottish Enlightenment: An Anthology, 1997, p. 16)
T C Smout argues that Scotland lacked the highly critical thinking about politics
found in France and England: ‘Englishmen who fought with their pens and minds for
what we now regard as the basic democratic rights of all British subjects would have
raised an eyebrow to hear latter day Scottish historians boasting of the “democratic
intellect of the north”’.
(A History of the Scottish People, p. 475)
Contacts with England and Europe
‘The Scottish Enlightenment was the Scottish contribution to a more than Europewide movement.’
(A Broadie, The Scottish Enlightenment, p. 3)
This section of the syllabus raises questions about English influences on Scotland and
about the Scottish Enlightenment being part of a much wider movement. It requires a
study of:
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•
•
•
•
•
•
the outlines of the Enlightenment and its leading figures, as a European
movement.
the Scots who went to Europe including students, people who settled there, people
on the Grand Tour, key centres of learning on the Continent (e.g. Leyden) and
their influence on Scots.
English influence in Scotland including the use of English ‘improvers’.
the impact on Scots polite society and the Scots language of English society.
Scots who contributed to developments in England.
English students attracted to Scots universities.
Historians have noted that, as Professor Devine observes, ‘Scotland had always
formed an integral part of the European community of scholars since medieval times’.
(The Scottish Nation, p. 71)
The tendency to be influenced by, even copy, English manners, speech, and social
behaviour and to neglect the achievements of Gaelic society is (Tom Nairn suggests)
because Scots intellectuals ‘belonged to a unique pre-nationalist stage of socioeconomic expansion’.
(T Nairn, The Break Up of Britain, 1977, pp. 139-40)
Architecture, Painting and Literature
The art, architecture and literature of the eighteenth century provide another
dimension of outstanding Scottish achievement. The different dimensions of the
Enlightenment influenced one another with, for example, the work of poets helping to
shape the paintings of the period. This part of the syllabus requires the study of:
• the ideas that shaped architecture of the time and the work, especially, of
Robert Adam.
• the contribution of Scottish painters to the development of portraiture, landscape
paintings and insights into daily life, especially the work of Allan Ramsay (junior)
David Allan and Sir Henry Raeburn.
• the literature of the period especially the poetry of Allan Ramsay, Robert
Fergusson and Robert Burns; the novels of Tobias Smollett; the writings of James
Boswell.
• the importance of patrons for many of the above.
This is a history course; it is important to develop a grasp of the importance of the
above people, to appreciate the nature of their work, to think about the factors that
shaped their work. It is obviously desirable to look at some examples of their work.
Artistic and literary works of the time have been studied to explore the tensions
between Scottish, British and European identities. Gerald Carruthers has
commented that
‘a heightening of nationalist sentiment in Scotland was one response to the loss of the
Scottish parliament in 1707, while other contemporary strands of Scottish thought
sought ... to emphasise British and cosmopolitan identities to the nation’.
G Carruthers, ‘Culture’, in Modern Scottish History 1707 to the Present, Vol 1, ed.
A Cooke et al, p. 253)
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Poetry and the Languages of Scotland
In 1792 the Minister of Dunoon included in this contribution to the Statistical
Account his view that ‘the language of the parish is changing much from the comingin of low country tenants, from the constant intercourse our people have with their
neighbours but, above all, from our schools, particularly those established by the
Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, hence the English or Scottish language
is universally spoken ...
But the Gaelic is still the natural tongue with them’.
(Statistical Account II, p. 389)
This changing pattern indicates the presence in Scotland of different languages, i.e.
Gaelic, Scots, and the spread of English in ‘polite’ society and exemplified by
Thomas Sheridan’s lectures in Edinburgh on correct pronunciation of English.
Yet this period saw a flowering of Gaelic poetry. This topic requires the study of:
• important Gaelic poets.
• James Macpherson and the poetry he developed and published.
• the presence of Gaelic, Scots and English in various areas and among various
social groups, and the forces at work that affected the fortunes of these languages.
T C Smout has described Scots at this time as ‘the language of the poor, the uncouth
and the humorous’.
(A Century of the Scottish People, p. 461)
David Daiches maintains ‘the men of the Scottish Enlightenment did not speak in
Scots or Latin but in English’.
(D Daiches, The Scottish Enlightenment, p. 15)
Alexander Murdoch notes the lack of interest from many Scots intellectuals in Gaelic
and suggests ‘William Robertson and others saw the Gaelic Highlands of Scotland as
a violent tribal society, much like that of North American Indians’.
(A Murdoch, British History 1660-1832: National Identity and Local Culture,
1998, p. 103)
The shifting balance of languages reflects the changing character of Scottish society
in the eighteenth century, shaped as it was by economic, social and political factors.
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Activities
Essays
1. To what extent were the achievements of the Scottish Enlightenment the
result of the kind of educational system that existed in late eighteenth
century Scotland?
2.
Do you agree that Burns’ poetry provides a portrait of Scottish society as
‘often a harsh, a sordid and a repulsive world’ (Matthew Arnold)?
3.
Why did the intellectuals of the Scottish Enlightenment pay so little
attention to the achievements of Gaelic culture?
4.
How far is it true to say that the Scottish Enlightenment ‘was located in a
particular elite group which deliberately detached itself from vernacular
society’ (Alexander Murdoch)?
Primary Sources
Source 4A
From a report of 1761 by James Bonnar asking Perth Town Council to set up an
academy:
‘Providence has cast our lot in happier times, when things begin to be valued
according to their use and men of the greatest abilities have employed their skill in
making the sciences contribute not only to the improvement of the lawyer,
physician and divine, but to the improvement of the merchant, mechanic and
farmer in their respective arts. Must it not be then of importance to put it in the
powers of persons in these stations of life to reap that advantage which science is
capable of affording them?
But it is obvious that only a few can, according to the present plan of education,
reap that advantage; for tho’ our different universities are at present filled with
many men of very distinguished abilities, yet both the time necessary for
completing a course of education there, and the vast expense of such an
attendance, must prove an insurmountable bar in the way of the greater part.
The people of England have been so fully convinced of this, that we find private
academies in almost every great town, where not only the languages but those
parts of science which are of most immediate use in life are taught.’
(SRO Perth Town Council Minutes, 27.9.1761, in Modern Scottish History
Vol 5, ed. A Cooke et al, p. 152)
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Source 4B
From a book published in 1802 by Alexander Christison, a master at Edinburgh High
School:
‘ ... the Scots now burst with unrivalled ardour and intelligence into every channel
of industry that was laid open to them ... the beneficial change which took place in
Scotland in the course of thirty or forty years is such as was never exhibited in the
same time in any country on the face of the earth - and on no principle can it be
accounted for except that of the superior intelligence of all classes resulting from
the instructions for instruction.’
(In T C Smout, A History of the Scottish People, p. 421)
Source 4C
From David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature:
‘As the science of man is the only solid foundation for the other sciences, so the
only solid foundation we can give to this science itself must be laid on experience
and observation ... And though we must endeavour to render all our principles as
universal as possible, by tracing up our experiments to the utmost, and explaining
all effects from the simplest and fewest causes, ’tis still certain we cannot go
beyond experience, and any hypothesis that pretends to discover the ultimate
original qualities of human nature, ought at first to be rejected as presumptuous.’
(D Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. L A Selby-Bigge, 1975 edition)
Historians’ Views
Source 4D
From the writings of Alexander Broadie in The Scottish Enlightenment (1997 edition,
p. 10):
‘Historians point especially to three aspects of the country’s life which collectively
ought to have been more than sufficient to prevent Scotland making any significant
cultural advance. They point to the country’s loss of its court when the crowns of
Scotland and England were united in 1603 and the one centre of royal patronage
for the two countries was thereafter in London. They point also to the country's
loss of its parliament when the parliaments of Scotland and England were united
in 1707 under the Acts of Union, and the one centre of parliamentary patronage
for the two countries was thereafter in London. And thirdly they point to the
Darien Scheme at the very end of the seventeenth century, which aimed to establish
a colony in central America, and which instead caused a nation-wide economic
disaster at home. How was it possible early in the eighteenth century for this small
impoverished country, far from the great centres of European culture and lacking
the great centres of patronage of a nation state, to begin to mount so stunning a
cultural performance?’
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Source 4E
From the writings of David Daiches in The Scottish Enlightenment 1730-1790: A
Hotbed of Genius,1986, p. 5:
‘One explanation of the Scottish Enlightenment sees it as a belated consequence of
the Union of 1707, and this explanation itself has been put forward in different
ways. It has been said that frustrated national pride, denied adequate political
expression now that Scotland was part of Great Britain, eventually manifested
itself in a determination that North Britain (as many unionists called Scotland)
should show the world that it was in the van of intellectual and technological
progress.
It has been argued that the liberalising of religious attitudes resulting from the
establishment of the Church of Scotland at the Glorious Revolution of 1689 made
for freer development of ideas.’
Source 4F
From Integration and Enlightenment: Scotland 1746-1832, 1981, by Bruce Lenman
p. 96:
‘Cultural shock and identity crises were prominent features of the late eighteenth
century Scottish literary landscape. This was hardly surprising when the leading
Scottish intellectuals were so obviously bent on joining the headlong movement
towards a profitable and anglicised integration into the British world ruled from
Westminster. The slow rhythms of agricultural life in a still predominantly preindustrial society and the ingrained, if waning, cultural heritage of an older,
independent Scotland inevitably resisted the gadarene rush spearheaded by the
nobility and so well supported by the professors. The central figure in the early
revival of Scots vernacular poetry was the elder Allan Ramsay who came to
Edinburgh from Leadhills in Lanarkshire around 1700 and who died in 1758. His
life and work underline the paradoxes and tensions of his mental world.’
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Source-based Activities
1.
How fully does Source 4A explain the reasons for the setting up of academies
in later eighteenth century Scotland?
2.
How justified was the author of Source 4B in his view of the reasons for
Scottish achievements in the late eighteenth century?
3.
Does Source 4C provide an accurate account of the principles upon which the
Scottish intellectuals of the time worked?
4.
Analyse Sources 4D, 4E and 4F to consider the effects of the Union of 1707
on Scottish culture in the eighteenth century.
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Issues for Discussion and Debate
1.
Consider this view of the Enlightenment by the historian William Ferguson;
he is criticising two other historians: ‘Nicholas Phillipson and Rosalind
Mitchison speak of Scotland being snatched in 1707 by union with England
“from the relative cultural isolation in which she passed the seventeenth
century and placed in the centre of the thinking world”. There is no warrant
for this contention.’
(W Ferguson, The Identity of the Scottish Nation, 1998, p. 173)
2.
‘The Myth of the ‘lad o’pairts’ is just that – a myth with no basis in fact.’
Was it?
3.
Discuss this question posed in 1757 by David Hume: ‘Is it not strange that
at a time when we have lost our Princes, our Parliaments, our independent
Government, even the presence of our chief Nobility ... speak a very corrupt
dialect of the tongue which we make use of; is it not strange? I say, that in
these circumstances we should really be the people most distinguished for
literature in Europe?’
4.
Colin Kidd has argued that Scots intellectuals of the Enlightenment believed
‘political union had allowed Scotland to leap centuries of natural historical
development, resulting in the current enjoyment by its people of modern civil
liberties ...’ (they saw) ‘the Scottish past as an ideologically insignificant
saga of events.’
(C Kidd, Subverting Scotland’s Past: Scottish Whig Historians and the
Creation of an Anglo-British Identity, 1993, pp. 207-8)
Explore all you have studied to discuss whether the Enlightenment resulted in
Scots thinking harshly about their own pre-union history.
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OVERVIEW
Questions that may be set could well range across the separate sections of the
syllabus.
1.
a) Draw up and discuss a one-sided essay plan for the following questions:
Was eighteenth century Scotland ‘a society released from its material and
intellectual shackles only by the stimulating affects of closer association
with England in the Union’ (H Trevor-Roper)?
Did eighteenth century Scotland avoid serious political upheaval because
‘economic growth consolidated the influence of the existing regime’
(T M Devine)?
b) Work in pairs to survey the whole of the syllabus and devise two questions of
your own that bring in material from at least two of the four main sections of
the course.
2.
‘Few periods contain as much interest and significance for the historian of
Scotland as the eighteenth century.’
This quote appeared at the start of this material. Is it justified? List the evidence
you would offer to someone who questioned its accuracy.
3.
Consider the historians whose works you have studied:
a)
b)
c)
d)
4.
List the different historians and their publications that you’ve used.
Identify at least two issues on which they do not seem to agree.
What reasons explain their differences?
What conclusions have you drawn as to the reasons why historians might
disagree with one another? List those reasons.
Consider the primary sources you have used:
a) How many different types of sources have you used?
b) What are the strengths and weaknesses of each type?
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