"Captain Blood" - a 1935 Hollywood cinema classic, linking the Monmouth Rebellion and the Glorious Revolution

"... And there was worse than this: there were rumours of civil war in England, where the people had grown weary of the bigoted tyranny of King James. It was reported that William of Orange had been invited to come over.Weeks passed, and every ship from home brought additional news. William had crossed to England, and in March of that year 1689 they learnt in Jamaica that he had accepted the crown and that James had thrown himself into the arms of France for rehabilitation..."

- from "Captain Blood" by Rafael Sabatini (1922)

The 1922 novel Captain Blood is fictional, but based on history. In the 1935 movie version, Errol Flynn starred as Dr Peter Flood, a medic from Ireland who helped some of the Duke of Monmouth's 'rebels' of 1685, for which he was transported to the West Indies as a slave. After various adventures there, news reaches him of the 1688 Glorious Revolution and Blood is pardoned by the new King William III.

The real history is just as interesting. Henry Pitman was a real doctor to Monmouth's men, and he was also sold to the Carribean; he returned to England after the Glorious Revolution and his memoirs - A Relation of the Great Sufferings and Strange Adventures of Henry Pitman, Chyrurgion to the late Duke of Monmouth - was printed in 1689.

An associate was Rev Timothy Cruso a Presbyterian minister in London, who died in 1697 (Wikipedia here); one of his published sermons celebrated the Glorious Revolution, entitled The Mighty Wonders of a Merciful Providence in a Sermon preached on January 31 1688/9. Being the Day of Publick Thanksgiving to God for the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom by His Highness the Prince of Orange (online here). And yes, the surname Cruso is believed to have been the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, the novel by another of the Duke of Monmouth's rebel, Daniel Defoe.

• DR PETER BLOOD / THOMAS BLOOD THE DOCTOR?
So who was the real Blood? Thomas Blood was the Ireland-born Presbyterian planner of what became known as "Blood's Plot", an attempt to storm Dublin Castle in 1663 against the government of King Charles II. 

According to Rev Patrick Adair's True Narrative (in chapter 17) the discussions for what became "Blood's Plot" began in Newtownards at the home of Rev John Greg. Also present were Thomas Blood, his brother in law Rev William Leckey, Rev Andrew Stewart and a Captain James Moor(e) of Ballybregah (Ballybredagh, between Killinchy and Killyleagh).

The plot was exposed by an informer on 22 May 1663. Numerous Ulster Presbyterian ministers were arrested on suspicion of involvement - Rev John Crookshanks of Raphoe, Rev Andrew McCormick of Magherally and Rev William Richardson of Killyleagh to name but three, as well as Adair himself.

In a footnote, Adair explains that Thomas Blood later fled to England where he became a doctor - "he lived for some time at Rumford, where he followed the medical profession, under the assumed name of Dr. Clarke. He then attempted to take the Crown and Crown Jewels out of the Tower..."

John Adams to Thomas Jefferson – propaganda and the 1688 Revolution

Here's another gem, from this letter of 16 December 1816, on how prominent historians and their biases had skewed people's understanding –

"History has only increased the Tories and diminished the Whigs. That History has been the Bane of G.B. It has destroyed many of the best Effects of the Revolution of 1688. Style has governed the Empire.

Swift, Pope and Hume have disgraced all the honest Historians. Rapin and Burnet Oldmixen and Coke, contain more honest Truth than Hume and Clarendon and all their disciples and Imitators. But Who reads any of them at this day?

Every one of the fine Arts from the earliest times has been inlisted in the Service of Superstition and Despotism. The whole World at this day Gazes with Astonishment at the grossest Fictions because they have been immortalised by the most exquisite Artists." 

John Adams, and the 1688 Glorious Revolution as the intellectual engine of the 1776 American Revolution (again)

It seems that there's no end of sources in which America's 'Founding Fathers' looked back to the history of their ancestral British Isles for intellectual and philosophical precedent. Here is yet another, from John Adams' A defence of the constitutions of government of the United States of America (1797)

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"...There have been three periods in the history of England, in which the principles of government have been anxiously studied, and very valuable productions published, which at this day, if they are not wholly forgotten in their native country, are perhaps more frequently read abroad than at home.

The first of these periods was that of the Reformation, as early as the writings of Machiavel himself, who is called the great restorer of the true politics. The Short Treatise of Politicke Power, and of the true Obedience which Subjects owe to Kyngs and other civile Governors, with an Exhortation to all true natural Englifhemen, compyled by John Ponnet, D. D. was printed in 1556, and contains all the essential principles of liberty, which were afterwards dilated on by Sidney and Locke... 

The second period was the Interregnum, and indeed the whole interval between 1640 and 1660. In the course of those twenty years, not only Ponnet and others were reprinted, but Harrington, Milton, the Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, and a multitude of others, came upon the stage.

The third period was the Revolution in 1688, which produced Sidney, Locke, Hoadley, Trenchard Gordon, Plato Redivivus, who is also clear for three equipollent branches in the mixture. and others without number. The discourses of Sidney were indeed written before, but the same causes produced his writings and the Revolution.

Americans should make collections of all these speculations, to be preserved as the most precious relics of antiquity, both for curiosity and use..."

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• Algernon Sidney (see article here), John Locke, and also James Tyrell were mentioned here a few weeks ago in this post. Time to look into their writings...