Didisburye in the '45 online

saluting, said, "Dam me, Vaughan, they are going to Scotland." Mr.
Vaughan replied, " Wherever they go I will go with them." Upon which
Mr. Morgan said, with an oath, " I had rather be hanged in England
than go to Scotland to starve." So he stayed in England and was
hanged, and the other went to Scotland and was starved, though ulti-
mately he escaped to the continent.

Mutiny and desertion became more frequent in all ranks as soon as
the dangers increased. Ensign Maddox, of the Manchester Regiment,
was contemplating desertion at Derby, saying that he could not get
paid, when Captain Fletcher pulled out a handful of gold, which he gave
to him, thereby privately compensating him for the arrears of his pay.
Maddox was the Judas who afterwards betrayed them, or, in other
words, he turned "king's" evidence at their trial.

The retreat was through Leek, Macclesfield, and Stockport. At
Cheadle, in Staffordshire, Ray said they took "a rebel spy, whom they
hanged on a gibbet, at Macclesfield, when an Apothecary went to the
Centinel to buy the body for 43. 6d. ; the Dragoon thinking it a good
price, he gave the skin to a tanner to dress, but the Hide was of so holy
a nature that it would not tan nor lye under water by any weight, so
that after much labour lost this Holy Hide had to be buried. This
person having had a Holy Resolution to murther the King and Royal
family with all other Hereticks." At a village, near Stockport, a High-
lander was shot, whereupon his comrades fired the houses. On the 9 th



THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 93

they were back in Manchester; in Hanging Ditch some of the Whig
mob "slutched" them, but ran away from further mischief. On the io th
the Prince imposed a fine of 5,000 upon the citizens of Manchester,
and one of the hostages, who was seized as security for the money, was
James Bayley, a merchant, living in St. Ann's Square where the Man-
chester and Salford Bank now stands. Mr. Bayley, or his son of the
same name, had the old house, formerly standing at Groombridge,
Withington ; it was a curious looking house, with a flat top and
double bay windows, and with a sunk fence to the road. It was
pulled down about twenty years since. The Rev. James Bayley
married a Miss Broome, of Didsbury; her name is inscribed on a
chalice given to Didsbury church in 1813. 2,500 were raised,
and the Prince's army evacuated Manchester. When leaving Salford
they were shot at by a fanatic, which nearly led to the town being
fired. Some young English volunteer was murdered barbarously by
a woman and her son ; and some zealot tried to shoot the Prince
near Wigan, but mistook his person. In any of these cases if the
offender was caught, and taken to the Prince, he was always released ;
the Prince's clemency, although he was so dejected, was remarkable.
Miss Byrom noted in her Journal that "the 10 th was the shortest
day, though it seemed to her to be the longest. Mr. Jer Bower
says he shall remember it as long as he lives." "Dec 1 ** 17 th ," she notes,
"Smoothing (ironing) all day. Old Mrs. Syddal's goods were prized
(appraised) by dragoons, and mighty gruff they were. 18 th . Fast day,
service both ends of the day. Janx 3 rd 1746. Effigy of the Prince at the
Angel (the inn for the Whigs). Mr. Dukinfield, a Justice, got a gun and



94 THE TURN OF THE TIDE.

shot at it, then wrung it by the nose, and his wife and daughter slapt it
in the face and so on until they were tired and drunk, for the Presbyterians
were at the Angel and gave the mob drink ; then they hung it to the sign
post, quartered it, and threw it into the fire; some one threw a piece of
it into the drink, which put them in a violent passion." There is no
doubt with whom Beppy Byrom's sympathies lay, and while she was
noting down the fast day in Manchester, very different work was being
done at Clifton between Shap and Penrith. Here some cavalry had
got between Lord George with the rearguard and the Prince. The
Glengarry men charged and dispersed them, taking several prisoners,
amongst them being a footman of the Duke of Cumberland's, who
said his master was close at hand with four thousand cavalry.
Lord George sent Colonel Roy Stewart with the man to the Prince,
at Penrith, asking for reinforcements. The Prince dismissed the
footman, and sent back merely the MacPhersons and the Appian
regiment.

The Duke of Cumberland's whole force of cavalry were now in close
pursuit of Lord George, and a regiment of dragoons was despatched to
cut off his retreat over Clifton Bridge. As darkness came on, with the
moon shining at intervals, the attack was made, and then the High-
landers turned at bay. Lord George Murray raised his warcry of
"Claymore," the order for attacking with the sword, and rushed bare-
headed into the fray. With uncontrollable fury the Highlanders charged
at close quarters for a hand-grip fight. Colonel Honeywood, the
commander of the English, was killed almost immediately; a highly-
ornamented sword of honour that he had with him being taken, and long



THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 95

kept as a precious heirloom by McPherson of Cluny. The cavalry were
routed and fled, the men protesting their horses were more frightened
than they were at the swords and cries of the Highlanders. Lord George
urgently sent for more reinforcements, as he hoped to have taken
prisoner the Duke with the bulk of his officers; but the Prince was
doubtful of the event, or, as some thought, jealous of his General, and did
nothing but order Lord George to follow after him in his retreat to
Carlisle.

In this affray it was computed Cluny lost twelve men, while a
hundred dragoons were killed. The registers of Clifton Church mention
ten dragoons being buried at once; many bodies were said to have been
thrown into Clifton mill dam. Some Highlanders were straggling and
taken prisoners ; they were sold as slaves in America ; and a man
named Ogden, from Manchester, was cut over the head, and died in
Lancaster gaol.

Thus ended what was probably the last bit of real warfare upon
English soil. The Duke again kept his distance, and the Prince's army
retreated into Carlisle. On the next day, December the 2Oth, the
Prince's birthday, the Scotch army crossed the border, leaving the
Manchester Regiment and also two hundred and seventy- four men,
mostly Irish, under four French officers, as a garrison in Carlisle. This
was a great blunder. Lord George Murray, the brain of the army,
strongly advised that all the regiments should keep together, and that
the fortifications of Carlisle should be blown up and destroyed. The
Prince certainly seems to have been indifferent to the fate of the others.
His high notions as to the divine right of kings and the duty of



96 THE TURN OF THE TIDE.

subjects may have led him astray, as they so often led all his race
astray, and the result was that his army was considerably weakened,
and the remnant left behind was sacrificed.

The Highlanders themselves forded the Esk in grand style.
Cavalry stretched across the river above the ford with the horses facing
down stream, and cavalry stretched across the river below the ford with
the horses facing up stream. This was done to weaken the force of the
current and to catch anyone who might be washed away. The men
waded through the river holding one another by the shoulders and
neck, and keeping in line. Some were not tall enough to keep their
heads out of the water, and had to swim or be dragged across. It was
computed that at one time there were two thousand Highlanders in the
water, and that all got safely across, for, although some drifted down
stream, they were seized by the hair and kept afloat until they were in
shallow water, the Prince himself rescuing several of them. As the
various clans "gained the Scottish strand" the bagpipes struck up
lively tunes, and the men danced reels to dry and warm themselves.
The remainder of their eventful history is beyond the scope of this
book, though we may consider the fate of the men from our own
district.

No sooner had the Prince's army crossed the border than the
Duke of Cumberland invested the mouldering walls of Carlisle. He
unexpectedly got some cannon from Whitehaven, and the case for
the besieged city was then hopeless. Foes without and dissensions
within, with a prospect of famine, were more than enough to make the
commandant and the citizens wish to capitulate. Colonel Townley flew



THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 97

into a violent passion when capitulation was spoken of, saying " it were
better to die by the sword than fall into the hands of those damned
Hanoverians." Adjutant Syddall was also strongly in favour of fighting
to the last and dying where they stood, or in cutting their way out.
The commandant of the city and fortress did not recognise their
authority, and, being doubtless assured of the safety of himself and
the citizens, he agreed to terms of surrender, and on the thirtieth of
December the gates were opened and the besieged laid down their
arms. About four hundred men with sixteen cannon, that had been
part of the Prince's army, were included in the general surrender, the
terms of which were in writing, so that there might be no mistake on
either side and that they might be referred to and adhered to. These
terms were signed by the Duke of Richmond on behalf of the Duke
of Cumberland, and they were, " The garrison shall not be put to the
sword, but reserved for the King's pleasure." How the promise was
kept to the chief officers, when the sword or knife ripped them up and
quartered them, and what was the King's pleasure, shall be told in
the next and concluding chapter. His Royal Highness the Duke of
Cumberland well earned the title of "bloody butcher" that was bestowed
on the noble and royal duke for his barbarities after Culloden. School-
boys know how the nine of diamonds acquired the name of the curse of
Scotland. The devotion and fidelity with which for five months the
Highlanders kept their Prince, when the blood-money of 30,000 was
on his head, and when he was "hunted like a partridge in the mountains,"
having neither meat, nor sleep, nor shelter for days together, have long

been the admiration of the people and one of the wonders of history.
H



98 THE TURN OF THE TIDE.

The inscription on the sword of an officer who surrendered at Carlisle
was literally fulfilled

With this good sword thy cause I will maintain, .
And for thy sake, O James, will breathe each vein.

The ghastly heads that were left to bleach and waste over the gates
of Carlisle were commemorated in the Scottish maiden's lament :

His bright lang hair in yellow hanks

Waved o'er his cheeks sae sweet and ruddie,

But now they wave o'er Carlisle yetts
In dripping ringlets, clotting bloodie.





THE KING'S PLEASURE.

CROWN.



THE MARTYR'S



Oh ! Had I serv'd my God with half the zeal
I serv'd my King. Wolsey.



jHE officers of the Manchester Regiment, when surrendering
to " the King's pleasure " on the assurance " they were not
to be put to the sword," probably expected the King's
pleasure would be the pleasure of an English gentleman.
They found it to be the pleasure of a German ogre. It
would be much too flattering to write of it as the pleasure
of a brute, for, excepting the tribes of cats and weasels,
there are few brutes that take pleasure in suffering, or in
needless cruelty. I have known a rat (a Hanoverian rat,
as the common rats were called) kill twenty-six chickens in a night, and
store them away, but that might have been a justifiable laying-up of a
store of food against a time of scarcity. It is said that hyaenas dig into
graves and devour the bodies therein, but that also is simply one of
their ways of obtaining their food. The brutes do not as a rule exercise




ioo THE KING'S PLEASURE.

unnecessary cruelty ; they are far exceeded in brutality by the revolting
revenge that was taken on the officers of the Manchester Regiment by
the ogre King, when he had his pleasure on them.

His Most Sacred and August Majesty, King George II., the
Defender of the Faith, and the Head of the Church, was sullen,
grasping, and revengeful by nature, and his German mistresses would
not improve him, for they, being the latest additions to the proud
aristocracy of England, would naturally be very jealous of anything
that might tend to sending them and their King back to their poor
relations in Hanover. Consequently the German's pleasure took the
following peculiar form.

Immediately upon the surrender the garrison of Carlisle were
imprisoned in the Cathedral, from whence they were sent to London
under a strong guard. The officers were put on horses with their legs
tied under the horses' bellies, and their arms were pinioned, the horses
being tied together by their tails and heads. The position of the officers
when riding in this manner would be simply one of torture and much more
fatiguing than walking, though it was according to the King's pleasure.
The men were on foot, pinioned and tied together by ropes, being also
tied to mounted dragoons, and in this manner they set out from
Carlisle on January 2oth, in the midst of winter, for the long march
to London. The fatigue and exposure were likely to kill all but the
hardest and toughest, and fortunate indeed were those who died on the
way. Dr. Deacon's second son soon died. The trial of the survivors
began on July i6th, 1746, and lasted three days. They were adjudged
and sentenced " to be severally hanged by the neck, not till they were



THE KING'S PLEASURE. 101



dead, but cut down alive, then their bowels to be taken out and burnt
before their faces, their heads to be severed from their bodies, and their
bodies to be severally divided into four quarters and these to be at the
King's disposal." Captains Moss* and Holker, of Manchester, had
escaped from Newgate prison. Captain Moss had made a hole in the
wall and got out. He then returned for Holker, who was a stouter
man, and for whom they had to enlarge the hole. The two were
hidden for six weeks by a woman who kept a greengrocer's stall.
Eventually they got off to France, where at Rouen Holker worked
a cotton mill, and, like other Manchester spinners, made a large
fortune. The friends of Captain Fletcher, who was the sole
support of his widowed mother, made great intercessions for him
and begged of him to turn King's evidence and save his life, but,
"great as was his affection for his mother, whom he constantly
bewailed as being the unhappy cause of her grief," he manfully refused
the ignoble offer. The man whom he had paid out of his own pocket
at Derby, Ensign Maddox, turned King's evidence and incriminated his
comrades. The bloody sentence of the King's pleasure was carried out
on nine of the officers on July 3Oth. They were dragged on three
hurdles from the gaol at Southwark to Kennington Common, where a
gallows had been erected and large fires kindled that crackled and
blazed round the doomed men, all being strongly guarded by a circle of

*In 1723, John Moss, of Manchester, also John Warren, of Poynton, Humphrey
Trafford, of Trafford, and William Hulme are appointed executors under the will of Anthony
Barlow, of Barlow, Esq., two of whose sons had been attainted of high treason. Thomas Moss
was executor and trustee of the Broomes.



102 THE KING'S PLEASURE.

soldiers. Here the officers were hanged, drawn, and quartered ; that is
to say, they were hanged until they were nearly dead ; then they were
cut "down and ripped up, their heart and bowels being taken out and
burnt before their faces ; then their heads were cut off, and they were cut
into quarters for the King's disposal. The Colonel was the first to be
" turned off" after they had been kept waiting half an hour enjoying the
prospect. He was hanging about five minutes and was then cut down
and stript. As life was not extinct his head was severed with a cleaver,
then his giblets, i.e., heart and liver, were taken out with the bowels and
thrown into the fire, the executioner and guards religiously exclaiming,
" God save King George."

His Religious and Gracious Majesty had pleasure in such bar-
barities, but ordinary mortals had various degrees of compassion or
abhorrence. As the smell of burnt flesh diffused itself over the crowd
some went home sick at heart and wanted not their dinner on that day.
Some would mock, and others cry out to the executioner not to bowel
them before they were dead ; but the executioner had to obey the King's
pleasure, besides having twenty guineas and the clothes of the victims
for his trouble.

The names of the officers of the Manchester Regiment, who thus
suffered martyrdom, were : Colonel Francis Townley, Captain George
Fletcher, Captain James Dawson, Captain Thomas Theodorus Deacon,
Volunteer David Morgan (a barrister), Adjutant Thomas Syddall,
Lieutenant Thomas Chadwick, Captain John Berwick, and Captain
Andrew Blood. The first and last were Roman Catholics. They were
not all connected with Manchester, though most of them were, and they



THE KING'S PLEASURE. 103



wrote "papers" called "The Last Dying Speech and Confession," which
were given to the Sheriff, or thrown among the crowd. They all main-
tained the justice of their cause, and some referred to the broken
promise made to them when they surrendered at Carlisle, and to the
King's pleasure. The following are extracts from the papers of those
men who had some connections with Didisburye :

"A Copy of the Paper delivered by Mr. George Fletcher to the
Sheriff of Surry, at the Place of Execution, on Wednesday, July 30, 1746.

"By the Permission of the Almighty, and the Power of an usurped
Government, I am brought to this Place, in confident Hopes (thro' the
Merits of my dear Saviour) that it is the Ladder by which I shall ascend
to the Mansions of Eternal Bliss.

"My Religion is that of the Church of England, as it stood in its
Purity, before the People were taught to pray for Curses upon their
Country, and to invoke Heaven in Prejudice of that King and Family
which alone can save this Guilty Land. Of this Church I die a sincere,
tho' an unworthy, Member; and from this Church I learnt the true
Principles of Loyalty and Justice.

"I am so well assured that the Cause for which I suffer is Divine,
that I rejoice in what I have done, and could wish to live for no better
Purpose than to be Instrumental in Restoring my Lawful Sovereign,
King James the Third, to the Throne of these Realms; which, as it is
his undoubted Right, so it is the Duty of every Englishman to hazard
his Life in procuring it for him.

"To aim at any Description of the Royal Leader, the Prince of
Wales, under whose Banner I heartily enlisted, would be an Injustice,



104 THE KING'S PLEASURE.

because the Subject ./s too sublime for those of a much better
Capacity than falls to my share; but the Idea I have of his Greatness
and Goodness forces me to say of him, that he only wants to be known,
in order to put an End to this wicked USURPATION ; which, if not put
an End to, will soon determine in the absolute Ruin of poor Old
England.

" It is to God's Mercy I owe my Principles of Religious Loyalty, for
which I praise and adore his holy and ever blessed Name; but how can
I express my Thankfulness for the Abundance of his Grace bestowed
upon me, when I rejected the Offer of Life upon wicked Terms when I
was a Prisoner in Newgate! There it was proposed to me (by Mr.
Carrington, one of the Elector of Hanover's Messengers) to save my Life
by turning Evidence against my dear Fellow-Prisoners; but by the
Blessing of God, I abhorred the Thoughts of involving myself in the
Guilt of shedding innocent Blood, and preferring the Honour of the
Gallows to Life basely obtained, I rejected the Tempter with an honest
Scorn. This has been imputed to me as a Fault by my MURDERERS,
and is an Ingredient in that Malice which pursues me to the End of
Life; but in this they have done me a Kindness they little intended, and
preferred me to a Death, which, I verily believe, will be happier in its
Consequences, than any that might have overtaken me in the Course of
Nature: Blessed be the Eternal God for his gracious Goodness towards
me, for without his divine Assistance I must have given Way to so great
a Temptation.

"I heartily forgive all my Enemies for the Persecutions I have
undergone, and which will now be at an End ; for, I trust in Heaven, I



THE KING'S PLEASURE. 105

shall soon be compleat in Joy: And I pray God that my Blood may not
rise in Judgment either against the Government by whose sham Autho-
rity I was tried, the Jury that gave their Verdict against me, (when there
was the fairest Opportunity to acquit me, if they had been indued with
the least Shadow of Humanity) or the pretended Court who pronounced

the BLOODY SENTENCE.

"And I earnestly pray the Father of Mercies that he will be
pleased to open the Eyes of all Englishmen that they might see the
Blessings designed them by that Attempt in which I thank God I had
a Share; for if they knew their own Interest, I and my honest Fellow-
Sufferers should not be brought here to die for doing our Duty. But I
hope there are still some virtuous People remaining unpersecuted to
intercede with Heaven to save a Bleeding Country.

" Such I desire the Prayers of for my departing Soul, beseeching
Heaven to accept my Sufferings as an Atonement for all my Sins,
thro' the Merits and Intercession of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and

Redeemer. Amen.

"GEORGE FLETCHER."
"Wednesday, July 30, 1746."

Syddall wrote a much longer paper, of which the following are
extracts :
" Friends, Brethren, and Countrymen !

" Since I am brought here to be made a Sacrifice for doing the
Duty of a Christian and an Englishman, it may be expected I should
give some Account of myself and the Cause for which I suffer. This
Expectation I will gladly indulge : and I wish the whole Kingdom



io6 THE KING^S PLEASURE.

might be inform'd of all that I now say, at the Hour of Death, when
there is the least Reason to doubt my Sincerity.

" I most humbly and heartily offer up my Praises and Thanks-
giving to Almighty God, that He hath been pleased, of his great
Goodness, to give me Grace to follow the pious Example of my Father,
who, induring Hardships like a good soldier of Jesus Christ, was
Martyr'd under the Government of the late USURPER, in the year 1715,
for his Loyal Zeal in the Cause of his Lawful King. . . . Neither was
I tempted to enter into the Army commanded by the Prince of Wales
by any ambitious or self interested views. I was easy in my circum-
stances, and wanted no addition of Riches to increase my Happiness.
My desires were limited within reasonable Bounds; and what I thought
I had Occasion for (I bless God) I was able to procure : and to make
my Joy as full as in this World ought to be wish'd, I was bless'd with
an excellent, faithful, religious, loving Wife and five Children, the
tender objects of our Care and Affection. In this Situation I was
void of Ambition, and thankful to God for his Gracious Disposal
of me.

" My motive for serving in the Prince's Army was the Duty I owe
to God, the King, and the Country, in endeavouring the Restoration of
King James the Third and the Royal Family, which I am persuaded is
the only human Means by which this Nation can ever become great and
happy. . . . The young Prince is too Great and Good to stoop to a
Falsity, or to impose upon any People a Prince bless'd with all the
Qualities which can adorn a Throne, and who may challenge his
Keenest Enemies to impute to him any vice which can Blacken his



THE KING'S PLEASURE. 107

Character, whom to serve is a Duty and a Pleasure, and to Die for an
Honour. ... If I might presume to say that the Gallant good
Prince hath any Fault, it would be that of an ill-tim'd Humanity : for if
he had been so Just to Himself and the Righteous Cause wherein he
was ingaged, as to have made Examples of some of those who betray'd
him, in all human Probability, he had succeeded in his Glorious Under-
taking, and been reserv'd for a Fate to which His unequalled Virtues
justly intitle him.

" I solemnly declare, in the Presence of Heaven (where I hope
shortly to be), that Mr. Samuel Maddox perjured himself at the Trials.
To this sin of Perjury he hath also added the odious Crime of
Ingratitude, for to my own Knowledge he was kept from Starving by me
and the very People against whom he has falsely sworn, while in Prison,
when nobody else would assist him.

" I forgive all who had any Hand in the scandalous Surrender of
Carlisle. ... I also forgive the pretended Duke of Cumberland for
his dishonourable and unsoldierly proceeding in putting Us to Death,