King George I Settles the Debts Incurred During the Jacobite Rebellion, Just Months After the Indemnity Act Pardoned His Foes

The 1688 Revolution, often called the ‘Glorious Revolution of 1688’, ended the reign of King James II and the Catholic line of the Stuart dynasty. However, their supporters, the Jacobites, refused to accept this revolution or the political settlement that followed.

English politics had become more and more heated after 1688, as Whigs and Tories fought for power.  When Queen Anne died in August 1714, her closest living Protestant relative was George Ludwig, the Elector of Hanover in Germany, who was the great-grandson of King James I. George succeeded Anne as King George I, and the Tories were outraged to find he strongly favored the Whig party. The Union of England and Scotland that took place in 1707 added to the political tension. This union had been pushed through the Scots Parliament in the hope of securing George I’s peaceful succession. The promised equal political partnership with the English proved hollow and the economic improvement promised at the time of the Union was very slow in coming.

These two strands of political alienation were brought together by the Jacobite alternative: James ‘III’, the son of James II. His supporters expressed their anger in waves of rioting that rippled across England between autumn 1714 and the early summer of 1715. In Scotland, Jacobites were encouraged by the disorder in England to begin secretly preparing an uprising that would restore both the Stuarts and an independent Scotland. When George I and his ministers got wind of this grand conspiracy they swiftly arrested the Tories’ leaders in England, but failed to catch the Jacobites’ leaders in Scotland. John Erskine, the earl of Mar, escaped from London to the Highlands and started a Scotland-wide rising. In September 1715, Mar raised the Jacobite standard at Braemar and the Rising of ’15 began.

By early 1716, the Jacobite Rebellion was effectively over. Many Jacobites who were taken prisoner were tried for treason and sentenced to death. However, in July 1717, the Indemnity Act of 1717 pardoned all those who had taken part in the Rising, apart from a select few.

William Burroughs was the Commissary in North Britain, responsible for supplying troops on the front lines. He was also responsible for paying the foreign troops from the Continent who came to the aid of George I’s army.

Document Signed, September 7, 1717, to Henry Earl of Lincoln, Payments General of the Forces, requiring him to pay 1500 pounds to William Burroughs, “late Commissary General of Stores and Provisions in North Britain.” Countersigned by Secretary of War James Craggs.

“Our will and pleasure is that out of such money as are or shall come to your hands for this use, you pay unto William Burroughs Esq, late Commissary General of Stores and Provisions in North Britain, the sum of one thousand five hundred pounds without deduction, upon Acct for provisions and extraordinary charge of provisions in the forage furnished and expended in north Britain at the time of the late Rebellion.  And for so doing this with the acquittance of the said William Burroughs Esq or his assigns shall be your warrant and discharge.”